HOME | DD

Description
*In a transport helicopter inbound for the Loqui Military outpost*

Squads of soldiers idly chat amongst themselves talking about the war and what they will do when they win it. One man sits farther away from the rest, purposely isolating himself. He carries a sniper rifle, which is being used as a crutch in front of him. His face is scarred, telling others about the fights he has been in with no words being uttered. With a strong body and an unfaltering mind he prepares himself for his next fight. Several soldiers notice him and ask about him. Several reply that they don't know his name, but they have seen him in action. They describe how he's a master shot, finding the flaws in the enemy's armour and dispatching them with ease. Some others joked about his past life, how he was an office manager turned killer because of the war. Or that he was a store clerk before the war.

"They know nothing…" the man in the corner thought as he stared at the chuckling men.

"Don't let them get to you. They don't know who they are talking about." A female voice said.

As the man looked up he saw a darkened silhouette of a woman walking up to him.

As she sat down next to him she spoke, "Hello there Riley. Didn't think I'd be in the same vehicle as you again, ever. She laughs.

With her face closer and facing the red lights inside the helicopter, Riley could finally recognize her face.

"Amanda, how nice it is to see you and I mean that with every fiber of my being. Did you always have that scar over your eye?"

Amanda instinctively reached for her left eye.

"Shrapnel from an exploding car. Do you always begin conversations like that?"
"Like what?"
"A sweet greeting, then an insensitive comment."
"Oh, uh. I'm sorry if I was insensitive. My curiosity got the better of me and my mouth." Riley looks down dejectedly.
Amanda laughs, "Well I'm sorry too, I just realized there was concern in that question and not you just being nosy. I appreciate your concern."
This time Riley laughed.

By this time the other soldiers noticed the two huddled in the corner laughing at each other. They ask each other about the lady who sat down next to the man. Someone said that she was Lieutenant Amanda Uaele (Pron. OO-ay-lee), one of the few survivors of Operation Division, a mission that was successful at a very heavy cost of life. The mission was to divide Lacian forces occupying several key locations for reconnaissance and supply routes. The main force was to form a trident formation. The middle "spike" had the most troops and was supposed to divide the Lacian forces and surround them. The outer spikes were to complete the circle and decimate the Lacian forces, working their way inward. But the Lacian forces had sent out patrols earlier on before the operation started. While the Human forces had surrounded the Lacian forces, the Lacian patrols returned and took advantage of the fact the Humans had not noticed them. The enemy patrols took out most of the humans from the rear before attracting attention and being destroyed themselves. The White Knights Eth Loren and acting support Lyke Dellens pushed forward despite the heavy losses. They ordered all wounded troops to fall back and provide covering fire for the advancing party. With Lyke providing long-range support, Eth captured the outpost. The Lacian forces scattered and the humans had won. The resulting casualties were far beyond the estimations of the briefing. The humans had lost about three quarters of their attacking force. There were about two hundred fifty surviving members. Lt. Amanda Uaele and Riley Jones were part of the attacking force and were sent to the medical ward for a week. After they had been released they learned about the number of casualties the attack had caused. This battle would scar Riley more than any knife or bullet could do. Many of his good friends had joined the fight and were now gone. He couldn't get past the thought and sunk into depression and became a social outcast, hoping to protect himself from the pain. His only friend that he knows is still alive is Amanda Uaele, and would kill hundreds of Lacians and die before letting anything happen to her. She was just that important.

"Still, sorry about that. I'll try to keep my mouth in check next time." Riley winks at Amanda.
She laughs, "Don't think too much on it. I prefer you that way.
Riley chuckles, "Thanks."
Amanda looks away then quickly looks back and quietly says, "H-hey, when we get to the base…"
Riley raises an eyebrow.
"Do you mind i-if we-"

The intercom buzzes loudly to get everyone's attention. Shortly a voice crackles to life. "We are about 160 klicks from our destination. Estimated time of arrival, thirty minutes. Everyone double-check your equipment, we don't know what'll happen out there so best be prepared." After checking their weapons, soldiers began chatting again.

Riley looked over his new, standard issued V1-Gal Marksman Rifle commonly known as the VMR. Riley's weapon is a new form of conventional weaponry. With the White Knight's help, many Lacian soldiers have fallen and more Cores have been gathered for further testing and production of advanced weaponry for common ground troops. With considerably more firepower, the boots on the ground now stand a fighting chance against Lacian forces and are now more effective in firefights. After further testing, scientists realized that the Core is only used to power the Lacian's weaponry, or in a way, boosting the projectiles velocity, firepower, and knockdown capabilities. This gave a solid reason why Lacian weaponry could tear through any type of armor Humans had already created. When the prototype V1 Series weapons came out, they gave them to the White Knights for testing in the field. After a few days all six White Knights came into Lyaeu's Science Facility, and told the science staff the pros and cons of the weapons. The four who initially received the L95-Spearhead Prototype gave them back to the science team and apologized, saying that the new prototypes were far superior. They explained that even though not reloading and continuously being able to fire was nice, they had to fire a single beam into their target for about 10 seconds before melting through their armor. The single-fire function was useless because it only melted partly through the Lacian's armour, and hitting the same spot was near impossible. The new V1 Series had more, "everything" as the White Knights put it .In the end, the L95-Spearhead would have been incredible if the enemies were human, but it was near useless against the Lacians armour. If the White Knights were ordinary humans, they would have died because they could not kill the enemy fast enough. The science team took this to heart and recreated the prototype V1 Series from the White Knights notes from the field.
Currently, scientists are testing different theories on applying the core to ground and air vehicles for longer sustainability in the field and carrying more firepower for support for ground troops. The armor that the Lacians are wearing is also being reverse engineered for mass production for ground troops and as armor for vehicles. Currently the mass-produced weaponry and vehicles are as follows.

V1 Weapon Series:
- V1- Gal Marksman Rifle
- V1- Lae Assault Rifle
- V1- Gal Shotgun
- V1- Lae Sidearm
- V1- Gal Machete
- V1- Lae Battle Rifle

B1 Vehicle Series:
-B1 Air Transport Vehicle
-B1 Light Offense/Transport Vehicle
-B1 Armored Personnel Carrier

These weapons also come with a railing system for use with current attachments such as the red dot sight or any scopes and undertow attachments.

Currently labeled as Prototype/In Production/In Testing:

V1 Weapon Series:
-V1 Gal Rocket Launcher –In Production
-V1 Gal Explosive Ordnance –In Production
-V1 Gal Flamethrower -In Testing
-V1 Lae Carbine -In Testing
-V1 Gal Bullpup -In Testing
-V1 Lae Submachine Gun -Prototype
-V1 Gal Light Machine Gun -Prototype
-V1 Gal Grenade Launcher -Prototype

A1 Armour/System Series:
-A1 Warden Exoskeleton Armour -In Testing
-A1 Guardian Shielding System -In Testing
-A1 Motion Detection System -In Testing

B1 Vehicle Series:
-B1 Main Heavy Tank -In Testing
-B1 Infantry Fighting Vehicles -In Testing
-B1 Attack Helicopter -In Testing
-B1 Fighter Jet -In Testing
-B1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle -In Testing
-B1 Combat Engineering Vehicle -In Testing
-B1 Destroyer -In Testing
-B1 Cruiser -In Testing
-B1 Submarine -In Testing
-B1 Frigate -In Testing

"Technology's come pretty far hasn't it?" Riley said as he calibrated his rifles' scope.
"Well you can thank the White Knights for your new toy."
"I thank the White Knights for more than just a new weapon. That Commander, Eth Loren, saved my life. Our lives. Without her we would have died in that forsaken mission." Riley's eyes filled with admiration as he continued talking. "I have nothing except respect for that woman."
"Sounds like something more than just respect." Amanda says as she looks down.
"What?"
"Nothing." She said irritated.
"… By the way."
"What?"
"What were you trying to say before the intercom interrupted you?"
Amanda suddenly looked up in surprise then blushed and hid her face behind her bangs to keep Riley from noticing her blushing face. "Nothing! Forget I said anything."
"Well I can't forget it if you're acting this strange." Riley laughs and Amanda punches him in the side. Riley coughs from the blow.
"You don't hold back when it's me do you?"
"I know you can handle it." She says with a bit of blush left on her face.
Riley winces as he holds his side and laughs lightly. Amanda begins laughing, but is cut short when a man bearing a Captains' insignia walks up to them. As they begin to get up, the captain motions for them to remain as they were.

"Lt. Uaele, Captain Jones."
Amanda takes a quick look at Riley.
"I'm Captain Jun Dall." He holds out his hand where Riley and Amanda shake in greeting. "I was told via commlink that as soon as we land, you two are to report to the command tent immediately. A Commander Loren wanted to see you both."
Riley nearly chokes, "Comman-Commander Loren wishes to see me?" Amanda rolls her eyes.
"Yes, She wishes to see both of you, as soon as we land."
"We will remember to go straight to the tent." Amanda says as she pulls Riley back down.
"Yes we will go straight there. You can count on it."
"Good." Captain Dall nods his head in agreement and walks away from the two.
Amanda stares at Riley as he starts to wonder what one of the Commanding White Knights wants with him.
"Ahem."
No response.
"Ah-ehm."
No response.
"Riley!"
"What! What. What?" He looks at Amanda startled.
"You went to space."
"Huh?"
"Slow one."
Riley stared at Amanda blankly.
"So when were you going to tell me you got promoted to Captain?"
"Oh yeah I got promoted, that's right." He sees Amanda's glaring at him.
"I mean, I don't really care about rank, so I guess it completely slipped my mind." Riley raises both hands to show his innocence.
"The only reason I ask is because we haven't seen each other since we left the medical ward together. I kind of wanted to catch up, you know?"

The intercom buzzed in and a voice crackled to life, "We are 10 miles out from our destination. ETA 2 minutes. Prepare to move out ladies and gentlemen."

On queue everyone stopped chatting and gathered their equipment and returned to their seats and strapped in. The staff double-checked the straps and the supplies that were being sent to the outpost. When they were satisfied that nothing would fall apart they returned to the cockpit.

Riley and Amanda strapped themselves into their seats and held their weapons in their laps.
"Hey Riley."
"Yeah? What's up?"

Lacian forces begin setting up an ambush on the roof of a skyscraper for the transport convoy.

"Do you mind if you come with me after you meet with Commander Loren?

A Lacian soldier removes a long tube-like weapon from a case and takes up a firing position. It flips a switch for a targeting laser on his weapon.

"What did you want to do? Get something to eat?"

The enemy concentrates on his target.

"I was thinking more of sparring first, then eat."
"Sure."

The enemy soldier pulls the trigger, loosing a ball of energy. Several other enemy soldiers see the signal and fire their weapons. The explosives follow the path created by the lasers.

"Captain Dall!"
"What is it pilot?"
"Several energy signatures detected inbound to our position!"
Captain Dall inspects the radar. His eyebrows furrow, then spread wide in surprise.
"To all Links! Evasive maneuvers!"

The enemy shifted their aim so the laser was still painted on the target. The ball of energy followed the laser and into the sides of 2 of 6 Links. The projectiles that missed didn't turn around and continued their current path. The Links that were hit started losing altitude, kept flying for another mile, and crashed into the city streets below, including the one that carried Amanda and Riley. The other Links break formation and commlink the 2 fallen Links, but get no response. They could do nothing except hurry to the outpost and inform the commander of this unfortunate event.

Riley struggled to get the straps off, still shaking from the crash landing. When he managed to get them off he knelt next to Amanda and checked her pulse. She was bleeding from her head where her weapon probably flew out of her hands and hit her there when they crash landed.
"She still has a pulse. Thank the gods." Riley blew out a drawn out sigh. He smacked her face lightly to wake her, but she mumbled something and remained unconscious. Hoping she didn't have a concussion, Riley checked on the rest of the crew. Some of the soldiers were already getting up, unbuckling themselves and retching from the sudden jolt. Some of them weren't so lucky. Some of the supplies came loose when they crashed, and crushed several soldiers under several tons of ammunition and weapon cases. Riley ordered the soldiers who were fine to take care of the incapacitated and wounded soldiers. They responded with a dazed nod. Riley headed towards the cockpit to check up on Captain Dall and the pilots and staff. They all were unconscious but fine and well except for Captain Dall who looked like he had been tossed around the cockpit. It was clearly evident that some of Dall's bones were broken as several of them protruded from the skin, but he was still breathing. It was going to be difficult to move him in this condition. He woke the pilots and staff, but found that one of the pilots didn't survive the crash, as her neck was broken. Riley helped the survivors in the cockpit get over the shock and got them on their feet and tending to Dall's injuries. He went back to the cargo hold to check up on the rest of the group to find Amanda up and helping some of the medics tend various injuries. When Amanda looked to see who came from the cockpit, a wide smile spread across her face and looked like she was about to cry. She ran up to him and hugged him and started babbling.

"I-I woke up and saw your empty seat, and-and I couldn't help but think that the worst had happened." She said, almost hiccupping in some parts. "I thought that the straps came loose and you flew out the back, so I ran out the back trying to find you."
"With that head injury?" The look that Amanda gave him almost made his knees buckle and he thought it was best not to press the issue anymore.
"Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm fine. I'm all right. See? Look at me all right? I won't be killed that easily." So I'm not the only one who cares deeply about a friend, and gets frightened about the thought of losing them. Of course I'm not, what am I thinking? Who gets happy when their friends die? I'm such an idiot sometimes. Such a big idiot.
"Riley? What's wrong, your face is all distorted." Amanda forced out a laugh in an attempt to cover her crying.
"I was just thinking how much of an idiot I am, but I'm all right now and we have bigger problems. Captain Dall is seriously injured and we need a medic to check up on him. The entire staff is fine, but we lost a pilot."
Amanda went serious in under a second. "Alright I'll ask a medic to check up on him. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to try to set up a defensive perimeter around the crash site. The other Links left a message on the commlink. They said they would head to the outpost and inform the superiors of the situation here. Since they're in Links and we are on foot about 5 miles away from the outpost, I think waiting here and waiting for pick-up is the best option."
"I agree with that plan."
"Good to hear. Alright, let's get to it."

Riley starts to walk towards the other soldiers. He explains his plans and gives orders to each soldier to use the supplies they brought to help. Everyone accepts the plan and unloads some ammo crates. Four of them take out their PCS, Portable Cover System and deploy them around the crashed Link. The PCS is a cylindrical device created by the scientists of Lyaeu that is set on the ground, the user presses a button on top of the device to begin activation. The device then separates into three compartments, the base, and two power rods. The base drills into the ground to stabilize itself. The power rods emerge from the sides of the cylinder and hover about 4.5 feet out from the base. The rods and the base activate an impenetrable energy shield that is a little less than 3 meters long and a meter tall, just big enough to fit 3 soldiers or 2 bigger soldiers. On the outside it seems that there is nothing out of the ordinary. On the other side a transparent menu appears for multiple functions; magnifies surroundings, acts as a communications set-up, and can be used for a screen for a makeshift command hub. Only the truly aware can spot the 2 narrow rods floating in air or the tip of the base in the earth. There is also a different version called the PCS Tower where the height is 3 meters and the length is 2 meters.
Riley takes out his PCS Tower and places it in the middle of the semi circle of PCSs.

"The Lacians who shot us are probably on the way. I want you four on lookout. Make sure to warn us first before firing. Remember stay low, the PCS is able to hide your presence. You will be practically invisible. Any questions?"
"What if the enemy spots us?"
"Then fire a burst before the enemy gets out of its confusion."
The soldiers nod in acknowledgement.
"Pop out, spray a few rounds, and then get back into cover. If possible I want you guys to try and mark the enemies before spraying. Take out as many as you can in first few seconds."
Riley nods to the soldiers and the four disperse and take their positions. He heads back into the cockpit to check up on Captain Dall. The medic and staff was still tending to Dall, but said that they managed to stabilize him. They gave him painkillers and morphine to lessen the pain when they reset his bones, placed splints, and wrapped his broken legs and arm. Riley asks about Dall's condition and the medic starts listing off all of the injuries Dall is facing.
"He has open fractures on his left arm and both of his legs. I did my best to reset the bones, but we have to make sure that he doesn't move too much or else he's going to be in a world of hurt. I also did a scan on his entire body and he has fractured 2 of his upper ribs on the right side.
Riley keeps a stern face while the medic continues, "We can't really do anything about fractured ribs here, but if we were in a proper medical center or tent, that would make me feel better."
Riley processes all of the new information. "He is stable though, correct?"
"Oh, yes. Uh, we gave him tranqs to sleep off the pain while we tended to his wounds. He isn't in danger of losing his life, but neither is he going anywhere by his own power."
"Alright. Well done Doc."
"Just doing my job Sir."
'Keep your eyes on him. I'm going back to-"
The commlink on Riley's ear beeps loudly. He holds it to his ear to listen.
"An enemy patrol has been spotted. Get ready everyone."
"We'll keep an eye on the captain, you're needed elsewhere Sir." The medic readies his weapon.
"We'll try to keep it down."
"Good luck."
Riley ducks out of the cockpit and quickly takes cover behind ammo crates. He spots the four on lookout and stealthily moves in, trying to use the PCSs to block enemy sight. The four were in the middle of picking their targets, when they noticed Riley move in from behind them. They immediately fill him in without him asking.

"There are only five of them, roughly twenty yards out, but one of them is carrying a larger weapon. I can only assume that he was the one who shot us down." One of them said.
"That can't be all of them. Should we wait to see if anymore of them show up?"
"We can only wait for ten seconds. I don't like the fact that they're walking here. Something's up." Riley scanned his surroundings.
"Alright ten seconds it is."
"I'll ask while we're waiting, who are your marks?" Riley asked.
"We all had the ones that were straight in front of us."
"With you here you can take the middle one."
"Sounds good to me." Riley looks back at the rest of the soldiers inside of the Link. They were making sure they were directly behind the PCSs so they wouldn't get spotted. Riley motioned for the soldiers in front of those lines to get a free spot behind their nearly invisible cover. Amanda appears next to him behind his cover.

"Like old times huh?"
"Like old times." Riley chuckles. Riley then motions for an extra set to move in behind the soldiers manning the front line. The soldiers move into position so 20 in total were up ready to fight. He orders the front row to fire their entire clip if a large firefight should occur. The back row will take over and fire into the enemy group while the front row is reloading, a basic strategy for continuous fire and suppression against an enemy group. The remaining fighters take cover against debris or hug the walls inside of the downed Link. 10 seconds passed and Riley gave the order to execute the Lacian fire team. All five of them moved out from cover and expertly dispatched the enemy team. They went back into cover and observed the surroundings for any sudden changes. A few minutes passed by and Riley's soldiers began to lose interest. "Maybe that was it?" Amanda asked.

"Maybe so, keep a sharp eye out." Riley looked at the surrounding buildings.

A soldier stood up to ease his legs and sat back down. Another soldier sneezed. The same soldier stood up and walked back to the downed Link and sat down inside. A few soldiers did the same, but most stayed put. "Maybe that was it." Riley said. When Riley said that, the soldiers who stayed put began to go back into the ship. When most of them were inside a loud whirring sound was heard, followed by the sound of crackling energy.

The next thing anybody knew, the downed Link exploded.

Riley and Amanda and 4 soldiers were blasted backward. The explosive hit the Link on its upper tail, causing it to flip around completely so the tail end of the Link was on the other side. Several bodies were sent flying out of the Link when it stopped moving. The six who were blasted outside were quickly facing a growing opposition. 2 squads of Lacians emerged from destroyed buildings and began laying down suppressing fire on the six. Riley saw an enemy fire team on the second floor of a skyscraper and before he could fire his weapon at them, they opened fire and hit one of the soldiers to his right. Riley's team took cover and was effectively pinned. Riley started breathing heavily at the sight of a dead comrade right in front of him. He was angry, but he calmed himself down, using sense instead of emotion. If he were to pop out now, he would be riddled full of holes. The oncoming horde comes closer.

"Riley!"
Someone was calling him.
"Riley!"
He couldn't answer.
"Riley!" this time a punch came to his face.
Riley looked stunned, and then shook himself awake.
"This is no time to be dazed! Do you have any grenades?"
Riley shakes his head one more time and takes out his grenades.
"Good, on the count of three we throw them over our cover ok? You three over there you got it?!" The three soldiers nod and one of them gives a thumb up. They look through their cover and judge the distance. "1…!" They all grip the pin. "2…!" They all pull the pin. "3!" They all throw their grenades.

No sooner than when the grenades left their hands a loud "FWOOSH" was heard and a smoke line appeared overhead. The second floor that was occupied by the enemy fire team suddenly exploded. The approaching horde stopped and looked at the building before several were killed from the lobbed grenades. Several cheers were heard in the direction of the flipped Link. Riley and company stared at the crumbling building, and then turned around to see who that was. The survivors of the explosion popped from behind the Link and fired rocket after rocket into the stunned horde. A soldier runs up and takes cover by Riley and hands him a rocket launcher. "The first ones off the production line, thank the Gal Corporation later." A large smile spread across Riley's face, "Man am I glad to see you guys." The soldier said back, "Sorry we couldn't wake up any sooner." and indicated to the dead soldier next to Riley. Riley couldn't reply, but gladly took the rocket launcher and prepared to fire. Making sure no body would face the blow back; Riley fired a rocket into a crowd and killed three in one hit.

When it seemed that the horde was thinning, enemy reinforcements arrived in ships, shaped like a bullet separated into four compartments and roughly the size of five fully grown elephants, which crashed into the ground and drilled itself into the cement. Soon doors opened all around the crashed troop pod and Lacian soldiers emerged from all four segments. "There's five of those troop drop pods. This is not looking too good for us." Riley muttered under his breath as he reloaded another rocket. Amanda had moved to a different PCS for a better shot, but she looked back at Riley with a look of doubt and fear, a fear of imminent death. Riley shook his head at her, trying to calm her, trying to tell her that he would not allow her death, not while he could do something about it. "Cover me!" Riley shouted. A soldier shouted out, "Covering fire!" and a shower of bullets appeared. The enemy ran for cover, but most were not prepared for the sudden wall of projectiles. Riley fired a rocket at the pods where several enemies were using as cover. A pod exploded magnificently and left a large fire and smoke cloud as several enemy soldiers were flown backward from the explosion. Others followed Riley's example and fired their rockets at the pods, while their comrades were still able to cover them. The enemy retaliated and returned fire. Explosions surrounded Riley and the Link and everyone braced themselves for the incoming onslaught. With the Lacian drop pods destroyed and cover becoming a scarce thing, the enemy became desperate. The enemy charged the defensive line at a full sprint, closing the distance at a frightening speed. The defenders tried their best to cut down the charging line of attackers, but they were too many and too fast for the defenders to take down in time. Riley popped out of cover to fire, but was kneed in the face and knocked flat on his back, his weapon flying out of his hands. The Lacian picked him up and attempted to finish him off, but Riley was faster, pulling his knife from his sheath, he stabbed the Lacian through its helmet visor. The Lacian dropped Riley who fell to his knees and watched while the Lacian tried to grip its eye, kick around in pain, and then finally die. He looked around and saw the Lacian force upon the survivors. Riley pulled out his sidearm, holding his knife underneath, and tried his best to repel the attackers. He deftly shot every enemy he saw in the head, stabbing enemies with his knife when they got too close. An ally shot two enemies with his shotgun before being shot three times in the chest and falling backwards. In the edges of his vision he saw another ally flip an enemy soldier over her shoulder and stab it through its helmet before being shot in the shoulder herself and falling unconscious. He saw several of his fellow soldiers sent flying when an explosion detonated. The screams of people dying around him caused horrible memories to return, and he fell down to his knees powerless. He held his hands to his head, feeling a sense of crazed anger tingling from the bottom of his spine going up towards the back of his neck. Someone tried to pull him up and Riley flipped him over his shoulder, thinking it was an enemy. He stopped his blade short one inch from her face, realizing it was Amanda, trying to help him up and not trying to kill him.
"What were you doing? Come on! Fight back!" Amanda screamed while firing her battle rifle. Riley harnessed his anger and stood up with all his might, shouting from the top of his lungs, almost sounding feral. He charged towards the enemy, tackled one, launching it over his back, slicing through the neck of another, then stabbing another in its chest and tackling it to the ground. He pulled his knife free and began charging again towards the enemy. He managed to save an ally who was about to be finished off by, once again, tackling it to the ground and stabbing it multiple times. The soldier stared at him, wide-eyed but with understanding, before picking up his rifle and entering the fray once more. Riley had managed to save more allies and created a makeshift fire team that watched his back. But the fact was that there were far too many enemies to deal with and there were no longer enough men to fight them off. Riley didn't stop though; he killed five more with five squeezes of the trigger on his handgun and killed another two in front of him with his knife. His men were scattered and only numbered around 12 while the enemy was organized and numbered around 40 or so. While running for cover his leg was hit twice and once in his chest. He ignored the pain, but his body could not, and when he tried to get up his legs failed him. Amanda came up to him at once and inspected his wounds. She looked up and fired a few rounds, reloaded and fired once again. She looked down, almost at a breaking point and tears started strewing down her face. Riley made an effort to try to turn and fire his gun at the enemy, but Amanda pinned him against the debris his back was on. He shouted, "What are you doing?!" at Amanda, but her face was down and he couldn't tell what she was thinking, until she did the last thing that was on his mind. Something warm pressed against his lips, and when he realized what he was looking at was Amanda's eyes, that's when he also realized he was being kissed. A long minute seemed to pass and he thought that his heart was going to burst with everything that was going on. Before he knew it she pulled off and kept looking down, but her face was obviously red. "Now I can die without having any regrets." And she looked up and stared into Riley's eyes trying to hold back tears. But Riley didn't like what she said and instead replied with, "We both lost all our friends in that godforsaken mission. We're all we've got left. But I'd rather live and spend the rest of our lives together. We are not going to die here, you hear me? We still have a long way to go." Riley holds her tight, but lets go and tries to fire back. The surviving members fight back with everything they've got but weren't going to hold out another minute.

But then Riley stopped and cocked his head, thinking he heard something. If that is what he thought it was, then he was going to have to do a stupid move. He started to get up, but Amanda only pinned him back down. "What are you doing? Stay down you can't go anywhere with that leg." She said.
"I think I heard something, like jet engines or something. I need to get to that launcher over there and send a rocket in the sky."
Amanda followed his finger and spotted the launcher and said, "I'll get it for you." And with that she ran towards the launcher Riley pointed out.
He couldn't believe she had just ran out there like that, but could do nothing except continue firing downrange and keeping the enemy behind cover.
"I really hope your ears weren't just ringing, Riley." She said as she picked up the launcher and rolled back into cover. She aimed upward and let loose the rocket blazing red and leaving behind a smoke trail. She stared at what could be her beacon of hope to getting out of this mess alive. As the fuel burned out, the rocket detected its slow-down prior to its ignition and detonated in the sky. A large explosion shook the air and created a massive fireball. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, but help had definitely arrived. Attack helicopters powered by jets burst into the scene raking the ground where the enemy stood with their miniguns and missiles and zoomed on by. They flew back around and hovered above Riley and the survivors and continued their attack, tearing into the enemy ranks. A convoy of ground vehicles arrived on scene just before the second attack began and started laying down 50 cal. machine gun fire. Ally troops got out of the vehicles and began assisting in the firefight. Some of the soldiers that arrived with the reinforcements looked injured, so Riley assumed that they ran into trouble before coming here. He turned around to check on Amanda, to see if she was all right. Amanda tossed the launcher on the floor and picked up a rifle from a fallen comrade and began firing, she looked back at him with a large grin on her face. Riley took up her example and carefully got up and leaned on his good leg and started firing his sniper rifle using the debris in front of him as a stabilizer. Then familiar figure stepped forward, or so Riley thought. He started to turn his head as he thought Commander Loren was here in person, standing amidst the battle. When his eyes scanned the area, no one was there. He thought that he had lost too much blood and began to sit back down. When he turned, his eyes managed to catch a small blur, but then one after another Lacian soldiers began falling to the ground dead. A few of the survivors looked at each other, confused, but stayed in their firing position. The soldiers who were their reinforcements were unfazed and continued firing, it seemed that they had gone through this peculiar event before and wanted to take full advantage. The survivors noticed this and continued firing. Riley kept staring at the blur, trying to figure out what it was, and feeling a sense of familiarity with it like he had seen it before. Riley thought he saw a figure of a woman flash in and out, but he gave up and sat back down. Riley suddenly felt extremely tired and stared at his hands, they were somewhat pale, but an odd splash of dark red was on it. The odd color, he realized as he blacked out, was blood from a fresh bullet wound on his chest.