Chapter 3
06.09.wednsday
It was yet another disturbed day, the clouds had not changed though it was not raining. Confederates flooded the field bellow and above field lay the artillery gunners, the main fighting aids of the confederate lines. For the artillery gunners, the field of battle was, well, boring and loud. A repetitive volley of artillery shells screamed towards the unwary rebel troops bellow them.
Ryan Smith was such a person as he awaited patiently for this battle to end inside his tiny little cockpit. He was situated in a confederate siege tank on top of an otherwise grassy cliff over looking the whole field. Aside from the battlefield itself, the cliff had not been scorched by weapons fire and it lay perched peacefully over looking the view.
To most, the battle was full of death, misery and bleak hopelessness. For others, it was a waist of time. Though not all was what Ryan thought, every action has an effect. That is exactly what happened every time the artillery shells of the tanks massive guns fired their torture out from their mouths. For every shell that screamed into the ground, one man or woman was effected by it's blast in some way or another.
"Well josh, another bleak day of nothing" Ryan asked with an excruciating bored tone of voice. Ryan was a muscular fellow, brown eyes and a faded shadow of a beard indented in his features. Most military men wondered why he had not been transferred to the Marine Corps or even firebats.
Josh was in the navigation, tinkering on different brightly colored fluorescent buttons, toying with the touch pad screen. Technology had advanced quite an amount, it was so highly advanced these days that warfare in the strategizing room seamed like child's play. This was for some, for others it was a highly intellectual form of duty.
"Heheh, you got that right man, turn on the radio, I wanna do something at least" explained his comrade.
"Right josh" said Ryan, he turned the rough knob on the little gray box and began flipping through the frequencies. The radio was another advance, even though it had no significant duty to perform in military terms, it always helped a gloomy day of sieging.
Ryan was flipping too much as Josh began to grow tired of his tinkering.
"Dude stop surfing and leave it alone man" explained the punk of a soldier. Josh always wore a military hat, the ones with a circular top and a little flat piece protruding out of the front. He had dyed his hair numorous times before but not in military operations. He was as much of a rebel as he was hooligan. A vandal and a thief, so many crimes that one would think he would be out of the confederate lines by now.
Though that was not the case, Joshes father was a successful battle ship pilot, a commander actually, he was the only thing keeping Josh from a relief or even worse a court marshal!
Ryan stopped fooling around with his toy and stopped at a channel, the static interference echoed through the cabin of the tank, the sound bouncing off of the metal. The voice over the radio was that of a newscaster.
"Heheh, hey Josh check this out, they're talking about us" explained Ryan.
Josh looked at Ryan with a stern face, he wanted to here what was going on. Josh was a long way from home and always missed his family and friends. As he listened in on something aside from the war, it made him think about home again and about how much he needed to come back and ditch this stupid fight.
"Dude shut up" explained Josh with yet another firm facial expression.
The radio broadcasted the voice of the newscaster, the sound was terrible but it was better than nothing! The corny music that both men hated sounded behind the newscaster's bland, one tone voice.
It said "we bring you now a special news bulletin. The battle on Antiga prime continues to rage on tonight so for those at home we give you our apologies" explained the news caster as Josh's face went bleak again. "The U.E.D. continues to fight hard and strong, they have captures several command out posts and barracks from the ruined base of Demark. We bring you now coming from the lines of the marine forces down there mister Cody Billard, Cody what do you have for us?" asked the newscaster, it took a little while for the man to answer but he did eventually.
"Well Reese I am currently behind confederate lines and am safely inside a building but these marines seam to have the Rebel forces pinned down inside a ruined area of abandoned buildings, rubble, debris, basically a huge hell hole of, well, junk, the confederate forces have really turned this place into a scorched battlefield" explained the man, machine gun fire could be heard behind him, yells and screams, both Ryan and Josh could tell the man was getting nervous.
"So Cody you're saying that basically, we are winning this battle" explained the cocky newscaster.
"Well, yes Reese we are doing a very good job maintaining this field, I think we shall have it taken in no time, we also have a." he was suddenly cut off by a man screaming in the background, an explosion followed and the message was cut.
"Cody, Cody are you." Ryan unexpectedly turned off the radio, it just fuzzed and eventually cut off. Josh couldn't tell but yells were being heard outside of his cockpit, Ryan listened carefully for the next sounds.
"What the hell Ryan, some people were trying to listen to that!" explained the angered Josh.
"Sshh, do you here that?" asked Ryan who was curious at what was going on.
The two listened yet again, eager to discover what was making the sound. They suddenly heard a man fly past the tank outside. They both realized at that point that it was time to go!
Ryan lifted himself up and opened the top hatch, Josh following behind. Ryan popped his head out of the cockpit and looked around, the light blinded his eyes even though it was very dim, they had been inside the cockpit for quite a while. Once the blinding flash faded from his eyes, he took in the sight of men running by him all situating into the science facility in the back of the grassy field. What is going on here thought Ryan, he could feel Josh pushing him upwards from bellow.
Ryan jumped out of the cockpit, Josh followed. Ryan slid his way down the metal armor of the vehicle and landed on the grassy ground, Josh did the same. They both looked around and were very quiet and calm to each other. Until suddenly, out of nowhere a bullet was heard being shot off. The two didn't know where from but Ryan looked to his right and saw a man fall to the ground, blood oozed out from beneath his lifeless body making a small pool.
Ryan and Josh both jumped at the sight and took cover behind the metal machine, more gunshots followed. They kept moving until they stopped behind the battle and in front of the tank crouching. Ryan popped his head up to try and look at what was going on. He noticed that bright flashes of light were firing from out of the forest in the back. Each time one of these flashes went off, a man went down.
GHOSTS thought Ryan as a bullet ricocheted off the rear of the tank, making a ping sound with it's entry. Ryan immediately ducked and crouched along side Josh.
"What the hell is going on, I thought the battle was farther away from here" asked Josh.
"They must have dropped them off some were near the forest, I don't know why we didn't see them" questioned Ryan as another bullet bounced off of the machine.
"Maybe they weren't dropped, maybe they're doing some recon" stated Josh.
"Then why are they firing?" asked Ryan.
The two were still ducking for the shots were growing louder. More were coming he bet, and more would still arrive!
Ryan moved over Josh as he lent out a halting arm.
"What are you doing?" asked the frightened soldier.
"I'm not just gonna stand here and get killed" said Ryan as he immediately heard blind fire coming from behind him, their friends were shooting into nowhere hoping they would hit something.
"You see, now come on" he said as Ryan grabbed Josh's sleeved arm and they both ran off towards the facility.
They ducked and ran, always keeping their heads down. They flew past falling regulars and very few armored marines. Bullets trailed their every step yells and screams ran after their ears. The ground was wet and muddy, the earth seamed like a mattress, mushy and soft. Their hearts pounded as they could here rounds fly past their wary heads.
Josh fell on the mushy grass, making splashes of dirt and mud everywhere. Ryan did not notice it for a few seconds but quickly helped his friend to his feet. Josh stumbled and kept running, for if he did not, there was good chance he would fall like the others!
They were almost at the building, they two could make out figures descending from the main door ways. A busily working factory was situated behind the science facility, low in the brush, though a pathway made it's way out from the forest and into the deployment zone.
Finally the couple reached the building, their face and body covered in dirt and muck, they were very tired and felt wheezy. But no matter, they had to press on. They ascended the main doorway, the metal glinting off of their eyes. They entered into a building full of tens of busy people running this way and that. They proceeded to the armament room, now walking on solid ground. Their boots made mud tracks along the shiny metal floor, along with hundreds of others. The clamping sound of their boots neared the ears of almost ten men inside the armament room, it was red like a photo room but this light was luminous, hanging above them in a caged barrier.
Ryan walked up to the man nearest him when he entered through the bullet proof glass arch of a doorway. The man looked at him up and down and asked "need a gun man?"
Ryan looked at him, panting and open mouthed "I think that would be useful" he explained.
The tall muscular deep voiced male turned around and grabbed two pistols "that should be good enough for you, unless you're a regular or a marine, you shouldn't need a rifle, just incase, come back and see me" he explained.
"Right I'll remember to do that" stated Ryan as he let out another groaning pant and the two ran away into the distance of the building, stuffing the newly handed out pistols into the choler of their pants, keeping the safety on as to not accidentally blow off an artery!
Ryan suddenly stopped as he past the hall way into the operations office and looked at a huge screen inside, men and women still flying past him.
"What are you doing Ryan, we should get to a bunker or something" explained Josh.
"No wait, I wanna see what's going on" he explained as Josh let out an exasperated sigh.
Ryan entered through the doorway and looked up at the screen. A handful of men were laid down below it, tinkering with different panels and keypads. These men were trying to get something working, they were charging something up thought Ryan as he and Josh moved closer to the screen.
It suddenly came all clear to Ryan, they were prepping an E.M.P. shockwave to knock out the cloaking fields on the invisible sniper's backs. Ryan yet again grabbed Josh without a warning and said "come on" as they both ran off towards the main door way again. An ear piercing siren and a voice rang over the com system explaining the procedure they were about to undertake as the two yet again exited the building.
They entered into an even worse situation than before they entered into the science facility. A huge unit of men were shooting at the different brilliant flashes of lights, the ghosts canister rifles also let out a huge bang though the enemies ghosts were using sniper rounds and they weren't letting out such large amounts of sound, especially over the sounds of the friendly gauss rifle fire!
Ryan ran as fast as he could, he didn't look behind him he just ran over to a line of sand bags to take cover behind. He kept on running and running, he did not waver, he did not become distracted from his objective he just ran like the wind which was blowing harder against his face. He ran for a couple of seconds until he realized that Josh was being very quiet, he hadn't said a word to him since the left the main doors, he didn't hear him breathing or panting.
So he slowly looked behind him, his vision bouncing up and down. A bullet flew by his head inches away from penetrating his skull. He then fully turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked off into the distance with strange hopeless eyes. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing, he was still with fear. He looked at the sight that lay before him.
A pool of blood surrounded Joshes fallen body!
Alright dudes, that was different but it is still apart of the story. I know you were expecting blood and guts and all that but I kinda needed a break from it. Well I hope you enjoyed this part of my story, only 12 more chapters to go! Oh and by the way Dark-elk, thnx for the invitation to post this on your website, later!
06.09.wednsday
It was yet another disturbed day, the clouds had not changed though it was not raining. Confederates flooded the field bellow and above field lay the artillery gunners, the main fighting aids of the confederate lines. For the artillery gunners, the field of battle was, well, boring and loud. A repetitive volley of artillery shells screamed towards the unwary rebel troops bellow them.
Ryan Smith was such a person as he awaited patiently for this battle to end inside his tiny little cockpit. He was situated in a confederate siege tank on top of an otherwise grassy cliff over looking the whole field. Aside from the battlefield itself, the cliff had not been scorched by weapons fire and it lay perched peacefully over looking the view.
To most, the battle was full of death, misery and bleak hopelessness. For others, it was a waist of time. Though not all was what Ryan thought, every action has an effect. That is exactly what happened every time the artillery shells of the tanks massive guns fired their torture out from their mouths. For every shell that screamed into the ground, one man or woman was effected by it's blast in some way or another.
"Well josh, another bleak day of nothing" Ryan asked with an excruciating bored tone of voice. Ryan was a muscular fellow, brown eyes and a faded shadow of a beard indented in his features. Most military men wondered why he had not been transferred to the Marine Corps or even firebats.
Josh was in the navigation, tinkering on different brightly colored fluorescent buttons, toying with the touch pad screen. Technology had advanced quite an amount, it was so highly advanced these days that warfare in the strategizing room seamed like child's play. This was for some, for others it was a highly intellectual form of duty.
"Heheh, you got that right man, turn on the radio, I wanna do something at least" explained his comrade.
"Right josh" said Ryan, he turned the rough knob on the little gray box and began flipping through the frequencies. The radio was another advance, even though it had no significant duty to perform in military terms, it always helped a gloomy day of sieging.
Ryan was flipping too much as Josh began to grow tired of his tinkering.
"Dude stop surfing and leave it alone man" explained the punk of a soldier. Josh always wore a military hat, the ones with a circular top and a little flat piece protruding out of the front. He had dyed his hair numorous times before but not in military operations. He was as much of a rebel as he was hooligan. A vandal and a thief, so many crimes that one would think he would be out of the confederate lines by now.
Though that was not the case, Joshes father was a successful battle ship pilot, a commander actually, he was the only thing keeping Josh from a relief or even worse a court marshal!
Ryan stopped fooling around with his toy and stopped at a channel, the static interference echoed through the cabin of the tank, the sound bouncing off of the metal. The voice over the radio was that of a newscaster.
"Heheh, hey Josh check this out, they're talking about us" explained Ryan.
Josh looked at Ryan with a stern face, he wanted to here what was going on. Josh was a long way from home and always missed his family and friends. As he listened in on something aside from the war, it made him think about home again and about how much he needed to come back and ditch this stupid fight.
"Dude shut up" explained Josh with yet another firm facial expression.
The radio broadcasted the voice of the newscaster, the sound was terrible but it was better than nothing! The corny music that both men hated sounded behind the newscaster's bland, one tone voice.
It said "we bring you now a special news bulletin. The battle on Antiga prime continues to rage on tonight so for those at home we give you our apologies" explained the news caster as Josh's face went bleak again. "The U.E.D. continues to fight hard and strong, they have captures several command out posts and barracks from the ruined base of Demark. We bring you now coming from the lines of the marine forces down there mister Cody Billard, Cody what do you have for us?" asked the newscaster, it took a little while for the man to answer but he did eventually.
"Well Reese I am currently behind confederate lines and am safely inside a building but these marines seam to have the Rebel forces pinned down inside a ruined area of abandoned buildings, rubble, debris, basically a huge hell hole of, well, junk, the confederate forces have really turned this place into a scorched battlefield" explained the man, machine gun fire could be heard behind him, yells and screams, both Ryan and Josh could tell the man was getting nervous.
"So Cody you're saying that basically, we are winning this battle" explained the cocky newscaster.
"Well, yes Reese we are doing a very good job maintaining this field, I think we shall have it taken in no time, we also have a." he was suddenly cut off by a man screaming in the background, an explosion followed and the message was cut.
"Cody, Cody are you." Ryan unexpectedly turned off the radio, it just fuzzed and eventually cut off. Josh couldn't tell but yells were being heard outside of his cockpit, Ryan listened carefully for the next sounds.
"What the hell Ryan, some people were trying to listen to that!" explained the angered Josh.
"Sshh, do you here that?" asked Ryan who was curious at what was going on.
The two listened yet again, eager to discover what was making the sound. They suddenly heard a man fly past the tank outside. They both realized at that point that it was time to go!
Ryan lifted himself up and opened the top hatch, Josh following behind. Ryan popped his head out of the cockpit and looked around, the light blinded his eyes even though it was very dim, they had been inside the cockpit for quite a while. Once the blinding flash faded from his eyes, he took in the sight of men running by him all situating into the science facility in the back of the grassy field. What is going on here thought Ryan, he could feel Josh pushing him upwards from bellow.
Ryan jumped out of the cockpit, Josh followed. Ryan slid his way down the metal armor of the vehicle and landed on the grassy ground, Josh did the same. They both looked around and were very quiet and calm to each other. Until suddenly, out of nowhere a bullet was heard being shot off. The two didn't know where from but Ryan looked to his right and saw a man fall to the ground, blood oozed out from beneath his lifeless body making a small pool.
Ryan and Josh both jumped at the sight and took cover behind the metal machine, more gunshots followed. They kept moving until they stopped behind the battle and in front of the tank crouching. Ryan popped his head up to try and look at what was going on. He noticed that bright flashes of light were firing from out of the forest in the back. Each time one of these flashes went off, a man went down.
GHOSTS thought Ryan as a bullet ricocheted off the rear of the tank, making a ping sound with it's entry. Ryan immediately ducked and crouched along side Josh.
"What the hell is going on, I thought the battle was farther away from here" asked Josh.
"They must have dropped them off some were near the forest, I don't know why we didn't see them" questioned Ryan as another bullet bounced off of the machine.
"Maybe they weren't dropped, maybe they're doing some recon" stated Josh.
"Then why are they firing?" asked Ryan.
The two were still ducking for the shots were growing louder. More were coming he bet, and more would still arrive!
Ryan moved over Josh as he lent out a halting arm.
"What are you doing?" asked the frightened soldier.
"I'm not just gonna stand here and get killed" said Ryan as he immediately heard blind fire coming from behind him, their friends were shooting into nowhere hoping they would hit something.
"You see, now come on" he said as Ryan grabbed Josh's sleeved arm and they both ran off towards the facility.
They ducked and ran, always keeping their heads down. They flew past falling regulars and very few armored marines. Bullets trailed their every step yells and screams ran after their ears. The ground was wet and muddy, the earth seamed like a mattress, mushy and soft. Their hearts pounded as they could here rounds fly past their wary heads.
Josh fell on the mushy grass, making splashes of dirt and mud everywhere. Ryan did not notice it for a few seconds but quickly helped his friend to his feet. Josh stumbled and kept running, for if he did not, there was good chance he would fall like the others!
They were almost at the building, they two could make out figures descending from the main door ways. A busily working factory was situated behind the science facility, low in the brush, though a pathway made it's way out from the forest and into the deployment zone.
Finally the couple reached the building, their face and body covered in dirt and muck, they were very tired and felt wheezy. But no matter, they had to press on. They ascended the main doorway, the metal glinting off of their eyes. They entered into a building full of tens of busy people running this way and that. They proceeded to the armament room, now walking on solid ground. Their boots made mud tracks along the shiny metal floor, along with hundreds of others. The clamping sound of their boots neared the ears of almost ten men inside the armament room, it was red like a photo room but this light was luminous, hanging above them in a caged barrier.
Ryan walked up to the man nearest him when he entered through the bullet proof glass arch of a doorway. The man looked at him up and down and asked "need a gun man?"
Ryan looked at him, panting and open mouthed "I think that would be useful" he explained.
The tall muscular deep voiced male turned around and grabbed two pistols "that should be good enough for you, unless you're a regular or a marine, you shouldn't need a rifle, just incase, come back and see me" he explained.
"Right I'll remember to do that" stated Ryan as he let out another groaning pant and the two ran away into the distance of the building, stuffing the newly handed out pistols into the choler of their pants, keeping the safety on as to not accidentally blow off an artery!
Ryan suddenly stopped as he past the hall way into the operations office and looked at a huge screen inside, men and women still flying past him.
"What are you doing Ryan, we should get to a bunker or something" explained Josh.
"No wait, I wanna see what's going on" he explained as Josh let out an exasperated sigh.
Ryan entered through the doorway and looked up at the screen. A handful of men were laid down below it, tinkering with different panels and keypads. These men were trying to get something working, they were charging something up thought Ryan as he and Josh moved closer to the screen.
It suddenly came all clear to Ryan, they were prepping an E.M.P. shockwave to knock out the cloaking fields on the invisible sniper's backs. Ryan yet again grabbed Josh without a warning and said "come on" as they both ran off towards the main door way again. An ear piercing siren and a voice rang over the com system explaining the procedure they were about to undertake as the two yet again exited the building.
They entered into an even worse situation than before they entered into the science facility. A huge unit of men were shooting at the different brilliant flashes of lights, the ghosts canister rifles also let out a huge bang though the enemies ghosts were using sniper rounds and they weren't letting out such large amounts of sound, especially over the sounds of the friendly gauss rifle fire!
Ryan ran as fast as he could, he didn't look behind him he just ran over to a line of sand bags to take cover behind. He kept on running and running, he did not waver, he did not become distracted from his objective he just ran like the wind which was blowing harder against his face. He ran for a couple of seconds until he realized that Josh was being very quiet, he hadn't said a word to him since the left the main doors, he didn't hear him breathing or panting.
So he slowly looked behind him, his vision bouncing up and down. A bullet flew by his head inches away from penetrating his skull. He then fully turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked off into the distance with strange hopeless eyes. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing, he was still with fear. He looked at the sight that lay before him.
A pool of blood surrounded Joshes fallen body!
Alright dudes, that was different but it is still apart of the story. I know you were expecting blood and guts and all that but I kinda needed a break from it. Well I hope you enjoyed this part of my story, only 12 more chapters to go! Oh and by the way Dark-elk, thnx for the invitation to post this on your website, later!