Spells and bullets were flying everywhere. We tried to stop them, but without the support of large caliber weapons they pushed us back. It didn’t take long before they had breached the first trench and attacked the second. We fell back into the bunkers, but they were too quick. We lost over a third of our group right there before we had made it back to safety.

I was helping Mat, half carrying him through the bunker. He had gotten stabbed into the stomach by one of the Darkons before I could kill the alien. We had only closed the door for a second before it shock under the onslaught of our pursuers.

“Common Mat, help me a little. I know it hurts, but if we don’t move, they will kill us.”

I turned towards my other comrades, searching for our new group leader.

“Boss, I bring Mat to a medic, I will come back immediately afterwards!”

“Okay, go! Be quick, I am not sure how long the door will hold!”

I put one of his arms over my neck before I tugged him through the tunnel. The door should hold for the time-being, the reinforced armor plates were made to take on an enormous amount of damage.

We were half jogging, half wobbling through the tunnel when I heard a sudden tearing noise behind us. Intense gun fire and shouts immediately followed. They had breached the bunker. That shouldn’t be possible. Their soldiers were stronger than us, but they were unable to rip open a reinforced bunker door. Something new must have arrived. None of their known creatures had the strength to achieve this feat.

I immediately increased our speed and stopped paying attention on how Mat was doing. I knew if we were not quick enough, the thing that had broken open the door would reach us. I was under no illusions that my former group could hold it back for long.

At last we had reached the other bunker. We rushed through the door. The soldiers on the other side peppered us with questions as we arrived.

“How does it look at the second trench, what’s going on?!” not answering their questions I looked around for the team-leader. we had too little time to talk about what happened and what needed to be done multiple times.

There he was. I quickly went over and saluted.

“Sir, we need to barricade the door. Something ripped through the first door to the forward trench. My team is buying us time, but not for long. We need to act now.”

At first he wanted to deny it. These were high security bulckheads we were talking about. they could widestand an immense trashing.

“Sir with all due respect, we need to act now. The door got squashed in seconds, if we don’t enforce this door we are all gonna die.”

I could exactly tell the time when my information sunk in and he understood my meaning.

Not wasting anymore time, the group leader hollered orders.

“Morgan, Steely, close the door and weld it shut! Harrington and Dom, get the machine gun down and set it up with a good view on the door. Marcon, Peter and Clark, get every piece of bunker plate that is still lying around and fortify the door with it after Morgan and Steely are finished with it!”

Now we were talking. Observing the soldiers running around, I felt our chances for survival rising.

As the chaos had changed to an orderly flurry of activity, a medic came over and freed me of Mat before he tended to my mate’s wounds.

“Andrew! What’s the situation?!”

Hearing my name, I saw chief running in my direction.

“Chief, the first and second trenches are lost. We got overrun, something breached the bunker. I ordered the tunnel barricaded. the thing that had ripped open the bunker door is going to attack here too.”

I saw the remorse in his eyes, he wanted to put a hand on my shoulder but stopped as he gazed into mine. Still in combat mode, my eyes were completely devoid of emotion.

Catching himself he simply nodded.

“Chief where do you need me?”

“Join your old team and defend the third trench!”

“Yes, Chief!” With that I focused my attention on the new order and turned in the direction of the ammunition depot at the backside of the bunker.

First, I would need more ammunition, I had emptied most of my reserves during the last fight. Finished with restocking, I proceeded towards the trench.

Not four steps later, the barricaded door suddenly shook, and loud noises could be heard. I quickly turned back and was greeted by a dented security bulkhead. There was a three feet long bulge in the door. The additional armor plate hadn’t done much to alleviate the problem. Still starring at the door, new bulges appeared accompanied by a sheering noise.

“All men prepare for engagement!”, the other group-leader roared, “The door won’t hold for much longer!”

Inching to the side, I took cover behind some crates near the door to the next trench.

Hopefully, the door would hold for another period. Harrington and Dominic were still moving the machine gun. Put it down, Good. Now put the ammunition belt into it-BAANNNGGG! The door came flying inward alongside everything we had barricaded it with. It hurled through the entire room and crashed into the opposing wall. Of our two men and the machine gun only some blood splatters and broken parts remained.

I had to recalibrate my analysis. The fortified door had been massive, and it flew through the entire bunker. That meant our survival chances had taken a massive hit for the worse.

A living nightmare floated into the room. Seeing the thing for the first time my mates got weak knees. It was much bigger than a normal reaper and had a black crown on its head. An aura of doom radiated from it, so strong that it felt like I got hit by a sledgehammer.

All my calculations showed zero chance of surviving if we remained in this room. My gut told me to bait it outside, I didn’t see us breaching its thick armor in here. My comrades had been pushed to their knees. They needed a little wake up tap. So I shot the monster directly into the head, the noise waking my flagging mates.

The weird stalemate broken it reared up, screeched, and attacked.

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It was unbelievably quick, strong and agile. Floating through the room, the arch-reaper took life after life.

I discharged all my ammunition into the beast. Our whole group unloaded everything we had, but it wasn’t enough.

Uncaring it proceeded with its culling. Our ammunition did little against it, the shotgun shots hurt it, but that made it only angrier. It went from man to man, massacring a third of our people in a few seconds. I had been right.

“Fall back!!”

We had to bait it into the trench and hope that the surviving snipers would pick it off. With its height, it would be visible.

So the costly retreat to the trench began. To leave the bunker, we traded with over ten of our comrades, only five of us made it out.

The people behind us had realized what was coming their way and turned their attention in our direction, they supported us as best as they could.

Desperately we fired at the herald of doom as it flew in our direction, reaping life after life.

Bang!!

Suddenly a hole appeared in its left arm. The elation over the support was immediately dimmed by the realization of how little damage the bullet did to this abomination.

The sudden pain made it even more furious. It buried its scythe into Tom, our radio operator, before the second shoot hit it into the chest. It only flinched before it moved further in our direction. Calmly I made my peace with the world. I understood that we wouldn’t be able to survive. With any other beast I could have tried something, but this one was simply to fast and strong. All my weapons were useless.

BANG, BANG, BANG. Three other sniper shots hit it in the chest. Letting it crash to the side, onto the floor.

We might still had a-*zing! Something rammed into my chest, flinging me to the side. I came to lay on top of Tom.

I looked down and saw the monsters scythe; it had buried itself deeply in my body. Strangely I couldn’t feel pain, but by the size of the wound I was sure that I was dead. I didn’t feel any fear. It felt like it had happened to someone else and I was a spectator in his body.

As I was contemplating what I should do, Tom’s radio came to life.

“Everyone that can hear this, we have lost the first, second and third trench. We can’t hold on any longer, everyone retreat!”

My thoughts slowed down. Wait, wasn’t I in the third trench? Turning my head with difficulty, I came head to head with chief. His dead eyes staring into mine while a Darkon stood behind him, ripping his sword out of my former leader’s back. During the time we were focused on the reaper; the Darkons had attacked from the other side. They had overpowered the rest in seconds.

So that was it? Humanity would fall like this?

A strange sound from the communication device caught my attention. A female voice started speaking.

“Override complete.”

“To all people who can hear this, stay strong! Support will arrive shortly!”

I was perplexed. With what could they still change this losing battle?

My thoughts were interrupted by glowing objects that broke through the black clouds.

They looked like burning comets as they ripped through the darkness; it was a beautiful sight. One of them flew directly into my direction.

Something wasn’t right, that was not a big burning rock. As it came closer, I could make out more details. It was a silver knight. Completely clad in fire, it was hurling in my direction. Its size was around nine to twelve feet and armed with an enormous sword on its back.

“First peacemaker unit engages the enemy! Sit back and relax, folks!”, called a cheery voice out of the comms next to me.

They had to be genetically enhanced humans in new exoskeleton suits! Half a second later the knight crashed into my trench. A lot of earth and dust got thrown in the air, robbing me of my sight. When the dust settled, the sight left me in awe.

A silver knight in beautiful armor stood in the middle of the trench. It was like time had stopped, everyone had ceased to move and gazed toward that glowing otherworldly avatar that radiated power and might. Then ,as sudden as the stillness had come, it had passed again.

The knight grabbed his mighty weapon from his back and executed a hundred-eighty-degree slash, cutting the closest Darkons apart like he was cutting weeds. I observed him as he killed every enemy in the trench. He didn’t even need five seconds for that.

I tried to compare him to understand his abilities. He was definitely faster and stronger than a reaper. One swing of his great-sword cut over seven Darkons in half. But not only was his power unbelievable, his gear was breathtaking as well.

The armor looked like a piece of art. It was a mix of medieval plate armor and futuristic high tech. I could only understand so much from what I saw, but the material showed self-regenerating properties and was unbelievably durable. It withstood countless hits from enemy attacks, not giving them any chance to inflict damage on its wearer.

With my deteriorating body I couldn’t hold my focus anymore. My combat state crumbled leaving to feel all the emotions I had held aside until now. Funnily due to my deteriorating condition the emotions impacted me much less than I had thought. My mind stuffed full with cotton I observed further.

We still hadn’t lost. I felt hope rising, but not for long. Behind the knight an obscure shape suddenly moved. A reaper was sneaking up on him! I wanted to shout, but instead only blood came out of my mouth. Helplessly I watched, feeling worse by the second.

It crept towards the knight until it came into attack range. It jumped at him, cutting with its scythe diagonally downward from the top. The reaper intended to bisect the knight from hi collarbone to his chest.

At the last moment the knight turned his body instantly, parrying the down coming blow with his sword using only one arm. In a flowing motion he stepped in close to the reaper, ramming his other armored hand right through the enemy's chest-plate, breaking its bones and ripping its heart right out of it.

The reaper instantly ceased to move and fell to the floor.

Straightening himself up, the knight looked around for more enemies. My strategical mind relaxed. With such weapons we could win this war.

Sadly, I had reached the end of the line. It needed more and more strength to remain awake. Well, I had fulfilled my duty to humanity. Now it was time to say goodbye.

I stopped fighting against the fatigue. Letting the darkness devour me.