(((Sorry about the nearly year long wait just for this trash, work is hell. This really isnt a chapter I put effort into as youll see, most of it was just a paragraph every two months or so and im pushing it off with double checking or editing things at the moment so sorry for that guys.)))

Ch.3 Unprecedented Loss

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"Life is cruel. Becoming, existing, passing away, all of that is killing. What gets born must die."

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US, Louisiana, 13July14, Homochitto National Forest.

"Private First Class Ino Charlie, Captain Raymond Smith, Chief Warrant Officer Rebecca Jones, Specialist Smart Martinez, Petty Officer First Class Mark Sanchez..."

The Chaplin, a Lieutenant Chao, continued reading off a list of the KIA from Baton Rouge.

"Sgt. Jessica Young, Specialist Jason Benson, Major Jarred Warner, Sgt. Luke Smith, Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez, Private First Class Daniel Diaz

The names of James men being called out amongst those dead hurt more than the piece of shrapnel that was in his back. The men and women who he was tasked with, who he made friends of, were dead.

During the retreat, the Martian kataphrakt now dubbed Solis started engaging the surviving MATVs of his platoon along with several other units that had formed up a convoy. It was a pure and simple slaughter, almost nothing made it out of there alive, the M1s in the convoy were melted by the laser that was shot off by the Kataphrick, the vehicles around them melted just from the radiating heat. But that was just the start. After the ((())) engaged the convoy from long range, Martian Air assets pushed hard on the remaining survivors, and without any armor or anti air capabilities, that slaughter continued even more. Eventually, after a 2 hour losing firefight, the remnants of Louisiana UEGF assets pushed into friendly held territory where the Martian Air was quickly taken out.

James was pulled out of his trance by a tug on his shoulder, he turned to see random soldier, "Hey Lt," he spoke softly, not wanting to interrupt the Chaplains service, "Captain Reed needs you in the COC, like now, word is we were able to get in contact with UECC and some SAC guys." There was a brief moment of awkward silence as the chaplin continued reading off the list of names, "Uh, you good sir?" The soldier tilt his head slightly, "I mean fuck bro not really," James let out quietly with a sigh, "Guess none of us are right now though eh?" He turned around and tapped the solder on the back before heading off towards the COC.

The makeshift Fire base had been established three days after the Martian landfall. Made up entirely of units that sustained heavy casualties, the current population sat around 168 men and women, comprised from several completely different units. The highest ranking officer was a pencil pusher Captain named Hans Reed, 1st Lt Yobestal Hiens, then c last two officers in the defacto unit, James and a 2nd Lt Asia Avert. Hiens was the commander of the armoured column that fought in Baton Rouge and fell back with James unit. Avert was some INTEL chick who worked with SOF guys, their mission was to "Collect useful intelligence on the Enemy." Or in realistic terms, use drones to watch possible HVTs then drop cars from high altitude on them. Along with the 4 officers, the rest of the unit was composed of enlisted members of various purpose. Hiens and James had pulled 68 in total out of their situation, Avert had a team of 10 high quality shooters, Reed sat up station with the last 81 of the FB's count, a combination of Medics, Maintainers, and group of 30 FNGs that had just completed Basic.

Making his way through the tent flap to the COC, James announced himself, "Cap'n Reed its Stone, heard we got some orders?" As his eyes adjusted to the redlight inside, he saw the Captain wave him over to a table with large US map covering its surface, around the table stood the rest of the officer corp "Lieutenant Stone, words come down from UESC, the BDA of our casualties and civilian loss of life is extreme." Reed stopped talking for a moment as he started to place unit markers on the map, "As it stands, and this comes from the top, we are to cease any and all attempts at rescuing civilians. Every surviving UE military member left in existence in the US new mission is to now wage guerrilla warfare against those Martian bastards." Reed again took a pause to maneuver the unit markers, "We are undermanned, low on fuel, ammo and other essentials, any hope for reinforcements is impossible at the current moment in time due to the fact we are in Solis's new AOR. Evacuation of this area was thrown out by UESC, only reason being we are one of the 3 only 'combat capable' units inside the entire fucking Southeastern United States. But everything I say is just gonna make all of this seem worse, Lieutenant Avert please tell everyone our current mission plan."

Avert simply nodded her head in acknowledgment towards the Captain before making eye contact with James, "You heard it from the Cap' gents, Guerrilla Warfare from here on out, means SMALL teams taking out LARGE forces, and the only person besides me and my team slightly trained in that field that is Lieutenant Stone and a couple of his of own," She paused to pass everyone a list of radio frequencies and callsigns. "One of the other 'combat capable' units out down here is the 212th Artillery Division, bunch of 81mm mortars and couple of 105s survived with their crews and are holed up 'round the state, so i'm assuming none of you are fucking retarded and can call in a nineline for Arty, which is pretty obvious on how your gonna use those assets too. Now the other unit stuck down here is a couple of bot jockeys from "Fallen Angel" Platoon, but I doubt those poor bastards will last for long, they're all stuck in the ruins of New Orleans trying to do stuff, which is more than likely not going well."

Hearing that some of the Fallen Angel guys had some surviving members surprised James a bit, he assumed they all died when his post was hit.

"Other to note than that, all LR comms are down, SATLINK and the UWIC were taken out along with most cell towers and nearly all important infrastructure. Hints the reason for those rotating frequencies, which mind you will change every three days at 1800 so have whoever is carrying the donkey dicks make sure they're listening for the changes for the next three days, Cap you got anything else to brief on?"

Captain Reed nodded and began flipping through a white folder before speaking, "Civilian casualties are high, extremely high, like not even a worthwhile estimate but that's due in part to the fact we are at fucking end all be all war. Commands guess for CONUS are atleast a 65% DIM count, again that's not an official number but let's just assume the worst since we can."

"Sir any word on Naval Forces in the Gulf or Pacific Coast?" Hiens spoke up, "Last call was we had a Carrier group in the gulf engaging the landing castle, and uh, heard word of a Virgina or two with seals at the ready."

"The Ford and her subsequent destroyer escort were all lost in the initial blast, haven't heard anything from the West US side but it seems a Japanese boat has been giving to those red fucks a hard time, and as for the submarines? Nothing." The Captain tossed Hien another folder and sighed, "Lieutenant those are the last knowns for some abandoned but still useable armor within a 25 mile radius, gonna need you and anyother tanker to work some magic on them if we can bring them back." Hien's nodded silently as he opened the folder and browsed through it's contents.

"Captain anyword on how the rest of the world is fairing?" James asked as he watched Hien look over paperwork, "It's not good anywhere Stone, before almost everything went black Japan got hit hard, real hard. Nearly all of Europe is dark, Russia is doing, well Russian things, it's been weird winter wise up there since the moon cracked, and we all know that invading Russia in winter doesnt workout well for anyone. Middle East is dark, along with Africa. South America might be faring better than most but the landing castle hadn't even touched down when I got cut off." The Captain finished and the room was left in silence, disregarding the noise of workout and the dull hum of electronics in the COC.

"But let's not get to depressed gentlemen," Lieutenant Avert spoke up, "Just cause the reds have fancy lasers and Alien technology doesn't mean they will beat us, not like they even can beat us." She took a breath before continuing, "We are better trained than any Martian grunt in existence, the FNG's outside are guaranteed better killers than a 6 year Martian Vet, some of you had the luck of shooting some of those bastards down and saw how unorganized and weakwilled they are. One of my teams took out a Officer and watched as a damn whole company of the rats scattered in the wind. But besides that, they are attempting to take over an ENTIRE planet, something that has never been attempted before. We know the jump point on the moons destroyed, which means they have to burn from Mars to Earth using ships if they want reinforcements or resupply, and that takes a long time. Believe me when I say we are far more prepared than them, we are ready to fight, we want to kill, we will survive, we will win, adopting the motto of a past team I handled, KTF!"

Captain Reed grinned as he raised an eyebrow, "Nice speech Avert, but what the hell does KTF mean?" The lieutenant gave him a devilish grin, "Means Kill Them First sir, KTF for short." Reed chuckled for a moment, "With that we have our knew calling card, I expect to be hearing that one everyone understand?" the room sounded off with various "Understood" and "Yes Sir." James thought back to the past for a moment, for some reason he was pretty sure he heard KTF being used in the past, but it didn't matter if they stole it, it was for a noble cause right? Either way he was gonna make sure he made good on it, soon it would be time for a counterattack of some sorts, he was ready to sort some reds out for the men he lost, as the Captain dismissed all the officers in the tent James whispered to himself, "Kill Them First."