A stabbing ringing pierced his ears as he stood at the edge of the peer. He gazed out at the horizon, staring at the last slither of sunlight before it faded beyond sight below the waves of the vast see. The ringing had now subsided and his hearing returned to normal, the sound of the waves rolling past the peer and onto the beach behind him. The steady breeze that blew around him, and the sounds of the seagulls as they flew over him. He stands alone, his memories are clouded and his thoughts drift to home. But his home is not of this 'world', but somewhere that he knows he can never return. He holds in his hand a picture of his past, from that far away world he knew, a family, his friends, his life. There's that ringing again, a constant torment, a reminder perhaps. His eyes close as he takes in the world around him. The scent of the sea, the cold breeze on his skin and hair. The cool breath he draws once more as he opens his eyes again, the picture he held now loosened from his grasp as it is now carried upon the wind. He takes a step toward the railing before him, grabbing firm with one hand as he steps above it. Standing tall he looks out toward the vast ocean ahead of him, a stillness befalls him, his mind now clear and his heart steady.

The sound of a distant cry from far behind him carried on the wind catches his ears, a plea, a demand, a cry of helplessness. It grows louder as the seconds pass, the rapid approach of those cries draws ever nearer, yet his mind is set, his conscience is clear, he knows what to do, yet in all this can he fulfil what he set out to do? 'YES' his mind screams. Without a backward glance, he closes his eyes, his head slowly cranes upward as the cold breeze envelopes him, and finally, he descends into darkness... "LUCIUS!..."

Nearly 4 years earlier

"Lucius, it's time to go" a voice called out from a nearby doorway. It was his very close friend Theodoric, or "Theo" for short "Come on otherwise we'll be late" he ushered, his noticeable German accent coming through, which happened every time he said something serious "Right behind you old boy" Lucius finally replied as he stood up. For the past hour he has been praying in the local church at the town that he, his regiment and many others were stationed before they were deployed.
It was January 21st 2027, and it had finally come, the next and perhaps the last great war that humanity will ever fight.
Lucius bowed to the image of Christ and collected his gear before joining his friend outside. There was a flurry of activity outside, soldiers, sailors, marines, all running about the place, but all in a singular direction, toward the ship that lay at anchor. There were dozens of transport ships off-shore, dedicated troop carriers, and many civilian cruise ships that were requisitioned by the navy. This was the staging area for the largest naval invasion in all history. There were over 100 coastal towns up and down Western Europe, from the UK, the Netherlands all the way towards Kiel in Northern Germany. As for Lucius and his lot, he was on the island of Heligoland, it's place in the North sea and its proximity to the mainland allowed for a massive flotilla of ships to anchor itself safely around the island.

This scale of this naval invasion would make the Normandy landings look like a picnic. An estimated 470,000 soldiers and marines and thousands of transport ships would be involved in this operation, and well over 1,200 warships of various types that would escort them. The many tens of thousands of troops at Heligoland began embarking on their transports, and within a couple of hours would begin their first faze, rendezvousing with the rest of the fleet off the coast of Northern Denmark.
Lucius and his friend Theo were on the same transport ship, a civilian cruise ship "The Golden Challis" Both them and a load of others leaned over the railing as the fleet sailed along, the cold North sea winds blow across the sea and the open decks of the ships, causing many exposed to shiver slightly, but most were numb to the cold, they knew what awaited them, and had steeled themselves for it.

"I'd never had thought that my first time on a cruise ship would be to go to war" Lucius remarked as he leaned back against the side railing, looking at the structure of the ship, its lavish paintwork and artistic shape. He noted that the ship once had slides on board, especially on the decks, but these were removed by the navy so they could fit more bodies on board. "I've only been once" Chirped Theo as he looked out toward the sea "Although i was sick to my stomach" "Why?" Lucius asked "Bad sea food... and too much booze" Theo chuckled, followed soon after by Lucius "My recommendation, never have the sea food. I was sick almost the entire duration. Went almost mad looking into the toilet bowl, imaging having tunnel vision staring directly at the contents of your stomach, uch i can still smell it" he spat out over the side. Lucius chuckled some more. "I thinks after this deployment i wont want to be on any more cruise ships, sick to death of being on them now. You know its our 4th landing right?" He scowled a little as he thinks back to his other deployments. His first landing was Egypt to take and secure the Suez canal. The 2nd was the North of Norway to reinforce the Northern Front. The 3rd was the coast of Syria, although a neutral country at the time, they couldn't be trusted not to the enemy to pass through its lands and threaten the Suez.

- 3 days later, Off the coast of Northern Denmark-

The massive combined fleet had finally gathered, the sea was a mass of white and grey steel, it was like a carpet had been laid across the sea, covering the blue water below. It took another 2 days before the fleet would finally sail again, this time toward its target. A briefing was given to every company, regiment, division, the entire landing force was told their orders. This operation would either be the beginning of the end of the war, or their complete annihilation. Everything hung on this one decisive action.
Another 4 days past and orders were made to make ready the invasion. The coast of Northern Estonia was in sight. It was currently occupied by the Russian Federation, along with Finland. The landing targets were West most parts of Estonia, such as: Riguldi, Elbiku, Rooslepa, Dirhami, Spithami, Perakula, Rannakula, Nova, Vaisi, and finally Keibu. A total of 41+ miles of coast. But along every stretch of coast was heavily fortified positions, dugouts, bunkers, coastal guns, inland longs rand guns, sea mines, land mines on the beaches, and every other conception of weapon was going to be at work this day. Lucius and Theo, and everyone else on board their ship got their gear together. A voice on the loud speaker rang out over the men, immediately drawing their attention "Soldiers, marines, sailors. Today, will be the either result in the greatest victory in military history, or abject defeat. It is much already that has been placed upon your shoulders, that you should all be the instrument to fight this war. You have it within you to bring about the end of this destructive conflict, you will make your countries, your families and countless generations proud for what you sacrificed this day and everyday. Let not this be our darkest hour, put aside fear and despair, for on this day we will be victorious, and be heralded as heroes of our generation. Men... to your duty" The voice cried out, and a roaring eruption sounded from the ship, as well as from nearby ships that were close enough to listen.

The men quickly began boarding their landing crafts, which numbered in the thousands. As the fleet drew nearer, thunderous roars from planes flew overhead toward the landings, dropping bombs on any defences they could find, and in return and thick blanket of anti-air gun fire lit up the sky, dozens of missile streaks went skyward to intercept the aircraft. simultaneously the guns from the shore began raining down upon the fleet, and the was returned in kind by every warship in range. From guns to missiles, the sky was as thick with steel and metal as was upon the sea. Many found their marks and struck many landing and transport ships, it does not bare to thinks the number of dead this day.

Lucius and Theo were together on a landing craft as it quickly made its way toward their target of Keibu Bay. This landing was going to be the hardest, it was a shallow "U" type beach, and so there was weapons emplacements on either side that could cause devastating destruction to the landing force.
The sea roiled and rolled as munitions blew up around the landing crafts, many finding their mark. The dismembered bodies of many laying in the water as their craft sank, the bay slowly began to turn red with the blood of the dead, but as they drew nearer to the beach, small arms fire began peppering the crafts, slaying many before they ever reached the sands. As for Lucius and Theo, they were both holding tightly to their weapons, Lucius dared to look back and saw the charred wreckage of destroyed landing crafts, and further beyond he could see the very cruise ship that we was only moments ago on, begin slipping beneath the waves, black smoke was pouring out of the ship, he could even see men jumping off the burning wreck before they were consumed by either fire of the sea. The sight shook him to his core, only returning to his senses after an explosion rocked the craft and sprayed water over them all.

Ahead of him wasn't much better either. Some of landing crafts that were ahead of his own had made it to the beach, while others lay burning, with twisted metal and bloodied surfaces. The men that landed on the beach made a valiant effort and stormed forward, only to be cut down by both mines and gunfire "This is a god damn bloodbath!" Lucius cried, his own landing craft now only meters from the beach. The landing ramp dropped and then... BANG. The back of his craft was blown apart and he and the other closest to the front were hurled forward and into the waters, it was shallow enough that they didn't risk drowning. Theo was just ahead of Lucius, laying on his back trying desperately to catch his breath "Hold on Theo... I'm coming!" Lucius cried as he got to his feet and ran toward his friend, bullets whistling past him as he did. He reached his friend who had finally gathered himself, then together they ran to the nearest bomb crater and taking what little cover they could while shooting back at the enemy. "Lovely day at the beach huh?" Theo joked, surprisingly given the circumstance. Lucius gave a dry laugh as he continued firing "... Dammit, forgot my bucket and spade" he quickly added, humour always made fighting for your life a little easier, he thought.

There was more and more landing crafts making their way to the beach, but still many that didn't, and now the entire coast was beginning to turn a crimson red, with hundreds of bodies littering the beach. For those that did make it and lasted more than 10 seconds, life wasn't so peachy. Lucius and Theo had been joined by a couple more marines who all together began shooting at anything that shot at them. The small crater now began to fill with brass casing from all the shots fired. "We need to move from here, make our way toward that treeline at least" Lucius instructed as he loaded another magazine "We get to those trees we may have a shot at knocking out those bunkers on the cliffs, stop our guys from getting cut to pieces" Theo added, as he pointed the nearest bunker to their North. The small group of men agreed and made a daring dash toward the treeline, dodging gunfire and explosions on their way. After what felt like an hour of running, all but 3 of their group made it to the trees and took cover. Lucius now noted only 7 of them made it. He looked back toward the beach to see the utter bloodbath that it had become, but still there were many of those that had made it and began taking cover. There was still some limited support from the fleet as missiles and shells rained down on enemy positions, which lightened the firepower that they could bring to bare on the beach.

"Do you know. we didn't bring any explosives with us" Theo remarked as he looked over the kit of everyone present "Oh I'm sure they'll have some to spare" Lucius replied, pointing to mortar position just beyond the trees they were in. Lucius and the rest of the men began another mad dash toward the mortar position, not expecting a group of marines to be charging them, the enemy had no chance to fend off the surprise and lighting attack that they executed. "Well, that was surprisingly easier than I thought" Theo joked, loading another magazine. Lucius took no time in taking advantage of the situation and began to use the mortar to target the nearest bunker, rather fortunately he could just about make out a sizable stockpile of munitions just outside of the bunker. 'easy pickings' he thought. Theo quickly grabbed a mortar round and after the appropriate adjustments had been made, he dropped the round down the tube and Thunk, BANG The mortar flew out the tube and flew towards the target. A couple seconds later and a massive bright light lit the bunker up as the entire munitions dump behind it blew up, anther second later the boom hit. A few whoops and cheers came from the men as they admired their work "You think they noticed?" Lucius joked as he stood up, Theo chucking a little.

It was then that their little victory was interrupted by the approaching tank and infantry. They had indeed been noticed. The tank loosed off a round and hit just in front of their position, sending dirt flying over the men "Quickly, you two take the mortar and fire at their infantry, we'll deal with the tank. Come on Theo, grab a couple" Lucius instructed as he and Theo grabbed a couple loose mortar rounds and made yet another daring dash toward the tank, the others beside those using the mortar were close behind, giving fire to the enemy. Bullets whizzed past, along with the occasional tank shell, each time getting closer, each time mounds of dirt was kicked up coating everyone. The men began spreading out, making themselves a harder target to hit, but even so, they began to fall one by one. They were nearly at the tank, the mortar was doing a good job of obscuring the tanks ability to see due to smoke. Just a little more and they'll have it. The tank fired off another shot toward Lucius, his eyes grew wide as he saw muzzle flash. It hit just 2 feet to his left and threw him some several feet to the right, he hit the ground hard, his weapon gone as the strap broke away, his ears ringing, and one of them bleeding. He lay on the floor, unable to move, to hear, to make sense of his surroundings. Seconds pass, but they feel like minutes, he could feel the ground shake as the tank was nearing him, no, it was passing him by, still it continued to fire toward the mortar. The tanks accompanying infantry were mostly killed or wounded and so none of them noticed Lucius laying on the ground. Another few seconds pass and now Lucius could see the tank pass just beside him. Mustering all his strength he managed to stumble to his feet and take hold of one of the mortar rounds he had took with him and began stumbling toward the tank, it stopping only briefly to fire its gun more accurately. He ran with what strength he had and made his way right behind the tank, quickly climbing atop it he took his pistol out and started shooting the tank commanders target finding equipment, this prompted the hatch on the tank to open as said tank commander decided to investigate before he was shot and killed by Lucius. As the body slumped back into the tank, Lucius took hold of a grenade and his mortar and pulled the pin before tossing both inside and jumping off before it went off.

BAAANG. His plan worked, it blew the turret completely off and landed way away from him, with nothing but a chard wreck burning before him. He once again stood to his feet and stumbled around a little before finding his footing. It was in this stumbling that he mad a startling discovery, his best friend Theo, dead on the ground, shot in the chest. Lucius dropped to knees beside his friend, tears began to well in his eyes "Dammit Theo" He croaked, placing a hand on his bloodied chest. Lucius ran his fingers down Theo's face to close his eyes, and with one final sniffle he took a photo out of his pocket, it was one where both of them and a couple of their best friends were together after their first deployment, everyone but him in that photo was now dead, all their names were signed on the back of it so he'd always remember them. He looked down toward his friend one last time "Keep one for me will you old boy?" He stood back up and looked around. He could still hear fighting on the beach, but not as much as when he first arrived, he could even see a few more of the marines make their way through the treeline that he took. Lucius looked around and noticed that he was all alone, even those manning the mortar finally had their number done. He was alone, wounded, nearly out of ammunition, but still with a job to do

He could see a small town in the distance, no doubt that it was heavily occupied, but even so it looked like it took a beating, there were multiple black smoke stacks. He decided to have a go, why not. He picked up one of the fallen enemy rifles and two magazines. He began slowly making his way over, his injuries making it difficult, his ears were still ringing and he was beginning to feel dizzy. It wasn't long before he was taking small arms fire from the town. He raised his rifle and fired back, but his arms were heavy, each step took felt like dragging heavy weights. He continued to fire, some finding its mark, many other missing. Now even more fire was being brought to bare against him, including sniper. He took a round to the shoulder, thus dropping his rifle, he drew his pistol and continued shooting. Another round hit him in the leg, he started dragging it along with him "Come on you bastards, it'll take more than that" Lucius groaned. More bullets whizzed past, and another hit him in the chest, this time he dropped to his knees, the wind blown out of him. He could no longer fire back for he had run out of bullets, and his arm grew tired. In one last act of defiance he took out his knife and looked at his enemy, blood now oozing out of his mouth "Not dead... yet" He wheezed. Then finally one last round hit him again in his chest, making Lucius fall on to his back into the tall grass.

He starred up into the sky, smoke enveloping every patch of sky. His breathing was shallow and his heart was slowing, the ringing in his ears grew ever louder. Taking out the picture in his pocket he held it close and tight. The world around him seemed to slow down now, this is the end he thought as he began to embrace death. Amidst the gunfire and explosions and overhead roar of aircraft his mind began to focus on the gentle breeze blowing through the tall grass, its cold lick running over his body. All was now quiet, save for the calm breeze which soothed the dying Lucius, then became a bright white light which overtook him and his eyes closed once more...

…He felt cold still, the calm breeze began to fade, so to did the ringing in his ears, but still he lay there, bloodied and mortally wounded. He could no longer hear the fighting around him, but what he could only guess was distant traffic. 'How can that be?' he thought, then he heard sirens? Was he going mad? He would attempt to stand to investigate but had not the strength to even lift a finger. The sirens drew closer and he began to worry 'Is this hell? Am i dead?' he began to consider. He closed his eyes for a moment, his wounds still causing him pain. It's stopped, the sirens, they have arrived, he could hear doors open and close and a scurry running toward him, he could also hear voices 'English' he thought. He narrowly opened his eyes once more but was confronted with a black and hazy picture unable to identify those now around him.

"Ugh Judy... What is that?"

Blackness.

Hello everyone, its Cavas here! I hope you enjoyed the first (though rather long?) chapter of this new Zootopia Fanfiction. I used to be a fervent writer years ago but as it does life gets in the way of ones passions. Its currently 05:02 as im writing this, so as you can imaging im very tired, but my love for writing has kept me going until i finished this chapter.

Please feel free to comment what you think. id love to know what you think.

ThanK you and good morning XD