Divided We Fall

"When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers" - Julius Nyerene

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Prologue

August 26, 2043: 19:46

The operations room seemed to freeze in place as Dawkins' deafening tone rang throughout the sleek titanium walls. The jaws of many locked in place, but not a single word was to be spoken among them. Their eyes were held wide as if a bullet had just been planted in each of their chests. "What in the hell were you thinking?! Do any of you know what's at stake here?"

The monitors displayed around the room flashed with cycling images of surveillance footage. An energy refinery and its erected pillars. Its generators slowly revolving into an utter stop, smoke billowing out from each crevice. Supportive pillars around the south-east side completely blown out by C4 charges. A large chunk of the facility to keeled over into a pile of unidentifiable rubble. Lying among the mass were the charred and broken pieces to the twelve M142s.

These vehicles had been carrying highly-powered IED payloads. All of which had been armed, ready, and posing an impending threat on the NWC's operating base. The missile carriers had been advancing in a v-shaped formation, alongside several T5-52s. The NWC had been quietly planning it's retaliation for over 4 days as the enemy caravan had driven its way into the inner-city. At precisely 19:44 on August 26, they finally got their chance.

Unfortunately, victory never comes without a cost.

In the bottom-right corner of the screen, the list of casualties began to sprawl out the words: Theta Lincoln-6...Theta Jun-3...Theta Jackdaw-2...Theta Lawrence-5...

"Any objections, Lieutenant?" The man standing by the Direct Order Terminal slowly turned to face his target. "Those men knew exactly what they signed up for. They lived and died knowing that they have gone great lengths to ensure the creation of the free world."

"But at what cost must we get that 'free world', Admiral? How long does this need to go on?"

The Admiral retained a deadly serious look on his face as he reached for the glass of water sitting on one of the numerous unidentifiable disk drives next to his upper calf. One sip, and then another in quick succession. Even in this brief moment of sudden pause in this difficult conversation, finding a truthful answer would be far from easy amongst the scrambled thoughts pacing through his brain. Answer too quick, and it may be at a lack of any intelligent reasoning; but rather leave pangs of regret to linger in his head. Answer too slow, and his authority would be vulnerable for judgement.

After a momentary contemplation, he briskly wiped his lips and took in one thin breath. "The new world never comes easy, Dawkins. Never has perfection been given to us on a silver platter, especially for any past Earthly civilization. What if the ancient Greeks and Romans? Both of which were able to gain vast empires of great wealth and power through different times in history. Both had extremist competitors who all had their own capitalizing ideas for how the world should be thought to run, yet only specific ones came out on top. What exactly do you think needed to be sacrificed to reach that point, Lieutenant?"

Dawkins interrupted, "Of course they had limits, sir. Even the Roman Empire could lose so man-"

"So many what, Dawkins? Troops? Men who knew exactly where their lives were going even through the early days of childhood?" Bracket could tell through the shifting body language of the room, that the majority of the officers were beginning to sway to his side of the argument. "They lost hundreds and thousands of valiant warriors during their reign," he continued with an even greater level of confidence, "all of which dedicated to the cause of expanding the great power of Rome. No matter what way you look at it, their strategy...their lifestyle rather, was a total success. It's beyond a shadow if a doubt that every army has limits, Lieutenant. You just seem to misunderstand what ours are."

Dawkins himself was at a total loss for words. Bracket did indeed had a point throughout that speech, and he soon realized that he wasn't the only officer in the room who could tell. While this evidence was nearly undeniable, Dawkins at least held on to one thought that no one could ignore.

"I see," quavered Dawkins, nearly losing both his mental and physical stability. "But with all due respect sir, the Theta Squad have been consistently winning us battles for the past 7 months."

Soft murmuring ensued.

"It only seems that you used them as--as pawns, sir!" Never in his life had the Lieutenant struggled with such objective statements, and he had once even managed to convince his commanding officer to step down in respect for his superior battle strategy in New Alexandria. Not only did the words come with such restraint, but as soon as he realized the insubordination of his statement, his soul practically left his body.

Bracket said nothing at first, just another instance of finding the best way to get out of this argument. Then suddenly his voice rose, "You know just as damn well as I do that Theta Squad was no mere pawn in this war! They were knights to the end and they will be commended as such! They were the most tactically advanced team in the NWC and adaptable to any situation, including ones such as these. They knew that," Bracket held back a slight stutter in his words. "They knew that."

"They knew exactly was at stake and exactly what it would do for us. And look, there we are," the Admiral pointed the empty line of rubble lying across the brigade. "A free pass straight into enemy territory."

Dawkins recovered himself for a moment and took a look at the screen for himself. Of course the Admiral had been completely right in this assumption, as the path towards enemy lines was completely vulnerable for infantry assault. Not only that, but he was also aware of the ground teams that had been ordered in immediately behind Theta Squad to enforce the push against the enemy.

He faltered for a brief moment, then sat back down in his chair, followed by the remaining few in the room. He felt Bracket's hand tap softly against his shoulder. Shuddering, Dawkins looked up at the stone cold face of his commanding officer.

"Syndicate has done well thus far, Lieutenant," Bracket murmured as he looked into the forward monitors. "I have no doubt that you will continue to prove yourself a valuable asset in this war." Bracket began to silently slide a modified Auto 9 out of its holster. "We're working together now, we understand each other's methods and operations." Dawkins nodded to himself, silently agreeing with the Admiral.

Bracket clicked off the safety with nothing more than a mere tap of the finger. "But," he continued. "when one side or the other doesn't keep their promise..." Bracket held the firearm to the right temple of Dawkins' head. "Well we wouldn't want that now would we?"

A single bang rung out, and then soon, fell to silence.