THE MARCH BEGINS!
Aaron Tyler stands in the fading light with his sub-machine gun by his hip, with one hand holding it and with the other, he directs the soldiers of the Dreadnaught army to their defensive positions. His eyes move over some of the tired and weary soldiers that are low on moral, looking as though they have no fight left in them. Other soldiers, who are desperate to survive, scurry across the front line preparing for the battle ahead.
Aaron's eyes continue to move around between the band of soldiers around him until he spots a soldier wielding the K-74-R Light Machine Gun know as the K-74 for short. The long chunky weapon holds a circular drum magazine under the stock of the weapon, making the gun look a lot like the famous Tommy gun used by the mafia so long ago.
"Hey!" Aaron calls to the soldier, "I want that K-74 on the second story of that corner building!" Aaron point to the building with an almost triangular ended building that faces the large square that the Dreadnaughts have chosen as their place to fight, and for some of them a place to die.
The soldier wielding the brutish K-74 simply nods at his command and makes his way toward the building. Aaron begins to observe his surroundings again then turns to Kyle.
"Kyle!" he yells for his second in command.
"Yes sir!" he responds walking toward Aaron.
"I need you to get what's left of that artillery to zone in on the other side of this square." He tells him.
"Right away!" Kyle replies quickly and heads off.
Aaron spins slowly on the spot looking at the soldiers around him, he watches as they prepare defences desperately. He continues his slow spin seeing the long shadows produced by the buildings on the far side of the square as the sun sets behind them. He spins until he's looking face to face with Evan Stonebrook
Evan still has the look of grief on his face, hard to bear were the deaths of his comrades, his close friends.
"Captain Tyler!" Evan calls as if glad to see Aaron's friendly face.
"Captain Stonebrook!" Aaron replies equally as happy to see his comrade and friend.
"It's good to see a friendly face, were do you want us?" Evan inquires.
"The market, 2 blocks over!" he informs him pointing in the direction of the market.
Evan nods in response.
"Good luck mate!" he says hitting his hand then turning it into a handshake.
"You too mate!" Aaron replies before Evan turns toward the market and walks with what is rest of his company.
Aaron turns to look at the men retreating to the defensive line, the weary tired men whose eyes are filled with fear and Aaron just sighs at this sight. Aaron turns seeing a soldier hiding behind a wall of sandbags.
"Soldier!" he calls pointing at him.
"Yes sir!?" the soldier responds standing to his feet and walking over to Aaron.
"I want mines, razor wire, tank obstacles and booby traps set all in this square." He tells the soldier his wants, "we don't want them to know what's hit 'em, 'till it's well and truly too late!"
"Happy to do it sir!" the soldier replies with fight in him, he turns and grabs his mates for the job while Aaron turns and spots a company of men heading toward him from behind their line, a company headed by Dean, Jason and James.
Those that lead stop beside Aaron while the rest continue over the defensive line into no-mans land.
"What's going on?" Aaron asks in confusion.
"We got men behind enemy lines," Jason informs him, "and we are gonna go get them!"
"And why didn't I get invited on this rescue mission?" Aaron asks breaking the tension.
"Gotta have someone good to hold this line." Jason answers his face producing a smile.
"Alright! Go get 'em fellas!" says Aaron.
"Good luck bro!" Dean tells him.
"You too mate!" he responds as Jason, James and Dean, move quickly toward their men. Dean looks back to the band of soldiers holding the line, turns and runs into an alley way.
"At the ready men!" Jason calls over his helmet microphone as the soldiers cock their weapons and cautiously walk through the narrow alley way they are in.
They continue down the series of small paths and alley ways until the come to the edge of the industrial estate. They look down on the estate from the steep drop into the valley which is filled with dirty and derelict buildings with tall smog producing chimneys, which make up the industrial estate.
The fowl stench of the chemicals and the toxic waste that the estate produces makes men gag and now it is only the street lights and the lights of the factories and foundries that light up the valley as dusk has past and it is now night. The rumbling and turning of machines can be heard, along with the hum of the power lines that flow down into the factory filled valley.
All of their eyes look closely over the valley looking for enemy forces and traps. But in the pitch black anything that isn't directly lit up is hard to see. But in the corner of Michael's eye he spots what looks like jet burners floating through the sky.
"2 o'clock" Michael whispers to the rest of the men.
"We'll go round!" Jason tells them.
"Should I radio Aaron and tell him they're coming?" James asks.
"Yeah! Good thinking James!" he answers complementing him.
"Aaron, are you there?" he asks pushing his finger to the radio transmitter on his helmet.
"Yeah, what's up?" Aaron asks puzzled.
"You've got some company coming your way!" James informs him.
"Right! How many?" he questions.
"About 30 in the wave we've seen," he tells him, "but they're the flying ones!"
"Thanks for the heads up! Over and out!"
They begin making their way down a set of winding concrete stairs with rusted steel railings that can give way at anytime or already have. The stairs are cut into the side of the steep slope of the valley. The men move with guns at the ready and their eyes scanning their surroundings for signs of danger.
Dean stops suddenly and looks up at the dark night sky where both the stars and the moon are hidden behind dark clouds so that the sky can not be seen. Jason sees Dean stop in his tracks and he walks over to his comrade.
"What it is Dean?" Jason inquires.
"Listen" he whispers to him.
So Jason looks up to the sky and he concentrates on not making a noise. Then he hears it, he hears the faint sound of a helicopter. Jason looks at Dean in horror.
"Shit!" he says knowing that he was about to be in some serious trouble.
"You heard it?" Dean asks.
"Yeah" he says wishing he hadn't but then suddenly the noise gets louder and Dean and Jason look up to see an attack helicopter coming in, guns blazing.
"Everyone to the factories!" Dean and Jason roar the command as they begin running down the steep embankment. The attack helicopter comes in low, firing its chain guns and hellfire missiles, but due to the fact that the Dreadnaughts spread quickly few are hit and even fewer are killed. As it passes by Jason looks at it and realizes it's an Apocalypse Stallion, one of four made by Armour Tec for Cornelius Guildenstern the leader of the Horror Horde.
The crude Apocalypse Stallion turns around and begins hovering, and at the same time it opens up on the embankment ripping open several men who where directly in the crosshairs and the already wounded who couldn't move out of the line of fire.
Jason could only watch as his men got ripped to pieces.
"That's it!" he roars in fury running back up the embankment as the rest of the men head for the closest building. James and dean sees him running up the steep valley wall and lay down covering fire on the helicopter who begins to spin to direct his fire on them.
"Spread out!" James bellows watching the mighty Apocalypse Stallion spin.
The soldiers all move in every direction and the pilot of the helicopter doesn't know who he should shot at, he hesitates and it's long enough for Jason to find a Spearhead missile launcher. He picks up the long tubular weapon of one of his fallen soldiers and aims it at the devastating vehicle.
He looks at the LCD screen on the side of the missile launcher as it beeps wildly until it sends one continuous sound. Locked on.
"Take this you son of a bitch!" he says coldly squeezing the trigger, which releases the anti-air missile at one of the Horror Hordes pride and joys. The Missile explodes on impact, and with it the mighty Apocalypse Stallion. Shards of debris fly in every direction and the helicopter lights up in an inferno of flames and falls to the ground with the rotor still spinning.
The ruin vehicle hits the ground with some force sending more burning debris all over the steep embankment and the surrounding buildings. The rotor kills several men who weren't fast enough to get out of the scene of impact. The burning wreck crackles as it is inhaled by flames and slowly the rotor stops spinning.
Cries for the medic begin as the sounds of the dying helicopter fade away. Ben runs through the devastating scene seeing those he can help. He comes across Hayden lying very still on the ground. He quickly kneels down and checks for signs of life, he checks for a pulse, for breathing, but he shows no vital signs.
He quickly tries to resuscitate him but when he turns his head and sees that the back of his head has a bullet hole in it, Ben becomes distraught and clenches his fist. He closes his eyes tightly as a tear rolls down his cheek, his comrade, his friend in his arms.
Michael spots Ben over Hayden not knowing that it is his best friend and quickly runs over to see if he can lend a hand. He walks over and notices that Ben isn't trying to help this soldier as a patient, he's grieving over him. Michael's pace quickens as he runs over but when he sees the face of his beloved friend he stops dead in his tracks and drops to his knees right in front of Hayden's limp body.
Michael's eyes fill with tears and his bottom lip trembles at the sight of Hayden's corpse. Tears flow down the men's cheeks and Michael grabs Hayden's head and puts against his chest, he screams in agony, this pain he can not bare, the pain of the loss of his friends is too much.
"No! No! No! NO!" Michael roars at the top of his lungs with his dead friend in his arms.
Ben backs off knowing he can still help others, he quickly wipes the tears away and goes to find another patient, but he still mourns his lost friend as he helps the wounded.
Dean sees Michael grieving his friend and he turns to Jason.
"We have to go now!" he tells him.
"We'll leave a medic and some soldier to look after these guys and get them back behind our line." Jason replies.
"Get Michael to go with them," he suggests, "he's too broken up to fight!"
"Ok," he says sincerely, "let's do it!"
"Alright men! We're gonna leave Franklin to look after these guys and Michael, Paul, Alex and Greg will provide protection to get the wounded back to our line!" he informs the group, "the rest of you guys that can fight, your heading out with us now!"
Dean walks over to Michael and put his hand on his shoulder and squeezes tightly. He feels Deans squeeze but doesn't acknowledge it; instead the tears just continue rolling from his eyes.
Dean looks down at his grief ridden comrade holding the limp body of his best friend, he goes to leave but Michael suddenly grabs his arm and pulls Dean toward him.
"It's all my fault!" Michael tells Dean of his apparent guilt.
"Hey! It's not your fault! It was the pilots fault!" he reassures him, "only he is to blame! You were a good friend and his best mate up until the end!"
Michael nods still the tears pouring down his cheeks. Dean squeezes his soldier again.
"We'll see you back at the base." He tells him as he walks down the embankment and into the industrial estate but just before he steeps into the first in a series of factories he turns having one last look at the mourning man and his fallen friend.