They didn't see the Sister again, and that was fine by Nate. The truck had been unloaded while they slept, and they were able to get out of dodge early the next morning before the 7:00 am deadline. Once they had left the FOB's envelope, Nate clambered up into the turret and lifted his faceplate, feeling the cool morning air against his face as Ketri guided the massive vehicle through the dunes. This planet was oddly beautiful in its desolation, with shifting golden sands stretching as far as the eye could see. It was enough to make you forget that all of this was the result of nuclear holocaust. After a few hours of driving, Nate noticed something odd, half-buried in a fast-approaching dune. He reached down with his toe and gently tapped Ketri on the shoulder. She looked up, and he pointed.
"Wanna stop and check that out?" Nate shouted over the wind and the noise of the engines.
"Why?" Ketri questioned, with a puzzled look. Nate shrugged.
"Dunno, just an instinct. Besides, we've got time. We started earlier than the Captain expected."
"Alright hun, have it your way." His mate chirped, and geared down, slowing the vehicle and pulling it to a stop in front of the anomaly.
They dismounted and approached, Ketri grabbing her carbine from its rack next to her seat. The thing which had caught Nate's eye was a building, or what was left of one. It was a facade of slowly crumbling grey brick, bombed out and flooded with sand. Nate drew his rifle and slowly advanced, discretion being the better part of valor. They found themselves standing on what had once been a balcony, though now it was at ground level. There must be several stories buried in the sand, Nate mused, as they found a door and knocked it open with a rifle butt. The door had once held glass in its frame, but this was long-since gone.
"This must have been a city once." Ketri noted softly, waving her phone around. Nate could hear the ticking of its geiger counter in her hand. "Radiation's not bad, at least not bad enough to harm us, but it's there."
"Bombs fell here..." Nate muttered, looking around the room they had discovered.
"Nukes. Humanity's calling card." The alien girl said, only half-joking. Nate frowned inside his helmet as he surveyed their surroundings. This looked like it had once been an apartment, maybe even a penthouse of some kind. The walls were tiled with rough stone, with the tattered, petrified remnants of artwork hanging forlornly from rusted-through nails. They wandered around the room, shining the lights on their weapons into every nook and cranny. Ketri's natural Sha'dee curiosity had taken over, and she was poking through piles of sand.
"Hah! Hun, come here, I found something!" She crowed, slinging her gun and reaching down to pull something out of the sand. Nate abandoned his down poking, and strode over to glance across her shoulder. She was holding an alien skull, slim and oddly structured, but clearly humanoid. It had the bone structure for pointed ears, just like a Sha'dee skull, but unlike a Sha'dee it had no fangs and the cracked remains of a Y-shaped horn erupting from the center of the forehead.
"So this is a native..." Nate observed as Ketri turned the skull in her hands. "They look very humanoid. I wonder why the Conglomerate exterminated them, they usually only do that with species that can't live in an earthlike environment..."
"Maybe they were too humanoid..." Ketri posited, handing him the skull and digging deeper into the sand pile. "Only reason us Sha'dee are still alive is because there's too many of us out there, and we're too widespread. Also you pretty much depend on us to fix your tech."
"Too humanoid? Why would that even be a thing?" He questioned. Ketri turned around and kissed him.
"Because of that."
Nate smiled, but looked puzzled. Ketri chirped, and elaborated.
"Why do you think they execute xenophiles?"
"I dunno, religious bullshit? "Mankind shall not lie with alien beasts" and all that nonsense."
"You're putting the cart before the horse. Religion is never the *reason* people in power do anything, it's just the excuse they use to justify it. No, think about us. What are we doing, with everything we've shared, everything we've experienced?"
Nate slapped his helmet where his forehead would be. Of course.
"Bonding?"
"Exactly!" Ketri beamed at him. "After being with me for the last week, could you kill a Sha'dee in cold blood?"
"NO!" Nate said, automatically. She smiled.
"Could you before?"
Nate swallowed guiltily and looked away, kicking a broken vase with his boot. Ketri looked down, ears drooping.
"You already have..."
"They make you do it. It's part of the whole company hazing thing. To make sure you're tough enough to do the Conglomerate's dirty work. We're taught to see xen... you, as animals. To kill without a second thought. Drag some poor alien bastard out of his home, knock him to his knees with your rifle butt and put a bullet in the back of his head, no questions asked." Nate ground his teeth, and crushed the ancient glass under his boot. "I'm a Merc, Ketri. I'm not a soldier fighting for some cause like your rebel friends, I'm a killer for hire. Aaaand now you probably don't want anything to do with me..."
She shook her head, and embraced him, hugging him tight through the armor.
"You're not a merc anymore." The little xeno chirped, kissing him tenderly on the cheek. "You're my mate now. I know you wouldn't harm a hair on my head, and that's good enough for me. People change, and what's past is past. How can I hate you for what you've done before, when I love you so much for what you're doing now?"
Nate smiled, wiped his eyes and kissed her on the lips.
"You're too sweet. I don't deserve you..." He crooned, hugging her back.
"Awwwww... Yes you do! B-but c-can you loosen up? Your armor is k-kinda crushing my ribs!" Ketri gasped breathlessly. Nate loosened his grip immediately, cursing himself for forgetting he was wearing power armor.
