A Day of Defeat and Anguish by warriorpop & Phillygun

Part 1:

The pin had been pulled off the sonic grenade... And I was holding it. Roger, my mischevious friend had tried to swipe it out of my hands while I was examining it when he accidentily snagged it on his uniform and the pin fell off.

I stifled a scream as my sarge chuckled to himself. "Take it easy, son.. The charges aren't put in 'till before engaging the enemy."

I just stared at him wide-eyed as I counted my blessings.

Roger started rolling with laughter. "You mother..!" I screamed as I pummeled him.

My whole platoon had been cramped onto this small dropship that was on route to Titan to take control of an abandoned base that the Titans had now occupied.

After the whole ruckus settled down, I took to examining my ripper gun. Sleek and powerful it lay on my lap, with "COLLECTIVE MILITARY" etched into the side, and several scratch marks telling of the amount of bloodshed it had seen before coming into my hands. I then took to the starport, and glimpsed a fleeting glance at that oh-so-far-away blue dot known as my home, Earth. It was so much better there than out here on these cold, methanious rocks, even with the riots and looting.

Warning klaxons sounded, almost immediately the whole platoon was rushing to suit up and pull out their guns. "ALRIGHT men, lets do what we came here to do, you've been briefed on this, I shouldn't have to remind you what to do." The sarge grimaced. Rumor had it going around that the Titans had more of a defense perimeter set up around than had been expected, whether we were successful or not, a lot of us, my friends, would not make it back to the dropship alive.

A loud screeching noise enveloped our thoughts as the dropship began descending through the atmosphere, the skin of the hull bruising itself against the harsh atmosphere.

I finally locked in the last clamps of my armored-suit and entered in the string of commands into my ripper gun to disengage the safeties. With a loud thump, the dropship landed heartily onto the soft, green grass of the terra-formed base. The hydralic pumps wheezed with power as they pushed open the descent ramps.

The marines charged forwards first, firing at underbrush, though there were no enemies present in the area. The sarge murmered, "This is fishy, all units, take cautiousness, check buildings with radar before going in to take positions.."

The grenadiers and rippers moved forward, and proceeded on to the specific abandoned buildings. The comm was silent for a few moments as the advance-marines cut through the vegetation until the loud, unmistakable noise of an assault rifle cut through nearly half of the marines, their severed limbs and heads dropping with nasty, wet noises. We could see them, the nasty Titans had been wearing their green camoflauge and were easily ambushing us from the tall grass.

I saw Roger take a hit to the chest, however, before he slipped his last breath, he heaved a grenade over the grass and set fire onto the whole arrangement. The terrified Titan soldiers quickly raised themselves to avoid the brushfires. I took aim with my ripper gun and tore them into schreds.

I checked my heads up display and quickly found that we had already lost seven of our men. I proceeded, along with a medic I found wobbling around trying to find his coordinates, to the computer room. I, and along with Roger, had been assigned to take the room and hold it until told otherwise. The medic lumbered and heaved, trying to keep up with me. "Hold it man, this med-pack is too hea-". Before he could finish, a large, gray cylinder flew up out of nowhere to strike him on the back, dropping his guts onto the ground.

"Stupid nades.. The Titans have no honor." As I took cover behind a storage container. I checked my heads-up display again, four Collective soldiers, including me were left... I stood there, shocked.

Out of the thirty that had spent that week on that horrible-smelling dropship, only four were left. Victory for the Titans seemed inevitable. A Titan marine rounded the corner, not seeing me, I immediately blew his brains out before realizing he was the lead in a group of soldiers. I shouted with surprise and tried to struggle when all five of them landed on me, pummeling me with fists and rage.

I was confused and dazed as they stripped my armor off of me, why didn't they kill me? When the soldiers had finished their beating and removal of armor, I realized that I was a prisoner of war.

Part 2:

The glimmering lights shone in my eyes as the Titan soldiers pulled me into a small room for interrogation.The force from their arms came upon me pushing me down into the small wooden chair. My pale arms came up resting on a very cold metal table that sat in front of me. My face was pale as a ghost as the thoughts of what torture they might make me endure , I knew that the Titans were merciless and they would do anything. As my blue oculars looked up , two Titan soldiers exhanged some soft words to each other .

A few akward moments went by before a one of them had had punched me harshly in the face , that was followed by a clash of metal as my chair had crashed against the floor . I let out a loud ' yelp ' as I knew my Jaw was fractured. As the moments of pain began to fade through my mind several other Titan soldiers rushed into the room as they jumped on me rapidly punching and kicking me in the chest. After a brutal beating to most of my body. I awoke in a small dark , damp room . There were no windows , no bathroom , and no bed. There was only a steel door to the northern side of the room. As the brass handle shaked a bit the door creaked open..

As my body began to shake I looked to the door while I curled up into a ball at the corner. A young , average looking man stepped in . He had a pair of designer glasses over his eyes as I looked to his arm where I saw his patch . It was a circular patch that read - Titan University of Medicine ( TUM ) These were the wimps of the war. They stay in their protective base sitting at a desk. The Titan Medic gave a reassuring smile to me. I stood up a bit crouching as I waited for the man to approach. He looked down to me giving yet another smile .

" Are you hurt ? " He looked down to me speaking

" My .. My back . " I tried to tell him as I moved my palm to my lower back showing him where it had hurt. The Medic's arm extended out , I immediately took it pulling myself up . I was not stupid enough to try something now. He had turned me around resting his hands on my back .. After a few " Hmms " he had sauntered over to the Commanding Officer who was at the steel door .

" He has Spinal Stenosis. " He spoke softly , but still loud enough for me to hear. Then he began to explain the disorder to the Commanding Officer . " It is a disorder that primarily affects the lower back. It happens when the spinal canal becomes to narrow , it applies pressure onto the nerves and becomes very painful . "

The Commander gave a nod as he looked over to me , giving me a glare before looking back to the Medic.

" Without proper treatment , he will become paralyzed. " The Medic finished explaining the problem .

He stepped out of the cell following the Commander slamming the door shut behind them . Hearing the news I started to walk back and forth contemplating on what I should do ...

" Hmm I could try to escape .. the worst that could happen is that I can die. If I stay here I will become a cripple .. " I spoke very softly so that I and I alone would be the only one to hear my words. I quickly stepped over to the door , hugging the wall next to it. My boot came over swiftly kicking it a few times. " heellp " I moaned a bit to get the guard's attention. The door swung open slowly as the guard moved over to the entrance. His Plasma Rifle was raised as he moved in closer. My body performed a crouched 360° turn as my leg came out sweeping him to the ground. The only sound was a thud as he came down followed by his Plasma Rifle. My hands searched the radius of about 1 foot before I found the Plasma Rifle.

My hands fumbled it a few times as I picked it up , I stood up along with the guard. Before he could yell a word I sent the butt of the Plasma Rifle across the guard's face. The only sound was the familiar crack from his neck breaking. After dragging his body into the cell I closed the door , creeping down the corridor. I quickly turned a corner to my suprised a Heavy Weapons soldier stood facing at me. By the look on his face I could tell that he was suprised. I jumped up a foot or so swinging my leg out connecting with his face. It immediately dropped him to the ground , my knees came down as I landed on them next to the Heavy Weapons soldier. My right hand shot out , my two index fingers at a point. They connected with the soldiers throat as I snapped his windpipe. I dropped the Plasma Rifle grabbing his MG94K pulling it up to waist length.

I ran down another corridor taking yet another corner as looked straight ahead seeing a set of 3 Steel doors. There was a dozen or so guards standing there. My index finger snapped back causing the MG94K to erupt causing the reaction of the slugs extracting from the barrel spewing out round after round at the guards. Bodies fell down blood and guts sprayed all over the doors. I sprinted past over the bodies charging through the doors. Looking up I saw more and more soldiers hearing an alarm blare throughout the air. I held down the trigger this time still running . I took down about 20 - 30 of them . Still running this time past the gates , I hard Particle Accelerators going off as the ground was tore up by them all around me . I was at a descent distance nearing vegetation.

I heard a strange sound , my ears perked up still as I ran. Then I knew .. it was Jump Troopers. Hearing them getting closer I quickly bent my knees and dove down to the ground. A few of them flew overhead shooting at the spot I would have been if I keept running. I hurried to my feet as I opened fire on them . Two of them fell off their Deathboards.. another two came down . I started running once again moving faster than I have ever ran in my entire lifetime. My boots slid out in front as I slid a few feet down a steep hill . A Frag Gernade flew overhead exploding several yards from me, shrapnel flying right over my head. A leapt up my arm grabbing the Jump Trooper's arm as I ripped him front his Deathboard throwing his down the hill.

As the MG94K ran out of bullets I threw the MG94K down , extra weight anyways. I looked straight ahead seeing my dropship. I began a brisk jog towards it seeing the only other 3 who survived in the computer room with me.

" We thought you were lost .. " One of the men spoke to me

" No , but we will all be if we don't leave right now " I answered back to him.

One of his eyebrows raised as some slugs flew into the side of the dropship. Some alarms went off as he ran in , the bay door closing as the pilot began a descent away from the area.

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