Free fire frontlines

This is earlier work but it might be used to show progression toward more recent work like the blair knifenose story

1 Introduction: the history of this hell.
In free fire frontlines, it’s hard for a man to keep his sanity. Even if he knows what’s coming. The last army of men has been here in Brussels for 3 years now and still there’s no advance in the war against the husk. They know that they hide in the shadows, crawl around underground and hide in and under the trees there’s just no telling where they’ll strike next.

They call me “The Bard” because I can make them sing the tunes I want to hear. They’ve been calling me that for so long I’ve started to forget my real name. And I’m the guy they sent to Brussels to solve the s**t they left there. All I can do to help myself now is to keep shooting the husk until I get to “the friar” The madman who started it all. Danté drudges was a professor at the university of Boston where he taught science. Little did we know that he was already making prototypes of the husks back then. They appeared harmless due to the fact they didn’t move. But we couldn’t have been more wrong, you see, they were just sleeping. He had started research into what made people “children of god” as he put it. Unfortunately after years of study, the university wasn’t pleased with the insignificant progress he had seemingly made. But he had made such big progress that he figured out how to re-create the horrifying zombies men had feared from when they started showing up in the stories.

They were corpses with and without most of their organs though they always had a heart. He grew entire artery networks and entrails as though they were toys. And after surgically inserting them into the corpses encased in the strongest of materials, he then pumped what he called “ambrosia” into the corpses to make them live again. He even got the poor suckers to listen to him and made them carry out every sick command he could think up. They had no smell and they could only carry out the simplest of commands like “raise your hand”. Too bad the American government found out and decided to intervene by funding his research for military purposes, that was the killing blow to the world as we knew it. It didn’t even take them a month to reach our level of intelligence and before we realised it, we were able to give them military training. Hahaha, stupid military f***s. We gave them a reason AND the means. I couldn’t believe we were that retarded, but then again,

I couldn’t believe they were as intelligent as they were. The people started worldwide protests against the experiments as soon as word got out but by then, it was too late. The husk had already started their march on the American cities. First, Boston went down, then New York and before we knew it, they hade made it all the way to Houston. We tried to stop them in the Waterloo and Duncan Parks in Austin, Texas but they walked over us like cockroaches over a fresh piece of trash. It wasn’t long before we lost the united states nor did it satisfy them. They started their march on Europe next. In Britain, a woman called Gamara grim was able to set up a barrier which held them off. It was an army of machines which used plasma, heat and electricity to set up a sort of shield which destroyed the husks.
It bought us some time, just not much. 2 years went by as the husks gathered outside of the Britain barrier now called Draco after the mythological “king of dragons” because of it’s capability to breathe fire. We had gathered ten thousand soldiers to fight the incoming threat and armed them with the biggest and strongest laser, pulse and electronic weapons we could find. Much to our surprise, they had nearly no effect on their targets. Not only did they not defeat the husks, we armed them by this defeat. We were getting nowhere fast and mercy wasn’t on the undead army’s list, it looked like this was the end of man-kind.

2 Chapter 1: A Bard’s tale

May 14th 4028: the men sat in the centre of Brussels, Belgium where they were fighting the husks and hope seemed a vague memory. The husks had the monument and weren’t stopping for food or even gunfire. There’s been a gathering of explosives for 4 days and they’ve been waiting for their last shipment to come in so they could blow up the resistance. The only problem was that they had no idea if or when it was arriving. For all they knew, the husk could have intercepted the shipment and could have been rigging the base behind them. They hoped to god they’re wrong, but it didn’t look good. The husk had been screaming for an hour and a half and It was everyone’s fear they’d found something of great significance. It seemed they were going to have to move but only screams of the undead, wounded and the gunfire of the dying were continuous besides the killing. And so the screams of command and obedience were heard as the fight went on.

“Load the guns freak rag, it’s hammering time!”
“Sir, yes sir!”.

They were glad to be in the army, because they all seemed to have the necessary bravery to face the horrifying threat. Jack Louis AKA The bard wanted to call in the reinforcements and so…

“how’s the radio?”
“Shot to crap sir!”
“You think you’ve been in this war for too long and that you’ll have someone to help you and then your goddamn radio breaks down. I’m telling ya, the husks are b******s but sometimes they look like they have more brains than us.”

That’s when the husk started rushing in, there was barely time to load the guns. Hands were twitching and sweat was covering the trenches when all of a sudden Jack got knocked out.

“Awwww man, my head….ugh….what happened? Must have been Jocksey again, damn gun throwing maggot. Wait a sec. this doesn’t look like anything men would build.”
“he’s awake. Ehehehe”
“ah, finally. And how are you today ‘Bard’?”
“better than you look, s**t for brains”
“why so tense ‘bard’, we’re not going to hurt you. Yet.”
“then what?”
“ we’re going to make you talk first”
“Hahaha ‘make me talk’ yeah right, they couldn’t make me talk if they killed me. Retarded undead f***s”, A blade goes through his left shoulder as a scrawny voice hisses
“that’s what you get for being impatient Jack, you get hurt”
“now jack, tell us what we want to know.”
“you think I’m gonna start talking just ‘cause of that?”
“I sure hope not jack”
“hey jack! How do you feel about grilled meat!?”
“I don’t wanna talk about your mom for now kid”

Another blade ripped across his chest peeling the flesh clean off. It was at this point in time that Jack Louis, who so stubbornly fought back, had fainted. Unfortunately for him, this would not even be the beginning of it all.

He was tortured for days at an end and patched up when they had nothing more to cut or burn off. He suffered more than the last president did when they cut him up. But fortunately for the race of men, there were those who would follow in The Bard’s footsteps. An entirely new generation was born and trained to be effective soldiers though emotion was also a surprising part in the training of soldiers. The technology of modern day made it possible for men to live without disease and fight without a doubt though it came with a great cost. No man or woman alive had the emotional capability to deal with everything around them as they attempted to keep a safe home in the protected lands.

Scarce as they were, the protected lands truly did live up to their names. For every corner of or on the lands there were at least four turrets waiting to blast everything in the area to bits. More and more people on the inhabitable grounds grew tired of waking up to the smell of dead people and the sound of screaming enemies as well as friends. They armed themselves to the bone just in case something were to happen. They went to work like they normally would and talked about the rain and other trivial stuff but there was tension. Jack Louis had left a wife on one of those lands. Her name was Julie Courson and she had a temper. Her wild black hair and deep blue eyes would make a man think he was going to die looking at her. She liked to listen to music and enjoy the sunshine before she lost her husband. But the sadness and the pain set themselves so deeply in her heart that she eventually lost her self-control.

She joined several new companies before finally finding what it was she wanted. The children’s hospital of Leary City had a sector of which they rarely spoke to anyone who got the bright idea of asking. Because child-abuse was common, the hospital thought they should be the ones fighting the victim’s battles for them. A small-time gang of assassins was set up to find and eliminate those who posed a threat to the welfare of children. Julie though, had other plans. She went on a hunting session the night before her husband’s empty casket would be sent down to mother earth and never returned. Until this day, it is still a popular rumour that she was captured by the husk after having ventured too far from the cities during the hunt and that they had ripped her limb from limb just as they did her husband. And though this added to the legend of the great bard, he would be out there on the battlefield. He would be rebuilt by his arch-enemy who would be more than happy to show off his newest plaything to the many armies mankind had waiting.

3 Chapter 1: Campaign of the Damned
Brian Camsley was a ballistics expert who had only recently returned from a journey to the planet shandora, which was a beautiful botanic planet filled with the most beautiful plants and flowers man had ever known. It was the most beloved destination for modern day travel. He was now back on the military base in orbit of earth where he had received word of the situation back on earth’s surface. It appeared the husk now only controlled central Europe save for Brussels and the husk were advancing rapidly. Camsley was immediately called in for a briefing with the rest of his squad.

On the platform in the centre-front of the room general Armenthal stood with his legs tightly together and his arms to the side of his body. He began his briefing saying:

“Morning gentlemen, and I did say morning and not good morning for a reason in case any of you are wondering.”

of course not knowing what the actual mission was, none of the reaper squad’s members said a word. And so the general continued:

“We’ve lost Sanders and the carbon leaders to the husk in Brussels and we believe he’s being held captive by those no-good sons of b*****s.”

In shock and anger, the room filled with soldiers now got lost in turmoil amongst the men. Some of them whispered words expressing fear while others shouted out in disbelief. A hard blow on an even harder day and no time to mourn the dead or fear for the lives of the lost.

“Fear not!” the general continued: “you gentlemen have been chosen to bust a cap in those walking corpse mother-fuckers.”

The room became quiet until the booming voice broke the silence again:

“That’s right! You’re going in and you’re going in hard, so get your gear and strap in cause it’s going to be a rough ride to shitsville.”

This being what the general called being fully prepared, the young men were free to go and arm themselves as Armenthal’s “Dismissed!” sounded in the mess hall. Plates fell and fights broke out, injuring several soldiers and officers along the way.

The entire base shook and stirred like an anthill. Soldiers moving to arm themselves while others were running out to join the fight. And just as the first squad left the base, they had wounded men streaming back in. After a mere minute, the scent of gunpowder seeped in followed by the stench of death. The leaders called this the smell of truth but the screams of those brought in spread fear amongst the new troops. Those troops were sent from the naval base to help the others take back Europe in a desperate fight to take back earth from the undead threat which had spread so quickly. Several hours went by without any form of sound coming out of the bases of both the husk and the humans and during those hours many feared that the husk had what they needed to wipe out mankind. But nothing could have prepared them for what was about to happen. An event so memorable it would make the rise of the husks seem like nothing more but a spot, a pixel on the big canvas of history. And yet, it would come to pass so quickly that none would get the chance to realise what exactly it was. And so, they decided to call it “The Vulture”. It was after forty-two days of continuous battle that it rose above the battlefield. A machine which seemed to be a vulture and it destroyed the Central-European husk base and everything in it as if it was butter before a flame.

This new ally “The Vulture” began what would be known as The Campaign of the Damned. This very same campaign was both a celebration of knowledge and force as a memorial for all those who fought an fell in battle. On day one, man took back Belgium and instead of moving out and spreading across Europe, the humans rebuilt Belgium and made it their new ground base. Humanity now had a new place to build their siege weapons as well as to process their new supply of resources into bullets and armour plating. The first ever banner of the campaign was put into the centre of Brussels for all to see. A dark blue banner with a three yellow stripes on it. One in the centre, one pointing it’s tip at the centre stripe and it’s tail to the left corner of the banner and another also pointing it’s tip at the centre stripe but with it’s tail pointing to the right. And above those three stripes a vulture with it’s wings spread out. It was the sight of this banner which gave the men hope, strength and the necessary will to fight on.



During the first month of the new year 4029, the humans set up twenty squads, each containing 120 men and 20 siege machines. Five squads marched on Paris in January, losing many men in Amiens and Reims. Then, with new recruits, three more marched on Toulouse. April was creeping in and the men were getting hungry and cold. A war general’s nightmare. This was the one setback they could not afford. The one which allowed the husk to show that they too had learned a new trick. Upon the lines of Bordeaux and Pamplona the husk had gathered a small armed force, a seemingly futile resistance against the grand army on the other side. But then, He came, Danté Drudges.

Outside of the citadel in France, he had re-created himself into what the men called The Fist of The False God. This body/tank was so enormous and so hard to penetrate that it seemed as if it was a gift from their false deity. But it was worse. Its stench blinding men as they walked and its power so frightful it could well scare the dead back to life. The whole thing had the colours of the various stages of decomposition making it seem as if the monster of Frankenstein wasn’t a figment of one’s imagination but rather a true story. Slowly but steadily it was doing what the monster of Frankenstein never could or wanted to do. It was killing men by the hundreds and bringing down more structures than the civil war. There were those who said it was an accident and that it could never have been prevented but everyone knew better than to let that thought saturate their minds. The husk won and everyone of the human race knew it, felt it and would never forget the fact that there was no victory though it would not be put into any book but that of the military vault which held more secrets than the fiery pits of hell. Or to make it less dramatic, more secrets than the people who knew what really happened to Adolf Hitler’s corpse. Where do men go when they have no desire to live or think? There is only one real answer to that question, and as the recruits of the grand army would soon find out, that answer is war.

4 Chapter 2: Fighting fire
It was a hard time for men but they seemed to be unable to simply give up and survive on another planet. The husk adapted a bit more every day and grew in numbers too. It was a call for the heroes of tomorrow to step up and prove they could do what people were expecting them to do. But so far, no one had the guts or strength to prove that heroes still existed. Four days passed as weapons and armour were put together for the showdown of a lifetime and then the representative of the leadership sent out the so called “words of hope”. Perodin Actuvine took the microphone and uttered the words:

“Men of earth, take a good look around you and make note of what you see. Because tomorrow, as the stench of death leaves the earth, we will once again be able to go home. Let the vulture shred their abomination!!!”

the cheers of the station exploded into space equally powerful to the Hydrogen bomb they once made. The rallying of the troops stirred up the husk, gathering their full force around Belgium where the greatest and last of all wars would begin. The Vulture versus the Flesh Giant, and all who followed in their wake would taste the sweetness of battle or bitterness of defeat. Step by step the armies poured into formation and as if it were their leader’s rallying call, the sun pierced the clouds and cleared the sky. Morale rose and the march began. A march with quickened and angered steps marked the beginning of what would be the bloodiest of wars. While on the other end of the battlefield something resembling a wave of corpses set itself ready to take the punch which would follow. Screams which sounded like laughs in the distance set anger and fear simultaneously in the men but they fought on. Things went all kinds of wrong when the guns started blazing.

Body parts were scattered across the battlefield in the minutes which passed after the thunderous sound of erupting gunfire. The husk fell by the thousands as the first hours passed the day into night leaving time to collect the dead. A classic war in modern times where the fallen were honoured and the gods feared equally by all fighting sides. The next morning, as the sun rose to laminate it, the battlefield left no trace of the battle which had been fought the past day leaving only the two giants fighting each other as the men and husk gathered once more to make this the last of days for the opposing species. The battle erupted suddenly, as if it were an automated task. But something had changed, the husk were slain more easily than the day before and the impending victory caused an eruption of strength on the side of men. And so, as their cheers went on, the battle between the deities had come to an end. Rotten flesh and feathers lay scattered on the ground and after a few enervating minutes, the flesh-giant fell leaving the vulture to soar and cry out in pain and relief. Humanity had won though there would be no rest. For it seems the texts of old weren’t joking when they said:

“there is no rest for the wicked”.

A new team of scientists was put on the subject of the husk, examining the bodies for weaknesses and such. Rose masters, Dion Coltrane, John Fries and Moira gangrene found no trace of a clear weakness though they found something that would push the new campaign to an unprecedented high. It was after fifteen months of study, dissecting and warfare that they found a way to retrieve information from each one of the brains lodged in the husk. It was because of this that they could replicate the husk weaponry as well as their architecture. It would gain them a significant advantage over the husk due to their overconfidence. Man had grown tired of the loss they always suffered in wars and thus created an army with the same proficiency as that of the husk.

Battleships and ammo took off towards the space station which had recently been renamed Odysseus to inform the world leaders of the progress. They didn’t take lightly to the news of the losses or the tone of the commander who had been charged with the task of informing them but in the end they had no other choice than to condone the decisions and actions taken. They then ordered the commander back to the planetary base where he would have to tell the other men to begin to recruit more soldiers or build them, whichever option would bring them their land back as soon as possible. And that is how an army of androids was designed only to bring their explosive payloads to the husk bases and their weaponry production facilities.

Now, you would think this brought about more destruction but it did something quite on the contrary. It had brought on the creation of equal armies and so, the humans were ready to fight the creatures which had been terrorizing them for years. Plans would be set up, ships would hover over the battlefield, men would fight and die, husk would be burned and in the end there would be only the stench of the dead and the screams of the dying. Though, as most men and women of the modern age know, the future is susceptible to change. At least they’d not be able to blame themselves for anything more or less than fighting the intensely hot fire with that same fire.