PFC Lana Krivkova, 82nd Terran Rangers.

Born: January 23rd, 4228

Death: September 18th, 4247 Battle of Red Mountain

Terran Defense against Yil’kaa Invasion Force.

Time of playback: 0800 hours, two hours before successful Terran Counter Invasion.

Playback Begins…

Those were the words that faded into view before me, and I blinked as I noted the time of death, and before I could think much more about it, I was thrust into a maelstrom of noise.

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I was shook awake by renewed shelling, the screaming sound of the incoming munitions ringing in my ears. All around me was darkness and noise, flashes of harsh light and the screams of both humans and aliens. I felt the familiar weight of my armor resting on my shoulders, and the weight settled on my head. I gave my helmet a slap, the HUD coming to life, and I looked up, noting my CO standing nearby, yelling into a long range radio. It wasn’t really a radio, we just called it that, it was tradition. Just like how we called our light infantry vehicles humvees, even though humvees have been obsolete for several thousand years and ain’t got shit on our vehicles these days.

“Alright assholes, and lady,” My CO suddenly yelled, giving me a considerate look as he mentioned the fairer sex as they say. “The Yil’kaa are making another push, air cav is en route, but they’ll take some time to get here, those pricks have set up layers of AA so they’ll have to take the long way around to get to us. Meantime, we got some armor dropping in to support us, so all we have to do is hold out till they get here. Any questions?”

He looked over us all, and I did the same, looking at those I called family now. Friends, even a lover was amongst them, we all shared the same expression of weariness. We’d been entrenched on this godforsaken mountain for a month now, unable to get out or push forward. Red Mountain was of strategic import apparently, some sorta facility was buried under it and we couldn’t simply abandon it to the Yil’kaa, not like so many other facilities that’d been scoured quickly for anything sensitive and then scuttled, left for the vultures.

None of us had any questions, and so we stood, checked our weapons and moved out. Through caves that’d been hastily dug out we passed a makeshift armory, pausing to restock on important things like grenades and ammo, plus anything else we felt we might need.

I was thankful for the safety of the caves, and the buffer between me and the sound outside. Here it was just dull rumbling and dirt getting shook from the ceiling, out there it was worse. Now and then something would hit right over us, and even buried here the sound, the impact, was enough to leave us feeling dazed.

Geared up, we moved out once more, passing others who were off duty, trying to get some sleep or some food, others were less of the soldier types and more medical or civilian kinds. I saw Stevens from the 83rd laying on a stretcher, his body pale and unmoving as a nurse pulled a stained sheet over him.

I’d given him an extra ration the day before…

Shaking my head, I stepped out into the hellscape, a seemingly always dark world now. The Yil’kaa don’t like bright lights, so every invasion is fought under the cover of darkness, achieved through the use of some sort of biomechanical thing they drop into the atmosphere that feeds on sunlight while absorbing it as well, keeping the land beneath shrouded in darkness.

The mountain itself is a behemoth, taller even than Everest at 32,000 feet. We’re located around 2,000 feet up from the base, and there are units that are stationed higher, mainly artillery that have been angled downwards to get a better vantage on the enemy. Below us is… Well, it’s rather literal sea of Yil’kaa, they have fortified their positions heavily, though our artillery is constantly pounding them, they’ve held on like fucking roaches.

We get to our trench, the unit there gratefully heading the way we’d come as we relieved them. They looked haunted, but who wasn’t? We would all be haunted after this. We settled in, getting our positions set quickly while the CO peered through binocs down at the enemy lines.

I’d just set my rifle on the edge of the trench when we all heard him swear and duck down, covering his head.

“TAKE COVER!” He yelled, and we all did. I curled up into as small a ball as I possibly could as the bio-artillery started to rain down around us. The Yil’kaa don’t abide by any of the rules of war that are set out, as evidenced by the toxic gasses the artillery unleashes upon us. Luckily, gas mask equipped helmets have become standard issue, so we’re safe for now. For now at least.

The shelling stops, and we peek over the side of the trench, watching the oncoming horde.

“Rangers! Ready! Aim…” The CO yells, and we all rise, shouldering our rifles. “FIRE AT WILL!”

I pull the trigger, and shards of metal are sent hurtling down towards the Yil’kaa. It’s a killing field for sure, but that doesn’t deter these monsters. I watch as limbs and bodies are torn apart by magnetically accelerated projectiles, our weapons whining as the coils charge again and again. Briefly, I recall the manual saying that our rifles could spit out 5,000 shots in just under two minutes, if using a larger block of ammo that is.

Sliver Rifles, that’s what they're called, because each shot is a sliver of a much larger metal block. Devastating on just about everything, except heavy armor. That’s when we get into the realm of pure energy weapons. But the Yil’kaa don’t have the same kinda armor that we do, so even a Sliver Rifle can cause some serious damage to their larger units. If used properly.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Again and again, the fogs of poisonous chemicals roll over our trenches, again and again the Yil’kaa try to push, but consistently were held back by overlapping fields of fire from our trench and the others nearby.

It was… kinda boring, routine even. Aim, breathe, pull, kill, repeat. Nothing more exciting than that. At least not till, I heard something, and squinted through my rifle scope, cursing as I spotted one of their heavier units moving up, preceded by thick armor plating that none of our current armaments could chip through.

“Captain! Heavy armor inbound!” I yell. Even after all this time my voice remains feminine, with its thick Russian accent of course. That’s why everyone calls me ‘Lady’, not because that’s what I am, but because I sound like some Lady from the time of courts and nobility. I watched his head snap up, then he cursed as well, and made a call on his radio, before looking to the sky.

“Good catch, but we won’t have to worry, our own armor is incoming! All units brace for impact!”

Briefly, the fusillade of fire we’d been putting out abated, and the Yil’kaa surged forwards, their heavy unit spitting explosive spines from its ugly hide at our lines. I looked up and saw a sight that nearly had me praying in thanks.

Four large fireballs were descending towards us, but they slowed enough to not destroy themselves on impact. Six-legged tanks landed behind our trench, dropped from orbit. Their landing sent tremors through the mountain, each leg bending to absorb the shock of the impact, each clawed foot leaving deep impressions in the stone and dirt.

I watched the one closest to me rise up a bit, its turret turning towards the enemy and a heavy rotary sliver cannon spun up, spitting fat clusters of shards downrange. The main cannon hummed, the MAC charging up loudly before it fired. While the rotary cannon chewed up the incoming infantry, the MAC punched through the heavy unit like it was nothing, the round impacting explosively down near the enemy base. The unit itself was torn apart not just by the round carving a two meter diameter hole through its midsection, but also by the shockwave as well, ripped apart in a shower of gore that left it hollowed and jellied.

Cheers went up along the lines, before getting drowned out by the MACs firing again and again, carving large furrows in the mountainside.

For a moment, there was hope, as moments after our air support arrived as well, the Gryphons streaking just under the effective range of the enemy AA and strafing lines of Yil’kaa out of existence.

But all good things come to an end don’t they, elation turns to despair as one of the armored spider tanks is suddenly gutted, then another, and one more. Whatever was hitting them was precise and deadly, and so the last one was rightly pulled back, higher up the mountain and hopefully out of range.

Then the Gryphons started going down as well, as swarms of Yil’kaa bio-fighters started engaging them. The assault renewed, and was even more intense than last time. Even now we could see more heavy units approaching, pushing ahead of the infantry. It was an effective tactic, hiding behind armor, armor that none of us could really take out. That last tank of ours was fighting valiantly, but it was pointless and I think they knew that. There were just too many priority targets for them to handle now, had they their three companions, it might have been doable. But not anymore.

And then that tank went up in flames as well, wreckage sliding down the mountain right towards us.

“Incoming behind! Find cover!” I yell, my voice sore from all the yelling I’ve had to do over the past week. The others look back, then we pushed for the back of the trench, pressing ourselves up against the walls and hunkering down as the hollowed body of our armor careened over our heads and down into enemy lines, killing a good few of the enemy in the process.

We were just about to push forwards back to our positions when the enemy breached the trench, and things devolved into a hectic, desperate melee. I fired wildly with my rifle, and we started to fall back. I watched the CO get torn apart by four Yil’kaa, I watched my lover split in half by a blade grafted onto the arm of another alien monster.

One by one my friends, my family died before me. And I found myself stuck at the mouth of a small room, a leg bleeding profusely from the stump that had formed just below my left knee. I had thrown my rifle aside, it was broken, impaled by a Yil’kaa blade. My sidearm though was in near perfect condition, and spat shaved death at my foes as I leaned against a wall.

I didn’t see it till it was too late to do anything about it, but I felt it before I saw it. The blade entering my gut, more of my blood getting spilled onto the mud and viscera at my feet. I looked, and saw the face of my would be killer. It had six eyes, three on either side of a slightly pointy face. It looked like some weird combination of the Harvester aliens from Independence Day, a Predator and maybe a xenomorph. Six arms, six eyes, chitinous armor plating and a tan complexion. It was utterly hideous, and I think it was saying something to me. Or had been, before my pistol blew its head off, splattering me with bits of brain and flesh.

I collapsed to my knees, wrenching the blade from my gut. I tried to fire my pistol at the Yil’kaa as they passed me, but I was out of ammo and my reserves were gone, probably knocked off me in the frenzy. They seemed to ignore me, I guess I wasn’t all that big a threat anymore. I didn’t even have any grenades, so I couldn’t go out with a bang.

Instead I just sat there, bleeding out slowly, watching as the trench line was starting to fall, our forces falling back to the cave entrances where they’d have a better chance. I sighed, looking out at a view that had once been beautiful, but was now nothing but sheer terror.

“All units-ffzzzzzt-Red Mountain-fzzzt-this is the-ffztt-den of Eternity. Hold your ground, we’re coming in. Brace yourselves!”

Well that was new, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard that at all or if it was some sort of auditory hallucination. But I turned my gaze skyward as my body started to grow cold, and I watched the sleek, bladelike prow of a capital ship breach the dark clouds above me, surrounded by a swarm of starfighters that descended like angry bees upon the Yil’kaa base, uncaring of the overlapping layers of AA. They were angry, and they’d get their pound of flesh.

The ship itself hovered overhead, cannons on its ventral hull turning towards the mountain, towards me. I gave a bloody grin, flipping off the nearby Yil’kaa, who seemingly took offense at that before they looked up and panicked at the sight of such a large enemy ship hovering over their heads.

“Fuck you.” I hiss, and then the world went white, my senses overwhelmed, just the faintest hint of pain as laser heat washed over me, as the Warden of Eternity bathed the trenches and everything below it in capital ship weapons fire, cleansing the mountain of its Yil’kaa taint.

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Playback Ends…

Would you like to see more?

I barely registered the words before me, as I slapped the walls of the sim pod and forced it to open. I had made a terrible mistake, I hadn’t expected to feel everything that those soldiers had felt, the pain, the fear and even hear their thoughts. No doubt it was all recorded by their military implants, kept safe for later review.

But I didn’t care about that, I cared only about getting out of that pod, of getting away from the pain and the fear that I had felt inside of it. I collapsed to my knees, voiding my breakfast onto the floor. And then it was all too much for me, and I fell on my side as I blacked out.

And my nightmares brought me back to Red Mountain.