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Vibrations ran through the corridor to the escape bay. The last remaining life boat rattled and shook against it's housing. All the other hatches were closed, the entire station having been evacuated already.

"I won't leave you here to die!" The woman screamed, beating against the dull metal armor worn by the man in front of her. He pulled back his helmet just barely, and somehow her lips found his. They parted for a moment. "I love you too much..."

He breathed in, and a small electronic tone sounded in his ear as two contacts opened on the middle finger of his gauntlet. "Then hate me."

"What? Why? I can't do that... please don't make me do this..."

"Hate me for everything I won't get to do for you, hate me for what I didn't do for you..." He kissed her again. "And hate me for what I'm about to do. Hate me as long as you live... or until you can live without me." He touched the contacts to the back of her neck and with a slight jerk she was unconcious. He handed her to the solider standing behind her.

"Strap her in, private. Then get yourself strapped in." The soldier did as ordered, and was about to sit down in the last remaining seat when he turned back.

"Sir... what about you?" The other soldiers aboard who could look did. The commander had alread put down his helmet again. His voice came through cold and steely.

"You have your orders."

"You're more important than any of us, sir!"

The commander raised his rifle. "Sit. Down. You are filled to capacity. LAUNCH!" With the but of his rifle he smacked the door controls, the door slid shut never to open again. Alarms sounded within the lifeboat and the soldier smartly sat down and strapped in. The hum of the magnets and the woosh of the acceleration pressed him against his harness as the boat shot down and out of the tube, arcing toward a wide reentry orbit around the Earth.

The commander turned from the closed hatch before it even left... not a moment too soon. With a sudden crash the door to the bay exploded in splinters of metal and plastic. He raised his left arm in time for the force projector to create a defensive barrier. The shards liquified and splattered harmlessly on the floor and ceiling. He raised his rifle beneath the shield, and when he lowered his arm he pulled the trigger. The explosion of force as the slug left the muzzle would be nigh deafening to a non-augmented human... but he barely heard a whisper thanks to his implants and the noise cancellers in his hemlet.

The slug tore through a row of the revolting creatures pouring into the room, crawling over and through each other. They were the mindless creations of a race who decided humanity just had to go. Each different species had it's purpose... even a race of biological grenades. These were simplest of creatures. They had one purpose. To kill. They even ate their injured and dead. The commander pulled back hard on the bolt, slapping it forward to force a new slug into the chamber. His old railgun was tired... this would be it's final battle.

Another five blasts and the seething mass of creatures had become a feeding frenzy as they feasted upon their own injured, dead, and even living. The commander dropped his rifle, the capacitors finally blown. It smoked and sizzled, drawing small pieces of metal to it as the magnets discharged. He picked up the chaingun he'd brought from the main armory and strapped it to the support on his belt. Holding it loosely in his hands he flipped the switch on top to start the barrels spinning. After a moment to regard his objective, he pulled the trigger and the barrrels exploded with a spray of flechettes. Yet again a deafening sound was lightened by his helmet.

The spray of metal carved a bloody path through the mess of creatures, and he started walking against the immense recoil of the weapon. It was slow going, but he eventually reached the door. The heat from the barrels served as pilot light for a secondary weapon, a plasma-fuled flamethrower. He ignited this now, and screams of alien pain reached his ears. These... the noise cancellers didn't know what to do with.

--

He fought hard, switching weapons again and again. He was using metal at an astonishing rate. But even then it only took him a few minutes... despite it feeling like hours, to reach the main corridor. The smaller creatures all dead, he stood silently, listening for the soft clicks of claw on metal. The echoes played with his head, and at the last minute he was able to swing around to his left, bashing the skull of a leaper with his armored hand. It crumpled and died, but the one behind it leapfrogged to land on the commander's face. He bashed at it and pried it off, but then an adult leaper barreled down the corridor and tackled him, driving it's long foreclaws through his body and pinning him to the opposite wall. Using the second leaper for a weapon he killed the third... but he knew he was finished.

"Command com."

"Open." The soft computer voice said in his head. He saw more leapers clicking their way down the hall.

"Initiate final solution."

"Authorization?"

"Alpha Zero-Zero-Two-Niner Omega Black." The leapers were on him, but it proved difficult to maneuver past the bulk of the adult. He beat them off.

"Final Solution armed. Detonation?"

"Strike." A leaper made it through and jammed a claw into his faceplate. His visor went dead, but the claw didn't make it through to his skin. "Strike." Another leaper managed to drive it's claws into his shoulder, then started gnawing at the softer armor that allowed his neck to move. He could feel the pinching in his throat. "Strike..." With his last breath he squeaked the final command out, and then he slid into the Dark, knowing his mission was accomplished.

--

On it's third pass of the station, the woman awoke. She looked out the rear window and watched in horror as the space station exploded from within, multpile warheads placed strategicaly to completely incinerate the entire structure and everything within. She screamed, but outside the boat you would never know. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

--

Years later, a young man stormed out of his mother's house.

"You don't want me to be a solider just because my father was!"

He was followed by his mother, who threw his hat at him. "YOUR FATHER DIED BECAUSE HE WAS A SOLDIER!"

"That's what soldiers do mom, they fight for their people! Sometimes they die!"

"Your father didn't fight for his people, he died playing hero!"

"Why do you hate him so much, mom? HE SAVED YOUR LIFE!"

"He told me to hate him. He knew that if I loved him, I wouldn't be able to live without him."

"..."

"I see so much of him in you. Maybe... maybe I can forgive him now, like he asked me to..." She turned and went back inside. "Go and be a soldier. Make him proud. I'll keep your room for you."

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Inspiration - Hate Me by Blue October (go look for it yourself, I'm too lazy to link it).