Alarms blared, rooms drowned in red lights.

  "Man battle stations!", could be heard everywhere in the Zayux Military Base. They have been expecting a naval invasion for a long while now. Today, it seemed, it had finally arrived.

  Lining the coast was a defense system, filled to the brim with 10 to 16 inch cannons. The general in charge, general Shikku Usamada, had planned this very well. He had predicted the enemy's numbers, 15 transports he counted.

  Due to the glorification of war in this region, military technology had gotten far beyond in advancements while farmers still tilled lands manually and civilian factories could only make so much product everyday.

  Despite this, war had become the motive for workers and soldiers to keep working. Militaries could boast electromagnetic pulse systems and anti-swarm weapon arrays while towns people only had what they needed, sometimes even less.

  Featured in the general's defence were three rings of defense, all harder to breach than the last.

  On the alliance side, they appeared to hold a moderately large fleet, possibly with two or three aircraft carriers - an average number for the era since production was especially high in the navy considering that Arcturus was an island nation.

  "Sir, it seems to be three Merit-class aircraft carriers.", reported the radar operator.

  "Well done, make the men arm the anti-air guns. We can't let them get anywhere close to our cannons."

  The Arcturion military boasted auto-cannons, loaded with either flak or solid shot bullets. They have been somewhat effective in shooting down aircraft, but these were old models, a fact that was to be stressed in the following battle.

  Basic biniculars revealed the enemy aircraft taking off in waves of three. Jet technology had been invented atleast 20 years ago and was widespread in supersonic aircraft. Clearly, this world was heavily advanced conpared to any other universe that may or may not exist.

  "Fire!", shouted the commanders of both sides.

  Shells flew through the air, rupturing the pitiful sound barrier. They whizzed through and disappeared in the horizon, before exploding into a million explosions, deafening whatever poor soul was adjacent.

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  Soon, the anti-air began firing aswell, lead covering the blue sky. It seconds, it seemed as if the sky was filled with dark clouds, blocking the sun from grasping the ocean.

  The enemy counterfired, jets peppering the ground with 12mm rounds, jet bombs and anti-bunker ordinance.

  The once beautiful skyline had turned into shadow of its past self, now dark with a smell of earth.

  A second barrage of cannon shells was released by both sides, turning the base into cheese and the ships into wrecks.

  This battle was certainly not the most favorable for the general, but this was the common event. For the Arcturions, the fortress had served its purpose.

  Now, transport doors were slamming down onto the beaches as alliance men poured out with bolt-action rifles and submachineguns.

  Men trained their guns on each other, focused.

  The battle was not over for Arcturus, nor for the enemy. In fact, it had just begun.

  "Sir! Reinforcements had arrived!", reported a soldier.

  "Tell them to station themselves at sector A2!

  The battle plan was simple, secure the anti-air guns from land forces and finished them off afterwards. This specific fort had 4 sectors, A1, A2, A3 and A4. A1 was the front of the battlefield. Behind that was A2 where the field cannons were placed. Even further back was A3 where supplies are located. A4, was the furthest back of them all and is where the headquarters could be found.

  Back on the reinforcements, a face was strikingly familar. Pure black hair, slight brown tone and eyes the color that of a ruby.

  "Yuri! Get on going! Proceed to sector A2!", shouted his direct commander.

  Jumping off of the truck, he noticed the smoky grey sky and the constant fireballs above and on the ground. Grabbing his K-12 Rifle, he followed the rest of the platoon to their designated area.

  It was hard not to be distracted by the constant shouting, screaming, explosions and shelling. Their path included a dug in concrete path lined with ammo and crates. However, it was eerily lonely there, not the peaceful lonely, but the anxiety-inducing kind of lonely. As if there was something behind one of the corners they passed.

  Boots pounding the floor, Yuri looked left and right, up and down, all to not miss a single enemy.

  "Stop.", signaled the leader.

  "Enemy. There. Grenade.", he further signed.

  One of the soldiers grabbed a grenade from their set of equipment, slowly crept near the corner, and threw it with all his force.

  Seconds went by, men clinged to their guns and bags. A click and a clang echoed throughout the narrow path and a grenade, the same grenade that the soldier had thrown, was now at their feet.

  Yuri, tried lunging at the grenade to protect his allies. Just in time, a different soldier blocked him and threw him away, jumping away soon after.

  The grenade exploded, sending fragments to pierce the troops' weak fabric clothes. A piece flew to the head of the very soldier who threw the grenade in the first place who had his helmet fall off in panic.

  Smoke cleared and dust rained down for a short while.

  "What are you doing?!", exclaimed Yuri."I was about to save them!"

  "You simpleminded buffoon! You would just been added to the casualties! It would have been too late. Consider this a favor!", the soldier responded.

  Yuri looked at him frustrated, but the man instead offered a hand. His eyebrows raised, he wondered why he was being shown this courtesy.

  "Take the hand you geek, get back in the fight!"

  Yuri grabbed the man's hand and regained his balance. Holding his rifle, he approached the corner. Miraculously, three of the eight in the blast zone were perfectly fine, but the other five laid there empty.

  When he was about to peek, a bullet whizzed by, missing him by mere milimeters. He hurried to pull his head back and tried to think of another way. His eyes scanned the area, locking on a shard of glass that reflected the enemy's position onto him.

  He judged the position of the enemy and noticed he wouldn't be able to get a good angle to shoot the enemy without dying first.

  As more footsteps signaled the arrival of more enemies, he decided it was now or never.

  Laying down, he looked through the scope as he rotated further and further into the corner.

  Just before he was in the enemy's sights, he fired, but not against the enemy, no, he would never be able to shoot. Instead, he considered the shell just behind the enemy's cover and shot it.

  As expected, it blew up, sending a shockwave throughout the passage. Looking at the shard again, the enemy was taken out.

  He sat down in the effort to calm himself. He had just killed a person. Perhaps two. Perhaps three, he did not know exactly.

  All Yuri knew, was that now, his hands were stained and all that he could and should do was keep fighting.