CV 726M, fresh out of Cobra Boot Camp,
was assigned sentry duty at a remote forest post.
She didn’t know death was already near.
Not just any death—
a seasoned ghost in human form.
Before she could draw a breath,
two stone-hard hands exploded from the underbrush and seized her neck,
yanking her back into the bush like prey.
Though ambushed, CV 726M fought like a thundercat.
But she was fresh.
No field experience.
And the war didn’t care.
Ashley—Joe’s own she-hulk of war—was already on her.
What followed wasn’t combat.
It was a dismantling.
Ten brutal minutes stretched into
what felt like twenty hours in an inquisition dungeon:
Brass knuckles—jaw.
Boot—rib.
Elbow—eye.
Knee—spine.
Each second rewrote the alphabets of pain.
By the time the beatdown stopped, CV 726M lay gasping.
Bleeding. Bruised. Torn.
Uniform shredded.
Blood and mud soaked into the once-pristine navy Cobra blue.
But she hadn’t looked away.
Eyes swollen. Jaw trembling.
Still staring. Still fighting.
Ashley didn’t miss it.
So she asked:
“What’s your name?”
CV 726M spat blood and iron onto the dirt.
Her voice cracked, bitter.
“Why even bother?”
Ashley lit a cigarette.
Exhaled slow.
“So you die a human. Not another forgotten Cobra digit.”
That hit harder than knuckles.
Harder than the meteor hammer still glistening with her blood.
For a moment, 726M froze.
The words… settled.
This wasn’t pity.
It wasn’t mercy.
It was recognition.
A totally unexpected one.
Ashley wasn’t speaking to her.
She was speaking for all the others—
the rookies left in the mud,
replaced before they were even cold,
those promised glory but given numbers.
And the dying Cobra Trooper knew.
She wouldn’t walk away from this.
But she’d walk into memory.
So with her last ounce of strength—
shaking, ashamed, still human—
she whispered:
“…Marin.”
Ashley closed her eyes.
A firm grip on her signature weapon—the morning star.
Not to mourn.
But to commit it.
“You fought well, Marin. You really did.”
CRACK!!
The morning star swung.
Finality.
No glory.
No anthem.
No spotlight.
Just a name— echoing through the soul of a woman
who never wanted to collect names,
but now carries Marin forever.
