"Please, please I already gave you everything I had, so please leave me alone, I have no-", the woman's plea was silenced as a large man wearing a strange military uniform, it wasn't like his dad used to wear, smashed his pistol over the woman's head, dropping her to the ground.
"you think we want your money or food, we already took all of that, we want you to leave, gone, can't you get that into your thick skull. You batter do it while we are playing nice."
"Wh-where am I to leave, this is my home", woman cried from the floor, but all her efforts were crushed with a boot to the ribs, making her scream out in pain.
"Stupid whore, do you think we care", man with the gun said, lifting his leg for another blow.
"Don't hurt my mother", Dusan screamed with all the might of his childish voice, bolting out of his hiding spot. When his father left he told him that he was the man of the house now, so he had to protect his mother. And he couldn't do that while hiding, he was his father's good little solder after all, so he had to do as he was told.
His dreams of being a hero were smashed when another man hit him over the face, forcing him to the floor.
"NO!", his mother screamed, her scream filled with more pain from the one she let out just seconds ago.
Then a boot connected to his stomach, the force behind it lifted him of the ground and smashed him into a far wall.
"Please, he is just a boy, please have some mercy", his mother pleaded while his attacker grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up.
Dusan trashed around, clawed, punched and kicked anything that was within reach. But it was useless, older man's arm was as hard as a rock, while his steel grip was getting stronger every moment, slowly closing his windpipe.
"I will do anything you want, so please let him go", he heard his mother while his vision was getting blurry, his lungs felt like they were on fire.
"Let him go", the man with the gun said, and just like that he was able to breathe again, and in free fall. Dusan smashed hard against the floor, but he didn't care about that, ability to breathe was far more important.
His mother's face came into view. "Sorry", he tried to say but the word came out wrong, he was so sorry for failing at what he was told to do. But his mother simply hushed him, saying that everything was going to be ok.
"You told us you would do anything, right?"
"Yes, we will leave first thing in the morning", his mother replied as she wiped some tears of his face. He didn't realize that he was crying and he could feel a wet metallic taste in his mouth.
"We aren't interested in that anymore", the man with the gun paused, "I and my men haven't been with a woman for quite some time."
His mother's face fell and lost its color, "you can't …"
"Refuse and we kill the boy then we rape you. Although I would like to avoid that, as I like my women willing, though they don't need to like it", the man grinned as he said that. His eyes showing that he would enjoy any decision his mother made.
She was silent for a long time. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she nodded, fresh tears rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking.
"Excellent, now where is the bedroom?"
"First to the left", his mother replied, "can I talk to him first so he won't give you trouble?"
"You have two minutes. Defrim watch over them", he said to the man that had brutally beaten him and left.
"Listen Dusan, sit here and don't move, if you need anything ask these men first", she gestured to the men that were just entering the room. There were five new guys. His mother continued, "if they refuse don't ask again, ok?"
He tried to rebel but she hushed him down, "you are your father's good little solder, but you are also your mom's good little boy, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"That's my boy", she said and kissed him on the forehead. Then she stood up and left after the man with the gun.
Dusan sat on his spot as he was told. He didn't ask for anything as he didn't trust big scary men around him. After some time he noticed that one of his teeth was loose, he wasn't surprised, he lost his first tooth over a year ago. So he played with it with his tongue, and when it became really loose pulled it out with his fingers. Dusan wasn't terribly concerned about it, teeth always grow back after all.
His musings were stopped when the sounds came. They were coming from his father's and mother's bedroom. He didn't know what the sounds meant, yet anyway, so he became terribly afraid. After some time the sounds stopped and the man with the gun returned, only to be replaced with another, and the sounds started anew. This continued for a long time, even after he fell asleep.
When his mother woke him it was already dawn. There was a large bruise over the left side of her face and she was wearing another dress, in her hands his cloths.
"Wear this."
"Mother what is it?"
"We are leaving."
Why the fuck am I remembering that now? Dusan asked himself as he ducked behind a rock that served as his cover, in that instant he was bombarded with the multitude of fireballs. The stone he was hiding behind was barely sticking twenty centimeters out of the ground, but at the given moment he wouldn't trade it for all the gold in the world.
Looking around he saw his squad in the similar situation he himself was in, they were all pinned down returning fire when they could. Luckily for them the Enemy has given up on sending their melee oriented monstrosities on open ground, sending big targets armed with axes against a well positioned foe was wasteful at best, they cut them down like grass. But in the given situation if they sent them they were fucked, being pinned down like this wouldn't allow them to take them down before they came close. Dusan really didn't want to fight those things in close combat.
It has been two days since they were joined with the armored battalion, strangely the Enemy didn't stage a counter attack to retake Milosevo. They found out why as they made their push towards Pristina, as they had to fight through wave after wave of berserking aliens. And now all that separated them from the city was this small hill, behind it not even two hundred meters laid Pristina.
Dusan rolled out of his cover just enough to fire a few shots and then rolled back before enemy retaliation hit him. This has been repeating for several minutes now, demons, no one called them demons out loud, yet, but they all somehow knew that what they were facing were demons, held the high ground, while they were taking cover behind anything they could.
Why the hell did it have to be detracked, he cursed as he watched five engineers trying to put a tank's track back together. Luckily for them the tank driver used its other track to turn around, thus shielding them from harm. It turned out that the canons that the Enemy had were unable to pierce M-84's composite armor, but were adequate enough to detrack it.
Marko was adamant in having both tanks operational when they made a final push to take the hill. And after all the death these machines have seeded among the Enemy Dusan had to agree.
Come on, hurry up, Jovanovic though as he rolled out and fired upon the enemy lines again. It didn't matter if he didn't hit anything, as long as the monsters had to take cover and thus slowing their barrage upon them Dusan was satisfied.
Again he was bombarded by fireballs and all kinds of different energy attacks making him wonder how did his rock survive until now. Taking a quick rest before he started shooting again Dusan looked westward towards burning town of Obilic. Rest of their battalion wasn't able to take the town, part of the reason that they weren't attacked at Milosevo is that the Enemy sent its solders there to stop a much larger threat, and they took heavy losses, just over a hundred men. Because of that high command decided to carpet bomb the town with artillery and air force.
"If you can't control it, destroy it", Dusan silently told the ages old logic that was implemented since the dawn of war.
His musing was interrupted by a painful scream. Turning his head towards the tank he saw one of the engineers engulfed in green flames. He trashed around trying to extinguish them, but it was useless. No one tried to help him ether as he was in the open, too far from any shelter, while his fellow engineers simply divided his share of work among themselves. Then Marko jumped out of his cover and fired, ending the man's misery.
"How long will it take", came Marko's voice over his earpiece.
"We are almost done", replied one of the engineers.
It was in this moment that Dusan decided to fire upon the enemy once more. He rolled on his stomach, took aim, and was greeted with a horrifying sight. Among the alien lines were huge two and three meters tall monsters, each holding an axe or a sword, they had wings.
Please don't, the demons lifted their wings and brought them down, taking off into the air.
"Heads up!", he screamed over the radio.
"Protect the engineers", Marko roared.
"On me squad", Jovanovic ordered as he jumped out of his cover and took off towards the detracked tank. He was glad to see his squad follow. There were eight meters to the safety the tank provided. Six meters. Five meters. Just as he was about to take the last few meters one of the aliens landed before him, back turned.
Dusan had barely time to lift his rifle and fire into its back before momentum took him and crashed him into the monster, taking them both down. As he tried to lift himself up he was stopped by the sight of one of the red skinned monstrosities standing above him.
Dusan was frozen as he watched it raise its axe, ready to cut him in half. Everything was moving slowly, the demon's face showed a terrible glee as it was about to end him, eyes radiated pure madness and chaos. Just as he was apologizing to Tamara for failing on his promise of returning, one of his squad mates rammed himself into the monster, and finishing it with a knife through the face.
Jovanovic stood up, empowered by the adrenaline, grabbed his rescuer by the collar of his vest and dragged him behind the tank. Looking at who he was he recognized Dejan, youngest in entire company, he turned nineteen this year.
Bless you kid, but he didn't have time to voice it out, as they were quickly being surrounded by the Enemy soldiers. Demons rushed them, but they weren't close enough so were gunned down. When the last one fell, Dusan ordered his men to give supportive fire to any group of soldiers who still battled the aliens.
He did a quick head count. Four engineers, they didn't even lift their heads to look what was going on around them, and nine riflemen. Nine? There should be ten. He looked through their faces. Nenad.
"Where is Nenad?" Jovanovic asked, not caring who answered. They looked among themselves, and grim realization hit them, one of their friends was missing. He looked around, but to no avail. When he spotted him Dusan felt his gut twist. Nenad laid in the grass, his arm extended towards them as if asking for help, but his eyes were dead, a sword impaled him through the chest.
He was his charge, it was Dusan's job as his commanding officer to do everything he could so his men could return home. And he failed. No, he killed him with his orders. Nenad was the first man under his command that he lost.
But someone had to protect the engineers, more logical side of his psyche told him, if they died there would be no one else to repair the tank and a lot more people would die.
But he died because I ordered him to leave his cover.
One life or a hundred, which is heavier?, he asked himself.
A good commander helps his men survive the battlefield, but for those that didn't he must make sure that their sacrifices were not in vain, he remembered one of his father's lessons.
Father always knew what to do, Jovanovic thought as he calmed down his emotions.
"We are done", said one of the engineers braking his musings.
"Airstrike in two minutes, get ready to charge them", captain Marko ordered over the radio and the collection of yes sir replied, Dusan giving his own as well.
Firing on the Enemy line was easy from behind the tank. Enemy canons could only scratch their paint and even they fell silent, courtesy of the tank's massive 125 mm guns, every time they fired a new hole among the Enemy was made.
"Incoming", Marko called out and soon the roar of jet engines was heard. Two G-4 air to ground aircraft were seen as they approached from the left. As they reached the Enemy lines they started unleashing their deadly payloads in the form of missals, bombs and guns. Their deafening shrieks were music to his ears as they destroyed everything on the alien line, from far left to far right.
"Go, go, go", captain shouted over the radio and they all charged just as the tank started moving, taking cover behind it.
They reached hill's top quite easily and anything that wasn't dead was soon dealt with, before them laid Pristina and the ship that brought these monstrosities. It was a massive, half a kilometer long, ship that defied gravity as it floated above the city, it had long blade like contractions all over it, for what purpose Dusan couldn't tell. There was only one and Jovanovic had to wonder how did they place all their soldiers inside it, his platoon alone has killed hundreds of the monsters to get here. By now the Enemy must have suffered thousands if not tens of thousands of casualties.
Where did they all came from, he asked himself.
In that moment a Mig flew over their heads, going full speed towards the Enemy ship. He released three missals but they stroke some kind of energy shield, leaving the ship unharmed. It didn't return fire as it focused its guns to the south, shooting massive green balls of fire to the ground. It was there that the Americans were trying to make a push through the Enemy lines.
Recalling the situation they encountered in Milosevo and other villages, Dusan thought that the Enemy would have razed the city by now. The monsters had no mercy, they killed everything man, woman and children, hell they even killed farm animals and burned down crops. But it seems he was wrong, sure there was a lot of smoke and more than one building were destroyed but that was only to the south where Americans tried to enter the city from Orlovic. Houses in front of them were pretty much intact, although there were hastily made barricades and aliens roaming around.
"Wait for the artillery strike and then we will make our push", captain Marko said over the radio.
He told his men to lay low and they waited. Not even a minute passed when first shells hit, sending massive shockwaves that he felt even two hundred meters away. The barrage lasted for about a minute.
Just as the last grenade exploded, Marko ordered to move into the city. Dusan was with his squad jogging behind the tank, taking it as cover although there was almost no need. The artillery has completely annihilated first few rows of houses, but the Enemy remained, at least what was left of them. Dusan and the rest of the company simply overrun their positions to enter Pristina.
Dusan slammed his back at a car, breathing heavily. Five days passed since they managed to enter Pristina. The progress was slow, on the open fields they had the advantage, Enemy's abilities had a short range, allowing them to shoot them down from afar without the fear of retaliation, not to mention precise artillery and air strikes.
But in the urban environment those advantages were gone, they could still pour a lot more fire down upon enemy positions, but there was a lot of cover for the Enemy to use, allowing their bigger and melee oriented troops to get closer.
"Shit!", he uttered as he turned around, firing couple of shots and taking one of the whores down.
It was funny how fast were the solders to give their new enemy names, although they were kind of natural. You couldn't misinterpret them even if you heard them for the first time. Whore being a name given to the winged females that used whips, gremlins were those small red creatures that threw fire everywhere, their small size making them hard targets to take down. Also there were names like vampires, flyers, shivas, and finally rock dudes, or simply rocks. Those usually required bazookas, grenades or something that was at least 50 caliber. Of course there were some creatures that no one thought to name, for now.
He peeked over the car to take a few shots but he quickly took cover as a ball of pure shadow hit its hood. Monsters had them pinned down, again, and it didn't help that they were quickly learning how to use cover. But that didn't matter, just a few more blocks and the Enemy would be pushed out of the city and they will have them on the open again.
"Captain this is Jovanovic we need backup."
"We are stretched thin Dusan, deal with the situation with what you have", Marko answered.
Terrific, Jovanovic thought. All he had was his and Lazar's squads, seventeen men in total, Lazar was short two solders. One of the soldiers died when a shiva kicked him like a rag doll, braking all of his bones. Everyone in two squads emptied a full clip to take her down.
They needed better cover and fast. Buildings around them were badly positioned, it wouldn't allow them to unleash their full arsenal on their foes and could be entered only from one side, making ease to defend but also death traps if they got surrounded. Only building that could be used was behind enemy lines.
"Throw some grenades on their positions", he ordered over the radio.
Moments later two grenades hit home and exploded killing or stunning Enemy soldiers. Dusan and his squads took the opportunity, created by demons lack of fire, to shower them with bullets. They moved forward, closing the gap between lines, but took cover when monsters recovered and started releasing their magical attacks. Jovanovic was still trying to cope with that.
He locked his eyes with Lazar's. That building, Dusan gestured him with his hands, Lazar nodded, he understood. As they were preparing themselves for another push they got showered with fireballs from their left.
"Take cover, we are being flanked", he screamed trying to warn them of the new danger. It was too late for one of Lazar's men as he burst into flames.
"Jovanovic I have sent you some backup", Marko's voice came over the radio and Dusan was both praising and cursing him for late reinforcements.
"Lazar use those bazookas for god's sake!"
"We have only one shot left", Lazar replied.
"There won't be any of us left to use it if you don't hit those fuckers", he told him angrily, as he fired on gremlins flanking them from one of the buildings. Soon enough a rocket flu into a window, shaking the whole structure and making the Enemy to stop their fire, if only temporally.
"Squad five get into the building behind me, report clear, we will cover you." To hell with them being surrounded, if they didn't leave the street they might as well commit suicide. And reinforcements were coming.
Dusan sent his last grenade into the building, silencing the gremlins for few seconds before they lunched their magic again. He ducked as fireballs hit the car he was hiding behind. But the man beside him wasn't so lucky, it was Dejan. Jovanovic watched in horror as the kid that saved his live just a few days ago burst out in flames, letting out painful screams as he tried to extinguish the fire.
He couldn't do anything to help him, Dejan already rolled out of their hiding spot. Even if he got to him somehow and managed to quench the fire, Dejan would die anyway. So Dusan did the only thing he could, he ended his pain.
"Clear", Lazar said, as he and his squad opened fire on the Enemy.
"Cover us. Get inside squad".
After they have taken their positions by the windows the firefight lasted for several minutes. Dusan wondered if they were standing in the way of the entire demon army as more and more were coming. Flyers, the red skinned winged creatures holding swords, and some kind of demonic dogs tried to storm their building, only to be repealed. They could hold, but they were running short on ammo, Jovanovic himself had only one magazine left to spare.
Out of nowhere a huge explosion made itself known, deafening them all, followed by a bigger one. It shook the whole structure. Looking over the street, Dusan saw as the whole building, which was occupied with little gremlins, caved in on itself. Shifting his gaze down the street he saw a tank and two ten men squads on both its sides.
Marko sent me a bloody tank, Jovanovic thought barely suppressing a chuckle, I am going to kiss him next time a see him.
"Tango seven, this is zulu-one-seven, where do you need us", tank commander asked. The narrow street was crawling with demons.
"Press the pedal and run them over, stop at thecrossroad, squads follow behind the tank and indentify yourselves."
"Sierra three and Sierra four sir", came a young man's voice.
That was Milos, and Sofija should be commanding the other squad. Good, I got a machinegun and rifle squad, Dusan thought as a plan quickly formed in his head.
"Milos place your machineguns in the tall building at the crossroad, Sofija position yourselves inside the opposing building, let's make a kill zone."
Everything worked perfectly, the tank simply run over and its machinegun gunned down most of the monsters and two squads behind it killed anything that escaped its tracks. Dusan and two squads with him rushed out when the tank reached them, joining the fray and pushing back the Enemy.
At the crossroad, they were finally able to get some ammo. They rushed and cleared the buildings they needed. Larar's squad with a fire team from sierra four was positioned in a third building, making a three way kill zone. The tank and his squad were on the street, acting as bait.
Dusan was right when he thought that they were stalling a whole army. Down the street they were facing, about a hundred meters from them, a dozen rocks, two dozens of six armed shivas, and lots of whores, gremlins, and flyers marched. Half a kilometer behind them was the edge of the city.
"Squad wait for them to get closer, Sierra 3, 4, and 5 go loud on my mark. Zulu 17 let them taste some high explosive shells", Jovanovic ordered.
When the tank fired the Enemy forces stopped in their tracks. One of the rocks got hit, the HE shell exploded, taking two more out, their solid bodies now working against the Enemy as the pieces of rock flied everywhere as shrapnel, cutting down a couple of shivas and taking out a dozen more smaller monsters around them.
Eight seconds later the tank fired again, making yet another hole in Enemy ranks. Dusan watched in wonder as the demons got massacred. They were trying to take cover, but shivas were too large to do it, flyers and bitches took to the sky only to be cut down by shrapnel and rocks just stood there taking heavy losses. Jovanovic was failing to contain his smile, the tank fired again, Damn I love that auto loader.
He wondered if the tank would finish them all, but that was not to be. One of those vampiric creatures was in the back of the Enemy troops, screaming orders at his subordinates. Soon they gathered their wits and charged Dusan's position.
Dusan took aim, taking out enemy commanders was always preferable, and he was only about hundred and fifty meters away. It wasn't an easy shot, but Dusan knew how to shoot, he leveled his sight with the vampire, it was easy to figure out that they were always in charge so he always ordered his men to take them out, the rest of the Enemy army would fall into disarray, leaderless. He squeezed the trigger, sending three bullets on their way. They hit the vampire and he fell over.
And just like that the rest of the army charged into his trap like brainless berserkers. He ordered his squad to enter the building, leaving the tank to fend off for itself, not like they could damage it. What reached his trap was barely one third of the Enemy army, and all rocks and shivas were dead, with most of their melee troops. Dusan gave his mark and every man fired, taking out scores of enemies.
It was when they were killing off the last of the monsters that an explosion was heard from above.
Dusan looked up. The Enemy spaceship was hit, its side was smocking. The ship was above them, slightly to the east, making its way north.
It seems that they finally realized that the real attack was coming from the north not south, Dusan thought. But it's too late, not to mention that someone finally figured out how to bypass those shields.
The left side of the ship was engulfed in explosions, fine lines were left in the sky, left by missals and artillery shells. Then the next wave hit, and the next.
Got to give it to artillery, those guys don't know how to miss, he thought as an evil smile found its way to his face. Not that they could miss a half a kilometer long vessel.
One more wave hit and the vessel started going down, picking speed along the way.
Oh shit, was all he was able to think off. The way it was going it would fall not even a kilometer from their position and that thing must have had one serious tonnage.
Marko and the rest of our unit are there, were his thoughts when the ship hit the ground. The quake was so large that it rocked even the building he was in. The last he remembers was the ground giving way underneath him.
