He sat crouched in the trench, the sounds that had become deafening had died down, a lull in the constant terror. The voice of his commander pierced the silence

"alright, i just heard from above.....we're moving up next barrage, it will take 10 minutes before the start so make peace and be ready to run." -Commander

It was the orders he dreaded the casualty rates for a push were close to complete annihilation when it succeeded.

"please god if you exist let me die quickly" he heard the man next to him quietly whisper, the prayer they all had but didn't voice.

He decided to steal a glance at the field that he would be running across, corpses littered the expanse of the 50 meter no mans land,

they would offer some cover if he decided to play dead. Then it happened, hundreds of mortars sounded off in a cascade as his commander spurred them into action

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!!" suddenly all at once an uncountable amount of men started hopping out of the small trenches and ran not even bothering to shoulder their guns,

pure survival kicked in soon as the bodies started dropping. No sooner had he stepped up and out of the safety than a bullet tore through his sleeve, missing his arm.

Focusing purely on the path ahead, and the ground below he noticed small things. A patch of ground that seemed softer than the rest right next to a group of bodies,

small rocks in the ground that tested his footing. And in front he saw a ball of fire the size of his fist heading straight for him, diving to the ground as fast as he could

he heard the sound of it impact with the man behind him. Getting up fast so as not to be trampled by the horde behind him he saw the source of the fire, a mage.

Many would die from this man and his kind before the rush was finished, but no time to think he had to keep running stopping meant death and that was unacceptable.

Then it came the hellish rain of man, 81MM shells sent the enemy into a panic this would lessen their attacks on the rush. A mad war-cry erupted from the men running

across the field, he joined in with a loud guttural scream it helped set him in the right mind made him fearless they could do this they WOULD do this.

The drumming of the mortars played a song of war as they pushed forwards closing in quick on the enemy lines, he feared they would get there before the shells stopped.

A few feet to go and the shells finally stopped he slid hoping to minimize exposure and get to the relative safety of the enemy trench. Falling into the enemy lines

he looked around and immediately shouldered his gun, his first reaction was to look for that mage from earlier. It didn't take long mages of the brotherhood tended to

wear armor that was easy to distinguish, what he saw set him aback a kid maybe his age gurgling a spell while trying to hold his insides in his upper torso as the rest were no longer there. He put the mage out of his misery there would be no coming back from that, the last thing the young mage saw as he tried to utter a self destruct was a name tag sewn onto a uniform that read

"Pvt. Parker."

"That was a good push Colonel, we gained some land I'll tell the engineers to start digging our trenches up." -unknown

"Thank you sir, its as expected of these men....they do what their told even if it was to go to hell and back...Major have the mortars aim for the enemy lines

2 trenches back, that should help keep a counter push from taking back our progress." -Colonel

Parker looked around the trench, he was supposed to regroup with his commanding officer which should be Sergeant Taylor but he didn't know where the CO was.

After an hour of searching he couldn't find anyone from his squad so decorum says he was to tack himself onto another squad until further orders, by the time the line caught up

if he didn't meet up with the Sergeant he would report to the Squad Checkout and ask for orders.

After hours of fighting off counter attacks that had been significantly softened from the mortar strikes fresh faces started flowing in from allied lines that had been dug forward,

he was tapped on his shoulder by a man in his 30s a Private just like him "You're to dirty to be a replacement troop, go on back to the barracks I'll take your place." the man said.

It was a 30 minute walk back to the forward barracks and as much as he wanted to fall asleep right there he had to go report as soon as possible. The flimsy building he walked into

was labeled "Squad Checkout" and was painted a dark green it was one of about 5 in the area, there were a few placed in each forward base and each infantry was assigned to an outpost.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He walked into the shortest line of about 9 men, some here to report a dead member, others to report not finding their squad. When his turn came up he had to recite his name, rank, and number

after reporting that he couldn't find his squad the man behind the desk told him. "We will get back to you within the day with your orders, for now you are to stay in the base and rest."

Looking at the sky he finished his lunch, it looked like it was going to rain tonight, he had been hoping to see his friends but he didn't then he was hoping they weren't in the charge.

The next morning saw him up early and dressed quickly, he had only been on the front lines for little over a few months but he was already accustomed to it, you had to be ready at any moment

or you would be at a serious disadvantage should an attack come. When he left the barracks there was a messenger walking up to the stairway.

"excuse me i'm looking for Private Parker?" -Messenger

"That's me." -Parker

"Congratulations." -Messenger

The messenger handed him a brown folder saluted and walked off, he opened the folder after sitting down for breakfast, there were maybe 20 other men in the hall some grouped up others sitting alone.

The first page detailed the casualty report of his old squad, then his platoon.

-Squad 4/5 MIA/KIA

-Platoon 2/8 Wipe

-Free 6

There was more details regarding the names of those dead or unaccounted for, but he didn't bother to read it what did interest him was on the next page was his assignment.

"Private Parker is to be promoted to Corporal and given a squad command under the newly promoted Sergeant Clarkson."

Again it detailed the orders for the other platoon members, but this was big in only a few months he was already leading a squad of his own.

His hand was covering his face with his index finger and thumb dragging across his eyelids, his new command was a suicide squad, he may not be the most seasoned veteran but they gave him people who have never seen battle.

It made more sense as to why he got the promotion now, 5 of the stragglers got absorbed into the squads who were missing people, and the platoon needed 8 squads and called in the men who were put in reserve to fill in the blanks.

There was even one who was still in transit from training 'Private Warren', at the very least it meant his squad wouldn't be sent on too dangerous an assignment, they would be put on patrol, and replacing men after a charge.

It took over a week for the new guy to get to the front lines Parker was waiting by a fire when it started getting unusually quiet, feeling like something was behind him he looked to see a monster.

Tarsus was a Minotaur, he had come to this new world alone at the age of 17 running from the end of his last world. When he got to this new world he wanted to explore, he eventually came to america after a few months of traveling.

Deciding this is where he wanted to make his life he applied for citizenship, and was accepted rather quickly. Unable to find much work with his limited knowledge he enlisted in the Armed Forces hoping to make a career, Minotaurs were after all natural born warriors.

He was one of few from his world to have enlisted, and the Military being hungry for soldiers accepted them he didn't feel welcome but he had expected that. Once he got out of training he was surprised to see how fast they placed him in a squad, it took a few days on a large ship to get to the place called Europe.

When he finally got to the base he was to be stationed at he went directly to the Squad Checkout to ask where his squad was stationed, many people seemed surprised to see him, some even disgusted or offended.

"You're looking for Corporal Parker? he is setup in barracks 'A' try looking there, hes a short man about 19 years old with dark blonde hair."

The person at the counter told him after some questioning, it took him around 10 minutes to find his commander, when he finally did he was nervous he almost didn't know what to say, the men around them were oddly quiet.

He started to salute as the Corporal turned around from the fire he was sitting at.

"Private Warren reporting for duty sir." -Tarsus

Parker sat dumbfounded, this monster that towered over him was saluting him and was claiming to be Private Warren the new member.

"Do you have your assignment papers?" -Parker

"Yes sir." -Tarsus

The thing handed him the papers containing his assignment and it checked out.

"Welcome to the front line Private follow me, we will meet up with the rest of the squad." -Parker