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The Carrier rocked with each hole in the ground. The look on the greenhorns' faces was blank, no other emotions present, they knew that the chances of surviving this conflict was almost nothing. Some horns where holding religious symbols in their hands, gripping it as if they were to make peace for what ever awaits on the other side. The rocking became more intense the longer we rode to Ska'tna, our last hope to gain a foot hold and secure this war for our self's. It was like both sides wanted to exterminate the other, no matter what the cost. "krieg" a warrior said in the back left seat, next to the door release. I just kept my head held down, if it was someone I knew I don't think I would be able to handle the loss, I tried to seem like I didn't hear anything, but the only noise was the metal scraping on dirt from the blast holes in the trail their. "kreig, don't you know my voice?" he said again, but this time his voice trailing off as if saddened. I couldn't help but lift my head and look to my left, Only to notice my good friend Sa'ton looking down at the pieces of dirt dancing on the floor. It felt good to know that he was with me on the ride, even if we were almost there. "Sa'ton" I said with a smile "I didn't notice you sit down, but I guess you miss a lot when your first in" I ended with a small chuckle. Sa'ton slowly looked up and to me, only to catch me by surprise, he had a giant scar on his right cheek to his left eye. I haven't seen him since we left school one year ago. But that was the begging of the war, a lot of my class was taken and thrown into the conflict, and almost all of them came back in flag covered coffins to their weeping families. "its been a while kreig" he said. I didn't know what to say, I mean, yeah its been a long time, but has he been fighting in this war? How did he get that nasty scar on his face? All these questions and more where rushing to my head. "I was surprised when I saw your name on the new horns list, I had to get to you before they did" he said as he returned to watching the dirt and pebbles dancing up and down "the others, they don't know how to fight, they just send their men in and all they get is a bunch of tags, I couldn't let that happen to you" One again, I didn't know how to reply, was this fate? Coincidence? Hell it was somewhat reassuring to know I had someone watching over me like guardian. "im guessing that you thought I had died somewhere in this forsaken war" his tone dropped once again "well, with everyone we knew coming home in coffins, I just suspected... I... I just held out hope that some of us were still alive" suddenly feeling like this will be the last I ever see of him, my eyes blurred, I had to fight the emotions that flooded over me. "some of us have, but not many. This war will take all that is you and twist it and distort it, your eyes will no longer become teary, your emotions will be locked away some where with the key out of reach. This war is almost over, I can feel it" The transport suddenly rocked violently to the left, red lights began to flash, the harnesses just barely able to hold the weight of its occupiers. The intercom hisses as the drivers announced that, that was a mortar round, they were lucky to not have been hit, but that the transport had suffered major damage and required a hot fix.

"looks like the party has begun" someone said, "hell yeah! Lets go!" another yelled

The harnesses began to lift up with a hiss as the pressure was leaking. The greenhorns stood up, checked their gear, put on their helmets and grabbed their rifles and grenades.

"lock and load maggots! This is the real shit" Sa'ton yelled as he hit the emergency release button. The door hatch opened almost immediately "move, move!" We all flooded out like cattle to a pasture, forming ranks as trained in camp, weapons at the ready. We saw the exterior of our transport, the front right was charred black and the drivers windshield and door where completely blown away. The crew raced to get the fire suppressant, the fire was spreading quick. Sa'ton looked happy, this was his squads first encounter with enemy fire, even if it was just indirect fire from the battles above.

"this may be fun for you all now, but I swear to you, that by the end you will be drained of everything, a former husk of your selves" Sa'ton barked, obviously amused at frightening the horns. "sir, what should we do now?" a horn said. A small grin appeared on Sa'ton face, he knew what he would have them do. "We're going to recon the area, see if there is anything of danger to our transport team" he said as he slapped a clip into his weapon "if we do encounter any hostiles, report to me via your comms ill tell you what to do next. I want a 30-40 spread, now lets move!" We all spread out, some moving slower then others while some made haste to the brush up ahead. Green lights flashed on every ones heads up display. "all clear, move up!" Sa'ton ordered We slowly crept, taking care not to make to much noise, the field was lonely, all that reassured me that my team was alive was some small gray boxes on the HUD s lower right corner that displayed their status. The comms started to crackle, "sir, I found something, you should take a look at this" "stay put, we will rally at your position, just remain hidden. Everyone group up on me, we will see what requires my attention" I slung my rifle over my shoulder into its magnetic grip and went to a full sprint, I could see others do the same once I got into a clearing. I noticed that I was almost the last one to arrive, I slowed down to a fast walk, and to catch my breath. As the last of us arrived My eyes widened, what was in that crater was no munition, but something that would change the whole course of the war.

"sir, what is this?" the comm crackled, we all where focused on the object "I don't know, but it isn't anything I have ever seen in my experience" he said as he looked into the sky, "based on the crater, I assume this would have came from space" We all looked at each other, this wasn't twisted metal, nor an escape pod. "what should we do sir?" Sa'ton ignored us as he walked away, From what I could make out, he must have been talking on a secret channel. A few moments later He must have finished his chat and walked slowly back to the group. "alright guys, lets move, we have a little bit of recon left to do, when we'll head back to the transport. We all went to resume our 30-40 spread, but I was only a couple of steps away from formation when suddenly a pulse from the object emitted and I was blown away...