Did they really think this would work? Just because we were the "elite gamers" of the world they thought they could shove us in some mechs to fight the omnics? They were sending us to our death and they knew it. It wasn't really like you had much of a choice though, mom and dad would disown you if you disobeyed the government's orders and turned your back on our "great nation".

That is how you ended up here anyway. One day you were sat in the comfort of your bedroom, putting off homework and making your way up the StarCraft grandmaster ladder, the next you are picked up by a government car and thrown in front of the South Korean military leader.

The room is surprisingly casual looking. Pictures are hung on the wall depicting the man in front of you with various celebrities, a huge smile plastered across his face in every single one. He had a much different demeanour now. His stern stare struck fear into not only you, but the rest of the group you were standing with. Next to the man's desk stood a large curtain, containing something of an indeterminable size.

You recognizable all of them as various streamers and gaming personalities, most of them you had collaborated with in some way over the years. Of course they couldn't have the top gamers of South Korea without having ... her. If you were not asleep, you were playing StarCraft, if you were not playing StarCraft or asleep, you were probably watching her play StarCraft. There was no way she was human. Her APM was the highest the world had ever seen, her determination was admirable and her lack of mercy was ... quite intimidating actually. There was no top tier competition she hadn't won, no player she had not defeated. She also had the most followers and subscribers of any subscriber. All at the age of 19.

The rather intimidating man coughed and the general mumble of chit-chatter around the room went deathly silent.

"Now ..."

The man started to speak, his voice was much whinier than you had expected for a man of his size and stature.

"I am sorry we had to rush all of you out here ... I am sure you were all very ... busy with your video games but we have a very serious issue. I am sure you are aware that our self-piloting MEKAs were shut down by the omnics ... who am I kidding, everybody knows, blasted talon and their informants. Anyway, I am sure you are aware that our self-piloting MEKAs were shut down by the omnics and our engineers have not yet found a solution. The next solution we found was to adjust the MEKAs to be able to contain pilots, who will control the MEKA from the inside, and we want you all to pilot them."

The curtain in the middle of the room dropped to reveal a MEKA, the gargantuan metal beast must have stood ten foot tall. The chassis shining in the sunlight peaking in through the window, the two cannons on either side of the monstrosity would be enough to strike fear in the coldest of opponents.

"This will not be an easy task, you will stay here on a six month dedicated training program. You will not be allowed to see your family and you will not be allowed to leave, we cannot promise that you will make it out of this war alive, but we will equip you with the equipment and training needed to give you the best possible chance. If you wish to leave and never speak of this again, feel free. We will not contact you again and you will face no reparation"

Most of the group left. It was only you, Hana and a few oddballs left in the room. What made you stay? Who the fuck knows at the point but if it meant you got to spend time with THE Hana Song, you were all for it.

"So ... you have decided to stay. You do realize what will follow is a 6 month training program dedicated to learning how to pilot and fight with this MEKA. If you do not see this MEKA in your sleep we have not been doing our job right, like I said. This will be the hardest six months of your life so far and after that it will not get any easier. Now go, Director Konu will take you to your accommodation. Your family have packed your essentials which will be waiting for you once you get there."

You started walking to the accommodation with Director Konu and the other few standing members of your party. Director Konu was a very scary looking man. Your stereotypical secret service agent. Bald, sunglasses, black suit, you know the type.

You scuttle to the side of Hana and grab her attention.

"So ... Hana Song right?" You can feel your hands start to sweat profusely.

"That's right!" She proclaims, a huge smile slapped across her face as always. "You must be Y/N? I have watched you from time to time, not that I get much downtime." She goes to shake your hand as you are walking.

"That's me" You say proudly, you try to wipe the sweat off of your hand on your trouser leg without her seeing before outstretching your hand.

She knocks your hand out of the way with hers.

"Don't be silly" She proclaims as she wraps her arms around you. You return the favour and after a few seconds she lets go.

"I think we're going to have so much fun here, it's going to be good to put my years of experience to good use! I am surprised I have already made a friend too!" She gives you a large cheesy grin before running ahead to be first into the accommodation.

The dorms were extremely ... bland and uniform. Every part of the room was the same as the last. Bed, small table with a lamp and a footlocker at the foot of the bed. Hana swiftly started lining the walls with various posters, mainly Starcraft related. The occasional poster of Lucio was dotted around as well.

"Do you like this guy?" She asked, looking at you.

"Yeah, we move together as one is like my favourite song of all time, obviously I know you are a fan, you play his stuff all the time on your stream, we should go to a concert of his once were done here or something." You look down at the floor and hold your hands together after realizing you pretty much asked THE Hana Song out on a date.

"Sure! I would love to, just give me a date and a time!"

You couldn't believe the answer. Did she actually say yes or are you just stuck in another dream?

The next stop after being settled in was the introduction. Director Konu stood in front of a chalkboard.

"The rules here are simple. Number one ..." He drew a number one on the chalkboard "You will do what we say, when we say it. You are not allowed to ask questions when given an order. Number two ... contact with the outside world is prohibited. There will be no letters sent, no calls made. I think you get the point. Number three ... You have your schedules. You will not break from this schedule. You will attend the classes on your schedule at the time they are marked. There is no reason for you to miss a class. If you believe you have a reason, you come to me. Number four ... there will be no relationships between students here." You and Hana look at each other, you knew this would be the case, but you hoped it wouldn't be.

"There are no exceptions to this rule. If you break any of these rules at any point any of your senior officers have a right to remove you from the program."

The man behind the desk was not lying. The six months that followed were nothing but hell. That damn MEKA took over our being 24/7. The only break we got was during sleep and that was sparse, we were lucky to get a few hours on most nights. You quickly got sick of the wretched thing. You had a feeling you should have pulled out when you were given the chance. The only thing that kept you in this program and a sane mental state was her.

You would lock eyes with her multiple times per day, staring and getting lost into the abyss that were her golden eyes. They played and danced in the sunlight keeping you enthralled for hours, they made seconds feel like an eternity.

The other members of the group had either been injured or had broken the rules, you could never tell if they did it intentionally or were just sick of the program and wanted out.

Over the six months of the program, you and Hana had gotten very close. You would talk about your lives back home and your StarCraft careers every chance you had got, reminiscing of a much easier time for the both of you. There would be times where you would just stare deeply into each other's eyes, wishing deeply that you had met under different circumstances, circumstances that would allow you to be together.

It was definitely not an easy ride but tomorrow was graduation. You would finally get to see your parents and have a short stay back home before starting service under the Korean military. You see Hana sat on the edge of her bed, tissues strewn across the bed. You decide to sit down next to her, you only have about half an hour before your family are coming to pick you up so you decide to make the most of it with her.

"What's up buttercup?" You ask, speaking softly.

"I'm just going to miss you so much" She replied through the tears and through a very, very snotty nose. This was not the most attractive side of Hana you had seen over the course of your time together. She buried her face into your shoulder and cried uncontrollably, her usual happy exterior had vanished, she still managed to crack the occasional smile before breaking into more crying. You felt tears start to form in your eyes too. You two had made great plans for when you had finished the program. You would finally get to be together, you would finally be able to have her as your own.

"I will be back soon, remember what I said. There are no goodbyes, just see you laters."

Hana nodded and a small crease started to appear in the corner of her mouth where a smile was forming.

Your eyes locked as you wiped the tears away with your hand and cupped her cheek with your hand. You both apprehensively leaned in. You had waited six long months for this moment. You knew that it was against the rules and if anybody caught you, it was the end of your career, but it just felt so right. You could start to feel her breathing on your mouth. It was heavy and shaky. Your lips touched at last.

Suddenly sirens started going off in the dormitory, breaking the serenity of the moment. You had been warned that if omnics attacked and broke the perimeter, the sirens would go off and you would have to mount the MEKA immediately to address the threat. You did not want to pull yourself away from Hana but you know that you both had to act fast. You wiped away her tears one last time before grabbing her hand and running to the MEKA storage unit. Throwing your suitcase onto the floor.

You and Hana both mounted your MEKA units, Hana's face had quickly turned from sadness to an anger you had never seen on her before. The hatch above you opened and you boosted out of the storage unit. You had spent six months living, breathing and eating this MEKA, and now was finally your chance to put those skills to the test. Hopefully it was not all a waste.

On the other side of the hatch was a small sea of omnics of all shapes and sizes. There was no chance that the two of you could possibly survive this ruthless onslaught, but there was no point in giving up now.

"You take the left, ill take the right" you command to Hana via the MEKA's radio system. She always was the superior pilot to you, from day one. She excelled at every test and every practical exam just as she had flown through every other aspect of her life. The next few hours that followed were unlike anything you had ever seen in any video game before. Gigantic balls of metal flew through the sky at breakneck speeds, you feel like there was not a time that you weren't surrounded by explosions of some kind. The sky turned shades of orange and grey you had never seen before. You had no idea how you were going to make it through. The omnics did not stop, they were relentless. It was just wave after wave after wave of omnic that you thought was never going to end.

You thought all was going well until taking a nasty blow to the side the chassis that threw you into a wall. You thought you were okay until looking at your heads up display. The blow had taken out your engine. There was no way you were getting out of here alive.

You searched for Hana, she was a few hundred feet away, around where you had originally been struck.

"H...Hana, you need to get out. Get to safety, I can take it from here." You call across the radio. It gets harder for you to speak through all the smoke. Your control panel is covered in blood and so are you. The front of the MEKA is completely smashed, the nanofibre acrylic front panel that you had spent so long shining was now in about a million pieces and was surrounding you. Digging into your hands and legs.

"And how do you plan on doing that - I SAID GET OFF ME - you smartass?" Hana shouted down the microphone.

"Do you remember that command the director told us?" You only had a few minutes of life left in you and you had to make it count.

"No Y/N, you can't do it... please... we can both make it out of here alive, I pro-"

"NO" You snap at Hana, it hurts you to lash out at her, both physically and emotionally "Leave, I can buy you some time to get out of here before I execute the command."

"Y/N ... please, don't do this" The pain in her voice was apparent, you hated to see her sad but it was the only way either of you could make it out.

"Please Hana, go on, do great things, you are destined for them."

"Okay Y/N, you can have your way, I'll never forget you..."

You climb out of what was once your MEKA and stand on the crumpled chassis. You wave your hands in the air. "Hey, you stupid bots, you want me so badly? Come get me!"

The sea of bots turn around to look at you, you can't move as you are paralyzed with fear as they come charging towards you. You find it within yourself to move and crawl inside the MEKA.

You see Hana flying away in the distance. Kicking away one last omnic before she departs into the distance. You wipe the blood off of the control panel to reveal the only few buttons that can save you now.

"Self-destruct sequence initialized"

"Goodbye Y/N, at least you will go down as you wanted, a hero ..." Hana called out over the radio system.

"Self-destructing in 5...4...3..."

"Remember, there are no goodbyes, just see you laters. I love you."

"3...2..."

"I love you too"

"1"

~*~

written by Aaron