The Unofficial First

Daisuki opens his eyes, revealing two normal brown human eyes instead of his heterochromic and the area around him indicates a flashback. 

Daisuki, two years younger, and about 50 other soldiers are in a dim metal room, the room itself slightly shaking. The noise reveals it is a giant elevator. 

He and other soldiers, men and women, are all wearing different outfits. They are all equipped with a single strap snowboard clipped to their bags and one sheathed SunSword and HeatHolster at their hips. They are the early obsolete versions that look different from the modern set-up. 

Some soldiers are shaking in fear, others praying, but mostly everyone stands quietly.

Daisuki (narrating): "I was part of the "unofficial" First Final Flame Emergency Response Unit. The reason your class is the "official" and mine was labeled as "unofficial" was for a couple reasons. 

The first, was because we had no actual knowledge regarding the alien species given the name "Icemen" in debriefing. The vagueness of the name was due to nothing other than the witnessed events of people bitten or stabbed by an Icemen and painfully screaming, 'It's cold', as well as the fact regular bullets did not damage the creature, however, being crushed, explosions and fire did."

Daisuki looking at the giant "toaster-like" metal sheath. He grips the sword and slightly unsheathes it out of curiosity. Just the few inches of the bright burning metal sword illuminates around him and he puts it back inside completely.

Daisuki (Narr.): "I was in the military before the invasion so I figured as long as I was willing to fight, I must be part of any force fighting against these aliens." 

A voice comes over an intercom inside the elevator and all the soldiers look up at it. Different soldiers are shown as the voice talks to them almost robotically.

Intercom female: "Attention, 1 minute until the release for scouting and research excursions. Before you go out, please remember these 3 important tips.

One...The heat retained inside the metal of your swords has 2 minutes maximum of effective damage to the Icemen. That time limit also depends on how many Icemen it cuts and for how long it touches their icy bodies. 

Two...Signs to the 3 entrances are all over the bottom of the mountains. The first opening is 2 hours from now at 12:30pm and the last call for everyone who survives is 6pm. Retiring before 12:30pm from scouting and researching is not tolerated.

Three...And finally, any people, information and experiences are considered valuable in order to defeat humanity's most dangerous enemy. If you find survivors, medical supplies and other useful supplies, or if you witness anything you feel is important information, make sure you come back immediately."

The elevator stops rumbling and the gigantic door opens in front of Daisuki.

Intercom voice: "Good luck Final Flame soldiers, and remember, 'Humanity is One'."

The warm winds blow the alien "snow" into the elevator and it shows where it's stopped. The beautiful blue skies, warm air, and puffy clouds from a mountain top view, are a calm juxtaposition to the constant "snow" that has plagued the entire globe.

Daisuki (Narr.): "After not seeing the sky for a whole year, that picture is forever in my mind."

Daisuki steps out of the elevator, along with others. He stands there looking at the city off in the far but reachable distance in the center of a ring of trees and woods 1 mile thick. 

Other soldiers have already strapped the precursor to the"BootBoards" and started off in their desired direction as Daisuki unbuckles his own board from his backpack and straps his right foot onto the board.

He then looks as if he realized something. He unstraps the board and walks away from the remaining group. An unzipping sound is heard and Daisuki starts peeing, steam shown rising in front of him. Once he finishes he straps on his board.

He then begins shredding down the mountain, goofy riding style, hitting jumps doing flips and tricks at high speed.

Saku Narr.(interrupting): "If you want us to take your story seriously you shouldn't lie about the dumb details."

Daisuki comedically crashes after hitting a hidden and unexpected rock. He gets up as the storyteller continues.

Daisuki (Narr.): "Shut up! Don't interrupt my train of thought, ok, where was I? Ok so most of us knew the obvious place to begin searching and scouting for survivors and anything useful would be the closest city to the mountains. And as revealed in Katsu's story, the stomping grounds for all 3 of you, 'Hanabi City'."

The man gets to the bottom of the hill and straps his board back into his backpack. He begins walking in the woods towards the direction of the city. After a few different shots of him walking until he gets to the entrance of the city that Katsu's father rode the bus through. 

As soon as he walks through a crunching and ominous growling is heard from the other side of a brick building destroyed from meteors. Daisuki unsheathes his sword completely, but remembering the time limit, puts it back and quietly runs up to the building, still gripping his SunSword. He pants and catches his breath before looking around the corner.

Daisuki (Narr.): "The first time I saw an Iceman outside the mountains wasn't really an encounter at all. Luckily I saw it and it didn't see me, but only because it had already seen someone else.

As I slowly peeked around the corner to investigate the horrific sounds I saw the Iceman responsible. It was bent over, eating a creature unable to struggle back. Some birds flew by and chirped away, the Iceman reacted to them. It revealed what it was picking at and eating. 

It was one of the few women from the elevator, lifeless eyes open looking right in my direction, with her chest and stomach torn open from the carnivorous alien, her dead arm outstretched in my direction. Ice around from where the monster was tearing.

I've been to war before, I thought the sight of gore and unsettling scenes of death have long passed shocked me. Since she was already gone I decided to treat the scenario like a predator eating its prey in nature and not cause any unnecessary commotion.

I moved on into the building I was using as cover to check the time. It was already past 12:30, if I wanted to get back in time for the last call, I would need at least 2 hours to hike back up the mountain. Soon after that thought, I heard a man's scream coming from outside. I ran out the door I came in through and looked around.

I saw two other men from the elevator, they were 100 yards away with their backs tightly pressed against a chain link fence. They had their SunSwords out and they were hot from being unsheathed. They recklessly swung them while screaming in fear at 4 Icemen creeping closer. It was obvious they had never had proper training with the blade. I took the first step to go help but as soon as I did the screaming stopped and I saw why.

The young men who had their exposed backs against the fence didn't hear through their own fear, the two smaller Icemen that crept up on them. And with their long sharp appendages that can be as long as 7-8 inches, stabbed through the fence, as well as through the backs and chests of both of them. That wasn't the end though. The assaulting Icemen didn't pull back to release them, but as if right out of a horror film, they "curled" their knife-like fingers as if helping the Icemen on the other side so they could feast.

One of the men tried to pull himself off the "claws". However, the "ice" had already begun to form from their chest and spread without the Icemen pulling out its claws. The weakening men had no chance.

Now THAT scenario is one I had never seen in human warfare. I've seen beheadings and all the worst of torture tactics, but the sight of two men getting held to a fence and getting helplessly eaten alive, their screams for help or their pleas for the pain to end, by aliens made of ice, struck a different type of human feeling other than fear… I ran back inside and closed the door.