Chapter 1

Hell on the front lines

"Hey Rico"

A young man was sitting on a hill looking towards the sun set when he heard his friend calling to him

"Ya..Oh hey Ivan" Rico replied turning towards him

"Whatcha doin down here?" Ivan asked, walking over towards him taking a seat.

"Oh nothing just trying relaxing" Rico told him sighing

Ivan turned his gaze towards the sunset too, its blazing orange glow being highlighted by the pink skies made for a beautiful sight to see. They stayed like that for a few minutes just enjoying the time they had left before life really began and they had all the time in the world without responsibilities.

"So uhm Rico what do you plan to do after this like what you want your future to be. You're gonna go to college or?" Ivan asked rico

"Haven't given it much thought to be honest" Rico responded

"Well" Ivan said getting up "You've got a bit more time to decide but whatever you end up doing I hope works out for ya man"

"Thanks"

"No problem" Ivan told him turning around "Oh ya one more thing"

"Hm" Rico said turning towards him

"Me and some of the guys are gonna go down to the arcade sunday wanna come" Ivan asked

"Sure"

Rico wished he had those years back, he wished he could relive highschool, he wished he could be back there sitting on that hill watching the sunset. Instead he was in a dropship waiting for his impending death, would he die? Will this be his final resting place, a land filled with death and sorrow. Dying with a bullet through his chest bleeding out to his wounds. Or would he make it out, survive the battle only to do it again or again until he dies or the war is over.

"Alright you sons of bitches!" the sergeant yelled "In 3 minutes we're entering the AO, the minute we get down there on the ground I want you maggots shoot every single goddamn Central Confederate son of a bitch you see down there you understand me Maggots"

The ship erupted with a loud "Yes sergeant" as they started to hear loud booms from below. They had entered the AO, a loud boom sounded close to the ship shaking it.

"Fuck!" The pilot yelled "were hit I'm gonna have to drop you guys off here"

"You heard him, prep for combat" The sergeant told them making his way to the front door

The booms kept getting louder and louder as they got closer to the ground. Rico felt the ship land, he took a big sigh and started to get nervous as he heard the door opening. He gripped his rifle tightly as the light in the ship flashed green

"Go, Go, Go" The sergeant yelled at them

Rico's fellow soldiers began running out of the drop ship, when the man in front of Rico ran out Rico followed running out of the ship gun raised. When Rico ran out he was met with gunfire coming from both sides, bullets flew past him as he witnessed the man next to him get hit multiple times in the chest killing him. Rico paused looking at the body on the floor but composed himself and continued forward doing the one thing he could only do, fire his weapon. Rico held onto the trigger emptying his magazine and loading another, that's all he knew how to do shoot reload, shoot reload.

Rico ran behind a wall taking cover from the incoming fire, he saw another soldier from the wall across from him. He looked at the floor clutching his rifle to his chest, he nodded and poked out from behind the wall firing his rifle hoping he'd hit someone or something but it was short lived when a bullet struck him in the head. He fell over instantly going limp, Rico sat down behind the wall clutching his rifle. He was scared he didn't want to die here but he couldn't stay here forever, so he mustered up all the courage he had and rolled out from behind the wall kneeling on one knee holding down his trigger firing at the enemy. When he heard his gun click he reloaded dropping his past magazine and inserting a new one. He got back up onto his 2 feet and ran once more firing his rifle occasionally, he heard a boom and saw that artillery had hit next to him. Rico began running even faster, determined to make it out of this, determined to live through this war and go back to living a normal life.

Rico tripped and fell into a trench, when he got up he saw multiple soldiers in the trench alongside him. One of the soldiers next to him turned to him

"Hey you alright?" he asked ducking down to avoid getting hit

"Y-ya I should be fine" Rico replied getting up and grabbing his rifle

The soldier nodded and went back to a firing position, Rico did the same putting his rifle up on the ground and fired hoping he'd hit someone. He was firing until he heard one of his allies yell

"Oh Fuck!"

Rico looked up to see what was the matter, when he looked at what he saw terrified him. An St-55-86 Terminator, a Russian Slave Trooper. One of the best in the world, it was the main Slave trooper used by Central Confederate soldiers.

"Don't worry I got this" One of the soldiers said walking out from the trench pulling out a rocket launcher going down on one knee aiming it at the Terminator

The rocket flew towards it impacting it's chest, it's upper body was covered in smoke however once it cleared the Slave Trooper remained unscathed said for a few scratches on the chest armor. It looked down at the Soldier it's Glowing red eye staring at the poor soldier

"Oh Fu-"

Before he could finish the Terminator used it's head mounted machine guns to fill the poor soldier with lead

"Open fire" One the soldiers yelled, firing his gun at the terminator.

The rest followed, The terminator covered it's face before lowering it's arm and opening fire upon the soldiers. Rico froze, there was no way he could beat this thing he looked around and he saw an St-51-71 on the floor. This was the best shot he had to take that son of a bitch down, he had a bit of Slave Trooper piloting experience back at boot camp when one of his friends taught him a bit about it. He got up and ran towards the Specter hoping it was still operational, he climbed inside the cockpit starting it up. After a moment the camera turned and so did the machine's systems. It's green visor started glowing as it stood up grabbing his rifle next to him, it had been a while since Rico had piloted one of these things but it soon came back to him

Rico had the drop on the terminator raising its rifle and firing. It struck the terminator in the leg and in the arm. The Terminator stumbled a bit but managed to keep its stance, he looked at the Spectre raising its machine gun and began firing. In response Rico raised his shield blocking most of the bullets before the shield eventually broke. Rico dropped the shield and began running towards his left, returning fire upon the terminator. Rico had managed to strike the terminator in the forearm causing him to drop his gun. The Terminator reached towards his back pulling out his combat ax, Rico tried to fire at it but was out of ammo. Left with one option he reached for his combat knife.

The terminator ran towards him, raising it above his head ready to bring it down upon the Specter, but Rico had a plan. When the Terminator got close Rico stepped to the side, knife held out ready to stab, before the terminator could halt his assault it was already too late. The knife had met its target, the knife pierced the cockpit of the terminator killing its pilot instantly. Rico was breathing heavily, he had just killed someone, he had ended a man's life. For all he knew he could have had a family and he just tore it apart. But wasn't this his duty I mean he knew what he signed up for and besides it was either him or Rico. Rico pulled the knife out from the cockpit putting it back into its holster.

"Hey"

Rico turned around to see another Specter

"Can you help me clear the rest of these guys out?" The Specter pilot asked

"Y-Yes sir" Rico responded

The Specter pilot tossed Rico a magazine for his machine gun and began walking towards the enemy lines. Rico took a deep breath and followed the other Specter into mass of bodies and bullets.