In the year 3091, 86 years after the war began, Frank was 23 years old now and was being transferred to the front. He was nervous as he only had 2 years of military experience in the backlines as a reserve. Mainly defending military-grade storages and depots. All he knew was that fighting for one's nation was honourable. It also didn't help that the veterans were saying that the frontlines had become unsurvivable since last year. But ultimately Frank swallowed in his fears and prepared. He had been assigned to the QLTs, a branch of the Q.A.F., the branch's main purpose was to fight on soil and land and with ever-so-varying terrain.
After a few weeks, it was time to leave so Frank packed his equipment and his accessories and took a lift on a military truck with the other soldiers to the airfield. Once they arrived, Frank saw multiple Air-to-Space-Tansport-Craft(A.S.T.C) flying in and out of the atmosphere. There were large groups of soldiers from various backgrounds waiting. Frank joined his assigned group. There he met his friend Josh. They were surprised to meet each other again and started conversing, asking about their lives, how they were doing, etc. While they were chatting, a random officer walked up to them and asked for their names. The two of them saluted and said their names out loud.
"Mr. Richardson! Mr. Peckings!"
The officer revealed that he was their group leader and would command them on the battlefield. Frank and Josh then wore their dog tags and waited in line for their A.S.T.C. Once it arrived they went on board and sat down. The craft rocked as it left the planet. Frank thought about his wife and kids wondering if he'd be able to see them again. As he thought about it, their transport craft had arrived at their Quadaric-Interplanetary-Transport-Spaceship(Q.I.T.S) and docked.
In the hangar bay, the soldiers exited the craft and went to their sleeping quarters. Frank decided to share his sleeping quarters with Josh. They had a clock telling them when to sleep and when to not. They were in space after all. Frank and Josh went to sleep as the clock told them to. The futuristic looks and feel of the halls and rooms contrasted with the old and natural look of their homes back in their hometowns and cities. The duo quickly changed into their normal uniforms, took off their gears, and put them elsewhere. It was a weird feeling Frank had never felt before. Lonelyness. Out in space on a spaceship with more than 5000 infantry soldiers and hundreds of armoured vehicles and aircraft with more than 500 crew members. Yet it still felt empty. The journey to the planet 'Eulero 43Z' was going to take at least a year to arrive. The Q.I.T.Ss were designed for this purpose specifically making sure the passengers weren't going crazy. The spaceships had built-in cryo chambers where the patient goes into temporary hibernation in a perfectly suitable chamber with the right temperature and light. The idea was to put the patient into a psychosis state and trick the mind into thinking that hours were mere minutes. This was rather dangerous and had to be done with precise care, on average a soldier aboard the spaceship had to go into cryostasis, 2 times per year. While the patient was in hibernation, the chamber had to be automated with feeding systems, comfortable posture beds, etc. There are about 10 to 100 cryo chambers per spaceship with each chamber containing more than 500 cryo pods where the patients are asleep. The stasis can vary depending on various situations such as user choice and limited time. The amount of time Frank chose to sleep for this journey was 6 months as it was the maximum number and the journey was going to take about a year.
6 months later, the two of them were taken out of their long slumber. They got up and prepared to do their new morning routine. It felt weird getting up. Their first steps were hard as their bodies had completely forgotten how to walk. It took some time with some crew members coming to help. They had to wear an exo-suit to train their legs to work properly again. A few weeks passed. Then, one day, they went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast and then went to the hangar bay on time as scheduled. The white hallways acted like a maze with pipes cables and wires being visible. There was an alert box, a metal box attached to the right side of the blast doors with the blast door lever on the left side. They were there in case of an emergency. Once activated, it would cause the alarm system to go off and the blast doors in the hallway to close shut. It was for oxygen leak purposes. In the hallway where the alert box was located would seal itself off from the rest of the transport ship, isolating the leak and ensuring that further damage wouldn't be done. Frank never wanted it to go off. He didn't want to be stuck inside an airtight, blast-proof hallway with no escape. The thought of it terrified Frank to his core. In the hangar bay, an officer briefed the soldiers about what they were in for once they landed. Frank recognized the officer and realised that it was the same one back when they were at the airfield. The officer introduced himself. His name was Lt. Roves Ferguson, the ex-commander of the infamous 'Black Wolves' platoon. The hangar bay was humongous. It had multiple A.S.T.Cs docked. Engineering crews were cleaning the ships and repairing them of any damage. Maintenance was high. They didn't want anything to go wrong after a year's worth of travel after all. Once the briefing was over, Frank and Josh went on about their routines still crossing the alert boxes keeping them nervous at all times. The soldiers aboard had to keep exercising and maintaining their fitness until finally, they were able to properly walk again. Frank and the batch of soldiers he was a part of were now officially the '50000th Infantry Platoon'.
Some months later, they finally arrived at their destination. Frank looked outside of some windows and saw many spaceships like theirs and some burning and crashing down upon the dark, grey planet they were orbiting, turning into molten metal in the atmosphere. The planet was called 'Eulero 43Z' or simply 'Eulero'. Their group lined up in front of Lt. Ferguson and he gave one last pep talk before they boarded the transport crafts once more. The soldiers looked fierce in their uniforms, helmets, and armour striking fear and terror into their enemy's eyes. They then went aboard and waited as the craft descended upon the mysterious planet. Frank thought about his family again but this time he was determined to fight for his nation, for what HE believed in.
They arrived on the surface in just a few minutes and a few rockings. The shuttle door opened to reveal the frightening horror the group was going into. Loud gunshots, explosions in the distance, screams and shouts, dead trees, leaves turned into ashes leaving the trees with empty branches, buildings in ruins, dead bodies littered everywhere, fires everywhere, and large structures of what remained of destroyed spaceships that had crashed upon the battlefield, the entire landscape was a horrifying sight. They lined up outside and watched as the transport craft left, reminding them they might never return home alive. Lt. Ferguson seemed to be waiting for someone. The explosions got louder and louder until it became a thundering roar. Luckily for the soldiers, they had sound-deafening headphones specifically for this kind of scenario. Then, Frank saw an armoured jeep coming their way. Josh meanwhile struggled to keep himself steady in line. When the jeep stopped in front of them. A high-ranking man walked out and stood in front of Lt. Ferguson. Ferguson saluted the mysterious man and turned to the soldiers.
"Listen up soldiers! This is Captain Valen Krieger. He has some orders to give so listen carefully!", he shouted.
The mysterious man then loudly spoke.
"5 of you will go with me to the 'Dyle Ridge'."
The Captain stopped for a few moments.
"Anyone willing to volunteer?", he spoke again.
A soldier stepped forward and yelled.
"I volunteer sir!"
Just as the soldier said that another soldier stepped forward and shouted the same, and then another one stepped forward signifying that they volunteered. And then yet another soldier and finally Josh. Frank was surprised to see this and worried about what kind of tasks Josh would have to do. The Captain then turned towards Lt. Ferguson.
"You have some brave soldiers here, Lieutenant.", he applauded.
Capt. Krieger made a hand gesture telling the 5 soldiers to follow him. They left off into the distance and Frank was left confused. Lt. Ferguson spoke up ordering the rest to follow him. Frank and the rest walked in formation behind Lt. Ferguson. They walked and walked and walked for what seemed like an eternity across the dry surface of the ground until they stopped at a resting point to camp. The smell of burned ash still lingered on. A soldier asked Lt. Ferguson why they had to walk instead of travelling by a vehicle.
"The higher-ups aren't going to waste their resources on some random soldiers and it'd take too long for a vehicle to arrive in the first place.", he answered.
Another soldier asked Lt. Ferguson another question.
"Well, why didn't we descend closer to our objective then?"
Lt. Ferguson responded harshly.
"Look soldier, do you expect our transport craft to survive descending upon a battle? Are you insane!"
One of the soldier's friends spoke.
"I apologize about my friend's behaviour there Lieutenant. He's not used to the frontlines or any kind of combat."
The rest of the group realized something was off about the soldier's voice.
"Soldier, why are you doing in this platoon!", yelled Lt. Ferguson.
That was when Frank and the other soldiers realised that this soldier was a female. Female soldiers and male soldiers aren't normally supposed to be in the same group unless necessary but this group specifically hadn't assigned any females on duty. Lt. Ferguson pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the female soldier. Frank, realising that she was going get shot, stepped in front to stop it from escalating any further.
"Get out of the way soldier. This female soldier has broken the rules and I'm going to give a great example of what a discipline breaker deserves!", Lt. Ferguson yelled.
"Sir! This is no way to treat a fellow soldier! Besides, she could have accidentally come aboard with us!", Frank yelled back.
Lt. Ferguson stopped to think and decided to let it slide. He wasn't a discipline officer after all. The other soldiers looked in amazement at what was unfolding in front of them. The female soldier was ordered to sleep at a separate place from the rest of the soldiers. Frank was relieved to know that he managed to save the poor girl. And then it dawned on him. Why did he step up? He's never done anything like this in his entire life. He's always been obeying what others told him to do. That's probably how he ended up in this place anyway. The rest of the group started putting up their tents ready to sleep as the sunset.
The very next day the soldiers packed up and started marching once more. They had breakfast while marching. Frank had biscuits from one of his MREs. Lt. Ferguson had warned them about whether they should ration the MREs, loot, or even hunt for their food. Frank didn't care much about it though. He looked around and saw the female soldier marching with her friend.
On their journey, they crossed fields of grass and ruins of burned, collapsed, and destroyed wreckage of buildings. The overcast made the ground a greyish-blue shade with a blue backdrop of the skies. Despite all this fighting, skyscrapers still stood, just heavily damaged and worn down. It was grim. Their abandoned menacing look terrified any travellers. The road they walked on was full of craters and mud that splashed onto the boots with every step that they took. Some of the soldiers slipped and fell. Causing joints and ankles to be dislocated. Although the medics dealt with that. The injured soldiers would learn their lessons. At one point, there was an attack on some buildings. The platoon watched from afar as the gunfire ensued. They watched the whole fight unfold. There were helicopters with soldiers dangling down with ropes. Just then, one of the helicopters was hit by a small but precise rocket and swirled and spun in the air. The pilots dropped out with parachutes with the second pilot dying after the helicopter blades sliced him into bits. It was a horrible sight. The helicopter that had been shot down crashed into one of the buildings, going up into flames and exploding. The smoke from the crash went up into the air, seen from afar by the '50000th Infantry Platoon', the one that Frank was in. In 10 minutes, the assault had completely turned into an enemy victory. It was disheartening to see. Either way, they couldn't do much about it. So the platoon simply ignored and forgot the whole fight and continued walking onward towards the location of their objective. They saw more ruined buildings as well as crashed spacecraft, spaceships, and aircraft. Trash was littered everywhere throughout the battlefield. There were posters of recruitment and propaganda plastered on the sides of walls, still existing after all that time. Then, Frank saw a pile of skeletal remains of horribly mutilated dead bodies, making Frank gag a bit. Their faces were disfigured, their bones had been crushed to mush, and their skin had been burned off completely. The bodies had probably been there for years at that point. The whole place stank of rotting corpses. At another point in their journey, there was yet another assault on what looked to be a thriving city. Bright flashes of bombs beamed the platoon from afar. Once the bombing was over, another squadron of planes flew over the city, this time soldiers with parachutes came out instead of bombs. There were also tanks on the ground firing at the opposing side, unnecessarily hitting buildings and spreading them to bits. Frank recognized who the paratroopers were.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"15555th Airborne Regiment", he thought to himself.
The '15555th Airborne Regiment' was a paratrooper regiment that was infamous for winning many essential battles throughout the war. It was a brilliant sight for Frank to say the least. The cooperation between the different soldiers of the regiment and the coordination and their tactics and strategies were any commander's dream soldiers. The perfect regiment, some would even call it. Seeing all that made Frank feel insignificant and insecure about himself.
Once they arrived at their objective after walking for a couple more miles, they saw the ruins of yet another town, it was a local town that had been destroyed to the ground. Mostly rubble remaining. A sign board was still standing, although rusted and worn down with bullet holes. Frank could just make out the words, it read 'Welcome to Holith'. It was written in an ancient language called English but Frank was Dinen and spoke Dinak. Despite that though, he knew what the language was as it was pretty obvious from a glance, the unique shapes and curvatures of the English alphabet, but he didn't know what it read as he couldn't understand English. The town had been through a lot of things, from bombs to constant artillery to missile attacks, made more evident by the state it was in. Only remnants were left to sway anyone from walking anywhere close. Lt. Ferguson finally briefed the group about what they were doing.
"There is a company of enemies marching from the east. We must hold them off until reinforcements arrive."
The soldiers became understandably worried. A platoon of 36 soldiers holding off against 100? It seemed impossible!
"Sir, how long will our reinforcements take?", a soldier asked.
"24 hours", Lt. Ferguson replied.
"24 hours?!", Frank worriedly thought to himself.
"We have to stall them from attacking our northern defences", Lt. Ferguson explained further.
After that, the platoon set up defences and barricades throughout the town or at least what was left of it until it was nighttime. They set up sandbags, moved prices of broken furniture to make blockades, and used the ruins of the buildings as cover. They set up tents on a flat ground in the middle of the town, presumably the town square, now in an unrecognizable state. Frank was tired now and so were the other soldiers so most went to rest while others stayed up in shifts to get enough sleep. Frank had his dinner a cooked canned tomato with a makeshift campfire with some wood that he found and his frying pan to cook. After he had his dinner as many others also did, Frank was now doing his shift patrolling the area and looking at all the destroyed buildings under the moonlight. All of it used to be a home now it was nothing but abandoned ruins. In the middle of his patrol, he saw the insides of a ruined building as the roof and the second floor had been destroyed entirely to rubble. There was the furniture of what once used to be the home of a family. There were photos hung on walls, bashed up and broken. The plates, knives, and any valuables had been taken.
"It's a ghost town.", Frank thought.
Then, it started raining. The rain got heavier and heavier until it was a storm! Frank was lucky that he had had dinner before the storm. The rain poured down in relentless sheets, turning the ruins of Holithian into a mire of mud and debris. Frank's boots squelched through the sludge as he crouched behind a battered wall, the once-grand structure now reduced to a crumbling wreck. The remnants of the town were barely recognizable—charred buildings, collapsed roofs, and twisted metal scattered across the battlefield. But amidst all the heavy rain noises, Frank could hear a faint yell...
"Artillery!!!", a soldier yelled.
A flare shot up into the sky, lighting up the entire town in a bright red hue. Then, someone sounded the air raid sirens. Everyone was panicked, scrambling for any sort of cover with some still asleep. Frank, half asleep, quickly hid in a foxhole. While Frank was in there, another soldier jumped in. Bright flashes of light lit up the night sky as the artillery barrage continued to roar louder like thunderous claps mixed in with the storm itself so it was a flurry of bright flashes from bolts of lightning, artillery, and roaring thunders! No one could hear a single thing. Frank feared for his life. He was hoping that a shell wouldn't land in the foxhole. Frank thought about his family, wanting to return home to be with them again. He started to regret joining the Q.A.F.
"I'm going to die.", he thought.
"I'M GOING TO DIE!", he cried in a state of panic.
The other soldier in the foxhole could barely make what he shouted as the artillery muffled his voice. After some time, the barrage had stopped. Frank looked at the other soldier in the foxhole.
"Keep yourself together! Stay calm!", the other soldier yelled.
Frank could not make out a single word that the soldier had spoken. They were both fine for the most part. The soldier said to him again asking him if he was fine. Frank realizing this turned off his sound-deafening headphones. It was then that he finally recognized the voice. It was the female soldier! The female soldier asked him yet again, but Frank heard her and responded this time.
"I'm fine! Don't worry! What about you?", he yelled as loud as he could.
"I'm fine too!", she answered in her helmet.
The two of them covered in heavy amounts of dirt got out of the foxhole and looked around to see the utter chaos and destruction the artillery barrage had caused. The entire town was covered in smoke, ash, and dead bodies. They saw the other soldiers. Some were in pain, some alive and some dead. Pieces of flesh, organs, and body parts littered the ground. Frank heard screams of pain and shouts of desperation. The sight horrified Frank. He gagged, wanting to throw up. The female soldier with him took off her helmet and started puking uncontrollably. Frank was so horrified that he didn't even look at her! The artillery barrage had left the platoon in disarray. The soldiers around Frank were shouting orders, tending to wounded comrades, and trying to regroup. Frank, still shaking from the bombardment, tried to focus, his heart pounding in his chest. He gripped his rifle tightly, feeling the cold rain drench his uniform. And then he heard a yell.
"Enemies! Enemies! To the east!"
Once Frank heard this, he went into position. The others were doing the same too. A sudden burst of gunfire erupted from the direction of the advancing militia soldiers. Frank’s nerves were on edge. He had never been in a gunfight before this moment. The sheer volume of noise, the sharp staccato of bullets tearing through the air, and the chaotic shouts of his platoon made it almost impossible to think straight. Frank’s training kicked in, though it felt like a distant memory. His hands trembled as he loaded his rifle, trying to steady his breathing. He peeked over the edge of his cover, seeing the militia soldiers charging through the rain, their figures emerging and disappearing in the downpour. They were heavily armed and moving with a grim determination. Then something crossed his mind.
"Where was the Lieutenant?"
He desperately asked some panicked and injured soldiers where the Lieutenant was. They didn't reply. The medics were trying their best to patch the wounded soldiers to get ready to fight again but with every second they wasted the enemies got closer. Then there were sudden gunshots! The first wave of enemy soldiers surged forward, their rifles barking. Frank’s vision was obscured by the rain and the chaos, but he could make out the silhouettes of the advancing soldiers. He aimed his rifle, his hands shaking as he tried to focus through the scope. His breath fogged up the lens, making it difficult to see clearly. Desperation drove him as he fired his first shots. The rifle’s recoil jolted him, but he gritted his teeth and tried to steady his aim. The militia soldiers fell back momentarily, but the assault was relentless. Frank ducked back behind his cover as bullets whizzed past, splashing mud and debris around him. There were explosions from grenades that lit up the pitch-black surroundings.
“Frank! Cover me!” Amelia shouted, her voice barely audible over the cacophony.
Frank saw her moving to a more exposed position to get a better shot. He knew he had to act quickly. He squeezed the trigger, trying to cover her advance. The sight of enemy soldiers falling back and others taking cover gave him a fleeting sense of accomplishment, but he knew it was far from over. The rain continued to drench them, the cold seeping into Frank’s bones as he fought to stay alert. The sound of artillery shells exploding in the distance kept the atmosphere tense, the knowledge that more could be coming at any moment hanging over him like a dark cloud. The platoon fought fiercely, each soldier doing their part to repel the assault. Frank’s hands were numb, his rifle slipping slightly in his grasp, but he forced himself to maintain his fire. The enemy soldiers began to retreat, their advance faltering under the relentless resistance. Suddenly, a grenade landed in front of Frank knocking him backwards as the mud flew up alongside. His body was covered in mud and the blood of fallen brethren. His ears rang as he became dizzy but he got himself back up and began fighting again still blinded by the flash of the grenade. He was so tunnel-visioned that he didn't realise he had lost two of his fingers. One of which was his ring finger. His marriage ring had just been blown off, lost in the dirt. The battle was not going in their favour at all. Every time an enemy got shot another one of theirs got shot which wasn't good! Frank looked up and saw a bright red flare in the sky instilled the sky with the red hue. Realising that they were losing but not wanting to give up Frank kept on fighting taking potshots at silhouettes he saw. Frank kept on fighting for so long that it started raining but Frank continued fighting, this was the last thing he'd do if he died, taking bullets into his body, his uniform turned an ugly red colour from all the blood pouring out of him until finally, he passed out from all the bleeding. The rain caused the blood to mix with the mud. Creating a red, brown pool of water. The rain got so heavy that the town was getting flooded. It was a hurricane! Frank stared into the sky as lay on the ground waiting for for his death. Little did he know that this seemingly losing battle would become a victory and forever go down in history as the 'Defence of Holith'.
When Frank woke up, he was in a medical tent, treated by doctors in military uniforms. There was a rectangular metal plate with surgical equipment. The doctors wore face masks and with of blood-soaked surgical aprons. Frank was so terrified of having been captured that he didn't even notice the Quadaric flags on their armband. He asked the doctors what had happened thinking that he'd been captured by the enemy. One of the doctors explained to him that they had won as reinforcements came in time. A battalion worth of soldiers, consisting of 4000 friendly soldiers of the '1000th Mechanised Infantry Platoon', the '999th Armored Infantry Company', as the enemies had called in reinforcements and the battle had to continue for about another hour, and the '100000th Artillery Battery' came to push the enemies back. Frank was truly glad. He feared what the enemies would do to him in the POW camps, and what it would be like. He felt lucky that he had survived to see yet another day while others unfortunately didn't. He now felt guilty that he had survived after thinking about that. Then he got curious.
"Who were the enemies that we were fighting then?", he asked.
"Holithian resistance.", the doctor replied.
Frank was shocked.
"A local militia?", he thought.
"So we were fighting a local militia and we almost lost!", he thought in shame and absolute disbelief.
Whilst he was thinking about that, a soldier came into the tent and sat on a chair next to his medical bed.
"Who are you?", Frank asked.
"It's me, the female soldier! Are you okay? I was worried you were going to die. Then, I wouldn't have been able to introduce myself properly to you.", Amelia spoke worriedly.
"Oh! I'm not in too bad of a shape. I guess I'm okay.", Frank replied.
"Anyway, I came here because I wanted to properly introduce myself to you.", Amelia said nervously.
"My name is Amelia Naverland. I want to thank you for saving me from getting shot all those days ago. I truly owe you one."
Frank was taken aback by this.
"It's a pleasure to meet you uhh Miss Naverland."
Frank was confused about whether Amelia was married or not. He didn't want to ask as it might seem inappropriate. Luckily, he seemed to have guessed it right.
"I-I just wanted to introduce myself umm that's all. I hope you get better Frank. I felt so bad for you when you were crying out in that foxhole.", Amelia left soon after she said that.
Frank was embarrassed by what she said. He still remembered himself in that foxhole. Crying pathetically. Judging by her voice, Frank concluded that she was quite young. It was obvious she was quite shy when talking to Frank. Frank thought about Josh instead. He was still worried about him. Amelia had mistaken Frank for being single as he didn't have his ring. A bandage was wrapped around where two of his fingers were lost. But Frank didn't realise that until much later as he was busy eating his porridge. He ate a bowl of porridge as his breakfast. It tasted better than anything he had had in the Q.A.F before. He gulped the whole porridge down his throat without the spoon. It was so good that Frank felt immediately hysterical after eating it despite the pain he had endured the entire time from forcing it down his throat and also his wounds. He loved the porridge. He then stayed up for a few minutes until he pulled the blanket up and went back to sleep. He had lost a lot of sleeping time due to the battle the last night.
The next day, Frank luckily recovered from his injuries, barely. He was all bandaged up. He surprisingly didn't need any medication whatsoever. The doctors were very generous people so they wouldn't have possibly reserved the medication for a better time instead of giving it to Frank. He walked out the the tent and saw that there was an extremely long formation of soldiers standing. Frank went to his platoon. He assumed that this was just another rally. Then an officer walked up to them. The officer was missing a left hand. It was all bandaged up with blood visible.
"Soldiers! Listen carefully!", he yelled.
Frank recognised the voice. It was Lt. Ferguson!
"Lieutenant!?", Frank said shocking everyone.
Lt. Ferguson was alive but he was missing his left hand. Probably during the battle.
"We have managed to hold the enemy just long enough that we survived... well most of us. Some of you have lost your comrades but you must stay strong! We have lived to see yet another day fighting for the sake of what we believe in!"
The soldiers felt more motivated to continue fighting after the speech. The rally lasted for a couple more hours with more officers giving their speeches. Frank saw camera crews filming all of this. It was then that he realised that this was for propaganda. It was very obvious from hindsight but in the situation that Frank was in, he couldn't tell a difference.
Ever since 'The Defence for Holith', Lt. Ferguson's platoon was praised and was given the name, 'The Brave Rookies', and Ferguson himself received the medal of honour. Frank, however, was not quite so pleased. He was only relieved that they had won and that he had survived. Despite that though, Frank had fully recovered from his injuries and was more determined to fight than ever but he was still worried about Josh. The higher-ups of the Q.A.F meanwhile made amazing Public Relations(P.R) from it. Even more so through propaganda. 'The Defence of Holith' made for great propaganda. The 'Brave Rookies' would go on to make bigger names for themselves although most of their missions were now more peaceful.