Chapter 1: Introduction You had been trying to rest in one of the bunks on the spacecraft after getting the new prosthetic, the procedure had been a hellish endeavor to have put on but the new technology had made it work like your old flesh and blood arm though you could do without the light humming noise it generated. You were almost asleep when a young sounding voice spoke to you. “You were there right? At Tunguska I mean? What happened, we never got told an’ only knew something was about when those ships destroyed London.” The person who spoke or rather the boy that spoke looked to be about fifteen and was wearing a newsboy cap on his head...wait a moment, you took a better look at the teen and realized this was a girl in boy’s clothing. You sigh before sitting up. “It had been a single day in 1908 that sealed our fate for better or worse, on the 30th of june that year something crashed near the Tunguska river. Most of us hadn’t known what it was or ever were aware of what happened...sometimes I wonder if we could of stopped what came but knowing what I know now makes that thought seem...childish.” You speak with a bitter tone to the young woman. “Of course you don’t know what i’m talking about, I should educate you on this for it your history as much as it is mine.” ------------ The world as we knew it collapsed in on itself in 1914 as the great powers in Europe went to war, the old empires against the new. Europe burned, the Middle East burned and the Atlantic burned with the fires of war, oh how arrogant we were, we delivered ourselves into their hands in those four terrible years. I fought in that awful war, first with the French in 1914 then with my own countrymen in 1918 inside the argonne forest. We won war of course, made the Kaiser’s men sign that travesty of a peace treaty, versailles, what a waste. I had thought the war had been done with and that I could go home when word of the armistice had traveled through the ranks but when we began marching East joined by French, British, Belgian and German soldiers under the cover of darkness I knew something was amiss. We crossed into The Russian Em...I’m sorry, The Soviet Union by the end of December where we were met by local forces to join this little joint expedition. The Soviet officers had seemed worried, panicked almost but I had no time to worry about that as I had to keep pushing down infighting between the German and allied troops, the joys of being a NCO. One of the nights when we had camped I happened by the commander’s tent and overheard one word. “Tunguska.” I had heard of it, a river in Russia where something had happened the old newspapers had said an Earthquake, but then why were we going there? It took us five more days by way of marching and train to get to our destination and what we found was horrifying. The Soviet army or what was left of it after their terrible losses had formed a defensive ring around...something in a large crater but I wasn’t focused on that, I was focused on the desolation around us, the trees flattened while the normal sound of animals that had followed us was absent. The air felt hot and cold at the same time while a pool of water was forming in the crater’s center but boiling away as fast as it filled, we were told to fill in positions around the crater and my small squad was put at the closest ring to the center I was able to see what we were facing and what lay before me was not something me eyes could understand. A silver object lay jutting out of the ground, small windows were visible but they did not allow us to see inside of it from our distance of about thirty yards. A small group was in the crater examining the object but anytime one of those in the hole made contact with the strange object they fell to the ground as if they were a puppet with their strings cut, a dull hum also filled the air which originated from the object that you were able to feel more then hear. Someone knew more about this object then they were letting on as there were at least a thousand men here surrounding this...thing We spent...a month or so there waiting for something to happen that never did, I spent the time getting to know who my squad mates were and as we were all the leftovers we were a mixed group. A German, Eugen Kant, he was a standard rifleman though he seemed gifted in the art of marksmanship something he exhibited on the journey here as he shot a bird out of the sky at one hundred meters but not only that he kept it councing in the air with his next four shots. Then their was Able Pichard, a Frenchman lugging around a chauchat automatic rifle. He was brash and foul mouthed but also reliable, he was able to find and get pretty much anything you needed be it tobacco or socks. He also seemed to have an odd love hate relationship with his gun, it would malfunction and he was cuss and beat it causing it to work again. Then there was Arnold Gregor a rather melancholy Brit, he had been fighting as long as you have. Other then that you didn’t know much about Arnold, he kept to himself unless ordered and took care of his Lee-Enfield religiously. Finally there was you, a French American, father American and mother French. You had been in France in college when the war broke out and signed up for a three year commision and had fought in many of the major campaigns on the Western front. When your fellow Americans had entered the fray and your commision had ended you signed up with them, you had been issued a 1917 Enfield but when your commanding officer at the time learned that you were both a skeet shooter back home and a rather aggressive trench raider he had issued you one of the company’s m97 trench guns, you made great use of that and you're 1917 S&W in the Argonne becoming a terror to the German’s who had opposed you. Many threw thoughts out as to what the object in the crater was, some thought it was some sort of Russian weapon, others thought it was some type of science experiment gone wrong or that had failed. As a matter of fact many were putting their local currencies in bets for it but you stayed away from all that, you were getting a bad feeling from that thing in the crater and clearly you were not the only one as you could look around the rim of the crater and see others who stared at the object with the same look you had. It was on the seventh day that something happened. One of the people tasked with investigating the object had said he thought he heard something getting louder near the object and decided he wanted to get inside of it, he had put a stick of TNT near the object and detonated it. When the blast had happened it was much stronger than one stick of TNT, you could still remember being knocked onto your back as a beam of purple light lanced into and through the sky as if the object was trying to speak to god but what answered was nothing holy. Rips began to form in the air as flying objects tore through the sky, they were elongated and bulky while being the same color as the one in the ground. They were there in an instant almost and then the sky bled as beams of light smashed into the defenses around the object, you were thrown into the air and knocked in and out of consciousness but there were brief flashes of awareness. Large creatures in metal suits walking among the wounded their heavy frames crushing necks and heads of those that tried to get away, from the flashes the creatures seemed covered in armor with nothing to give you an idea about what they looked like. They carried weapons of what looked like black glass that had a glowing ball at what you could assume was the stock, the projectiles it fired cut through both cloth and flesh with ease as neither offered any resistance. You did the only thing you were able to and that was play dead it helped that you were half in and half out of a trench, one of the creatures pushed you with it’s foot as odd clicking noises came from it’s head and you were sure that it knew you still drew breath as it stared at you but a snap of it’s head drew it’s attention away from you as one of the Russians that had been there tried to run, the images grew hazy again as you lost consciousness once again. You awoke hours later being dragged on a makeshift litter, your eyes were drawn to your feet where what or rather who looked like Abel stood carrying one half of the litter while to your left Arnold stood with his rifle and you could only assume Eugen was at the front of the litter carrying that end, You didn’t feel hurt but they must of found something wrong if they deemed it necessary to put you in this position. - The drift of cold air awoke you out of your state with a start and gasp, Eugen was by your side in an instant looking you over though he was not able to speak English so he could not ask what was wrong luckily Arnold was there as well speaking to the German. Your eye’s drifted to Arnold with the questions going unasked but the Englishman providing answers for you anyway. “I still ain’t sure what happened sergeant, those things in the armor destroyed any defenses we had and those flying ships of theirs have been coming from the sky above the crater and heading both east and west all night. We stayed behind while what was left of the defense force retreated west.” You looked at the sky and indeed it was night time as starts blanketed the sky, in the distance back east you could see the beam of light from Tunguska though now it was over the horizon. “Where are we headed?” Your voice comes out and surprises you almost, you hadn’t heard it yourself for some time. “To the rail depot where they were supplying us from sergeant, that’s where the rest were headed but what we find there might not bode well.” Arnold paused for a second and looked at you. “There is...something else as well sir.” Arnold spoke as he inclined his head towards your left arm, you never gave it much thought when you had been drifting in and out of unconsciousness but as you looked down you saw what Arnold had meant. There was nothing left of your left arm from below the elbow down, your eyes widen slightly as a bit of panic begins to set in but you clamp down on it, now is not the time. “We tried to save it but when we found you lying in a trench there were shreds of flesh left and we knew we wouldn’t be able to get to a proper doctor after what happened for awhile...i’m sorry sir.” He spoke quietly as Eugen and Abel looked on. “I….we can not focus on it right now, where is my revolver?” You ask as you stand up despite protests from Eugen. “And my shotgun as well? I may not be able to use it but I at least need to know where it is.” Your voice is stronger now as you set your bandaged stump against your chest. “Here sir.” Arnold said as he hands you your 1917 Smith and Wesson which you put into your holster after seeing it was still loaded, you felt with your right arm around some of your pouches for more .45 ACP and to make sure you still had your half moon clips for the pistol. “We had to leave your trenchbroom behind sir, it was splintered to all to hell and half the shells were missing.” You sigh at that, you quite enjoyed that gun. “I was able to get some more forty five ammo for you though, none of those fancy clips you got though.” He handed you about fifty more which you added to your pouch next to the clipped .45 rounds you had ready. “We’re about a day’s walk out from the rail yard sir.” You nodded to him. “Let’s get going then boys.” You spoke to the three there with you. “Tear the litter down first though, we might need the cloth for bandages when we get to the rail depot.” You again spoke as Abel and Eugen got to work seeming to have forgotten that they were trying to kill each other a few short days ago. ------------------ “So you four were heading to the rail house? For what?” The young woman English teen asked you as you felt the spacecraft shift slightly. “We had to see if anyone else had made it out, we figured that anyone who had would be heading to the rail depot to try and escape plus there was nowhere for us to go, we were in Russia in the late winter. Though it went unsaid we knew we might encounter some of the Yang-hu although we didn’t know what they were called in those first few days nor had our new friends the Krea shown up yet.” You took a breath. “Anyway, i’ll skip the walk to the rail yard as nothing happened of note.” --------------- Chapter 2: The rail depot The trip had been made in silence for the most part, they did come across bodies of the dead which lead to small arguments about whether to scavenge the corpses or not at which point you had to intervene and tell the others to take what they could from the bodies. Eugen always did so with a scowl as he thought it was unchristian to loot bodies or at least that’s what you understood from Abel who spoke and understood German and luckily enough you knew enough French to understand Abel. The bodies showed burn marks around neat and precise holes burned through each man’s body which was no doubt from the weapons used by the creatures that attacked. Most of the dead still carried ammo for you all to take, enough for all of you to be flush with brass and powder. If you have ever wanted an image of what hell looked like then the rail depot would be it as columns of smoke rose into the sky from fire burning amongst the wood structures, most of the rail ties were intact from what you were able to see but those thoughts were but short by a voice. “Стой, кто идет?!” It was definitely Russian but unfortunately you weren’t able to speak or understand the language thankfully Abel was. “Друзья. Мы выжившие из Тунгуски.” Abel called back, a pause followed and as you were about to ask Abel what he had said when a new voice called out this one in English. “Come out, weapons in the air.” It was a british accent this time, you motioned to the other three with you to step out. You went out first with your S&W in the air hanging by the trigger guard on your right index finger while also holding your bandaged stump up so that they didn’t think you were hiding anything. Abel followed with his chauchat over his head while Arnold and Eugen came out at the same time before a spotlight illuminated you four in the early morning hours “I go myself, a Frenchman, a German and a Englishman with me. We all don’t speak the same languages but I’m the highest rank so address me in English if you could.” The words rolled out of your dry mouth, a symptom of all the water running out a few hours prior. There was another pause before you were addressed by the same English voice from before. “Alright, walk towards the light slowly or we’ll shoot.” It was a simple command that you began following while motioning with your head to the others to follow you, the neared you got the easier it was to see that a makeshift machinegun nest had been set up with the a German manning the machine gun with another German next to him with the belt of ammo in his hands. To the sides of the wall they had set up on was the Englishman and Russian and all of them had their weapons trained on you and the group. “Why are you pointing those guns at us? We ain’t the things that attacked.” You were annoyed and impatient with the whole situation since it wasn’t like the creatures that attacked were hard to distinguish from a person. “Can’t be too careful, they can mimic out speech, had a few of ‘em try and attack us already but we pushed ‘em back with the machine gun. Same goes for the other positions.” He paused as he looked out through some binoculars towards the way you all had come from. “Name’s Taylor by the way.” “Well it’s nice to meet you Taylor, now can we come in?” You ask the man with a little bit more than annoyance. “Shit, ya sorry. Been on watch for thirteen hours now. You said you were the highest rank with this group right? Come with me i’ll take you to where the higher ranks are meeting at, your friends can also follow as the gathering area is on the way. We have plenty of food at least.” Taylor said as another Englishman came to relieve him from his post. You zoned out a little as you all walked, your squad split off when a large tent was being passed and the smell of food wafted out for anyone to smell while the sounds of talking could be heard. You couldn’t see much but you caught a glimpse of the three grouping up with their fellow countrymen. “Uh, sir would you like me to fetch a medic when we get there.” Taylor spoke to you as he took glances back at your wrapped stump, you glanced down yourself at the wound. You hadn’t noticed any odd smells coming from the stump and Eugen had used bandages soaked in carbolic lotion so you were fairly confident infection was not a great possibility but you would rather be safe than sorry so you nod to the young Englishman before you continue walking. You notice the low numbers of your fellow American troops which you found odd since the American troops had made up a bulk of the force sent to the impact sight, the command tent came into view before you had much time to think on it. The tent was made of simple canvas and was about the size of the mess tent, when you were lead in by Taylor the smell of cigarettes and coffee smacked you in the face. There were several men around a table looking at what appeared to be a map first was a Russian officer though his emblem gave him away as a junior officer, second was a British Lieutenant who had the looks of a aristocrat and seemed to be overwhelmed by the whole situation, third was a Frenchman with many lines in his face and a weary look on his face as he glanced at the German officer there and his hat’s emblem marked him out as a major and finally was a German colonel who looked rather at ease with the situation or rather he looked calm as he looked at the map in front of him. They were all talking in English for some reason but you weren’t complaining as you only could understand and speak french but you wouldn’t be confident on keeping up if you were forced to use it. Taylor cleared his voice to get the officer’s attention. “I found this one and a few others coming in at the front picket he’s….” Taylor looked back at you realizing he hadn’t asked your name or rank on the way in and by the look on his face he was infinitely embraced at this so you came to his rescue. “My name is Adrian White, Sergeant first class Adrian White of the AEF sirs.” You spoke to them with a quiet yet firm inflection. “Came in with a mixed squad of three others.” You informed them as Taylor walked off to get the medic or at least that’s what you assumed he was doing. They all were looking at you rather...oddly almost as if they were seeing a ghost of some sort. “And you are with the AEF?” Asked the French Major. “We thought you were all wiped out.” The look on your face must of conveyed all that needed to be said apparently as the French Major gained a sorrowful look on his face as he launched into a explanation. “When those...creatures attacked they scattered us, it took a few miles of retreat before we were all able to form an organized counterattack but whatever those weapons are those things use kept our heads down as they advanced. We would of been wiped out had it not been for your commander, he and the rest of your forces volunteered for a rear guard action to hole them off, as we rode or ran off I remember looking back and seeing one of the creature’s ships moving towards your fellow American’s position as they had stalled their advance...we got far but that ship dropped what looked like a bomb on the American position and in a flash there was nothing left.” He had taken his hat off as he spoke while the others bowed their heads. “Well, I was unconscious at the crash sight so I don’t know much about that. The other three I came with treated my wounds and dragged me a ways before I awoke. I’m...imma need some time to process all this but I will save it for later, please tell me what’s going on?” You ask. “Well.” The German Colonel broke in. “We are trying to agree on a plan of action, I say we stay and fight, my British friend says we should run, the Russian says we should attack the crash sight and the Frenchman says we should stay put and wait to see what happens.” He finished as he went back to the map. “Nothing works due to supplies being low and transport being an issue.” You walk over to the map. “How are the tracks?” You ask. “Decent but a risk exists.” The Russian spoke. “We could use a train but we do not know if the attackers damaged them farther down the line though it is starting to look like our only option.” “What is disheartening though is the lack of communication from anywhere, Moscow, Berlin not even London everything is silent.” The British Lieutenant replied next. “I say we take a vote on it, all of us enlisted men and officers.” You suggest as you notice a medic come in a beeline for you and makes you sit down as he begins looking at your wound. “We should give them another day of rest, we pushed them all rather hard in getting here and not all of them are fully recovered. If we do choose to use the locomotives then we will need everyone to work to get them running.” The German said while agreeing nods from the other three. “We adjourn this meeting and will convene again at dawn tomorrow gentlemen.” He speaks to the other three but ignores you in that statement as the doctor taps you and gives you a thumbs up as you look at the new bandages on your stump. You walk out tied mentally and physically, looking for a tent that was open was difficult and proved to be a fruitless venture so you walk to a train car that had been pushed off the rails and opened the door, inside it was empty save a few pieces of straw. You hop inside and collapse on your back, the events of the day knocking you out in mere moments as the darkness claimed you. --- Chapter 3: Preparation and promotion. You were awoken to the sounds of hard labor as metal scraped against metal and at first you thought the rail yard was being attacked, you scrambled out of the rail car you were sleeping in with your revolver at the ready only to find that no attack was happening rather the troops that weren’t wounded were working on getting trains and cars onto the rails. You let your revolver spin down on your index finger before you holster it again as to not look like a fool for panicking though if anyone was paying attention they didn’t seem to care, You go to rub your hands together but when you feel a space where the left hand used to be you were reminded of your current disability. With that depressing thought you make your way through the rail yard to where you had seen the mess tent the day previous as your stomach was all too happy to remind you about all the food you hadn’t eaten in the last few days, a glance to the sky tells you it’s around six in the morning or at least from the best you can tell it’s around six. You realize if you want any food you would need to hurry up to the mess hall, as you walk you notice the shifts of troops working with the rail cars and engines with some doing physical labor such as gathering coal and other fuel materials for the journey or actually using ropes and pulleys to move the cars to men who had actual experience with the operation of trains, say what you will about conscription but it always brought a diverse skill set to the fields of battle. You reached the mess tent in a matter of minutes thinking you were too late but to your surprise there's a line stretching out of the tent while a large amount of smoke rose through a hole cut in the top of the canvas, a English soldier got in line behind you to whom you questioned. “What’s going on here solider?” The question was simple and thankfully the Englishman was all too happy to answer. “Oh? You must of just got here for food, the officers ordered cooks to start using and cooking the food that would spoil after not too long so that each shift that is working can come and get food and rest if they start getting tired so that the work won’t stop.” The explanation made enough sense to you, when this large force had first got here they had been supplied with large quantities of fresh meat, eggs, wheat, rice, fruit and vegetables by the Soviet authorities which had been frowned upon by the Soviet troops was more then welcome by the commanders of this force. “I also heard rumors the cooks are making preserved food like pickled eggs, sauerkraut and salted meat for the journey west but like I said those are rumors I heard.” You nod to the man in thanks as the line moves forward at a steady clip, when you got inside the large tent yourself you are reminded that you are the only American here as there are French, German, English and Russian troops all segregated to different tables as each man that grabbed his food found his way to his fellow countrymen. A soft sigh escapes your lips at the thought as you slunk forward in line getting a tray and utensils before being given eggs, bacon and a few slices of bread. You saw others getting more or less food depending on where they had come from with the laborers getting more while the wounded that were able to come in as well as the few troops that weren’t doing any physical labor such as the actual conductors of the trains or future conductors at least got less food. You look around the mess tent but find no empty spots where you would be welcome so you head outside and find a crate to sit on, you struggled to eat or rather use your fork. The lack of a left hand made it hard to hold the tray if you needed to cut anything though you are thankful most of the food you could eat with your hand and the eggs were scrambled so their wasn’t anything to cut but at the same time you realized nothing would be the same for you even if you all were able to make it to somewhere safe, your food was finished as you stood leaving the tray where it was and chose a random direction to start walking with the depressing thoughts floating around in your head. You found yourself in a quiet part of the rail hub to think when you heard the sound of something falling then cursing in German actually the more you listened the more voices you heard, they seemed to be asking questions if the inflection and tone of the voices was anything to go by. You walk towards the sounds of talk which leads you to a small warehouse with the door slightly ajar which you push open resulting in the district sound of metal scraping against metal as the rollers at the top of the door did their work leading you to a rather odd sight. Four Germans and one Frenchman were standing around one of the things that attacked at the crash sight but it was quite dead, you hadn’t remembered much about those things but the eyes of their armor had glowed green when they moved but this ones were dark and empty but besides that you were able to get a good look at the thing, what it wore reminded you of the armor worn by knights of times long ago. Smooth lines seemed to blend into each other revealing no flaws save for a neat little hole in the breastplate of the armor while dull grey hid anything else you could see from where you stood, the creature's head piece was rounded like a pistol bullet and other then the eyes had no features you could distinguish. As you followed the creature’s armor down it all seemed to be one piece covering all eight feet of the creature’s stature, at this point one of the men standing nearer to the beast seemed to notice you and your rank. “Oh...sergeant we….were-” He was cut off by one of the others there, you found it odd they all spoke pretty good English. “We found one of them dead sergeant, it was laying out about a mile from the front picket last night on patrol. We dragged it back here last night as to not alarm anyone but we haven’t had time to do much else other than sleep here and make sure no one stumbled in by accident, we seem to have failed at that.” He spoke with a pointed look at you but you wave him off as you walk up to the makeshift table they have the creature on. “One of you needs to get one of the officers and tell them about this and about how close you all found this to the rail yard and get one of them to come here with one of the doctors.” You spoke as you looked over the armor up close now and you didn’t even notice one of the the soldiers run off doing as you told them to. Now that you were closer you could make out engravings in the armor, most of it was symbols you couldn’t make heads or tails of but they did seem to have a pattern to them as well as a direction as they seemed to progress up towards the chest. You followed the lines to their destination on the armored chest and when you reached said chest you found something you were able to recognize. A scene was etched in the armor, rows of figures wearing the same armor as this creature seemed to be marching from a ship like the ones that had came through at the crash site confirming they were related it seemed, the next scene showed these creatures fighting others but the new figures were much taller than them and were depicted with long legs and arms with circular bodies and they fought with their fists as they swept aside the creatures that came from the ships, the scene after was these larger creature’s bodies lying broken and dead on the ground while the attacking creatures stood tall and victorious. Several other scenes were carved in the chest plate but in the end they all had the same outcome the attackers winning. The German colonel came strolling in about that time, cigarette in hand and all the German troops saluted him while the Frenchman eyed the older German wearily. “Ah, sergeant White I had a hunch you would be here.” He spoke to you as you looked over your shoulder at him and raised an eyebrow. “You strike me as a man who takes the initiative, an example here as you sent one of these men to find me rather than follow their example and stare at this...creature.” He took a drag of the cigarette. “Did you bring a medic or doctor?” You ask him as you continued to look over the armor now looking for a way to open it. “Oh, good heavens I almost forgot. Kommen Sie.” He spoke to someone still standing outside the door and in came a German medic who looked tired, probably from helping with any wounded. “Siehst du den Mann dort? Ihr sollt auf sein jedes Wort hören und tun, was er euch sagt?” The colonel spoke something in German to the medic you couldn’t understand one bit but he spoke it while pointing at you to which the medic gave a weary nod. “Now sergeant White is their anything else you need me for as I must get back to the others to plan our egress from this place.” The colonel again spoke to you as he dropped the butt of the cigarette to the ground and snuffed the last few embers out with his boot heel. “Yes actually, come here and look at this.” You speak to the colonel while gesturing to the scenes on the armor’s chest, he was over in an instant to study what you had brought to his attention as you motioned to one of the German soldiers over to you and the medic. “Translate what I’m saying to him.” You got a nod in response. “Tell him to look for a way to open the armor up, I want to see what these things look like and what type of damage the bullet wound left.” He got to translating for you as the medic nodded and started to look along with you. “What do you think these mean sergeant White?” You were startled by the colonel suddenly speaking. “I think I have an idea but I want to hear what you think.” He looked to you with crossed arms. “I’d say these creatures are warriors and conquerors while all the scenes show the battles they have won or at least this one has participated in. I fear we may be next.” You state frankly. “Colonel, this one was shot by a bullet so we know our weapons work on them so at least we know we can fight back, I-” You were interrupted by a hissing sound as you and the colonel looked to the things head to find the medic standing there and gasses escaping the creature’s helmet as segmented metal plates revealed themselves and started to slide back down towards the creature’s neck revealing what it looked like underneath. It’s face was flat and lead to a rather pronounced jaw and brow with light skin stretching over it’s head, a large forehead with little to no hair above on it’s head, it’s eyes were about the same size as your’s but they were pitch black. You took as step back as everyone was now looking the thing over hell even the colonel was showing an interest more suited to a child then an aging Prussian officer of the Imperial German army, the Frenchman who to this point had been quiet to this point threw in his two cents. “It looks like similar to a gorilla.” He spoke with crossed arms. A few of the German soldiers gave him odd looks but the colonel nodded before speaking. “With you saying that I do see some resemblance to those apes and these things.” You had seen drawings of gorillas before but you wouldn’t say they looked exactly like this creature but some resemblance was there. “Sergeant White I would like to speak with you while these other keep looking over the creature.” The colonel spoke as he turned to walk out of the warehouse to which you gave a sigh and followed. When you both exit the structure he has another cigarette in his mouth and an orange ember burning at the end, you take a moment to take a better look at the colonel in the light of the day rather than the fading light of dusk in a dark command tent. His hair was predominantly gray but you could see the white showing through on the sides, his face showed age lines with wrinkles starting to form on his forehead but striking steel gray eyes stared out from below drawing in attention, his face was free of facial hair and laugh lines filled his cheeks. He held himself tall but favored his left leg but walked with no noticeable limp, a scar was seen on his left hand stuck out underneath his uniform’s sleeve and appeared to end at his second knuckle he seemed to glance at it between puffs of his cigarette but he seemed to do it without realizing it. “Sergeant White, work has advanced beyond what we expected and the train should be ready by midday tomorrow and as a matter of fact we are already loading the wounded into a makeshift medical car which is a converted passenger car that was already on the rails. Now I am not telling you this so that you can go get in that car, no i’m telling you because I and the other officers have decided for you to be the sergeant of this whole force and thus the non combat officer for all the men that are left here until we can get to our home forces. Essentially a field promotion.” He finished with a drag of his cigarette which your widened eyes caught. “What? Why? I ain’t gonna be much good in battle if it comes to that due to my hand and I don’t speak German or Russian and my French is rusty plus what am I…” You were at a loss for words, you were used to being sergeant to a few men but there had to be at least two hundred and fifty men here that you were about to be put in charge of effectively. “We picked you because you're American, most of the men here have favorable feelings of your country even my men. We also have translators on standby to be your aids in the time you occupy this position, we need you to keep this army in the form of...well an army so you will handle discipline, physical training, arms and food as well as a host of other things. I trust you will be successful in this role Adrian White.” “How do you know that, colonel with all due respect you don’t even know me!” You exclaimed to the man before he waved you off. “Call it a feeling sergeant, now follow me back to the train cars. We found one to be an office of sorts for you.” He said as he again started to walk without waiting for you so you have no choice to follow him. As you both make your way back to the rail yard and started to walk through you were getting looks from the other soldiers there as it seemed that someone had already found out about the American becoming their sergeant and the news was spreading like wildfire. “Ah, yes here we are sergeant your railcar.” The colonel spoke as he stopped almost making you run into him. You stare at the car in front of you, it looks like a passenger car but the blinds had been drawn closed. You walk to it and up the stairs leading to the door, you look back to the colonel who urges you on. You turn the knob and open the door to look at your new domain, it was simple, it had five desks in it with yours being at the head of the car and in the center while four others sat two to each wall which were no doubt for your aids whomever they might be. A similar situation existed with the sleeping situation with cots next to each desk, you walked to your desk and pulled out the seat to sit down as the colonel followed in behind you. “Your aids will be along shortly with all the paperwork you will need for this Adrian, good luck.” He spoke as he left. “What the hell am I getting into?” You ask yourself as four men with stacks of papers started to walk in. ------------- “So wait, you got this position for no reason?” The young woman in boy’s clothing asked you. “Hey I was as confused as you, I had never been in an administration role before nor had I said anything to the officers to support a promotion.” You replied back to her trying to make it fully clear you had absolutely no fucking clue as to why that had happened back then. “Frankly I think the four aids I had would of been able to do it but I don’t know.” “Anyway...what happened next?” She asked. “A week of pure hell for me, fights, food shortages and planning physical activities plus the reports coming from the actual doctor we had on the dead Yang-Hu we found and having to be the go between for the officers and enlisted me but,,,I would take that for an eternity over what we found and experienced in Moscow.” You speak with a haunted tone and a distant stare. ------------------ Chapter 4: Moscow bleeds. The train ride had been quiet which was something you were grateful for as you weren’t that prepared for your new role on this train; the men on board had been rather subdued as they were fed and anxiousness had zipped through them as none of them or you knew what would greet you all in Moscow. For many on the train Moscow was their home and the fate of the city and their families were in the balance. Some positive effort was made though as the creature’s corpse that had been recovered back at the railyard had been brought along with you all on the train so that weapons could be tested on it to gleam some way to kill these creatures. The medics had gotten most of the creature’s armor off and had found them to have a light peach complexion to their skin and that their blood was an odd shade of red bordering on maroon in color. It was also determined that the bullet that had killed the creature had been a thirty aught six round from an American rifle which was good to know as it gave a base for testing to begin as the medics transported the armor to one of the supply cars that had ran out of supplies; all weapons currently being used by the men on the train were tested first, was a gewehr 98 with it’s eight millimeter mauser round which punched a hole through the armor as the thirty aught six round. Second, was one of the Russian 1885 winchester rifles in their seven six two rimmed cartridge which performed as the eight milimeter round had. Third, was the British three oh three round which again had similar results and finally was the French eight millimeter Label round and as with the other rifle rounds pierced the armor being tested. They ran through everything they had weapons wise and the only rounds that didn’t get through the armor were the British webley rounds mainly due to the round being lead rather than jacketed as it fragmented against the armor and the smaller 32. ACP rounds some of the french sidearms used though they did leave a large dent. Most of those who were helping test the armor concluded that whatever the metal was that made up the creature’s armor was susceptible to small fast moving projectiles but could withstand pure blunt force as one test had involved a club being taken to the armor with less than stellar results as it bounced off with no effect though one person suggested that these creature’s armor was not made with bullets in mind since they had been using some type of beam weapon when they had first attacked us. The results of these tests had been shared with both the officers and spread around the men on the train which in turn gave them a significant morale boost as not they knew that their weapons could wound these creatures; you didn’t give it much thought though as the 45. ACP test had yielded better results than the 32. ACP and webley rounds but had not been great as the overall penetration was moderate at best and while you would still be able to take one of the creatures down it would more then likely take more than one round. One ray of light though was that their armor had segmented sections at the joints, neck and groin areas where a blade could slip through; you had a sheath for a 1917 pattern bayonet stitched into your uniform’s back after hearing this news so you had a back up but at the end of the day you still only had one hand to use in any combat situation leaving you rather vulnerable. You pushed those thoughts away most of the time though as all of your time was taken up by carrying out orders handed down from the officers which mainly consisted of keeping the men in shape and making sure discipline was kept; the first of these you accomplished by having shifts of men run up and down the interiors of the train cars and usually these runs were motivated by promising a ration of rum to the five fastest men. The second task you did your best to remedy by handing out small tasks to be completed by sections of the men on board; taking inventory, weapon cleaning, meal distribution and shifts helping to keep the train itself running had given most of the men a routine that kept them from causing any trouble if left to their own devices. Another task that kept the men occupied was learning how to use all the small arms on board as the officers had come to the conclusion that it would be pertinent if every combat capable man on board knew how to operate any of the weapons that were on board; the British and French forces were the easiest to train as most had spent time in the trenches with the other so there had been some British troops that knew how to operate French weapons and vise versa and these men proved to be a great help in training their respective units how to use said weapons. The German small arms had been picked up quick by most anyone who used them and frankly speaking the German, French and British units picked up on each other’s weapons fairly quick since most of them were all bolt actions and it didn’t take a genius to figure it all out. The Russian units and weapons were the only bump in the road; the problem with their weapons was that most if not all the Russian weapons here were the pattern of 1895 Winchester lever action rifles as most Mosin Nagant rifles had been shipped to the fronts of the Civil war going on between the whites and reds and besides yourself and a few of the British troops no one there had ever used a lever action… The journey West had been mostly filled with idle banter between the men on the train and reports being brought to you and being sent by you to the officers towards the front of the train. You idly thought back to home and the small farm your family had worked and how you would just walk for hours and hours along the fence line to see nothing but flat land all the way to the horizon. The thoughts led you to look outside to the passing landscape and the idle boredom that was slowly entering your brain so you decided to go for a walk through the cars. Your legs popped as you stood while you went to rub your right arm with your left hand only to be greeted with the stump, a sigh escaped your lips as you glared balefully at where your appendage had once sat. The scowl that adorned your face as you used your right hand to open the door to the next car melted away as you saw the men seemingly getting along, some English soldiers seemed to be trying to teach a few of their Russian counterparts English while the Russians tried to do the same with their own native language, a Frenchman and German seemed to be talking about the best way to bake a cake if the bits of the conversation you caught were any indication and a small group had gathered around a pair of dice and gambling with cigarettes, chocolate and even some old letters that had perfume on them. Talking seemed to die down to nothing but a whisper as you walked by which you found odd, it was odd how they looked at you as well and you wanted to ask what the problem was for them but your thoughts were cut short as cries of anguish from the other cabins a rapturous chorus of woeful cries and lamentations in Russian, English, French and German. You stood abruptly as your aids went to see what was going on in the other cars but you went to the window and your eye’s grew at what you saw. The skyline of Moscow had been replaced with angry ruby fires as the orthodox steeples of Saint Basil’s church that had defined Moscow for more than four hundred years were in ruin, the Ivan the great bell tower was gone as well from the skyline and great clouds of black smoke like so many millions of black flies rose into the heavens leading the eye up to the flying ships that hovered above the city like zealous crows waiting for an animal to die. Moscow bleeds. The train came to a screeching halt nearly throwing you to the ground as the rattling of gear and weapons being tossed around was heard as the troops on the train were jostled by the sudden stop. One of the officers came into your car and was about to open his mouth when you held up your hand. “I’m on it.” You speak to him as your aids come back in. “Tell everyone to arm up, we’re heading into the city.” You speak with a tone of finality as you grab your M1917 and ammo. It was time to go to work. You and the men had advanced into the city with no opposition; many of the men had been paranoid peaking and jumping at every shadow and brick that looked funny to them. You headed one of the columns of about one hundred troops and your aids had been dispersed throughout to deliver your orders and for you this gave a sense of relief so that you wouldn’t need to worry about every single trooper in the column. The ruins around you were treacherous and could provide cover to any of those creatures with their beam weapons should they be so inclined. Your’s and the rest of your trooper’s luck changed drastically one you all were about five miles into the city; a high pitch whine from your left made you turn your head to see one of your troopers standing on what looked to be a metal plate of some kind while a red glow emanated from it. He met your eyes just as the glow reached it’s zenith while the whining noise stopped followed by a flash of blue light which made you shield your eyes while a dull thud went through you. You uncovered your eyes to see you were looking at the blacked sky of moscow while another trooper stood over you who you pushed out of the way and sat up knowing you weren’t hurt but your main focus was on where the other trooper who had been standing on the plate had been. When you looked you saw nothing, nobody, no boots, no rifle just fine ash gently falling to the ground like snow. You looked to one of the English troops. “Take word; watch for boody traps. The streets have been mined.” You ordered to which he nodded before taking off to where the other portions of the column had spread out to with the news and since you hadn’t heard any other explosions then you assumed they hadn’t encountered the mines yet. The new pace was slow and agonizing as anything that was laying flat on the ground had to be treated as if it would kill you in the next instant and what was worse was the fact that any mines that were found weren’t able to be disarmed since no one understood this technology so the only thing could do was mark them with rubble, normally making small patterns around them that the human eye would notice among the grey debris of Moscow’s remains. You could feel that the lack of anything happening was getting to the men; nervous twitches and the hesitant reactions to every little thing was something you had seen often in the trenches back in france and this made for a very bad situation which was about to turn worse. A German trooper had been standing next to you with one of those Mauser 98 carbines seemed to be looking intently down the road at something to which he motioned with his hand, you turned to look when a lance of blue light flew past you in a blink and you miss it moment followed by what sounded like the buzzing of an angry hornet and the smell of burnt flesh. You looked to your side in shock as the German next to you had a hole through his torso and had crumpled to the ground your inaction almost cost you as another lance of light came in right by your head. “ENEMY FRONT GET TO COVER!” You scream as you drop behind the rubble on the ground while the shapes of the creatures poured out of buildings ahead of you and the rest of the column while firing at any movement sending blue lances of energy sailing above your’s and everyone else’s heads. A chunk of rubble exploded near your face making you recoil to the side as the hot chunks bit into your face; you reach your hand up and put pressure to the area where the burning was, the sounds of the fight cut out from your hearing as the only think you were aware of was your own breathing which had become rapid and uneven. You took a deep breath and tried to calm down, ignore the pain and retake the situation; you took your hand away and looked to where the German next to you had fallen his rifle sitting still clutched in his left hand. You reach out with your right and grab the rifle pulling it next to you before reaching out with your right and pulling the German to you to take that ammo out of his pouches. You looked back at your men, most were cowering behind whatever cover they could find while others were trying to help their friends that had fallen to the lances of blue that tore through them but for most the wounds were to severe and the men were only trying to help corpses. You looked to your front to see these creatures advancing and you knew that these men, your men would be routed so you did something that would ingrain you in the memory of these creatures as a terror and to the men around you as an icon. You stood with the AZ carbine cradled in the crook of your left arm, you took aim at the first creature to appear in your sights and squeezed the trigger, time slowed, your breathing was heavy and labored by the ash in the air, the heavy thuds of the creature’s boots were felt through the ground and the recoil into your shoulder. The creature you aimed for was not prepared none of them were really for when the eight millimeter round punched through its helmet and head splattering it’s gray matter on the armor of one of the others. All shooting stopped, the blue lances fell away as your men peaked out from cover to see what happened while the creatures looked to their dead comrade and though you couldn’t see their faces something told you that shock would be an understatement but for your men this was all they needed to face this enemy. They stood as one, a wave of bodies, French, Russian, German and English and with a chorus of yells started to pour fire into the creatures. Their previous fear forgotten after seeing that these things could be killed; the creatures fell in droves as they scrambled over themselves to get away, fearing death for the first time in a long while.