Another day dawned in the Portal and Coop found himself back on duty. Some things never change, he mused to himself as he struck a match and lit his cigar. The ever changing front line of the battlefield was his destination and the sounds of the field of war could be heard for miles around, as he descended a well traversed path from his digs toward the front line.
There appeared to be more active users in the portal these days. It seemed to be nothing like the good old days, when people like Bahamut, schneelocke and gfoxcook had stood shoulder to shoulder with Coop, as they fought the good fight Sure, people like Haggard and Auz were still here, but it just wasn't the same. Some of these kids must have skipped the basic training and just blundered on with their attempts to protect the Portal.
Coop shouldered his Sledgehammer and jogged down the hill towards what looked like a scrap going on. A number of these greener users were in danger of being overrun by some sort of abomination that bore the hallmarks of a fileswap.
Without a moment's hesitation, Coop ran headlong into the fray. Dropping his shoulder at just the right moment, he knocked the thing away from the recruits and watched as it sprawled away a little. "Get ready!" He yelled at the recruits, as the thing righted itself and re-arranged countless legs.
Taking his grip on his Sledgehammer, he met the charge of the on rushing creature with the full force he could muster. Two of the green recruits remained stood, rooted to the ground in awe or fear. The third ran forward and planted a firm, effective fist blow into the creature's temple. Suddenly, the thing crumpled in a heap of bloated limbs and shattered ambition.
"Good work, kid." Coop took a draw on his cigar, enjoying the flavour. He turned to the two recruits that had not acted and shrugged in their direction. "Indecision kills you out here" he muttered.
"Stick with that attitude and you'll go far." He turned and started to walk off.
"Who are you? Maybe we should stick together!" The recruit came running after him.
"I'm Coop. You'll do well enough on your own, because if you want to follow me, you won't get much chance to kill them off. If you find some around here, tell them that you'll be sending Coop your way and watch them cringe." The recruit smiled and made for another suspicious character on the field.
Coop stayed behind and looked at the dog-tag he'd swiped from the corpse. "CrbZk" was visible among the mangled metal. Coop picked out his radio and keyed in a code.
"Wade, it's Coop. Looks like Beer's about again. Transferring information now."
"I'll look into it. Happy hunting."
21,000 Blams
