This is going to be the first story I've ever written and published. It was originally just going to be a "practice story" for another one, but I decided to make this one its own standalone series. Please feel free to criticize me in any areas you may find weak.

NOTE: I DO NOT OWN KILLZONE. IT IS THE PROPERTY OF GUERILLA GAMES AND SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE.

Visari Square, Part I

Pyrrhus, Helghan
November 10, 2359
Appx. 8300 hours (VST)

"The Higs are comin' in hard and fast! Van Buren, keep up the pressure on our right!"

The sarge's words were barely audible as I sat in my foxhole, paralyzed with fear of the unending hailstorm of bullets. I hastily checked my pockets and pouches for any spare ammo for my M82 assault rifle. Two mags? Good enough. Without thinking, I immediately popped up out of cover and sprayed hundreds of rounds at the Helghast on the horizon.

The Higs were relentless! They came with only one goal in mind: to kill us. No matter how much shit we shot, pelted and bombed them with, they just wouldn't stop coming! Just 50 meters across were dozens of ruthless, black-uniformed demons ready to drag us down to Hell with them. Their heavy gear, piercing red-eyed masks and slightly curved helmets reminded me of the malicious Nazi uniforms from the mid-1900's. They relentlessly fired their Sta-52 rifles at us, stopping only to reload every minute or so.

To the left of me was the rest of my squad just as deep in it as I was. Our Tactician, Sgt. Redfield hugged against a crumbling concrete pillar for his life while Marco, one of our Engineers, took cover behind a torn-up truck. My brother Jakob took shelter in a building about 10 meters from my position- lucky bastard. Our Infiltrators Doug and Jordan hid behind the charred ruins of a demolished tank. Of course, I could've just ran from my position and joined my brother in the building... but then I would just get a million tiny bullet holes in me on the way. So I was left to fend for myself in my tiny, filthy foxhole amidst the chaos and terror of war.

As if this shit couldn't get any shittier, Jakob and I are Medics, which meant that we had to risk our likes to make sure the other guys get out of this in one piece. As we held our ground against the endless onslaught of Helghast, we fearfully awaited the inevitable cry of "Medic! Medic!". Luckily, we had pretty decent cover on our side, which reduced the chances of any casualties.

Even better, our squad had two of the greatest Marksmen in the ISA: Privates Andrews and Yoshiro. They both took cover in the third floor of Jakob's building and wore the special ghillie suit of all ISA snipers. Andy and Yoshi were amazing-no... godly shots! I swear, they could hit a dime with a BB gun from 100 miles away if they wanted to! The best part- they could turn invisible! I'm not even kidding! They somehow managed to steal whatever device the Helghast made that hides their snipers' bodies from the environment. Needless to say, the two snipers gave the our enemies quite a bit of trouble; they forced the Higs to divide their attention between the armed battalion in front of them and the two marksmen who had full range of the battlefield.

What ultimately saved us, however, was Cpl. Marco Velasquez and his relentless covering fire. His LMG practically breathed fire upon the Higs downrange. Those damned fascists had no choice but to hide away from all that savage gunfire. They were easy pickings for the snipers. Slowly, the ear-splitting gunfire wore down, our enemies were becoming fewer and fewer, and I could see our enemies in a frantic retreat towards the war-torn city behind them.

"Cease fire!" Shouted our squad Tactician, Sgt. James Redfield. "The Higs are buggin' out! Excellent defense, Marines!" We all celebrated our victory, however small it was, and hollered our team's defiant war cry, "Don't dance with the Devils!" (Our squad designation was the ISA 2nd Intruder Squad, but we liked to call ourselves the "Flying Devils".)

"Everybody, regroup!" Sgt. Redfield, a grizzled, war vet who'd survived the war on Vekta four years ago, prepared to give his next orders. "All right, people! We all did great here but we're not our of the woods, yet! He turned his battle-scarred face towards me. "Pvt. Markus!"

"Yes, sir!" I replied.

"I want you and Velasquez to go across the street and see if there's anything the Higs left behind that we could use: weapons, ammo, vehicles- anything you can find!"

Soon after, Jakob's voice broke in, "Permission to go with them, sir? Markus is my younger brother and I just wanna make sure he's all right."

"Negative.", the sarge said in a somber tone. I understand your concerns, but we need to have at least one medic with us in case of future casualties." His face lit up a little. "Besides, he has both his rifle and Marco at his side. I'm sure he'll be all right".

"Understood." Jakob replied before turning to me with a worried look on his face. "Hey Markus? Just be careful."

"I will."

"What you worryin' about so much?" Marco boasted. "You got me, remember? You'll be just fine!"

His reassurrance gave me a small sense of hope for my survival, and with that, me and Marco cautiously headed out into the mass grave that was the Helghast's position.

Chapter 1 complete. What do you guys think?