Chapter six, Change

September 23rd, 2nd year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Narrator: Change is like a tidal wave, go with the flow, or be swept away.

Seabs: Jesus Christ, it's you!
Mus: He he, not quite man, not quite.

Seabs: Holy crud, I thought you were dead! It's good to see ya again! What happened?

Mus: It's a long story man, I'll tell you when we get the hell out of here. Who are these guys?

Cpl Nephilm: I'm Corporal Nephil, my buddies call-…called me Neph. This Private Speedweurtzka. We call him Speed.

I had just noticed why they were propping Seabs up between them. There were holes in both of his knees, and his arm was missing to go along with it. I found myself wondering just what exactly the Azzies had done to him. It was evil, he looked just like how I felt, and I felt absolutely horrible.

We agreed that we had to get off this God-forsaken rock as soon as possible, and time was running out. The drop ships I had seen earlier were transporting men to the tertiary LZ; the other two had been compromised. The transports wanted to get out of here before the Azzies hit the LZ. We had to hurry, so we headed east, the direction of the LZ. Every Soldier was told everything they would need to know about the mission from LZ's to fleet support to mission objectives, all in case contact was lost with High Com on the planet.

None of us knew when exactly the fleet had arrived or how much firepower they had brought, but it had been enough to punch through the Azzie fleet and land transports to get us off this damn rock.

We were making our way through the jungle and then everything hit me all at once. It was the first when I was moving through the jungle without being shot at or the trees exploding from Azzie artillery. It was peaceful for a change of pace. I was born on trichominiasis, a lush jungle world, I loved the jungle, and this was one of the most beautiful jungles I had ever seen in my life. It wasn't humid; the canopy was at the perfect height for vegetation to grow on the jungle floor. It didn't have the shit smell that the jungles on Kozo had, it didn't have the month after month of flesh eating disease that Patroclus had, and it was just overall amazing. The sound of all the different insects was music to my ears. If it hadn't been for the war this almost would have been a nice place to visit. Almost.

We got to the clearing and things changed instantly. There were Soldiers everywhere. There were wounded Soldiers, dead Soldiers, dying Soldiers, Soldiers with limbs missing, Soldiers with bullet holes in their bodies, Soldiers that would be dead before the day was out. And there were thousands of Soldiers here, to many young Soldiers who would never see their 19th birthday, Soldiers who would leave girl friends and fiancées and wives behind on planets some people had never heard of. I wasn't smiling anymore. Many of the more wounded Soldiers would be sent to medical stations in the outer rims where they would spend a lot of the upcoming war, because there would be a war, after what the Azzies had done here, there would definitely be payback.

Unknown voice: Hey, you! Yeah you guys! Come 'ere!

The four of us shared glances and walked towards the four naval pilots.

Neph: What the hell do you guys want? We have wounded and wanna get them dropped off.

Lieutenant McClosky: Who do you think you are, Corporal? Just for that little bit of arrogance, you're gonna watch our ships until we come back.

Speedy: No way! We ar-

Neph: Let it go Speedy. Fine, we'll do it.

The four pilots were laughing as they walked away, undoubtedly at Neph. He did the right thing though. These four pilots getting their asses kicked wouldn't look very good. I looked back to see one of the pilots flipping me the bird; he, along with the other three, exploded in a cloud of vapour. Looking up I saw hundreds of single ships coming towards us, opening fire on the clearing. The tertiary LZ had been compromised.

One of the transports began its ascent and was shot down, landing in the clearing all onboard perishing along with many on the ground caught in the explosion.

Flight Captain: You guys get in those single ships get up there!

A flight captain ordered us to get into the XM4's that belonged to the pilots who were vaporized. We tried to argue but he just took Seabs to one of the leaving transports. He would be fine we were assured. We manned three of the XM4's, apparently they were short on pilots. The XM4 was experimental for a reason; it had a neural capacitor which taught recruits basic flying skills instantly, it worked only on Humans though. I instantly knew how to fly it. I shut the canopy, locked in, started up the engines, took off and went after the Azzie interceptors.

Radio: Hey Soldier guys, for the duration of the Operation your call signs will be Meatbag 1-3. Start taking down interceptors Meatbags!

It was a fitting name. None of us had ever set foot in the cockpit of an XM4, I expected to be dead within minutes. This thing was almost as alien to me as the Azzies, but the neural capacitor got rid of some of that though. I shot my XM4 forwards and locked on to an Azzie. I don't if it was just me or not, but the flying was getting easier the more I flew. I had tone, pulled the trigger and the machine guns started blazing. The Azzie fighter disintegrated in a shower of metal.

Radio: MEATBAG 3, BOGIE ON YOUR SIX! BANK LEFT, BANK LEFT!

I realised the voice was yelling at me, so I banked left and a missile streaked past me from the front and hit the Azzie on my six. I noticed the missile was fired by another XM4. Friendly fire – isn't. I called for Meatbags 1 and 3 to fall in behind me to provide me with cover. I told them my plan, a plan which would probably involve us dying, but if we lived, it would save lots of lives.

There was another battle raging in space, it looked like the two sides were evenly matched; a stalemate which had to be broken. I angled my XM4 towards the Azzie flagship, the biggest one there, Meatbags 1 and 2 followed suit. If that ship was destroyed by 3 single ships, then the Azzies would be scared shitless. To destroy it though, we would have to fly low to the hull, all the way from the prow until we reached the bridge, 2000 metres in and surrounded by hundreds of guns. An Azzie interceptor pair fell in behind us, Speedy broke off to deal with them, he said that he'd catch up later. Neph and I continued towards their flagship.

Our target, an Azzie Type-2 Heavy Battleship, was bristling with lasers towers and rocket pods. We were approaching straight towards the prow; I had hoped that's where there would be the least amount of defences. We were getting closer now, and I could make out details on the ship, there were a lot more guns than I had originally expected.

Neph: Meatbag 3, this is Meatbag 1, if we continue along this course their radar is gonna pick us up. Don't worry though, keep along the prow, stay low and slow, I'll hit their radar tower. Good luck.

Mus: Alright, be careful though Meatbag 1, good luck.

He peeled off from our two ship formation and headed towards the radar tower. Our fighters had real time scans of the flagship, the benefits of targeting I guess, and he headed along the port side towards the radar tower. He sped up and I slowed down to a crawl, so far no more fighters had begun engaging us. I was watching his fighter when one of his engines was hit by a burst of laser fire; he began losing control, started swerving left and right, but he was saved for the time being as Speedy came over the radio.

Speedy: Hoo-ah Meatbag 1! Bogey on your six is officially space junk. Meatbag 3, I'm falling in on your four o'clock, I got your back.

Speedy banked his fighter and joined formation. Neph had momentarily regained control of his fighter.

Neph: "Meatbag's…I… uh ...I'm hit… Engine one completely… offline, engine two at… um… 40 % integrity. Life sup…life support off line, low oxygen. I'm not gonna make it back. Speedy, tell my little sister tha-" he gave a sharp intake in breath, he was in pain, but he continued, "tell her that I'm…I …so- *static* -y *static* -bye." And with that he flew his fighter straight into the radar tower in an explosion of debris.

I had known him for less than two hours, but it had felt like I had known him for a life time. There was nothing to be said between Speedy and myself; we carried on with the mission. Our fighters dropped and we were only 100 metres off the hull of the ship. For some reason, some utterly unexplainable reason, I began noticing the little details of the battle, it was what happened when you were in combat when you were dying or had something extremely important to do. There frigates against frigates, destroyers against destroyers, Humans against aliens. This would be the battle that determined the fate of this planet, if we won, the local populace would live, if we lost, they would be forced to a life of slavery and torture.

I noticed for the first time that Speedy's fighter had a name across it; Miranda. A tear came to my eye. Speedy's fighter banked right and just barely avoided a laser tower, my focus was immediately switched back to the fight; we had a job to do.

We were running out of time now; the longer we waited, the more Human ships were destroyed. We passed over a deflector tower and the Azzie ship moved into position at the back of the fleet. I was confused at the time, but when I saw what it was doing it made sense. Two Human cruisers followed it, but they were flanking the Azzie fleet, I thought they might actually stand a chance since none of the Azzie ships seemed to pay them any attention. I was wrong; the Azzie flagship was just revealing its secret weapon.

We were 1500 meters in, our rear cameras picked up movement on the prow, except the movement wasn't on the prow, it was the prow. The entire super structure seemed to be moving, and the prow opened up. A split second later, an energy beam shot out and straight towards one of the two Human cruisers. The shot gutted the cruiser, straight through the bridge, internal superstructure and the reactor. There was a flash of brilliant white light, so bright the rear camera cut out to protect my vision. The tiny 3x3 view screen slowly came back on, there was the remnants of the explosion; pieces of metal, globules of reactor coolant, freeze dried blood. Forces on both sides seem to pause at the immense fire power of this flagship, the second cruiser began retreating, but was to slow, a second shot hit perpendicular to the hull, right on the reactor; another flash of brilliant white light and the battle resumed, except this time the Human ships were moving further away.

Another shot was fired from the Azzie flasgship. A Human destroyer exploded. It was imperative that we destroy this ship now, or else our fleet would be decimated.

Speedy: Mus. We're out of time. Our boys are about to retreat and I'd rather not be left behind. You speed up to the limits of these pieces of garbage, and I'll watch your six. You have to destroy the bridge, I have no missiles left, and these guns won't pierce the bridge defences. Good luck and Godspeed.

So this was it then. The fate of the Human contingent here depended on my getting a missile to hit a 50 metre by 20 metre piece of glass, while moving damn fast. I accelerated to the limit of my XM4 and moved upwards away from the hull to be at the same level as the bridge. Only seconds to go now, this was it. I put my thumb over the 'Fire missile' button and –

Speedy: MUS, HIT THE DECK, HIT THE DECK!

I immediately pushed forwards on my joystick and Speedy screamed past me, directly into the trajectory of an Azzie missile. The last I saw of his ship was an explosion which was tiny compared to the battle. That was it; that was the last straw, I was pissed now. I jerked the joystick towards the missile tower that shot down speedy and fired 3 of my 4 remaining missiles. The missile tower was vaporised. But I only had one missile left to destroy the bridge. I angled my fighter towards the bridge and fired my fourth, and last, missile.

The missile streaked along its course, leaving a trail which dissipated moments later. I banked right, watching the missile's course on my missile cam, a camera in the missiles tip. It went closer and closer and finally hit. I realised I was holding my breath. I exhaled, but something was wrong; the ship wasn't listing or exploding or anything. The bridge had shields which were still up. I quietly swore. Neph and Speedy had died for nothing and there was nothing I could have done.

The single upside was that both sides were pulling back to lick their wounds, the Human fleet with their backs to the planet, and the Azzies, a few million kilometres away. I navigated my interceptor back to the Human fleet. I had no idea where I was going.

Radio: Meatbag 3, this is Red 1, regroup with my squadron and follow us into the Resolute's port side hanger, your new, temporary, call sign is Red 12.

I located Red squadron on my scanners and pulled into formation and landed inside the Resolute. The Resolute was a heavy cruiser, CA designation, and had storage bays for a number of single ships and a battalion of Soldiers. I found Red 1, it was the same man who had ordered me up.

Flt Cptn Mitchell: I'm Flight Captain Mitchell, you'll call me 'Sir', 'Captain' or 'Red Leader'. Hoo-ah? Good. That was some pretty good flying out there, so listen, Red Squadron is low on pilots, how would you like to transf-

I didn't let him finish his sentence; I looked behind him and saw someone who I thought was dead; a lot of someones that I thought were dead. I ran over and punched Shellington in the back of the head he turned around with a look of complete anger and his fist ready to strike me right in the face. As soon as he saw my face though, he broke into an instant smile and hugged me.

Mus: That was for leaving me behind, dick head.

Shellington: Holy crud! I thought you were dead, oh my God. How did you get on board? I didn't see you on the battalion transport.

Mus: Nah, I took an XM4, some naval officer ordered me up. How did you get out? Last I heard you guys were heading to the bunker.

He told me his story about how the platoon advanced towards the bunker, taking it from the Azzies relatively easily, they made a show of force to make the Azzies think there was a lot more of them. They took the bunker but were then attacked by an Azzie battalion. They laid mines in their defence and were then supported by a Sniper team. He told me about House's betrayal, about all the men that were killed, and then about how they had been rescued by a squadron of gunships which had utterly decimated the Azzie battalion and how they were then transported to the transports and brought up here.

He asked me what was going on outside. I told him about Seabs and Neph and Speedy. I recounted our three-man attack on their flagship which would have resulted in a victory if there hadn't been shields around the bridge. And finally I told him how we would be pulling out once the last Human transports were off the planet. There was nothing we could do against that Battleship.

The Squadron commander came up to me and told me there would be a squadron briefing in briefing room 2. I began walking away.

Shellington: "Dread." I looked back at him. "Their Flagship, it's called Dread. As close as we can figure anyways."

I walked away; there was an escape to plan.

Chapter five, Escape

Narrator: The night is always darkest just before the dawn.

September 23rd, 2nd year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.
I had just made it thru another beating from those evil azzies. They don't question me, they don't even care if I'm concoise or not. But they do find it interesting that when they cut open the oozing wound were my arm used to be that I scream in agony and bloody starts to gush out. They do it again and again slicing into my arm, at one point I feel it hit bone and they try and saw thru it. It didn't work but it hurt like hell, I screamed louder than I ever had before, and passed out.
I wake up the next morning, or what I assumed was morning. To find that there were 2 less of us in the cell. Now there were only five of us left. It sucks really. There is no way that I will survive this. I have lost way to much blood as it is. Hell I'm sitting here talking to myself when there are two other guys in the room.
"hey guys what are you guys from?"
Before they could answer I was slammed up against the wall from an enormous blast, I luckily my back was to the blast, as were two of the other five. So my back toke most of the heat and burns. I could feel my flesh peeling off that's when I lost it. I woke up and I could see the sun. The beautiful blue sky with the red and blue twin stars. I was lying on my back and then I felt the burns, I was completely naked, the explosion must have striped me of my clothes. There were two other guys lying beside me, one was alive but unconcise, the other had been killed from the blast. I don't know what happened to the other 3. I looked out over the crater were the row across from me had been, there was nothing. I crawled over to the side of the crater and looked down to see someone scrounging around.
"hey you mind giving me a little help up here?"
"yeah sure."
The stranger from the cell next to me scurried up the imabankment.
"whats your name pal?"
"my names neph, whats yours?"
"mines Seabs, we gotta get out here we have no clue whats happened and need to get to the dropships they were supposed to be leaving today, well if today is what day I think it is."
"Well let's get this guy up and we can leave."
"I kinda can't help you my knees have been shot."
"oh right you were the azzies favorite."
"oh that's just great, well what happened here?"
"near as I can tell a battalion was going to come in and rescue us but their explosives blew the azzie's genny."
"who in the hell puts the genny right next to the front gate?"
"obliviously the azzies do, now stop talking we have to get him up so we can move."
"well do we have any adrenaline? It will bring him out of that."
"I doubt we will find anything in that mess."
As we were argueing over what to do he woke up.
"ugh what the fuck happened."
"the genny got blown. Now get up we have to make the drop ships."
The two of them picked my crippled arse up and started to help me walk out of this hell hole."
"well whats your name soldier?"
"mines Seabs, his is neph. What about you?"
"its Speedy."
As they carried me to the last drop ship out in the middle of the biggest field on the hole planet. I noticed someone running down a hill towards us. I knew that goofy funny run anywhere. Mus.

Chapter four, Evasion

Narrator: >From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered - We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.

September 23rd, 2nd year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Three days. That's how long it been since the battle for Hill 167. That brutal, bloody battle, where many of my friends had been killed. I had been with some of those guys since Basic, nearly two years ago, and now three of them were dead. Seabs… Perkins… and Rico, my three best friends in the battalion were dead. We had fought the Protos uprisings together, we had lived together, we had laughed together, we had killed together, we were brothers, now I wish that we had died together. I felt like just lying face down in the mud and joining them, at least it would be a better place. But I knew I couldn't. I had to regroup with friendly forces, any friendly forces. The Azzies had mentioned where they were taking Seabs, and where they kept the rest of the prisoners. I had to survive, if just to pass on the message, then I could die happily.

I was one of the few people who spoke Azterk, my mother had deemed it necessary, thinking the Azzies would one day rule the galaxy. But not if myself and the rest of the XIIth had anything to say about it. The bastards had taken everything from me, my mother and father had been diplomats on Beta-Centauri, one of the few planets to actually put up a fight against the Azzies. The planet ended up being glassed because of it. After they were killed all I had left were my three buddies, and now they were dead too.

I had been wounded on Hill 167, shot through the Shoulder. If I hadn't had my First Aid Kit with me, the wound would have been infected and probably gangrene by now. I had been crawling through the mud for three days, evading the Azzies. After I had been shot, I crawled out of the foxhole I was in and moved away. I don't know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, but as I looked back to see where the Azzies were I slipped and rolled down the hill. Hill 167 had an elevation of 167 feet, hence the name, which meant I rolled for 167 feet. It hurt like hell; my shoulder felt like it was on fire, I had to bite down on my shirt to stop myself from screaming. God, how it hurt.

Getting rescued was my chief concern, but judging by Azzie density in the area, it would be easier said than done. I needed a drink. I then heard a sound I never thought I would hear again; the distinctive hum of drop ship engines. Human drop ships. But it wasn't meant to be, they were leaving as fast as they could.
I had to get up, had to keep going. The Human drop ships were just over Hill 124 and it looked like they were leaving fast. I could see them dropping something, I couldn't tell what though. I figured it couldn't be bombs since there were more drop ships on the ground.
I got up from the mud pile I had stopped rolling in and trudged on. I hadn't taken more than 15 steps when a bullet whizzed past my head. I hit the dirt as fast as I could.
"Take one more step and your ass is grass you fucking azzie," said an unknown voice, presumably the one who shot at me.
"You dumbass! I'm not an azzie how could you mistake me for one of those friggin squid-heads?"
"Oh shit, I'm sorry dude, where the hell are you coming from?"
"Hill 167, where the hell are you?"
"I'm 35 feet east, the giant grass pile numb nuts."
As I look over I noticed the "grass pile" stand up wielding an M5 Assault rifle.
"So who are you grass man?"
"Private Johnson. You soldier?"
"Private Mus. Wheres the rest of your squad Johnson?"
"There are only 5 of us left now there at the base of hill 24"
So we kept moving towards hill 124. As we neared it I could spot movement right at the base of the hill. We were no more than half a click out when I heard the all too familiar click of a land mine, but not under my boots. Before I could yell "stop!" I was flat on my back, ears ringing, covered in blood, guts, and God knows what else. Someone picked me up and I felt the bliss of weightlessness. I passed out as the pain from my shoulder was more intense than I could handle.
I woke up covered in a cold sweat. Someone was holding my shoulders down, pinning me to the ground.
"Private Mus, its ok, your safe, there's no one else around here" Said the person that was holding me.
"How do you know my name?"
"Your tags, I'm private Cole, this is Sergeant Johansson, we call him Bow because the first thing he did when we met in training was shoot an Azzie with a crossbow. That's private string bean, you can see why we call him that. And last but not least Lieutenant Gobi. He's just, Gobi."
"And since you got our scout killed, you're our new sniper and scout. Gear up soldier!" Said Gobi.
I got up with my newly patched shoulder, took the gear they had salvaged from the remains of the blast. It consisted of one half of a ghillie suit, an M182, M5, and a C22. I picked up the remains of the ghillie suit thinking that it would help at least a little. I was leading as all of a sudden I heard gunfire and I hit the ground and spun around garnishing my M182 scanning for the source, Cole and Bow were hit, Gobi was also scanning the horizon with his scoped M5. Then I heard two more shots and Fat Man and Gobi were gone. I located the source of the shots. About 5 clicks out there was a sniper and spotter. I shot the sniper first in where I thought was his head and his torso exploded covering his partner in blood. I take aim at his spotter who was scrambling for the snipers gun. I pulled the trigger. "Click." I pulled again. "Click." By then the spotter had the sniper rifle and was searching for me. Then he takes one step to the right to presumably get a better angle. All I see is a blue mist. I figured it was one of those damn mines again. But this time they were good damn mines. I walked over and checked everyone's pulse. They were all gone. I "borrowed" Cole's binos, thought I may need them. As I walked over the peak of the hill I saw someone moving. It wasn't just one person it was 3, two of which were supporting the third. I took out the binos and found out that it was my best friend. He was still alive. I ran down the hill to meet them.

Chapter three, No matter what

Narrator: Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

September 21st, 2th year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Sergeant First Class McNeil: Command, this is Devil One-Niner in position, I say again, Devil One-Niner in position, over.

Command: Roger that Devil One-Niner, you're clear to engage the enemy at will, over.

SFC McNeil: Affirmative, Command, Devil One-Niner out. Alright Daq, just point 'em out.

Staff Sergeant Daquicker: Hoo-ah. Shit, you hear that McNeil?

SFC McNeil: Yeah…up there, look, Azzie troop transport. Alright, contact Com-

Radio: This is Red Dog 7, we've got an Azzie troop transport moving towards our position, we need back up or extract and we are at bunker bravo-seven, over!

Command: Roger that Red Dog 7. Devil One-Niner, you're the closest unit, get over there and provide sniper cover for Red Dog 7 Eh-Ess-Eh-Pee, they're 3 klicks due east of you, over!

SFC McNeil: I don't see them Command! Over.

Command: They're under attack by more than 4,000 Azzies! They are due east of you, find them, no matter what, damn it! Command, out!

SFC McNeil: *Sigh* let's go Daq.

We were snipers, which meant we had our ghillie suits on, it would make running that much harder, but we had to move, if we didn't get there in time, Red Dog 7 would be over run. Hell, they were probably already being overrun right now. So we got up and ran down the hill, ghillie suits, weapons and all. According to Command, they were three klicks east, but the average pace for a Soldier, in light combat gear, was 4 Km's per hour, and that was at a brisk walk. We had full combat gear, enough food for two weeks each, and moving through a thick jungle. The only thing we had going for us was that we weren't moving at a brisk pace, we were hauling ass. The two of us, miraculously, made it to Hill 233 overlooking the clearing bunker bravo-seven was in, in 40 minutes. For some reason unbeknownst to us they had still not attacked. The bunker had been built into the side of a mountain, and the Azzies had the other three sides surrounded. It must've been demoralizing for the Azzies too, there were almost a hundred bodies around surrounding the bunker. They must have been the original defenders, cleared out by Red Dog 7, a single platoon.

SSG Daq: We got a plan McNeil?

SFC McNeil: Yeah, we wait until they attack, then we start with picking off the officers. No need to let them know we're here just yet.

As if on queue, they launched their first wave. Which was probably a third of their force. Each troop transport carried a battalion, but there was a regiment and a battalion here, these must have been reinforcements. The Azzies had about 300 feet of open ground to cross, but RD7 had already realized that. Our guys had planted land mines which exploded as the battalion was half way across, MG's in the bunker opened fire. The land mines killed almost a third of the battalion, the MG's were causing more damaged. I amplified the zoom on my M182, .60 Caliber Suppressed Sniper Rifle to 25x. The combined casualties from the landmines and MG's had stalled the Azterk advance, which meant the Azzies, instead of advancing took cover behind the collapsed trees, this obviously wasn't a clearing too long ago. I took aim on an Azterk Officer, they were easy to distinguish due to their blue uniforms as opposed to the red of the enlisted Azzies. I put the crosshairs over his – it's throat and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked back into my shoulder and the bullet flew straight and true. A .50 Caliber round literally causes the head to burst at distances up to 1.2 Kay's. This was a .60 Caliber round at less than half a Kay. The head, along with half the torso exploded, spraying the Azzies around it with blue blood and grey brains.

SFC McNeil: Scratch one.

My spotter, SSG Daquicker, had a .30-06 (thirty ought-six) Sniper Rifle, he opened fire, dropping two more officers in quick succession. After being hit by the landmines, the MG's and now that their Officers were beginning to drop like flies, they were really looking scared now. I searched the clearing and found what I was looking for. The enemy Battalion's Commanding Officer (CO). He was shouting orders but not many of his troops were listening, they were cowering for their lives. Daq was still dropping targets, Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) alike. I put the crosshairs over his torso and pulled the trigger, his torso exploded, covering his aides in more blue blood.

SFC McNeil: One more.

SSG Daquicker: I'm at 6 man, you better catch up.

I shot the Battalion 2IC (second in command), when an officer ordered the retreat, but they had no respite yet, they had 150 feet of open ground to cover, some of them had almost 300 feet to run, the braver. Even as they were retreating, RD7, kept up the MG fire, and we kept up the sniper fire. By the time they made it to relative safety, more than half their Troopers were dead or dyeng on the ground, depending where they were hit, the wounded would suffer slow painful deaths, but that was nothing compared to what they did to our men and the Xillors.

SFC Mcneil: Red Dog 7, go to UHF (Ultra High Frequency) secure. This is Devil one-niner, we're at your 9 o'clock providing sniper cover. Acknowledge, over.

Red Dog 7: Acknowledged Devil one-niner. Was that you guys who dropped those officers? Over.

SFC McNeil: Yeah, that was us. Didn't think you'd notice. Over.

Red Dog 7: Couldn't miss it. Listen, we've still got some mines left over. Can you guys cover us while we place 'em? Over.

SFC McNeil: Roger that. Send your guys out when you're ready, we got your backs. Over.

Red Dog 7: Thanks. Alright, Shellington, Leon, Kennedy, and House, grab the mines, get out there and plant them along Phase lines Bravo and Charlie. Pretend you're searching for wounded or something. Hoo-ah? Good, on three. One…Two…THREE!

The four men he picked ran out and began taking fire immediately. One of them went down, IFF (Indicator, Friend of Foe) listed him as a Corporal Leon. The one listed as PFC Shellington went back to check if Leon was still alive. He wasn't, he took a bullet in the throat which pierced his spinal column. Shellington grabbed his mines and joined Kennedy and House at Phase Line Delta. The two of us were doing what we could to cover them, just as the bunker was. Daq dropped another two hostiles, I dropped three. That, combined with the MG fire, convinced the Azzies to keep their heads down. The three Red Dog's made it to Phase Line Bravo, and under the guise of looking for wounded soldiers, began planting the mines. The Azzies kept taking potshots at them, and whenever one of 'em popped their heads up, we shot 'em off.

Daq and I figured that they probably know there were snipers, they just wouldn't know where though. Anyways, I told Daq to go and plant some claymores to cover us. These particular claymores were filled with 500 small, Cyanide-covered, tungsten carbide balls. They were designed to cause extremely painful injuries to lots of targets, the cyanide was a quick acting poison, they would die shortly thereafter.

The three men were now placing the mines at Phase Line Charlie. I dropped another stupid bastard who was foolish enough to fire at our guys. Kennedy and Shellington were running back to Phase Line Delta, House wasn't. He leveled his M5 and shot Kennedy in the back. Seeing Kennedy fall Shellington dove behind cover, as House switched to full auto and kept shooting at Shellington. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Shellington was yelling something, but I couldn't make out what though. House ran out of ammo, threw his M5 to the ground, turned tail, and began running toward the Azzies. I was about to give him one in the temple, but Shellington beat me to it; he shot the bastard between the shoulder blades.

Shellington ran back to the bunker feigning right while going left, zigzagging left and right and ran into the bunker. Both sides stopped shooting; things were quiet now, aside from the screams of the dying and the wounded. Now that there was no more shooting, I scanned the battlefield; bodies littered the trenches, some dragging themselves to their individual lines. It was times like this that I was glad to be a sniper and not one of the Infantrymen down there. Things suddenly changed. The claymores detonated, and I heard rifle fire, Daq was in trouble. I picked up my M182 and ran to where the rifle fire was. I saw Daq leaning against a tree, or what was left of one. I heard a grunt of anguish and he slumped to the ground but he kept firing. I ran and dropped to one knee beside him and opened fire on the Azzies.

"You alright?" I asked him.

He was not. There was a bullet in his stomach and leg, his death would be painful.

"Come on!" I shouted as I tried to pick him up.

"No. You go on, regroup with that platoon." He coughed up blood. "I'll hold them off as long as I can, hurry up." He sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

I was speechless; I tried to say something meaningful. "Thanks" was all that I managed to say. I turned and ran to the right of the hill, going towards the left flank of the bunker. There was more rifle fire from behind, Daq started yelling a war cry, and it was abruptly cut off. I stopped and looked behind me. Daq was dead. I started running towards the bunker again.

"Red Dog 7, this is Devil-One-Niner, I'm coming in from your 9 o'clock followed by Azzie forces, I need covering fire!" I shouted into my throat mike.

"Roger that devil."

I got to the clearing and that's when I smelt it. It was the smell of blood, death, of soldiers who cried for their mothers that soiled themselves it was pure unadulterated horror. I saw the rifles in the opening of the bunker that looked towards me. I ran into the clearing towards the bunker and the Azzies opened fire, filling the air with depleted uranium bullets. I knew I was going to get hit, I just hoped it would be quick and painless. There was gunfire from behind me and the men at this side of the bunker opened fire at the arses chasing me. Amazingly, with at least 1,000 weapons firing at me, I made it to the bunker, the door opened and I tripped over a rock in front of the door. It saved my life. They closed the door and I saw the wall filled with bullet holes, those would have been in me if I hadn't tripped.

"You made it just in time Devil. Look." He pointed towards the clearing. I picked up my M187 and saw where he was pointing. The Azzies were launching another attack. "I'm Lieutenant Lazarus, you?"

"Sergeant First Class McNeil, Sir." I told him.

"We're gonna hold out until extract arrives, eta is 1 hour. Let's hope we can stay alive that long, eh Sergeant?"

I didn't say anything. I knew we would be dead long before then, or so I had thought anyways. There were 28 men left in this platoon, 29 with me, against at least 2,000 Azzies. Numbers didn't matter though. We would fight until we were dead, or until we got extracted. Surrender was not an option; they tortured prisoners, better a quick bullet to the head then torture. The mines were detonated. It was the loudest, biggest explosion I ever experienced. The smoke cleared, the wounded on the ground before the explosion were killed, and soldiers in this wave were now dead and dying, Azterk soldiers of course. Hundreds more were dead, yet it was still a hopeless defence. They had sent two companies to flank the bunker, the two companies that had engaged and killed Daq, and the hit the bunker from the left flank at the same time the rest of their battalion hit the front. RD7 opened fire with everything they had, they hoped that the mines would have stopped them, but they didn't.

One Soldier was thrown back, he was clutching at his throat where a bullet had ripped his jugular open yet missed his spine. He coughed up dark, red blood, blood was spilling on the floor in pulses, the last few beats of his heart, there was blood covering his face now. He just looked at me and we made eye contact, his eyes asking me to put him out of his misery. His body shuddered once, then twice, and he stopped moving. His arm fell to his side; I was still looking into his eyes when I realized that would be all of us if we lost. I went to where he was standing and put a bullet into another officer. I had started shooting as if my bullets alone would win the day; I hardly noticed when the Lieutenant's head was snapped back, blood covering the left side of my face, he collapsed to his knees and then the floor. 26 men were still fighting.

"If we don't get help soon, there's not gonna be anyone left to extract" Shellington yelled, he was right, but we had nowhere to go. We were cornered.

Two more men, who were guarding the left, were thrown back, one was cursing, the other wasn't, he was probably dead. The other stood up and started shooting again, his rifle on the parapet, with his arm hanging limply at his side. It seemed they all knew if the fire started slacking they would all be killed. 25 left. I joined the left flank and fired the last three shots in my M187, dropping three Azzies, I picked up a discarded M5 and the ammo from the man who had just died and started firing with that. They were coming down the hill, I shot one in the knee and the bastard started rolling down the hill, he tried to stop himself, but as he did that, his outstretched foot hit a rock, and like pole vault, stood him up and the stump of his other leg hit the ground at high force as he came back down. I could almost hear him scream from down here.

They stopped at the bottom of the hill and started shooting into the bunker from there. Another Soldier fell back from the parapet, blood spraying into the air, falling on another body. 24. I dropped the used mag from my M5 when one of the soldiers covering the left flank pulled the pin on his grenade. He was halfway through throwing it when a bullet blew through his elbow, he dropped the grenade.

"Scatter!" I yelled as I jumped from the wall.

No one heard me over the sound of gunfire, I turned back as it exploded, killing 6 men and blowing a hole in the wall. 18. Shrapnel cut my cheek, making a long gash into my mouth, I could taste copper. The Azzies saw their chance and ran towards the wall, the rest of us realized what was about to happen. We put our backs to the wall in the mountain. They were 50 feet from what was left of that side. And then the gunships came.

Chapter two, Captured

Narrator: Only the dead have seen the end of war.

Unknown date, 2nd year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Mus: Seabs, we're being overrun we gotta pull back, Jenkins, get to the entrenched position, Seabs, cover us!

Jenkins and Mus pulled back, leaving me all alone to cover them against a whole freakin regiment. The Azzies put a round in both my knees, it was so painful, though, not as painful as what was to come. MG's. I was on the ground, and there was no way I could have gotten to the guys. I looked behind me and the Azzies were at the top of the hill, which meant they got past the mines. The guys were calling my name, I turned just as Mus caught a bullet, I couldn't see where. A mortar exploded in the foxhole where they were, or darn near anyways, poor young guys but compared to what I was going to suffer, I envied them. There was no shooting now. I passed out.

I woke up, no, they woke me up in a bare cell. But bare is probably a bad adjective for the cell, there was blood, green, red and blue, there was grey matter, I hoped to God it wasn't what I thought it was, but judging by what they did to the other prisoners who arrived later, I realized it was.

The azzies started trying to speak to me. Freakin aliens probably didn't realize that I didn't speak squid.

Seabs: What the hell do you squids want!?

I spat in their ugly faces, probably not the best idea. They threw me up against the wall, the shorter of the two grabbed my left hand, I kicked the prick in the balls, well where human balls were anyways. No reaction, except for that one snapping my middle finger right back until it touched my wrist. It was unbelievably painful; I began screaming my lungs out. I could see smiles on their ugly faces; the other one kneed me in the balls and dropped me. They grabbed my hair and lifted my head up, and they punched me in the face, breaking my nose.

Seabs: I swear to God! I will kill you, and your entire evil race!

I tried to stand up, but I couldn't, both my knees had bullets in them. They grabbed my arms and spread them out, one of them pulled my sidearm from God knows where, a C22 heavy pistol. The thing fired a .50 cal round, I knew where this was going. The put it up to my elbow and pulled the trigger. The gunshot reverberated through the cell, my arm below the elbow was no longer attached to the rest of my arm, I didn't get a chance to scream very long, I passed out almost immediately.

I woke up later, I don't know how much later, but there were others here now. They had stopped the bleeding in what was left of my arm, but it hurt so bad, not to mention my broken middle finger. My arm was lying on the ground a couple feet away, some annoying rats were chewing on it, I crawled over and pushed them away. I slumped to the ground, I had lost more blood than I thought. One of the other guys with me got up and helped me to sit against a wall. He had a hard face, scarred across his forehead, and he looked young, too young, probably didn't even shave yet. The war really wasn't going in our favour if we had soldiers this young.

Seabs: Thanks…I'm Private Sebastian Seabs, 22nd Airbourne. You?

Private: Private Horton a medic, 5th Light Infantry. That arm looks bad, lemme take a look at it.

Seabs: Thanks, I owe you a bun-

I didn't even finish my sentence when some Azzies barged in. They looked around, saw Horton checking me and walked over. I tried to stand up to get in between them and Horton but they pushed me away and I was to dizzy to fight back, I just fell to the floor again, it's not like I would have been able to stand up anyways, my knees were shot, literally. Three more walked in to make sure none of the other prisoners resisted. The other two picked up Horton, who didn't fight back; it would just make it worse. They held him against the wall and put braces around his neck and extremities, which locked against the wall. They hooked a device, which encompassed his head, to the wall, it was essentially a black box with buttons, I thought it would suffocate him, I was wrong. They pushed some buttons, the center sections moved in, while the edges stayed where they were, it was slowly crushing his head. We could hear muffled screams, some cracks and crunches; he was squirming now, trying to remove the box, the Azterks just laughed, blood started running down the wall behind him. It was slow, and looked agonizingly painful, he was still screaming, but it was muffled, which made it even scarier, foretelling of things to come. There was a final big crunch, followed by many more little crunches as his skull fragments were crushed even more, and then it finally stopped, his body was limp. They took off the machine and his body, minus head, slid to the floor. Now I knew for sure what the grey stuff spread throughout the room was.

I thought they were finished. I was wrong. They took something that resembled a spike, but had thorn-like things protruding from the sides, walked over to another prisoner and picked him up. They held him upside down against the wall, and ran it through his knee into the wall. He began screaming in agony, at this point they were still supporting him, but they let him go and he slid down the wall another two inches, which meant as he fell, the spike went up, causing him immense pain, luckily for him he passed out. They chained us to the wall and left, evidently they didn't want us helping the man they hung upside down.

Chaper one, leave no man behind.

Narrator: You know, the other day, before we shipped out, a buddy of mine asked me: "Why do ya do it man? Do y'all think you're heroes or something?" I didn't know what to say. But if he asked me again, I'd say "No. We're just ordinary people in extraordinary situations."


September 20th, 2th year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Pfc Jenkins: They're moving up the ridge! Sarge, they're moving up the ridge!

First Sergeant Lipton: God Jenkins, fire your weapon!

Radio: *static* -pton! Sergeant Lipton! *static* -me in! Sergeant Lipton come in! This is command, move *static* platoon to target *static* Bravo-Seven, say again, bunker Bravo-Seven. What the hell is wrong with these radios?

Lipton: Roger that! 2nd Platoon, move down the west side of the ridge, 3rd Squad Rear guard action, we're taking bunker Bravo-Seven, and waiting for the rest of the Battalion there. We're going to use Missiles to defend against what's left of their fleet upstairs. Let's go, move, move, MOVE!

Jenkins: Sarge, they sent a whole Azzie Regiment after us!

Lipton: Alright, fuck it. 3rd Squad, stay until we've reached the bottom, 2nd Squad will then turn and cover until you reach us. Then, we're gonna run all out, Hoo-ah?

Squad: Hoo-ah!

3rd Squad Radioman: Man, the bad guys just got naval reinforcements, our fleet's outnumbered...wait… wait... oh no! The fleet's pulling out, they're leaving us here! And there's more...Oh God...That's it man, game over man, game over! What the hell are we gonna do now? What the hell are we gonna do?

3rd Squad Sergeant: Calm down Seabs--

A bullet from an Azterk sniper rifle entered one side of the Sergeant's head before he finished his sentence, and shot out the other, bringing grey matter, blood and skull fragments with it, covering Pfc Jenkins. Who just gaped open mouthed at what was left of our Sergeant's head, as the body collapsed on him.

3rd Squad Corporal: Let's move 3rd, fall back. Leave the body Jenkins, and get up. Jenkins, Seabs and Mus, cover our six, everyone else, follow me!

Our Squad made record time down Hill 167, regrouping with the rest of the platoon.

Lipton: Corporal? Where's your Sergeant? And you're missing three men.

3rd Squad Corporal: Sergeant's dead, Sir. I left Jenkins, Mus, and Seabs to cover our six. I don't have a clue where they are.

Lipton: What? What did you just say, House? You left three men behind? What the hell were you thinking, if you were thinking at all, Ah! Sergeant Rowe, take the platoon to the bunker, secure it, Shuyin, Kennedy, Agnis, Leon and...Shellington. You guys are coming with me to get back the three men that House left behind. We leave no man behind! By the way House, I'm not an officer, I work for my pay.

The six of us ran up the hill. Lipton, ordered us to load shredder rounds. When we got to the top we saw Jenkins was in a dell firing back against the Azzies, Seabs was on the ground 100 feet away surrounded by Azzies, and Mus was no where to be found. Lip ordered us to grab Jenkins and leave. There was nothing we could do about Seabs, he was surrounded by a company of Azzies. We ran down the hill and regrouped with the rest of the platoon, they were 200 feet from the bunker, and of course the thing was guarded by probably a company of Azzies, nothing is ever easy anymore.

Private Leon: We gotta take that bunker fast guys, else we're in trouble.

Private Shuyin: You may not have been keeping up on current events, but we just got our arses kicked pal!

Lipton: Leon's right, we take that bunker, we wait for the battalion, we defend against the Azzies. We're sitting ducks out here. So here's the plan...

Lip outlined the battle plan. 2nd Squad would head up another hill, Hill 57 and provide covering fire and mortar fire from there. 3rd Squad would enfilade left and attempt to encircle them while 1st Squad provided a diversion. We had fewer than 30 men and would be taking on a unit more than four times our size; our only hope was for them to think we had more men than them.

Prologue

Narrator: We make war so that we may live in peace.


Unknown Voice: Please, begin with your name, rank, serial number, and the date.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Etiennenr, Jean-Luc, Lieutenant General, Serial number: 54768475JE… March 17th, 7th year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Unknown voice: Thank you. Please tell us why the 12th legion invaded the Azterks and the events leading directly up to the invasion, and please do not use foul language.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: It began in 2nd year of this Era. Human intelligence was getting numerous reports of lost contact with our Xillor allies on many different planets, 15 up to this point, in sector six-niner Delta. At the same time, the Azzies – Sorry, the Azterks, ceased all communications with the 12th Legion, the section of Humanity responsible for keeping the peace in sector six-niner Delta, I do not know if they ceased communications with all other Humans in the galaxy at this time. I had been ordered to take my division-

Unknown Voice: How many soldiers were in this division?

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Most divisions have around 15,000, but my division had nearer to 20,000.

Unknown Voice: Thank you, please carry on.

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Anyways, I had been orders to take my division to Terra Serpenti, the first planet to have lost contact with the 12th Legion. I loaded my division into the Legion's 15th fleet, which was composed of nearly 26,000 Cruisers, 8,200 Destroyers, 13,000 bombers, which doubled as troop transports, and just under 100,000 single ship fighters. The trip took approximately 40 hours, upon arriving there was no Xillor Static Defense, but we came upon a Task Group of exactly 100 Azterk destroyers. Upon arriving they opened fire upon us immediately, destroying a troop transport, thankfully an empty one. Our fleet proceeded to engage them, destroying all but one in the first salvo. The remaining destroyer jumped out of the system, we later found out to get reinforcements. The fleet dropped off my division and went into a holding pattern above the planet. What we found was a ghastly sight. The Azterks had enslaved the local populace, nearly 40,000M civilians; they had wiped out the resistance, a few battalions of Xillor soldiers. Their prisoners, the civilians, were kept in labour camps around the planet; they were executed by the hundreds, every day. They were tortured, for seemingly no reason. We had no idea what the Azterks were doing here, but the arrival of a fleet three times the size of ours hinted at something, something we would regret finding out about later. I sent 75% of my division, 15,000 soldiers, to re-capture the capital city, and the rest to secure the outlying areas and capture the missile bunkers. One of the most courageous actions in the beginning was a platoon being lead by a First Sergeant, his CO had been wounded and evac'd out shortly after we landed. They held a hill against a regiment of Azterk soldiers while the rest of their Company went to secure another missile bunker. The Platoon then withdrew to secure the missile bunker, but due to a communications failure caused by Azterk spies, went to the wrong one, they did capture the missile bunker which was held by a company of Azterks. Around this time, nearly three days after we arrived in system, Azterk reinforcements arrived, which outnumbered the Legion's 15th feet by almost 3:1, after decimating half of our fleet, they retreated.

Unknown Voice: Who retreated?

Lt. Gen. Etiennenr: Oh sorry, the Legion's 15th fleet retreated. This meant my division was stranded, which made securing the bunkers even more important. The fleet sent one last message before they left: "We won't leave you behind". That kept our morale up anyways. The capital city was secured so I sent half my division to help secure the rest of the missile bunkers surrounding the capital city, which made 15,000 men securing bunkers, and 3,000 defending the city. I lost two battalions taking the city; the Azterk's detonated a fission weapon. The fighting on the outskirts of the city was brutal. Every prisoner the Azterks would take they would take to prisoner of war camps, and torture, whether for fun, or otherwise. If there's more you want to know about the PoW camps, speak with Private Seabs, he knows more than anyone else. When I learned what they were doing to prisoners, I tasked a battalion to find and liberate as many of the camps as possible. The Azterk fleet moved into ELO, Extreme Low Orbit, around the planet and began bombarding the planet, they didn't seem to care about their own forces on the ground. By this time we had taken about half of the missile bunkers and so I ordered the bunkers to begin firing on the ships. A couple hours later, the Azterk fleet retreated into space, we had destroyed a few hundred ships, and lost 2 battalions. At this time my division was down to 16,000 Soldiers, with nearly every soldier wounded in some way, whether physical or emotional.

Unknown Voice: Thank you, that will be all for now. Don't go far General.

The second blog of Epidemic

This is my second blog and probably worse than the first. But I was bored one day and thought I would write a story and this is what happened..

I think this story is influenced mostly about the holocaust, although I didn't think about that until I was already half way done.