“Tropic regions always seem to hate me anyways.”  

The ambience of the flora-dense atmosphere is suffocating, creating a steamy and hot effect bound to do “Saint” in. It doesn’t necessarily help that he’s wearing level three body armour along side a pocket dimensions worth of ordinance, food, and their… well, ‘makeshift tent’ inside his surprisingly small bag.  

‘Fuck..’ His voice whispers, kept low out of fear anything louder would make him lose any more stamina.  

The rainforest around them was littered with different small animals, each with their own melody and song. If Saint weren’t on a ‘Hell-drop’ recon-op he might stop to record, each cricket sound and small bug scraping away at dead bark held as much beauty as one of the large bird-like creatures they called Aviants, majestically thrashing their wings in the air with a wet shudder, their songs trilling along with the heat of the forest.  

Saint feels his strength drain away from his appendages slightly, and slumps in his already strained posture; taking a knee.  

“Saint?”  

He sighs, keeping his head static while he slides his eyes over to his squad-mate Alexandra. Or Alice. Or just plain Alex, y’know- it just depends on whether you want a broken jaw or not. 

“H-Hey, You good?”  

Through his decorated helmet, Saint can just make out her troubled features, darkened by the shade provided by the many overhead trees. He can feel her own distress and fatigue just gazing deep into her eyes. 

“Nah Alex, I’m fine, just give me-”  

“Shut up.” 

His eyes widen and narrow in quick succession, as she glides over to his right, kneeling with a hand placed softly on his back.  

“Sorry.” 

She sighs, shuffling her free hand around, violently looking for something. 

“Here, drink this.” 

She holds out an industrial military grade canteen with an emanating glow of energy to signify its importance. Inside he already knows its contents; a purple mixture with light blue chunks of some off world fruit, one of the most refreshing governments funded smoothies he’s ever had before. A huge step up from the military, that “blender” of a nightmare was what made him sign up for project Aracuis in the first damn place.  

“No, No. You do more heavy lifting anyways Alex.” 

She frowns at him and her head cranes at him sideways, as if confused and annoyed.  

“Wanna pull the hero shtick now? Drink it before I shove it down your throat.” 

He weakly chuckled, grabbing the presented drink and slowly gulping a small portion, attempting to save the rest for his companion.  

“Here.” 

She takes the drink and seals it away, not before taking a sip as well. 

“Good, now, take my hand.” 

“What’s this? A declaration of love? I knew you’d come around.” 

She smiles before the hand turns to a fist and bounces off his well armoured stomach.  

“Hurry up already.” 

He grabs on and stands with her much needed assistance, only to find himself wobbling. Quickly though, he's caught by his mate.  

“Thanks.” 

She softly smiles at him, and begins to slide herself under his arm, attempting to support him.  

“No problem, lets just sit down over here, you need to recuperate soon.” 

Laid beside a large boulder with plant life scattered around it was apparently the ideal spot for Saint, his soft grunts laid as testament to his unsuccessful attempts to get comfortable.