In times of war, nothing is sacred. Not even nature itself.

Black Hills, SD, 12:23, 19th March 2037, Bear's POV


Here we were. The Black Hills, South Dakota. In my childhood, my father took me here once to explore the national park, and a small heritage railroad while we visited family. It had been a great experience...I sometimes see him in myself, with my smart-ass attitude. Every time I see my reflection in a mirror, I would remember him. And this place was just another memory of those old days, before all the war. They never brought me to the day my hometown was scorched, only joyous and happy times.

But knowing there was a hidden railroad in those hills pained me to know that nothing was sacred anymore. The Virus Trail. It had been given that name by US forces and survivors because everything that came through was like a virus coming through our defense line. And nothing could stop them. The line began at Los Angeles, one of the first places taken by the KPA. Another line headed from Seattle. Construction had begun within the first year of their invasion, heading to USA's Eastern Seaboard. I felt that our plan was one of the craziest I had ever experienced or been a part of. Even crazier than that plan. Where I lost my team. We were about to hit the Virus Trail. Barely anyone ever came back from hitting a train along this railway line, and we were to be the first. The plan itself was reasonable. What could go wrong?

I sat on a rock, overlooking the scenery. Six quad bikes sat nearby. Five other men in Special forces gear and forest camouflage outfits and combat helmets waited, doing their own little things. Two were of my team; Wolf and Lion. Lion was using binoculars to watch over a small outpost next to The Virus Trail. We had found it hidden in the forest from here half an hour ago. In one hand, I held a small green canteen with my favorite drink.

"Aahh...nothing gets better than good ol' Whiskey." I caught a side glance from Lion, who shook his head in what seemed like disappointment. I gave him a wide grin, knowing what he was Thinking. But I could hold my liquor. "Want some?" I asked, waving the metal container around in his general direction. He gave me the middle finger in return. I shrugged then took another swig.

I took a few more before a change in scenery happened. A small black spec seemed to hover in the sky. At first, I thought it was a bird. Then it grew bigger. Seriously, what kind of bird is that large? Except a Condor, but they didn't live in this-

"Seeker!" That was enough to break me out of my thoughts. I rolled back and over the rock I sat on, landing with a low oof against the hard ground. This was the eleventh one to pass by. A small black drone, much like a scaled down Predator drone. Designed to look like a bird until too close. We were just lucky some of us had binoculars before we got into sight range.

I watched the drone pass over, quiet as an owl hunting for a mouse. Once it's gone, me and the others begin to come out of our hiding places.

"That's the eleventh one in the last half hour. There is something up" one of the others said. Others nodded or said something in agreement, but I just watched it go in the distance, waiting for that drone to turn. Never did.

"Whatever Project Red Eye is, it is big...And that makes our mission more urgent" Wolf expressed, and rather plainly. Sometimes the guy scared me with all his 'no-emotion' thing, especially since he had only one eye working and the other as white as milk...Mmm, milk.

"Pack up. That's the signal." I looked over to where my team leader had been staring, yet found nothing. So I shrugged to myself, readjusted my MP5 over my shoulder then tucked away my canteen. Then I jogged over to my quad bike, where one of the others waited on theirs, obviously my partner. At first, I was excited to talk with someone. Then Lion had to rear his mug in my direction.

"Lion, meet up with the others at the outpost. We will meet you there after we plant our charges." Lion gave a stiff nod and started to rev up his vehicle. I revved mine, ready to race forward. When he lurched forward, I wasn't so far behind, driving off the rocky clearing down a curved slope.

Occasionally I ducked a low branch or had an even lower branch scratch against my leg, but nothing too bad happened. Sure, the bottom of my quad slammed into a few rocks, but it didn't catch fire. I count that as fine. Dirt sprayed up from the tires. How I wished Lion was behind and not in front. I would be doing him a favor, anyway. Applying extra camouflage.

"Ain't this fun?!" I called ahead upon ignorant ears. Rude didn't even cut it. I glowered over at him, only to get whacked in the face by some twigs. Mouthful of leaves is not a fun thing to have, especially if they have bugs on them. Not even sure if they did at the time, but if they did then they went in my stomach.

I suddenly realized a minute or so later that the ground was getting flatter as we started to slow down a little. But the forest around us remained just as dense as behind. If it were night, I would have seen lights from the station ahead. Lion stopped his vehicle, so I stopped mine just a few paces off. Just ahead was nine soldiers kneeling by a fallen log. One of them was Hawk. She had her cap on and a darker shade of camouflage. On her face were two streaks on either side of camo paint. In her hands she held scoped MK14 Mod 0 EBR rifle with bipod attachment. I knelt by, sending a light smile her way. She flickered one back for a second. On the whole team she was the second to give me a semi-friendly greeting.

"How many?" Lion questioned through his usual gruff tone.

"A small pack of stalkers, some aerial gun drones and one and a half company of foot soldiers...We going loud? That why we didn't bring silencers?"

"We got them jammed. And shooting will draw them out." Something about his hateful glare over at the outpost told me there was a different reason. You could call it my 'vengeful-intuition'. This guy had it out for them. And the fact that Wolf and the others had silencers already equipped. Then again, we could be just a distraction. I didn't fully know. However I knew when to keep my mouth shut about things.

Everyone began cocking automatic rifles and sub-machine guns, checking ammo clips and pockets all over the vests. However I was confident in myself, so didn't bother to check my gear over since I had done so back up at the observation point. I pulled my MP5 from over my shoulder to my chest, then stood so I was crouched and ready.

"Ready?" Lion asked the others. We nodded. He turned his head back ahead of us, then gave the signal. As much as I didn't want him to be in charge, I just went along. Although I did believe that someone so stuck-up should have the privilege. Everyone straighten into crouched positions from where they kneeled before creeping forward, only the chirps of birds being all we could hear alongside crunching of some leaves and twigs. From here, I could now see the outpost.

A small train station, a long guard rail along the cement platform, breaks in the rail here and there for most likely people along with crates to go through. Three guard towers stood, inactive searchlights hanging off their sides. Cement buildings covered by metal sheets were built around the center of the outpost, one of them being two stories which must have been the HQ of the place. A longer building than the others was the barracks, or so we assumed, and the other three being sheds. A large wire fence stretched along both sides of the railway track topped by barbed wire. No way would we be going over. Good thing we came prepared. We approached that wire fence, and once right alongside one of the unnamed soldiers produced a pair of wire cutters. I watched through the fence, just waiting for a guard to show his face in our direction. Last thing they would do.

For a quick moment we stopped at the hole, looking back to a higher point than where me and Lion had been. There was a light. Then it was gone. I let loose a grin, and with the others we went through the hole, one by one, weapons high.

One unlucky foot soldier was first to fall to one of my allies weapons. Painted a pole behind him that held up a metal roof over the platform after being torn at by a hailfire from an LMG. Didn't even have time to let out a cry of pain, but the rattle of bullets was enough to put the entire outpost on alert. Within seconds, we entered a full on firefight.

I took to my left after climbing the platform, taking out my M9 handgun to try and pin down those that fired at me. Splat splat went heads of first responders. I slid into cover, holding my MP5 in my left hand. Once in proper cover which was one of the metal pillars holding the roof up, I holstered my handgun then switched hands with my main weapon.

Peeking over, I spotted my next three targets. They were all firing onto the edge of the platform, keeping everyone still down on the track pinned down. Quickly I released a barrage of rounds on them. Too bad for one of my allies. He hadn't gotten down in time. Got his shoulder clipped. At the time, I hadn't noticed.

"Stalkers! Left side!" My gaze turned on a pair of black metallic beasts. Clawed metal paws. Size of a bear, shape of a cat, minus a tail. Their head consist of a single eye and no lower jaw, a pair of contact stunners in their place. The blue eyes changed red at seeing us. Not a good sign, considering I was the closest to their position. One of them came charging over to me after letting loose a haunting robotic screech that chilled even me to the bone, though I was quick with my submachine-gun, my bullets shredding at it's armor. The second Stalker had other ideas, darting past me. It leaped right at one of my comrades that had been coming up, it's razor claws cutting his left arm clean off. It chittered in what seemed like satisfaction before striking again at their back. Splurts of blood came from their mouth, arching back at the strike. Already one man down, and the fight had only just begun. Yes, casualties had been expected, but not this early!

I turned on my heel to fire, only to hear a sound soldiers dread in moments like these. A click. I unload my current clip, the click earning unwanted attention. Those moments where I think nothing could go wrong? I regretted thinking that before. Stalker Two took a menacing step to me, it's metal claws chiming against cement...Then a shell burst right through the back armor, cutting clean through wiring and metal. Another thank you Hawk had earned for later. At first I felt that I should have checked on that wounded man. Then a bullet whistled by.

"Right. Fight" I muttered to myself, to get my head into gear. Leaning out of cover, I focused on a small group over to the right, pinning down Lion. That gave him an opening large enough for him to throw a grenade, instead of blindly throwing it, right into them. I guessed he wouldn't thank me later, yet a part of me still hoped he would as I glanced over at him. That's when I caught sight of them.

Another pair of Stalkers came, this time backed up by five gun drones. These have three propellers and coverings above those propellers, a small gun that fired 10 5.8 mm rounds per second. These rounds with their gun were capable of piercing through walls and taking down many unarmored targets with ease. And with them being used in T3AK's, the KPA's commonly used rifle, those rounds came mass produced.

Two of the drones swept in my direction alongside one of the Stalker's. Both drones fired, and I was just lucky enough to skirt around to miss their multiple rounds. A long sweep of my gun, firing without pause, took one out. The other managed to fire, hitting me in the chest. My bulletproof vest saved me from death, allowing me to finish off my attacker. Lion finished the other Stalker while mine kept on coming. Only to get hit right in it's side to fall on it's side from a shotgun blast of someone that machine had failed to see. Stupid robot. You'd think they would have made them smarter, like those Terminators from those films.

But those flying drones, they were becoming a nuisance. More came in, buzzing around our heads like angry crows after our lunch. Things weren't looking too bad beside them, having taken out all the remaining Stalkers.

"Yeah. We can do this" I told myself. Well, if I had known what was coming, I would have just kicked myself. Mentally and physically.

A light armor came into the fray, firing a hail of rounds. Tearing apart all the pillars. I could hear the metal roof groaning under strain. Yet it held. How lucky we were about that. But it wasn't done there. The cannon on the vehicle began firing rapidly across the cement platform, hitting around our cover. I could feel them rush by, shredding my pole. That was enough to send me running to another spot to use as cover, a cement blockade. I could hear rounds rebounding off their vehicle. That gave me an idea of what I had to do.

Reaching down toward waist height on my back I pulled out a China Lake Grenade Launcher. Aiming just above the vehicle hull, I fired a round. Hit square into one of it's metal doors. Then I ducked back, pumped, aimed over and fired another. Lucky hit that must have hit just above the hole the gunner sat in.

"And that is why they call me The Hole In One Wonder" I said with a mockful voice and grin, like those guys in those action movies. How I missed those films. I pumped again, then this time aimed over at a group of men coming out of one of the warehouses. Two of them wearing very heavy gear. Over all, I was surprised they could walk in that gear. Looked like some kind of sumo wrestler with all that gear on. Carrying QBB-95 LSW, chinese Light-Machine Guns. Still amazed me how they could have joined the KPA.

My grenade hit right in their midst taking out all of them in one hit. Or well, most of them. One of the heavy's stood back up, then unleashed his hellfire upon me. One round clipped my arm, that I could feel. Caused a bit of a hiss in pain from it too. What I hadn't seen was the drone in my face. Hovering there, just waiting for me to turn.

"Well, shi-" I was cut off by an earsplitting explosion. Not literally, or otherwise I would be deaf. I covered my ears, falling to my knees. From the corner of my eye I could spot a small object to my left. A grenade. An EMP grenade. Sure, it saved my life, but why'd it have to be so freaking close?! "OW! Not so close!" I was so busy covering my ears that I didn't hear them pound into the last KPA man standing. I felt a hand on my shoulder, which I shrugged off. "I'm fine." Waving them off, I stood up without help, letting my MP5 hang loose. I opened my eyes in time to see Hawk coming through the fence, MK14 in hand.

"Gotta thank you, Ms. Hawk Girl. You really saved my ass there with that big pussy cat there" I thanked, holding a hand down to her after heading to the edge of the platform. She suppressed a chuckle for reasons unknown, and reasons I would never understand. She took my hand, allowing me to pull her up.

"You weren't too bad yourself..Mr. The Hole In One Wonder." I remained stunned, then realised with a wide, stupid grin. "Yep. You left it on." That explained why my ear tingled after the EMP. Ah well. No shame in someone hearing me. As long as it wasn't when I wasn't in the field, I was fine with it.

"You two! Get over here!" Someone shouted. I grimaced at seeing Lion staring over at us, his ever-so-rock-hard glare set on me. What he do, keep that face when the wind changed? I strolled over alongside Hawk. She came along gracefully, as if she was almost weightless. I could tell she was light on her fight, and that must have helped a lot. "Bear, take that building" he ordered, pointing to the two-story building. I rolled my eyes. Not like this guy was my leader. But for the sake of staying on this team, I followed along.

"Yeah, sure thing." I began to jog over, MP5 at the ready just in case someone decided to pop out. One other came with me, already beating me to a ladder on the side. I waited for them to start up, then I followed along. However, something caught my eye. A gleam of light through the trees, behind the station. Shining through an incoming fog. Then it disappeared. So I shrugged it off and continued upwards.

Wasn't until I was up on the roof that worry took hold. At least two dozen little blue lights, and one big light shining through the trees.

"What the hell..." I glanced down at the others and called down, one hand cupped around my mouth and the other pointing. "Hey, anyone see those lights?!" They all looked over. Then I heard it. A screeching howl in the distance, followed by several others. And a rumbling.

"Everyone, get down-" A single rocket burst through the trees, hitting the edge of the roof I stood out. Then everything went black, the only words forming in my mind being; Fuck me.


Boom.

So that's another chapter done. Quite a bit of action, wasn't it? I might have done more, but I had a busy week and I wanted to get this done. So there you have it. See you in the next chapter everyone!