"We begin this morning with updates on the war against the monster kingdom, and King Asgore. After elite paratrooper divisions severed supply lines to the monster armies no more than a week ago, many of the soldiers have surrendered from lack of supplies. With the enemy push forward halted, the Niacan army has worked hard day and night to push back the invaders, and has seen great success up and down the front. Now, the military has entered annexed Chodora as of last liberating the township of Falkirk, and the city of Migeeto. The Niacans have been met with little resistance. At the current speed of the invasion, General Logan Holmes has stated he expects to have liberated Kester within the next few weeks."

Cole slid the backpack onto his shoulders, and secured the buckle on the camouflage bulletproof helmet he wore. It had been just over two weeks now since Asriel had first warned of the impending invasion, and already the Niacans were pushing back into Chodora. Cole needed little combat training from his experience with the Torin Republic, and his military uniform had been granted to him. As he slung the backpack over his shoulder, he spotted Julia standing by, watching him. Sighing he turned and walked over to his sister, and the two shared a hug. Cole murmured quietly.

"I'm coming back...I promise you I'm coming back."

Julia's voice shook as she responded. "Please be careful Cole...I don't know if I can afford to lose you too. Please, for the love of god promise me you'll be as careful as you can."

Cole nodded. "I promise I'll be as careful as possible. I'll contact you as often as I can to let you know I'm alright."

Julia nodded. He then spotted Asriel walking towards him, and looked like he too wished to speak with Cole. Cole looked at Julia as he let her go.

"I love you."

Julia sniffed. "I love you too." Cole then left her to go to Asriel. Asriel glanced to the truck loading the rest of the men in Cole's unit, and he sighed.

"So, this is really happening then?"

Cole nodded. "Sure is. You know I'll be honest, I never imagined I would be getting back into the fight. I always thought I'd just try and live my life out in peace. But, life has a way of pulling you where you don't want to go, doesn't it."

Asriel nodded. "Amen. Listen Cole...I know you and I don't see eye to eye on everything, but I want to thank you for what you're doing. It's not easy to go to war, especially when you've already been kicked down by one."

Cole sighed. "We all have to make a choice, right? I made mine the moment I picked that rifle up in Kester two years ago. ...What about you? What are you going to do?"

Asriel looked over. "I've been assigned to stay here and continue to give insight on Asgore's actions."

Cole chuckled sarcastically. "So you're going to hide."

Asriel looked cross. "We all have a role to play Cole. Nobody knows my father better than me. It makes sense from a strategic standpoint to have me here."

Cole shook his head. "Yeah, you tell yourself that. Look, I appreciate you for helping out. But you won't have my full respect until I see you on the battlefield."

Asriel watched as Cole immediately left, walking to the truck and climbing in with the other soldiers. Asriel found himself tucking his hands into his pockets and stared at the ground. He turned and began to walk away, mixed thoughts flying through his mind.

Cole walked towards the briefing tent in the temporary camp set up inside Chodora. Another two weeks had gone by, and Kester was finally in sight. Now, Cole had been summoned by Alexander Hill, the commander of his unit. He pushed the flap of the tent aside, and Alexander spotted him immediately, motioning for him to come to the front. The other soldiers were already crammed into the large tent. Once everybody had quieted down, Alexander began speaking.

"Alright! This is it boys, we're finally here! I'm not going to beat around the bush so I'll just tell you outright. As all of you know, Kester is just on the horizon. We plan to march forward and take it in a five day siege!" He took a special laser pointer, and circled a stretch of plains near the city.

"We're going to be setting up artillery guns in this area, and they'll focus on shelling Kester day and night to lower their moral. Scouting parties stated that they believe the monsters are evacuating the civilian population as we speak. Moreover, our birds have been dropping leaflets warning the civilians of what's coming over the past days. With any luck, we won't be having collateral damage. While Kester is being shelled, we'll be positioning ourselves at key points all around the city to completely surround it. On day five, a wave of bombers is going to come in and light Kester up. Immediately after they're gone, we charge in, and take the city. Now Private Nelson here is the only one of us that has been inside Kester, he in fact grew up here. So he knows the lay of the land much better than we do. So I don't do this often, but I'm going to be handing this briefing over to him, and he'll be telling us where we'll be coming in from."

Alexander handed the laser pointer, and Cole glanced around the room before nodding. "Thank you commander. Now as you will see, there's a river on the south side of the city. We're coming in from the north, so unfortunately taking the city from behind will not be an option. Now I don't doubt that the monsters will expect this, so we need to be prepared for stronger fortifications elsewhere. The three companies present here will be splitting up. The 48th company will take the charge in from the north, straight to the monsters. They'll have the advantage of covering fire from the artillery shells as mentioned by Commander Hill. The 32nd company will swing around and come from the west. They'll have the more difficult task, since there's no direct line from the west that wouldn't interfere with the 48th company's invasion. If you want, you can go one step further, and follow the river down to this road here, and move in from the south."

Cole focused to the opposite end. "Then we'll have the 102nd. There's a lot of farmland on the east side of the city, which will make for decent cover. We can use the tall plantation in the area to mask their approach. However, it means they might have to sacrifice the luxury of heavy armour. While the risk can be made to send tanks with, if they get spotted, they'd be sitting ducks out there. There's a road in the middle of all that farmland leading from the east in. The three companies will diverge and meet at the city center, where we'll focus on city hall. We take city hall, we take Kester, and Chodora will be back in human control. Now one thing to remember, is that Kester is a very tight city. It might be difficult for armor to move around, so your company sergeants have the specifics of your routes already mapped out. Any questions?"

There were none. Cole handed the pointer back to Alexander who nodded. "Thank you private. Alright gentlemen, you're dismissed! Get some rest, we'll be moving out at 0400 hours on the dot." As the soldiers began to mill around, Alexander firmly patted Cole's shoulder.

"Good job up there private."

Cole cracked a small smile as he nodded. "Thank you sir."

Alexander sighed. "You know, we're all coming here for the first time, but you? You grew up here. What's it like? Being home again?"

Cole sighed, with a hint of sadness in his voice. "To be honest, this barely feels like home anymore. Nothing's the way it was before the war, and now this? I don't know. I almost wonder if it'll ever be able to be that way again."

Alexander nodded. "Mhm...well, war tends to have that effect. Hey, we're going to get your home back. Then we're going to get back at those bastards for everything they did."

Cole chuckled. "Sounds like a plan sir." He gave his commander a salute, before he walked out of the tent, deciding he would at least try to get some sleep before tomorrow. He would need it.

Xavier stared out from one of the small walls on the outskirts of the city, gazing off into the trees surrounding Kester. The monster commander took a deep breath from the dusk air, then glanced over his shoulder as a monster soldier sprinted up to the wall behind him. Xavier looked back to the trees and barked.

"Report."

The soldier saluted before beginning to speak. "Our forces have located the Niacan forward operating base, right where you predicted it would be sir."

Xavier nodded. "Excellent. I take it you've already begun preparations?"

The soldier nodded, sounding confident. "Yes sir, they won't know what hit them. With any luck we'll be able to push the Niacans back and turn the war around."

Xavier straightened. "Thank you, that will be all." The soldier saluted once more before turning around and sprinting away. Xavier gave a smug smirk as he turned away. The Niacans thought they had Kester in the palms of their hands. They had no idea what lay in store for them.