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April, 2015 - CHAPTER 01 ~ The Coming WaR <~ POV of 'The Moron Corporal' ~>

...Madness isn't worth it; Unless you're standing on the edge of a mirror... People occasionally call me Mad... because I take immoral risks... Not illegal ones... Immoral... Like... hugging a kid. Not like I'd do that... unless they were my own... or like... one of my own.

They say that there might be life out there. That... somewhere theres another planet like our own, with life... like animals... trees... insects... I'm not going to say I don't believe all that...

But...

...If there is... who says they're on the same side as us? who knows if they're better prepared than us, if we went to war with them.

...All I know is the day the bombs start falling... I'll be long gone...

~ Sigma.

I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but blurry shapes of rock being moved around. I rubbed away the dirt from my eyes and watched as a large brute of a soldier shifted rubble off my chest. "HEY! YOU AWAKE, SON?" He yelled at me, and I nodded slowly, coughing dust up. "GOOD. TAKE THIS GUN AND GET UP TO THE FORWARD POINT! THE SERGEANTS WAITING! GO! GO! GO!" He yelled, lifting me up, jamming a rifle into my hands and shoving me forwards towards an overturned truck. I let my hearing sort itself out before sprinting to the truck, and diving behind it as sniper fire blasted over my head. "SHIT! GET DOWN!" I heard someone yell. I checked the safety of my rifle, it was an A707 Marksmans Rifle in desert camo with a Laser Sight, 12x Scope and a Bipod. I had a quick glance through bullet holes in the truck to see three red beams being directed around, one of them then shot to the hole I was peering through and I ducked just in time as a bullet shot past. I heard someone yell out: "MEDIC!" and I turned my head. Reality finally caught up with me...

I was in Afghanistan. It was April, 2015. A solar flare the size of the moon was emitted from the sun last month which luckily didn't harm anyone on earth, except from those directly on the equator in africa, who were instantly vaporised. All electrical devices were instantly shutdown along the Equator and north and south of Africa. A feeble Afghan gang, the Qaiden, grew in the darkness, and bought firearms from a Bloodhound cell which operated to the north of our location in a bunker. Bloodhound was an old gang from back in 2014 from London, in England. When the massive blackout occured, they emerged from the darkness lending a hand to the highest bidder. The Americans aren't bothered with helping, and the British won't deal with gangs, so they went to the Afghani group, the Qaiden.

I peered back through the hole and quickly counted the heads I saw, before backing away as another sniper round shot past. About 5 of our guys hiding behind pillars and debris from the hotel further down, beyond that is an old watch tower with two snipers in it. Not ours. A third was hidden somewhere near there, and there was around 7+ enemy footmobiles patrolling the street. Oh and one upgraded Stryker APC, probably stolen from a Bloodwing compound.

You see, there was five major factions back before the massive blackout... Bloodhound Gang from London, Bloodwing Gang, also from London, but they were foes. Then there was Blue State Faction or simply BSF which operated in the dark for a few former-bloodhound Lieutenants who went rogue. Then theres the Shadow League group, Project: Nightingale, and then theres this elite private sect known as The Jägers. Bloodhound was entirely militaristic, I mean, they had the guns, the trucks, you name it, but lacked the permission to own all that stuff, so turned to crime. Bloodwing on the other hand was a "Lend the Bloodhound Anti-Sympathisers a Wing" aka a Hand, in getting rid of Bloodhound Gang. Blue State formed when Bloodhound went bust in January this year. Half of it went into hiding, and a few higher-ranking Lieutenants formed up with another unknown gang to create Blue State Faction. As for The Jägers...well they're from Germany, but no one knows who they truly are, except they're Neo-nazi's in a way, as they're all about using gas-related genocide, and are entirely fascist. Don't get me wrong, gassing people for being in your country doesn't make you Nazi... but they raise the Swastika like their emblem, only with a Skull in the middle, like a sort of Skull and Crossbones...

"HEY! CORPORAL, STOP DAYDREAMING AND MOVE YOUR ASS!" I heard someone yell from next to me, and I snapped back and looked over to see a face I knew too well from news reports, but not so much from anything or anywhere else. "Uhh... oh.. yes, sorry Vinc- I mean uh... Mr. Grymm." I jumped up and spotted a laser aimed right between my eyes.

*BANG*

The corporal collapsed to the floor, his brains spewed out across the dirt and Grymm just shook his head. "Moron." He muttered as the soldier who had saved the Corporals life walked over. "Good to see you again Major." Grymm said enthusiastically, trying to ignore the brains and blood between him and the Major. "Yes... bit of a pain about the kid... he wasn't half bad with a rifle." the Major replied. "Indeed." Grymm acknowledged him with a nod, then spun around and raised a hand, and tensing it as white platelets began forming up his arm and to his hand before forming into a tough gauntlet, as the platelands then changed shape into a large cannon. The Major went silent, admiring the strange weapon that Grymm possessed as it began to hum softly. "Eat this." Grymm whispered as the cannon expelled a focused orb of blue energy which soared off towards the sniper tower, impacting the rigging above it and blowing the top to pieces, sending two lifeless half-mutilated corpses flying to the ground, splitting into bits on impact. "Shit... Don't get me on the recieving end of that, will you, Grymm?" the Major chuckled. "Nah. Just give me what I need and I'll get out of your hair." Grymm replied as the platelet cannon reforged into a gauntlet. "We've got 3... uhh... 1 sniper left... plus about 7 plus footmobiles guarding the bunker door. Each carrying AK-47s with underslung masterkeys and grenade launchers. All with acog scopes. Stryker APC has a large 105mm artillery cannon mount which has been providing artillery fire support to enemy forces down to the eastern front." the Major explained. "Got your boys in a bit of a sticky situation then, huh?" Grymm chuckled as he admired the APC before tensing his arm again. "Just.... focus on that APC and the sniper so our boys can get moving. Let the men get those others." the Major sighed, exhaustedly, reloading an M4A1 Carbine and checking the underslung plasma cutter. "Fuck" he muttered as he tried to fire the plasma cutter.

"Something wrong, Major?" Grymm smirked as he reforged his gauntlet into a welding arc and fired it at the underslung plasma cutter, burning the claw-shaped barrel slightly. "Try now." Grymm spoke quickly before diving behind the over-turned truck, reforging his gauntlet into a sniper rifle and diving back out, aiming it straight at a building. Three blue lasers fired from the end, before locking onto the structure. "You're mine." Grymm chuckled before the sniper fired. A male yell could be heard in the distance before silence. The major tested the Plasma Cutter and it emitted a large purple fire-like burst. "Thanks for the fix. Now, I better get on moving onwards and upwards. ALRIGHT MEN! LETS MOVE OUT! Grymm, can you take the APC?" the Major yelled as he charged towards his men who were cowardly hiding. "Sure... I can..." Grymm smirked as the platelets further formed around his body, covering it with a white pristine suit of armor, it then formed a helmet and a blue visor then formed. "Right... Lets give this a test shot." Grymm said before standing still for a moment, then looking right at the APC with one arm raised, acting as an aerial. Suddenly a loud swoop sound echoed as something shot down from the sky, impacting the APC. Moments later it exploded, becoming engulfed in a purple blaze. "Damn...I can kick ass and Eat popcorn...Shame I've got no popcorn..." Grymm smirked, before walking off and leaping up to a 2nd story window and into the shadows.