The Phoenix Chronicle Book 2: Like a Phoenix from Ashes.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(Woo, next story, a continuation of Gods have Been Watching.)

Phoenix could not see, he had seemingly no control of his head or his sight, odd voices whispering in the darkness that surrounded what he could see: Large files with names of people he knew, "Leon Hartley, Adrian Shepard, Lukas Briggs, Abraham Burden, Alex Griffin" among those files he saw maps, computer images he couldn't make out what these entailed, but he knew that they were plans. Phoenix heard a voice, deep and distorted, like an interrogator attempting to shield his identity "Phoenix! Phoenix talk to me! Go back... About a month ago, August 24th, 2123" Phoenix could hear his own thoughts, his own voice was quiet and soft "Heh. He had us like rats in cages...Me and Anna, I did what I had to do..." the voice came back "Further back, on Xendra Prime, you were behind a wall around the Citadel what happened?" "I took on an army of insane, depraved humans, who sided with the Engi for an unknown reason... Golly wasn't an Engi, but he had an agenda, and that meant aligning himself with those who sympathized with the Engi, I don't even know anymore... Machina Legion, hahaha... The city ablaze..."

"Today, what happened today?"

"Today? We were supposed to go meet Leon... He had something for us, something we needed to see. On the refugee camp... He didn't tell us..."

"Okay then... Um... Do you remember how you were born? Your early life? Just keep talking."

"I was born in December, 2100. Fire filled the skies as everyone celebrated the end of the wars that gripped our planet, and we were finally unified under one banner. My father was a general, hero of our people, my mother a priestess and doctor, who helped the sick and dying, I had a brother, Peter who was born a few weeks before me. I lived on the streets of Machina Legion, around soldiers and warriors. My father awarded me with a tan cloak and hood, when I was 14, a gift with an unknown reason. Then when I was 15, when I entered the Citadel for the first time. Everyone was looking at me in the divide where the crowds gathered, the upper floors that made this place have the appearance of an opera house, was lined with soldiers. The main pedestal was gone replaced by a large throne, with a dagger at the back rest. ECRT Soldiers lined bottom of the stage, my father stood in front of the throne, smiling. I walked to him, noticing a 26 year old Micheal Graves, surprised and confused, and he motioned for me to sit down on the throne, and I did. He gave a long winded speech, while my brother whispered in my ear, threw his good and mask: 'Pick out any heathen who goes against your authority and I'll execute him, here and now brother' I nodded at this request. My father finished his speech and everyone knelt to me, their rightful ruler, my father rose to shake my hand, smiling. Then I heard the gunshot, my brother held a pistol in his left hand and a priest by the shoulder in the other, he walked forward toward the end of the stage and pulled the trigger again, a click and a boom as my mother dropped dead, a bullet in her neck, then he pulled the trigger again, and I felt a pain in my chest and I collapsed hitting my stomach on the right armrest of the throne. I stood as my brother looked around the crowd, the soldiers refused to fire, I picked the dagger forced threw a hole in the throne, the hilt and grip both burning hot with symbols across them, I picked it up and stumbled to my brother, and stabbed the dagger threw his hood and into his neck, and he collapsed in front of me, dying. I held my hand up for the crowd to see, my right hand, a Phoenix on the palm, outlined in fire."

However as he spoke his final words his vision whitened, going from his memories of what he said, to the present, lying down on a bench in The Raven with Burden pressing down on his chest, his wrists covered in blood Burden yelled "Dammit. It's bad Briggs!" Briggs looked angrily at Burden who kept pressing down on Phoenix's chest "He's a hard bastard. Trust me he'll make it!" Burden took his index and middle finger and held them together, and pressed up, feeling the bottom of his ribs just above his injury "You're a lucky man Phoenix. Any higher and you'd be dead." Phoenix bled and felt a sharp pain as Briggs felt the inside of Phoenix's injury, which was burning hot from the plasma burn, burning his finger when he touched it. "Hey! Where's Leon's corpse?" Briggs said uneasily, looking at a blood stain where Leon once laid, and the blood trail that lead to the cargo hold near the rear exit to the ship, Nikolai and Yuri's corpses laying where they died. Griffin and Adrian nodded and walked into the hold, weapons raised and flashlights on. They looked in each crevice and corner of the room, following the blood trail, until they saw the cargo bay door, near it was a bent metal bar and the blood trail illustrated he exited through the door. The duo walked up the ladder as Briggs went to the pilot's seat, while Burden kept pressure on Phoenix's wound.

"Griffin get over here!" Burden yelled while he took Phoenix's scarf and mask off, allowing him to breathe while Griffin walked over "What do you need?" Griffin said jokingly, despite Phoenix's agonizing pain and inability to say anything coherent. "Give him this shot, okay?" Burden said handing Griffin a shot with a green-dark red substance in it "Ready? Now!" Burden yelled as he held his hand over Phoenix severe injury, while the door to the pilot seat slid open. "We have a problem" Briggs said warily, out one of the windows the large cruiser obviously intended to launch the chemical canisters onto the refugee camp, heavily armored and heavily armed, everyone except Burden, who was busy tending to Phoenix, looked grim, knowing that they would either have to fight a potentially bloody battle, or die. Adrian, Griffin and Briggs stood armed and ready "Okay, we'll dock near the command center, so we can shut this damn thing down. We ready?" Briggs said, while everyone else looked uneasy, but prepared for the worst, Griffin broke the silence cheerfully "Yup, let's do it!" and everyone else giggled slightly and moved to the exit, Burden nodded at Briggs, who nodded back while the team exited the room and entered the cruiser.

The team leveled weapons as the door opened and a the entire doorway erupted in fire while red lasers impacted the doorway, this opening round soon ended weapons smoked and three mercenary soldiers and four rebels laid dead. The team nodded silently as they exited the doorway and into the the ship, the hallway was divided into two sections with a black block dividing them, the trio checked the corpses of the dead and Griffin broke the silence "Eh! There are rebels here! Why the hell are there rebels here?!" Briggs swallowed and spoke grimly "Gun them down all the same" With that spoken they stacked up on a doorway with a detonation charge placed on the edges, meaning an explosion would force the door inward, into the command center, buying them some time to clear it out. The door exploded into the center and the team entered the room one rebel was under the door while others were either shocked stunned or trying to help him out of out from under the door, the team gunned them all down. While Adrian finished off the wounded Briggs and Griffin stood at the console "What now?" Griffin said "We need to make choice... The feds or the rebels?" Griffin thought for a minute "Kill them both?" Briggs nodded "No" and continued thinking "The feds already hate us for what we did to the Zoltan Laboratory..." Briggs said thinking out loud, Griffin stated his thoughts as well "But the rebels may not like us anyhow... And if Leon is in charge..." the thought process was over however and the canisters launched, likely on a timer of some sort, and an explosion was heard in one of the hallways, along with footsteps.

When the team stepped out a squad of Federation soldiers stood weapons raised at them, in a semi circle, 8 men in all, primed to fire against them when ready, they knew things aboard The Raven weren't much better when they saw a random soldier tossing Phoenix to the ground and kicking him into place around the group, while Burden was on his knees, his hands behind his head and a pistol leveled behind his head. However a hoarse British voice from behind the soldiers ended the hostility but brought about uneasiness "Hold your fire boys" an old man with scars lining his face and an eye patch on his right eye walked through the middle of the group staring at the team with a smile "Who are you with boys?" the team looked at each other, happy that their baggy shirts blocked the trademark Phoenix Federation symbols beneath them in the armor, Briggs spoke up "We are mercenaries hired to prevent the dispersal of these chemical weapons. We failed sir, apologies" the old man smiled "Mercenaries are the only things worse then rebels... But when they fight against them, they are like angels sent from heaven" Briggs smiled and nodded, never losing eye contact, he needed to choose each word carefully "The angels of god sir, we'll be going sir" Briggs said. The Federation stood down and Burden picked up Phoenix and got back aboard The Raven, however Phoenix's vision blackened he awoke an unknown duration later, Phoenix Federation vessels all around the small Kestrel class Cruiser.

"We've got wounded move!" Burden yelled at the greeting party as Briggs and Burden each took an arm from Phoenix to carry him, Burden his right bionic arm and Briggs his left human arm, running through the halls to reach the medbay. However as they entered one hallway, only a few feet away from the medbay, stood two soldiers and one man without a helmet "Lookey here. One of the Dogs of War came home injured did he? That. Is a sight to behold." He said, Briggs responded between clenched teeth "Not now Chris" but Chris only laughed "Yeah, now is the time friendos, don't try anything Adrian, or you Alex" with that the soldiers leveled their weapons against their stomachs and Chris took out a pistol, and cocked it. "Sorry Phoenix but I think now would be the best time if ever to challenge your authority, sorry!" Phoenix growled with anger, but every attempt to move was countered by scrutiny by the soldiers with weapons aimed at him "Yeah, I think I could do better then you at this job. I'll probably take Anna too, man she is so beautiful but so dependent. Bah, I'll live with that" Phoenix growled again but looked left down at Briggs' belt, noticing a weapon on the left side of his hip, perfectly accessible to Phoenix with his left hand, if he was discrete this would go according to a random plan, hopefully. While Chris rambled and taunted Phoenix, he moved his left arm gently, and painfully until he gripped the pistol "Hey look at me when I talk to you" Chris said slapping Phoenix "Yeah, keep looking at me, your soon to be successor" as Chris finished his sentence and smiled, Phoenix leveled his pistol against Chris' head, and pulled the trigger, a blast of fire and blood spewed from the pistol as Phoenix pulled the trigger, leaving Chris on his knees with a hole in his head, dripping blood, Briggs and Burden dropped Phoenix and pulled out weapons, opening fire on the two soldiers, killing them. However at the end of the hallway at the intersection two more soldiers took cover on the edges of each hallway, but when they tried to open fire, a ECRT soldier punched the man on the left in the chest, causing him to hunch over. He rolled over it and fired three bullets from his pistol into the man on the right, three more ECRTs opened fire on the last soldier, and the ECRT walked over to Phoenix. "Good to see you Harper" The ECRT took his helmet off and looked at Phoenix with a smile "Get out of here, get better, get healed." Briggs and Burden nodded and took Phoenix left, walking to the medbay, they left him on the table as the doctor walked in, who checked Phoenix's injuries as his vision whitened and he fell unconscious.

Phoenix awoke with a hooded woman looking over him, her left hand on his chest though the bandages and gel, a smirk on her face. Phoenix made a attempt to stand up but she gently pushed him down, speaking slowly and softly "You're okay. Lay down..." as Phoenix laid down in an attempt to relax his pupils dilated and he began hearing voices, strange and familiar voices...

"How many lives lost on YOUR orders?! Their blood is on YOUR hands and yours alone!"

"You were born for it"

"Is sacrificing your partner the best choice? Or is it just the easiest?"

"Overcome famine... Cold... MADNESS."

"This is not about numbers and bottom lines."

As the voices stopped Phoenix exhaled heavily, drawing the attention of the woman from her book, she stood and looked at him to make sure it wasn't anything severe, he sat on the edge of the bed, looking down with drips of sweat coming down onto his boot "H-How Long?" Phoenix said between tired breaths "Three hours." said the woman, her arms crossed. With that statement Phoenix walked out of the room and into the armory, he sat down on one of the benches in the large room, filled with weapons, ammo, grenades, armor and things of the like. Phoenix picked two shotguns, a rifle and a piece of armor over his torn clothing, he scratched out the Phoenix Insignia and after doing so, looked at the palm of his bionic arm, and clenching it into a fist. He walked to to door, only to see the hooded woman in front of him, her arms crossed "You're not going anywhere." Phoenix growled in response "Go away Anna. I'll be fine. I always am" Phoenix tried to push out of the way, she didn't budge. "What do you need to do this badly?" Anna said, her smirk still on her face "I have business to handle. Alone" Anna smiled and put her hand on his shoulder "Come on. Go take a nap, you must be tired" Phoenix sighed and walked to his room, dropped onto the bed, and passed out. When Phoenix awoke Anna's arms were wrapped around him, he was on his side, his armor and weapons off in the corner, he decided he'd take the time to rest while he could and sleep.

When Phoenix awoke Anna was sitting down on the couch watching a movie "I'm going to go, I need to keep myself occupied" Phoenix said walking to the door. He walked off into a dark room with only one light above the grey and blue ring with a wall around it, he climbed into the ring while the eyes in the darker areas around the ring looked at him. He took his baggy shirt off and his hood, revealing a scar on his cheek, and several burn marks and cutting injuries on his arms, remnants from his tortuous past. "Come on. Let's go" He said while a fighter climbed into the ring "Is this fair? You got a bionic arm" The fighter said "I fight with my legs, good luck with that" the fighter laughed. In the midst of his laughing, Phoenix kicked him in the jaw, kneed him in the stomach and tripped him with his left leg "Ouch. Not good." The fighter said on the floor Phoenix yelled to the crowd of fighters "NEXT" with that two fighters came into the ring, Phoenix dodged one's punched and kneed him in the chest, proceeding to trip him and kick him in the spine, the next fighter got a punch in and hit Phoenix in the cheek, but Phoenix responded with an elbow to his face (Literally in his face) and a kneecap to his stomach, causing him to collapse. With that done Phoenix left, a bruise on his cheek and three people unconscious, he walked off back to his room, wondering how much time he wasted. As he walked past a hallway, he saw Briggs at the opening to the door, who saw him walking "Hey Phoenix catch!" Briggs said, tossing Phoenix a cigarette, he nodded and continued on, trying to find something to occupy his time. Phoenix returned to his room, only to find Anna wasn't on the couch, he walked into his room only to find Anna watching a movie, on her belly on the edge of the bed. "Uh... What?" Phoenix said concerned for reasons even he couldn't explain, Anna just smiled at him, her chin in her palms and her legs in the air innocently, wine on dresser by the TV.

"Ugh. My head" Phoenix said, waking up on the bed, wearing his baggy tan pants and his light green t-shirt, his hood,cloak and gloves over on a chair, and a headache. Anna sat at the table in a white robe sipping coffee and reading a book while Phoenix stumbled out into the room. "Oh gods" Phoenix said noticing Anna, who only smiled at the thought and kept reading, Phoenix unlocked the door and proceeded into the hall, drowsily. "Eh Phoenix you look like hell" Griffin said, noticing Phoenix's sleepiness, "What happened?" Briggs said taking the slightest concern, "I don't even know anymore..." Phoenix said rubbing his eyes "Where's Burden?" Phoenix said looking around "I think he took a long nap after he got into a bar-fight... Again" Briggs said, scratching his neck "Again?" Griffin said, laughing slightly "How many times do I have to tell him 'No, it's a bad idea. No.'? God" as Griffin finished Burden came out, his knuckles covered in blood "Sup guys?" Briggs and Griffin laughed while Phoenix smiled, the bags under his eyes prevalent from either his lack of sleep or from drinking a lot. "So. What now?" Phoenix said, breaking the silence "First things first. We need to stop Leon." Briggs said but Phoenix cut him off at the end "How many people on the planet did we lose?" Briggs bit his lip and spoke softly "80 to 90% that's 400 to 500 thousand people" hearing this, he hunched against a wall, his left leg held up and his arms crossed, looking down at the ground, "We need to find him. Before he does this again" Briggs and Adrian nodded sorrowfully, realizing that they were staring into the face of genocide. "For now... We can relax, do whatever we need to do, until we get a lead" Briggs said, with that Burden and Griffin smiled, even Adrian's generally professional demeanor changed into cheerful and happy one, and Briggs was generally happy overall at that idea, even Phoenix stopped moping about the incident and smiled a little, they team walked off to do whatever they had planned, or find something to do in the lack of nothing planned.

Phoenix laid out on the couch, drinking whisky from a shot glass and smoking a cigarette, watching whatever he could find on his TV, satisfied that of the few things that worked in space, TV was one. Of course while he continually thought to himself how horrible the TV shows were then, Anna walked in and hunched over the back of the couch, looking down at Phoenix "What's it like? Being out there all the time, Leon seemed like a nice man" She said curiously "Seemed. He wasn't as good as he seemed. Trust me." Phoenix said, putting his cigarette out and putting his glass down. "So... What did you do? What did everyone do when you weren't out being terrorists?" Anna inquired, Phoenix responded stiffly "Adrian monitored us when he wasn't our sniper, Burden maintained net security when Leon was hacking, Griffin and Briggs were both gunmen, and I was Leon's second in command" "What was with him? Where's Leon?" Anna asked again, Phoenix looked at her "He tried to genocide 500,000 people, he succeeded" Anna gasped "Why?" Phoenix looked down "He wanted the best. Money, scrap, whatever we needed. For the lives of those we didn't even know. I couldn't let him get away with that" Anna looked depressed, "He... He got away with it?" Phoenix nodded "He's not going to get away with it. Not if I can try" Anna smiled. She sat down beside him on her side, snuggling with Phoenix, silent for a few minutes until a question came to Phoenix's mind "How was your life? I didn't know anything about you. You never told me anything." Anna thought for a minute, until he answered "I was born on February 19, 2101. I was 19 when we met all those years later. Life was hard then, life in Boston wasn't the best, but it worked out for us." Phoenix relaxed hearing this "Anything you want to watch?" Phoenix said, grabbing the remote and turning over to look at the TV "No. See if there's anything on the news" Anna said also turning over. Phoenix tuned into the news, which generally went on with news of the spread of the rebellion, and the sheer existence of pirates in supposedly civilian sectors, meanwhile other channels only broadcast pseudo-Rebel propaganda, others pseudo-Federation propaganda, and everything between those two extremes, until one channel caught Phoenix's attention "...Thank you Jordan. Recent reports indicate heavy rebellion within the United Phoenix Federation, internal disorders and a long list of issues have yet to bode well for the new colony established on their new homeworld" Anna turned over to look at Phoenix "You don't think that's... True. Do you?" Phoenix grumbled "Yeah. I do." Phoenix changed the channel again, and relaxed as Anna snuggled into his chest. "Couple times I have a tick, see myself crossing a desert, forceful winds while I wear my hood my hand out looking forward. Every time someone gets hurt or I close my eyes I see it, more clearly every time" Phoenix said, Anna looked up at him and stroked his hair then snuggled into his neck again. Phoenix got up and walked out the door out to the the hallway, where he saw Griffin against a wall holding a cigarette looking away from Phoenix, who placed himself against the wall an arms length from Griffin, holding a piece of beef jerky while Griffin held his cigarette out "I haven't eaten all day" Griffin said looking at the jerky "I'm out of cigarettes" Phoenix said, and without talking they took each other's prizes, Phoenix smoking his newly obtained cigarette "Ohhhh... So much better now" Phoenix said, puffing his cigarette while Griffin ate his food extremely fast, the duo nodded uneasily and Phoenix walked off, satisfied.

Briggs walked up to Phoenix, nervous about something "Um, uh. Phoenix can I talk to you about something?" he said "Yeah sure. What?" Phoenix replied as Briggs walked to Phoenix's supposed office. "I-I need a few... Replacements" Briggs said "For what?" Phoenix said, Briggs gulped "M-my team. Stephan and Anderson were lost in the combat on earth a few months ago. With the meteorites on earth destroyed and the immediate threat from both the corrupted Engi and Leon's men." Phoenix sat down "Who's part of your team currently?" he said "Um. King, Harris, William, Blake and Me. Originally there were 7 of us, Stephan and Anderson were killed by Plasma fire and Blake was mortally wounded." Briggs stuttered "Hmm... Adrian and Burden are now part of your team, Griffin lead's his own unit and I'm well... Me." Phoenix said and Briggs smiled "Thank you sir." Briggs said as he left the room while Phoenix lounged around in his room. Phoenix left his room after taking a 20 minute nap, running into Anna as he walked back to his room "Where have you been? she said, her arms crossed and he face barring a cocky smirk with her head cocked to one side "No where" Phoenix replied nervously "You were taking a nap weren't you?" she said "Uh... No..." Phoenix said scratching his neck "You're a horrible liar" Anna said smiling "Well... Uh... I've gotta go" Phoenix said attempting to walk away, however Anna grabbed his arm "Nope. Come on, you gotta relax sometime." Phoenix's eye widened and his eyebrow raised "Uhh... Fine?" with that Phoenix walked into his room and laid down, watching TV and relaxing. When Phoenix woke up Anna was on her side next to him, the door to his room was open with Briggs standing in the doorway "Am I interrupting your courtship ritual or something of the like?" He said while Phoenix blocked his eyes from the light "No my shaman issued a restraining order after last time. What do you need?" Briggs laughed a little "We got a lead. Dead planet in the middle of no where. You in?" Phoenix got up "Yeah, I'm in." He said as he put his hood and shirt on. "We're sending you onto a dead planet, just you. Once you're there you need to find Leon, and take him down. Plain and simple" Briggs said as he guided Phoenix to the drop Cruiser "Sounds good to me" Phoenix said as he entered the cruiser, sitting in the seat in the cockpit of the small cruiser, which launched extremely fast into the atmosphere of the dead planet. However Phoenix's vision started to cloud, he felt strange heat around him and in the blink of an eye something happened. He awoke in the desert, not know where he was, what date it was, and who he was. He stood up on dune as a fiery wreckage plummeted from earth, he felt the pressure wave from the wreckage hitting the atmosphere, forcing him onto his back as it crashed into ground.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(Edited the OP with the title for the series. Since it'll stay as a thread by thread upload [With occasional chapters like in this one] for each "Book" in this story. Hopefully the last thread will sink to the bottom of the void.)

Chapter 2: The Desert Legend

The man saw the crash not a mile north of him, he looked around in confusion as to his whereabouts and as to any clue of his own identity, and decided that the ship might hold some clue to just that. He walked for what seemed like no time at all until he reached the small cruiser, smaller then a Kestrel Class but far bigger then a fighter, the inside was charred and smoking in a few areas but a date was visible on one of the dials "2023" but nothing else. His right arm was robotic to the elbow, and he immediately took notice of his belt which held a pistol, he seemingly knew how to operate it, his clothing was worn over a large piece of armor, which he left on while taking his shirt off. He walked east for a few miles, seemingly taking forever till he encountered a soldier, wearing a short cape and small mask to block the dust "FREEZE!!" He yelled, the man reached for his weapon then stopped and raised his hands "Is that your wreck over there?" The soldier said pointing toward the smoke in the distance "Yeah. It's marked for 2023. What year is it?" The man said "Uh... 2019... Sir" the solder stuttered "Sir?" The man said "Yes sir. Your armor denotes commander, technically you're in in command" The soldier said "Of you?" The commander said "Negative, we have a battalion awaiting you're orders sir. We fight for the Federation of course." the soldier said. He lead the commander for miles until laser fire broke the silence, many soldiers were scattered throughout the grey field in front of them was a large bunker and trenches around them, firing red lasers at the soldiers on the field, making it impossible to move. The soldier that found him lead him into a crater with a few other soldiers in it, most wearing "Commanderly" looking armor. "Sir we found this commander in the middle of nowhere. His armor denotes commander, so he is in command. He survived a what should have been fatal orbital ship wreck" the soldier said while one of the officers looked at the new face. "Reporting for duty" the Commander said "Crazy and dedicated. Welcome to the war" said a commander with a hoarse British voice "Romero you are officially under this guy's command. But you're not in charge yet, get with Echo team and haul your collective asses onto that hill!" said a different commander as a squad of soldiers ran toward a small hill, utilized as cover for the small band. "You sure you can this?" Romero said to the Commander "Course I can, I remember that much" the Commander said looking at the laser weapon, while the platoon took potshots at one of the bunkers visible from their position. "Romero what's the status of the assault group? the Commander said peering down the sights of his laser rifle taking shots at rebel soldiers "Lieutenant Willis is in command down there, we've lost contact though" Romero said reloading his rifle "Well then, let's go save their asses. Do you have a medical squad soldier?" the Commander said calmly "Yes sir. Corporal Todd is in command, last we saw they were tending to a few wounded soldiers in that crater" Romero said pointing to the crater "Good, Romero stay close and cover me. On my signal... 3... 2... 1... NOW OPEN FIRE" the Commander yelled zigzagging toward the crater while Romero took potshots at the bunker, following him as best he could. "You Todd??" The Commander inquired over the laser fire from the rebel bunker "Yes sir! We're pinned down here and cannot get to the wounded behind us!" Todd yelled over the sounds of combat in front of him "Romero open fire, suppress that turret now soldier!" the Commander yelled at Romero who promptly nodded and opened fire on the bunker. "Hey Commander! Over here! Come here!" said an eager soldier right of the Commander's crater, he ran and slid into the square foxhole, surrounded by eager but stressed faces "Sir. I looked at the rebels in the trench and found out that the guys in charge are relaying the orders to the men, there are three as far as we know. One in the bunker twelve o'clock, another in the trench west of us and the last one is in the hilltop camp, that we're targeting anyways. If you can take them out, we might be able to get the rebels while they're down and finish this. Sound good sir?" the private said "Yeah it does, here's the plan. Once I take the second commander out, I'll light a flare. That's the signal for Lt. Willis and his men to assault the emplacements. Got it?" the Commander said "Got it, here. We'll communicate with this" the Private said handing the Commander an earpiece "Now get going, we'll cover you!" he said as the rest of the soldiers popped out of the bunker and opened fire on the bunker, drawing it's fire while Phoenix ran over a hill and jumped into a crater, using it as cover.

"Follow my instructions as best you can, I'll try to help you in this mission" The Private said over the radio the to commander as he looked over the edge of the crater. He could make out three heads, two rebel soldiers and an officer, he took a deep breath and jumped out of his hiding place and ran into the trench, shooting the two soldiers in the head with his pistol and landing on the officer, slicing his neck with his knife. This all came instinctively to the Commander, like he had done this in the past or in the future, ignoring the feeling he opened the door to one of the bunkers, and stabbed a soldier in the neck, then shooting the gunner in the head before leaving a grenade next to the boxes of modified bullets that fired the lasers for the machine gun, as he walked to the next bunker it exploded behind him. "There we go, two more sir!" the private said over the radio "What's your name son?" the Commander said to the private as he walked slowly to the next door "Private John Marson, sir. You?" the private said "Dunno, just call me Commander from here on out" the Commander said in response as he pressed himself against the door. He shoved the door off it's hinges and it landed next to the rebel officer, who look on in horror, a click then a bang as the commander collapsed holding his chest with a bloody glove. With an other click and bang the soldier operating the machine gun died, a hole in the back of his head spouting blood as a result of the injury. "Nice one sir! Give the signal and I'll send Rasmus and Nelson over to help you breach the wall to the last one, over!" Marson said over the radio as the bunker exploded in a hail of red sparks. With a loud pop the Commander launched the flare and ran out of the trench and behind a rock, taking fire from a bunker and watchtowers on the hilltop, he saw two men approach him as "Corporal Rasmus and Private Nelson reporting for duty sir!" said one of the men holding an assault rifle while the other held a shotgun. "Roger that, Rasmus, cover me an Nelson as we move to that rock." the Commander said pointing to a large boulder a little bit in front of them "Then we cover you, sound good? 3... 2... 1... MOVE!!" the Commander yelled running as Rasmus shot at the watchtowers and bunker, drawing their fire toward him. The duo sat in cover as the Commander held up his fingers, counting down 3...2...1... then clenching his fist to signal Rasmus to move, as the the two soldiers fired at the watchtowers drawing their fire till Rasmus could get to cover with them. "Gimme the signal, we're ready when you are sir!" Marson said over the earpiece "DO IT NOW" Rasmus yelled at the Commander "We need that support Marson!" the Commander said to Marson over the radio "Roger. Gentlemen on my signal! 3,2,1 NOW" Marson yelled over the earpiece as the horde of Federation soldiers jumped out of the trenches and charged the camp. The British commander walked over to the Commander "Hehehehe. C'mon now lad! Let show em what real soldiers can do! MOVE UP" he yelled as he ran toward the camp, while Rasmus, Nelson and the Commander followed and a horde of Federation soldiers followed him. As the machine guns fired frantically at the approaching army, gunning down all who came close enough, one laser clipped the British officer's eye causing him to collapse he moaned in pain "ARGGHHH" as Nelson and the Commander looked on in horror. "Come on MOVE" said a Federation soldier pushing them along while another took the officer behind a rock to help him. The first wave of soldiers popped a grenade into the bunker and watchtowers, causing them to explode with the trademark sound of a laser battery bursting as the horde of soldiers jumped into the trenches killing those who hid in them. By the time the Commander, Nelson, Rasmus, Marson and Romero regrouped on the hill the soldiers left no survivors "Damn. They tore the place up" Rasmus said looking a the corpses of the rebels "Hehehehehe. They sure did" said a familiar British voice, wearing an eye-patch "I never introduced myself. I'm Commander Sinvet, the American one is Vincent. We got lost out here during an assault, deep in enemy territory. We need to go north, to get out of this hell. To our command center. You don't owe us anything, but if you succeed in this, you'll be a legend. You could also use a trip off of this hell of a planet." he said to the Commander who nodded "Yeah, I'm in." he said calmly "Good, you want a name?" Sinvet said laughing "Sure" the Commander said "How about... Legend?" Sinvet said thinking "I like it. PACK UP GENTLEMEN, WE'RE MOVING" the Commander said.

"How's the eye?" Legend said to Sinvet looking over the hill onto the desert "It hurts like hell, but I'm fine." Sinvet said in response, shaking his head. "Commander Legend, we got what we could and are ready to move on your go!" said a soldier "Good. We leave in thirty minutes" Legend said to the soldier. The time passed as the soldiers regrouped behind Legend, holding large packs of hard drives, water, food and ammo on their backs "You ready? Anyone not here WILL be left behind" Legend said to his men "We're good sir, no one missing" said Willis "Good, get ready, slide down the side of the hill you'll be fine trust me" Legend said sliding down the hill. The rest of the soldiers followed, 20 of them carrying the packs of hard drives, ammo and supplies the rest shouldering their weapons and moving on behind their pack carrying comrades. They walked for hours until they finally stopped at a basin, many soldiers collapsed on the ground, dying of thirst and tired from traveling "We need to cross this basin to get to the command center" Legend said looking over the basin "We go around. It'll take longer but will be far safer then what we can do now" Vince said looking over the right of the basin "No. We rappel down and rest at the bottom. MEN GET YOUR ROPES READY! WE ARE REPELLING DOWN THIS CHASM IN FIVE MINUTES!!" Legend yelled to the men with the gear, who promptly pulled ropes out of their backpacks and prepped them to repel down the over-sized trench. The rest of the men took the time to relax and drink, however this free period ended abruptly as the ropes were ready to be used. The men with the backpacks got on the ropes first, and prepared to jump "On my mark. 3... 2... 1... JUMP!" Legend yelled to his men who promptly followed his orders "Good, get to the bottom people" Legend said joyful that his men knew what to do in this situation. They jump for twenty minutes until a loud explosion broke the overall silence, one of the soldiers fell off the ropes, battered and bloodied, another lost his right arm and stood there screaming in pain. "WHO WAS THAT?!" A soldier yelled "I THINK IT WAS RASMUS!! MARK LOST HIS ARM!" Yelled a different soldier, as many looked down below to see Rasmus' body on a plateau. "THEY HAVE MINES IN THE WALLS!!" Yelled a soldier, who was interrupted by laser fire from a rebel gunship "Hey assholes! Surrender now. Or be completely obliterated" said one of the rebels in the gunship over the speaker mounted on the gunship. When he didn't get an answer he opened fire on the soldiers who made far more rapid jumps to the bottom, despite the fire from the gunship. After twenty minutes of stress and loss the first of three waves reached the bottom "We need to take out that gunship. ASAP" Legend said to the men who hid behind a rock, unloading large rocket launchers from their packs "Right, five of you shoot at the gunship, cover the men with the launchers. The rest of you, grab a launcher and open fire on that gunship" Legend said to his men who promptly prepared the weapons to execute the commander's orders. "READY?! NOW" Legend yelled, and so his men fired on the gunship, three rockets impacted the main hull and two against the rotors, and lasers impacted all around the ship as it collapsed against the side of the ravine, detonating several of the wall mines in the process. "THAT'S GOOD!! YOU CAN COME DOWN NOW!" Legend yelled to his men on the top of the cliff, who promptly jumped down in three waves, until all of the battalion was at the bottom of the chasm. "Right, so what now?" Vince said to Legend looking around "We rest here, and then scale the wall" Legend replied, panting. The battalion took the time to rest and relax over the course of the three hour break period that Legend slated for them. A beeping of a watch alerted Vincent that the tine was up "ATTENTION! LISTEN UP! WE ARE MOVING OUT! PACK UP EVERYTHING, YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES!" Vincent yelled to his lounging men, who promptly got up groggily. The Federation soldiers were happy they got a break, under most commanders breaks were reserved for time when there was nothing to do other than sleep. The supposed Legend was different in that regard, especially since he completely ignored the fact that this was practically a full blown retreat from a perfectly winnable war. The ropes were set up and the men hastily climbed them, and over the course of an hour the entire battalion climbed to the top of the chasm, and were forced to continue walking. By the time they crested a dune and saw another enemy base, the soldiers were thirsty and exhausted, the battalion had lost thirty more souls to thirst and desertion, cutting it's original size of 90 men to 60, over the course of no less then 12 hours. "Great. We'll have to go around" Legend said to Sinvet as he looked over the dune "You don't seem like that kind of man, especially since you forced us up a chasm for god's sake" Sinvet growled "Going around isn't an option, they got patrols for miles" Vincent said using his binoculars to scan around base "We'll get caught out" Vince continued. "Alright then, here's a plan. Vince, you and two scouts will head eastward. Tell us how many patrols you find for three miles north east. Once do that come back and tell us." Legend said to Vince who looked surprised "Who should I bring sir?" he said standing up "Templar and Cross, stay low and don't use your radio. You leave in five" Legend said as he walked to join his men. Three hours passed until Legend walked over to Sinvet "He's been gone too long. He should have been back by now..." He whispered "Give him a little more time, he probably got pinned" Sinvet muttered, looking over the dunes. Yet another three hours passed until Vince returned, only one scout with him "We lost Cross, sorry we got caught up." Vince sputtered, "We ran into eight patrols. All of them raised the alarm, not much we can do. We'd get caught by the QRTs, we need to go the long way around" Cross said, holding his wounds. "Alright, better plan. Sinvet, you need to pick out twenty men to act as a distraction while Vince gets the rest of the men out. We cannot assault this fortification with only sixty men." Legend said, followed by him walking over to his men. "Gentlemen. Twenty of you will be selected for a suicide mission, but this goes for everyone. Most of you will die, you may fight to the bitter end but you WILL meet your end. BUT those of you who live will be stronger, more experienced HARDENED by the experience. And THIS will encourage you to live! You'll fight and your friends may die but you WILL become more than a soldier. This is no easy mission BUT YOU WILL COMPLETE IT. Fight fate men and before the day is out we will be alongside winners and the losers will be dead. The blood of your friends will be on my hands, but their sacrifice will allow you to live. I do not want you to die. But I cannot promise you will live either.Now MOVE OUT." Legend said to which four of his men replied "Yes sir." one said "I think I speak for all of us when I say we are going to walk away from this today" another said, while everyone nodded in response. "Now... Are you gonna die like the fodder the rest of you are?!" Legend yelled "SIR, NO SIR!" His men yelled in response "ARE YOU READY TO DIE FOR YOUR CAUSE?!" Legend yelled "SIR YES SIR!" his men replied "ARE YOU READY TO AVENGE THOSE YOU'VE LOST?!" Legend yelled "SIR, YES SIR! his men replied "NOW GET TO MOVE OUT!" Legend yelled.

"Where'd you get that name from?" The Commander said to Sinvet "I wish I could tell you... I was orphaned at a young age and I never remembered my name. I had a friend from the planet of Varikas, he gave me the name. I meant Leader or Warriors in his native tongue. It stuck" Sinvet said "I wish I could ask you the same thing. But I can assure you that if we survive this. You will be a Legend, something that soldiers in the coming years will tell myths about. But if you don't like the nickname I can change it." Sinvet said cocking a smile. "Thirty minutes, pick twenty men and get ready." Legend said, picking up his weapon. The thirty minutes passed with every soldier looking on in anticipation, each more wary than the last, while twenty handpicked soldiers stood out from the crowd, shivering in fear. "Alright, here's the plan. Captain Sinvet and his handpicked detail will create a distraction by assaulting the main compound while the rest of the battalion falls back under the command of Lieutenant Vince." Legend yelled to his men. "Distraction detail is under the callsign Alpha 1, main brigade is Alpha 2. Any questions? No? Than move out!" Legend continued as his men followed his orders. The originally 200 man strong battalion had been reduced to a measly 60 over the course of 38 hours. Most lost during the assault on the Rebel base, others lost to dehydration and desertion, under his command. He hoped that Federation soldiers were as elite as they sounded, the originally cannon fodder had to prove they were as elite as the best of the Federation special forces, or else they'd all pay for it. He signed and wiped sweat from his head. The scorching sun would bear witness to either a horrible slaughter, or a victory for the history books, and Legend knew which one it would be. He knew if his men were to win, he would die, and knew he might be thinking his final thoughts, alone in the desert. He wondered to his true identity, or if he was just created by some omnipotent being to save these men, and he was failing gloriously. His outfit though large and baggy was cool, despite the baking heat, only reinforcing the thought that he was just a tool, one game changing piece on a large game board. Heat stroke would be a pitiful end to such a needed pawn, obviously couldn't allow that. He sighed, and walked over to joing Sinvet and his men cowering behind a dune, looking over the small valley, ready to die. "What a way to die... Eh boys?" Legend said sarcastically.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 3: The Desert Legend Part 2.

Legend continually thought of what would happen if he survived this, trying to clam himself. "Get an actual name, find out who the hell I am. As bad-ass as 'Legend' sounds, I want to feel human. Was among the first thoughts. But Sinvet's hoarse voice broke the thinking process "Eh. You ready?" he said, cracking a smile. "Y-Yeah... On 3..." Legend stuttered, taking a deep breath. "THREE!" He yelled to his men who promptly ran over the dune they sheltered behind and opened fire against the bunker and trenches, laser fire filled the air around him, a strange silence despite the obvious trademark sounds of laser fire from both sides. One firing out red lasers with a noise that was individual and familiar, another firing yellow beams with a similar familiar noise. The silence among the men was deafening, yet no screams came from either side, either silenced by the focus of the battle, or by the lack of casualties on either side at the time. Explosions in the silence, laser fire and even the clicking of magazines reloading. But these all seemed silent. Everyone could hear it, but it felt calm. Legend ignored it, he just moved around and hoped he could find something to function as cover in the pseudo-skirmish that he was engaged in. Hoping for the best when he collapsed behind a dune, using it for cover. Red lasers blasting around Legend and his soldiers, he felt as though every laser, fired from either side could end him. But the soldiers allied with him were almost entirely on his side, the stress in each seemed to have disappeared and each were ready to die, but certainly knew they could fight it. With a huff Legend and a soldier he shared the dune with charged towards the wall of the base camps, small beams of lasers firing from the bunker while more fired from the walls, but before long they were out of view from the bunker and hugging the wall. "Ready?" Legend says pulling out two grenades and handing one too the soldier "3... 2... 1... NOW!" Legend yelled tossing the grenade into the bunker, followed shortly by the soldier doing the same. The bunker exploded twice, once with the grenade explosion sound and yellow fire accompanied by puffs of grey smoke, and again with red and black smoke with the trademark sound of laser batteries exploding. Whoever was in there was certainly dead now and no amount of bullets would kill them if they weren't. Legend made a silent motion for his men to regroup with him at the edge of the wall. And in a matter of minutes the soldiers were all around him, huffs and quick, desperate breaths surrounded him as Legend tossed a rope over the small wall. "I need three volunteers to storm the wall. Anyone?" Legend said, and two hands popped up, one was the soldier who stormed the bunker with him who identified himself as Alex, and another who was obviously Romero, the soldier who found Legend in the desert. "Alright, you two will come with me, everyone else get ready to storm through the main entrance." Legend said to everyone else in the group.

Legend stood at the top of the rope "At the entrance, on your go" Sinvet said over the earpiece the Commander wore. "Copy, go in ten unless told otherwise" Legend said calmly over the earpiece as he clambered on top of the wall. With extreme reflexes he fired two shots at a rebel soldier on one end of the roof and quickly holding his rifle in one hand and pointing it toward a different soldier and firing 5 bullets towards the soldier. Ending his life and drawing the rest of the soldiers on the wall toward him. Red lasers fired from different areas of the wall while Alex and Romero ducked underneath the wall-side cover, used to defend against assaults on the wall. While laying on his side taking potshots at anyone in his sight he finally got a glimpse of Alex's face behind the mask. It was familiar, like he saw it a thousand times but never before. "What's your name soldier?" He asked "This isn't the best time- Alex Griffin sir!" he said in a British accent that also seemed familiar. "Hang on... Can you cover me?" Alex said, taking a grenade off his belt. With that Legend and Romero got up and focused fire on very specific "Squads" on the roof, a scene for the ages but finally a belt full of grenades with pulled pins landed in the middle of the courtyard, next to multiple fuel barrels used for fueling a nearby APC "SINVET NOW!!" Legend yelled as the belt landed. His men entered the main gate and fired at every soldier they saw, but as they entered the main courtyard the belts exploded, Legend say everything in slow motion. He could see individual pieces of shrapnel from the fragmentation grenades, and the stark orange fire from the fuel barrels. He saw the wall behind the fuel barrels that held multiple soldiers blow backward, sending the rebels on top of it flying, while the Command Center left of the barrels collapsed as more soldiers exited it, then exploded again sending large concrete shrapnel (If it could be called that) flying through out the air. Legend began to see things normally as Alex stood looking over the destruction "WELL THAT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I EVER SAW!! NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO MANY UGLY REBEL SHITS BE SO DECIMATED, BY ONE SLIGHTLY DERANGED, YOUNG PYROMANIAC!!" Griffin yelled to his fallen foes, while Legend counted his men.

"Request permission to state the status of the situation sir" One soldier said, looking over the destruction of the FOB. "Granted" Legend said, searching corpses for water or ammo "Asses: Kicked. Robot asses: Kicked. All their shit: Broken." the soldier continued, firing a single bullet into a corpse. "Robot asses?" Legend asked looking over his shoulder to the soldier "There was an anti-personnel drone, I think Griffin there took it out though. Heh." The soldier responded. "Vince, come in. FOB is clear." The Commander said over the earpiece to his second in command "Copy. Be advised quick response teams and patrols and patrols are inbound to your position." Legend looked up at his men "Get your gear ready, the cavalry's incoming" he said picking up a rifle. "Rebels! Moving up the dune!" One soldier yelled pointing to many black figures with trademark red lines across the tops of the chest plates, the sun behind them. "Fire at will!" Sinvet yelled while everyone took cover and began shooting, the rebels could barely return fire before three of them were dead. "Two tangos down. multiple wounded!" Griffin yelled to Legend who resorted to taking shots with his laser pistol, which unlike his rifle, regenerated ammo. The firefight that ensued was short, within minutes the the firing stopped, the Federation soldiers stood victorious, and the rebels were defeated.

For the first time, the rebels had been pushed back.

"Alright, Vince, you copy?" The Commander said over his earpiece "We copy, no issues so far. You're too far back for us to wait for you though" Vince said sorrowfully "We'll be fine, we'll meet you at the base camp." Legend said, picking up a shotgun with a laser battery mounted on the bottom. "Alright people. We go on, we are on our own and we won't be getting any support. Friendships aren't going to save anyone and sacrifices will have to be made. Let's move out!" Legend said to his men, who promptly picked up their gear and moved forward across the desert. Even Legend lost track of how many days had passed, the endless sunlight and never ending dunes coupled with the occasional patrol proved a challenge worthy of Legend continuing his endless speeches about loss and sacrifice, though desertion was only quelled through his own actions. Before long they camp upon a ridge, and the men collapsed, tired and thirsty. "We... we've been... walking for days...." Every soldier groaned, under the shadow of the ridge. "Fine, everyone gets a little bit of water. And an hour's worth of rest while me and Captain Sinvet over here find a way over this damned ridge." Legend said, looking up. With that he dropped a few half full canteens of water onto the ground for his men, who each took one and drank it, before dropping down next to the ridge, and taking the time to relax while Sinvet and the new commander conversed about how they planned to get up the ridge. Soon Legend and Sinvet got the ropes ready and the men got up lazily, and on Legend's orders they climbed the rope onto the incredibly large plateau. The plateau was large with white sand at the top, it was strangely colder despite being more lit and overall more exposed, the wind blew the small white grains of sand around like snow, the wind was strong, pushing against Legend and his team, even the capes of the recon members like Romero blew forcefully in the wind, Legend's hood struggled to stay up while his cape frolicked in the wind, seemingly with a forceful purpose. The group meanwhile trudged on, the wind was kicking sand up in their direction, and the group was forced to huddle together to prevent from becoming separated in the dust. They continued to trek for hours, the cooling winds accompanied by hot sand that burned like fire kept them going, before long they looked in front of them to see an endless sand-cloud, the winds picked up as it moved toward them, making noticeable strides with each gust of wind. With uneasy glances the team trekked on, through the storm everyone knew one thing, to keep moving north. Even losing yourself in the storm could be resolved by heading directly north and out of it, eventually you could find the rest of the team, or die trying. Soon they reached the end of the plateau, below was an endless gorge which supposedly lead to their base-camp. While looking down to the gorge, Legend was met by Romero, the winds still blowing in each other's ears. "WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY DOWN THIS GORGE" Legend yelled to Romero "WHAT?! WHY DO WE HAVE TO FIND SERGEANT FORGE?!" Romero yelled back.

"NO! WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY DOWN THIS GORGE!!" Legend repeated.

"I'LL FIND SOMEONE TO LOOK FOR SERGEANT FORGE!" Romero responded.

"DO YOU KNOW A WAY DOWN THIS GORGE?!" Legend yelled.

"MY FATHER WAS NOT NAMED GEORGE! WHY DID YOU NEED TO KNOW?!" Romeo yelled back.

"FORGET IT! THROW THIS ROPE DOWN THIS GORGE!!" Legend yelled, handing Romero a rope.

"THERE IS NO HOPE INSIDE THAT GORGE! WHY DO I NEED A ROPE?!"

"BAH! THROW THE ROPE INTO THE GORGE" Legend said pointing into the gorge, while Romero sat there confused.

"LIKE THIS!" Legend said throwing the rope into the gorge. The rope however, simply flew back and hit a poor soldier in the face, Romero quickly yelled "ARE YOU OKAY?!" to him while Legend looked at him confused "HE DOES NOT HAVE A MONKEY! THAT'S ILLOGICAL!" Legend yelled angrily at Romero. This bickering was ended by Sinvet, who took a rock and tied it to the rope, then threw it into the gorge. Legend signaled for his men to climb down the rope and within twenty minutes the entire team was in the gorge. And within hours they were finally out of the sandstorm, and before long they could see nothing but desert, Legend and Sinvet knew they were close now, and soon they would be at the base-camp, drinking beer like the good old days. So they trekked on, and within hours they could see the camp, Legend looked on with glee, his men collapsed, thirsty and tired, Sinvet lit off a flare and Legend passed out. The next thing he knew he was at the camp, Vince staring him in the face "Glad to see you made it!" he said, while the rest of the battalion looked on, they had lost so many to the rebels, and to the desert. They were ready to even up the body-count.

The next thing he knew, he was staring into a grey sky in the rain. The careful hum of an engine running nearby, he knew who he was, and what he was doing before all this happened.

Time to get back to work.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 4: Six Feet Under

Phoenix got up, and looked around. The planet was cold, dead, barren and it seemed to be constantly raining on him. A grey white fog cut out his vision a few feet away from his ship, which hummed quietly with a calm bright yellow fire coming from the engines themselves, warming the area slightly. Phoenix turned the engine off, and looked right only to see a large grey stone wall with cracks all around it. Multiple towers covering the empty space that Phoenix inhabited. Seemingly on instinct Phoenix ran up the wall and jumped up to grasp the edge of it, noticing how run-down and empty the facility was. Multiple wrecks of drones littered the ground underneath Phoenix, even a few bits on the wall, with noticeable tears where a rebel drone had been destroyed. Phoenix silently jumped down onto a large, green, rusted block with connected to the lower vent in a two-vent ventilation system. The top vent (Which Phoenix could see clearly despite the steam emitting from the heater) had no vent cover, allowing him to crawl into it and make his way about the building. "Just like old times..." Phoenix thought crawling throughout the cramped space, until after over 30 minutes, he finally reached the end of the vent. Of course it wasn't the actual end, his path to continue however was blocked by two corpses he distinctly remembers stuffing in a far better place, but he decided not to think about it.

Below him was a loose vent cover, barely held on by three, frantically screwed, bolts. Below that was an empty room, except for a chair and a lamp. Phoenix gently removed the cover, and fell down into the room, looking about. He saw nothing distinctive, except for a second chair hastily placed in a dark corner, and some blood on the chair itself. But it seemed like his presence in the room was familiar, but the seemingly standard flashback Phoenix would see by entering a familiar room was missing. Phoenix looked around for a second and saw a crack in the wall, emitting a calm,peaceful blue light. He walked over to it, and could see it wasn't just a result of age, but a secret door to a room. Phoenix slid the door to the left and opened it all the way, and was immediately repulsed by the horrible stench and disgusting sight of blood covered body bags, everywhere. Phoenix walked into the room and stood over one bag, and unzipped it slowly. He could then see the familiar face of Micheal Graves, and despite the lack of light in the room safe for the invisible lantern emitting the blue light, he had no trouble identifying him. "Ugh... Dear gods..." Phoenix mumbled before re-zipping the bag and setting it in the corner. "I dunno man I'm just sayin that we shouldn't have transferred all the prisoners and NOT all the guards!" A voice said walking into the room.

As the men walked in and saw Phoenix, he could feel life slow down, then in an instant, he saw everything he's done in his life flash not only before his eyes, but before his entire body. He felt like he did all of this before as he soon heard the man talking again. He instantly forgot what happened and hid in one of the dark corners. "I know, but c'mon, can you really expect the higher ups to give a damn about us grunts? You're a fool if you think so" the other man said looking around. "Now hurry up, what'd you lose?" He continued "My data tablet, it had a few important documents I needed to send to the new boss" the other soldier replied "How'd you lose it here? Of all places!" the other soldier said while the other took off his helmet to see clearer around the room "Gah! I left it here when I was beating that one girl, you know? Last month I think." the helmet-less soldier said "Well hurry it up, I got last call. They're transferring my block tonight too. So I have one more chance to get the answers I need, or else I'm done." the other soldier said crossing his arms. Phoenix then emerged from the shadows, running his knife through the helmet-less soldier's neck then running toward and stabbing upwards into the other soldier's head, killing him. He then examined the bodies, there was only one identifying mark on them, and it was the red stripe across the front of the shoulder, identifying them as rebels. "Right, Rebels. Let's move." Phoenix mumbled leaving the room, only to feel a the cold tip of a plasma pistol against his head "Let's make this quick scum, who are you?" the Rebel behind him said angrily "I-..." Phoenix thought before finally remembering an instance in his life "I'm a Federation soldier. 4th Squad, Raven Brigade." he said, confessing fake details "Gimme a reason not to blow your head off right now" the rebel continued "300,000 Elite Federation soldiers from the inner-most colonies. Rich families who'd pay a million credits to see you hung by your own intestines. You kill me, you can't kill them, and if you do kill them you'll suffer endless casualties at the hands of pirates, mercenaries and bandits. I can also tell you a lot if you really want to know something." Phoenix said, once again lying. "Fine then, answer me this: Will you or will you not sacrifice all of your brigade if I promise you won't be harmed... Lethally." The Rebel said confidently "What if I don't want to?" Phoenix sneered "Then I'll blow your legs off and leave you to die" the rebel said pressing the blaster against Phoenix's head again. However before Phoenix could offer a funny response he decided to turn around and snatch the blaster from the rebel's hand and aimed it at his head, shortly before pulling the trigger and killing the rebel. "Rebel scum..." Phoenix muttered walking off to the stairwell that was too his right and lead him to a roof below the rest of the building. He looked over the small sector, seeing disabled turrets and destroyed drones all over the place "Phoenix to Sentinel, what am I looking for?" Phoenix said over the earpiece "Sentinel to Phoenix, look for a man in white armor and a red beret with black gloves. Got it?" A Commander aboard the Sentinel said to Phoenix over the comms "I copy" Phoenix replied taking out his Sniper Rifle. Phoenix looked about the sector, hoping to find the target he was sent to engage, the constant searching came to an end when he found a man in the white armor with the beret under guard by two rebel soldiers.

Phoenix jumped down to find the large sub-blocks were not nearly as guarded as they were previously, he decided to mobilize now before people could figure out he was there. The maze of interrogation, armories and holding blocks would keep any competent security guard on his toes, but rebel guards on their patrols are almost always about finding something to kill then actually keeping something safe from anyone who would see to harm it. These rebels were no different. Phoenix walked out of the corner and stabbed the rebel on the left in the neck, before throwing his knife into the other rebel's eye. Then holding the commander by the neck with a gun to his head. "Alpha to Command, terminate or interrogate?" Phoenix said over the earpiece "Interrogate" the Sentinel returned, while Phoenix forced the commander into an empty room with a chair and poker table in it. He knocked the poker table and one of the other chairs over before tying the commander to the other chair. "Now let's get started. What is your name?" Phoenix said, taking his gloves off and getting no response, before punching the commander in the face. "What is your name?" Phoenix repeated delivering a kick to the jaw and holding the commander's face up to look him in the eyes. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!" Phoenix yelled delivering a heavy punch to the chest then a kick to the same area, while the commander looked at the floor and dripped blood from his mouth. "COME ON! TELL ME YOUR NAME!" Phoenix yelled delivering a punch to the face and looking over the commander's body. "Tsk. Fine. We have plenty of time, breathe" Phoenix scoffed, while the commander breathed and looked up "M-My name is... Leonard Carter, commander of a rebel fleet. Inspecting this facility owned by one of our allies" The Commander said, gasping for air. "Right then, now. Where's Leon Hartley?" Phoenix whispered in Carter's ear "I-I dunno... I know who he is but I don't know where h-he is... He moves around t-to much... Y-You'll need to find his location, two weeks ahead of time. Last... last I checked he was in Beta 12 Sector, I don't know where he's moving next... P-Please do-don't kill me..." The Commander whimpered "Alright then, get outta here" Phoenix responded, unhooking the latches that held the commander to the seat and setting him off.

Phoenix then retreated back into the torture facility he remembered so well, and took out the corpse of his comrade and then exited the facility, then hopped the wall and placed the body bag in the cruiser he entered the planet in, and piloted the cruiser out of the planet's orbit and into the Sentinel's fleet. Phoenix landed on the Sentinel's hanger bay, and walked into the airlock and exited and was greeted by Anna, Briggs and Adrian, Anna and Briggs being the only ones to take notice to the corpse Phoenix carried over his back. "W-What the hell is that?" Briggs said pointing at the long black bags "What do you think?" Phoenix responded coldly, as he walked down the hall to the mini-Citadel in the Sentinel "W-Who's in... there?" Anna stuttered "A... Micheal Graves, you remember".

With those words spoken, the hallway fell silent. Little more then the silent hustle of the airways, accompanied by weird thumping, transporting air across the ship.

"He's earned a proper burial." Phoenix said, softly.

Phoenix, Anna, Briggs, Burden, Adrian and Griffin. Along with a line of ECRTs and Raven Team stood around a priest in a dark room. Grave's pale body laid on a mechanical stretcher and moved across to an incinerator while the priest in sacred garb spoke words of the holy book of the Phoenix Federation. "And so the gods deposited us upon this mortal world to die and ascend to the holy realm. We live our lives like most do and when we ascend our lives are extended further. For those who do not ascend, the gods guide them. To the gods and the ancestors of those before us, we commit this soul who has lived and died in glory and fury. He has served the extent of his gods and done us all proud, he shall be rewarded in the holy realm, for here we have failed him." The priest said as the body entered the furnace "Gods! Commit this soul to your realm, let him watch over us as you do. Let him rise! Like a Phoenix from ashes!" The priest yelled as the ashes deposited into a makeshift grave. A sword deposited into it to symbolize his life as a soldier. The furnace collapsed below the floor and many of the soldiers knelt with weapons at their foreheads, whispering unique prayers to the gods. Phoenix could do neither.

When the ceremony ended, Grave's ashes were deposited in space, as was tradition. While Phoenix sat down and thought, thought about things that a someone with his outward appearance would never think of, but looks are deceiving, this was proof of that. "What's wrong? Talk." Anna said, sitting down next to Phoenix's chair while the other soldiers stood. "I-it's a long story" Phoenix stuttered "We have time" Burden said crouching down. "Fine." Phoenix scoffed "Let's start at the beginning where things like this start. Just know I was an orphan at 15. That's all that's relevant"

And so, Phoenix told his story: He was 15 on the streets with Graves beside him, wearing his tan duster coat that was a gift from his father to him. "Why are we even here?" Phoenix said "Nothing in particular" Graves responded "Why am I here with you?" Phoenix said looking up at Graves "Because, and I hate to be blunt but everyone who knows our cares about you is dead. I'm all you have now. Well that and a country but we'll leave that to the people paid to do that sort of thing." Graves said, while Phoenix looked down and away from him "Don't worry, I can't have a kid's blood on my hands. You'll be fine." Graves said, pulling Phoenix's hood down. "We're here on business. We're buying weapons and scrap with some money your father lent me. For the good of us we need them." Graves continued, walking into a building "Now you stay outside, don't cause trouble." Graves said "I'm not a kid, I'll be fine." Phoenix said, sitting against the wall. About twenty minutes later a man with blonde hair walked up to him, holding a laser pistol "Hey, what's your name?" he said "I don't remember. My... father calls me Phoenix." Phoenix replied "Cool name, come with me, your father wanted me to deliver this to you" the man said, walking into an alley. The next thing Phoenix knew, he was tied to a chair, a Rockman in front of him and the blonde man holding a pistol. "Let's make this simple, we want access codes to the Citadel armory. Your father has them, you have your father's ear. What are they?" The man asked "W-Why do you wan-" Phoenix tried to ask before the Rockman delivered a punch to the gut, then a downwards hit to the knee, followed by using his right fist to deliver a similar hit to the shoulder. Phoenix sat there, blood dripping from his mouth "I-I don't know..." Phoenix whimpered pulling on his cuffs before the blonde man kicked him "I'm Julian and this is Marco, tell me the access codes" the blonde man said "N-No... I can't..." Phoenix said before getting punched in the nose. "God, the kid's worthless. If he won't fess up the armory codes how can we expect him the fess up the network access codes? We should just put em down." Julian said, pulling out his pistol. Phoenix then surprised them both, he broke the cuffs and ran out of the room, dodging Marco's punch and Julian's bullets. Leaving the room and stabbing a guard in the neck and fleeing into the crowd. Before finding Graves at the building he entered. "Wha-What happened Phoenix!?" Graves said looking at the battered boy "I- I don't remember..." Phoenix said collapsing on the ground. "Come on, let's get you some medical care" Graves said, picking Phoenix up. They walked up a hill until they reached a small house, from there everything is a blur, Phoenix only remembered blood, gunfire, him stabbing a rebel soldier in the neck while Graves shot on in the back of the head, corpses, civilians, from there even more gunfire, blood and corpses. The next thing he remembered was Graves picking him up "C'MON MOVE!" He yelled, picking him up by the scruff of his neck and tossing him to a wall "Stay there, be right back" then Graves tossed a corpse onto the floor, then he passed out.

"W-Whoa... that's horrible." Burden said with wide eyes. The tale (Which was true, as any survivors of the incident would tell you) brought even Adrian and Griffin, the coldest and silliest of the group to wide eyes of confusion, sympathy, and questions.

"You lived a messed up life Phoenix..." Briggs said

"I mean. That by itself is bad but damn... All that without parents? Gods help you" Adrian said, not even able to sit down or walk away, only stand there with his hand on his face, depressed.

"I- I don't even know what to say... D-Do you know what happened to your parents?" Griffin said, which brought everyone's eyes attention to Phoenix

"I... I don't want to talk about it..." Phoenix replied

"Give him some space. I wouldn't want to remember that either..." Burden said pulling Briggs and Griffin aside, while Adrian followed.

Anna and Phoenix sat there silent for little more then 5 minutes, Phoenix depressed having to remember it, Anna to stunned to comment.

"I-I'm sorry... That's just..." Anna finally said. She then, silently, left the room. While Briggs walked back in, and crouched over Grave's makeshift grave and sighed. "We are all dying out and you had to go get yourself killed? Dammit Graves" Briggs said "We have to accept that a pure-blood Phoenix race isn't going to stay, we should be happy we aren't starving in the desert." Phoenix said, crouching beside him. "I know... it's what your father would have wanted. It's what... they all would've wanted." Briggs said "Don't you DARE to act like you know what my father would have wanted!" Phoenix said angrily "You didn't know him, don't act like you did. Don't act like for one second you knew who he was. To you he was a leader. To me, he was my father." He continued "I- Sorry." Briggs said walking off.

"You promised you wouldn't get yourself killed. YOU SELFISH MOTHER... BAH!" Phoenix yelled angrily punching the marked stone that was a supplementary grave.


Phoenix's yelling in his language coupled with punching and yelling echoed throughout the ship. Startling the soldiers in the nearby hallways.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Chapter 5: Once More Unto the Breach

Phoenix's anger finally subsided, the entire hallway where Phoenix's comrades left was deserted, the rage and sounds of crashing were enough to let the soldiers in the hallway know that Phoenix needed his space. But as he looked down on the markings scribbled on Graves' makeshift grave he couldn't help but think of what he lost, a comrade and a father figure. In what seemed like seconds (Which was really minutes) the automated door slid open and Briggs crouched beside him, Briggs lost a great comrade, Phoenix lost a father. "You think he went out like a soldier?" Briggs asked, looking up at Phoenix "Dunno... I hope... I hope so." Phoenix said grimly, as the door once more slid open, and Anna walked in. "Like a soldier could. Under the circumstances. He fought to the bitter end, against everything..." She said, sitting down on her knees "I wish it could have been different. We were one day off... Gods dammit." Phoenix said, punching the grave. "Well then... I'll leave you here" Briggs said, standing up, "I'll be waiting outside." Anna said, standing as well. Little over 2 minutes later Phoenix stood up and exited the room, he lost so much with Graves: An officer, a soldier, a father, a comrade and a pure-blood bred to fight Phoenix warrior. The Phoenix Federation lost a lot with him, but it only gave Phoenix himself another reason to fight, to not just sit around and die, or let more people die under his command. Graves blamed him for that more then once. Outside, Anna stood waiting, arms crossed and a depressed look on her face, for reasons Phoenix could easily guess, he knew the story. Anna sighed, "S-So... You wanna tell me something?" Phoenix asked, Anna didn't say a word. "I-I know..." Phoenix said, looking at the floor. Anna looked up at him, tears in her eyes, she walked forward and laid her head on Phoenix's chest, Phoenix knew she felt responsible for what happened, Phoenix's pain was almost her fault. "It-it's fine..." Phoenix said, holding her head close to his chest, "We all miss him..." Phoenix said, wiping tears from her cheek "Go take a nap, you'll need it..." Phoenix said, setting her off. Phoenix walked about the hallways, until he found Briggs, two soldiers and Griffin looking up at the vents, the weird consistent thumping louder then normal. "The hell is up there?" Phoenix asked, looking up "Dunno sir." One of the soldiers said, looking at Phoenix. "Boost me up" Phoenix said, as one soldier took out the vent cover and the other soldier boosted him up. "I SEE WHAT THE THUMPING IS! Oh that's a big ass spider HELL NO." Phoenix yelled, as those below him looked around. "C'MERE YA LITTLE BASTARD." Phoenix yelled, followed by screaming, hissing, punching and other sounds too horrible to describe, followed by "ARGH!! GET ME OUT! PULL ME DOWN!" Phoenix yelled, as the two soldiers pulled him down, scratches lining his face "A... A-Giant... alien... spider... Kicked my ass" Phoenix gasped, once again looking up.

"Well uh..." Briggs stuttered, "What now?" Griffin asked, replacing the vent "I dunno..." Phoenix stuttered, "I'm... I'm gonna go lay down..." He continued, wiping bits of blood off his face. After around 5 minutes of walking he finally found the door to his room, and walked in, the couch was just the way he left and the TV was on, the only thing different was that the bedroom door, on the right, was open. He walked in and saw Anna laying on the bed, restless, he laid down next to her. "Today was a shitty day..." Phoenix said at last, "I know." Anna replied. They laid there, for half an hour, unable to meet each other's eyes, for reasons they knew but couldn't bare to tell. Before long Anna brought Phoenix close to her "I'm... Sorry." she said, pulling Phoenix onto her shoulder, with gentle, almost motherly care"It's fine. I've been through worse..." Phoenix said, then he passed out. We he woke up, Anna was gone, the door was still open, and the TV was on. Phoenix got up and walked out the door, and to his surprise the first person he saw was Briggs "We got a lead. Let's see where it takes us" he said, tossing Phoenix his black hood and baggy tunic "Where?" Phoenix asked, putting his hood and scarf on "Deserted rebel world. Fortified to the point where you could kill off the entire rebellion and this place would still exist." Briggs said "We'll need to launch an entire assault. We can't just sneak in like we did with Prospect. Can you do that" Briggs asked, as he was joined by Adrian and Griffin "Yeah, we have a few battalions that aren't doing anything. 8th and 9th Assault Brigades and the 12th and 13th Planetary Brigades. That's all we got." Phoenix said, following Briggs to the hanger bay, where a dropship awaited him and his team. "How many men is that?" Briggs asked, "1400 men, 5000 Automated Units, 124 Mechanized Units" Phoenix replied, which drew the attention of all his men (Including Burden, who just entered the room). "Are we that short on men?" Briggs asked "We're fighting losing battles on all fronts. I'm doing what I can" Phoenix replied, grimly. With that, Anna walked in, accompanied by a soldier "Sir, the forces you requested are ready on your mark." The soldier said. With that, Adrian, Griffin, Briggs, Burden and Anna stood about the empty room, the entrance to the dropship closed. "Any last words?" Phoenix asked sarcastically, which drew only minor smiles from those about the room.

Phoenix walked over to Briggs first, who looked up from his boredom "Phoenix, can I ask you a question?" he asked "Sure." Phoenix replied, Briggs thought for a second, so many questions to ask "Despite what you've done, are your intentions really good?" Briggs finally asked, hoping for a response "Depends on what you mean. But I understand if I have to sacrifice one, for many. No matter who. Not you, Anna, Burden or anyone. If I have to make a hard choice. I hope you understand." Phoenix responded, before walking over to Burden, who stood a few feet away from Anna "Phoenix, we all have our questions, so I'll ask mine. What happened to your parent's? If you'd like to answer." Burden asked, leaning against the wall "I-It's a story for another time. But I'll tell you, at some point." Phoenix replied "Now get Briggs into the dropship, okay?" He continued. Then he walked over to Griffin, who stood up from leaning against the wall "Phoenix... what if we just... die? We can't fight forever." he said grimly "Don't talk like that. You can stop fighting, at any point. But I can't. I'm not tired of fighting, not yet." Phoenix responded, "Now get into the dropship" Phoenix continued, then walking over to Anna. Anna wrapped her hands around Phoenix's neck, then hunching his head over to meet her forehead "I'm going with you" she said "No, you're not" Phoenix replied "I can handle myself, you know that." she said softly "... Alright. Promise you won't get hurt?" Phoenix sighed "Promise." Anna replied with a smile "Alright then, get on the dropship." Phoenix said, pointing to the hatch. Then Phoenix walked over to Adrian, who took his mask off his face to speak "Phoenix, are you... okay? You've been through hell, more then once. How do you do it?" Adrian asked, breaking his professionalism "I don't know. I wish I could tell you something" Phoenix replied "Now, let's go. Get in the pod." Phoenix continued.

Within minutes, Phoenix looked outside his window, and saw fire and plasma as he finally impacted the ground, with his friends around him.

He sighed. Picked up his rifle and opened the door.

The outside was a war-zone.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(I'm surprised no one's responded yet, with 230 views).

Chapter 6: The Dogs of War

Phoenix held his rifle in his hands, the stock held on the ground. He sat there, absolutely still, the only thing rocking him about was the shaking dropship, as it either entered atmosphere or made it's approach on the Stronghold. Silence filled the cramped space of the hold as the dropship continued to shake, scattered thoughts and calm breaths were all that filled the air. "Has anyone here heard the legend?" Briggs said, finally breaking the silence, "No, what is it?" Anna said curiously "Phoenix, our Phoenix supposedly lead a small battalion of Federation soldiers through the desert, losing all but 50 of them. Those who survived became hardened veterans of the Federation's Raven Brigade. One of the most elite of Federation battalions to ever live. Isn't that right?" Briggs said, spouting the legend as accurately as he could "It is. Except it wasn't the Raven brigade. It was 14th Battalion, 3rd Squad. Those who survived became part of the Praetorian Brigade. The unspoken heroes of this war." Phoenix said, calmly, remembering the events following escaping to the Federation Base-camp. Although Phoenix hated being the Federation's puppet for recruitment, training and every aspect of the war, the two years (That, too this day, remains unaccounted for) he spent as a Federation soldier were enjoyable. Though upon returning to the colonies which he called home (The Phoenix colonies.) He found them not only struggling for independence, but embroiled in a civil war. Phoenix couldn't (And still can't) for the life of him tell when these events occurred. He, as a leader, remembers no civil wars on his home-world before the nonexistent struggle for independence against the Federation, and only one after that right before he was born. Though the dating of the events in the desert puts both of those out of question. Although he vaguely (and will remember with clarity, eventually) remembers the events in the desert he still has little to no memory of the two unaccounted years. Though the instincts, leadership skills and experience all seemed to be burned into his memory, if nothing else. These thoughts soon eluded him as the dropship made it's final approach into atmosphere.

Phoenix looked out the (Now open) windows to see thousands, if not hundreds of ships, baring the markings of his (Albeit, unknown) faction. Guarded by millions of drone fighters, accompanied by thousands of cargo ships. Phoenix wasn't dazed by the sight, not because of his calm demeanor, but because of he knew that the sight was a lot less terrifying then it looked, and that the rebels would soon learn that. This thought was soon replaced by dread, green lasers filled the sky as the rebels used their anti-air cannons against the armada, Phoenix's communication device on his ear soon racked with endless calls of ships being torn apart by the fire, despite the minimal casualties so far. The dropship took multiple hits of small laser fire before it could finally reach the wall, accompanied by a different ship (Which carried Raven Team, who elected to join with Briggs for the assault.) which also landed, depositing men across the wall. Phoenix was the first out the door as the cargo bay opened, while everyone else (Safe for Adrian and Burden, who quickly followed) took seconds to breathe. Phoenix, Adrian, Burden and Raven Team mobilized across the wall, the sights on the left were horrifying but only strengthened their resolve, as endless bouts of red lasers impacted the ground around the soldiers, Phoenix and his company kept moving, the plan was to find a specific area to rappel down the wall and into the complex, before assaulting the main control center to find Leon, the soldiers were just cannon fodder, though Phoenix believed that their sacrifice would save millions more. Soon Briggs, Anna and Griffin caught up with the men, although they were all surprised at how empty the wall was. Within the wall however, multiple rebel soldiers, in elite clothing on veterans of the rebellion would wear, were firing thousands of small laser bolts at the humans and androids charging them. The casualties they were inflicting were borderline insurmountable. None of that mattered to Phoenix, not now, not while Leon still walked to his ship, waiting to escape while soldiers under his command died. Graves would probably punch him for issuing such orders in the first place. "Let's move" Phoenix said, running across the wall. The soldiers were cold, unfeeling and ultimately couldn't care less about the casualties until all was said and done, and if the objectives were complete the casualties became irrelevant. Though they may all seem like they are just hollow, without any personality, this is due to the cold hard experience of war. The years and years of fighting every day and waiting every night, have taken their toll. Briggs and Adrian were proof of that, if nothing else. While Phoenix tried to push the thoughts out of his mind, he looked down "This is the place" Phoenix said, hunching over. As he threw the rope down he felt the wall collapse from under him, as he was launched back into the lines of his men he felt clarity for the millions of nanoseconds he flew in the air, his hood, cloak and scarf flying upward as he felt this odd clarity. The certainty of his own continuity, the feeling as if he couldn't suffer the fate he should fear. That he had a war to win before he could sit down and die quietly.

This clarity ended as Phoenix felt the hardy impact on the ground against his back, he was launched thousands of feet in to the middle of the sparse front lines, unofficial and official squads scampering about like vermin to dodge the plasma fire. "EH OVER HERE! WE GOT A LIVE ONE!" One soldier yelled, standing over Phoenix "I saw him get launched from the wall, there's no way he's alive" a second soldier said "So did I... Can't die today... I got a war to win..." Phoenix thought, rolling over. He stood up, he felt sharp pains in his ribs and back but nothing he couldn't power through, he looked around where he fell, his rifle (With a new magazine loaded) laid on the ground next to a laser pistol and a dagger. All neatly placed instead of broken and smashed. To Phoenix's further surprise left of the wall out of the corner of his eye he saw is a shadowed figure standing in the sunlight, pale with a white glow and hood, nodding. But before Phoenix could inspect further the apparition disappeared in the laser fire. The beach was a total war zone, as it should be, the area was the only place on the small island which wasn't fortified by walls, and thus it was the most guarded section of the base, minefields, bunkers and guards were only the tip of the iceberg. "Sir! Private David Athagear reporting for duty!" The second soldier said, recognizing Phoenix, who remembered him back "Good to meet you private. GENTLEMEN, WE ARE MOVING UP! GET YOUR RIFLES READY WE ARE TAKING THIS DAMN BUNKER OUT!" Phoenix yelled to the four surrounding men, who were all he had at his disposal. "Follow me!" Phoenix continued, aiming his rifle at the bunker, which fired red lasers as fast as a mini-gun (Which it really was). Phoenix and his squad ran across the dark grey sand while the mini-gun and two accompanying gunmen fired on a squad of poor souls using a different rock as cover, Phoenix took the opportunity to save more lives by tossing a grenade into the opening of the bunker, which exploded shortly there after with a haze of yellow and orange, red and dark grey smoke, as the grenade, laser batteries and mini-gun exploded at the same time, turning those who used it as cover into a dark red mist which showered blood onto the ground. The one of four bunkers on the ground destroyed would assist his forces on the ground greatly, as multiple androids scampered across the ground engaging rebels in the trenches and in the wall. "There's one, we need to take out the others" Phoenix said gathering his soldiers and running right toward the next bunker, which spotting them fired on them. The soldiers took cover around a small rock, the laser fire keeping them nailed to the ground, with little any of the soldiers could do about it. "DAMMIT! WHAT NOW?!" David said as lasers impacted near him multiple times, "Hold here, give me a minute" Phoenix said, getting up and running, staying low to avoid fire, he tossed a grenade near the mini gun and jumped, avoiding a few more lasers by sheer luck, the grenade exploded removing the mini gun (And soon the bunker) from the equation, and hoping that it's all that the bunker requires to be brought out of the equation as soldiers and drones alike charge across the grey sandy beach with minimal laser fire hitting them accurately, as the soldiers in the wall couldn't aim properly at this range. Phoenix looked left of the two bunkers and saw RPG fire destroying the other two bunkers as his men charged up, regrouping with their new leader. With new found morale the soldiers tossed ropes up the wall and began to climb the soldiers in the wall knew that soon their time would come, as mechanized units scampered about with the intention of killing any surviving rebels and the small surviving force climbed up, while AIUs simply leaped up to the nearest opening in the wall, killing multiple rebels in the confusion.

While thousands of AIU forces ran about the wall distracting the rebels, and Briggs was concerned as to Phoenix's fate, the soldiers climbed up the wall while rebels fired down below with fear as determined and vengeful soldiers walked up the wall slowly firing as they walked, Phoenix kept walking and firing as other soldiers climbed into the windows to join the assault with the AIUs and after 20 minutes of blood, gunfire and casualties Phoenix finally climbed to the top of the wall, accompanied by his 4 soldiers who elected to stay with him. Phoenix walked over to where he "Fell" off the wall and saw that the rebels had placed mines in the wall and one exploded on him, but this thought eluded him as he once again looked below, he could not see his companions so after a brief inner debate Phoenix decided to lead his men in the assault on the inner castle, whatever his friends were doing would be aided by his efforts. "Get me a line to your men, the Sentinel and Cobalt Squadron, got it private?" Phoenix asked, reloading his rifle. "Done sir, say away" David said "Got it, Cobalt Squadron we have multiple Artillery positions within the fortress, marking them on your map as 300 yards north of the wall and 100 yards apart, engage A-S-A-P" Phoenix said over the radio "Copy that, Cobalt Squadron engaging" The Cobalt Squadron commander said "Azure Squadron, requesting engagement on the heavy armor blockading way-point alpha, engage as you see fit over" Phoenix requested looking down at the ground to see a rebel tank "Copy that." the Azure squadron Commander said "Phoenix to Sentinel requesting reinforcements at way-point beta on my mark, over?" Phoenix continued over his earpiece, "Copy that, drop-pods prepared on your go." The Commander aboard the Sentinel.

"Sir, we have an issue" David said in distress "What?" Phoenix said, reloading his rifle "A... weird... old, fortified structure near one of the wall breaches, sir!" David said, touching his earpiece "Roger that, let's take it out then" Phoenix said, walking over to the edge to see what it was. And so they left, they rappelled down the structure again and ran to the wall breach, where a large squad of soldiers stood pinned down, taking potshots at the guards in the tower, which Phoenix feasted his eyes upon. The tower as a a large amphitheater towering up thousands of times with elite rebels lining the edges, firing red plasma bursts a million times a second, thousands of plasma mini guns also lined the sides firing even faster then the soldiers, the Phoenix Federation Soldiers lying prone in the wall breach could barely gasp, and could barely inflict any casualties on the massive numbers. "WHAT IS THIS THING?!" A soldier yelled to his comrades "I DUNNO! KEEP FIRING!" another yelled "TO HELL WITH THIS!!"" a different soldier yelled, fleeing. This flee was cut short, a purple plasma burst (From a pistol) impacted him in the leg and caused him to fall, 3 squads of rebels and 2 mini guns opened fire on him, tearing everything below the top of his chest apart, leaving little bits by the time the rebels had to reload. Phoenix ran over, and picked up his plasma shotgun, there was little for Phoenix to have sorrow over, the corpse was torn to shreds, Phoenix ran back to the men at the breach. "Cover me. Give me thirty seconds" Phoenix said, pumping his shotgun to load the next plasma shell, "Got it. MEN! CONCENTRATE FIRE IN 3... 2... 1... NOW!" A soldier yelled. With that order, the men opened fire, their shots were less about killing rebels (Though vengeance was in the air among them) and more about forcing them into cover, which bought Phoenix enough time to make it the five foot walk into the door, putting him in safety. Phoenix raised his shotgun and aimed it against a rebel soldier, and fired, then pumping the shotgun and aiming it again at the next soldier then firing it, repeating that process for the next 3 soldiers killing them all and leaving evident holes in their bodies of all places. Phoenix loaded 5 more shells into his shotgun, the glowing pink-purple bullets held a great power for their size, a great slug round of the future. Phoenix ran up the walkway and fired at another soldier that was close to him, he then fired on 3 more soldiers and blew the head off another which attempted to elude him. The ten floor building could not be cleared easily, not with these amounts of men here. This seemingly insurmountable (Or merely tedious and long lasting) task was lessened when David ran up to join him, along with multiple other soldiers, who promptly decided to follow him, they up the walkway to the next floor and taking cover against some rubble they opened fire and killed 15 rebels by taking them by surprise, putting them on the third floor of ten. Luckily no rebel had heard them yet, the endless firing of plasma could not be more deafening, the trademark light sound of UPF Rifles firing and Phoenix's plasma shotgun would draw attention if they were figured out. They moved up another floor, Phoenix took a risk and tossed a grenade, landing near the feet of the soldiers who were too busy firing to notice. Then the grenade exploded, causing all of the rebels to lose one or more limbs and die to shrapnel, the roof above them collapsed and with it two soldiers. The team moved up, now on floor 5 of the ten. This time the rebels were aware, the team took up quick cover against some rubble and opened fire in a blitz, killing all the soldiers quickly. Now the tower fell quieter, fewer soldiers manning the guns quickly brought some nervousness when gunfire ensued. On this floor the men tossed grenades and picked off the stragglers, the exact details of all these engagements are a blur (And still are, I'm sure you could ask Phoenix yourself if you want to know that badly) however what is known is that the 7th floor was an ambush. The soldiers on the 7th and 8th floors lined up on the edges waiting to engage the team (Who were expected to be a large battalion of elite soldiers) and when they came up, they fired thousands if not millions plasma bolts from machine guns and just their rifles the soldiers huddled in cover, firing when they had the chance. "THE HELL DO WE DO NOW SIR?!" David said firing multiple shots into a soldier, causing him to fall down "DON'T KNOW, WE'LL HAVE TO FIND A WAY" Phoenix replied, reloading his shotgun. Meanwhile on the tenth floor a group of soldiers (If they could be called that, per the the name of this chapter they were more like the Dogs of War) heard the commotion and decided to move down and rescue the soldiers. The bout lasted 20 minutes before any interesting developments occurred, and that was that a large group of rebels decided to charge Phoenix and company, embroiling them in hand to hand combat, while Phoenix stood there shooting soldier and holding another by the throat before he felt a kick in the head. He laid on the ground while the familiar face of Leon moved blonde hair out of his face and shot the two other soldiers in the head and one shot into David in the knee, then kicking him over onto the floor below. Phoenix passed out with a crack in the side of his skull, blood oozing out of it, he looked at the 8th floor and saw no more rebels and on the 7th floor few, if any. He passed out.

When Phoenix woke up a boot was kicking him in the leg lightly, before the man decided to bend down and look the corpse in the eye, Briggs could see Phoenix's pupils darting about his roving and shaking eye, he looked like he saw a ghost "Uh... Is anyone else seein this?" He said nervously, pointing a nervous index finger at Phoenix's alive but motionless body "Y-Yeah..." Anna said walking over and crouching down in front of him. Phoenix could feel his heart slow down, his body numb and his vision blacken, but never all the way, he couldn't just sit down and die, not yet at least, though he felt like this situation was so familiar that he had a certainty of his own continuity, a clarity. Though he felt like he could die, he felt like that wasn't going to happen here, or now. Breathing was aching and a struggle by itself, moving was impossible, even getting his eyes to dart around and prove he was alive was a challenge. Phoenix then felt the familiar feeling of death, but in an instant he was back, for whatever reason, the certainty he wasn't going to die was misplaced, the certainty that despite all this he was going to continue was not. What ever anomaly was preserving him was unknown.

This was irrelevant, he needed to get up, pick up his weapon and press on, there was still an objective to secure, men to save, rebels to kill.

His head and chest ached, everything either hurt or was numb, he could barely see. These thoughts though read in hindsight may seem like they took minutes this entire process and resolution occurred only within seconds, Anna wasn't even sitting in front of him by the time he finished. Anna knelt down in front of Phoenix motionless body and shined a flashlight in his eye, Phoenix's pupils dilated and he made one final attempt to stand up, which in the end failed, but showed he was alive and kicking.

"I can't believe he made it..." Anna said, hugging him.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(Just realized that chapter 6's title wasn't bold. Shit.).

Chapter 7: The Legion

David hanged there, upside down with a large pike holding him there by his harness attached to his uniform "Ugh... What the hell... I'm alive?" David said to himself, finally reaching for his knife. He swung forward and cut the harness off, using the momentum to help bring him closer to the rails of the floor below him. He then dropped down and grappled the next rails attached to the floor, repeating the process until he reached the bottom floor. He then picked up a rifle that laid near the body of a fallen (But friendly) soldier, proceeding to walk out the entrance of the amphitheater and into the breach in the wall, corpses lining every step he took until he finally found the beachhead "Dear gods... this place... it's hell." David whispered to himself as soldiers charged from dropships and into the fortress. The beach swarmed with automated soldiers, normal soldiers and mechanized assault Walkers as the beach was finally clear, other squads regrouped outside the wall, ready for round 2 against the rebels within the wall. David climbed up the wall once more using a ladder which lead to the final floor where two soldiers stood, listening to a radio "THIS IS ECHO ONE DASH TWO WE ARE UNDER FIRE NEAR THE ARMORY!! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE BACKUP A.S.A.P!!" a soldier yelled over the radio, "Alpha 9-5 reporting, Scavenger Squads deployed and raising hell!" A different soldier said over the radio, using the correct term for AIUs. David climbed in the slot which the rebels once used to fire out of, soldiers below him scampering about trying to make sense of the situation "Private David Athagear?" One soldier asked, standing up. "Yes sir, my squad is dead or missing." David said "Copy that, well we have something you need to do. We lost contact with Lieutenant Collins and his small squad east of the armory Echo 1-2 is pinned down in, you need to take Corporal McCall here and regroup with Echo team and head east to reinforce Collins, from there you need to move northwestward to link up with our soldiers preparing an assault on a fortified rebel position. Can you do that?" The soldier asked as other grunts ran up and down to their left "Yes sir, it would be an honor." David said, priming his rifle. David went left through the intersection as frantic soldiers ran in front of him, once behind the large section of stone he went right up the wooden stairs, only to be met by a young, masked soldier with the standard helmet, like a normal soldier "Sir, I'm corporal Fredrick McCall. Follow me." he said, motioning for him to follow him down a rope he tossed down. Upon landing they took notice of the horrible state of things, in front of them a briefing building which also served as an advanced barracks and armory, with multiple floors. On the right a visitation center that was blackened and smoking from fire with rifles outside the windows to provide over-watch on the street, on the left a building set alight by a grenade and on the wall constant sniper fire kept the entire sector on it's heels, the place was a hellish war zone to say the least. These thoughts were interrupted as a squad of 5 soldiers in the trademark white grey and black uniforms of the UPF rushed through a breach and into the briefing room in front of David, followed by gunfire in the building. Every UPF Commander under the watchful eyes of the gods wondered (And still wonders) how these shorthanded and inexperienced battalions managed to pull this off, this war should have been a slaughter for these soldiers, yet they made it in the wall and were doing well. As three more soldiers ran in front of David he stopped one near the back and asked "How are we doing this?" He asked, grimly "There are only 1400 when we landed for the gods sake!" the other two soldiers were using the right side of the briefing center as cover while plasma rained down behind them "Don't know. Consider it a gift from the gods." the soldier said "MCCORMICK C'MON! WE'RE GONNA GET FLANKED IF YOU DON'T GET OVER HERE!!" a soldier in the cover said while shooting the rebels. The soldier ran over to join his comrades, and David cut left and into the roadway, multiple barracks on each side of the road, some on fire, some used as cover for soldiers and some used as makeshift command or triage posts, with little else going on among them. They walked for twenty minutes as soldiers and Scavengers ran about buildings doing whatever they do, gunships in the sky destroying everything in front of them with missiles, David couldn't help but sympathize with those unlucky souls within the visitation center when the shelling began here. Soon the jog was interrupted by plasma fire, they had reached the armory with Echo 1-2. They ducked behind rubble as gunfire and plasma bolts landed around them "YOU GUYS MY BACKUP?!" A soldier yelled "YES SIR!" McCall replied, shooting a rebel who hid behind sandbags "WELL DAMMIT! WE NEED MORE THEN TWO SOLDIERS CORPORAL! THERE ARE AT LEAST 15 REBELS IN THAT ARMORY! WE NEED SOME BACKUP TODAY!" The other soldier yelled in responded, placing his rifle on top of his cover and shooting at the rebels outside the armory. With this engagement David pulled a grenade off his belt and tossed it behind the sandbags, landing near the armory's door. Upon exploding the grenade destroyed the front of the armory and killed the rebels behind the sandbags, eliminating the rebel threat in it's entirety. "Good job private. I'm Sergeant Peterson, we owe you one. What are your orders?" the Sergeant asked "I'm Private David Athagear and that's corporal Fredrick McCall. We're under orders from the wall to regroup with you and find Lieutenant Collins, he'll lead an assault against a rebel command center. From there we have no idea." David said grimly. "The Chain of Command is falling apart and we've barely scratched the surface of these rebels forces, let's move." The Sergeant said softly, his two men joining McCall and David.

They walked for hours and encountered little, soldiers carried wounded and ammo crates about the place, however the hum of plasma soon became less of a hum and more clear, the area was abandoned except for corpses and the remains of Anti-Personnel Drones, tracers lined the skies as more shots rang out. The Lieutenant was nearby. They moved up the street and as soon as they entered the new street plasma fire rained down from a building and hit one of the soldiers that accompanied them, 5 soldiers within a large sandbag emplacement were shooting at the rebels, though there seemed to be no end to them. Plasma bolts rained down from the skies as every soldier aimed toward them, the new grand total of 9 soldiers wouldn't fare very well against the rebel hordes, and they knew. Mortar shells impacted around them, a soldier with a radio was shouting for reinforcements, and every soldier fired. The dust in David's eyes made everything look like it was in slow motion, he couldn't see where the shots were coming from, he just knew that they were here. Soon a second squad of soldiers came from behind to join them, also shooting at the rebels in the street. David ran and ducked behind cover next to the Lieutenant "YOU LIEUTENANT COLLINS?!" David asked in a shout, as plasma impacted around him "YES I AM! WHAT'S IT TO YA?" The Lieutenant said "WE'RE YOUR BACKUP! WHAT'S THE PLAN?" David yelled, resting his rifle on the sandbags and shooting "NO IDEA! OPEN FIRE!" The Lieutenant yelled in response, also resting his rifle on the sandbags. The combat lasted for twenty minutes with massive casualties on both sides, Sergeant Peterson and his squad was lost and at least 50 rebels lost their lives until a mortar shell carrying a flash shell landed nearby, stunning all of the soldiers. The engagement then nearly ended, the rebels charged their position and David was in a haze, but the rebel charge was broken in a hail of plasma fire. When David woke up two hooded men in plated but obviously expensive tunics holding pistols and strange but ornate swords. "Who the hell are you?" David asked, getting up "We're the Dark Marines. Elite detachment of our Supreme Leader's own Citadel Guard. I'm Captain Severus and this is Commander Titus." One of the hooded soldiers said "We found you while searching for Commander Boris of the 12th Planetary Brigade. Who holds vital intelligence to our mission." Titus said. "Good then, Commander Boris is dead." Collins said "What? How?" Severus asked "He died in the fighting. That's irrelevant now though, we need you to help us take that rebel command center, or else it'll be a slaughter." Collins said, grimly. "Alright then, we'll follow you." Severus said "United we stand, divided we fall." Titus said, reciting the UPF Military motto "We shall hold the line, till the last man bleeds." Collins said, reciting the standard soldier's military motto. They walked for hours until they finally reached a church with a makeshift trench on the sides, 50 feet away was a large rebel structure, with soldiers lining the walls and windows, fingers on the trigger, preparing to engage if any of the soldiers resting on behind the trench made a run for the command center. The soldiers were there en mass, at least 700 of them, but a look of depression was across all of their faces, they couldn't move if they tried.

Meanwhile the familiar face of Phoenix was laid on rubble, Anna, Briggs and Burden stood near him, while Adrian and Griffin were off near the rest of the rubble taking cover. Severus and Titus ran to join them. While they spoke Collins and McCall laid down on the edge of the trench-esque land design, while David stood. Anna, Briggs, Severus and Titus spoke while David and company tried prepared themselves to charge death in the face. David knew that he was insignificant to the overall scheme of things, but that didn't mean he wanted to die, or that he needed to. Severus and Titus walked back to join David "We're with you." Titus said, crouching down. Then, in an instant, a flare was lit into the grey and cloudy sky, lighting it, and all the soldiers, except Phoenix and company, went over the top and charged the command center. Titus and Severus behind David, McCall a bit to his right and Collins in front of him, plasma firing raining down from the walls, but it was all for-naught as they finally reached the bottom of the wall. Severus and Titus ran up the wall (Yes, on the concrete) and into the bottom most floor within the wall, though whatever they did in there was both awesome but unknown to anyone that wasn't in that floor that day. As soldiers flooded the complex and the situation got more hectic, David noticed a profound silence, soldiers were quiet, unfeeling, and often times brutally efficient. David walked over to a room, at random, he took the left side, McCall took the right, and Collins stood in the center, he kicked down the door and everyone rushed in, the area was empty "Clear!" McCall said. They walked out and say this repeated multiple times, and soon Severus and Titus returned to meet them, blades covered in blood. "We're clear, there's nothing here." Titus said "Yeah, every room is clear." a soldier said.

This illusion was shattered as they entered the next sector of the building, soldiers covered the courtyard, and UPF forces covered the edges of the room. A short firefight ensued as David entered the room, the final rebel soon fell. "Great, they might be lying in wait somewhere around this building" A sergeant said, a dash of anger in his voice. The soldiers took up squads and patrolled about the building, I'll save you many hours of reading and state that they found little to nothing with David's squad, though in the end they did find many other rebels, and killed them in true Phoenix fashion. David and the soldiers walked out of the building, unscathed. There was no celebration, the war hadn't been won yet, but there was a celebration once a UPF ship entered atmosphere. "This is the PFV Legion, rebels are disengaging and retreating! Press the advantage!" The captain said, over the private communications channel.

Victory was theirs. At least until they entered the keep.

[DarkPhoenix141]

Nearly 300 views and I'm the one who posts.

That's amazing.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(Heh, 300 Views. Glad to see people like this. I had to force myself to write this chapter as my dog had to be put down today but with 300 views I decided to commemorate the occasion with the new chapter, and finally reinserting Phoenix into the affairs of the story.)

Chapter 8: Heartbeat

You are probably wondering about what happened between Phoenix being knocked unconscious and the assault on the rebel command center, particularly about Phoenix. You'd have to ask him yourself as to the exact details, however all that is known is that he was left on the ground in aching pain, paralyzed by the impact. It was soon after the inner part of the rebel fortress was taken that he recovered his ability to walk and (As a UPF soldier would say) kill. He finally joined David, Severus and Titus, Briggs and Burden nearby. "Severus?!" Phoenix asked in surprise "Yes sir, and Titus." Severus said "Did you find Commander Boris?" Phoenix asked, cautiously "No sir, whatever was so important he needed to tell us was lost with him, Lieutenant Collins is here with us, however." Titus said grimly. "Roger that, get on the line we're accompanying the soldiers. Leon is still our top priority." Phoenix replied, sorrowfully. The soldiers on the line were celebrating as the Legion entered atmosphere, and dropships launched, but the battle was only going to get harder, the soldiers they fought were the least elite of the soldiers within the inner sanctum. The celebration was cut short by a red laser coming from the surface and hitting the Legion, then smaller yellow lasers hitting the dropships, few of which ever landed near the soldiers. The soldiers were angered, they picked up their rifles and looked over the new area, barracks all over the area coupled with briefing and planning rooms they down into the urban area. "THIS THE PFV LEGION! WE ARE TAKING HEAVY FIRE FROM SURFACE LASERS ALL GROUND FORCES ENGAGE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!" The captain of the Legion said, as lasers impacted the hull and caused fires to break out everywhere. The soldiers ran across the maze, Phoenix accompanied by his friends, ran for the source of the lasers as they continued to fire, he ran straight down the first lane and soon entered what seemed to be a recreational area, a basketball court with a tower that held a laser in it to the left, through a few housing structures and armories. Phoenix quickly hit the deck as two rebel soldiers shot down from the housing structure, Severus engaged one and Briggs killed another, ending the threat as soon as it started. Phoenix ran through an alley way and soon ended up just a little left of the tower, the entrance was facing northward. He ran over to the entrance, and shoved his way through it, the spiral staircase in front of him, he walked up it until he silently reached the top, two rebels working with the laser (A weird spotlight like weapon, with a long barrel from which lasers were emitted from). He killed them both and destroyed the controls, before destroying the laser's power source and promptly walking down the staircase again. "Got it?" Briggs asked, pointing toward the laser's tower "Got it. Let's move." Phoenix said, looking up at the Legion sorrowfully as one laser impact hit the rear engines, shooting debris into the ocean as it exploded. Multiple rockets streaked across the sky impacting towers across the area, plasma and mortars filled the air as multiple lasers continued to chip away at the Legion. Phoenix and company walked forward into the alleyways, corpses of every soldier, civilian and refugee filled the cramped space, a sorrowful sight no doubt. But the UPF soldier is resilient, unfeeling and cold. The civil war from which many of these soldiers are veterans hardened them, but the Engi Corruption hardened them all, the severe loss they all felt one way or the other only strengthened their resolve, they were trained to avenge their fallen brothers, not weep, the lose of these civilians was a travesty, but not what they cared about right now. They pushed on, for 15 minutes, until they reached a battery of 5 lasers, firing constantly on the Legion. "We need to clear it out. Severus, Titus be the distraction, Briggs take those damn lasers out. Everyone else provide cover" Phoenix whispered, pointing to rebels that patrolled the area. They attacked, Severus and Titus charging and using their swords to kill the rebels, Briggs making a break for the control panel, and everyone else engaging rebels strewn about the small area. The battle was over in minutes, Phoenix killed no less then 3 rebels with his rifle, and two with his dagger. But it was all to late "THIS IS THE LEGION OUR REACTOR HAS BEEN EXPOSED! WE NEED COVER FIRE ASAP!" The captain screamed, however one of the yellow Anti-Aircraft lasers impacted the small area on the bottom the cruiser, hitting it's reactor, and destroying it soon after. Fire and green smoke exited out of every breach and even created new breaches, this caused every support brace within the battleship to break apart, and large bits of the ship became debris, even the smallest bits were able to crush a man and kill him instantly (Which they did).

The Legion was lost, the soldiers moved on, they were demoralized, the rebels were better, the design of their defenses were more intricate. This thought was subsequently shattered as they entered a shelled area of the fortress, a residential area, where soldiers might relax with family, these areas were nice, decent living, instead of the horrible standards that rebels lived in across the universe. Phoenix stood confused at the residential area, he looked at a map given to him by Titus: The area they landed in was a northward facing large U shape, which was unused as a defense structure, within that was a lot of barracks and briefing structures, and soon a wall, within that was a residential area, and soon the inner sanctum of the fortress, all of these were extremely large areas that could take many hours to traverse. On the north west of the island was a dedicated area to launching ships into orbit, this meant that the entire island had a U on it's west side, a long right angle another U, and a large northern upside down U. A strange island, but it's what they had. Soldiers ran down across the residential zone, it was like they were fighting in a city, but they weren't. While Phoenix looked around Anna, Adrian and Griffin joined him, to his surprise "Where'd you come from?" Phoenix asked upon seeing Anna out of the corner of his eye "Briggs and I got separated from each other after we set you down, how are you up and walking so soon?" Anna asked, playfully "Dunno, but let's go." Phoenix replied, priming his rifle. The ran into the area, at first it was a clear, empty area, then as they walked into a street, plasma fire came down from a window, the team took cover on the side of a building and fired into the window, the fire of one stopped, but the other continued, Severus killed the other, while Briggs tossed a grenade into the window on the floor. They moved right into another street, where everyone excluding Severus and Titus, even Phoenix, was disgusted by a sight. They say a dropship which took damage as it launched, and impacted here, it paved through multiple buildings and hit multiple people before the shelling from the Sentinel ever began, blood was on the front and the impact kill the occupants, it was disgusting as a corpse hung from the bottom of the dropship, blood oozing from the civilian's mouth. They pressed on, and walked into a new intersection and decided to move north, a short and calm walk as they moved up the street, this was soon interrupted by plasma fire from a the windows on the left side of the street, and soldiers lining the path. They ducked under rubble and opened fire, cries of "RELOADING!" and filled the air as they opened fire on the rebels, Phoenix went out into the open and quickly saw how close the Inner Sanctum was. He kicked down a door on the left side of the street and entered quickly, shining a flashlight in the faces of a few civilians, a woman who clenched a young child in her arms, a man who stood terrified huddling up, and another man sitting angrily but hopelessly. Civilians, caught in the crossfire, but Phoenix saw a new meaning or use for them. He ran out into the street again "WE HAVE HOSTAGES, YOU BETTER BACK OFF YOU BASTARDS!!" he yelled, running back into the building. "Get up, now." Phoenix said, angrily at his hostages, he pushed them along with his pistol, Briggs and Burden providing security and everyone else focusing on keeping the hostages in check. They nearly walked out of the building before they heard a familiar voice "ZOE, MARC, JACK C'MON WE'RE LEAVIN-" Leon said, walking down the stairs only to find a pistol in his face as he dropped down the final steps. Phoenix silently cuffed Leon's hands together while everyone else giggled with satisfaction, and Griffin took up the role of hostage pusher while Phoenix took Leon by the shoulder and followed the rest of the hostage chain (Who were not cuffed) into the next street. Leon was silent "So who's the girl? Phoenix asked "Zoe, she's my wife." Leon said sheepishly. "PHOENIX FEDERATION BASTARDS! YOU'RE ALL SCUM! LEON WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU! I HOPE THE REBELS KILL YOU ALL!!" Zoe yelled, held back only by Marc, while Jack shivered in fear "Ma'am, we're the ones with the guns here, I kindly suggest you shut up before we kill your son." Briggs said, pointing a rifle at her "YOU WOULDN'T KILL A CHILD! YOU'RE ALL COWARDS AND SCUM!" Zoe continued yelling "Oh I wouldn't dear, but Phoenix here, he would. Show em." Briggs said. With that, Phoenix set Leon down on his knees and pulled his shotgun off his back, pumping it once, he walked over to the little boy, no younger then 14 hugging his mother's arm, and aimed the shotgun at him, "Phoenix... don't..." Anna said, pulling on his arm, he moved his finger onto the trigger, Zoe fell onto her knees, crying at the prospect of losing her son "P-Please... I'm sorry..." she wept. Phoenix placed the shotgun on his back again, and walked back over to Leon, shoving him forward while Frank lead Zoe along.

They were silent for the rest of the trip.

Once they were finally far behind their own lines, soldiers of their own faction running about, and placed all of the hostages in an empty room, with Leon at the far end. Phoenix went in holding a pistol. "Hello there. Good to finally meet you again Leon, only after you committed genocide against a planet of refugees, but still." Phoenix said happily, "I'd love to know the hell you thought you were doing when you did that Leon, of course I doubt you'd answer that without a little... persuasion." Phoenix said grimly, walking over and hitting Zoe with his pistol. With this, Phoenix decided a good starting point of convincing Leon would be to talk to Zoe first, despite injuring her, that was just testing the waters. "Zoe, for the love of god don't talk to him... I just want to free these people from his rule, save them all from genocide, decimation, to allow them to prosper under the rule of the rebellion, to finally be free of tyranny." Leon said sorrowfully "This tyrant emperor has made slaves of his people, to fuel his warrior doctrine, conquer all the galaxy, and beyond." Leon continued, but Phoenix ignored him. Zoe sat there, crying, "Zoe, no one has to die today, we all can walk away from this, if you just convince him to answer my questions..." Phoenix said, softly "Why would I help you?! You are tyrannical ruler, you make slaves of all we conquer, you execute all who oppose with you, you commit genocide, torture and horrible acts, you have no ethics or morals, you just want power, rule, land, money. Your followers are fanatical, you just want war, combat, to slaughter endless tides of soldiers and their families. What's mine? Blood for your blood god?" She scoffed "Zoe, we don't want war, power, or money, we just want to be forgotten, left alone. To live out our meager existence in our own corner of the universe. We want live out an existence where each day thousands of women aren't widowed, where blood of men, women, children isn't on our hands, where we don't pray to the gods that we don't die today, for a single night's sleep without being awoken by calls to arms. We aren't monsters. We are hardened. We see the travesties, horrors and abominations of war, but it's just routine now. I'm not a monster without ethics or morals, I do what is necessary. I do what has to be done, for me, for my soldiers, for my wife, for everyone under my rule. At any expense." Phoenix said, grimly "We don't have a blood god by the way." he said, standing. He walked over to the table in the middle of the room "So Leon, do you lie to all your followers? Did you ever mention you were once a soldier, citizen and officer of the UPF? That you proposed genocide to obtain supplies from the Federation and the favor of the rebels? That you were a soldier, who fought beside me in countless battles, against every threat we've ever faced?" Phoenix yelled. "Leon..." Zoe whimpered, hearing this revelation "Please, just tell him what he wants to know..." Marc said, followed by Zoe saying the same thing. "What do you want to know so bad Phoenix? This all seems pretty straightforward." Leon said "Why? Why did you do all this? Why did you do this in the first place?" Phoenix asked, laying his hands on the table. "Because. I didn't want to see the Phoenix Federation fail under your rule. You do to much against it, leave it's rule to the council and couldn't give a shit as to the affairs of your people. We haven't even finished colonizing our new home and you're out here trying to stop me. I only wanted to give us resources we required, scrap, money and the like, so we could muster our forces again, become strong, have power again. To finally end these pointless wars, to finally ease the pressure on you, your soldiers, your people." Leon said, wearily "The methods may be extreme, but our situation is far more extreme. This is just blood, blood that had to be spilled, for us to survive, not just prosper." Leon continued.

Phoenix dropped his gun, and collapsed on his knees.

He thought, "I've been willing to make sacrifices before, why can't I do it now? Why can't I do what needs to be done for our race to live?"

But this thought was interrupted by a flash, Phoenix was knocked out as Leon and his family made an escape, and he was confused.

Why couldn't he bring up the strength to do what needed to be done?

He did it before.

He could do it again.

But he didn't.

[DarkPhoenix141]

(400 views?! Holy shit guys!

But still no comments? That surprises me).

Chapter 9: Murder of Crows.

Phoenix woke up laid out on the floor, the door to the makeshift interrogation room was destroyed, and the soldiers outside were distressed and anxious, Leon and family had made an escape. This taught Phoenix a valuable lesson, one he would use many more times in the future: Never show weakness. He couldn't do what needed to be done, and not only did he and his men pay the price, but the entire universe could if he couldn't find Leon, and soon. He got up and ran outside, there was a profound lack of soldiers, and many who were there were distressed and anxious. Phoenix met Briggs first, who had a distinct injury on his right shoulder, a pistol shot. "Briggs! You okay?" Phoenix asked, looking about "No... I've been shot in case you couldn't tell. Leon escaped." Briggs said, holding his wound "Damn, where's Burden?" Phoenix asked urgently "Over there, on the crate. Zoe got him in the eye." Briggs said, pointing toward two hooded figures sitting on an ammo crate. Phoenix ran over, Anna was sitting on Burden's right, holding him up while dabbing his wound with antiseptic. "Phoenix...?" Burden asked painfully "You okay?" Phoenix asked cautiously "J-just a scratch..." he whimpered "It's not. We're gonna have to stay here, I have to tend to him." Anna whispered, softly. "Alright then..." Phoenix started "ADRIAN, GRIFFIN REGROUP ON ME! WE ARE MOVING OUT." he yelled, tossing a magazine to Griffin who promptly loaded it into his rifle.

Phoenix and company trudged on, they expected to face heavy resistance near the HQ of the entire island, but instead they were met by sparse groups of friendly soldiers, who managed to clear out the area of all rebels, only to be blocked in the entrance to the final zone. Two hours later they finally reached the entrance, a large metal door, soldiers festering around it, depressed. "Commander Phoenix sir?!" A soldier asked in surprise "We're sorry sir, but we can't find a way through this bloody door. We've tried everything, but no luck." The soldier continued. "Roger that, get your soldiers at the gate and plant a few explosives, when we give you the signal blow it." Phoenix said calmly. "Meanwhile we find a way into the place, while you guys clear it out." Phoenix continued "Copy that Commander" the soldier said, walking over to the rest of the soldiers.

"Alright, Adrian, climb up the side of this building an look through the window into the HQ, tell us what you see." Phoenix said, pointing left toward a large house that would bring him next to a large glass panel. He followed the order and jumped up to grasp a window, then hoisted himself up to the roof, and walked over to the window. "8 Rebels, turrets, sandbags, lots of cover." Adrian said calmly. Phoenix and Griffin climbed up, and gently removed the panel and climbed into a small cramped space that held the wall up, they were below the rafters but higher then the soldiers. They grasped desperately at the wall, sweating with anxiety, the moved left and above the group of soldiers. "Griffin, toss your belt" Phoenix whispered, pointing at the ground in the middle of all the soldiers. Heeding the order Griffin took his belt of grenades off and tossed it into the rebel groups "NOW" Phoenix said over the earpiece to the soldiers outside, they charged in as the grenades detonated, killing most of the rebels and shaking the inside of the structure, nearly tossing Phoenix and company off the side of the wall. While the soldiers finished off the rebels Phoenix and his men shimmied left and through a second metal door, where rebels fled to better positions, nothing the grunts couldn't deal with. The shimmied till they reached the end of the wall, where they were met by a vent "Griffin, can you get it?" Adrian asked calmly "Aye, it's a bit stuck, but I'll get er." Griffin said, in his trademark British accent. Within minutes the vent cover was open and Griffin climbed into the vent, Adrian second and Phoenix last, they moved through the maze, made a left turn, then a right turn, then a left turn, then crawled for a little in a straight line and then left and right to the end. Griffin opened the next vent and the team jumped into the room, an empty interrogation facility with corpses in a pile on the top right corner. "Let's move, Leon's probably at the roof." Adrian said calmly "Oh bloody hell, that's just... horrible..." Griffin said looking at one of the corpses. The moved to the door on the east side of the room, with a simple push of a button they opened the door and walked into a hallway "We need blueprints, data access." Adrian said "Copy that, let's move." Phoenix replied, walking down the hallway. They walked until they reached a door marked with "Security" and walked in, the rebel at the console was surprised, he couldn't reach for his rifle before Adrian blew his brains out with a pistol, the shell casing falling on the floor, a gentle reminder that they were using bullet weapons. Adrian sat down at the console, the stark glass panel was accompanied by 2 holographic panels showcasing further information, a Adrian quickly accessed the blueprints, and showed them up on the screen, a camera overview of outside the door, and a view of the hallway, on the holographic monitors.

"Right, first floor, we need to get to the fifth floor to get access to the roof, above the eighth floor." Adrian said "Got it, we need to hurry then, quickest access point?" Phoenix asked "Elevator shaft on the second floor, the elevator itself is out, got destroyed in the shelling it seems." Adrian replied "Let's move then team." Phoenix said, walking to the door. They walked over to a stair well and cautiously (And thus, slowly) moved up it, until they finally reached the top of the stairs, moving a little left of the top to the elevator. "Right, let's go. How do we get it open?" Phoenix asked "Use a knife" Adrian stated, handing him a knife. Phoenix placed it within the crack that let the elevator door open and stretched it to allow himself to hold it open "GAH... HURRY UP..." Phoenix said, desperately holding the door open for Adrian to inspect "We need to jump, the elevator will take us to the fourth floor, from there we'll have to fight our way to the fifth floor where we can find another way to the roof." Adrian said, holding a flashlight to inspect the elevator. With those words spoken, Griffin jumped to grasp the elevator's safety ropes, which held the elevator up in the even it breaks, Adrian did it as well, and Phoenix stood up and jumped as well, below Griffin on the bottom left rope. They climbed for about thirty minutes until they saw the next elevator door, which Adrian jumped over to and opened, allowing Phoenix and Griffin to get to the floor before joining them in a hallway.

"Right then, get ready, this could get ugly." Griffin said to Adrian, tapping him on the shoulder. "Adrian I know this is a weird time to ask personal questions, but how did you get so... cold?" Phoenix asked, checking the magazine in his rifle for ammo. "I dunno, war is hell, you see things... horrible things. I just got... hardened to it." Adrian said, sorrowfully. They moved forward through the straight hallway until they reached an intersection, a rebel, wandering, walked into the intersection only to be shot by Phoenix, the soldier collapsed, dead. The shot attracted multiple other rebels into the otherwise empty hallway, 9 or 10 rebels ran into the empty hallway only to be gunned down by Phoenix, Adrian and Griffin, the last rebel fell, dead. The soldiers all around the floor scattered to cover, alarmed by the gunfire, they ducked around and hid in cubicles and behind walls, while Phoenix waited. "Let's move, head right." Phoenix said, moving down the right side of the intersection and into a briefing room filled with rebel soldiers, he took cover behind the entrance and opened fire on them, Griffin charged into the room (Hiding behind a chair as soon as he entered) and Adrian took cover opposite of Phoenix, all 3 of them engaging the rebels as lasers landed around them.

The room was soon cleared and they moved through the room, silently, they finally found their way to the fifth floor, and walked up the stairwell to the next hallway, they knew where to go next. "Follow me." Adrian said, calmly running left in the hallway, then right, then left then straight then left then right and down a straight line, then left until they reached a door, which was blocked by a metallic barricade. "Damn, what now?" Phoenix said, sorrowfully "We run up the to the eighth floor, and get to the Leon that way, C'mon we still have time." Adrian said, running left toward a stairwell as they went through an intersection earlier. They ran up the stairwell and shot a rebel at the top of the stairs, then they ran about randomly on the sixth floor for half an hour until they found a stairwell to the seventh floor. They ran up the stairwell and onto the seventh floor, where as they exited the stairs a rebel shot down into the stair, only to get shot by Griffin, multiple soldiers engaging from cover, pinning Phoenix to his spot.

Before Phoenix could yell for support, Adrian tossed a grenade into the end of the stairwell, it exploded killing both the rebels guarding the edge and allowing the team to run forward for 15 minutes until they could reach the next stairwell to the eighth floor. They ran up only to see an empty entrance, Phoenix ran ahead of the team, he could see Leon accompanied by a few rebels, Phoenix killed them and ran into the small stairwell, pointing his pistol a Leon, who had a firm hand on the door. The two stood in a brutal standoff, Phoenix pointing his pistol at Leon and Leon pointing his blaster at Phoenix, both with a narrow eyed clarity, the heightened sense of things that allowed each warrior to survive as long as he had, the readiness to do what needed to be done, the preparedness, the knowledge. All happening in the blink of an eye.

"So..." Phoenix said, "You gonna do it?" Leon asked "No, I don't want to kill you, we can work this out." Phoenix said. "Like hell you don't. You would just as likely see me in a coffin as a prison cell..." Leon replied "Gah, c'mon. You need to just give it up. You have a family, wife, kids. You need to stop doing this, stop doing horrible things for your own benefit." Phoenix said "That's where your wrong" Leon replied. With a huff, Leon ran for the door, only to get shot in the shoulder by Phoenix, who followed him onto the roof as he entered the dropship. "Damn." Phoenix huffed, only to have the thoughts interrupted by the distinct feeling of a rifle stock against his head.

He blacked out.