It was a mess. The large crystal chandelier which once hung so elegantly was not mingling with the dust and broken cinderblocks that made up the new carpet of the Chapel of St. Gregory. A few fires were burning, the holy water knocked over, and with all the destruction in the place, the devil himself couldn't have fit inside. The sunlight refracting off the dust in the air made it look like there were a dozen spotlights shining into the church.

Come to think of it, mess really doesn't do the situation justice. A tragedy would be a better way to describe the scene.

Shell casings and scorch marks scarred the exterior of the building. Blood was splashed on the walls, like someone had taken a can of sanguine paint and thrown it at the wall until nearly the entire building was shimmering red. The building used to embody elegance, prestige, and holiness. Is was almost as if those adjectives gave Sera the finger and left forever.

Bodies lay on the semi-circle of sandbags before the front stairs to the church. They were brutally disfigured and, in some cases, dismembered: an arm lay here, a head there. It was if they were sacrificed and left in front of the church as a reminder of man's sins.

Not all was dead amongst the parade of corpses. There were three left. Alan Frederich. Sam Hamilton. Jess McEver. The only ones after several hours of Locust attacks.

Alan keyed the magazine release of his Lancer assault rifle and snapped in a fresh clip as Sam loaded another few shells into his old but trusty bolt-action Mk.2 Longshot sniper rifle. Jess dropped one of his two Hammerburst rifles for a Gnasher and, after checking the status of some grenades, picked a pair of Frags off the ground.

"Jess, how long until evac?" Alan inquired.

"Don't know. Let me check." He put his hand up to his ear. "Command, this is November Leader. What is the ETA of those dropships?"

Static. Then, "November, this is Command. They've encountered a platoon of Reavers about two and a half klicks south of your current location. Evac is looking like it's going to be around four hours.

Jess swore to himself. "Roger that, Command."

"Don't get your hopes down, though. We see on our satellite imaging another squad near you. Looks like several from Glacier squad is on Stratham Street on the third floor of the old Strauss library. We understand your predicament and are currently contacting Glacier and relaying your coordinates to them. Recommend sending one of your own to receive them halfway."

"I'll put Sam on it. Thanks, Command."

"Good hunting Sam. Command out."

Jess keyed the power to the radio and turned to Sam, handing him his second Hammerburst. "Take one of my guns instead of the Longshot. They're pretty hard to come by now."

Sam started to protest, "But I don't think you need to worry about any of those damn grubs..."

"I understand, but our orders are to secure the church and this square is very open. We need it back here." He paused. "Sorry, Sam. But they've ordered us to keep all Longshots close by. Good luck out there."

Sam stiffened, "Yes, sir!" He peeked over the sandbags and mantled over, running off in Glacier's direction. Jess sighed. It had been a long day.

November and Pathos squads had been scouting around the Chapel of St. Gregory for a clear path to the sewers where their true objective waited: they were to enter the Locust stronghold through some emergence holes that met at a junction between the sewers and the Underground. What they didn't know of was that the Locust were beginning an attack to take control of Sarfuth's capital, Sarfuth City, en masse. Both sides were surprised to see each other in such an enclosed space.

Needless to say, a massacre ensued. November had been reduced to its last officer, while Pathos still had two soldiers left. Pathos changed callsigns to November since Jess was the ranking officer.

As he watched Sam run into the nearest alley, he had a strange feeling that in the end, today wouldn't be such a shitty day after all.

Sam cursed as he went into the shadows of the alleyway leading from the church. This was the closest route that would take him to Glacier squad. Although he didn't mind it, he couldn't stand the thought of running all the way to the Strauss library.

He dove out from the alley on the next road, rolled, and landed behind a car. He peered over the hood, thinking that the next wave of Locust would be there. He saw nothing that looked dangerous. Not to him, at least.

Sam grinned like a teenage boy as he looked at a nearly scratchless APC several blocks down. The APC had a mounted infrared light that would burn through any Locust smaller than a Boomer, while its quad-mounted 25mm cannons would punch through the armor of even the strongest Corpser.

Warily, Sam came out of hiding. He always had the best eye for danger out of anyone in his squad, but he saw nothing. If this were a Locust trap, it would certainly be a well conceived one.

He took several steps forward and dove to the right, landing behind an overturned delivery truck. Sam peeked out with his Hammerburst, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything that could be laying in wait for someone to make a mistake. Slowly but steadily, he made his way towards the APC, each time making sure there was nothing watching him. It took nearly half an hour to make it to the vehicle.

He ran the last twenty meters to the APC, climbed into the driver's seat, and keyed the standard access code to turn it on. The engine sputtered for a few seconds, then purred to life. Sam flicked on the power of the GPS and saved the current location in its database.

He slammed his foot to the floor and whipped the wheel to the right, peeling out and turning the APC around in Glacier's direction. The stench of burned rubber from the massive wheels entered the cockpit, but Sam was having too much fun. He gunned it again, and shot off down the main drag of Sarfuth City.

It took almost another half hour to make it to Stratham Street. With the handbrake engaged, Sam spun the wheel to the right, sending the APC into a drift around the corner, where it slammed into a practically sparkling Venzio PX 733; nothing really "sparkled" anymore, but it looked like it hadn't been touched by any of the surrounding damage. The SUV rolled end over end, going through the front window of the department store across the street. Unfazed by ramming the vehicle, the APC finally rumbled to a stop two blocks away from the library.

Sam leaned out of the driver's seat window and looked for any enemy contacts. He didn't need to look hard; four Boomers towered above around thirty standard-issue Grubs.

He leaned back inside, and engaged the lockdown mode. All of the titanium-carbide panels slid up, making the APC nearly impenetrable. A few support struts jettisoned out of the bottom and locked on the ground for stability. On the interior, a series of heads-up displays flickered to life. Sam tapped a few of the buttons near the wheel and a couple lines of text appeared at the bottom of the screen confirming that weapons were hot.

Sam looked back at the HUD and saw a targeting reticule had appeared and was pointing at the parade of enemies before him. He flicked a switch and saw the Boomers jump towards him as the camera zoomed and adjusted. He grinned as he took aim and fired.

The first several rounds tore the Boomer on the left in half, sending a shower of blood billowing out of his sides. Stunned, the enemies turned around, trying to figure out what was going on as Sam let the cannons drift to the right. A dozen more died as the APC's rounds tore through them. As more of them died, they finally realized where the attack was coming from, but it was too late.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the Locust that had been close together before were now a little bit more spread out on than they had been before. Almost insultingly easy work for an APC.

Sam brought the APC out of lockdown and continued towards the Strauss library. He stopped in front and got out of the armored vehicle while pulling out his Hammerburst. Quickly scanning the area again, he made his way up the stairs to the library door.

He was about to open the door when it suddenly burst open. He dove backwards off the stairs and rolled to his feet, gun aimed…

…directly at four humans. One had a Boomshot, another had a Mk. 3 Longshot with the bigger and better optics, the third had a Lancer, and the last one had faded red crosses on his shoulders.

The one with the Boomshot spoke up, "Well, that was a warm way to say hello." He nodded to the remains on the street. "Friends of yours?"

Sam grinned and replied, "They were. I gave them a piece of my mind, though. It's good to see other friendly faces."

Another one of them stepped forward. He shouldered his Longshot and the sun glinted off his Sergeant insignia. "I'm Sergeant Ben Stewart." He jerked his thumb to the first man. "This smart-ass is Private Nick Nelson, our demo expert. These two," pointing to the guys on the other side of him, "are Privates Chuck Nichols, the support gunner, and Greg Hoffman, our medic. Would I be correct to assume that you are Sam, and that," motioning to the APC, "is our way out of here?"

Sam shrugged. "Sort of," he replied. "Command says that there are Reavers keeping the Ravens out, so we're stuck for around three more hours. We need to go back to the Chapel of St. Gregory, though. That's where Command is planning on sending the dropships. Any farther in this direction, and it would take even longer for evac. The Locust know we're trying to get out of there, so we need to get back there as soon as possible to help out the others."

"Others?"

"Yeah, they're back at the Chapel in case the Ravens end up being early and leave thinking that everyone's dead. We were planning on attacking the Locusts via their own tunnels, but they came up and smoked nearly everyone."

Greg spoke up, "Are there any injured?"

"Negative. We're fine, albeit a bit bruised from natural wear and tear. Out of the twenty or so of us, there's only three left, including me."

"Well, then they're going to need our help," Ben declared. "Let's move out."

Sam, with Glacier squad in toe, sprinted towards the APC. They jumped inside and turned on every system. Everyone took up firing positions, leaning out of the APC.

Ben barked, "Everyone in? Let's go!"

Sam replied by burning out a 180° turn back towards the street towards the Chapel of St. Gregory. Beneath the cloud of dust behind them, subtle cracks started forming in the ground at a safe distance.