I snapped straight up, cold sweat trickling down my forehead. The pool of sweat soaked my shirt. I don't know if I was going crazy from the war or what, but I'd been waking up to the same dream for some time now...
I could hear the all too familiar roar of artillery firing early in the morning. It was becoming somewhat heart-warming knowing that some poor bastard just lost their life. I shivered as I realized I was happy knowing someone just died. It's a sickening thought I kept telling myself, but some part of me loved it, loved to hear the loud screaming voices of anguish. I was shaken out of my thoughts when a friend of mine ran into my bunker.
"Damn man it's crazy out there!" He screamed eyes wide with excitement. "Did you just wake up? You're missing all the action!"
His name is Jimmy and he's a battle fanatic. Anything that involves war and massive amounts of lost lives, he's there. Not only that, but in my opinion he's slightly insane… I'm not one to talk though. We'd been buddies since before the war; we grew up together pretty much. He decided he wanted to join the service and I didn't have shit going so I did too. We were assigned to the same division and squad and here we are. He's the only man I trust in this world and that's how it'll stay.
"C'mon man! Get up! There's shit need shootings!" Jimmy urged.
"Aye. Let's go." I replied.
Now, combat wise I was a much better strategist compared to his crazy ass, but the man could shoot like no ones business.
We were both marines with standard private equipment. Combat suit and Gauss Rifle. We were in the heat of battle with the Union. The Confederacy felt they had rights to this planet for some reason and the Union thought other wise. Welcome to the glorious reasoning of the Terran race. As a private it's not my place to question it of course, but I don't care. Anyway, we'd been holding off for damn near 3 weeks and still standing strong.
"So where we goin' Jimmy?" I asked.
"Well, I just got back from the frontline and they're under some heavy fire. I thought we'd go lend a helping rifle." He answered, loading his gauss rifle.
"Sounds good to me."
My bunker was on a hill with a few supply depots generally in the center of the entire defense so it didn't see much action. We headed down a worn path that went straight through the encampment toward the frontlines. As we were going down the hill we could see the entire battlefield. We had dozens of bunkers, some in flames, in a scattered line. There was a Missile turret every 100 yards, for the most part anyway. Bunkers were on fire and marines were shooting. Tracers could be seen in every direction. The sun was blocked out by the smoke of the battle. Despite it being mid-morning the brightest lights were those of the bullets coming at you.
"Let's hurry." I said.
Jimmy and I ran down the hill and to the nearest bunker. We burst inside to see 2 marines surrounded by dead bodies, each screaming out the vision window while firing in seemingly random directions.
"Friendlies, don't fire!" I shouted.
They spun around and had there rifles on us. There was one way to tell enemy from foe; They had blue armor, ours are black.
"What's the situation guys?" I asked, ducking down and crawling to them.
"The Union is runnin' at us with what looks like an entire division of infantry. We been holdin' this bunker for 'bout an hour now. Look out this window and shoot everythin' ya see!" He had to yell over the gunfire just so I could hear him.
Jimmy didn't need to be told twice; he popped up and started sprayin' his rifle like a water hose. I looked up out of the vision window and sort of gazed at the field. There were smoking craters as far as the eye could see. Marines bodies from both sides were sprawled out across the land, every once in a while there was one moaning or squirming in pain. I could smell the combined stench of every dead body creep into my nostrils as I stood, wide-eyed at the terrain. There were marines, firebats, and medics rushing our bunkers as fast as they could before they were caught by multiple armor shredding rounds from the bunkers. Each one of these men and women was some ones' son or daughter; and we were shooting them cold.
I'd seen it all before though. I didn't give two shits. My rifle rattled as I let my bullets fly, ripping holes in every soldier I saw.
"Dropships inbound!" Yelled Jimmy.
The sky was filled with blue dropships coming in fast and low. Several burst into flames before they reached us, but even more made it passed.
"You two keep firing out the window! Jimmy and I will cover the door!" I screamed, ducking down and aiming at the door. Jimmy followed my example as we both waited for anyone to run in that door.
Sure enough, two blue marines came busting in, guns blazing. Sparks flew as their bullets emptied into the bunker wall. At first I was astonished they had missed, that was until I saw the holes in there chests as they fell limp onto the already blood-stained ground.
"Pitiful Union marines man…Need to learn how to aim…Ya know?" He said with a grin.
"Ya I know…Bitches." I said. I don't know if it was our adrenaline or what but we both busted out laughing just then. Our fellow marines looked at us as if we were crazy, but we didn't care. This is how we bonded…This was our fun.
Our fun was interrupted however, as a blue firebat came in front of the doorway.
"Oh shit…" I gasped.
Jimmy and I jolted to either side of the bunker as flames flooded into the bunker from the doorway and out the window, melting the other two marines in an instant. The firebat waited a second then walked into the room. He paused as he noticed Jimmy and I pressed up against the sides of the bunker.
I knew I had to do something as he pointed his flamethrower at Jimmy. I acted without thinking and grabbed the firebats fuel tank. I struggled with him for a second until I got leverage on him and threw him to the wall of the bunker. He turned around faster than I anticipated and again I acted on pure adrenaline. I jumped straight at him and grabbed a flamethrower with one hand and with gauss rifle in the other, emptied the remnants of the magazine into his stomach.
"NO!" I heard Jimmy yell, "The fuel tanks!"
It was too late though, a deafening explosion blew the bunker into pieces. I lay on my back and my vision faded…The last thing I saw was the fiery rain of debris and ramparts burning in the sky as pieces of the bunker shot out in every direction.
To my utmost surprise…. There was then light.
I was lying on a cold metal table, staring up at a white ceiling. Everything was bright and obscured. I could make out several silhouettes hovering over me. My vision came into focus enough to notice they were all dressed in white and had strange masks covering their mouths. One leaned over me and looked into my eyes. "He's ready." He said as he picked up some tools. I felt the painless pressure of him opening my left side. I was afraid of what was happening but my curiosity was overpowering the fear. I looked down at my side and blood was pouring out of me. I panicked, frantically trying to bat his hand away. Other men came and held me down as the one who'd been working on me walked over to the counter and picked something up. When he came back I went into tunnel vision. The last thing I saw was him hovering over me with a needle filled with green fluid. My vision went black just before he inserted into my neck.
