[Meta] Based on the amazing post by /u/ElysianDreams

War's End

Thomas Delstrom had hugged Samantha when the news broke - Humanity had won. Casualties were high and the alien bastards still hung on in the Pacific, but the war overall had been won. Acts of valor were being played over and over again by the media, and the caskets had slowly started coming home.

Tom's childhood friend, Joseph Brown, occupied one of the caskets that paraded down the streets of Seattle. The caskets were landed at Seatac and driven along the interstate out to a special burial place in the Cascades. Sacrifice Mountain, the area had been named. A large monument was also going to go up there soon.

The mood around town was that of a child on Christmas morning. The fear that had dragged everyone down for over a year now was gone, and normalcy returned. The soldiers began leaving, the volunteers come home, and capitalism properly restored. No more food allocation lines, no more bland meals, no more tanks blocking three lanes of traffic on I-405 because some asshole didn't pay attention during training.

Tom and Sam now stood along the seaside, looking out over the frigid Puget Sound to the snow-capped Olympics. It was their first day off in awhile, mostly because the Home Guard had been recalled and no longer were they needed to run things.

"I suppose we made it, didn't we?" Sam said. They both stood silently, watching the ferry make its rounds across the Sound.

"We have." Tom said, smiling at the fact.

"You ever pray? Make promises? 'If we survive I'll do so-and-so'?" Sam asked.

"I suppose I did make one promise." Tom said, his left hand sliding into his jeans pocket and clasping a small, wooden box with a light weight inside.

A War Too Many

Angel West stood on the small beach at Seward Park, well, "beach". It was more just where the grass dropped into the lake. She stood, longingly looking at the clouds being reflected back at her. Beyond lied Mercer Island, where a person long gone had grown up. Her gaze found its way down to its own reflection. She had aged a few years since that day.

She stilled missed John. Her lover and posthumous husband had been a victim of the April Fools Bombings, an event that now paled in comparison to the world war waged by mankind that saw the deaths of millions all in the name of self-preservation.

The day that those bombs went off were similar in scale to the day mankind learned they weren't alone in the universe, at least in her mind. Experience is a very personal thing.

Angel sat on the small bluff now, her feet dipped in the freezing water. It was an ordinary January day, clouds overhead and the temperature inching towards 7C.

She had thought she'd never see such a day ever again. The day she took to orbit with Andie was the day she was sure she'd been joining John in death. So many others had. The scenes played back in her mind of the several times death had stared her in the eye. The Dominion had some good pilots, but skill knew nothing of fury. The Dominion had won the War in Heaven only because for every man who took down five Dominion fighters, the Dominion had another twenty to take him on.

Angel coughed, and some droplets of blood rained down into the crystal clear lake. Pain throbbed in her stomach, a relic from wars past. She had seen too many now, and according to the doctors, she soon may join the millions being buried at Sacrifice Mountain.

At the very least, she'd be reunited with her lover at last.

Mei Duty

Andromeda Mei stood at the graves of her fathers, Logan and Nathan Mei. Much to her surprise, a fresh bouquet of white orchids adored the tombstones that immortalized the fathers of Cascadia forever. It was heartwarming to know that someone, somewhere, still remembered.

Andromeda was only 33 but she felt like a woman who still remembered the Berlin Wall. She had led her homeland for over a decade, and it would seem that people still liked her somehow. She was fierce at times, brash, bold, and a little apathetic towards tradition. She had given a statewide address in her pajamas once.

Maybe it was the legacy of her family.

In Seattle Center, work on a new structure had recently begun. A spire resembling the world-famous Space Needle lost two years ago, this one taller and bigger. Its name, much to Andromeda's dismay, was the Mei tower. The only way she could bear the thought of it was to think it was dedicated to her fathers rather than herself - it was somehow too embarrassing to the young girl who'd spent her elementary school years in foster care to think otherwise.

She stared longingly at the tombstones once more. Despite her embarrassment towards being publicly prided, she was proud of what she'd accomplished and wished that for one last time, her fathers could hug her and tell her how proud they were of her. She had after all fought in the War of Heaven and lived to tell about it, and not many could say that. The Starclimber that she'd shared with Guardian Angel had come dangerously close to the inevitable oblivion of death on several occasions.

Even the Battle of Nebraska hadn't been as scary. At least on the ground, she could duck in the unkept prairie grasses and pick of alien bastards from a distance.

She remember the anger in her advisors' eyes when she told them that she was going to fight. 'We need someone they can rally behind' they'd said. A hero doesn't sit back and watch the world end without grabbing a rifle and doing something about it. Andromeda had ended the Tyrant's War herself, and maybe, just maybe, she'd thought she could end the Eventide War herself too.

Somehow, there was a finality to this moment of reflection. A light shower began as the thought entered Andromeda's mind. It had been ghosting around in her thoughts for months now, but only in this moment did it truly make itself known.

She was going to resign. Maybe she'd done some great things for Cascadia, but it was time for a new generation to take over. A generation perhaps that could preserve the Earth's newfound unity.

Arbores scire non tyrannus it read on the tombstones. Perhaps it was time to end the tyranny of war.

[Meta] Ran out of time, oops.