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up, shouting with excitement at the perceived victory. Kelly did nothing, simply staring into the wall they had created and thinking of the friends and colleagues he had just lost. Losing any soldiers was unacceptable, but Jansen had been a good friend. Shouts of excitement, clapping and cheering rang out from further down the tunnel as the other troops joined in the celebrations.
    The Commander turned and ambled down the corridor towards the shouts of the men. He wiped his face with his hand. The glove was dry and rough, and it did little more than move the dirt across his face. The sweat was mixing with the grime and dripping into his mouth, the dust clogging his nostrils. Kelly could not help but think that they were losing the war at an alarming rate.
    “Commander Kelly!”
    A soldier came rushing towards him full of excitement.
    “What is it, son?” He responded with a grim and disheartened tone. The man rushed up to Kelly, kicking up dust as he slid to a halt.
    “Sir, re-supply is incoming.”
    Kelly straightened his body just a little as he welcomed the first good news of the day. Every supply drop they received meant that the Earth forces were still fighting hard.
    “Good, have we got the secure landing zone and approach ready yet?”
    “Yes, Sir! Landing shortly, they’ve got a thirty minute window with us.”
    Kelly nodded. They had been getting an old underground docking bay back into operation with a hidden approach tunnelled from a nearby canyon range. In the early days of the colonisation of the Moon, nobody could ever have predicted an alien invasion.  They did, however, plan for the hostility which could come from Earth powers. He turned back to Martinez.
    “Glad to see you are recovering. Hold here with your team. I want a full assessment of the defences of this tunnel. Get barriers set up, and make sure you have a wired connection to HQ. I am amalgamating your team with Jansen’s. You have command, Captain.”
    Martinez nodded in return. Any other time he would have been ecstatic about the promotion and responsibility he was being given, but the death of the Captain weighed heavily on his shoulders.
    “I’ll get it done, Sir.”
    Kelly nodded in gratitude. A single tear came to his eye at having to utter the name of his fallen comrade. He turned back to the troops stood before him and quickly wiped the tear away, mixing it with sweat and dust.
    “Supplies are incoming! Jansen’s unit is now under Martinez! Anyone who was on duty, return to your posts! The rest of you, with me!”
    He slung his launcher over his back and strode confidently down the tunnel towards the docking bay. It was a twenty minute walk to the district that just two days before was a sealed off and abandoned sector. The cleanup crews had worked day and night to get it back into operation. As Kelly approached, he could hear that the bay was a hive of activity, and the ship had already landed.
    He took a turn from a broad corridor into the docking bay, and he was greeted by the sight of his people enthusiastically unloading mounds of supplies from a familiar ship. An officer stood at its base with a cup of coffee in his hand. He was a roguish looking character and looked too ill disciplined to be a soldier, but it was clear that he was the pilot. Kelly strode up to the laid back character.
    “I’m Commander Kelly.”
    “Eddie Rains, good to finally meet you.”
    “So it’s you who’s been supporting us from the beginning?”
    “And the three other boys.”
    Kelly reached out his hand in friendship to the man. Rains had shown no desire to salute the Commander, but Kelly liked him enough to not care.
    “You must have balls of steel to have volunteered for this duty, son,” said Kelly.
    “Hey, the opportunity to fly the fastest ship man has ever seen, how could I pass it up?”
    The Commander grinned. He appreciated the pilot’s sense of humour, and the fact that he remained so humble.
    “How goes the war?”
    “Paris