I do not own Transformers Prime or any of their characters. All respective rights go to Hasbro.
OCs are all mine.

Chapter Two

Shattering Home

Jackson Darby stirred, opening his eyes to the darkness of his dorm. It was a miracle he didn't have any nightmares in his sleep. Along with his nightmares, he would also have the occasional flashback of the past conflict of his last days on Earth where he witnessed his first loss, of an important friend.

Sighing, he gazed at his Core, lying on his wrist, displaying the time on its black screen. It was still very early... 3:40 AM.

He figured it wouldn't hurt to take a little nap, to rest a tad more. He merely relaxed on his berth and closed his eyes, once again falling into a slumber.

He suddenly opened his eyes to find himself back to when he was at the Protectorate Facility, receiving his armor alongside his comrades. He observed as a sphere slowly lowered itself to ground height.

Keltan Energy surely was a wonderwork of humankind. He couldn't begin to imagine how something like this was made. And in one year, even.

Shifting his gaze to his right side, he mentally chuckled as he noticed his friends also looked in deep thought, their shock expressed in their lips widespread in the shape of an 'O'.

"Woah..." Thomas was as speechless as the others, with the exception of Jack.

"H-How did you even create this?" William asked one of the officers, not even bothering to take his sight off of the descending ball that held his very suit. Even he, their considered big brother, seemed to be in shock with this technology. Understandable. You'd only see something like this anywhere except in real life, after all.

"I'm sure you know of the Keltan Technology. I can't go into deep detail on how this was designed, but all I can say is that it's thanks to the Keltan Energy 'sources'," At ease, the officer responded with a smirk. "Now, it's time for you graduates to receive your uniforms."

Each of the four spheres came to a halt in front of a graduate. The group of four newly formed soldiers observed, as the spheres in front of them slowly separated in minuscule hexagon-shaped particles, turning invisible when shrunk to a certain small size. All of the four soldiers viewed their suits before them in complete awe. One head that showed complete bliss and surprise, in particular, was Jack's. He stared at his suit, completely awestruck.

He then began to approach his armor. It was an all chrome tainted armor, with the helmet presenting draconic detailing with a visor-shaped aperture on eye-level with two bright azure-colored orbs standing out in the black covered spacings - those were the eyes. Atop, a slightly tilted thin oval-shaped plate, of approximately five inches, erecting upward and surpassing standard helmet protection height level.

The mouth guard resembled the design of a medieval barbute helmet, giving the user maximum chin and mouth protection, along with scaled shoulder plates on each side. The rest of the armor, like the helmet, had a draconic design of scales on the forearms, legs, and torso.

Jack had felt like a champion in a sports competition going to lift his trophy. Although the armor preparative training was relatively short, consisting of only several weeks, it was a very intensive training program. And going through all that harsh training to finally acquire his suit was precisely the reason why he felt like he was being rewarded.

"Private Jackson." One of the officers had called for him. Jack instantly braked himself and turned his attention to the officer.

"Yes, sir?" He instinctively assumed the military position of attention as he responded. Whilst Jack waited, the other officer ordered the newly formed soldiers to turn around.

"Line up with your squad, Private. You just graduated yesterday and you won't know how to even dress your suit up if we don't teach y'all," the officer ordered once again, with a hint of southern accent evident. Jack complied and went to line up with his comrades.

The group of four soldiers maintained the rank formation. One of the officers stepped forth and halted in front of the center of the rank, while the other kept his distance on a parade rest position. He then began:

"Firstly, I'd like to congratulate you four for successfully graduating the Protectorate's boot camp, one of the hardest military courses out there nowadays, and with good reason... even if it is short-timed. I am Captain Nicholas and this is my Technic Specialist, Lieutenant Daniels." He pointed to the Officer, who in turn, nodded.

"You're are all under our command from now on. Do you understand?" the Captain continued as he turned his head to face both edges of the rank to see if there would be one that didn't comply.

"Yes, sir!" The group of four shouted in unison. Nicholas noticed everyone had responded.

"Great." He turned to his Lieutenant. "Lieutenant, show them how to link up their suits." The Lieutenant complied and stepped forth, replacing the Captain's position as the latter stepped back.

"Alright, soldiers. I'll hereby be instructing you on how to ready up your suits, I will warn you, it is not as simple as you may think it is." The Lieutenant then proceeded to teach them how to ready their suits up; it would all be ready in two steps. And as he said, it indeed wasn't as simple as they may have thought.

The first step was to link the suit to a little device that would be resting on their wrist, the denominated "Core", hence their designation, "Core Armors". The device was very similar to a watch, but not only could it indicate time, it was also designed for the two simple purposes of storing and powering the Core Armor. Each suit had different system layouts, and it was necessary to know it as best as you possibly could in order to link the suit.

A safety precaution, for they wouldn't only be fighting against the Scourge Grunts, they would also fight against their field Breakers, their equivalent of hackers. They were the most threatening hostiles amongst the plaguer's ranks. And on recent field introductions of the foe, there was a new threat amongst the Scourge ranks.

Corrupted Humans.

The Corrupted Humans were once living people, that were most likely murdered by Scourge and turned into nothing but a hollow cask of flesh with their abilities unsurprisingly never again present. Somewhat similar to zombies, their strength in battle resided in great numbers, differently from the Scourge. They were mainly a common sight in the devastated continents. However, they weren't as troublesome as their Plagues; they could easily be dissipated by firearms or cold steel weapons.

Jack, along with Thomas and William, had some problems connecting their suits, for their suit system interfaces were somewhat complex for the common mind. Out of the three, there was one having the most trouble: the German raven-haired girl, Sylvia.

Sylvia wasn't having much good luck with her Core connection, as she was noticeably having a hard time maneuvering with her suit's system. With a few growls of frustration, it became all the more obvious.

The Lieutenant seemed to notice their struggles and went to their aid. The Technic Specialist hastily instructed the four soldiers on how to go through glitches and errors in case the suit malfunctioned in the field.

In the end, all four managed to link their suits to their Cores, and successfully powered them. A wave of relief washed over their frustration when they noticed that they had again accomplished another infuriating task. Seeing their unique colored suits' lights shine brightly over the facility's dull white tone, they could only smile in delight.

"Oh, yeah! Now we're locked and loaded!" Jack cheered with his group as they high-fived one another.

"Naw, we ain't, Jackie Chan. You still owe me twenty-five bucks." The group laughed at Thomas's playful remark.

The Lieutenant cleared his throat as to let them know they still weren't done, and the quartet quickly assumed a rank formation in front of their officer. After a few seconds of pause, the Technic Specialist began, "This marks the end of the Core-suit connection procedure. You will need to know this: it is critical for your survival in the fields, or all you'll manage to do is delay humanity's efforts by turning into one of 'them'."

Jack shivered at the thought, and, naturally, so did the others. They knew exactly what the specialist was talking about: The Corrupted.

"We'll move on to the next and final step of the procedures: Suit storage or holder," the Lieutenant spoke, and Jack's curiosity piqued.

Their officer then went on with another lecture. As expected, it consisted of another series of technological procedures with their suits that they still needed to get used to... yet, it was very interesting.

The second step was to try and 'break' the suit in molecular-sized little particles, perfectly capable of fitting inside the Core. The reason for this was because Klonium Metal was very heavy. The metal had low mass, though even if a small-sized part of the Klonium was placed on a scale plate, with four elephants on the other plate for comparison, the minuscule part of Klonium would descend victorious for its massive weight.

The only way that the weight could be reduced, with the armor efficiency kept, was with Keltan Energy. Thankfully for humanity, Keltan Energy could convert normal electricity into more Kelta. It was used as a way of reproduction and it was the only reason why they hadn't run out of Kelta yet.

One unfavorable factor of the suit was that the armor took a lot of time to be assembled or disassembled by normal means. And if a Scourge invasion ever occurred in that time, all humans would be dead by the time one suit was ready.

For this cause, the designers of the armor opted for the most practical way, making it possible for the suit to be battle-ready in a matter of seconds via molecular fragmentation technology. Of course, utilizing Kelta. When deactivated, the suit molecules would separate themselves from one another and travel to their linked attractor, the Core. The exact opposite would happen if the suit was deployed; the molecules would exit the Core holder and joint with one another on the user's body, solidifying the armor with the same defensive efficiency. It was no problem as long as the soldier wore a special fabric that prevented them from getting injured.

Whilst Jack was busy working with his Core, he hadn't noticed someone approaching him from behind.

"Hey, Jack... would you mind looking at me for a second?" a female voice had questioned in an almost cold, emotionless tone of voice... He didn't recognize that voice. How did she know his name? He turned to eye whoever had asked questioningly.

He was unsettled to see the figure clad in an amethyst-hued armor while everybody in the back continued working. Even the officers didn't seem to notice her or Jack. He was about to say something, when the ground below him shook so intensely he was knocked off his feet, collapsing on the ground with a thud.

He looked up and was taken aback, seeing that his armor was deployed and that he was now lying close to an edge of a hill on a rocky surface. Darkness surrounded him as it was night-time. He was even more shocked to see the figure hovering in front of him. She stayed as still as a statue, not even falling down into the abyss of darkness that was under them, like time was stopped. He looked behind him in hopes of seeing Thomas, William, or Sylvia, but they were nowhere to be seen. His dream had taken quite the dark turn.

"Jack..." she muffled out, startling him. He directed his gaze at her.

Still lying on the ground, he attempted to stand up, but he couldn't. He opted to try saying something, but he could only stutter and choke on the mass of the evil dusk that surrounded the both of them. He was too weak. He thought he had seen something move behind her but disregarded it as his imagination for he was more concerned with the fact that he couldn't even speak.

Each attempt that he made were proven futile. He gave up and looked up at the figure who was still hovering in the same place. He merely looked at her and waited for something to eventuate. When nothing happened, he once again looked around in the hopes of seeing anyone... anything, and, once again, he didn't see a single soul.

His attention yet again shifted to the figure in front of him when he heard loud thumping noises, getting closer and closer... those noises were very familiar to his ears, but he couldn't recollect his thoughts around it.

"Why... Why didn't you... Me, Jack?" He raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. She had spoken in sequences, as if trying to tell him something she couldn't. He focused on another obscured figure approaching from behind her, it was definitely not human. He could only stare at it in horror as the creature rose its sharp arms, ready for a slash.

And with a swift diagonal movement, it slashed its blades down to the figure.

"No!"

Jack had jolted awake with a gasp and quickly sat up on his berth. It was another nightmare of that time... Taking deep breaths to soothe himself, he set his feet on the floor and slowly brought himself up. He grabbed a glass cup on his nightstand and poured water on it, relaxing as he gulped some water.

He found no need to continue his rest when he checked his dorm's wall clock that was now marking 5:67 AM. Like before, he stared out at his window, momentarily forgetting that he was in deep space, leaving the Milky Way.

He felt disappointed. Instead of meeting the warm light of the sun rays, he only saw the dim lighting of the distant cosmo stars. He scowled, recalling his grunt year that was spent on Earth.

No memories other than his first battle shook him the most. It was when he and the others were headed out for their first and hopefully last battle against mankind's worst enemy.

(...)

The First Armor Squad were summoned by their High Command for a mission briefing, along with other Protectorate squadrons. They were going to be dispatched to the Middle East and look for more Klonium for completion of a project that was revealed to them the past few days. Soldiers that were sent on a mission months before had reported multiple Scourge activity in a desertic area, and this could only mean two things:

Either the Scourge were holding a Klonium depot, which wasn't unusual. Or they were busy Corrupting humans.

The squads united with a clear objective in mind. They would depart for their mission at noon. Rather than being transported to their destination, they would make use of yet another successful creation of the Protectorate.

The Gates.

To put it bluntly, the gates were a kind of technology that matched the description of the term "portal" the most. This was mainly used inside the HQ to teleport soldiers to their area of operations.

It was possible to control it via computers. All you had to do was type the coordinates of a certain location on Earth for an orange vortex to appear inside the controlled area and another in the location of choice, allowing easier and faster transportation, or rather... teleportation.

The soldiers eagerly awaited deployment in the armory, conversing amongst each other and inspecting their weaponry, mainly being composed of swords, shields, maces, hammers, and some ranged weapons. Voices and clicks were constantly echoing inside of the room.

One of those soldiers was Jack along with his three other friends. Aside from William, they would be seeing combat for the first time.

Sylvia was with Thomas, probably arguing about their taste in weapons whilst Jack was nervous about the upcoming battle that many anticipated. He spotted William approaching him and sighed.

"How you holdin' up, mate?" William began as he sat down on the bench in front of Jack, facing him.

"I'd be an idiot if I said I wasn't scared. Not only for me, but..." He looked in the direction of Thomas and Sylvia; they were still arguing. "... For them."

The redhead sighed. "I see. I felt the same way when I was in the military - worried for my comrades, but you have to pull it together, Jack. Be confident in your abilities and have faith in them. You never know what will happen on a battlefield. All you can do is fight and hope for the best."

"I trust them, Will, I really do. Still... I can't help but have a bad feeling about this mission," Jack sounded his thoughts, still concerned.

"It will pass over time, Jack. You just have to calm down, alright?" The auburn-haired man stared right into Jack's eyes. "I know you're worried about them. I've been there, I know. But know that it isn't going to be your feelings that will help them in combat, it will be your actions." Williams turned his eyes to the floor momentarily, and then back to Jack.

"Nobody here is Jesus Christ to resurrect the dead, and that is why we fight even harder for the man or woman beside us, for mankind. Just kick some alien ass if you want to help their chances of survival." He then looked at Thomas and snickered. "And besides..." William smiled. "You still owe Tom twenty bucks."

Jack chuckled. Although not completely reassured, it would help his consciousness. "Thanks, Will," he responded with a smile.

"Anytime, brother." William smiled and patted his back. "Do your best out there."

"You too."

Just as they had finished speaking, a voice erupted from their comm-lines, with a loud alarm compensating the deafening sudden outburst of the High-Command shout out.

"All units, report to the deployment area! I repeat, all units, report to the deployment area!" The soldiers immediately stood up and deployed their Core Armors as they readied their weapons and rushed out of the room.

William then called out for his squad. "First Armor, let's move it!"

Thomas ran past him in his gold-colored armor. "Way ahead of you, Will."

Williams shook his head and headed for action with Sylvia and Jack following behind. The raven-haired boy shifted his sights to Sylvia and met her green visor.

"Be careful, Sylvia. Don't go breaking formation out there," he expressed his concern.

"Don't worry, Jack, I won't. But promise me you won't get yourself killed either."

"I promise," Jack assured her, and the amethyst-armored girl smiled behind her visor.

They carried on behind their squad leader and within seconds of jogging, they arrived at the deployment room and came to a stop beside Thomas, who had been waiting for them. Jack looked around, surprised at seeing so many soldiers. From what he had heard, roughly two to three squads would go on retrieving missions, but this high amount was arguably compared to a formicary. He assumed that there would be a hell lot of Scourge where they were deployed, yet he could only fathom...

Just how dangerous were they, really? Of course, despite the evident knowledge of them completely annihilating the European and Asian continents like a deadly disease, he still had to see one of them in the fields. He already had an idea of how they fought and looked like based on intel, and, surprisingly, the Scourge were pretty intelligent in various combat situations, and it was mainly the reason why the soldiers were always sent to action in squads.

Corrupted humans were no trouble to go against, considering the majority of their forces usually consisted of civilians and were a common sight on the battlefield. He closed his eyes, trying to relax. Though, soon, his ears were perturbed by the sound of metallic footsteps.

"Attention!" their commanding officer, Captain Nicholas, roared, out of the blue, making his way towards the ten-by-ten rank formation, clad in his elegant evergreen-painted armor. All soldiers halted any actions and assumed the parade-rest position within the rank.

"Aye, sir!" the formation shouted in response, acknowledging their CO's authority.

Stepping in front of the medium-sized formation, the Captain ceased his movements and attentively inspected the first row of the formation from head to toe, as his suit's red optical orbs glowed with intimidation, making sure their armor and weapons were in peak condition for action. To his delight, there was no damage or dents to the soldiers' armor and their weapons were seemingly fine.

Satisfied, he began, "Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for my unusual interruption of this deployment. It saddens me to inform you that there has been a change of plans. We must prepare for humanity's darkest battle. Multiple Scourge signals popped up on our radar, and, as we speak, they approach us from both West and East with their vast amount of transport ships. We will separate ourselves into two regiments of one hundred and fifty. One forms a defense perimeter in the state of California, while the other goes to Washington DC! Lieutenant Daniels will be in charge of one regiment while I'll be leading the other. Soldiers, your objective is clear; protect this country with your lives!"

The Captain stopped his brief explanation as to what was happening and saw that many were fearful; their first signs of reluctance in perhaps a year of combat against the Scourge. Low morale would deem his men killed at the first sight of their ships. He yet again spoke.

"My brothers and sisters, we mustn't falter! You have all trained for this moment - to defend your homeland, and, most importantly, our planet! Think about your families, friends, and comrades that are counting on you in this hour of dire need. And it is with the future of humanity laying on our hands, that we shall turn the tides of this brutal war against them, or we shall die trying!"

The Captain raised his sword, with the soldiers doing the same, cheering, as the two gate structures began humming from the flowing power in their wires. He then turned to his Technic Specialist.

"Daniels, this might be the last order that I give you..."

Although somewhat saddened, the Lieutenant expectantly waited for whatever order he was going to issue him.

After a few seconds, he spoke, "I cannot guarantee our survival, and if you see the situation is hopeless..." Nicholas handed him a key for the laboratory. Daniels immediately knew where he was getting to.

"Do not hesitate to retreat with your men with the last of the civilians, and live on the outside of Kansas."

"B-But, Nicholas!" Just as he was about to protest further, the Captain silenced him with a motion of his hand.

"That's an order, Lieutenant, and I expect you to comply, do you understand?" The Technic Specialist clenched his fist in dejection, but quickly composed himself; he knew better. He wouldn't let emotions get in the way, especially now.

"Yes, sir..." he finally mustered out.

Nicholas nodded. "Good hunt out there, Daniels." His Lieutenant nodded back in response, just as two vortices shone to life in front of them. It was time to head out.

The Captain shifted his attention to the two platoons, that were ready with their weapons behind him, and gave his final and everlasting order for the Protectorate.

"Protect your home at all costs! All hands, move out!"

And so they did. Jack Darby went together with the First Armor, along with the rest of his assigned regiment, to the second vortex and were deployed within the state of California, in the city of Santa Barbara.

Already, Jack could see the upcoming hell that was to rain upon them as he eyed the multiple approaching Scourge ships in the coast. He looked at his three friends beside him and gave them a nod.

"Good hunt out there, you guys." Williams and Thomas nodded back. Sylvia had approached him.

"Remember our promise, Jack. Don't die on me," Sylvia worryingly remarked. Jack, in turn, only gave her a reassuring nod.

"Logers, get your squad in position!" the Lieutenant barked his order in the distance, but the two paid him no mind.

"Sylvia, I still plan on keeping our promise. So don't worry about me until we make it out of this, okay?" Jack responded in a caring tone.

"Okay..." she replied and focused back on the coast. While they were conversing, they hadn't noticed their Lieutenant ordering the squadrons to set up their defensive positions. As they looked towards the Lieutenant, a voice burst out in their comm-links. It was none other than their ranged specialized comrade, Thomas.

"Hey, you two in a daze, quit flirting over there and get in position with us! They're coming!" The duo immediately ceased chatter and headed towards their jogging squad leader and Thomas, quickly catching up. Williams then began to relay their officer's orders to his squadron while they were on the move. It was like Earth's most intense rush hour; soldiers were running back and forth to their designated positions. With a hellish battle imminent, and their chances of survival slim, they still hoped to at least hold back the relentless alien assault for enough time until the remnants of human civilization were evacuated... to outer space.

They had managed to forge enough materials for the construction of a ship capable of holding life in space for a determined amount of time. Which was why the First Armor's first mission would be to assault a Klonium Mineral depot position (likely crawling with Scourge), alongside the rest of the Protectorate Forces for the completion of the ship.

But, this time, they would have to make due with what little resources they had to finish it, even if it was normal steel.

The First Squad were jogging to their designated position. Their orders were to support another squad, responsible for implanting explosive satchels in the area to hold the extraterrestrial back.

"What's the plan, boss?" Thomas asked.

"We'll be providing cover for the Brawlers while they set up some explosives around the city. Keep your eyes peeled, those monsters will be here real soon!" William then looked at Jack. "Jack, you're with me."

Jack nodded in acknowledgment.

William shifted his sights and looked at Thomas and Sylvia. "And, you two, go through the street block and get inside that tower." He pointed towards a tower that overlooked the position of the Brawler Company. "Thomas, you will cover them from right there, you have good aim. And, Sylvia, you'll be his spotter."

"Got it!" she responded.

"Alright, let's go!" Thomas went ahead. Jack and Sylvia stared at each other for a moment before breaking eye contact and going to execute their respective duties.

Jack sped to the side of William and questioned, "So, what do we do?"

"We'll go with the Brawlers and give them direct cover from nearby. The Lieutenant and the rest will take the central assault head-on, so while we defend, they'll most likely try to flank us as well." Williams sighed.

"That means we'll be ambushing them here, right?"

"Yeah, along with Thomas and Sylvia on the tower."

Jack looked back at the tower in search of the duo. If it wasn't for the suit's capabilities of outlining allies in their visor, he wouldn't have spotted them. He smirked, no way would the plaguers see them up there.

When Jack and William arrived at their destination, they came across the Brawler squad leader. He looked at the duo for a few seconds before asking, "Where's our cover?" He eyed them quizzically, clearly puzzled as to why there were only two of them instead of a squad, which were either made of up four or eight people. This man was Anderson; he was known for having the highest confirmed kill amount after the Slashers.

"We're it," voiced out Williams, erecting his thumb in the direction of the tower with the Brawler's gaze following. He quickly spotted the two and understood why there were only two.

The Brawler turned on his heels and motioned the duo to follow him.

"Thought he'd send out more. But, whatever, list-" He was cut short as an explosion blew them out of the ground, sending them flying and crashing into nearby buildings.

"Grah!" Jack cried out as he collided with the concrete on his back and slid down to the pavement.

His ears ringing from the blast's sudden deafening eruption, he laid on the ground, shaken up as he looked around. He saw the Brawlers holding their ground against multiple Scourges and the occasional blue beam whistling throughout the air and hitting its mark on the plaguers. It was Thomas firing from the tower.

He hadn't noticed William calling out for him until his helm was slapped. Looking up at his squad leader, he could hear William saying something, but the sounds of his voice were baffled by the ring of his ears; he couldn't understand what he was saying.

When his senses finally returned to him, William screamed, "C'mon, Jack! Get the fuck up! They're everywhere around us and we won't hold for long if you ain't on your feet!"

Jack was battle-ready in an instant as he quickly rose to his feet, shaking his shock away, unsheathing his elegant double blade, and deploying his shield with Williams doing the same with his longsword. When Jack and Williams arrived at the scene for the second time, they came across four plaguers. As the two creatures spotted the duo, they turned to them and neatly parted themselves from each other, two on one at each. Now, the Scourges didn't look so horrifying from up close, but their power wasn't to be taken lightly. The four bipedal plaguers stood five meters tall. They appeared to have natural tinted sepia skin, corked in smooth black nano-jointed armor. Their cycloped visor lights shone an intimidating cyan, with their arms being peculiar razor-sharp bone blades, instead of the usual muscle tissue and hands, ready to tear apart anything that stood in their way.

Jack and Williams momentarily looked at each other and then to their two opponents. Jack formulated a quick plan.

"Will, you take the ones on the left, I'll take the ones on the right."

"I was about to say the same thing!"

Jack smirked under his helm.

The duo sprung forward in seconds, and with their targets mentally cross-haired, they quickly flanked the hostiles on opposite sides with their speed advantage. Jack was closing in with absurd speeds. A trait of the suit.

Foreseeing the attack of the nearby monster, Jack rose his shield, and as the Scourge's arm blade impacted with his shield with a 'clang', he deflected its strike with his Kite and spun on his heels, counter-attacking with a nimble horizontal slash.

As his blade cut through the creature's nano-armored torso with some trouble, the creature wailed in pain as its purple lifeblood stained Jack's helm and sword. The creature was wounded but far from being dead. Seeing the other plaguer rapidly approaching from behind, he ignited his feet boosters and propelled himself to the air with the plaguers halting their movements to look up at him, raising their arm blades.

Shifting the mode of his double blade to single blade, he reared his sword upwards as he descended to the ground, and quickly brought down his blade to the head of the Scourge he had previously wounded, confirming his first kill as the razor vertically butchered the creature's cycloptic skull in half. The plaguer's limp body lifelessly fell to the pavement.

"Take that!" he cheered.

Jack had almost forgotten about his second opponent, a mistake that could cost him his life. And it almost did.

He widened his eyes in horror and quickly crouched to safety. "Woah!" The creature's arm blade zoomed above him, just barely missing his head. Jack hastily shifted his weapon to double blade and blocked a second upcoming strike of the plaguer with a groan. As he was about to retaliate, he was even more shocked to see the creature was quick enough to perform another attack, diagonally coming from under his left.

But, to his surprise and relief, a blur had sliced the plaguer's bone arm blade clean off, saving him from his near demise. The creature roared in anger, shifting its attention to whoever had been responsible for its mutilation. Before it could even react, the Scourge was beheaded.

Its corpse fell to the ground as Jack looked around the area for his savior. He jumped, as the back of his helm was slapped the second time that day, turning around to see his squad leader. It was Williams.

"You have to pay some Goddamn attention, Jack! If you zone out on the battlefield for even a second, you'd die faster than a bloody Mayfly!" Williams scolded. Jack was about to speak when he was interrupted.

"And don't even think about talking right now, let's just move... The boys in the Brawlers need our help."

Jack nodded in acknowledgment and followed his squad leader to aid their comrades. While they were running to the battle, they viewed the scenario around them. Medics were rushing to wounded soldiers, whilst the Scourge kept their relentless assault on the front.

Many of the soldiers had been severely wounded while fighting. It saddened Jack to see that even with the armor, all they could do was hold them back.

Among these soldiers, one screamed in agony. He had lost his legs in combat.

"Oh my God... I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!" The medics were busy trying to clean his wound and patch it up, all while he was suffering, pained. It was a rather gruesome sight for the young soldier. Jack averted his eyes and carried on with Williams.

They were getting close to the battle. Although obscured by smoke, the sounds of the men fighting the plaguers and explosions were drawing nearer each step they took. The duo entered the smoke and left it just as soon as they had entered.

Behind that wall of smoke was carnage. Their comrades were losing ground with the nonstop wave of oncoming Scourge. Their numbers and their ships were tearing the line of defense apart.

It was Hell on Earth and the damned were mankind.

Jack readied his weapons and gazed upon the incoming wave of ships and plaguers. "Holy shit. William, how are we supposed to hold them back? They'll just keep coming!"

"I don't know. I really don't fucking know! But we still gotta hold this position until the Lieutenant tells us to go back!" They kept running forward until they came across the Brawler Squad leader, laying on the ground, motionless.

"Damn it..." They both stared at his corpse. It was unbelievable. The Brawler Company lost had one of the toughest soldiers, known to have the highest amount of kills, their skill second only to the Slashers. Especially Anderson, their leader. He was one hell of a soldier.

And there he was... dead from God knows what hit him.

Jack looked at William, who probably looked just as shocked under his helm. "We gotta help his men, Let's go."

The duo resumed their race to the battle with weapons at the ready, running across no man's land, occasionally slicing any plaguer that came across them, under heavy fire from the extraterrestrial vessels. Their deafening cannons fired high explosive green beams at their position, trembling the battlefield with deadly explosions, each time reducing the human's morale.

The stench of death filled the air. The now rocky soil streamed with violet and crimson blood, with several corpses of humans and Scourge alike resting on their unpeaceful graves of battle. Despite being amidst these dark lands with his soon to be overrun position, Jack still had faith that they would survive this hellish battle.

It was hard to maintain composure when the odds were not in your favor. He merely remembered William's talk - all you could do was fight and hope for the best, for there was no telling what could happen on a battlefield.

Jack and William began fighting alongside the remaining Brawlers - this time, together - to hold back the plaguers for as long as they could. For mere minutes, the soldiers held their line of defense against the massive wave of the merciless extraterrestrial.

Their beam cannons were more of a problem. The only cover that they had were the smoke puffs scattered around but in the exchange of visibility. With a quick glance to the skies, Jack noticed that a larger alien ship was approaching their position. That meant more trouble, they hadn't even dealt with half of the ones that were on land.

Slowly, the sun was lowering over the horizon, setting itself as the ambient around the dark lands were darkening in consequence. The abnormally large Scourge ship was getting closer by the minute.

And the greatly punished were them for orders were to hold the line until their own ship was complete. And, even then, nothing would guarantee they'd get out of the planet with the extraterrestrial dominating even in the skies.

Jack and the others had embraced a rare time to rest. Another battle was imminent. Their conditioning and morale were slowly plunging. It was a miracle they had managed to survive until now whilst only suffering from flesh wounds.

His ears perked at the sound of footsteps approaching from their previous position. He set his gaze in the direction of a smokescreen, with the others following the action. They internally cheered, for they could be reinforcements. To Jack and William's surprise and to the disdain of the rest, it was only Sylvia and Thomas running towards their direction.

"Jack! William!" Sylvia called out.

At least now they would once again have the ranged support of Thomas - but what were they thinking?! Rushing out of their post to blindly advance to a position they were unaware of... Just when Jack was about to speak...

Williams yelled at the two. "Bollocks... Get out of the open! Who the fuck even told you two to leave your position?!" The running duo kept their race through no man's land, eventually reaching them.

Jack stared quizzically at the two before beginning. "What are you two doing here?"

"We couldn't see you behind all that smoke, so we decided to come lend you a hand," Thomas responded.

Sylvia reinforced, nodding.

Williams shook his head in disbelief but nonetheless decided to query about a certain matter...

"I'll let this pass, but make that the last time you two do something like this. Got it?" William scolded the duo. The two nodded. "Good. Have you two heard anything about the Lieutenant yet?"

The two momentarily looked at each other, before replying in a tone of slight sorrow and concern. Jack, along with William and the rest of the Brawler Squad, eagerly awaited for their response. They only hoped it was time to get out of this hell-hole.

"... N-No. We haven't heard of him yet." As the whole group was about to argue, they were forced out of their brief hostile mien by a recharging sound. They noticed, however, that it wasn't your typical humming sound, that you heard from a Gate, for instance.

It was an unpleasant sound, arising from the skies. All hands had now paused any previous actions and were scanning the environment around them for the source of the sound. Everyone looked in all directions. The left, the right, the sky... even the ground.

To their bewilderment, one had finally spotted the source. Thomas. He called out to them to gaze at the ever-growing black behemoth.

"Guys... look at that!" Thomas pointed to the large vessel, the same one that Jack had seen approaching. It was closer than ever.

Even the Brawlers seemed to be astounded by the huge ship. "What is that thing...?"

Whilst the group perplexedly conversed behind Jack, he noticed a circular shaped cavity in the medium of the ship, sticking out like a sore thumb. Beyond, outlined the hue of a burgundy ring that resembled an eye. It appeared to be 'staring' right at Jack's position. It was likely that the plaguers were now aware of their position.
Nothing could have prepared them for what came next.

Subtly, with Jack still gazing upon the hovering hull of the massive vessel, he widened his eyes in utmost terror, as it fired several beams of fire from its 'eye' and it was raining down right on their position.

He hastily stood up and yelled to his comrades, pushing Williams and Sylvia back in the process. "Run! It's going to hit us!" The whistling sounds of the beams neared as if their own artillery was being fired at them.

All the soldiers had propulsed their boot thrusters in the opposite direction of the battlefield in a desperate attempt to escape their approaching doom.

It was all to no avail, as the fire beams blasted on impact. The shockwave of the explosion disintegrated the battleground's dark soil and potentially took the life of all the soldiers.

Jack was sent flying for the second time that day. It was a few seconds before he slowly lost altitude and hit the ground. Hard.

Injured, he opened his eyes. While whimpering in pain from the hard meeting with the ground, he scanned his surroundings for his brethren in arms.

His blurry sights were met with only the destruction of pretty much everything. He was lying on top of the violet lifeblood of the plaguers, now staining his chrome armor, streaming down from the huge crater created by that ship. He looked around once more. No one, not even a single Scourge, was in sight. And, to make matters worse, it was so silent that he wondered if he had ended up in another part of the world entirely.

Groaning, with his senses and will slowly returning to him, he lifted his body off the pool of their blood, to meet it again with his metallic boots. Standing at full height, with his weapons at the ready, he began to walk.

Only for his nerves to be struck with a sharp pain from his right leg. Hissing in agony, he knelt to the pool and attempted to temporarily suppress the pain by applying pressure to it. It did little to help, but he decided to suck it up and move anyway. He needed to find his squad.

Limping his frame to the end of the crater, he ungracefully scaled to the top. It was a hard task to do, especially with an injured leg, but he managed, albeit almost falling off in the process.

Atop, the scene around him was the same. He took note of the twitching of his Core Systems, cursing to himself that a Breaker was nearby. Nonetheless, he limped to the unknown in the hopes of finding his comrades. Maneuvering himself around several rocks and rubble, he sacrificed his visibility to the cover that the smoke walls temporarily provided him. After a few minutes of wandering, he decided to test his luck with his suit's comm-link.

"First Armor, Blue-4 to Blue-2, come in!" And, as he expected, his hark was met by static.

"Fuck...!" He slammed his fist on a rock in frustration, resuming to wander about in the nothingness that was this battleground. He began to wonder why he had enlisted in the first place. If he only knew it was like this...

What was he thinking? His reason was clear from the very moment he saw the state of soldiers from Humanity's First Ever Battle with the plaguers. To completely annihilate them and reconquer lost human territory, to once again live in peace with his kind. That's what he fought for.

That's why he pressed on.

That's why he needed to find his squad before the plaguers did.

That's why...!

He was brought out of his thoughts by his own impressions. He thought he had heard something in front of him. Stopping dead in his tracks, he slightly tilted his head to listen to the noise better.

It sounded like someone was struggling with something. It was a person. He widened his eyes in delight; he had found someone.

Without a second thought, he readied his weapons and moved forward, hoping to save whoever was beyond that smokescreen. In truth, he secretly hoped it was one of his squadmates. Though, even if they weren't, he would save his ally from their demise or struggles regardless.

Leaving the cover of the smoke, he widened his eyes in fright. There lay his squadron and the remaining Brawler personnel, surrounded by several Scourge Grunts. There were a lot of dents visible in his comrades' armor, but they seemed to be alive. They were only unconscious.

As the plaguers acknowledged his arrival, they turned to face him, their cyploctic cyan visors glowing in the darkening of the shadow rocky lands. Instinctively, he readied his blade and reached for his Kite shield, cursing to himself once more at the pain his leg gave off. He wasn't in condition for battle at all...

"I'll kill you, you bas - Ahh!" He cried out in pain as he was suddenly struck by something, crashing his helmet and wounding his face. A chain of electricity momentarily flowed through his body at the impact, deactivating his armor power. He fell to the ground with a thump.

Mere seconds passed as he lay on the ground. He winced when he felt hands grasping his back plates and dragging him closer to the rest of his allies. He was thrown to the ground, right in front of Sylvia. He rose his helm to see who or what had dragged him.

Instead of seeing the typical cycloptic visor of the other Scourge as he had expected, he saw a pair of two emerald eyes appear out of thin air, shining with menace as they stared upon his surrendered chrome-armored frame.

It was different from the plaguers in some aspects. It was a bipedal, ten-meter creature, with two hulking arms in the place of sharp, bone-coated blades. It was fully covered in the night-hued nano-jointed armor from head to toe.

He scowled. It was a Breaker. He had heard about them from expedited soldiers.

He attempted to move his body, but he couldn't. Spire was systematically locked, inactive. What luck he had, struggling against his own armor.

The Breaker walked over him to the other side.

The Scourge and the Breaker appeared to be conversing in an unknown language. This was new; he had never seen plaguers communicate before. Although he couldn't quite understand what they were saying, he had an idea of what it could be when the two Scourge momentarily glanced at him.

The Grunt made his way towards him. It approached with each pace it took, being followed by a distinct metallic noise as it walked.

It stopped in front of him, looming right over Sylvia. It looked down at her. He silently prayed it wasn't what he thought it would be.

His fears came to reality as it slowly raised one of its blades.

"No..."

It stopped, getting ready for the kill.

"Please, don't hurt her!"

His plea had fallen on deaf ears. He watched in horror as the creature thrust its deadly blade into her, instantly killing her.

"No! Sylvia!" he called out to her, his eyes widening in shock. His best friend was murdered right in front of him. He trembled as he struggled to believe what just happened, hanging his head as a wave of emotions overran him. He had ignored the Grunt slowly approaching him.

He almost didn't care, until rage took control of his emotions. He gritted his teeth and looked up at the plaguer. It was raising its arm blade to finish him off the same way it had killed Sylvia.

For the latest blessing that day, a beam of Kelta struck the creature on its head, knocking it out cold.

"Give 'em hell, boys!"

Then, like heaven's emissaries, came the Slashers.

Jack merely observed them, awestruck. They were so agile in combat that he couldn't even dare himself to compare to them. Gracefully moving, or rather, dancing on the ground, destroying the plaguers with hardly any effort. When his four saviours were done with the Grunts, they immediately targetted the last target, the Breaker.
The Breaker reached out for its back and grabbed what looked like a blaster, the Scourge version of a firearm.

The Plaguer fired several beams on the Slashers. To the creature's disdain, the Slashers rapidly maneuvered themselves around, so the beams missed their mark. And, as they charged the creature, they dispersed their group, leaving one to attack the creature. The remaining soldier lunged and struck the plaguer's legs, completely stripping its valuable mobility, if it even had any, to begin with.

The Slasher rolled under and between the creature's legs. He had enraged the creature and forced it to direct all of its attention to him. It was vulnerable, with its back turned to the rest of the Slashers. They struck when they saw the chance, perforating the back of the Breaker through its armor with little trouble.
Although it made no sounds, it had winced, evidencing its pain before it limply fell to the ground with a thump.

Jack was still locked in place. He was emotionally conflicted, torn apart, feeling helpless, having witnessed the execution of his friend right before him. He swore to himself he would avenge her by destroying them all.

Before he knew it, he was graced by the atmospheric embrace of his comrades. He paid them no mind, however, keeping his broken gaze on Sylvia, not even taking note of the several approaching field medics, checking their wrist systems, grabbing the remaining soldiers of the Brawler squadron, and his other comrades.

"This one's alive too! His suit's locked!" The voice was distant in his ears, despite the corpsman being relatively close to him.

"We have one KIA!" Those were the last words he heard before meeting darkness as he passed out.

... Jack was saved, along with his other squadmates and the Brawlers. But it was too late for Sylvia, as fate had picked her as a victim. As saddening as it could be, she was just another dead soldier added to the statistics.

He opened his eyes to the sound of the alarm, an ever familiar repetitious 'beep' sound filling his ears. Months had passed since they had fled from their own homeworld, in the hopes of keeping the human race alive, somewhere else, far from them.

Not many survived the second Scourge attack. Casualties had a high rise for both the civilians and military alike. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Daniels and most of the soldiers under his command were killed as well. All that was left of the humans were only... One million people. That's right, one million. Mankind was on the brink of extinction. Even with all the Protectorate Personnel fending off their attacks for a week, they still wiped out a good amount of people, mainly civilians. By the time they were done with that ship, they were on our last stand in the Mid-West, barely managing to evacuate and escape.

The remaining Protectorate Forces were assigned to work as Sentinels and as Satellites. Sentinels were only guarding the ship; they would be the first resistance that the plaguers would encounter if they found them again. Satellites were the ones on the lookout for planets in the main head of the ship. In charge of evacuating the civilians in case of a grave emergency, they would be the last resistance, and Jack was assigned alongst them. Whilst they were lost, wandering about in space, the Engineers constructed another Gate. It was only to be used as a desperate measure but Jack didn't like the idea. Even if they had a Gate onboard, where would they go if the Scourge ever found them?

(...) Despite all this mess, he was just glad his father wasn't amongst those casualties. He was already affected by Sylvia's death. He had grieved for weeks, feeling empty, with no solace other than William, his father, and Thomas.

Thomas was shocked the most when he had heard about Sylvia's tragic demise of being executed by a damned plaguer Grunt. He came to hate them even more than he already did, like Jack.

Even so, in times like these, you can't let emotions get in your way and interrupt your work. Especially if that particular work involves scanning for habitable planets in the middle of the cosmo on your shift. It was a pretty important job, and they would have to find one soon or they'd go extinct for good. This tin can could only last for so long. Having enough of contemplating, he made his way to the alarm and shut it off, sighing as he saw what time it was, marking 7:05 AM. God damn it, that was how long he had spent the time, doing nothing but thinking?! It was almost as bad as the time he would brood. And his shift would start pretty soon! He was glad that he wasn't sleepy at times like these.

Still finding himself restless amidst his dormitory, he figured he'd go for a short walk in the halls to pacify his mind after today's painful memories and doubts. He'd go to work on time. Opening a drawer from his nightstand, he grabbed Spire and set it on his wrist. It was expected for all soldiers because they needed to be ready for anything, after all. Noticing that he was already dressed in his protective suit fabric, he made his way to the dorm's door and exited into the hallway. He sighed, walking along the large hallways of the vessel. He was glad the dormitory halls were this quiet. It allowed him to sort out his thoughts and relax in harmony with the silence. He laughed internally, he hadn't pegged himself for the walker, but it helped him allay his mental conflicts.

Today, though, was a different story.

He couldn't help but have a bad feeling in his gut. He'd seen plenty of these scenes in the movies, where the good guys had bad feelings about something and the bad guys would come. Maybe they have found us and are just waiting for the right moment for the finishing blow, or they are still looking for us and when they find us...!

He was out of his thoughts by a growl, feat of his stomach. It was at this moment that Jack then suddenly took note that he desperately needed to go to a particular place...

The bathroom.

He couldn't suppress a laugh as he grimaced, his aching abdomen growling once more. Oh boy, he really needed to go.

(-)

In another part of the ship, William casually strolled to the Sattelite deck. First Armor shift would start in thirty minutes, so he figured he'd go buy himself some coffee to wash out his seemingly apathetic expression from his face.

He turned right at a hall intersection, to head to the main deck, and came across Jack.

"Ah, Jack. Morni-"

"H-Hey Will. Listen, I'll talk to you later, I-I gotta go pass a fax." Jack wasted no time, cutting him off and sped off to his dorm's bathroom, probably.

"...'Right then." He raised an eyebrow and watched Jack disappear into the corridors. He chuckled and continued to the main deck, as they call it, his legs almost automatically carrying him as he yawned for the fourth time that day. He certainly wasn't a morning person, even in space.

After a few minutes of walking along the hallways, he arrived at the movimented deck area, as crowded as ever. He remembered why they called it the 'wave room', recalling that the danger of being inside such a large crowd of people was that you could easily get lost in the vessel, and it was always a swarm in work-hours. As annoying as it could be, you'd need to get used to sailing on those wild waves to maneuver around, or you'd perish, figuratively.

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he periled himself into the crowd, squeezing through several people, probably on their way to work in their respective sectors, as well. After various tightments of his body, William finally found his self in front of his favorite German cafe, Das Berühmte Pause.

He only hoped it wasn't as full as the wave room. He didn't feel like going through that again, especially in a smaller space. Yet, no matter how much he hoped or cheered for it, he would never find the cafe being empty. He internally snickered at his own misfortune, as he entered the cafe.

This time around, to his astonishment, it seemed like his prayers were somewhat answered. The cafe was only mildly full, and he had no trouble with time, ordering his coffee without a worry. After a few minutes, William left the cafe to meet the devastating crowd of the wave room once again. Ah, how he ended up falling in love with this.

That "love" surely would dissipate over the time they found a habitable planet, if fate ever decided to be so nice as to bless mankind.

William checked his Core Time, marking 7:26 AM. It was almost time to work.

And it was with another sigh that he adventured himself in the crowd, to his squadron assignment.

Managing to skitter around the strait sea of the masses, he paced to the shuttle's cockpit, where they would assist their ship Commander, Nicholas, the former Protectorate Captain. To be specific in their search, they didn't go out looking in shuttles. Instead, they traced planets via their ship's internally implemented radar. They would only utilize fuel and other components when they found a planet or if the situation called for it. That is, if that day ever came, knowing mankind is as good as dead at this point.

William reckoned that his team would already be expecting him in the shuttle's cabin at this time of the day. He didn't exactly fancy the idea of having his Commanding Officer chewing him out over small matters, so he hurried on to the cockpit.

William arrived at the end of the hallway and doing as little as walking to open the enclosed hatch of the canopy, the only way to the inside of the cockpit, after confirming personnel authorization via basic scanning procedures.

Walking beyond the doorway, the auburn-haired couldn't help but always be amazed at how far they had technologically advanced in so little time. It was all thanks to Kelta Energy.

Had the plaguers waited a tad longer without taking over the world, they could've slain majority of the Scourge ranks and retained their long-lost liberty.

In the end, it was all but a gamble. The High Command could only bet on their way out, as they feared the worst, and allow the scientists to work with the engineers to construct the Holder, their space module.

He was on a platform that overlooked the lower ground of the Holder's cockpit. Engineers were working with their suits, carrying armaments, chemical components for the scientists, and etcetera. It was an alternate assignment for Sentinels, as to not allow them to slack off their entire hours in the ship.

"Hey, Will! Over here!" William turned his head, seeing Jack and Thomas calling for him from their respective workstations. He beamed at the sight of his surviving comrades and made his way towards them.

He was confused upon seeing his Commander, who seemed to be following their tracing work quite attentively, like they had found something interesting.

The admirable form of his Commanding Officer stood between the two Corporals, his dingy topete hair absorbing the bright ceiling light and covering his pale skin, with his umber hued eyes staring right into the monitor's screen. Nicholas blinked, shifting his gaze from the monitor's interface to William.

"Sergeant, your squad seems to have found traces of a habitat. Come here and see for yourself." The auburn-haired man, for his turn, shook off his startlement and paced to his squadron's workstation, taking a moment to focus on the screen, and...

Holy shit...

They actually fucking did it. They found a planet capable of sustaining life.

For mankind's fortune, it seems that they would be able to recapitulate their lives soon. And, hopefully, with no Scourge to interrupt it.