"This is recon one in position"

"Roger recon one you see anything?"

"Negative, wait contact I repeat we have contact, at least three platoons and two tanks moving in. Destination unknown will follow them per orders from command. Your eyes are gone for now corporal good luck"

"Damit" swore corporal Rayac.

Three days of tracking rebels through this god for saken jungle. Looking for their base had turned up nothing, and at the first sign of the enemy the only support his squad had ran off to go track it. Leaving Sergeant Voltom's men with another long day of aimlessly tracking through the jungle looking for Rebel troops who had apparently landed on this hot humid planet to regain their strength. That had been almost three weeks ago and not a sign had turned up of this supposed rebel buildup. Rayac silently thought that the recon team had gone crazy from the heat. "Hold up looks like movement in the foliage ahead" whispered Sergeant Voltom. The squad of twenty men had just stopped in the middle of clearing which offered little cover except for a grouping of trees fifteen meters to Rayac's left

Corporal Rayac's mind again started to drift after five minutes of just crouching watching the tree line. "At least they let us trek through the jungle without our bulky armor, just this nice light combat armor. Less protection but hell less sweat and by god a week through the jungle with no shower, the less…."

"Ambush!" Yelled out three soldiers almost at once.

Sergeant Voltom never stood a chance; three different guns took him out. Rayac watched as two more of his squad mates were cut down in the first volley. He hit the dirt and rolled firing until he was in the dense jungle off to the left of the incoming fire. He sat up against a tree and took the radio off his back, checking for damage. "Good nothing at all" Rayac said to himself. He went down to one knee and began to fire into the tree line. He could see no one but the steady hammer of the gun into his shoulder was comforting. He emptied a full magazine and was about to reload but realizing that no one from the tree line was firing he silently swore to himself he should have known the enemy would be doing hit and runs. Well it was going to be one more mistake the Corporal had made in this hot sticky jungle and Rayac was hoping that he would not screw up again. He pulled the receiver for his radio "This is Echo Charlie five three, I repeat this is Echo Charlie five three. We have come under heavy attack". He turned to scan the clearing looking for any survivors. "Unclear to number of enemies but we need reinforcement to position". Pulling out his map from his hip pocket he could not figure out where the hell they were.

"Roger Echo Charlie five three, we hear you we are locking on to your position. Can you verify soldier how many you got left, cause your going to have hold your shit together and wait till the heavy boys arrive" the man on the other end could tell Rayac had been scared shitless but the man seemed eager like he wanted to finally find the enemy and fight him.

"Roger base, will do" He scanned the clearing once again one or two began to move sensing the area was clear. "Base rough guess is... we have five to six functional maybe two to three wounded sir. The rest well the rest are dead including Sergeant Voltom"

"You sure there son, about the sergeant I mean is he really dead?"

"Yes sir I saw get hit personally he is not among the living no longer"

"Roger that well ETA on reinforcements fifteen hours over and out"

Rayac was glad to be off the radio with that weirdo. He was not the same friendly guy that the squad regularly reported to. Something was definitely up and why was he suddenly so worried about the sarge and no one else.

The brain numb Rayac got up onto two shaky legs and began to examine the carnage in front of him. The sarge was deffently dead along with the two snipers of the squad. Rayac bent down to examine the sarge's body, nothing was in his pockets but ammo and a picture of his mother and father. Whatever the man on the radio was worried about was not on the sergeant right now.

"Sir!" Yelled one of the survivors. Rayac quickly got up and turned around. Six men had their guns in the air. Most of them had blood covering the front of their armor. Rayac knew he looked out of place with not a speck of blood on him except for his hand from checking through the sergeant's pockets.

"Sir what are your orders"

"What you mean sir, private Sezmen? Where is master corporal Flands?

"Dead sir, leaving you in charge sir. We are the only ones who made it. PFC Bellnick checked the enemy firing position. No bodies sir just a lot of casings. They knew we were going to be coming through sir.

"how can you say that Private?'

"Evidence of a camp site sir what are your orders?" Sezmen was clearly as shaken as Rayac was but being in charge now; Rayac knew he had to pull himself together. He wanted to say something encourageing but the words would not come. So he went with the truth instead, not into the sugar coating like everyone else in charge these days seemed to like.

"our orders are this gentlemen. Dig in here and wait for the cavalry to arrive in roughly fifteen hours. The boys on the other end seem to want to kick these fuckers out of here. The sooner they get that done, the sooner we get off this hot rock and back for some R and R."

"sir yes sir" The men shouted back at Rayac, a few smiles broke out among the men as the broke out the shovels attached to their kits and began to dig in.