"This is Sergeant Mallory! We're under heavy fire and need reinforcements right away! I repeat …. "

            "Baker Zulu here! I sight a lance of Mechs approaching our position. I can't hold them off with my tanks! I need backup …. "

            "Command! We're tangling with 2 heavy Mechs! Need backup! NEED BACK – "

            "We can't move! The short range artillery they've got is pummeling my men to death! Don't we have any aerospace elements left?"

            The radio was crackling with so many calls for help. It seemed that the tide of the war had suddenly turned. Lieutenant Jerry was right. We were not ready at all for the onslaught that the Hussars could unleash. It happened so suddenly. They picked the most opportune time to stage an all-out assault, in the early mornings of the first day of our seasonal harvesting festival. We were supposed to have a chance to unwind at the festivities later in the day, but it looked like not many of us will ever celebrate any harvest festival again.

            Probably including me.

            My unit was called up to the front, to give backup to an infantry unit codenamed Alpha Zulu. Half an hour before, they requested backup. Without many reinforcements left, we had to be sent. But by the time we arrived at the forest where Alpha Zulu was stationed, we only saw burning and smoking hulks and dead bodies left. Hardly any survivors.

            "We're too late."

            "Sir, where's them Hussars? We didn't meet `em on the way here, them's got to be somewheres!"

            I felt my pulse quickening. I held on to my assault rifle even tighter.

            The next thing I know, all hell broke loose.

            A swarm of inferno missiles exploded over our group of infantry. The missiles were loaded with flammable gel which would burn and scatter on Mechs, with the intention of roasting the pilot alive. The gel would coat a Mech and be almost impossible to remove. However, where infantry was concerned, the flames were much more terrible. It was as good as napalm, if not better.

            I do not know what saved me that day, but I managed to evade the ghastly flames and dive into a nearby thicket. The thicket also caught fire, so I dashed out and kept running for my life. I could hear screaming and the cries of the dying behind me. I just kept running till I suddenly tripped over a rock and stumbled. Then all went black.

            When I got up, I was lying on a cloth, surrounded by activity. In the distance, I heard the crash and boom of warfare. Looking around, I realised that I was now in a frontline command centre. An elderly medtech looked over, whilst tying a bandage on another individual lying on another cloth nearby. She finished her knot and walked over. Her overalls had several splotches of blood. She kneeled down next to me and felt my pulse.

            "Don't worry boy, you're okay now. Can't say the same for your squad, but you got lucky. You had a few minor burns and cuts, but you're all patched up now. Report to Lieutenant Jerry, he's in that command tent over there." With that she patted my head gently and walked off to attend to the other wounded. Now what would the lieutenant want with me? I pondered the sad fate of my squad mates for a while. But time waited for no man, so I got up from the blanket.

            I left the grassy meadow that now served as a makeshift field hospital ward and entered the tent the medtech had pointed to. I saw the familiar face of Lieutenant Jerry and went to him. He was busy shouting orders, so while I waited for him to notice me I observed the battlefield map that was in front of him. The map covered almost the whole planet, and detailed the locations of each unit as well as the enemy units. I noted my hometown of Jabbar, not too far away from our starport and yearned wistfully to be with Jay again. However I saw a red marker placed in the town. In other places like our capital Munkir, a blue marker was placed there instead. Fear flooded through me.

            "Lieutenant Jerry! Private Gregory reporting as ordered!" I shouted, hoping to get him to notice me then. I needed answers quick.

            He turned and looked at me. He just stared at me for a while before speaking.

            "Private, I've got some bad news for you." I winced.

           "Jabbar has been taken by the Hussars. Two abbreviated lances of Mechs punched through our infantry lines this morning, and we didn't manage to get any reinforcements there in time before they overran Jabbar's single lance of Mech defenders. We've lost contact with the rest of our forces in the town, and must assume that the town has been taken."

            He spoke with such authority and matter-of-factness that I could only stand there, stunned. He continued solemnly.

            "I called you in to join the team of infantry I'm sending in to take back the town. Being natives of the town, we hope your team will find assaulting the town easier. I can only spare one lance of Mechs for you, so it will be a very tough fight. We have not seen any infantry supporting the Mechs, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. What do you think, Private?"

            I stared numbly at him, not knowing what to say yet. In my mind, flashes of my family and Jay continued to play with my senses.

            Lieutenant Jerry frowned angrily and shook me impatiently. "SNAP OUT OF IT, BOY! Your family's in that town! Your father is there too! As much as I want to, I still can't go into the town and save them! I have to lead our attack on the starport! Do you get me, boy?!"

            I managed to stutter a reply. "Y – y – yes sir."

            The lieutenant put an arm around my shoulder and brought me to a quieter corner of the tent.

            "Listen, Greg. Your father put your safety in my hands. I know I'm now putting you in jeopardy, but I can't let your father just die like that now. He's a natural hot-blooded man; he'll surely fight back when the Hussars approach your farmhouse. Now I'm stuck here in the command post. The Colonel just got severely wounded earlier and now I'm the man in charge. You get me? I can't go save your father's butt like he saved mine last time, but I'm not going to give up on him. So I'm depending on you to settle my score with your father. Get me??"

            I focused and tried to forget the flashes in my mind.

            "Yes, sir."