Excerpt: 2056

Prologue

World War III

In 2042 Russia split. It split over Communism. The Communist party held sway over the majority of the Russian army. It used this power to sweep across the nation, effectively taking over all the major cities. There were small pockets of resistance however. These pockets were numerous. They fought back viciously and managed to retake a few of the smaller cities. They formed together and organized attacks. The former soldiers who were against communism armed themselves and all civilians who would help their cause.

In early 2043 the communist party recreated the Soviet Union with some of the former Soviet countries. This way they increased their forces. The anti-communists responded by requesting assistance from the allies of Russia. Britain and France responded almost immediately, mobilizing troops towards Russia.

The fighting grew fiercer after that. The communists gained the assistance of China and Japan. Negotiations with the US began with both sides. Later that same year the US mobilized against the communist forces, thus doubling the size of the anti-communist forces.

The fighting continued on for over ten years after that. It was declared a World War after even more countries got involved. Some interesting discoveries made in 2056, the thirteenth year of the war, led to the end of the war.

Chapter One

Demise

January 21st 2056
Sergeant Colliers
0900

“Get down” the Lieutenant screamed. An artillery shell smashed into the ground 10 meters in front of their makeshift shelter. “Rifleman, 25 meter north” Corporal Johnson shouted. “Take him out quick” the Lieutenant ordered. Sergeant Colliers peeked above the barrier. He pulled his head back down when a spray of bullets flew overhead. “Looks like we got a support gunner there too” he shouted. “I got him” Corporal Johnson shouted, standing up to throw a grenade. The grenade flew threw the air, landing right next to the support gunner. It didn't explode fast enough to prevent the gunner from sending a spray of bullets back. Johnson was killed instantly.

“Support gunner down, just the rifleman left” the Lieutenant stood up and fired a spray of bullets towards the rifleman. A responding spray cut the Lieutenant down. Colliers fumbled for his radio and activated it. “Falcon two, this is saber three, we could use some support.” “Copy that, we are en route” came the reply. Colliers used the wait for support to survey the current situation.

They were behind a dirt bank at the edge of a corn field, five of their men were down. Their enemies were using the corn as cover as they crept closer and closer to the dirt bank. Colliers himself was running low on ammo and explosives. Anytime anyone stood up they were cut down instantly.

His train of thought was cut off by the sound of helicopter blades chopping through the air. He looked up and saw a single attack helicopter flying towards the field. The chatter of machine gun fire started from within the field. The enemy soldiers were firing on the helicopter. The helicopter returned fire. The miniguns on the helicopter sprayed the field in a shower of lead. This shower was followed by a volley of missiles.

“Area clear, proceed to objective. We'll cover you” Falcon two remained hovering over the field. “Move out” Colliers got up and ran into the field. The rest of his squad followed.

The interesting thing about this is that the helicopter's sensors sensed heat. So, if you happened to be using heat shielding, the helicopter wouldn't be able to locate you. So what the squad didn't know is that there was an enemy squad still on the field. This squad happened to be under a blanket of heat shielding.

So Colliers was completely surprised when the blanket was thrown back, as it was camouflaged from the eye too. There also happened to be shielding set up around this hole too. It was the shielding that prevented the bullets from the miniguns from killing the soldiers inside.

Colliers threw himself to the ground when the first bullets flew past him. The rest of his squad did the same, that is, except for two unfortunate soldiers who caught the first bullets. Colliers aimed his rifle between two pieces of steel shielding. The M72 Sniper Rifle's .50 caliber bullet whipped right between the two plates. The scream that Colliers heard immediately afterward told him that he had killed someone, or at least wounded them.

The rest of his squad started creeping forward to Colliers' level. “Lay down suppressing fire” Colliers ordered. The support gunner in the squad set his LMG, or Light Machine Gun's bipod on the ground. He aimed up at the top of the barriers and let out several bursts. The amount of bullets whizzing overhead lessened.

Colliers crawled forward until he was about five meters off the barrier. He pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it behind the barrier. The explosion came seconds later. Colliers stood up and ran to the barrier. There were a few soldiers in the makeshift shelter still moving, struggling to pull out their handguns. Colliers shot them.

“Move out, keep an eye out for more blinds” Colliers ordered, reloading his rifle. As they started moving again Colliers heard something from behind them. It sounded like a tank. “Soldier, get your javelin over here. One of the soldiers ran up next to Colliers and set the Javelin on his shoulder. Colliers grabbed his binoculars and switched it to the heat-sensing mode. He looked through them into the corn, there was a large heat signature, this was the tank. He could see the shape of the tank, in varying degrees of heat. On the rear left-hand side of the turret there was a small pulsing heat beacon.

“That one's ours, move out” Colliers lowered his binoculars. The tank moved past them, still out of sight. “We're moving ahead Saber three, Falcon two out” came over the radio. A moment later the helicopter moved north.

Colliers was rudely reminded of his squad's objective when an artillery shell slammed down right behind the tank. “Okay, we gotta get to our objective” he shouted to his squad, as the dirt thrown up by the blast rained down on them. The squad started running again.

Within a few minutes they reached another line of defense. This one was a solid wall of armor. Armor, as in, armored vehicles. The tank they had seen before was quite a bit of help in getting past this defense. It started taking out enemy vehicles with its 160mm Howitzer.

“Corporal, how many Javelin missiles do you have on you?” Colliers asked. “One left” the Corporal replied, raising the launcher to his shoulder. “You know what you're doing, choose your target well” Colliers could do nothing but sit back and watch. Figuratively of course, there was no way he could actually just sit back.

As the Corporal fired the Javelin infantry soldiers showed up on the left. Colliers was about to fire when he realized they were allied soldiers. He was about to let his guard down when the enemy tank exploded. “The Javelin worked” he said. “What? Has it ever not?” the Corporal asked, just as a bullet entered his skull. Colliers looked away quickly towards the enemy line. There were enemy infantry soldiers between the armored vehicles, this line was standing between them and their objective, therefore it had to be breached.

It was at that moment Falcon Two chose to return. A hail of rockets slammed into the armored vehicles. This destroyed some of the lighter armored ones. A mobile SAM, or Surface to Air Missile launcher moved into position and began firing. The helicopter used its miniguns to take down several of the missiles. But a few got through. The helicopter's fuel tanks exploded, destroying the rest of the vehicle instantly.

The good thing about the destruction of the helicopter was that it smashed into an APC, or Armored Personnel Carrier, and destroyed it. The friendly tank however, was destroyed at this point. The other allied troops had brought a Javelin with them. They made short work of three of the tanks, while the rest worked on the infantry soldiers. When they were out of Javelin missiles however, there were still five enemy armored vehicles still standing.

“C4” Colliers gestured to a nearby soldier. The soldier handed him a small brown package, which contained a high explosive. Colliers pulled a detonator out of his belt and pushed it into the C4. He stuck this is his pocket and grabbed his handgun. This was the standard issue handgun, which also happened to be one of the best in the world. It was called the M27 CAWS.

CAWS stood for Close Assault Weapon System. This handgun was a 16 gauge shotgun in handgun size. It looked like a normal automatic handgun, with a few differences. The two most obvious would be that it had a bigger barrel, so as to accommodate the 16 gauge shells. And that the magazine was a box magazine that went in front of the trigger guard, because it wouldn't fit inside the grip.

Colliers slung his rifle across his back. He then pulled back the slide on the handgun and loaded a single shell in the chamber. He then pulled a box magazine containing 5 16 gauge shotgun shells and stuck it in the slot in front of the trigger guard. “Cover me” he ordered before running towards the nearest APC.

Of course the enemy infantry opened fire at Colliers as he advanced. Colliers had to duck behind any cover he could get behind as he advanced. Once he got close to the APC he returned fire with the CAWS. He killed a few enemy soldiers with it. He got next to the APC and finished off the rest of the enemy squad. He tossed the C4 under the APC and ran. The APC fired its 12.56mm machine gun at him as he ran. He ducked behind a rock, the bullets smashing uselessly at the other side. He pulled the detonator out of a pocket in his vest. He paused a second to catch his breath before pushing the button.

The explosion seemed to rock the ground. But that was probably because Colliers was so close to it. It was made bigger by the fact that it caught the APC's fuel tanks. The heat wave washed over Colliers. He looked up around the rock to see the smoldering wreckage. He smiled in grim appreciation and ran back towards his squad.

“We can get past the remaining vehicles to the objective, move out” Colliers ordered. He carefully advanced back towards the line of armored vehicles, ducking from cover to cover. The nearest tank fired its cannon. The shell hit a rock a few meters away from Colliers. The rock exploded, throwing stone chips at Colliers. Colliers suffered a few cuts where they hit him.

Once they made it past the line of armored vehicles there was a hill. They started climbing this as a tank shell smashed into the hill right next to them. The dirt rained down on them as they reached the top of the hill. Once the dirt cleared they could see the objective. It was an artillery cannon situated next to an enemy bunker. The artillery cannon had been harrassing friendly troops since they came into this area. There were other artillery bunkers nearby, but those were objectives for other squads.

The squad headed down the hill so they were out of view of the armored vehicles. “Let's take a quick rest here” Colliers told his men, much to their relief. The artillery bunker was still about quarter of a kilometer away, so the enemy probably didn't know they were there.

Colliers used his binoculars to spy out the bunker while his squad rested. There were about two platoons out there. He lay down on the ground, setting up his rifle bipod. He took a deep breath and fired three shots in quick succession. He caused chaos in not only the enemy platoons, but his own squad. He forgot to mention he would be shooting. The sound of gunfire made them jump up and ready their weapons. “Steady, I was just picking a few soldiers off” he told his men.
He took a deep breath again and fired a few more times, taking out a few more men. The enemy platoons returned fire. The bullets missed by a mile. Colliers was glad of the radar shielding technology in his combat uniform. Otherwise they would have killed him in seconds. He picked off a few more before they all retreated into the bunker, with the exception of the artillery crew, who stayed in their shielded artillery gun operation area.

“Move forward” Colliers ordered his soldiers. They began running towards the artillery gun. Suddenly a blast of machine gun fire came their way. “They got an MG in the bunker” Colliers shouted, “get down!” he threw himself to the ground as the machine gun fire took out three of his squad members. One of the soldiers who had just died had an RPG.

“Get that RPG” Colliers yelled to the soldier closest to the dead one. The soldier couldn't hear him over the machine gun fire. Colliers realized the hopelessness of trying to make him hear. He started crawling towards the dead body. The enemy on the MG shooting the ground. Two more soldiers went limp. A bullet hit right next to Colliers. He rolled to the side to avoid an oncoming hail of bullets in his direction.

He reached out, fumbling for the RPG. He touched the end of it, but couldn't quite get a hold of it. He crawled forward a bit more. This time he grabbed a hold on it. He dragged it over to himself and stood partially up. He aimed the RPG at the bunker and fired. But at the same time his left leg was hit with a single bullet in a spray. He collapsed as the bunker had a hole blown in it.

He managed to sit up long enough to wrap his leg up. “We'll leave Private Thomason here with you while we advance to the objective” the last surviving Corporal said. Colliers watched as they ran off to the bunker. Then there was nothing to do but wait.

A few minutes passed. Nothing happened. A few helicopters went by overhead. A few allied armored vehicles went by. Even a few enemy armored vehicles came from the opposite direction.

Everything changed in an instant. The artillery cannon exploded, this caught the attention of an enemy APC that was passing by at the time. They made a U-turn. This unfortunately brought them to a position where they could see Private Thomason standing up, alert. The APC fired its 2.56mm machine gun. Thus killing Thomason. The back doors were thrown open and three enemy soldiers jumped out. They walked over the area, kicking the four dead bodies near Colliers. Finally they came across Colliers.

Well, one of them did. The others were busy scavenging grenades and other things from the dead bodies. The one that did come across Colliers yelled and ran back, because he saw the CAWS in Colliers' hands. They started yelling at each other, in plain english. “There's a live, but wounded enemy soldier over there” one of them was yelling. “Well shoot him” another said. “He's armed.” “All the more reason to shoot him” the third one jumped in. The three came into Colliers' sight range again, leveling their assault rifles on him. Colliers fired three quick shots with his CAWS, killing two of them. The third fired three shots, straight into Colliers' face.

Chapter Two

Deployment

January 21st 2056
Sergeant Colliers
1050

Colliers stood up and pulled the helmet off. He rubbed his temples. He had a headache, it probably had something to do with getting shot in the head. He looked around and saw the other members of his squad, and the enemy squad, getting up and pulling off their helmets. Or just pulling off their helmets, if they hadn't died.

He was in a room, completely white. The room was so large he couldn't see either end, or wall. In fact, it was underground, and extended for about 100 kilometers in either direction. It was known as the simulation room. Almost all battle simulations didn't cover anywhere near the whole 100 kilometers.

The suit that Colliers was wearing, and the helmet he had been wearing were very technologically advanced. They conveyed sound, feel, smell, and of course sight of the virtual reality that he fought in. This was used to train new soldiers, and to play live exercises. Therefore, the soldiers never got rusty when they were stationed at home. And it saved money in the long run. It would cost less to maintain this than buy live ammo for training new soldiers.

Of course it wasn't perfect. There were certain problems, such as the fact that the hills stayed in the same spot, there was no way you could climb a virtual hill. Therefore they usually placed the exercises and objectives in different areas. The ground was dirt, covered in fake turf. They didn't make a concrete floor or anything.

Colliers himself was about 6' tall. He had brown eyes, dark brown hair, cut short. He had a beard that included sideburns, also cut somewhat short. His face was a little thinner than the usual, but not by much.

Colliers sighed at his death and started the long walk back. It was 50 kilometers to get out of there. But there was a garage in a hill about a kilometer away. That was probably where everyone else was headed. There were several trucks in the garage.

Several minutes passed. The landscape looked exactly the same. That was the only downside to the system, the fact that there were kilometers of the exact same landscape. After about a half hour Colliers made it to the garage.

There wasn't much to see, they had to leave it pretty plain so it wouldn't interfere with the battle. As a matter of fact, it took part as a bunker in the simulations, except there was no door in the simulation. Therefore they could not get into the garage. Well, they actually could, but they were instantly counted as dead if they did, and no one else would go in there, so there would be no point.

After he drove back to the doorway out of the simulation area he dropped his gun prop and suit off at the armory area. They were kept in a seperate area of the armory so that no one would mistake them for real guns and grab them in an emergency situation. Several other soldiers that were in the truck with Colliers dropped off their weapons too.

They made their way to the score room. As they entered they could see the familiar winged dagger, symbol of the SAS, on the wall. The whole opposite wall was a screen, one huge screen that showed the scores for the last simulation. If Colliers looked closer he would see the amount of kills he made, and that he died. As it was, he just looked at the main score.

SAS: 14 of 25 secondary objectives complete. Anti-SAS: 22 of 25 secondary objectives complete. SAS: Primary objective incomplete. Anti-SAS: Primary objective complete. Colliers had been in the SAS, his squad had completed its objective. However, the primary objective remained incomplete. Therefore they lost. The simulation ended when the Anti-SAS forces completed their primary objective.

Colliers shook his head and left. He walked back to his quarters and sat down on his bed. His deployment orders had come yesterday. He was to deploy to Moscow later that day. The problem he had with that was, Moscow was in the heart of the most contested area. Therefore there would be heavy fighting in the area.

Colliers rolled over, trying to get some sleep before deployment. He'd need it for where he was going. He finally dropped off about 1130.

He woke up at 1600, about an hour before his deployment. He wandered back into the score-room. The current simulation was still in progress, so it showed the scores for the current players. Currently the SAS was winning, by 12 secondary objectives to 10.

Colliers stood watching the rest of the scores, working as they came. Finally, when the simulation seemed about 2/3s of the way to completion, Lieutenant Carson walked over to Colliers. “Sergeant, get your squad together, we're mobilizing.” “Yes sir.” Colliers stepped outside the room and activated his radio headset. “Okay, wake up if you haven't already, get your gear and get over to the mobilization point.” A chorus of “yes sir”s of varying degrees of tiredness came over the radio.

Colliers walked back to his quarters, where he grabbed his gear. He had several large bags, these were very heavy all together, but he was used to carrying them. He then went back into the hall.

Colliers headed for an underground hanger. After walking through a series of concrete passages he reached a door. Through this door there were hundreds of aircraft of many different varieties. He made his way toward a Ghost deployment helicopter. Completely undetectable by radar, and it could make it to such high altitudes that it couldn't be seen by the naked eye when at maximum altitude.

He threw the bags under the seats along the edge and walked back out of the hanger. He then went to the armory and got his vest and gun. He was able to use almost any kind of gun equally well. He'd been trained to do that. So the gun he used was one most appropriate for the job. In this case, it would be urban warfare, so he picked an M32 TAR, or Tactical Assault Rifle.

The M32 was an assault rifle, it looked a lot like the G36C. Except it had a larger magazine, containing 40 .45 caliber rounds. Standard issue came with a red dot sight, a bipod, a small laser guided rocket launcher on the right side and selective fire or fully auto settings.

Colliers pulled on a vest, containing different kinds of explosives, infiltration devices and a few granola bars. He grabbed two handguns, one M27 CAWS and one silenced M35 pistol. He stuck these in the holsters on his belt and walked back to the helicopter.

The pilot and gunner were already up front in the cockpit. Colliers stepped in the back and saw some rather sleepy new recruits. “Wake up, and stay that way.” Colliers plopped himself down next the the divider between the cockpit and the troop area. Over the next few minutes the rest of his squad arrived.

Colliers' radio crackled to life. “Sergeant, do you have all your squad?” Lieutenant Carson asked. Colliers did a quick headcount of his squad. “Yep, got everyone.” “I'll give the go-ahead for launch then.”

A few minutes after that the ceiling of the hanger opened, and the fueling hose that was hooked up to the helicopter was removed from the area. Colliers just sat there as all the systems powered up. He'd been through it a thousand times, or it seemed like that much.

Another couple of minutes passed. Then the helicopter lifted off. Dozens of other helicopters lifted off with it. This was a full company of SAS troopers. Numbering around 50 soldiers. They began to make their way towards Russia.

“Okay men, for some of you, this is your first combat situation that you will be going into. I'll make this simple. We get to the Russian base. We get rested up. We join the ongoing battle tomorrow.

“The current battle has been going on for over a month now. When we join it, there likely won't be any fighting. The enemy forces have regrouped, just out of range of our artillery. So what we'll be doing is dropping in behind their lines before dawn. Understand?” a chorus of “yes sir”s came back. “Okay then, do whatever during the trip.”

Some of the soldiers pulled out portable video game players, some read books, Colliers sat and thought. He'd taken up doing this over any other way to pass the time.

Hours passed, they passed over several different countries. They were at a relatively low altitude while they were over allied countries. On occasion they would come across a few enemy occupied countries and have to go up almost to max altitude. But they dropped back down pretty quickly. The helicopter couldn't stand being at max altitude for long periods of time.

After several hours they reached the Moscow military base. They were greeted by Russians. Colliers walked with the Lieutenant and the three other sergeants in the platoon to the quarters given them. Colliers walked into the quarters for his squad. “Okay, get some sleep, we leave in four hours” he ordered.

Colliers pulled his vest off and shoved that and his guns under a bed. He lay down on the bed and went to sleep, setting his headset to give him an alarm at 0300 hours.

He woke up with his alarm. He had to force some of the other soldiers to get out of bed. He walked to the mess hall and grabbed some coffee. He needed it. He walked to the helicopter again.

The Lieutenant was out there already, 20 minutes before launch. “What are you doing out here already Colliers?” the Lieutenant asked. Colliers wrapped his fingers around the mug, it was quite cold outside. “Just getting ready for launch.” “Okay.” The Lieutenant climbed in a helicopter to keep warm.
20 minutes later the helicopters launched. Colliers had all the gear he'd need for the mission packed up. In fact, he was wearing it all. The trip took about an hour, they had to get behind enemy lines by a bit. Then the jump began.

The back opened. There was a rail down the center of the ceiling on the helicopter that contained the static lines that connected to the parachutes on the backs of all the soldiers. One by one they began to jump. For the first time Colliers realized it was raining. The last of the soldiers other than Colliers made the jump. Colliers braced himself for the biting cold and threw himself into the cold, wet, dark abyss.

Chapter Three

Disruption

January 22nd 2056
Sergeant Colliers
0503

Colliers plunged through the darkness, wondering exactly what awaited him at the bottom. He was drenched the instant he left the helicopter. The parachute deployed after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity in the darkness. His descent slowed quickly. After about a half minute his feet hit the ground.

He hit the ground rolling. He brought his assault rifle up and swept around the area. There were only his squad members in the area. Colliers touched his headset to activate it, “Lieutenant, do you copy?” “Loud and clear Colliers, proceed to primary objective.” “Roger, moving out.” Colliers deactivated the headset. “Move out men.”

They moved to the east. Towards Moscow. Colliers checked his GPS as he walked. They were about two thirds of a kilometer away from their objective. They moved quickly. They would probably get there in about a half an hour.

Half an hour later, they still weren't there. He checked the GPS again, they were nearly there. The enemy line was nearby. “Okay men, use the silenced pistols. We need to stay unknown as long as possible.”

After a few more minutes the objective came into sight. It was a small town several miles west of Moscow. There were an estimated 200 enemy soldiers in the town. All three squads were attacking from different points.

Colliers' headset crackled to life again. “Maintain your position until I give the signal” the Lieutenant ordered. “Copy that.” Colliers deactivated the headset. “Hold it men, we're waiting here.” Colliers crouched behind a bush.

It had stopped raining and started snowing, the white flakes descending upon the still figures of the SAS squad. They melted as soon as they hit the ground, adding to the puddles. The sky was completely covered with clouds. The temperature had dropped to -30 degrees celsius. Colliers hated it.

“Move in, stay silent, use knives when possible” the orders came through on Colliers' headset. “Use knives” he whispered. The squad drew their knives. Colliers motioned towards the town and started creeping silently forward.

There was a single guard house constructed at the edge of the road. Colliers used his binoculars to spy this out. There were two guards. They seemed much too watchful to sneak past. Two silent shots from a handgun took them out in quick succession.

The silencer on the handgun was the best silencer on the market. It was as close to silent as you can get without being silent. It barely made a whisper at all. It only could be heard from within a five meter radius of the weapon. This didn't account for walls.
With the guards gone they were free to head up the road. They did for a short distance to avoid shaking the fence. Colliers stepped forward and ducked under the barrier. There was a small house on the right hand side of the road. It probably contained the soldiers that were supposed to take the next shift for watch.

Colliers ran silently to the side of the house. He peeked in a window and saw a small kitchen. He motioned for the rest of the squad to cover him. He stepped to the front door. He tried the doorknob, it was locked. A chill wind blasted Colliers in the face.

He checked the brand of the doorknob and pulled out a master key corresponding with it. He pushed it in the doorknob and turned it. The door creaked open. They were in!

Colliers crept to the bedroom. There were two beds in there, each one contained a soldier. Colliers stabbed them both with his knife before stepping back outside. “Clear.”

They moved down the street, clearing out houses in a similar manner. Not a single shot was fired. That's when they heard the commotion on the other side of town.

Alarms went off. The sounds of doors bursting open and gunfire could be heard all across town. Colliers' squad happened to be in the middle of an intersection in the road.

Enemy soldiers began running down the roads towards Colliers' squad. “Hold fast men, take them down!” Colliers holstered his handgun and sheathed his knife. He pulled his M32 over his shoulder and brought it up to head level.

The enemy soldiers ran around so they could surround Colliers' squad. It was working. No shots had been fired yet. Then Colliers let loose a spray of bullets in the direction of the easiest escape route. The enemy didn't like this at all. So they fired back, ignoring the cold.

Instantly a soldier beside Colliers was cut down. Colliers threw himself to the ground to avoid the same fate. A bullet hit a glancing blow on the body armor on his back. That really woke him up. He rolled into a crouch and fired a few more shots with his assault rifle.

A gust of wind came through as he pulled the pin on a grenade. As it died down he threw it into the group he had been trying to eliminate. He succeeded, at the cost of a bullet in his left arm.

He yelled, collapsing to the ground. “The Sergeant's wounded!” A couple of other soldiers crouched next to where he was lying and kept the enemy soldiers from hitting him again.

“Clear out that direction and make a run for it.” Colliers stood up, slinging the TAR across his back. He drew his handgun with one hand, leaving the other hanging. The remaining soldiers fired across the direction Colliers indicated. The enemy soldiers realized what they were doing and started running across their pathway.

“Go!” Colliers started running down the street. He fired several shots, killing a single soldier. They managed to make it past the enemy lines. “Into that building, go!” Colliers pointed to a red brick building. A soldier kicked the door open.

There were two enemy soldiers waiting inside. They were quickly cut down. “Check the upstairs, we'll stay here.” Colliers sat down in a chair in the corner of the room. “Block the door.” The medic came over and bandaged Colliers' shoulder.

“How many made it out?” Colliers asked. “We only lost three soldiers, seven are wounded though, including you. Thus we have three unwounded soldiers.” “Bar the door.” The soldiers slammed the door shut and leaned their backs against it.

The enemy soldiers began kicking and banging on the door. “Take them out!” Colliers stood up and walked over to the door. “Sit down on the ground with your back against the door” Colliers ordered his men. Once they were in this position Colliers pressed his handgun against the door at head height. He fired three shots. The kicking and banging stopped.

It came back after a few minutes. Colliers shot again. This didn't achieve anything. The door was thrown open, the soldiers holding it close were force back. “Get back!” Colliers ran to the back of the room. The other three soldiers in the room did the same. An enemy soldier came charging in with a riot shield in front of him. “Wow!” Colliers fired a few shots in that direction before running to the next room, followed by two of the three soldiers. “Get in here Private” Colliers ordered. The soldier turned around and started running through, only to be gunned down from behind.

“Close the door!” Colliers rolled behind a fallen wooden table. He heard the door slam shut. “Bar it with this” he ordered, indicating the table. One soldier remained holding the door while the other soldier started dragging the table over. The door was being forced open. Colliers stepped over to the door and looked through the crack. He fired a shot at the enemy soldier he saw there. The door slammed back shut for a second, just long enough for the table to wedge the door shut.

“Fall back to the upstairs.” Colliers started running up the stairs. They made it through the door at the top just in time to hear the table being shoved across the room by the door. “Close the door!” Colliers ran to the room where the rest of the soldiers were.

“How many enemy soldiers?” Colliers asked. “We counted eighteen men, one with a riot shield.” “Good, we've killed a few of them since they entered.” Colliers stepped back to the door the two soldiers were holding shut.

He activated his headset. “Where are you at right now Lieutenant?” he asked. “Across town from where you should be, have they found you too?” “Unfortunately so. We're stuck on the upper floor in an old building, if you're able, help would be appreciated.” “Sorry, but we are unable to help at this moment. We have some problems of our own.” “Copy that, we'll see you on the other side of this mess.” Colliers deactivated his headset.

“If you can spot them through the floorboards shoot 'em.” Colliers got onto the floor and peeked between two floorboards. He saw a single soldier on watch at one of the doors. He pressed his handgun's muzzle against the floor and fired. He peeked through again to see a corpse.

“That works, be careful though, don't shoot the floorboards too much. This house is at least a hundred years old. We don't want the floor collapsing on us.” A few minutes passed. There were gunshots across the building.

“Sir, they're returning fire.” One soldier had been wounded in the foot. “Well, there's nothing else we can do, they're going to keep firing at us anyway. Sit down there.” Colliers indicated a chair in front of a computer. “Think they have internet access?” the soldier asked, sitting down. “Not likely” Colliers fired two more shots down through the floor.

A spray of bullets blasted through the floor and through the ceiling a few feet away, killing the soldier in the chair. Colliers stood up and walked to the door at the top of the stairs. “Out of the way” he ordered the soldiers holding the door shut. They jumped out of the way as Colliers fired three shots through the door, still advancing. He threw the door open and threw a grenade down into a group of enemy soldiers. There was an explosion and yelling after a few moments.

Colliers walked down the steps and shot any enemy soldiers in the way. “Check all the rooms, clear out the building.” He stepped into the entrance room.

There bodies all over the floor. The door was thrown open and the windows were blown out. He looked outside, there were hardly any enemy soldiers around. He checked his GPS. He was around the east side of town. According to their locators the other squads were in completely different areas of town.

He checked a satellite in the area. He scanned the town for signs of life. He started at one end and moved across town, looking at every house. Unfortunately, the enemy soldiers were using equipment that prevented locating them. Colliers put the GPS back in his vest.

“Okay men, get in here.” The soldiers ran in. Their number was now eight, six of which were wounded. “We're going to go in and try to get the objective. Move out!” Colliers charged out the door and up the street...

Only to be shot in the same arm by an enemy soldier in a building. Colliers yelled and dropped to the ground again. He fired in the direction the bullet had come from. One of the other SAS troopers ran up to Colliers and fired a spray of bullets into the building. “I gotcha.” The soldier bandaged up Colliers' wounds.

“Move forward.” Colliers stood up and ran up the street. The enemy soldiers began shooting down the street at them. “Return fire!” Colliers fired his handgun up the street. The building at the end of the street was the largest in the town. It was probably the city hall.

It was a long white building, with several stories. This was probably where Colliers' squad's objective was. There were several windows that the enemy soldiers were firing from. Colliers ducked behind a small house, the rest of his squad did the same behind other houses.

He peered around the side again, ducking back around as an RPG rocket flew past his head, exploding on the house behind him. “Look out, they have heat sensing equipment.” Colliers activated his heat detection scrambler. This used nodes throughout his suit to release continuous streams of cool air to fool heat sensing technology.

Colliers switched his binoculars to heat sensing mode. He checked around the corner again. This time they didn't respond immediately. He ducked back behind the house. He peered around again, this time using the binoculars.

“They have heat scramblers too. We'll have to do this by sight. Use your masks!” Colliers ducked back around the corner, folding the binoculars in half and putting them back in a pouch on his belt. He pulled his mask out of his pack on his back.

This was a mask designed to fit Colliers perfectly. It was painted black. It had a radio in the mouthpiece, so you didn't have to grab one from your belt or anything. The eyepieces had normal, infra-red and other modes of view. The downside to this was, the enemies had heat scramblers, and it reduced your field of vision. But it was bullet resistant, thus it was necessary for close-range combat.

“Move in.” Colliers raised his TAR and crept forward slowly. He saw something that looked suspiciously like a head peeking over a window on the ground floor of the building. He fired a shot into it. It fell over, nothing else happened.

“Move forward, we'll check this out.” Colliers ran up next to the building. He looked in the window where he had shot the object. He looked in. There was a mannequin like from a store lying on the ground, with a dented helmet lying just past the head. “It was just a mannequin.”

Colliers jumped in the window, sweeping his gun across the room. “Clear, check the adjacent rooms. Carlson and I will check the stairs.” Colliers motioned to one of the soldiers jumping in the windows. Corporal Carlson followed Colliers to the stairwell.

There were about three stairs up to a small landing. After this landing, the stairs were obscured by a wall. As soon as Carlson took a step on the landing a spray of gunfire cut him down.

“Hold up, we got something up these stairs.” Colliers pulled a small camera on a curved pipe out of his bag. He set this so the camera just barely peered around the corner. There was a small remote controlled .50 caliber machine gun turret. It rotated until it faced the camera and fired. The camera was ruined instantly.

“They know we're down here then.” Colliers threw a grenade around the corner up the stairs. A few seconds later the turret flew down and hit the wall. There was a crunching sound and the tripod the turret was set up on broke. The machine gun itself was still operational. The operators were firing it repeatedly. One of the soldiers ran up to the landing, avoiding the bullets coming in a straight stream, and used his knife to cut the ammo belt. The machine gun soon ran out of ammo on the very short belt left to it.

“Head upstairs, kill any enemy soldiers you see. Do not shoot the package.” Colliers stood to the side as the rest of the soldiers headed up past him. “Wait, you two, stay here and guard the bottom floor.” The last two soldiers in line stepped back down the stairs and stood guard next to the door.

Colliers walked up the stairs, checking the time as he went. It was 0557. It was hard to believe they'd only been in enemy territory for about 55 minutes.

Upstairs there were a lot of bodies. Not all of them were enemy soldiers. One of Colliers' soldiers ran over. “Sir, the remaining enemy soldiers have barricaded themselves on the roof. What are your orders?”

Collliers considered the situation for a minute. He did some quick math and calculated how much C4 they'd need. He then considered the most likely position for the package. They couldn't risk harming the package.

His train of thought was interrupted by a yell from one of his men. “Sir, enemy reinforcements inbound.” “Ok, hold them off. We have a package to deliver.” Colliers resumed his calculations.

“C4” Colliers motioned to the nearest soldier. The soldier tossed him a few packs. He then placed the C4 to certain positions on and around one beam across the ceiling. Colliers took the detonator from the soldier. “Everyone stand back!” Once they were all out of the way Colliers flicked the safety cover open and flicked the switch.

The explosion tore several holes in the beam and the ceiling around it. The ceiling collapsed, causing rubble to pile up under the position. There were also bodies among the rubble. Enemy soldiers started shooting through the hole.

Colliers ducked behind a desk nearby, unable to fight the enemy with one arm unusable. He heard gunfire from the floor below, sure that his two soldiers downstairs had engaged the enemy reinforcements.

He activated his headset. “Lieutenant, we could use some reinforcements here. We have the package trapped on the roof, but no way to get to him. Oh, and we just blew a hole in the ceiling to pick off some enemy soldiers. But we have enemy reinforcements on our doorstep.” “Copy that Sergeant. We will assist you as soon as we can. Hold out for ten minutes if possible.” “Roger, will do.”

Colliers ended the transmission. He looked out the window. It was starting to get brighter, though dawn was still an hour or so off. He saw a rope fall past his window. He jumped back, raising his handgun. Someone slid down it, someone who wasn't a soldier.

Colliers kicked the window. The glass shattered, throwing shards across the ground below, some of them hit the figure running away. Colliers jumped out and grabbed the rope. He slid down. He jumped off the rope when he was about five feet off the ground. He started running the instant he hit the ground.

The package was ahead of him by about 10 meters. Colliers shot at the package's legs, trying to disable him. He missed with his first few shots. He stopped shooting as the package ran around a corner. As Colliers ran around the corner an enemy soldier ambushed him.

Colliers punched the soldier in the face. The soldier shoved his knee into Colliers' stomach, knocking the wind out of his stomach. As Colliers regained his breath he broke free of the enemy soldiers' hold on him. The soldier kicked him as he backed off.

Colliers stumbled backwards into the wall of a building. The enemy soldier advanced closer. Colliers kicked out. He felt his foot strike the soldier. But Colliers didn't see his foot make contact. As soon as he felt it hit the soldier, he was diving towards his handgun on the ground. As he grabbed it, he heard something click behind him.

He rolled over to see the soldier holding a handgun on him. “Don't move.” The soldier had a thick Russian accent. Colliers sat completely still on the ground. The soldier stepped forward and kicked the handgun out of Colliers' hand. “I have no reason to keep you alive.” The soldier raised his handgun on Colliers.

A dark spot appeared between the enemy soldier's eyes. He collapsed to the side. Colliers climbed to his feet. The Lieutenant was standing behind where the soldier had been, holding his rifle. “You were in a bit of a situation there, weren't you Colliers.” “Well, yes. But I have to go now, I've got a package to deliver.” Colliers tossed the rifle on his back to the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant caught it and watched Colliers pick up his handgun before running after the package. “You three, follow him. The rest of you, follow me to reinforce Colliers' squad.”

Colliers dodged around an enemy soldier who was jumping out from a doorway after him. The package had gotten quite far ahead in the time Colliers was fighting. In fact, Colliers didn't even know what direction the package had gone. He heard gunshots behind him. As no bullets came his way he suspected the Lieutenant had sent men to help him out.

He ran around the next corner to find the package sitting in a chair at the end of the alley, catching his breath. He was a tall man in a general's uniform. This is because he was a general. He looked to be about 50 years old.

General Kirov stood up and ran at the sight of Colliers. Colliers kept running, firing at Kirov's legs. He thought he scored a hit when Kirov stumbled. But was disappointed when Kirov recovered. The clip ran out. Colliers reloaded, leaving the empty clip behind.

Something flashed by overhead. If it was an aircraft, it was unknown to Colliers. Kirov was surprised by it too. He stopped, staring at the sky. Colliers stepped up next to Kirov, pressing his handgun against Kirov's head.

“What is that?” Colliers removed his knife from its sheath and pressed it against Kirov's throat. “I don't know. SERIOUSLY, I DON'T KNOW!” Kirov yelled as Colliers dug his knife harder against Kirov's throat.

Colliers activated his headset. “Lieutenant, I the package has been secured. Did you see that... thing in the sky?” “I did actually, and good work. Ask the package about it.” “I have actually, he has no idea.” “That's interesting. From the roof of the city hall it looks like it landed. Move to the west side of the town, we're calling in the ghost.”

Kirov didn't understand much of the conversation. Was he the package? What is the ghost? None of this made sense to him.

“Roger sir, moving out.” Colliers started half-dragging Kirov through the town, his knife still to Kirov's throat.

At the west side of town, the remainder of his squad was waiting, along with the other two squads. “Is the town clear?” Colliers asked. “There's a few stragglers. But they're easily taken care of by helicopter. We have about 30 men left out of around 50. Your squad was hit hardest.” “Yes, it was quite unfortunate, and they will be missed.”

A few minutes later they could hear helicopter blades chopping through the air. This was when Kirov attempted his escape. Colliers had lowered his knife since they had arrived at the rendezvous point. Kirov twisted around, breaking Colliers' grip. He started to run for it. Then a bullet entered his left leg. Kirov collapsed to the ground. The Lieutenant shot Kirov's other leg for good measure.

The helicopter landed a minute later. Colliers helped to drag him on board. The helicopter took off once they were all on board. They began moving towards the unknown object.