Baltimore, Maryland, August 13th 1953...

Europe has been lost to the infernal Chimera juggernaut, and now that plague has its sights set on the Land of the Free. The United States, a country that the Chimera had barely bothered with in the past, was now in its sights and it was struggling to meet this force with its own armed forces being dangerously low.

However, in 1953, the country finally began preparing for the inevitable invasion.

Then the calm ended, and the storm was unleashed.

August 20th / 20 miles East of Baltimore

The hills west of the city, covered in thick growth of trees, were easy hiding places for the remnants of the American people on the run from the city. Those that had failed to make it to the Liberty Defense Perimeter were holding out in the underground facilities. Living no more like rats, these fighters would rather die to defend their own homes than flee.

A man with a green t-rex head on the collar of his army jacket walked into the big room, it was full of other soldiers of varying ranks. A table in the middle of the room had a large map on it of the entire East Coast.

"SEBA, at attention!"

All the soldiers turned toward the table, and gathered around it.

"As you all know, Baltimore has been taken by the Chimera. Washington was lost not that long ago either. When this unit had been a part of the Army, our orders were to fall back to the Liberty Defense Perimeter, but most of us refused to help the civilians who got left behind. Now, I have been tasked with making sure as many of us get to the LDP as possible. Any questions?"

No surprise, many hands shot into the air. The commander chose the first man nearest to him, a big man of Hispanic ethnicity named Chico, "Yes sir. Our unit numbers less than twenty how are we to defend thousands of civvies when we can barely fight off the Chimera?"

Another soldier stepped forward, his army helmet had a cartoonist skull on it, "Chico, we have viable information that our supplies are well and good. The Army left a great deal of it behind in their hurry to retreat from Washington. I don't think we'll have any trouble with that."

The commander nodded, "Thanks sergeant major. And Chico, while it is true our numbers are few, last I checked, we are still at full strength. SEBA is a group made out of volunteers, made recently when the Chimera invaded. We were never favored in the eyes of the Army, expendable at least."

A soldier named Hippy stepped forward, "Well, thanks to the former President's stupid decisions in the past, we got royally butt fucked when those things started crossing the border."

Everyone in the room agreed. Until 1952 at least, nobody had known what the Chimera were. The fact that they were a whole other species was shocking, and now SEBA was fighting against the Chimeran invasion force with little more than twenty men and a single tank.

"Corporal Spectrum here, as well as our sniper duo Knave and Spades, have discovered that despite being a different species, the Chimera still operate like an invading army. They have one solid front on the east coast, going from the northern corner that starts at New York, all the way down with a center at Washington D.C. before finally the southern half that goes down to Savannah. The line is moving all at once in the same direction: West."

Chico crossed his arms over his chest, as the leader of SEBA Squad Bravo, he had to have all available facts before moving out into the field, "With the Chimera line moving as fast as it is, and it won't be long before they get here. I say we move in the same direction they go."

The man from before, the Sgt-Major named Derek, stepped in, "Figures Chico. We can't really stop over five hundred thousand Chimera head on, but we can at least stall them."

Just then, a man wearing a blackened cowboy hat ran into the room, "Hey guys! We got company coming!"

That man was Knave, one of the team snipers, and a sniper from Arrow Squad. He looked as if he had all the way to the meeting. The Commander, whose name tag read Reptar, nodded once before grabbing his carbine and following Knave outside. Derek and Chico looked at each other, fearing the worst, before they followed as well.

Reaching Outpost Dentist to the north, the entire upper Command of SEBA watched out to the East, where the city of Baltimore was ablaze in the distance. It was a sad sight, but it was what was on the roads heading towards them that got their attention. It wasn't good. Rows upon rows of Chimeran soldiers which were mostly Hybrids, the basic Chimeran foot soldier, marching with their weapons drawn and scattering through the wooded areas on the roads. They were like an army of ants, and the SEBA base was directly in their path.

Derek felt a sense of dread overwhelm his mind, "Just like Bunny sent us in his message. 'The plague is coming...prepare for them.'"

Reptar silently acknowledged his friend's dread. Their comrade, named Bunny, was with SEBA Squad Halo, which had been in Baltimore less than a week before the Chimera attacked. He barely escaped with his squad before the city was captured.

Of the many squads SEBA had, it had lost more than two hundred of its members due to the Army siphoning off whatever manpower they could. Now, the SEBA Rangers were at less than a quarter of their strength and staring death in the face.

"Knave, what are we dealing with right now?"

Chico looked through the binoculars towards the Chimera in the valley below, trying to see what was going on, "Looks too small to be the main line..."

Knave stepped forward, steadying his hat, "Spectrum says it's something like a scouting party. The biggest unit in the party is a weird three legged tank that walks really fast-"

"A stalker?!" Derek said with surprise.

Hippy, standing between two soldiers of Bravo Squad, looked confused, "Don't think I have ever fought one of those before."

The soldier on his right, a big African American with a carbine in his hands, laughed, "Because the last one we ran into knocked you out!"

Derek ignored his friends joking. As the information expert, he knew the dangers of a Stalker, "Reptar, that thing will tear us to shreds if we take it on with our guns but..." He pointed down to the side road, where a Sabretooth tank, the only one that SEBA had acquired in Baltimore, was stationed. "It can't take a shot from a Sabretooth."

Reptar thought about it for a little bit then nodded, "Then we'll have to kill enough of the Hybrids to lure out the Stalker, and let the big cat loose when it gets close enough."

The commander turned around, looking at Chico, "Chico, get your squad and head north. Try to force the Chimera to fall back to the south. My squad will force whatever units that are in the south to head north. Then our Sabretooth will tear'em to pieces."

Chico took out his sunglasses, awesome looking ones, and put them on, "Yes sir." He turned to Shaun, "Get the call in: Bravo is moving out!"

Shaun began to call for Bravo to move along the line, and Derek stepped forward, speaking in a low voice, "Reptar...even if we hold off the scouting party, they will know we're here in the end."

Reptar just gave his friend a sympathetic look, not able to say anything more.

The end result, whether they won the battle or not, would be the same.