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[lolzrpwnrd]

This is my new story, I have been writing for HOURS today trying to finish. So here it is, my new story, The War To End All Wars. Signing out, hope you guys like this.

Part Zero, Chapter One, "Seeds of Conflict"

Humanity had flourished in the late 2000’s. New political ideas and leaders had brought the threat of conflict to an all-time low by 2015. Around this time, three geo-political movements sprang up because of a new idea called “demounificationism.” Demounificationism called for humanity to unite under a group similar to the United Nations, albeit on a much larger scale. This would allow humanity’s problems to be solved with ease, and with less conflict of interest. This belief was originally supported by the North American states and the European Union.

As a result in 2016 the Democratic Republic of United Nations or DRUN, pronounced “droon” or “drun,” was formed between the European Union, the North American states, Mexico, Japan, India, and Taiwan. They united under one government, centered in Paris, France. This government consisted of seven elected leaders, two from the EU, and then one from each member country or group. DRUN was a major success; in five years every DRUN nation was in the Top 15 richest nations.

This success was evident early on, and so Asian countries came up with their form of demounificationism. Russia, China, and several other central Asian countries formed the Organized Group of Asian Nations or OGAN. OGAN was controlled by one man, rather than seven. The first was Ivan Kamarov of Russia. He was a conservative leader who chose to ally with DRUN rather than remain unaffiliated. This went well until 2023, when they were involved in a war with the third power, known as the Alliance of
Southern Hemisphere States, or ASHS.

Pronounced like “ashes,” the ASHS were made up of South and Central America, Africa, and the Middle East. Their government was headed in the former country of Kuwait, which was now an ASHS territory. The ASHS started as being fairly isolationist, trading and communicating with each other rather than DRUN or OGAN. This turned out badly, since the African and American nations were dominated by their oil-rich, Middle Eastern allies. In the very late 2010’s, there was infighting between the ASHS countries and in 2021, a hardliner named Mohammed Kaytah came to power.

Kaytah was a hardliner, who vowed to “outwit the greedy OGAN and DRUN nations,” and “restore the ASHS to its true place in the world.” So in 2023, ASHS forces invaded the collection of Central-Asian states, notably Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan. OGAN immediately responded, sending thousands of men and machines to the area. Soon, a full-fledged war was underway. News footage showed massive amounts of troops fighting over mountains and across fields.

Although OGAN had more men and equipment, the war became very costly and dragged on for years and years. Finally in 2031, almost 10 years after the “war of attrition” began, DRUN joined the war on the side of OGAN. With their advanced technology bolstering the OGAN military, they were able to push ASHS out of the area and back to the pre-war border. But instead of pushing on to the capital of ASHS, Kamarov ordered the offensive stopped and to begin negotiations to end the conflict. A year later, after the Treaty of Singapore was signed by DRUN, OGAN, and ASHS, the world returned to a peacetime mode. The Treaty of Singapore forced ASHS to pay reparations to OGAN while DRUN sent advisors to the ASHS to help stimulate their economies. Also, Kaytah was forced to relieve the leadership of ASHS.

Meanwhile, OGAN was having their 11 year elections. People were dissatisfied with how Kamarov had handled the conflict, and how he had asked for DRUN’s help. So they elected a hardliner named General Vasily Petrovich. He was a hero of the offensive which had demolished the ASHS war machine, having had led an infantry platoon up a heavily fortified hill and taken it with few casualties. The people of OGAN rallied under him and he won in a landslide victory over Kamarov. DRUN was worried, and their concerns were merited when Petrovich rescinded the alliance with DRUN, and changed it to a non-aggression pact.

DRUN was not without its problems. In 2036, a civil war was fought in the American states between DRUN and a radical organization known as the National Allied Front for the Expulsion of Heretics. NAFEH, or more commonly known as “nafe,” instituted a guerilla campaign against DRUN. This lasted until 2038, when a special operations fireteam led by Captain James Harding killed NAFEH’s leader, and ended the conflict. Sadly, Harding was killed during the operation. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

ASHS was only involved in peaceful trade and commerce with DRUN, especially after the election of a new ASHS leader, who was very level-headed and didn’t want conflict. This was an effective strategy, boosting the ASHS states’ economies. As a result, ASHS became a major contender for the world’s trade volume and resources.

While there were many advances in politics, there were also advances in biomedical research as well. New medicines allowed people to live longer and healthier. Research into stem cells had allowed scientists to clone organs and other tissues, while advances in genetic engineering had allowed the creation of larger cattle and plants. This caused higher yields for food and other organic products, and virtually eliminated world hunger. While this technology was meant for peacetime activities, the military wanted a new weapon.

So with the almost unlimited funding any military has, DRUN became the first to begin a bio-weapons program in 2035. It was called the Macro Bio-Weapons Research Division. They wanted a standoff ender, a weapon that would not only demoralize the enemy, but be autonomous and intelligent. But most of all, they wanted it to be loyal. So after the failure of several “prototypes,” DRUN scientists got success in MBW/R-046A\8. The Macro Bio-Weapon, Reptile species that was created in 2046 in the 8th generation of Alpha was that success.

Standing at over 250 feet tall, with thick scales and able to crush a full-sized Main Battle Tank under one foot, they were the ultimate weapon. Also gifted with the precision necessary to pick up and carry individual or small groups of people, and a natural camouflage feature, they could also support special operations deep inside enemy territory. The “PD8’s,” as they were referred to, were also highly intelligent, capable of speech and problem solving. In their first “test run,” they were able to raid an insurgent base, extract POW’s, and then destroy the base. There were no problems or “malfunctions.” The program continued being a success until 2051, when two major things happened.

One was the leaking of PROJECT DRAGON 8 to an unknown area, suspected and later confirmed to be inside OGAN. This was immediately covered up by DRUN and worried the leaders. If OGAN, who was now promoting hostilities against DRUN, developed their own reverse-engineered PD8, there could be a massive war—unlike any the world had ever seen. A conflict so unimaginable, it may in fact destroy humanity. It needed to be avoided at all costs.

The second problem was much worse than the prior, and would haunt DRUN for years to come. In one week, 90%, or about 28 of the PD8 forces escaped, and moved to an unknown location in Eastern Europe. The other 10% would join them in under a month. It was a disaster for DRUN, but needed little covering up because of the PD8’s camouflage feature. The PD8’s intelligence had been a double-edged sword. While it allowed them to make tactical decisions, it was believed that they had formulated their own beliefs about humanity, and had decided to make their own community. The squabbling and fear continued until 2053, when OGAN formally announced the completion of their own bio-weapons program.
DRUN was shocked. They didn’t think that it was possible for them to have completed a program so quickly. But, the leak had been massive, and had made sure that OGAN avoided the trial and error that had plagued DRUN scientists. But in a small victory for DRUN, their contacts inside OGAN reported that a mass breakout of PD8’s had occurred. As with DRUN, it was 100%. Now neither DRUN nor OGAN had bio-weapons.

But there was still the problem of another, more powerful species than humans reproducing and growing in Eastern Europe. DRUN and OGAN both attempted to find the PD8’s, without each other’s help of course. Their attempts were futile, and were met with no success until DRUN sent a small fireteam deep into the Ural Mountains in western Russia.

This fireteam was in constant communication with Central Command, and after a few weeks found evidence of a large macro community. Two days later they said that they had engaged four PD8’s, and were falling back.
The last received transmission from November Two was 30 minutes later, and garbled. After some tweaking, two voices could be heard. One was identified as November Two’s leader—the other was unknown.

DRUN desperately needed to find the PD8’s. But there was a complication. OGAN had learned of November Two and was furious that DRUN would send troops into OGAN territory. The crisis was now reaching its climax, as the human negotiators and politicians tried to avoid a conflict between the world’s two greatest powers. And during all this, the PD8’s silently observed the humans, watching their buildups of military forces and waiting for the beginning of the eventual conflict that would place them in control of the world, and demolish humanity’s place as the ruling species of the world.

[lolzrpwnrd]

Not surprised at the lack of comments. That was a very dry chapter. Hopefully this is better.

Part One, Chapter One, "Darkness Falls"


[ONE]


First Lieutenant Tom Harding
1535 Hours; October 15th, 2064
Fireteam Leader; Echo-Zero-Two; 177th Marine Force Recon; DRUNAF
Briefing Room 2; Shostka AFB; Eastern Ukraine (DRUN); Europe

“Lieutenant, have a seat.”

Tom was sitting around a large, holographic projector that was currently showing the land east of Shostka. The majority of the projection was a soft blue, while there was a mass of red shapes on the right side of the table, near the border between Ukraine and Russia. Tom had zoned out because he had been uninvolved in the conversation about this buildup of units. He was snapped out of his reverie when Colonel José Munz called his name, “Tom? Do you mind paying attention? Now we need you. Up and at ‘em!”

Tom groaned and stood. Although he was taller than Munz, he did not radiate authority like Munz did, with his clean-pressed uniform and always straight face. Munz stared at Tom for an awkward second before continuing. “As I was saying, if these forces move down the E-101, then they can drive their tanks at 60 miles an hour the whole way through Ukraine.” He looked at Lieutenant Grant Baker, who led Echo-Zero’s AT fireteam. “If they advance with armored units, I want Baker’s fireteam their ASAP. We will have fire support from the 87th Fighter Wing, callsign ‘Wasp’s Nest’, and the 334th Artillery Division will send us some of their units. Their callsign is ‘Trebuchet’.” All of them smiled at how ironic the callsign was.

Munz turned to Tom, “I need you fireteam to go and mine the E-101. It’s already blocked to civilian traffic, so just plant some M101’s and XM-250’s.” The M101 ATMS was an anti-tank mine that was useful for roadways because of its ability to engage vehicles 100 meters away from itself. The M101 had replaced the older M93 HORNET mine in 2022. The XM-250 was a mine that had been designed immediately after the breakout of the PD8’s, which is why it still had the Experimental designation. It was able to engage targets up to 250 feet vertically and 150 meters laterally, making it perfect against PD8’s, but also against low flying aircraft and conventional armored units. Most thought it was just an advanced AT mine, but the high-ranking brass knew its true usage.

“Lieutenant, take you team now. I’ll keep you updated on the status of those OGAN troops.” Tom saluted, and turned to walk out. “Oh Tom, one more thing.” He looked back, hand on the door’s switch. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

“I won’t” Tom replied simply. He then activated the door and was gone.

[TWO]


Tom wistfully watched the trees whipping by the Stryker APC as they blazed along the P-65 at 70 miles per hour. His fireteam had loaded into the “Bravo” APC of Echo-Zero-Four, Echo-Zero Platoon’s ground transport fireteam. Their Stryker was armed with a 30mm auto grenade launcher on the roof, plus a Starstreak anti-aircraft missile system that could be set up by a trained crew in minutes. Tom turned to the vehicle’s commander.

“How long?” he asked.

“Three mikes to target” the team’s commander, Dimitry Kosolov, announced in his thick East-European accent.

Tom gestured for his team to pay attention, and began. “This is not a combat deployment, but things could go south very quickly. I want everyone at the best now. Sam, stay with me.” Sam Hughes was the team’s explosives expert, and was the reason they were classified as an
“Assault” fireteam. “Everyone else, cover us. I don’t expect anything, but always expect the unexpected.”

“Good luck Two, we’ll be waiting” Kosolov said as the APC slowly stopped moving. Tom punched the door release and they quickly exited the Stryker. As soon as they were clear, the vehicle rumbled off. Tom shivered as he stood in the cold. It had to be less than 20 degrees Fahrenheit. He gestured to his squad. “Sam, on me. Everybody stay sharp.”

They slowly moved to the area that Munz wanted mined. It took them almost 30 minutes, but they made it without seeing anything living. No animals, no birds, nothing. That worried Tom, but he didn’t think about it too much as he motioned for Sam to get to work. Sam dropped to a knee and pulled out an XM-250. The rest of the team stood, ill at ease. All of them were nervously moving; Tom rocked back and forth on his heels, while Michael, the team’s machine gunner, loosened and tightened his grip on the MG8 he was carrying. The MG8 was an M8 assault rifle with a longer barrel and a 100-round drum magazine. Just then, Tom could have sworn he saw something moving behind some trees about 400 meters away.

“Hey, Stefan. Aim your scope over by those trees, I just saw something.”
Stefan raised his M107 SASR and looked down its scope. After a moment, he shook his head.

Tom thought for a second, considering his options. He could chase after it and expose the rest of his team, or wait and see what it did. Tom decided to go with the former. “Jacobs, on me. Stefan, you and Michael stay with Sam. Call me on TACCOM when he’s finished.” Stefan and Michael nodded, and walked over to Sam.

Private Arthur Jacobs hurried over to Tom. Jacobs was green, fresh out of Quantico, the famed Special Forces school in the United States. But he had done well there, so Tom hoped it would count over here. “Let’s go” he said to Arthur, and the two trudged off, not knowing that they were being watched.

------

After walking for a few minutes, they reached the trees where Tom thought he had seen something. “Head on a swivel. That will keep you alive Jacobs. Now let’s see it.” Arthur started looking around, rather than at the ground like he had been. Tom nodded his approval.

He then shouldered his Fabrique Nationale SCAR-H, and fiddled with the magazine. The “H” designation meant that it shot the 7.62x51mm NATO, rather than the “L” variant, which shot the 5.56x45mm NATO. It was a comfortable weapon that Tom could rely on in a firefight. He looked over and saw Arthur raise his SCAR and aim it up the hill to their left. “I swear that I just saw something” he said nervously.

Tom gulped, and looked—there was nothing. He realized that if there had been something watching them, it was now relocating. Without thinking, he quickly yelled, “Arthur, follow it! Hurry!” They sprinted up the hill, and as they reached the top Tom saw something, something big, disappear into the woods ahead. For an instant he debated whether to continue, but instead he yelled “Faster!”, and they kept up their pursuit.

They entered the trees, and Tom’s rational mind screamed “ambush,” but his adrenaline was flowing, and he wasn’t listening to his rational part.

Suddenly, they burst into a clearing. Tom raised a hand, and they both stopped. Tom looked around, straining to hear anything. The only thing that he could hear was their labored breathing, and the thumping of his own heart. He glanced over at Arthur, who was doubled over, and coughing. Tom felt sick, and did the same. Between breaths, he said “Hey, chasing shadows, great exercise. We should do it more often.” Arthur grinned for a moment, but then resumed coughing.

Tom toggled his throat mike, and spoke, “Stefan, we’re coming back now. Just chased something big. I’ll tell you more when we get there. Out.” He let his hand fall to his side, and looked over at Arthur. “Let’s get the hell out of here” he said. The two humans walked off, never noticing the slight shimmering in the snow less than 50 meters away.

------

As soon as the humans were gone, the huge creature stood, shaking snow off of its back, and turned as another one of its kind walked out of the woods. “That was too close” the latter said. “They almost saw you.”
“I guess I underestimated them” the first said sheepishly.
“At least they didn’t see you.” The creature looked to the sky. “We should head back, he will be expecting a report on if we saw any Others.”
“Right. Others.” The huge dragon sighed. “You lead.” As they walked away, the two PD8’s activated their natural camouflage and disappeared into the trees, like they were never even there.

[THREE]


“You guys finished yet?” Tom yelled as soon as they were in earshot of Stefan and the others. When they didn’t get an answer, Tom and Arthur began to jog towards them. Tom saw the look in Stefan’s eyes—something had scared him badly. And Stefan didn’t get scared often.

“What’s up?” he said placing a hand on Stefan’s cold shoulder.

“Four o’clock” he said, almost at a whisper. “250 meters.”

Tom looked. There was nothing. “What in God’s name are you-” he stopped, the next word hanging on his lips, but not being said. It was a PD8. The only reason he’d seen it was its bright and intelligent yellow eyes that contrasted with the white snow. Right now, those eyes were looking at them like one would study an interesting insect.

“How long has it been there?” he asked quietly to Stefan.

“Five minutes.” Stefan gulped, and then looked at Tom with a worried expression. “What are we going to do?” he said.

Look at this shithole you’ve gotten yourself into Tom thought. Then he got an idea. It was stupid, and would piss off a lot of people, but he wasn’t going to killed by that thing. He tapped a small key on his helmet, and a thin screen popped out in front of his left eye—his TID, or Tactical Imaging Device. He looked to the option that said “EMERGENCY BEACON.” Here comes the cavalry he thought as he selected it by focusing in on the icon.

------

“Colonel, sir. Lieutenant Harding just activated his E-Beacon.”

“What?” Munz said, surprised. He strode over to the holo-projector and brought up the tactical map. There were no enemy units within 20 kilometers of Harding’s team. What the hell Munz thought. “He wouldn’t activate it unless he had good reason. Send the rest of Echo, and call up the 87th and have them send an F-35 our way.”

“Roger that.” The tech looked over at a wall-mounted display. “Sir, message from CENTCOM. Patching it through.” The tech depressed several keys, and the image of Commander General Martin Peterson, the man who controlled all DRUN Armed Forces, appeared on the screen. “Sir” Munz crisply saluted.

“Colonel, OGAN has sent us a declaration of war. I can’t give you more details, but several of our bases in Eastern Europe have been attacked. Put your units on full alert, but do not attack. We’re playing defense right now, just to see how far they’re taking this. Peterson out.” The image disappeared.

“Break down the connection, sir?” the tech asked.

“Break it down, and get our units rolling. Call up General Vargas, see if we can get some heavy armor too.” He sighed, and walked to the door. Munz really wanted to sleep, but he needed to tell Harding about these developments. And so it begins he thought sadly.

------

Tom heard the roar of the F-35B Lightning II before he saw it. Moments after he first heard it, the fighter screamed overhead and rolled into a tight bank as it orbited their position. Tom glanced back at where the PD8 had been—it was gone. Over the now-distant roar of the F-35 he heard the sound of several Stryker APCs and some M1A4 Super Abrams MBTs. The M1A4 was an upgraded version of the M1A2 MBT. The Super Abrams retained the A2’s M256 120mm Smoothbore cannon and 12.7mm coaxial machine gun. On the roof was one M806A2 Lightweight .50 Caliber machine gun and a M240G heavy machine gun. The crew size was still four, although an auto-loader was optional. The A4 also had advanced depleted-uranium armor, and a stealth feature which blurred its radar signature.

As the formation slowed to a stop, Tom walked up to the lead APC. The doors opened and a large contingent of heavily-armed infantry spread out, creating a perimeter. After the “all-clear” order was given, Colonel Munz stepped out of the Stryker. He immediately walked up to Tom, grabbed him by the arm, and led him down the road.

“Now I’m sure you had good reason for the beacon, but don’t tell me now. We have bigger problems.” He glanced at Tom, and then continued,

“There is a large armor group heading down the MSR towards the E-101. We need to hold this position.”

“What? Why are they attacking? The negotiations were-”

“Going badly” Munz finished. “OGAN sent us a declaration of war twenty mikes ago. And we’re in the thick of it.” He looked deep into Tom’s eyes,

“I know something is bothering you, but don’t worry about whatever it was, it’s behind you.”

“Then what should I be worrying about, sir?”

Munz sighed. “Tom, to be frank, you need to be worrying about how you and your team are going to survive the next 48 hours. Good luck, but I don’t have any guarantees—this is going to truly be the war to end all wars.” Munz patted Tom on the shoulder, and then yelled for his Stryker.
The APC drove up and Munz climbed aboard. In minutes, the vehicle was out of sight.

Tom called for his squad to regroup. He quickly told them what Munz had said, and they ran to Zero-Four. “Thanks for the lift, where are we headed?” Tom asked.

Kosolov pulled out a small data plate, and keyed it to a local map. He turned to Tom and pointed to a small cluster of buildings about seven klicks southeast of their current position. “Right here” he said. “We are to defend this from all OGAN forces and provide over watch for other units. Echo is going to task us here any minute now.”

As if on cue, Echo called in the tasking for Echo-Zero. Zero-One, Zero-Two, and Zero-Four were all tasked with defending the buildings Kosolov had identified. They would rendezvous with Zero-One, a scout/sniper fireteam, and then proceed to the objective. They would also have fire support from the 87th and 334th, but the support from fighters would be limited, considering they were needed to counter OGAN’s MiG-35’s and Su-35BM’s.

[FOUR]


The APC slowly trundled into the village, which had been abandoned for years. From inside the Stryker, PFC Mike Nash controlled the PROTECTOR M151, which at this time had a M307 auto grenade launcher attached to it. After they cleared the village, the APC stopped to allow the fireteam to disembark. Then, the Stryker drove next a building and stopped. This allowed the crew to set up the Starstreak missile system, so they could defend against enemy aircraft.

Tom called his squad over. “We’re waiting for Zero-One right now, but we should set up our defense. Michael, set up your MG over in that building to our east. Jacobs, you’re with him. Sam, you’re with me.” He looked around. “Stefan, do whatever you want, preferably covering us. Maybe on the roof over there?” Stefan nodded and jogged off, carrying his heavy M107 SASR. He had equipped it with AN/PVS-22 infrared day/night optic, since they were going to be fighting in the dark.

Tom and Sam jogged to their building, which faced northeast and had a good line-of-sight to the dirt road that ran to the village. Tom looked, and in the fading light was barely able to pick out the two shapes approaching. One was holding an M107 SD2 with the AN/PVS-22 optic, while the other had a FN SCAR-H that had been modified to be a Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR. The SCAR had a longer barrel, a new sniper stock, a scope, and a bipod. It was also suppressed, as was the M107 SD2. The two quickly approached to compound, and the one holding the DMR walked up to Tom and embraced him in a friendly hug.

“Hey Tom, what have you been up to?” he asked jokingly as he pulled away.

Tom punched his arm. “Not much. How ‘bout you, bro.”

“Doing some recon, scoping out their tanks. Fred here could have shot their officer in the head; we got within 300 meters of ‘em. I need to talk to Munz now; we have some intel he may want.” He started to walk off towards Kosolov and the Stryker.

“Hey, take care of yourself!” He paused. “And us!” he added.

Kevin said something unintelligible, and then jogged to rejoin his sniper.

After they left, Tom noticed Sam’s confused expression. “He’s my brother, Lieutenant Kevin Harding” Tom explained. “He went into the whole sniper/recon deal, while I went into the infantry.” Tom paused, listening, and looked over at Stefan, who had been calling his name. As he looked up, Stefan pointed to the east.

Tom looked and saw at least 50 light infantry, two APCs, and an MBT coming right at them. Jesus, we’re in for it now he thought. He quickly toggled his throat mike, and told the rest of the defenders what was coming. He then assigned targets to his fireteam and Zero-One, and told Zero-Four to watch for enemy aircraft. Finally, he called Munz on TACCOM and told him that they were engaging.
He then turned to the oncoming force. He brought up his SCAR, and aimed it at the lead infantryman, who was carrying some kind of new Kalashnikov rifle. He thought it was an AK-103, but he wasn’t sure. “Engage targets” he said quietly into his mike, and then let loose a burst from his SCAR.

------

“And so it begins” the dragon said, as it watched the human defenders open fire with their weapons. He and three others of his kind were watching the engagement from a couple of klicks away. The PD8’s didn’t want to get involved now. Their time would come, after them and the Others rose to the highest spot in the dragon’s command structure. Then they would eradicate the humans, rather than the stupid and demeaning solution that the current leaders had come up with. The PD8 grinned widely. Their time was coming soon. Very, very soon.

------

Tom’s burst tore through the light vest that the rifleman was wearing, and even before he fell, several more of his comrades were killed by the hail of 5.56mm rounds being put out by Michael’s MG8. The night was lit up by the gunfire, and as one of the APCs turned its machine gun on Tom’s position, Sam’s expertly fired HEAT rocket impacted on its turret, killing the gunner and knocking out its primary weapon.

Suddenly, the building next to Tom exploded, sending razor sharp fragments of wood and steel speeding in every direction. “Put some fire on that tank!” he screamed as he blind-fired his SCAR into the on-rushing infantry. Another shell screamed over their heads, glancing off the sloped roof of Tom’s building. Then the APC opened up, shredding the wall next to Tom. Sam grabbed Tom’s uniform, yelling at him to move. They stood and sprinted out just as the MBT fired a shell into the building, destroying it completely.

They slid behind a wall, and Sam immediately set up another rocket. He fired it, and the rocket only bounced off of the tank’s thick armor plating.
Sam swore, and shouldered his rifle. “Tom, call in some support NOW!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Tom got onto the radio, and changed it to the 334th’s frequency, and began speaking: “This is Echo-Zero-Two, requesting fire mission, over.” He got an “affirmative,” and continued. “Map grid, Bravo Three Six, Yankee Two Five, over!”

“Solid copy, Lieutenant. Rounds away.”

Tom looked over to Sam, and yelled that there was an artillery strike inbound. Sam turned, and mouthed “What,” and as he did was hit in the side by a stray rifle round. He groaned, and dropped next to Tom, breathing heavily. Shit Tom thought. He ripped open his med-kit and gave Sam a shot of morphine. “It went clean through!” he yelled to Sam,
“You’ll be fine!” Sam smiled painfully and leaned up against the wall they were taking cover on. Then, Tom heard the scream of artillery overhead.

There’s a saying that you never hear the shell that kills you. Well, the OGAN infantry learned that the hard way. The powerful shells threw up huge amounts of dirt, and sent the infantry flying like rag dolls. One impacted square on the MBT’s roof and completely gutted the tank. Tom peeked over the wall and saw the troops retreating. “Good effect on targets. Thanks Trebuchet.”

“No problem, Zero-Two, Any time. Trebuchet out.”

On his small Tactical Imaging Device, a small icon blinked. It was CENTCOM. Tom selected it and listened. “Lieutenant you are to pull back to Rendezvous Point Bravo Six, repeat, RVP Bravo Six. Move as fast as you can, we are going to regroup and plan our next move. How copy, Zero-Two”

“Solid copy, Echo Six. Interrogative, why are we moving, sir? We just stopped their advance cold.”

“Lieutenant, other units have been overrun and you are at risk of being surrounded. Move quickly to RVP Bravo Two. Six out.”

Tom knew this wasn’t good. They had just taken on a whole armored infantry company and won, with one casualty. If other, more powerful, units got overrun, this could become a losing fight for DRUN. Tom shook the thought away and told everyone to regroup at the APC. A few minutes later, everyone was assembled. They had patched up Sam and all climbed aboard the Stryker. No one was speaking. They all realized the scope of this conflict, and how it would change the world. What they were mistaken about was how much the world could and would change—not boundary-wise, but by which species was the most powerful, and which controlled the globe.

[dragon mith]

you have moden warfare? or the second 1?

[lolzrpwnrd]

I've played both, but only own MW2. MW2 is loads of fun. Not relative, but thanks for posting anyway!

[dragon mith]

sorry, its just that i have both...

[lolzrpwnrd]

Nah, it's cool. The new Chapter will be up tonight, and it is loosely based off of that level in the D.C. suburbs and "Second Sun." (NO SPOLIERS). A later chapter will be based off of "Cliffhanger."

[lolzrpwnrd]

Done, finally. Based very loosely on "Second Sun" and the D.C. suburb level in COD:MW2. Hopefully more interesting than previous chapters.

By the way, the end ([THREE] and [FOUR]) gets kind of gory, so you have been warned.

Part 1, Chapter Two, "Fighting Retreat"


[ONE]


First Lieutenant Tom Harding
2350 Hours, October 16th, 2064
Fireteam Leader; Echo-Zero-Two; 177th Marine Force Recon; DRUNAF
En Route to RVP Bravo Two via E-101; Southeast of Chernigov, Ukraine (DRUN)

After meeting up with some of Echo’s other units, they proceeded as a small convoy down the E-101 highway. There had been little activity besides the occasional explosion that lit up the dark night sky. But these explosions were merely unsettling because they were kilometers away from the blasts. After they had been driving for a solid hour, the convoy came to a smooth stop, and allowed the men inside to disembark.

The highest ranking officer, a Captain, announced that they were stopping to rest for a few hours, and then they would continue to RVP Bravo Two. He said that they should all stay alert, and that they could be attacked at any time. The officer then proceeded to order the APCs to park in the woods, under some trees. This would hopefully keep them from being spotted by enemy aircraft.

Tom walked to where his squad was sitting. Sam had been patched up and was leaning against a tree, asleep. Stefan appeared to be listening to music on his TID, which doubled as a small computer that they were allowed to store pictures, video, and music on. The TID had a hard drive space of over a terabyte, so there was no issue about space. Michael and Arthur were both sound asleep in their sleeping bags.

As he walked over, Tom noticed that Stefan was actually asleep. He sighed, and started to set up his own sleeping bag. He stopped, and thought about staying awake; he had to think about his strategy, and the events of the past few hours. No, I really need the rest. There’s always tomorrow. Tom lay down and was asleep in seconds.

------

While Tom and the others were asleep, less than 500 meters away, a huge dragon slowly walked towards the stopped convoy. At its height, the dragon had to crouch to remain below the tree’s canopies. He did not have harmful intentions, but the PD8s had learned that a 250 foot tall dragon at any time would provoke a violent reaction from the humans. He let out a sigh and continued, identifying each human by their specific heartbeat and scent. When the creature was within 100 meters of the humans, he lowered himself into a prone position and watched.

Their leader had specifically tasked him with watching any and all humans in the area, and stopping any Others from attacking them. The dragon’s comrade was off watching another group of humans. As he was deep in thought, he forgot about the humans less than 25 meters away.

------

Tom woke up, not for any particular reason, just one of those times where you need to wake up. He groaned and glanced down at his watch. He’d been asleep for 30 minutes. He groaned again, and rolled to a more comfortable position—coming almost eye-to-eye with a PD8.
Tom was surprised to find that instead of yelling to his squad and reaching for his rifle, he found himself lying quietly and looking at his reflection in the dragon’s eye. He knew that his reaction had to be partly because the creature seemed as surprised as he did. Also, the look in its eyes was not malicious, more curious than anything. Tom gulped, not because he was scared, but because he realized that if it had wanted to kill him, it would have and could have already. It started to back away, and Tom felt relieved and worried at the same time.

What if there were more out there he thought nervously.

That’s a stupid thought. You idiot, they would all come at once if they wanted to attack you.

And with that, Tom shifted slightly and dozed off, still thinking about the PD8.

[TWO]


“Tom.” The far-off voice pulled Tom away from his dream, which was about a summer house that his dad had always taken him to. They would camp out, fishing and hunting together, with no one else. He wanted the memory to stay, but it quickly faded away into the nothingness of his mind. “Tom, let’s go” the voice repeated, and he opened his eyes to Sam, who was standing over him.

“Wake up man, we’re moving in five.”

Tom leapt to his feet, and quickly began packing his things. Then he remembered he dragon. He glanced up, hoping it was dream. But there were several bent and broken branches in a path leading away from where Tom stood. He shook the memory away, knowing that he had much larger things to worry about. Then he saw Kosolov beckoning for him to come over. He looked tired and anxious, so Tom quickly finished packing and jogged over to him.

“Yeah?” Tom asked.

“Command wants us to extract a VIP from Chernigov. It’s not too far north, but we will definitely engage hostiles in the city. They said to expect less than a platoon-sized force, but military intelligence has never been accurate.” He shrugged, and looked off into the distance. After a moment, he said, “I don’t know why we are retreating. I feel like we are not honoring those who have died already.”

Tom saw Kosolov’s expression and didn’t respond. If he needed time alone, Tom would give it to him. He nodded to Kosolov, and walked over to his fireteam. “Pack it up, we’re rolling,” he announced, and then strode back to the APC.

------

After a while, the Stryker came to a stop and let the men inside disembark. They spread out around the APC and stood alert and ready. Tom clicked his SCAR’s flashlight to the “on” position, and it cast a comforting glow in front of him. He then waved for his squad to move down the street.

“Stay frosty,” he said quietly. The Stryker was rumbling along behind them as they slowly passed a twisted street sign that had some barely legible Cyrillic characters printed on it. As the men entered the neighborhood, the smell of recently-burnt wood and ash attacked their nostrils. The whole block was deserted and looked like it had been set ablaze, but Tom knew that OGAN had ordered Chernigov to be firebombed from the air. It eerily reminded him of his history class—Dresden in World War Two had apparently looked like this.

As Tom looked at the stark contrast between the flickering fires that burned where people should be peacefully sleeping, Stefan drifted over to him. Usually the quiet one, he seemed like he had something very important to tell him. Tom waited, expecting Stefan to say what he had to say. But after a few minutes nothing had been said, so Tom looked over. He saw Stefan deep in thought, looking up at the bright stars blinking overhead. He suddenly looked back down and locked eyes with Tom.

“You don’t know why we’re here, do you?” he said through clenched teeth. Tom shook his head, “I only know what Kosolov told me.”

Stefan leaned closer to Tom and quietly hissed, “I overheard Kosolov talking about something called ‘Papa-Delta’ in phonetics. What is a ‘Papa Delta?’?” Stefan saw Tom’s stunned expression and grinned. “Louis wants us in White November.” Brigadier Stephen Louis was the SOCOM commander, and head of the “Deep Strike” SpecOps unit only known as White November. “That was the purpose of November Two. They were trying to contact the PD8s, and failed. We have limited intel that suggests that there may be a civil war occurring within their society.”

Their conversation was abruptly halted by a loud cracking sound from their right. All of them turned, and stared at a fairly large house that was on the verge of collapsing. As they watched, the fire-weakened structure finally gave out, turning the house into a pile of rubble.

“Jesus,” Michael said in awe.

“Pick up the pace, we’re close,” Tom ordered. He looked around for Stefan, and noticed that he had dropped back a few yards. They locked eyes, and Tom could only see seething hate flowing behind his piercing blue eyes. Stefan mouthed “later”, and Tom quickly broke off from his eyes. Tom then nodded, and kept walking down the desolate street, oblivious to the fact that they were being stalked.

[THREE]


“This is it,” Tom announced as they approached a modest, two-story house that was missing a large chunk of its roof. The Stryker stopped out front as Tom’s fireteam mounted the house’s stairs. Kosolov called him on the radio and said, “Lieutenant, the VIP is in the basement, and you need to say ‘Broadsword.’ If he is okay, the response will be ‘Ice pick,’ and if he is in trouble it will be ‘Pickax.’ We’ll wait here, go get him out. Good luck.”

“Thanks Four, Two out.” Tom waved to his fireteam and they entered the building. He sensed that there was something wrong with the house, but didn’t know until they walked to the back of the house. Well, where the back used to be. Sam whistled and walked over to one of the main support beams that had been snapped like a twig. The rest of them played their flashlights around on the walls, casting jagged shadows across their faces.

Sam waved Tom over and pointed at the splintered beams. “There is no explosive residue. I’ll keep looking, but this wasn’t a bomb.” Tom nodded, and told his team to look for the basement entrance. For good measure, he yelled “Broadsword!”, but got no response. He studied the floor for a moment, and noticed a large hole that was partially covered by debris. He
could have sworn that the hole had been covered on purposely, but why? He called for Michael to help him, and they began moving debris. Once they’d cleared a large-enough hole, Tom walked onto the remaining wood just to test it.

Suddenly, it snapped, and he was dropped into the basement. He coughed, and yelled that he was okay. Then he shook his head and stood.
The basement was small, and “L” shaped. A disgusting odor was wafting in from the other side of the “L”. He gulped and walked around the corner. Almost immediately he fell back around the corner, holding back bile from his stomach and retching. “El Tee, what is it?” Arthur called from above. Tom said that there was a body, and he was going to try and check it out.

Tom forced himself to look at the mutilated figure. There was a gunshot wound to the head, and Tom saw a M9 pistol hanging limply from one hand. There was a full magazine, minus the one round that was now sitting inside of the man’s head. Suicide he thought. But that doesn’t explain the torso.

The torso was a different story. A massive gash had been torn at a 45 degree angle from the corpse’s shoulder to its waist. This had caused most of its intestines to spill out on the floor, and exposed the rib cage. One could have survived for a few minutes, although it would be excruciatingly painful. But Tom didn’t know who or what had caused the injury, and didn’t want to find out either. He walked back to where he had fallen in, and climbed out.

As he reached the top he realized another thing. The hole in the floor had not been by explosives either. Slowly, his mind formulated what had happened. He was frozen, and realized that every second that they got away from here bettered there chances of living. “We’re leaving NOW!” he yelled as he ran out to the front. Tom was just in time to see a massive foot crash down on top of the Stryker, completely flattening it. “KOSOLOV!” Tom screamed, and the massive head turned to him. It smiled toothily, and Tom was frozen in place. He could see a few more
moving up the street, chasing what looked like OGAN troops.

Then Tom realized he was being spoken to. “Tom, come on, we’re going,” was being said in Stefan’s most rational and calm voice. Then Stefan abruptly grabbed him by his pack and almost threw him into the back of the house. “RUN!” he screamed, and they both ran from the house, before it was obliterated by a PD8. They sprinted around the corner and ran full-tilt down the street for a couple blocks, and then ducked into a store, where the rest of his team waited.

“Where’s the LZ?” Sam asked breathlessly as they among the toppled shelves of what used to be a bustling grocery store.

“Here, about a klick west in the town park. Let’s hustle,” he said, and they slowly moved out of the store.

------

The helicopter hovered over Chernigov, circling the LZ. Corporal David Locklear was the copilot of Echo-Zero-Four’s second chopper, a MH-60AKII Blackhawk that had been nicknamed “Crankshaft.” No one knew where the name had come from, but it had stuck.

“Any sign of them?” the pilot, Lieutenant Charlie Payne asked.

“Nothing, sir. And the FLIR hasn’t showed anything; too much stuff is burning.”

Charlie sighed and leaned back against the seat. “They’d better hurry, we’re at bingo fuel in five mikes.” Suddenly, he blinked and leaned forward. “Aim the FLIR over there,” he said, pointing. The camera slowly panned over, and revealed five running figures. “Corporal, confirm flashing strobes,” Charlie said.

“Friendly strobes confirmed. It’s them,” Locklear said with barely contained excitement. “Bring us in.”

“Roger, going in.” Charlie gently pushed the control stick forward and the chopper began its descent into the park.

------

Tom heard the chopper before he saw it. It came low over the buildings and executed a smooth 180 over the park before landing. The copilot waved frantically to him, and Tom knew why and tried not to look back, but did. There had to be ten of the PD8s behind them, slowly making their way towards them. “Hurry!” Tom yelled and they doubled their pace. Suddenly he was at the chopper door. He climbed in, with his fireteam right behind him.

“Get on the minigun!” was shouted from the cockpit, and Tom didn’t hesitate. He stood behind the M134D and grasped the firing studs. He first depressed the left button, which began spinning the weapon’s six barrels. This was more commonly known as “spooling up.” Then when the barrels reached the appropriate speed, a small light flashed and Tom mashed in the right button. That button caused the minigun to fire out its lethal 7.62mm rounds at over 2,000 rounds per minute. It also created a loud buzzing sound, which was characteristic of the M134.

The rounds sped downrange and impacted on the dragons. They didn’t do much damage, but stunned them long enough for the chopper to lift off and begin the flight back to base. Tom fired in short bursts to avoid overheating the gun’s barrels, and thus reduce accuracy. As they passed over a building, Tom saw a PD8 less than 100 meters away from the chopper. He fired and saw it go down with one eye spewing blood and its head flecked with entry wounds. Tom cheered and they continued their hectic flight out of the city. Abruptly, the pilot yelled, “RPG! Hold on!” The chopped swerved, and the RPG’s rocket barely missed them.

Tom saw some OGAN troops surrounding a large APC that had an anti-aircraft gun on top of it. “Enemy triple-a, watch it!” he yelled and opened up with the minigun. The rounds shredded the vehicle, and killed many of the soldiers around it. They were the lucky ones, for a moment later five PD8s burst through the building next to them and began exterminating the remaining humans. Tom looked away and asked the pilot how long. “Just a few more minutes and we’re clear!” he replied, and Tom was relieved. He could use some R&R. But this was not to be, for suddenly a well-aimed chunk of metal slammed into the chopper’s tail rotor, shredding it and taking a large portion of the tail with it. Thus they lost all ability to turn the helicopter.

The chopper started to spin, as the cockpit lit up with emergency warnings. The two pilots screamed at each other, panicking because they had just lost all power to the main rotor. The chopper plummeted, and as it did, the g-forces created by the chopper’s spinning threatened to pull them out of the helicopter and into the open air. But they were all
strapped in, so this did not occur.

Then the copilot began to send a distress call, as the altimeter spun wildly towards zero. “Mayday, Mayday, this is Echo-Zero-Four going in hard!
Repeat, we are going in hard! Send TRAP team ASAP!” Then just before they crashed, he added a small word that summed up how afraid they all were: “Please.”

Then they hit the ground.

Hard.

------

“Zero-Four is down, repeat, Zero-Four is down.”
Munz cursed loudly, and slammed a fist down on the table he was adjacent to. “Christ, how far did they get?” he asked.

“They’re about five klicks outside of Chernigov.” The tech raised a hand to his head, and nodded. “TRAP teams are inbound, moving as fast as humanly possible. They’re still 15 mikes away.”

“We may need something faster than humanly possible,” he said to himself. “What, sir?” the tech asked, confused. “Nothing,” he replied. Munz then walked over to the tactical projector. “Any CAS missions we can send to help them?” he asked softly.

“No, sir. All airborne units are already engaged elsewhere.”

Munz shook his head in disappointment. Tom was a good man, and he didn’t want to lose him. He slowly walked to the CP’s single window. He looked out over the base, and even though the fireteam was miles away, he could see them struggling.

Struggling to stay alive.

[FOUR]


The world slowly came back to Tom. Everything seemed like it was light-years away, and his vision was extremely blurred. He looked at his hands, which were cut and bleeding. He suddenly heard gunshots and looked up. They were slowly but surely coming closer and closer. Move he thought, and stood up, banging his head on the chopper’s ceiling, which cleared his vision and brought everything back into focus. “Tom!” someone yelled. Arthur he thought as a figure appeared, holding a TAR-21 assault rifle. “This was the pilot’s, take it and get down!” the figure yelled.

Suddenly, a bullet slammed into Arthur’s chest, showing Tom and the chopper with warm blood. Arthur gurgled, and then another round exploded his head, sending chunks of gore and brain matter all over the chopper’s interior.

Tom heard screaming, and realized that it was himself. He raised the TAR, firing wildly; he only succeeded at stopping the OGAN troop’s advance momentarily. He was abruptly grabbed from behind, and Tom wrestled out of the person’s grip and spun—it was Stefan, with a large cut on his face.

“Let’s go!” he yelled, and dragged Tom out of the chopper. They had barely run 200 meters when a massive concussion next to them threw them off of their feet. Tom looked up, and saw a dragon looking down at them curiously.

It looked up, and Tom turned his gaze back to where they had just come from. Almost 20 PD8s had suddenly appeared, and were now scattering the OGAN company. Tom turned away from the carnage, and back to the dragon. Its sleek, dark green scales shimmered as its camouflage feature adjusted to the change in lighting. The creature turned its massive head towards them, and looked like it was trying to decide what to do with them. All of the sudden it reached down as its huge fingers splayed open, easily picking Tom and Stefan up. Tom and Stefan immediately blacked out as the massive creature gently carried them away from Chernigov.