[ WP ] Your job is to hunt down monsters . One day , you get a call that a sea serpent is wreaking havoc on the coastline ; but when you get there , the beast is just sitting there on the beach . You think it might even be stuck .

There is no glory in my job, I am not unique, I am not irreplaceable, I am one of thousands, we hold the line between civilization and the ravening horde of monstrosities that would tear it down, we are not heroes, we are working men and women. 
 
 we do our job. 
 
 The call came in as I was finishing my watch `` Lima 2-1 this is overwatch 0-1 we have a sea serpent emerging onto crater bay. The closest squad is an hour away, you shall contain the beast until they get there, damage control is highest priority, over'' 
 
 Control was always curt. they told you what to do and expected you to do it, they did n't care that I'd covered 500 k's of coastline in 12 hours, they did n't care about my aching feet or the cramps that come with wearing power armor for too long, they had given me a job and that was that. I punched the co-ordinates in and bounced toward Crater bay using the strange, loping, leaping, style of movement that the armor required. Sea serpents were bad news, you could n't just flail at them, you had to pick a spot and wear its scales down, all whilst dodging is mad thrashing and vicious fangs, and even when you get through their hide you have to hit it fast and hard to stop it running away and healing, even the best of the best struggle to take down a sea serpent, they are just that tough. 
 
 It took 10 minutes of jumping before I reached Crater Bay, it used to be called something more poetic but then a dragon decided to nest there so they had to change the name. It was n't hard to spot the serpent, they are 50 meters long and their scales shine with emerald iridescence. I fired up my plasma blade and started combat analysis on my H.U.D, the program quickly swept the area for threats and then pinged green, there was no threat. 
 
 The serpent was not rampaging, it was just lying there with its back to me, curled up like a coil of reptilian rope, I could see its sides heaving with each breath and its tail twitching weakly. Combat analysis thought it was close enough to death that it was n't even worth the time to finish it off, but 12 years of experience told me to keep my guard up. I bounced over the serpents twisted form to look at its head and belly, being careful to maintain a healthy distance, these things could lunge faster than a cobra, fast enough to beat even the enhanced reaction time of power armor. 
 
 I need not have bothered. The beasts underside and head were covered in a horrific stitch-work of deep slices and brutal gouges, something had ravaged this creature with a ferocity unlike anything I had ever seen, blood oozed from every wound but still the serpent was alive, and it was watching me. 
 
 I walked up to its bloody head, close enough to touch, at this distance i could actually see its wounds slowly closing. It's gaze followed me and as I drew closer it tried to twist away from me, a desperate, pitiful squirming that only served to tear open some of the more recently healed slashes, the poor thing whimpered in pain and I saw the last embers of hope dying in its strangely expressive eyes. I looked into those eyes and for a moment I saw the creature in a different light, it was afraid, desperate, it had nowhere to go and nobody to help it. The serpent was a mighty beast brought low, its pride was shattered, its strength was broken, and it was begging. 
 
 I sighed deeply, the weight of my many years of thankless service bore down on my shoulders with a strain that no power armor could bear. One day I would be like this serpent, wounded, beaten, desperate for a reprieve, a kind word, a gentle action. I softly rested one plated gauntlet upon the ridge above the serpents eye, looked deep into its ancient soul, and drove my blade into its brain. 
 
 The monster writhed as it died, its wounds split open and blood sprayed across the sand, staining the water behind me as I bounced back toward my patrol route. It was true that one day in the future it would be me in that serpents place, one day I would be defeated, one day I would fall and break, unable to ever rise again, but it had not happened yet, and until that day arrived... 
 
 I would do my job. 
 

