Kaptitel Zwei
12. Januar, 2183
Philadelphia Weltraum-Flughafen
There were many other soldiers here at the Spaceport, waiting to return to their units. Ah, what a shame it is. A lot of these men probably won't be alive in a few months' time. I opened my omnitool, and checked the time. It was very early. The buzz of the Spaceport didn't give off its usual vibe. Instead, I could tell that everyone else was extremely tense. But then again, a war was starting. Everyone's tense.
Another soldier was standing next to me. The rank on his uniform indicated that he was a Leutnant. He noticed me, and turned to talk to me. "Kommandant? I'm Leutnant Luddington." He had a significant Texan accent. "Leutnant, you don't sound like you're from around here. Where are you from?" "Texas, sir. My family lives here, though. I was visiting them when the mobilization was called." I nodded. "I was born here. I was just visiting home, but now it looks like it'll be a while before I see them again. Lt. Luddington pointed his thumb back towards a restaurant near the terminal. "Grab something to eat?" I shrugged, and followed him over.
I didn't actually order anything, but I just hung around with him, looking around at the place. There were guards everywhere, armed with G-150 rifles. Luddington was staring at one person. "See him? What's he carrying...?" I looked over at the man he was talking about. Yeah, he's a little suspicious. He doesn't look like a degenerate, but he seems a little nervous and rushed. He sat down in the crowd we were just in, and left his bag on the floor. He was looking around nervously. Wait... does he have a bomb?
Too late to stop him. He stood up, screamed out "America lives on!" and detonated the bomb in his back. Everyone in the crowd was killed, and we were knocked against the wall from the blast. I struggled to get up, and saw Luddington dead on the ground, with blood seeping from the back of his head. There were alarms blaring all around, and there was debris everywhere. Holy shit, so many people were dead. I was still very disoriented when I began hearing gunfire down the hall and screams. I could hear someone yell out something along the lines of "This is for America, fuckers!" I reached for the P65 pistol in my pocket and took cover. That was when one of the mortally wounded guards grabbed my leg. "Here, take this." He coughed, and handed me his G-150. Half of his body had been blown off. "Kill me." I looked away as I aimed the rifle at his head and pulled the trigger. His head was gone. I made my way down the hall, and now could see some insurgents and security forces in fighting through the smoke. I shouldered the semi-auto rifle, lined up the sights on one of the insurgents, and took a shot. He dropped, which alerted his comrades to my presence. Shit, they had automatic rifles. I'm done for. They fired a few bursts in my direction, and I felt sharp pain in my right leg. I fell to the ground, and passed out.
A few hours later
I woke up in an ambulance. One of the paramedics held me down. "Calm down, Kommandant! You'll live!" I shook my head to clear my mind. What just happened? "What... happened?" The paramedic checked my vitals on his omnitool, and looked me in the eyes again. "Terrorist attack. It's a miracle you survived without any serious wounds." He took a look at my right leg. "You were just grazed, nothing serious." As I tried to get up, I felt a dull pain on my forehead. I brought my hand up, and felt around. When I looked at my hand, I panicked hard. There was blood all over it.
I could hear my heart monitor speeding up. The paramedic strapped me down again. "Shit, why did you take him off the sedative?!" I wanted to break out. I survive hundreds of battles, and this is how I'll go out? Not today! I kept struggling with my restraints, trying to break them. I couldn't, but I just kept trying. However, I began feeling more and more tired the more I tried to break the restraints. I turned my head, and saw that the paramedics were pumping more sedatives into me. Great. I began drifting off as more of the chemicals were pumped into me.
?
The smell of ashes engulfed my nostrils. I opened my eyes, and looked at the destruction around me. The city was nothing but rubble and fire. Thousands of bodies lay around me, decaying, a reminder of the price payed in war. I looked down at my armor to see if there was any major damage.
What...? The standard swastika on my chestplate had been scratched out, and something else had been painted in its place. A flag of some sort, and it was very familiar. Wait, I recognize it from history. The flag of... America? Why? I don't know. I raised myself up from the bodies below me, and began aimlessly wandering. I had to find someone, someone dear. I don't know who, but I just have to find them.
The bodies below me were of multiple species. Krogan, asari, turian, human, salarian, even quarian bodies lay around me. So this is hell. Have I died? Did I really go out like I did? I heard a scream from behind me. I swivelled around, and began wandering in that direction. "LUKAS, HELP!" It was the voice of a woman, and it was coming from underneath some rubble nearby. I got on my hands and knees and began digging through the stone and metal to get to her. She kept calling out my name. When I finally dug through and got a good look at her, she was... quarian? She was rather beautiful, too. I stuck my hand out, and pulled her out of the rubble.
We helped each other up, and inspected each other for wounds. One moment I was rubbing dust off of her suit, but the next, I had embraced her, and I felt compelled to hold the hug as long as I could. I could feel her hands feeling up and down my back as we pressed together in a loving way. She came up on her toes to my ears. "You're alive."
I woke up suddenly in what seemed like a hospital room. It was dim, with only one lamp on. I took a look at myself. I was hooked up to an IV filled with what I assume was a sedative. The clock on the wall read "2:00 AM" I laid my head back down on my pillow. My God, what happened? I smashed the button to call a nurse into my room. I need to know where I am, what happened, and who that quarian from my vision was. But, that's a question that a nurse probably can't answer.
In a few minutes a nurse came into my room. "Is there a problem, Kommandant?" I nodded. "Where am I?" The nurse sat in the chair next to the bed. "Philadelphia Krakenhaus. You've been here for a few hours now." He began checking my vitals. "You appear to be fine now. You were pretty nasty when you came in. I'll get the paperwork filled out for your release." He stood up and left, leaving me thinking on the bed. I grabbed the TV remote on the nightstand, and switched the TV on. The news was covering the attack on the Philadelphia Spaceport by now, and they were even reporting on me and my "heroism and efforts to stop the terrorists". Apparently, a group called "America Forever" was claiming responsibility for the attacks. Great, we've got turians and terrorists on our hands. This war is going to take a long time to finish.