Day 3: Operation Deliverance July 13th, 1951. Dover

[Dispatches from England are looking grim. Northern Command, the final bastion of British resistance on the home islands, had fallen to an underground assault by the Chimeran forces. With no more firm bases on the mainland, the AEF is coordinating with the remnants of the British Forces for one last major assault on London, where reports of a mysterious tower are emerging from. As part of the intelligence corps, I dig up several documents that may contain some more information about how the Chimera operate, perhaps some more clues about their towers and the mysteries of these so called 'angels'. The following are excerpts from the diaries of a Greek Soldier, private Kousiopoulos, and his account of the Battle of Thermopylae. The details of the retrieval remain a mystery to this day, save that it was recovered by the Americans.]


Kilkis, Macedonia. January 20th, 1950

Our battalion, or what's left of it, had received final orders. Or at least, that was what the government told us. What a way to motivate, final orders?! What do they think we were? The three hundred Spartans? I've heard the stories from the northern front, how the Chimera drove two hundred thousand of the Romanian soldiers into the Danube, there is just no stopping them. Not even the mountains of Macedonia and the rivers could stop them. Every time the army had stopped to set up a fortified defense those missiles would come from the sky, killing everyone within minutes. The colonel says that we're defending the pass in a new way, something that had never been attempted before in warfare. I hope to god he is right.

Thessalonica, Greece. January 22nd, 1950

We're taking a rest in this port city for now. I've seen it all around us, everyone is exhausted and frightened. The last two days were spent fighting rearguard actions, covering the retreat as we left towns burning in our wake. The refugees are everywhere, a long snake of people and corpses stretching from the north and east, just trying to get away from being devoured. The monsters have already spilled over from Bulgaria and Albania, and if the latest reports are true, from Turkey as well. Istanbul, I hear, fell within minutes. Millions of people infected by their first wave of missiles, while those lucky enough to have been outside the city had fled. Thousands of refugees, Turks, Serbs, Kroats, Bulgarians, even Kurds from Armenia have made their way to this port city.

The harbor itself is chaos, and I think the government has already written this place off as unsalvageable. Any attempt to assert authority over the crazed group of civilians in the harbor has led to violence. I hear gunshots now in the port even as I write this, I can only imagine how many thousands are trying to hijack their own ship out of Greece, or how many battles have been fought, or people killed over anything that floated. I don't think there is any way we can ever calm these people, not when we could hear the inhuman screeches of the Chimera that are approaching.

Lamia , Greece - January 23rd, 1950,

The generals have finally let us in on their brilliant plan. Attica is to be sealed off, the mountain passes closed by controlled blasts. My colonel vehemently argued against it, millions of civilians were still north of our position, to seal off the passes would be to kill them all. But everyone knows that there was no way to save those people. There was no order in the highways and passes up north, with countless traffic jams and barricades. The refugees were trapped. It was final. What hope could it do now? Macedonia had already shown that mountains are useless at keeping these creatures at bay, aren't we just delaying the inevitable?

January 25th, 1950

The charges were detonated today, while our units began digging in by the Mountain pass. We saw it ourselves how the giant chunks of falling rock crushed any civilians unlucky enough to get caught in the blast. Many soldiers in our unit hung their heads down in shame, knowing we had failed. Personally, I had been too numbed by the experience in the last few days to feel anything. Not even relief. I just stared blankly at the North, where all I saw were the dozens of black pillars of smoke from what used to be our cities. We were downwind, our position, and the smell seemed to convey everything that had happened. Ash, burning wood and rubber, rotting flesh….

Thermopylae, January 26th, 1950

The Generals were right. This was something we had never seen before. Instead of the simply fortifying the pass, as the Spartans had done, we dug into the mountains. They must have been working on it ever since the first word of the Russian invasion. It is a large underground military complex, complete with living quarters and supplies to last us a lifetime. We had a British attaché, colonel Brenner, explain to us that this was based off of the design for the British Southern Command. My comrades are still skeptical as to whether we can actually stop the monsters with this, but no army in history has ever been able to attack inside a mountain. We had everything, booby traps laid out at the entrances, narrow tunnels with clear fields of fire for the defenders. Almost every advantage. For the first time in weeks, I feel some hope coming back. I can't wait to see how many Chimera we can kill with this place.

January 28th, 1950. Thermopylae underground complex

We've almost completed the transfer of all allied forces into the underground base. From miles around I see columns of tanks and supply trucks make their way in. Troops from all over the Balkans and Europe are joining us. It is an alliance we thought would never exist, We see the remnants of the Polish armored corps from Manstein's failed assault, the surviving Hungarian and Rumanian regiments that got away from the 'bloody danube' incident. Almost fifty thousand men. I see Serbs, Kroats, Bosnians, Greeks and Turks all working together against the common enemy. It won't be long now…..The north has become mysteriously quiet in the last few days, no signs of civilians or Chimera. Nothing.

January 31st, 1950

We've received devastating news from the North. Thessalonica has fallen, along with over one million refugees. Many of the men, myself include, are thinking of our own families in Athens, who are still waiting their turn for evacuation. I try not to think of it, I can only pray that they were selected for the next batch of ships leaving the harbour. Either way, I will do my best to hold them off here, as will every man in my battalion.

February 1, 1950

The silence has ended. They've resumed their advance.

The first waves of Chimera attack our mountain defenses. Our dug in artillery and tanks make short work of the first wave, firing from our hidden positions inside the mountain. Even from this distance, we see the waves of Robotic stalkers and goliaths succumb to our shells. We cheer, even though some of the Rumanian soldiers say this is only just the beginning. I can scarcely credit this. How can anything survive such an attack, let alone continue to come at us?!

February 4th, 1950

The waves keep on coming and coming. Already several of our dugouts and artillery positions have been overwhelmed. Colonel Brenner is advising that we abandon all our surface pillboxes to retreat deeper into the base, lure them into the mountain where we have more advantages. It might work, but that would mean abandoning all our tanks and heavy artillery on the surface. It would have to be an infantryman's battle from now on. Deep inside the tunnels. I don't agree with this decision, but I must obey orders nevertheless. My platoon packs up our equipment and anything we can carry and we run towards the steel doors that lead into the complex.

I see Brenner at the tunnel entrance, right as the last of our men abandon the surface positions and scrambled deeper into the base. I don't think I'll ever forget his face as he detonated the charges in his hands. Almost like it would be the last time we would see the surface again. We didn't have to speak to each other to know, even as he pressed the button that sealed us within the complex.

At least those creatures can't get through here.

February 7th, 1950

The surface fighting has stopped. Either the Chimera have wiped out all the soldiers who didn't make it inside or they left the area to sweep the south. We don't know. For the past few days I can't help but think of the fate of the people in Athens and the Peloponnese. We were supposed to hold them, instead, we became trapped ourselves. We thought we were safe, but the last few days we've been hearing scrapping sounds and monstrous howls coming from the caved in entrances around our base. The things are persistent, they are digging their way through us. Rock by Rock. Brenner is advising us that we prepare our weapons for the coming days…

February 9th, 1950

Tunnel warfare is another war in itself, an underground war. People asked me if I had a death wish. Why would anybody want to go into a tunnel? I don't know. I suppose we thought it was the one way we could hide and fight back against those monsters, to buy the cities time to evacuate. We were right in one sense, but when it came to giving us advantages, the tunnels might have ended up being our tombs.

The first chimera broke through the rock today, and we've had gun battles light up in all the upper passageways. It is terrifying fighting these things in the darkness, especially with those huge four legged monstrosities climbing the walls and jumping at you from the ceiling.

Our team also discovered something while on patrol today, something that made our entire defensive plan fall apart in an instant. While patrolling tunnel B, our men had found a section of it was missing. Not just missing, but dug completely through. It was a new tunnel, shaped like it was burrowed through with a drill. But how was this possible? We've never had any machines that could do it so quickly, so effectively. The walls of the cavern are slimy with some kind of pus. What the hell are we facing?

February 10th, 1950

We lost the upper three levels today as the Chimera launched a full scale assault through their own tunnels. Brenner himself gave the order as we set the pre-laid barrels of gasoline on fire. Torching the entire upper tunnels to consume the Chimera, and our own screaming wounded men. Our platoon had our fair of shootouts today as well, and a few of the men got wounded. If not from the Chimeran rifles, then from the concussion of the guns in such a narrow space. Burst eardrums and bloodied noses are becoming common among us.

The Chimera are also employing a terrifying new weapon against us. Some gun that can shoot through any solid matter. This practically nullifies any advantages the walls and tunnels give us. What's the use of hiding behind something if the enemy can just shoot through it?

February 11, 1950

The Chimera are getting smarter. Not only are they sending their faster and more agile fighters in, they are planting traps. One of my friends, Boris, came across a tunnel full of pulsating sacs of flesh. We warned him to keep his distance, but the second he got too close, they exploded, and one of those spider monsters eviscerated him on the spot. We had to burn the tunnel down with the flamethrower. At least we shot Boris in the head before we proceeded to burn the whole thing down. That alone is a mercy.

The last of the upper levels had fallen, over half the army gone. There was no way of telling how many have survived. The gun battles are raging continuously, all day and into the night. We haven't had a single moment of quiet since the Chimera broke through. Only screams and gunshots.

February 12, 1950

The place is a lot more quieter now. We're guessing the Chimera had cleared out the other parts of the base. My platoon tries to catch some sleep, but we keep getting interrupted by this sound of laughter echoing through the base. We figured one of the guys has finally lost it. It won't be long before the Chimera shuts him up.

February 13, 1950

Our food, water and ammunition are running low at this point, pretty much non-existent. The men barely have the energy to stand even as the Chimera pick us apart room by room, chamber by chamber. I think the fight's gone out of them. I haven't seen Colonel Brenner for hours now since his visit to the other Chamber. And again at night, we're treated again to more crazed laughter. I swear to god if I get out of this alive I will feed him to a Chimera myself!

February 14, 1950

No food or water left. Ammunition has almost run out. The men are becoming agitated now, not only by the crazies around the base, but also because of the lack of food and rest. Fist fights are breaking out among us. Colonel Brenner is still missing. More laughing at night. God Damn those men! Why haven't the Chimera gotten them yet?

February 15, 1950

There was no chain of command anymore. Everyone in our sector has given up. Five men died today from gunshot wounds. Some self-inflicted, others from pointless fights. The living quarters have become squalid now. No one is cleaning up or bothering to bathe. The floor's starting to pile up with Human waste as well. I think the laughter is starting to get at some people. One of the men snapped when he heard one of the soldiers chuckle, blew his head off with his assault rifle. No one seemed to care. I hear crying and gunshots at night from the other rooms as well.

February 16, 1950

We found the source of the laughter. One of our patrols through the corridors found a lone soldier in a warehouse, surrounded by hundreds of dead bodies in a warehouse complex. We found what he was doing, around him were corpses of these Chimeran insects. Colonel Brenner's body was also in the room, completely stripped of his flesh. We shot the grinning bastard in the head and burned the whole room and the corpses.

I don't know how much more of this I can take!

February 17th, 1950

It is quiet today. No more sound. No more fights. No more shooting. Few of us alive. There is plenty of food now.

February 18th, 1950

Food ran out again. So we shot sarge in the head. God rest his soul.

February 18th, 1950

Sounds. Sounds banging on the steel door, snarls, growls. Something heavy hitting it, bending the metal like it's trying to get in. The men don't seem to mind.

It is beautiful.