Your Service is Required

chapter 1: Prologue

"Move it, Alex!"

My eyes dart to my side as my squad mate dives for me and brings me down to the ground with me, my shock turns to fear as a volley of machine gun fire whizzes just above us. Pelting the wall behind us with new holes.

My squadmate yelled for the rest to take cover and wait for them to reload before responding with our guns. I smile widely at the sight of my bullets downing the man I aimed for.

As the number of bullets that flew toward us dwindled in number, I and my squad counterfire. I tap the back of a squad mate of mine to switch spots with me as I feel my rifle run out of ammo. He nodded in turn and waited for me to run out of bullets first, the moment came when I heard a click crouched down and systematically began to reload.

I looked behind us and saw that the small outpost we were stationed at was slowly evacuated. God this turned to shit fast.

It had been a normal day of patrolling the village that the advance force had taken over a few weeks prior. not much resistance was encountered and ended with only 3 dead and a few injured on both sides.

I was even part of the advance force but was told to station here to guard a radio station being set up, seeing as how almost all satellites have been destroyed via EMP.

Though on paper this village didn't seem much at first, it was quite strategically sound as it served as not only an outpost for troops to pass through but was close to a captured oil field which we were currently appropriating for our own needs.

So this attack on us was expected, but we did not expect the enemy guerilla to attack us with this much force.

My thoughts return to the battle at hand as the man whom I switched places with had half his skull turned to paste from a makeshift gun the guerilla loved to employ.

and Holy those guns are scary. Although slow and cumbersome, they serve their purpose well enough and cheaply enough, they reload and function like a muzzleloader and they come with a more oomph to them

Would be nice if I could own one.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and see my squad mates attempting to fall back to the outpost. Seems like a good plan if I'm concerned.

Me and the rest of the squad round corners before suppressing firing so that the rest could retreat as well. A bullet hits my gun at its mechanism and breaks it.

I curse before grabbing my pistol and firing at the enemy again. I look back and see that we were almost at the outpost and the relative safety of our numbers.

But before we could get within the gates of the outpost, I saw a drone fly above whilst carrying something strange. I see it drop the thing and realize it's a bomb. I watch as a giant explosion resonates from the center of our outpost, and after the dust settles, it is soon followed by gunshots and the sounds of the remaining guards dying.

Fuck.

I look around and make eye contact with a guerilla soldier with sunglasses and a cap heading for the base. He shouts for the others in his squad but just as he alerts the rest, I empty my magazine into his chest, surprisingly that kills him, looks like he wasn't wearing a vest.

I yelled for my remaining squad members to get behind cover before turning a corner and ran right as bullets hit the spot where I had been standing just earlier. I'll have to regroup with the rest later.

I continue to run and after a while, find a building with an open door and run into it. I close the door behind me and only now notice the body of a comrade of mine at the end of the corridor.