Thea’s eyes opened slowly as her consciousness returned.
Still hazy, she tried orienting herself and figuring out where exactly she was.
She found herself leaning back against a red-brown wall of dirt, inside of a roughly two metre wide and three metre tall tunnel. Aside from herself, she could vaguely make out another two or three dozen marines through her blurry vision, leaning against the walls of the tunnel around her.
She could feel continuous vibrations through the ground and the walls at her back, indicating to her that the battle was still going on, not too far from her current location.
Her eyes blinked rapidly and a deep frown appeared on her face, as she tried to get back on her feet. Muffled groans escaped her mouth despite Thea’s best efforts to remain silent, as every muscle and fibre in her body felt sorer than after one of Old Man James’ punishment workout sessions.
‘Just what exactly did you do, Thea…,’ she mentally chided her past-self’s actions.
Finally getting to her feet and her vision slowly turning more focused, she could finally make out her surroundings a bit more accurately.
She was definitely inside one of the underground tunnels leading towards the centre of the hill and main HQ.
This rudimentary field-hospital, if it could even be called one, was likely inside of an off-shoot, based on the fact that the tunnel was a bit narrower than what she remembered. While she could not make out any medics inside of the tunnels, she could see tiny flying drones periodically check on each marine that was leaned up against the walls.
“Now… where is my weap— Wait, how did I even get here? And most importantly, how long was I out?” she muttered to herself, trying to come up with a modicum of a plan, to continue her challenge.
She glanced at the timer in the top right corner of her screen and unknowingly widened her eyes. The timer only had roughly an hour and a half left! She had been unconscious for more than three hours!
“Fuck!” she cursed out loud before quickly slapping her hands onto her mouth, realising her mistake. Quickly glancing around to check whether anyone woke up due to her loud cursing, she hurried to leave the tunnel in the direction of the nearest light and sound sources.
As she stepped into the next tunnel, she found herself standing in the primary tunnel that she had passed through just a couple hours ago with Captain Sable. Having regained her sense of direction, she immediately started towards the direction of the western front, without waiting for any of the - likely incoming - medics to discharge her.
‘Hopefully I can find Kellerman and his squad… They should know where I can get a replacement weapon,’ she rationalised her decisions internally as she ran through the tunnel.
Inside of the tunnel she met dozens upon dozens of UHF marines, all of them busy with one thing or another.
While some were carrying crates, boxes or even replacement parts such as HMG barrels, others were transporting injured marines from the direction of the western front. Based on the short amount of time Thea had spent in the tunnel so far and the high number of casualties that were being transported towards her, she figured that the fighting had become vastly more intense.
This spurred her to pick up the pace, despite her body’s complaints about the aching pains still ravaging her entire being.
Thea also noted unpleasantly, that she had woken up without her helmet. The sound and smell filters especially that it provided would be extremely welcome to her right about now, as she made her way towards what she assumed were the front lines of the battle.
It was like the entire tunnel had been blanketed in a whole grav-truck load of perfume made from blood, bile and excrements. The constant stream of injured and dying marines simply added to the overpowering nature of the smell. It was so pervasive, that she could swear she was tasting it in the air and she had trouble breathing freely as she ran towards the western front.
‘I really need a helmet… I won’t be of any use like this in the battle.’ she finally decided about half-way through the tunnel towards the western front. With every step the constant barrage of noise and odour got worse, to the point it was getting hard for her to continue moving in that direction, as her body was physically recoiling from it.
She simply was not used to such pervasive smells or aggressively loud sounds, as were created by the likely desperate fighting at the western front. Most games did not even model this part of war, as it was highly unpleasant for the playerbase to be subjected to. Thea now understood the reasoning behind that very well.
Looking around for a nearby supply station, which undoubtedly had to exist somewhere in this primary tunnel, she quickly found one just a couple hundred metres in an off-shoot tunnel to her right.
Having found the thing she was looking for so easily, she celebrated quietly in her mind before heading towards the station, ‘Finally something’s going my way!’.
When she arrived, she saw around a dozen marines lined up inside the station, waiting for their own resupplies. Not wanting to seem out of place, she simply lined up on the shortest queue, waiting for her turn.
The station was not very large. It was a medium-sized hovel inside the hill, that had been rudimentarily dug out of the dirt in a rough 10x10 metre size.
It just barely fit the necessary supplies to be considered a supply station, as was apparent by how supply crates and ammo boxes were stacked on top of each other from the ground to the ceiling all around the room.
In front of the queues were three supply staff members of the UHF, handling the requests of the lined up marines with a level of professional speed and precision that left Thea’s mouth wide open. No matter what the marines in front of her requested, the staff members managed to grab whatever was requested in a matter of seconds, from seemingly thin air.
It took less than three minutes for the dozen marines in front of her to be sorted through, while another dozen-or-so had already lined up behind her again. She concluded that the staff members were just as busy as everyone else during this large attack and hoped that she would not hold up the entire process by being completely inexperienced at this resupply business…!
Glancing around nervously, as the last marine in front of her took his turn, she replayed what she wanted to say in her head, over and over again. This situation induced far more anxiety within her than any of the active fighting she had done throughout the day!
As it was finally her turn, she quickly stepped up to the first staff member that freed up and quickly stated her constantly rehearsed request. She had modelled it after listening to the marines in front of her, to try and seem like she knew what she was doing.
“Private Thea under Captain Sable. I require a new X-23R-L and a standard-issue light-armour type helmet,” she managed to confidently state towards the staff member.
The staff member entered her information into his datapad at frightening speed, but to Thea, it felt like an eternity. As she waited for the acknowledgement to her request, her mind was racing with potential issues that might arise and she replayed her request a dozen times over, especially nitpicking the way she had stated her name.
Many thoughts raced through her head: 'What if they didn’t hear me right…?! Why did I mutter my name like that…?!'
Hearing a quiet chime, she finally breathed a nearly invisible sigh of relief. She had heard that chime for all the previous marines’ requests and it likely indicated that there were no issues with hers!
The staff member acknowledged her request with a nod, before turning around and disappearing behind a holographic privacy screen, similar to those she had seen in the field-hospital. Just a couple seconds later, he returned with a brand-new looking Mjollnir and a helmet in his hands. Handing them both over to Thea, he asked for her to sign on his datapad, before she was dismissed from the supply station with a simple hand gesture.
She felt whiplashed by the discrepancy of her expectations for the resupplying process and the reality thereof. The actual process had barely taken half a minute, yet she had been agonising over the whole thing for what felt like half an hour…!
Frustrated with herself and her inability to handle social situations like this, she grumpily put on her helmet, taking a heavy breath of cool, filtered air that instantly cleared her hazy mind.
The sound suppression also kicked in immediately upon forming a seal, leaving Thea with a slight droning noise in her ears - an afterimage of the constant noise barrage that she had suffered in the recent hours and especially on her way towards the western front.
Feeling refreshed and combat ready once again, she returned to the previous tunnel and continued her trek towards the western front at a brisk pace.
On the way, she muttered with lingering frustration to no-one but herself, “Shooting people will be a lot easier than requesting supplies again…”
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A short time later, Thea finally reached the end of the tunnel.
She noted that the entrance had changed a bit since she was here the last time.
When she had come through with Captain Sable, there had been a massive plasteel gate where now there was simply an opening to the fortifications beyond.
It was immediately apparent why the gate had been removed however, as dozens of marines streamed through the opening, either towards the battlefield or away from it. The gate would simply have constricted movement unnecessarily, so it had likely been deemed a detriment and removed when the fighting moved up the hill.
As she stepped out towards the hill-side, she was immediately assaulted by all the noises from the nearby battlefield, coupled with the overpowering odour of burned ozone, gunpowder and blood, which easily seeped through her military-grade helmet filters. The entire atmosphere on the top of the hill was laced in an undertone of desperate, yet brutal combat.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
The sheer strength of that atmosphere as a whole made her stumble slightly, as if she had walked straight into the plasteel gate that no longer existed, instead of stepping out towards the open-air hillside from a constricted underground tunnel.
From her position atop the UHF fortifications, behind the thirteenth - and final - trench line, she could see that the Stellar Republic’s forces had managed to breach all the way up to the eleventh line of trenches while she had been unconscious.
The UHF marines did not have a lot of room for error left on this battlefield as once the thirteenth trench line fell, the Stellar Republic would claim the western front as their own!
Just as Thea was about to start looking for a way to get into the fight, maybe even find Kellerman and his squad - assuming they survived - she suddenly heard a loud voice boom over the nearby area: “All marines that just came back to the frontlines from rez-pods, med-bays or resupplies, line up on me! We don’t have time to get you back to your proper squads, we got freaks to kill!”
Turning towards the source of the booming voice, she was slightly startled by the sight.
Around thirty metres away from her, on top of a large stack of crates about four metres high, stood a woman with a heavy machine gun strapped to her back.
She had one leg propped up on an empty ammo crate and was scanning the nearby area for lost marines with a sharp, penetrating gaze. She was slightly taller than Thea - and significantly more muscular - with short-cropped, black-coloured hair and a fierce expression. Her battle-worn armour bore the insignia of a lieutenant and she projected an air of authority that was impossible to ignore.
Thea surmised that she must be the one organising the impromptu group of marines. She briefly noted, with a hint of curiosity, that this was not only the first high-ranking woman she had seen in the simulation but also one of the few marines without a face-covering helmet.
Without hesitation, Thea hurried over to the crate tower and joined the rapidly forming line of marines. Glancing around at the other marines, they seemed just as eager to get back into the fray as she was, their movements and overall demeanour reflecting a mix of determination and urgency.
The lieutenant quickly scanned the group, taking stock of the assembled marines. Once she was satisfied that everyone she had seen loitering around the area previously was present and accounted for, she shouted out her orders.
"Listen up, marines! I'm Lieutenant Frost. You're now under my command. I want you to group up with the closest four marines, this is your new squad.
“We will be reinforcing the western-most area of the trenches and you know what that means: Lots of freaks to kill! Now, fall in with your squad, we’re moving out in 30 seconds!"
Thea and the other marines snapped to attention, acknowledging their new leader with a chorus of "Yes, ma'am!" before they all hurriedly assembled into the squads the lieutenant had requested. They quickly began to double-check their weapons and equipment, preparing for the imminent battle ahead.
Thea’s new squad consisted of three heavies, one medium armour wearer and herself. After sharing a quick nod, they fell in line, waiting for Lieutenant Frost to lead them towards the front. She couldn't help but feel a newfound sense of camaraderie with these strangers, knowing they were about to face an onslaught of enemies together.
“Definitely better than requesting supplies…” she muttered to herself with a slight smile forming on her face, as the lieutenant ordered them to march towards the trenches.
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The battle for the western front had been raging for close to six hours now, and the impact it had on the landscape was apparent to everyone as they hurried towards the trenches.
While most of the fighting had happened around the trench lines of the UHF fortifications, stray rockets, grenades, explosions, and all manner of other battlefield debris had torn asunder the nearby hillside. What was once a simple hill was now a nightmarish vista of scorched earth, smoking craters, and jagged outcroppings.
The sparse vegetation that once existed in the area had been entirely reduced to blackened stubs, and the red-brown soil was churned up into a fine dust that swirled around the marines as they moved. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burnt metal, ozone and gunpowder, a constant reminder of the unrelenting violence that had consumed the region.
Thea briefly wondered how the Lieutenant, still leading the group, could appear unaffected by the thick smog, ear-shattering noise, and pervasive stench, even without wearing a helmet. The respect she held for the lieutenant rose further on that realisation.
As Thea and her squad picked their way through the treacherous terrain, they couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding, knowing that they were marching straight into the heart of the conflict. The distant sound of gunfire and the occasional gut-wrenching boom of an explosion only heightened their anxiety, urging them to move faster.
Despite the grim surroundings and the fierce fighting ahead of them, the marines remained focused on their mission. Their training had prepared them for such scenarios, and they knew that hesitation or fear could cost them their lives.
While Thea had not undergone the same training, she was intimately familiar with the importance of staying level-headed in stressful situations, thanks to her experience playing competitive games in the arcade. She actually felt more at ease in the current situation, than during some of her competitive matches in the past. Having a squad and a competent leader to lean on was a huge asset, she realised.
They advanced in a tight formation, weapons at the ready, and eyes scanning the horizon for any signs of the enemy. Soon, they reached the first line of trenches, and the sounds of battle grew even louder and more intense.
Thea could see the flashes of gunfire and explosions lighting up the sky like a deadly fireworks display just a couple hundred metres ahead of her, and she steeled herself for the challenges that lay ahead. Gripping her gun tightly, she entered the thirteenth trench line with her squad, still following the lieutenant, who continued to lead at a brisk pace, challenging even the hardier-looking marines of the group.
Thea couldn’t help but be impressed at the lieutenant's physical abilities as she was having a hard time keeping up. ‘Just what in the void is this woman eating?! I’m gonna have to ask her for her workout routine!’
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With the brisk pace set by the lieutenant, they quickly traversed the trenches to the opening that led further down the hill towards the twelve line of trenches. Lieutenant Frost stopped the group just short of the opening to allow for a brief rest.
“Alright, marines! We’re about to head into the open. While we're not yet at the actual front, we’re going to have to cross around a hundred metres without any real cover. I want all of you to make it to the other side, is that understood?” she briefly explained with a stern voice, which betrayed not even a hint of exhaustion from the brisk pace of the march.
“Yes, Ma’am!”, came the combined acknowledgement of the group. To Thea’s elation, she saw that she was not the only one struggling to keep up with the physical abilities of the lieutenant. More than 90% of the marines were breathing heavily underneath their helmets, trying to recover as much stamina as possible before the next bout of marching.
Lieutenant Frost gave them a moment to catch their breath before issuing her next command. "Marines, when we cross this open area, I want you to move in a staggered formation. Keep your eyes peeled and your weapons ready. We'll all regroup on the other side. If any of you die out there, I will kill you myself. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" the group responded in unison, their voices filled with determination.
With a stoic nod, the lieutenant led the way, her figure moving with purpose as she darted into the open with a speed and grace that Thea would have assumed impossible for a human being to achieve, especially with the heavy machine gun still strapped to her back.
The marines followed suit - albeit at a more human pace, adopting the staggered formation the lieutenant had instructed. Thea felt a surge of adrenaline course through her veins as she sprinted alongside her newfound comrades, her mind focused solely on reaching the relative safety of the next trench line.
As they crossed the perilous expanse, a few stray shots whizzed past them. Fortunately, their swift movements and the lieutenant's guidance helped them avoid any casualties during the crossing.
Once they reached the twelfth trench line, the group took a moment to regroup and assess their situation.
The air was thick with the smell of smoke, burned ozone and gunpowder, and the sounds of the ongoing battle echoed through the trenches.
Looking around, Thea could see hundreds of marines inside the trench line.
Most were busy shooting at the Stellar Republic’s forces around 180 metres down the hill from them, who were still advancing towards the UHF’s eleventh trench line with reckless abandon. A few marines were busy transporting supplies, while squad medics could be seen patching up wounded marines on the floor of the trenches.
She briefly wondered just how many casualties this battle had caused on both sides. However, she quickly suppressed her curiosity, as she was certain her undercity-scaled mental fortitude could not handle the reality of such a massive loss of human lives.
Just half a minute after they had entered the trenches, the lieutenant ordered them to continue their march. They did not have the luxury of time to rest and recover.
As the group continued through the trenches, Lieutenant Frost commanded some squads to stick around and assist in the defence of the twelfth trench line, whenever they came across outcrops or pill boxes that required additional warm bodies.
When they reached the crossover point for the next trench line, their group had shrunk by about a quarter. There were now just over a hundred and fifty marines left.
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Reaching the edge of the twelfth trench line, Lieutenant Frost called for a brief halt. She surveyed the no-man's-land that stretched between them and the eleventh trench line, where the frontlines were now only a stone's throw away. The open ground was pockmarked with craters from stray rockets and littered with debris, making it a treacherous path to navigate.
"Listen up, marines!" Lieutenant Frost shouted over the din of battle. "We need to cross this no-man's-land as quickly and efficiently as possible. Keep low, stay alert, and follow my lead! Stay close to the person in front of you and watch each other's backs. If you get hit and can’t continue, fall out and die somewhere else. Don’t block the path for the people behind you. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" came the resolute response from the marines.
Thea was slightly taken aback by the quick acceptance of the morbid orders, but realised that this was par-for-the-course for the UHF marines. Death was simply part of war, after all.
With a steely determination, Lieutenant Frost led the charge, sprinting across the open ground with another display of her incredible speed and agility. The marines followed as closely as they could, their training and instincts kicking in as they moved in unison, weaving between craters and debris while keeping their heads down to avoid enemy fire.
The crossing was harrowing, with the constant threat of enemy fire raining down upon them.
Thea could hear the whistling of bullets, the scorching of lasers grazing off of armour and the roar of explosions all around her, but she kept her focus on the lieutenant and her fellow marines. As they neared the eleventh trench line, the group managed to keep their casualties to a minimum, only losing a little over a dozen marines to the no-man’s-land, a testament to their skill, determination and Lieutenant Frost’ leadership abilities.
Finally, as they scrambled into the safety of the eleventh trench line, the marines were greeted by the sights and sounds of the frontlines – an intense, chaotic maelstrom of violence and destruction. They knew that they had made it to the heart of the battle, and now they had to stand their ground and fight for every inch of territory they could defend from the seemingly unending tide of enemies storming towards the trenches.
With a bright, somewhat manic, grin on her face, Lieutenant Frost bellowed into the trenches, “REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED! LET’S KILL US SOME FREAKS!”, before pulling the heavy machine gun from her back, stepping up to the front of the trenches as if nothing could possibly harm her, and opening fire into the sea of Stellar Republic soldiers beyond.