Chapter 11 - Chapter 11... Defeated victory...

As I looked down at my left hand shaking, we could hear artillery fire exploding on the shores and in the water. I looked outside the porthole and saw the other APC’s next to us. I looked back at the shore and saw that the artillery fire wasn’t focused on the shores anymore, but on the APC’s trying to board the island. Gunships flew over us, bombarding the shores and beaches, striking on the artillery barrage. Lots of gunships got gunned down…



Hedgehog: fracking hell… This is fracking suicide…

I looked down at my left hand again… The more closer we got, the more it shakes… Then the driver of the APC blew his whistle…



Driver: THIRTY SECONDS!! Blain: Guys, listen up. Portside, with me. Starboard, with him. The five guys in the back, you follow him. Head for the beaches, and take cover. Don’t stop on the beaches but keep moving.

Cyrus: Moment of truth Blain…Blain: Damn right it is…Jasco: Hoo-ah…?
All: HOO-AH!!! Jasco: Then lets go kick some @$$…

We slapped our fists at each other and looked at the others.



Driver: PREPAAAAAAAAARE FOR LANDING!! CLEAR THE RAMP!!
Blain: You know what to do. Then do it.

The APC stopped on the beach. We could hear bullets ricocheted off the APC’s hull… I looked at my left hand again and it shakes like hell… Then the ramp dropped down, and we all ran outside to storm the beaches… The guys who got out first got shot down immediately by Battlewalkers defending the top of the dunes. We ran like hell to some obstacles on the beach. They were meant to tear up the APC’s at high tide. But, it was ebb tide. Lucky for us, we could hide behind it, but it was a longer way for us, practically suicide to get to the shingle. The three of us hided behind some obstacles. I looked back and saw the APC’s returning to mainland. At that point, I thought what the hell we’re doing here… I saw people get blown up by mines, perforated by machineguns. The firing of the Battlewalkers on the dunes made an ear deafening sound. I looked to my left and a mine exploded just a few meters from us… I couldn’t hear for a while. I didn’t see Jasco and Cyrus, but instead, there was a hedgehog screaming at me…



Hedgehog: I SAID, WHAT THE frack ARE WE GONNA DO NOW SIR?!!
Blain: ALL WE CAN DO HERE IS DIE!!!! KEEP YOUR @$$ MOVING!! GO GO GO!!!

I looked back and saw the APC’s again, dropping off a lot of guys, then turned around again. I got up, and ran like hell to the next obstacle. The Battlewalkers on top stand still and fired on the incoming guys. One of them got taken out by a gunship, but it got gunned down and crashed… I saw the shingle a few hundred meters in front. I ran like hell again to reach the shingle and jumped down behind an obstacle. Cyrus and Jasco were there along with a few guys who were with us in the APC…



Jasco: WHERE THE frack DID YOU GO?!!
Blain: THE ENGINEER IS DEAD!! HE JUST BLEW UP NEXT TO ME!!!
Cyrus: CONTACT THEM AND TELL THEM WE NEED SOME GODDAMN BATTLEWALKER SUPPORT!!!

I looked to my right and saw a hedgehog with a radio. I told him to contact mainland… Yelling is more like it…



Hedgehog: NO SIR!! THEY CANT SEND IT YET!! THOSE ARTILLERY BARRAGES NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OUT FIRST!!!


Hedgehog: HEADS UP GUYS!! EXPLOSIVES COMING THROUGH!!
Hedgehog: EXPLOSIVES!!! CLEAR THE SHINGLE!!
Hedgehog: FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!
Jasco: KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!! FIRE IN THE HOLE!!

We buried ourselves in the sand and covered our heads. Not long after that, loud explosions were heard and we got an entrance… I turned to the radio guy again, but he was dead… Shot in the head… I tried picking up the radio…



Blain: SIX-TWO, THIS IS SIX-FOUR!! DELTA IS OPEN!! DO YOU COPY?!!

Nothing… The radio was dead… It got shot to pieces but I didn’t realized it…



Blain: DAMN IT!!
Cyrus: BLAIN!! KEEP YOUR @$$ MOVING!!

We ran over the shingle and dropped down in a trench, following the way to the dunes. We took cover behind a concrete bunker. One battlewalker saw us and fired at us. A chunk of concrete got blown out of the wall…



Blain HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!! STAY IN COVER!!

I peeked around the corner and some more Red Faction rebels taking position on the beach with stationary weapons…



Blain: TWO T-39 BOGATYRS ARE DEFENDING THOSE BUNKERS!! WE GOTTA GO UP THERE, AND TAKE OUT THOSE BOGATYRS!! CYRUS!! JASCO!! YOU’RE UP!! HEAD FOR THAT TRENCH OVER THERE!!

Cyrus and Jasco prepares an EMP grenade…



Blain: COVERING FIRE!!!

Jasco and Cyrus ran to the trench while the rest gives suppressive fire. Few Red Faction rebels got shot down while the Battlewalkers were too busy firing at the incoming waves of creatures.



Blain: GO!! GO!! GET MOVING!!

Cyrus and Jasco threw an EMP grenade. One battlewalker died down, but the other one is still shooting. It aimed at us…



Cyrus: GET MOVING!!! GOOOOOOO!!!

The three of us ran like hell to reach the top of the dunes. Once we took cover behind a small hill, I looked back at the trench and saw the others climbing up the dune. They got annihilated by the cannon fire… One waited for the Bogatyr to focus on the beaches again and then ran up. He suddenly got shot by a rebel and fell down… Jasco saw that and pulled him over…



Hedgehog: AAAAAAH!!
Jasco: GIMME ME A HAND HERE!! PUT SOME PRESSURE ON IT!!

Cyrus pressed his hands on his wounds while Jasco got out some bandages and morphine…



Jasco: WE’VE MANAGED TO STOP THE BLEEDING!! YOU’LL BE FINE MATE!!

Then I heard something ricocheted… And I saw Jasco getting pissed and throws the bandages on the ground… Then I looked at the hedgehog and he got hit in the head… A puddle of dark red blood came out…



Jasco: GODDAMN IT!! SON OF A dog!! GIVE US A frackING CHANCE HERE!!

Cyrus: JASCO!! LETS GO!!

Cyrus and I threw a grenade. The ones who survived the explosions got shot down by us. Jasco threw an EMP grenade to shut down the other battlewalker. Two guys opened the top and I shot them down… Well, blow them apart is more likely because of the ammo Tails gave… Gotta love that little guy… Other people are coming through our passage. They ran to the other Battlewalkers, opened up the hatch, and either threw a grenade in it, or just shot through the hatch, it didn’t matter. They were taken out…



The 3 of us breached one of the bunkers, and threw some grenades in it. We took cover and heard loud explosions from within the bunkers. Blazing fireballs came out of the door… I saw rebels running and screaming while there on fire…



Meanwhile…



Tala: FOURTH AND SECOND BUNKERS BREACHED!!
Flash: DON’T SHOOT!!! LET THOSE BASTARDS BURN!!

All of us cleared the remaining bunkers by setting it on fire. The rebel forces are pulling back and got scattered in trenches on solid ground a few meters before us. The three of us advanced as more people got up the dunes. The rebels however, are setting up stationary weapons to wipe us out… Few moments later, machine guns rattled over the plains, gunning down a lot of people. We took cover behind a wall, and Jasco threw a grenade and ran towards the trenches along with the others. I looked at Cyrus, and he was very pale. He reached out for a bottle of water, and opened it. He was shaking severely. He drinks a little, he coughed up and spits out blood. He just fell down not long after that… I saw that he was hit in his stomach…



Blain: Oh frack… JASCO!!!!



I looked for Jasco but I couldn’t find him… I saw more and more people getting down the trenches. I picked up Cyrus and carried him over my shoulders, then ran through the trenches while screaming for Jasco…

I finally found him hiding behind some crates while others are advancing through the trenches…



Jasco: I THOUGHT YOU’D STICK WITH US!!
Blain: WE CANT!! CYRUS IS WOUNDED!!

Then Jasco noticed that I was carrying Cyrus. I put him down, while I support his head on my knees and Jasco took out some bandages and punched some morphine in him… Cyrus was still awake though… We saw a tear running down his cheek…



Cyrus: I’m sorry man…
Blain: You’ve got nothing to be sorry about Cyrus. You did great.
Cyrus: You… You ok Jasco…?
Jasco: I’m doing good buddy…
Cyrus: Are the… The… APC’s here…?
Blain: There on there way Cyrus… There coming. You just gotta hold on for a little longer… Can you do that…?

Cyrus: Yeah… Yeah I can… It’s nothing man… It’s nothing…

At that moment, I noticed the firing died down…



Gunships and airtransports flew above us. I stood up and saw the Battlewalkers wading through the waters. The cockpits are just barely visible. I didn’t know those things are capable of that… I turned back to Jasco and Cyrus… Jasco had a sad look on his face… I looked down at Cyrus who didn’t respond… He had his eyes open and I knew he was dead…



Jasco: F.U.B.A.R. Blain…
Blain: Yeah… F.U.B.A.R…

Jasco picked him up and carried him over his shoulders. The three of us went to the top of the dunes and we saw the devastation… The beaches were scattered with dead bodies… We looked over to the left and saw the same really… We didn’t even know how the others were doing… I looked at the horizon and saw the sun coming up…





Blain: How was it Jasco…?
Jasco: What…?
Blain: This world… Before the war took place…

Jasco: You cant even imagine Blain… It changed a lot over the years… Everyone changed… I got changed… Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much my friends would even recognize me, whenever it is that I get back to them. And how I'll ever be able to tell them about days like today. If there still alive… Nothing is certain in this world Blain…

Blain: Tell me something… How was your youth…?

Jasco: *sighs* Well… When I think of my youth… I... I think of something specific. I think of my, my dads hammock in the backyard or my mother pruning the rosebushes in a pair of my dads old work gloves… Home… Define home, because it’s all gone now… Still, deep inside me is my home… I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel… But… If that earns me the right to get back home, well then, then that's my mission…

I suddenly remembered Shadow and what he said to me… And he’s right… Jasco had seen to many…


I looked at Jasco and he walks off with Cyrus in his hands… I turned around and saw the survivors cheering and holding there weapons up in the air, as a convoy of Red Faction rebels surrender… Which wasn’t that much… There being aimed at, and were forced to kneel with there hands on there heads. I saw that through the cheering and celebrating, Jasco walked ahead with Cyrus, not showing anything… I ran up to Jasco and I saw him shedding a tear… At that point, I couldn’t hold myself either…



To be continued…

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