The Aurumians saw this, and even though their cause was far more just, undoubtedly nobler they perished a hundred to one at the armoured soldier's blades. In the end as the sound of gunfire and howls of wounded cascaded through the sky, the soldiers had fallen back to the final two trenches. An Aurumian sharpshooter, chainmail half melted from the heat of a concussion blast ripped an energy weapon off of a fallen corpse and began their trek through the waste. Using powerful froglike legs they leapt upon the enemy, unleashing a fury of bullets upon their foe. Three collective ensigns caught this attack before a bullet ripped through the creature's shoulder planting it into the mud. Their enemy still stood strong at a number of 15,000, and soon the thirty legionaries left would be forced to flee into the mines. Trapped in its stone walls which were soon to be catacombs.

  Just as Baquil wiped a mixture of sweat and blood off of her brow. She plunged a sharp bayonet into the reptilian heart of a gunman, his squirming arms tried desperately to shake off her attack as she pinned him to the wall, blade driving through both ends of the corpse. The sky lit up with a blinding yellow light. She and the lieutenant stopped what they were doing and gaped at the radiant glow, distracted by craft. However, utilizing their surprise an Aurumian soldier cast their pike. Sailing through the air it plunged violently into Vanol’s chest.

  He sputtered and gasped, his eyes swirling with a mixture of fear, shock and wonder. Falling back into a mud wall, he breathed raggedly hanging on for dear life. Baquil quickly shot the attacker, straight through the skull, brains gushed from the opening pooling into the mud. She rushed to the side of her friend. Held his dying palm in her hand.

“Medic, Medic!” she cried.

There was no response other than the shrieks of an enemy advance.

"You'll be fine, there's still time" she shouted.

She kept pressure on the wound, blood seeping through her gloved fingers.

“You know that is not to be true” he replied, removing his hand from the pressure point to show a putrid green venom dipped on the wood, the paste etching into his bloodied flesh. He winced in pain, firing into the crowd in front with his pistol.

“Baquil, it was an honour, to have you as my leader, my friend,” he breathed.

You could see tears slowly streaming down his slender face.

“It was an honour to have you as my friend” she replied, her eyes watered but she would never dare let herself cry, hiding her emotions in a blanket of hate.

With that, his grasp weakened and life drained from his face, blood dripping from the gaping wound of a dead corpse.

  Baquil held his hand until she could feel his pulse no longer and warmth began to fade. She closed his eyes, covering the blue pupils with the wave of a slender blistered hand. Beside her a cadet cried that they had to move, the enemy was advancing faster preparing for a full assault. Baquil turned to him and cried out a ferocious scream, picking up both her and the dead man’s rifle she followed the cadet’s lead until they reached a trench of safer positioning. Explosions blazed overhead as they ran, for a short while they continued fighting, releasing waves upon waves of bullets into the wastes. She clambered over a concrete barrier while noticing the wind around them intensified, the air began to heat up pressing down against the ground and causing what little vegetation was left to uproot and fly through the air. Casting a bloodied glance into the misty sky the three lieutenants paused what they were doing for a moment to see a medium-sized battlehind break through the clouds.

High energy blasts tore through the air, ripping into the ground and pummelling the troops below. The advancing Aurumians shattered like tin cans, their gilded armour mere butter in the face of the relentless barrage. The humm of an engine filled the air overshadowing the screams of war.

  It was a collective gunship, high in the arsenal and low in the crew, a strange sight due to the fact it was a vessel used heavily in space combat. The advancing army soon saw this and the sound of horns pierced the battlefield. A scurry of the Aurumian forces fired a series of stolen blasters and rifles into the sky, streaks of energy like raindrops pittering against the craft's steel hull. A catapult hurdled a jagged rock, the boulder planting itself against the side of the ship. For a moment it stuttered, waving through the air before turning and unleashing an inferno upon the ground. Then following the ship's arrival another battlehind exuded from the atmosphere and hovered next to its partner. Finally, a single craft appeared, its hull shimmered and shone bright with light, the Collective Blue Dawn plastered on its side.

The vessel seemed to be a decently sized pleasure craft, minorly equipped with weapons and of extreme vanity. Its gilded edges reflected the morning sun as the clouds parted in its wake. Yet as the heavens rained fire from above, Baqui had lost ground, falling back into the final circle of walls and trenches around the convoy's ships. There the twenty-two survivors fought, machine gunners on encampments killing hundreds with a single sweep, recruits firing endless amounts of ammunition into the hoard in front. They dodged spear and bullet after bullet, yet something had changed. They were no longer doomed to die, they had hope, a glimmer of possibility and soon the ships above would come to their aid.

Four more longsword-wielding Aurumians rushed towards Baquil, however before they took three steps over the barbed wire, energy blasts punctured through their skin leaving their withered corpses to crumble into ash. The Battlehind continued to push on, this time dodging a series of rocket fires from below. Missiles streaked overhead, planting themselves into the craft's stern. It buckled for a moment, before pressing on, swirling through the sky above.

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  You could see the eyes of the soldiers light up with a fiery rage, had it been another time, had they not become trigger-happy monsters of war perhaps they would have cried yet they had no time for emotion. They no longer felt it, no longer knew who they were, the only thing they knew of was the cold grip of a rifle and death. If the war stopped and they were ordered to lay down their weapons, I doubt they would be able to. Their hands froze on the steel rods after such prolonged use, the only movement permitted was reloading and pulling the trigger.

  There was no longer a separation between soldier and gun, they were the gun, they were no longer human just an extension of the weapon itself. Dodging the shaft of a spear and taking cover behind a makeshift barrier Baquil saw the two ships above heat up their weapons and open fire, releasing a relentless spray of bullets and projectiles upon the ground, the enemy forces started to thin, less and less of the attackers making it through the Battlehind’s precision cuts. By the hundreds they fell, sinking into ash.

  The second battlehind did the same, this time protecting those on the ground. Its homing frontal cannons, pierced through the ranks of the advancing enemy. The final constitution class ship came down from the heavens above and landed upon the wastes. Taking refuge directly in front of the entrance to the town and only a few feet from the dismantled tanks of Baquil’s mud-splattered forces. Its giant door came open with a hiss as it landed in front, mysterious vapours pooling onto the murky floor. It was so large it crushed a regiment of Aurumians underneath. The door hissed open, vapours swirling from its entrance while four heavily armoured collective specialists marched infront.

  Their magnificent green armour showed diplomatic status, and in their hands, they carried high-powered assault rifles and shotguns which tore through the air. A Captain motioned to the troops, ushering them inside as the battle hinds slowed down their assault, careful not to hit their allies. An Aurumian who had been knocked over by the ship landing crawled to his feet, drawing his sword and charging the first specialist. A flurry of arrows peaked the horizon, ricocheting off the surface of the ship and prickling the ground infront.

   Seeing his enemy, the soldier readied his stance, planting his feet into the mud. He fired three times taking out the two archers that had positioned in front and punching the knight's attack. The sound of clanging metal rang through the air as the sword shattered at the soldier's fist. The Aurumian stood, eyes wide with terror as the specialist grabbed him, bending his armour with his gloved fingers as he lifted him above his head and heaved him into the ground below. A mace-wielding footman approached, muscular arms heaving a gigantic spiked club upon the specialist yet he was too slow. By the time the metal came crashing down the Collective soldier had already stabbed his enemy in the heart, energy blade piercing through the entire corpse. The fallen knight began to scramble, sifting through the dirt but the specialist grabbed the first Aurumian's head, crushing it within his palm. Blood drooling from the severed head, the soldier cast it to the ground his exoskeleton glinting in the orange sun. The remaining Aurumians fled, terror sprouting from their lips.

  These were no soldiers, they were highly trained bodyguards, supreme genetic creations bred for one single purpose, death. Baquil quickly rushed over to the giant steel doors which marked the entrance to the mining settlement, pressing her hand down on the intercom she breathed a few words to the lucky fresh-faced cadet who was stationed inside. She pressed the button with all of her might activating the console and spurring its screen to life.

“Help has arrived, bring out the citizens we need to evacuate before it is too late” she screeched.

The soldier on the other side froze for a moment, barely believing their ears.

“Help???, right away Colonel” the other retorted beaming with excitement. The thought of living to see the sunrise one more time filled their soul with a glimmer of hope.

  Soon the doors burst open and a stream of around four hundred citizens embarked outside into the mud pits, they were horrified by what they saw, the sprawl of bodies and how just a few meters away soldiers were still shooting at their hunters. The bodyguards ushered them all inside as fast as possible before the remaining twenty soldiers sprinted as fast as they could into the belly of the craft, the ship's own potent guns covering their hasty retreat.

  Once inside, Baquil the last to enter collapsed on a nearby wall, the room was vast, but was not meant for troop transport inside was an array of chairs, tables, couches, a lounge and a hallway leading to the control room.

  The citizens and warriors alike were somewhat shocked to see the inside so luxurious. The floors were plated in gold and silk cushions were cast across a magnificent dining room. Finding a seat for all her soldiers she barked orders trying to quickly take a headcount of who survived. A bodyguard approached, barking orders to the pilots as he walked.

“We were not expecting to have to perform a rescue mission Colonel, you caught us off guard” One breathed.

He stood in front of a sink, washing his gauntlet from the blood.

"Rescue mission?" she muttered

"What?" he seemed confused. The other bodyguard stood at his side, lifting up his helmet to reveal blue eyes and a sweat-plastered face.

“Our distress beacon did it send?” she breathed.

“We did not come here for aid, we requisitioned your location from the garrison for retrieval”

"Requisitioned?" she questioned.

"Traced your companies movements all the way from the coast"

“Makes sense, our beacon broke, sabotaged early on, this retrieval? one of the local diplomats perhaps?”

“No” he responded.

"I don't understand" She stood panting against the wall, exhausted from the fight. Her hand, left a stain as she removed it, imprinting a mix of blood and dirt upon the smooth surface.

  The entire craft shook as it ascended, leaving the hoards of attackers to stare blankly at the sky and the field of battle to be abandoned apart from the legions of the dead. You could see an army of fourteen thousand simply stand and gawk with hatred, it was breathtakingly horrifying. They were glaring at the plight of their enemy. They would never forget the atrocities and pure horror of war, the fight would be something that stayed in the depths of their minds forever.

“Someone? You mean you were not sent here for aid, that would explain the ship but, if you were sent, who were you sent for?”

  The specialist looked down still scrubbing his gloved hand, the blood stayed no matter how hard he tried.

“You, Baquil, we have come for you”