Broken Lands for Broken Men

Broken soldiers lie on the broken ground where millions before them have died upon. One skirmish among billions.

They dropped around me, a hundred roaring shells falling from the skies and landing with grace upon the mud, throwing it everywhere. This planet used to be a dead wasteland, no water, no leaches, nothing. But something changed that. War.

What I am standing in now was the remains of a thousand years of war on the Planet of Kadazar Prime, the outer most held planet of the Republic on the rim. What I am standing in is the remains of those thousand years of war and a million different lives buried and rotted to make this entire planet a mud hole with their blood and bone. There are no predators other than rats and the decomposers.

I stand now coated in their remains, one soldier among thousand’s. I have been in these holes my entire life, standing against the other side of the planet. But I am weary of the trenches and the sinkholes of the Blood and Bone planet and can’t wait until my escape by none other than the Resistance. My whole squadron of two hundred and thirty men and women who have held this called the mud rats are going alongside me, following their commander into the battles of the unknown. We are tired old souls in a broken and bloodied land. We know nothing but war and in this age, it is the only way to escape life on this s**t hole of a planet.

I am barely eighteen years old, and yet have been subject to nine different wars. My parents are dead by shelling, my uncle shot three months ago, my cousin gassed and my niece hacked to pieces. My entire families gone and I have nothing to live for.

I hear a rumbling in the distance and flicked my cigarette on the ground and stamped on it. “Come on boys and girls, another wave is hitting home!” I yelled catching the safety off of my standard issue Bayonetteir, a rifle that our great grandfathers thought was old back in their day. It was caked in mud and half the rotator shells were gone, but it worked so far as I was concerned.

I looked in the sky as fire from the enemy lines ramped up and roared to above, but not aimed at us. A lone echo roaring sounded and the shells that were aimed at us ceased to bring to bear at the new ship. I grabbed out my binocular and quickly stuck them to my eyes.

Thrown out upon the silver glitter was a lone man who fell like a rock straight to the ground in no man’s land. S**t we got to save him. The mud will lessen his fall and if not the enemy will do worse things.

“Form up around me, the enemies about to attack through no man’s land and we’re going to meet them on the Front!” I gave command and the now curious broken souls around me formed up in basic drilling formation, holstering and fixing their banged up piles of s**t that they too had to dig up from the ground. Half the rifles weren’t working but were pretty efficient spears.

The shuttled zoomed past us and made for the citadel behind us, barely a ruin now. It was probably carrying cargo, been seeing a lot of that lately since we destroyed the Central Power Core a year ago, supplies and troops to hold certain points had been flooding in.

“Move forwards to victory or defeat with Courage Honour and Duty soldiers of the Republic!” I roared the battle chant with a parched throat and with crusted and calloused pale hands threw myself out of the sinkhole and bounded forwards, the heavy multi-barrelled rifle spinning as I charged it up to kill the enemy. I heard the shout behind me and it lifted my spirit to hear the men and women follow me out.

I had a good eye for things and knew that we were going to reach the man by going diagonal and stopping maybe fifty feet from the enemy trenches. I charged at the head of the spearhead of thirteen souls that had filled my hole so far, the rest of the troops under my command were in their holes and would stay there. It would be too risky otherwise and the enemy might not see thirteen charging but they would definitely see so many charging.

I treaded over the barbed wire and dead bodies, my caked uniform jingling in the wind. I stepped on a skull and rolled my ankle, but just got up and kept going. There was no use for weakness in the trenches and it was just an inconvenience. The mud underneath my boots was warm as usual, the baking hot day sending streaks of sweat down my back as I ran forward at a nice pace, checking my flanks every so often for the enemy. They were never far from us.

Up ahead was a burned out shell of a building, barely standing but for the concrete sides. “Isif go check it out.” I commanded and pointed to the bunker. You can never be too careful.

Isif was a good scout and was the most resourceful person I knew. We held position as her wiry self slowly slid forwards towards the bunker, clutching her pistol with one hand and a muddied grenade in the other.

She bent under just beside of the bunker and pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it in quickly before pulling away. The entire floor shook once more as the bunker emitted light and was licked at by the flame before roaring could be heard.

Isif thumbed up and started running. Then her head exploded into a bloody firework of gore and skull. Her headless form collapsed before the war cry of the enemy emitted and plasma blasts roared towards us. Gaskd was cut to bloody ribbons before he could do anything and Husk’s chest disappeared into a bloody mist. 

“F**k, get to cover and form a firing line!” I roared over the chaos. The grim cohort around me sank into the mud and found the cover. I grabbed my multi-barrel and revved the engine up before spitting death against the unseen foe.

Their cry echoed as they stalked forwards, firing plasma blasts. One appeared out of the mists. It was a giant brute of a being of seven feet tall and its form was covered in yellow scales and was full sinew and muscle. Its head adorned three horns on its armoured face.

We were outgunned and outmanoeuvred by the enemy Triperior. Before my eyes Kandy charged and was smashed by this one with its giant two headed hammer, throwing the fifteen year old off her feet and turning around, turned her head into a red ruin.

I jumped into a small plasma shell hole and revved it up. The roaring death spat the screaming bullets as the rifle kicked in my hands until they were numb. A wide and very inaccurate machine, but it works. The lead Triperior, probably Highborn, raised its shield against the fire and roared. It stomped forwards, its movements slowly sucked in by the mud.

“Reform and outgun!” I yelled. I quickly threw myself to the side and let my rifle recoil me backwards as I threw waves of bullets into them, but they barely did a scratch against their amazingly thick skin. They barrelled forwards and we were falling backwards, losing ground to the others.

“We move forwards, Varys hold ground god d****t! Hsad, Xjer and Lash hold the lines and press forwards!” I roared against the firing and the confusion of the fire fight.

I struck forwards and levelled my barrel against the leader and let another burst go. The shattered barrel spat death and roared menacingly. The leader shielded him and started marching forwards, head down and protecting his vulnerable underbelly with the metal.

My hands were numb and shaking but I pressed forwards until I heard a click.

No, this can’t be happening. Only a few days from the draft as well! Oh well if I was going to die I was going to die as the Heroic Old Man Sam would, the renowned Federation soldier and Hunter and bane of the Triperior themselves, enough to take on their empire and crush it.

I threw away my useless rifle and grabbed out a sword I had gotten two years ago. It was an eight inch Resistance knife I retrieved from the corpse of a Khaos soldier when they charged against us. It’s hooked and gnarled edge was sharpened even if splattered with blood or mud. Dead or alive, I will stop this Triperior.

I clutched it and charged forwards. Xjer fell in beside me and so did Lash. Hsad still had ammunition and was opening fire from a hole, and Varys a corpse beside him.

“This is it my friend. Let’s avenge the fallen and die like how Old Man Sam would have us, with weapons in hands and with an enemy’s blade lodged in our bellies!” I yelled to my good friend. He has been with me all this time from the first draft into the trenches. We have served and become brothers and will fall brothers, the same with everyone here.

“For the Republic, for God Almighty and the people of Kadazar Prime and for the brothers in the trenches, you will die foul demon!” Roared Xjer as he lifted up his giant spear and we charged forwards.

The Triperior held up a hand to the others “These ones are mine. I will defeat them for the glory of Apocolon.” He calmly ordered the four Triperior. So two were killed, a victory in a sense.

“We challenge you scum to a duel!” Xjer and I roared in agreement.

“Bring it non-believers!” It spoke fluent archaic, quaint. We started to circle as one, the way to decide who’ll win.

He struck out and charge first, fed up. He banged his shield as he roared. His footsteps were like thunder stomps of the gates of the Apocalypse.

We met him in the middle with our makeshift combat weapons.

I struck out and just met a shriek of metal on metal as the beaked monster smashed the shield under my chest, sending a huge shattering pain into my ribs and I was lifted off the ground. My feet dangled uselessly as I hit the mud and started to sink down. I felt a huge pain as my chest was completely destroyed.

I struggled with not screaming and tried to get up. Xjer dodged left and right, trying to strike with his clumsy spear, but the beast dodged every single one or just absorbed the blow with his shield. Xjer spun and stabbed down and before my blurring eyes, I saw my best friend wound a Royal Triperior. He roared in pain and it was lightning to the ears coming out of its beak. Xjer pulled back but got an elbow to the face, ruining his nose and sending him stumbling.

He came forwards once again but was lifted off his feet by the Triperior’s three barbed and hooked horns, sticking into him as the beast flung his head, ripping Xjer apart in three different places. Xjer was thrown from the horns and the Triperior stood over my best friend and brought his hammer down.

I roared in defiance and shambled to my feet.

The Triperior charged and smashed me once again as I was gaining composure.

It stood over me in my blurring vision. “Say hello to hell!” He roared. I felt a cough rise from my mouth but I spat out red stuff.

But when I opened them again blue blood had coated me and protruding out of the belly of the monster shone a blade, blue with blood but made of something so metallic it hurt to look at.

The Triperior collapsed backwards, coughing out blood.

“Come here comrade, let’s get you home.” A small, homely man picked me off the mud with almost superhuman strength and I leant on his shoulder, my chest a ruin. He was dressed in blue and black overalls that fitted his physique almost exactly and balding light brown receding hair. He leant on a gnarled wooden cane and carried the sword that saved my life.

I started coughing violently, puking out black and red stuff as tears flooded my vision.

I face death.

“Just hang in there comrade, I’ll get you to safety!” He shouted as we limped away from the battlefield.

“Who… Are you?” I coughed out, red running out and down my chin. This man was making great progress and didn’t even look tired.

“Old Man Sam my comrade and to whom do I owe the pleasure?” He heaved me up onto his shoulders and picked up the pace. His wasn’t fluent archaic.

This was Old Man Sam, the legendary soldier and hunter of the Triperior, Father of the Glacia Company and the Father of the Fifth Company.

Black started to crowd on my vision. The light is calling and now I can die happy. It overtook all thought but one.

I fell with my Brothers and Sisters and met Old Man Sam.

Black.