Prologue: Ashes

First attempt of a fanfiction what so ever so I don't know how this will go.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

Flashback


I opened my eyes and now I only see grey clouds all around me, clouding my vision. There are crimson flames surrounding me were producing so much smoke I nearly gagged. I saw a few tanks in the background with flames coming out of them and an old Wind Mill barely standing. Bodies were littered everywhere and the stench of burning flesh permeated the air. Right next to me were the bodies of my 4 team mates or what remained of them. Our jeep was right next to us, flipped on it's side and it was still on fire. I took up my rifle and slung it over my shoulder. I spotted a Mags R-1 on the floor in front of me and picked it up. I held out the 5 dog tags hanging on one chain. I started limping toward my exfil point and tried to move faster but my body wouldn't let me.

Instead I lit up a Flare on my position, hoping someone would find me as I tried to forget what happened today, but I couldn't. It hurt too much to just forget. Besides, the memories of this day will be seared into my mind until the day I die, which probably will happen sooner than later. I tried to convince myself the memories were fake but the camera in my helmet that was recording during our mission said it all. As I stared at the bodies of my comrades, I remember how it all began.

50 Minutes earlier

"Hey Darkus, you okay?" asked a woman's voice to my left.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about the mission." I replied looking at the woman. She looked to be about 18 years old and had blonde hair with light green eyes, she was Lance Corporal Cassie Valentine. "Don't worry about me Cassie because I'm younger, besides I outrank you so what do you have to worry about." I said, eye smiling toward her. I looked around inside the jeep we were in and looked at the other faces in my team. There were 2 more men and one woman in my team. The first man, looked about 23 years old, Lieutenant Jeremiah Mirn, had Black hair and Green eyes, the other looked about 18 years old, Corpral Tom, had Dark Blue hair and Dark Blue eyes. The last person in our team was Sergeant Jade Dawson and she had brown hair with brown hair.

"All right Team Echo," started Jeremiah "we have been ordered to help defend the border city Bruhl from Imperial invasion and to help out with evacuation of any and all civillians and town watch guards. Any questions so far?" We all shook our head and allowed him to continue on. "First we are to establish a defensable position from the enemy. Second we're going to need Tom to set explosives in the old Wind Mill so we can set it off to take anyone below if anything goes south. After that, you and I will help with evacuating the civillians. When all civillians are safe we will head back and assist if needed." Tom nodded his head in understanding. "Darkus, I need you to cover the explosives during the mission so set up a good place to snipe enemy forces. Cassie, you and Jade are going to set up a good position to flank any tanks in the area. Understood?"

"Roger" we all chimed in unison.

A few minutes later, we did as we we're ordered and set up all the defenses, which should be able to hold down a whole squad of troops and a few tanks if neccessary. I crouched and set-up a sniping spot in one of the nearby buildings on the 3rd floor, while Jade and Cassie set up to different lancing positions in buildings right across from each other. I peered into my scope and ran a quick scan of our surroundings. Soon I saw the grey and red armor used for the imperial soldiers and readied myself. "Permission to use .50 cal and supressor, sir." I radioed.

Soon I heard "Permission Granted" and I smiled a bit. There were 6 targets so far, marching along a tank about a block from Cassie's possition. I waited until the tank was wear it was needed to be and I squeezed the trigger, killing 1 target with a headshot. After killing the soldier I systematically cocked my rifle and took out a stick of pocky and started to chew on it. Meanwhile at the same time Cassie took her shot and hit the glowing blue radiator of the tank and it burst into flames and shrapnel, killing 2 unlucky soldiers who were right next to the tank. I finished off the rest of the soldiers and continued sniping them. One by one they fell. I heard the empty click of the clip and reloaded another mag into my rifle.

After a 10 minute wait we saw 80 more soldiers along with 6 medium tanks rolling beside them. "Tom, Jeremiah, this is not the small squad we were sent to kill, this is about a whole regiment attacking Bruhl. WE NEED SUPPORT NOW!" I yelled into the radio.

"Even for Black-Ops forces like us, we need at least another team here in order to pull this one off" added Jade.

My radio crackeled a bit and I heard "Roger, we just finished evacuating the civillians... Not now, we have 1 medium tank in our position. Darkus, blow it now cause we're pulling out now, meet us at the jeep in 5 minutes. Jeremiah Out."

"Cassie, Jade time to pull out. Stay put for now, I'm going to trigger the bomb so be prepared to run as soon as it detonates understood?" I said while putting all of my ammo back into their pouches and pulling out the trigger.

"Roger" they both said

Then I silently pulled the trigger and the explosion commenced. The boom was loud enough for the whole town to hear and was big enough to be seen all over Bruhl. Then debris fell and I ran out of my building and sprinted toward the outskirts of the city with my rifle. The debris crushed 7 of the tanks and nearly all of the soldiers in one shot but soon there were great big clouds of grey ash flying everywhere.

After nearly 3 minutes of just pure sprinting, I linked up with my team and we all piled into the jeep. "Tom, step on it!" ordered Jeremiah.

"Roger that" Tom said with unbelievable amounts of glee in his eyes. He immediately stepped on the gas and we tried to flee toward the outskirts of the town. Keyword was TRIED. There was a loud gunshot and blood splattering against the window. I turned my head toward Tom just to see a bullet hole right in his chest area.

"TOM!" screamed out Jade. I quickly opened the doors and dragged him out of the jeep while the others covered me. I checked his vitals and sighed in relief when I found his pulse, but he was knocked unconsious, thus out of the fight. Then there was a huge anti-tank shell hitting our jeep, making it explode. The shrapnel flew everywhere and it hit Jeremiah so much that I knew he was dead before he hit the ground.

"Shit!" I cursed out. I ran over and went over to his side. I said a quick prayer and grabbed his dog tags before I took up his GR-1 rifle and started shooting enemies. We we're surrounded and we we're running out of ammo. It was just non-stop fighting everywhere around us for the next 10 minutes and the cloud still didn't lift up. We made a makeshift defensive line behind the exploded jeep and backed against the city walls.

"Cassie, I need more ammo here." I said reloading and then cocking another round in my GSR-1 (I had already dropped Jeremiah's rifle a long time ago). Tom went out about 3 minutes ago and I already picked up his dog tag and attached it to my chain.

"That's the last mag," she said "I'm on my last 3 rounds."

"I'm out" said Jane who was already switching to her side arm pistol.

A blue flash all of a sudden filled my vision and then it became blurry. I noticed that I was hit hit in my stomach area. 'Is this it?' I thought to myself. I shook my head and searched around me until I found Jane and Cassie, or what remained of them. I quickly scooped up their dog tags and attached it to my chain. I continued to look around and I saw 2 more Imperial soldiers jumping over our jeep. I reached over my pack and got some ragnaid on my stomach after taking out the shrapnel and then proceeded to black out.


Now that brings me to my current position. I suddenly heard a gasp so I pointed the machine gun at the person and squeezed the trigger. Instead of hearing gun shots, I only heard empty clicks which was a signal for a new mag. I then carefully observed the person who person was a woman. She looked to be about 19 years old. She had brown hair and brown eyes and had a red and white scarf in her hair. Behind her was a huge Gallian tank and a man who looked about 22 years old who had light brown hair and the same color eyes, was looking over the top of it with a darcsen girl who looked about 16 years old right next to him. I then started coughing up blood onto my black face mask that I was wearing.

"Here, let me help you." said the woman who was already on the floor. She went next to me and used some ragnaid from her own kit on my wound and I sighed in relief. I closed my eyes and slowly took off my helmet (which had a black visor on it) and then put the dog tags around my neck.

"Thank you." I whispered so low that they could barely hear me. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at their faces. I dropped the machine gun in my hands and switched it over to my rifle, I checked the fresh mag inside of it and turned the safety on. I suddenly took out my pistol and then ejected an empty clip and reloaded a new one.

The women on foot asked "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I am," I started "Staff Sergeant Darkus Rezen of the Gallian Black-Ops unit. I am 17 years old. I was sent here with my team, who you could see around me, to try and stop the occupation of Bruhl. Obviously we failed..."

The woman nodded in understanding and was slightly teary eyed that her home was destroyed. I slowly got up and tried to limp to Castle Randgriz and stuck another Pocky stick in my mouth (without removing my black face mask). "Where are you heading?" the darcsen girl asked.

"To Castle Randgriz." was my only response heading ahead of them and the convoy on the way to Castle Randgriz.

"You could come with us, and the refugees, if you want." said the man.

I nodded in agreement and then proceeded to jump onto the huge tank, and I laid down under the turret. "I'm Welkin Gunther," the man started, "right here is Isara Gunther, my little sister, and on the ground is Alicia Melchiott." I did a standard grunt of acknowledgement and then we set off toward Randgriz.