313 Years Later

Part II: A Few Violent Memories

July 3rd, 2411
Forward Base Whiskey
9:21 a.m.

Anthony always found the vast emptiness of the deserted and scorched lands of Vania oddly serene at times. The silence, followed by gusts of wind and the Sun setting down behind the mountains in the distance. His imagination wandered to what it would’ve looked like if the Great Nuclear Revolution never took place. If most of civilization didn’t flee the planet and into the stars. If the tales of vast, green and lush lands were true. He could only imagine for so long, though, before he was interrupted by the sound of people climbing up the guard tower he’d been stationed in. He looked back at the tower ladder, watching a woman climb up and onto the towers floor, followed by another, taller male figure. The woman didn’t wear a helmet unlike Anthony, but she wore clothing and armor similar to his. Metal plates strapped onto light leather clothing by leather straps. Anthony recognised her as one of his best friends within the UVR, Elizabeth Vermello. As she got to her feet and stood up straight, her face was lit up by the Sun. Short, curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and small lips, all worn by a face with sharp facial features. The second, male figure Anthony recognized as his lifetime friend and brother-in-arms that he had known ever since he lived all the way back in Carotoga, Kazimir Kovalevsky. He wore a red and black plaid trapper hat in place of a helmet like Anthony, but once again wore much of the same armor, although a few extra or thicker pieces of metal covered Kazimirs armor, along with having an ammo belt with an assortment of bullets attached to it over his right shoulder and chest. They both walked over to Anthony, saying their greetings to him.  “Wassup, Ant?” Elizabeth exclaimed, smiling cheerfully at him as she leaned on the railing of the tower next to him, followed by a much larger Kazimir leaning his back against the corner pole of the tower on the other side of Anthony while saying, “Good afternoon, Anthony.” 
“Hey, Lizzie. Hey Kaz.” Anthony said to both of them, turning back around to stare out at the vast deserts of Vania once again. “You guys shouldn’t be up here without permission from Danker, he’ll be on all our asses if he figures out you two came up here without asking.” He added, looking at Elizabeth, who rolled her eyes while smiling, then at Kazimir, who just shook his head. “None take Danker seriously. All bark, no bite.” He said, an accent evident in his speech. “Little man wish he could boss Kazimir around.” He added, mumbling other things in a different language under his breath while staring out of the tower, opposite of where Elizabeth and Anthony were staring. Elizabeth chuckled at Kazimir, at his accent and how he spoke, then she looked at Anthony. “Nah. Danker won’t even know, and Sarge won’t even care if he goes yappin’ to him for the sixth time this week.” She said, folding her arms over her chest as she stared out the same way Anthony was. He looked over at Elizabeth, then at Kazimir, then at the horizon, watching as it slowly turned to black, and he regained control of his thoughts. 
‘No,’ he thought as his vision blackened, ‘I want to stay here, with them.’
‘You are needed elsewhere, warrior. Go.’ A voice, neither masculine nor feminine, said back. 
A short, maybe insignificant memory, but a memory nonetheless. And now he remembers something new about himself. 

June 9th, 2412
Lancer Base, Vania
3:00 a.m.

“ARTILLERY!!” 
A loud whistle in the air and then a loud booming sound woke Anthony from his sleep. He looked around him through his helmets goggle shaped visor, to see other soldiers readying themselves, putting on helmets, strapping on pieces of metal onto their leather outfits, and arming themselves with weapons. He leapt off of the small bed he had been sleeping on, stepping loudly on metal sheets as he pushed past other soldiers to get to a locker pushed up against the metal walls of the building he had woken up in, opening it up to find a semi-cleaned and makeshift looking rifle, grabbing it and a handful of magazines for the rifle. Alarms blared outside and another explosion rocked the building, Anthony thinking it would almost collapse. Worried about the integrity of the building, he ran straight for the nearest door, ramming through a door and being met with a sight he wished he wasn’t used to.
Smoke rose up from beyond a giant wall that seemed to stretch out around the entirety of the base. A few buildings inside had been struck with artillery, causing fires and debris in the street ahead of him, soldiers running past the debris and fires to get outside of the wall or on the wall.  Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and turned around, met with the face of his large friend, Kazimir. “Kaz! What- Who’s attacking? What the hell is going on?!” He questioned loudly, only for Kazimir to shake his head at him, giving him a worried look. “Crimson Imperialist Soldiers. Caught us by surprise minutes ago. They have overrun outside soldiers, ” He briefly explained, lifting up a large machine gun in his hands as he jogged towards the large wall, leaving Anthony in brief shock. Imperialists? All the way out here? He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t believe it. His disbelief was only put to the test when he heard the loud Warsong of the Crimson Army from over the wall, a distinct wail of horns, beating of drums, and sound of cannons echoing out over the wall. From nowhere, then, he hears and feels a loud tremble as a large, armored, vehicular shape passed by him, painted in desert camouflage and smoke belching from behind it that left Anthony in a cloud full of it. ‘A tank,’ he thought, ‘is it really that bad this time?’ His rifle in hand, he ran forwards behind the tank with a group of other soldiers, pushed up against the back of the tank as it rolled over debris and, horrifically, bodies of soldiers and regular people. He forced himself to look up instead of at the bodies, watching as small bits of gunfire were shot over the wall and into the air to drop somewhere else. A second later, the tank came to a stop. The other soldiers around him ran out from behind the tank that had positioned itself in the middle of a street that lead straight towards a giant, metal, thick looking gate connected to the rest of the wall. The soldiers ran out along the street, followed by others being dropped off by the backs of armored transport vehicles, from other buildings, and from behind two more tanks that rolled up behind and on each side of the first tank. Anthony watched as soldiers deployed small, carriable barricades that set themselves up in less than a second, while others pushed up pieces of concrete wall and debris into bigger and better makeshift barricades. Though the defenses were not of his concern as of now. Now he was looking around frantically for Kazimir, whom he found mounting his large machine gun on one of the makeshift barricades with the help of Elizabeth, who seemed to be wearing a helmet. He ran over, sitting himself next to the duo, with Kazimir pulling back a handle on the side of it as he just finished loading it. Elizabeth looked over at Anthony, her face now covered by the same helmet Anthony wore, and scurried down next to him. “Ant, what the hell are you doing up here? Your unit was supposed to get sent to the back defenses, orders from Sergeant Dawson.” She said, grabbing his shoulder and turning him towards her. Anthony sputtered for a second, having not received such an order from anyone.
“There wasn’t anyone there to give us orders at the barracks, especially not Dawson. We all woke up when the artillery started firing, and I guess after the guys outside were overrun. Where even is Dawson?” He asked, only to get a head shake from her. “He was going to the barracks when the artillery started firing. From what I know, a shit ton of civies and soldiers in the back of the base are dead. Maybe Dawson is too. All I know for sure who is dead is Frax, who was commanding the people outside the wall.” She explained, causing Anthony a short shock of surprise before he realized something was wrong about her mentioning the soldiers outside. “Speaking of the people outside, you hear that?” He asked, causing Elizabeth and Kazimir to realize that the artillery and firing had suddenly stopped. Elizabeth looked up and around in a near frantic way, while Kazimir slowly looked over at the large gate within the giant wall, whispering, “They went quiet,” as he stared at it, waiting for something to happen. As a few more soldiers arrived from different parts of the base and stationed themselves along the few makeshift fortifications with room and behind the other tanks. For a moment, nothing happened. For a split second in Vania, neither side was shooting at each other. And for a split second it stayed, as a second later the gate was suddenly fired upon from the other side. Explosions rocked the ground and cracked the gate, with whatever they could’ve done to prevent them from getting inside quickly went away as the gate exploded outwards, giving into the force from the other side. It opened wide, two massive doors flinging open, followed by the distinct sound of the same Crimson Army Warsong and figures clad in bright red armor, mask-less helmets, and wielding cleaner, sleeker weapons compared to the UVR soldiers. What followed was a moment Anthony would never forget. A rocket from the gate was fired, spiraling around in the air before landing on one of the tanks, destroying it just as the others opened fire on the advancing red colored soldiers. Both sides opened fire, Anthony watching as the red colored soldiers fell to large amounts of gunfire and the explosive shots of the tanks. The first few, maybe twelve Anthony thought, were cut down before they started to pile into the base. They took cover behind whatever they could find, including their own soldiers' bodies. He lifted his rifle and fired into the advancing soldiers, watching as one of the red soldiers fell from his shot. Gunfire forced him to get back behind cover, and then watched as a slick stick with a ball end attached to each end of the stick was thrown at one of their makeshift fortifications, blowing up both it and the soldiers shooting from it.
More of the red soldiers ran through the opening, and another rocket was fired. It spun violently in the air, much like the first one, before landing directly onto three soldiers and next to another of the two remaining tanks. It wasn’t destroyed, but it disabled its treads and killed the soldiers. A horn sounded out from farther in the base, and Anthony watched as his fellow soldiers started to move back and away from the battle, the tank even being abandoned after firing just a few more farther into the base. “Is tactical retreat sound,” Kazimir stated loudly over the sounds of gunfire, ripping his machine gun off of the fortification and continuing to fire it towards the red soldiers, “we must go, now!” 
Elizabeth and Anthony moved back behind Kazimir, retreating backwards as he provided suppression against the red soldiers. As they ran, though, in the corner of his eye, he spotted it. He spotted them. He spotted the one living thing that could lead these soldiers to battle.
An intimidatingly tall and physically fit figure, clad in some sort of gray colored advanced armor as opposed to the bright and dark red colors of the troops they seemed to lead. Medals, a large belt of pouches across the chest, a large scarf, and a battleworn cape barely flowing behind them gave their armor its own unique appearance. Their helmet covered their entire face and was reminiscent of an old knights helmet and face guard,  and one would assume that one of the holes they used to see out of was glowing a bright red. They held a large weapon, a double bladed staff. One side was large, sharpened, and curved blade with a smaller blade sticking out of the straightened side. On the other end of the staff was a simple spiked mace ball, nothing more to it. As they walked, Anthony could hear the howls and yells of “For the Imperator!” and “Forward for the Crimson Imperium!” 
His skin went cold and he turned his head back forwards, dodging a pile of debris and a few stray bullets. It really was them. Them. Everyone, everywhere knew the story of the Crimson Imperiums recent leaders over the last two decades, how every one of them were replaced over the years over and over again. It was a new cycle that put them in a state of constant infighting among the higher ups, civil war amongst the soldiers, and crowds of anger and protest from the people under their rule. A cycle no one understood, and one that left the people of the Scorched Lands with one less of a problem to deal with. 
That was until their newest and current leader rose to power. Imperator Morgan. When people first talked about it, people laughed. Morgan? A name like that belongs as a mayor. More importantly, people laughed because they were a woman. A woman had never previously ran the Crimson Imperium, and the change caused different outcomes from different people. The majority laughed and made jokes about it, turning the Crimson Imperium into a laughing stock for the first few months that Morgan was at power. The rest became concerned of a new leader and prepared for the worst. 
But they didn’t prepare enough. 
Anthony, Elizabeth, and Kazimir skid to a halt just beyond a new set of fortifications, armored cars, and the last tank they had positioned outside of what looked like a train station, but instead of trains there was a line of elongated, armored, six wheeled vehicles. Anthony watched as crowd after crowd of people got onto them, and then watched as they sped off into a tunnel that ran underground. 
“They’re coming! Fire! FIRE!!” A woman yelled out as she stood over one of the fortifications with a pair of binoculars before she was shot dead where she stood, her body falling backwards onto the ground. Anthony, Elizabeth, Kazimir, the other soldiers, armored cars, and the tank all opened fire as more Crimson Imperialists Soldiers ran towards their fortifications firing their own weapons. The tank fired a deafening shot from the large turret on its main body, followed by an explosion of fire and metal in the middle of a group of the red soldiers. More rockets from the other side were fired. The tank was destroyed, followed by the two armored vehicles they had. Now it was just the soldiers left. 
Behind them, what seemed to be the last crowd of people were now boarding one of the six wheeled vehicles. Anthony had backed up into the crowd, and then watched as one of the red soldiers jumped over a fortification, kicking the UVR soldier behind it and using the butt of their gun to bash in their helmet with one hard smash. Anthony fired a single shot at them, the bullet bouncing off of their metallic armor. The red soldier looked up, the helmet they wore resembling that of a futuristic type gas mask welded to the front of a helmet, with the helmet itself having eight small horns sticking out of the top. Anthony tried to fire another shot, but found his rifle was empty. And as the soldier charged at him and yelled a vicious war cry, he found he had no time to reload. He flipped his rifle barrel into his hands and, like a bat, swung the end of the rifle at the charging soldier. A crack sounded out from the swing, and the red soldier stumbled backwards, holding their helmet in their hands and yelling out in pain for a moment. Anthony tried to swing again, but the red soldier caught the swing with his forearm, then twisted his arm to grab the rifle and smack Anthony in the head with it. Anthony gritted his teeth as his head flew back from the hit, before using his own strength to hit the red soldier once again in the face and then following it up with a headbutt. The red soldier stumbled back once again, but before the fight could continue the soldier was shot down. Anthony looked over to find Elizabeth lowering her weapon, and Kazimir punching a helmetless red soldier to death. The battle had now become a close combat battle. 
“Ant, we need to leave. Get on the transport!” She yelled, grabbing Anthony and pulling him away from the battle. Anthony, without speaking, willingly let her drag him towards the last six wheeled vehicle, and then made an ‘oof’ sound as he was shoved inside by her. He stood up quickly, watching through slits in the armored windows as more red soldiers broke through the fortifications and slaughtered his fellow soldiers. More soldiers got onto the last bus, including Elizabeth and Kazimir, but Anthony was horrified as he heard the door shut and the transport start to surge forwards. More soldiers were still out there, some even running towards the transport.
“Wh- Wait! Open the door, we can’t leave them behind!” He yelled as he tried to climb to the front of the transport. He reached for the lever that opened and closed the transport door, but it was too late. As Kazimir held Anthony away from the door, he watched outside the window as the retreating soldiers were shot down and killed where they stood, crawled, or cowered. As the sides of the barely lit tunnel blocked the sight of death that had just occurred, the taller figure with a cape and knight-like helmet slowly walked towards the tunnel, stepping over the bodies of both red and uncolored soldiers, before turning to look down the tunnel. Behind them, another figure approached, wearing armor similar to the tallest but with the red of the soldiers and an added black color to it, and they did not wear a helmet. They were an older man, visible scars across his rough face, with a shaved beard and head, and a scowl across his mouth as he looked from the taller figure and at the tunnel.
“Seven of those transports got away. Five of them were full of regular people. The other two are carrying soldiers,” the man stated in a voice that was much like his appearance, rough and harsh, “quite unfortunate. You promised us this would be the last of the ones in Vania. But I can’t help but notice that the survivors just left.” 
The taller figure looked down at the man.
“Your point?” They said, their voice obviously artificial and made to hide their real one. They spoke in a dark, unfeeling, robotic tone, a voice that would make the oldest of mutants shiver in fear. However, it was fairly obvious that whoever was speaking was female. 
“There weren’t supposed to be any survivors.” He said simply, looking away. “With all due respect, Imperator Morgan, you said it yourself. They won’t survive this battle. They won’t live to see your continuous rule over Vania. And I say once again, we just let them go.”
“I cannot promise you every little thing, commander. I promise what I want and do what I can do to fulfill it. This is a minor inconvenience. Nothing more.” She said, then put a hand on the commanders shoulder and turned him around, almost forcefully. “Mobilize the troops. Contact and tell Colonel Monty to send us a proper team to map these tunnels. When we find an exit, we’ll track them from there. That is all.” She said, and promptly walked away. The commander sighed, following her away as he yelled at the red soldiers to move out. 
As the memory faded to black once again, Anthony wondered to himself in his own consciousness how he saw that last bit, with Imperator Morgan and the commander. 
These probably weren’t normal flashbacks and memories.