Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued in the Prologue. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. As always comments are greatly appreciated. I may not respond to all but I promise that I read them, loving the positive feed back as well as criticisms.

June 18, 2032
(Dooms Day)

What has been found in the records suggests that the day began much like any other day. People went to work and came home unsuspecting of any disaster that was on the verge of spilling into their backyards. Around 6:30 pm, that all changed. NASA suddenly spotted something that was unidentifiable but was heading straight for Earth at an increasing rate. The only problem was, they saw it too late. Approximately ten minutes after the initial sighting, they arrived.

No one was able to be warned, sudden terror was brought upon everyone. No one knows why the government did not launch missiles at the incoming aerial assault. The only conclusion that could be drawn was that there was not enough warning. If you had looked to the sky and seen the number of these little green oval shaped pods with barbs protruding on them it would have resembled a swarm of flying insect that were heading right at you. The military was not mobilized leaving the police as the first line of defense. The police force was annihilated with little difficulty, the weapons they carried were not designed to cause enough harm to the large number of warriors that poured out of their pods. We came to call these intruders the Beags, our greatest enemy.

Then the killing of the innocent civilians began. Many of them got in their cars and tried to flee to a safe location, but the global assault left very few places to hide. It turned out that it was safer in the cities where you could hide in the buildings.

Finally, the military arrived, heavily armed and carrying all sorts of weapons. As the firefight broke out between the warriors and our defensive line, a new type of pod landed in the neutral zone. It was thirty times larger than the warrior pods, but had the same shape. When it landed, a shock wave was felt, it knocking most of the military off their feet. The Beag warriors were obviously used to the shaking and kept on shooting killing many of the falling militants.

Once the dust settled and the army retook their position, a new terror was revealed. Thirty feet in height, the slimy Facpor emerged. This creature was the ideal warrior, needing no weapons and impervious to bullets and rockets alike.

We do not know when the gun was used the first time but a soldier picked up the warriors weapon, and started firing it at the massive line of foes. This new gun was the very instrument that would allow for our salvation. The gun pierced the warrior’s armor easily, killing them faster. As more of the Beags fell, more soldiers began picking up their weapons to fire. When the warriors got close they were attacked with the blades found under and over the base of the gun, which allowed for easy disembowelment.

The only problem was the Facpor; its monstrous body still seemed to be immune to the terrorizing weapon.

Without such a weapon, the human race would have been annihilated very easily. But with the new artillery several small parties of Beag warriors were repelled.

The rest of the day was left to small fire fights, but any Beag force that had a Facpor tasted victory, and any that didn’t had to endure a hard fight. As reported by the last News cast:

'As reported by several soldiers spoken to during combat “These pussy aliens have no fighting skills, seems they depend on their weapons to do the job. To bad for them we now have guns to pierce their armor… That’s right, run you bastards….”'

The units that survived the initial assaults and became accustomed to the fighting of the Beags and obtained their weaponry were nicknamed Determinates. Feared by the Beags and respected by most humans.

The human race had been split into two groups. There were those that helped the soldiers in defending Earth, but then there were those that blamed their respective governments for not protecting them. These people came under the name of Gremlins, who practiced Guerilla Warfare against humans as well as the Beags.

The Beags were to busy worrying about the Determiners to deal with the Gremlins, the Determiners, to busy trying to stay alive and complete their missions to deal with the trouble makers.

June 27, 2032

I woke to the sound of utter silence, a very rare thing that when it occurs is usually associated with a long fight soon to follow. My regiment, Determinate Unit 412, is one of a few known units that still lives of the Determinates. We are not a friendly group to others, especially after the amount of sleep we have lost due to new events. All 6 of us remaining catch winks whenever there’s time, which didn’t happen last night; the Terrorlings assaulted our position making everyone more agitated.

The little feeble things didn’t stand a chance to the amount of firepower we had, they didn’t even make it close enough to release any of their acid spores. But the ones that tried to release them farther away managed to put some large holes in the building.

We would have to move to another position but right now we needed our sleep more, everyone needs their beauty sleep. I’ll leave it to Donc the hard ass to decide when and where to move.

I glanced down at my rifle that was covered in sweat from the humid night. It dripped off onto the floor, which had turned red from the old blood marks that were slowly wearing off. The rifle was essentially new but looked like it had been through many decades of war and tyranny.
It is equipped with the new style of firing based off of the Beag rifle, which has been working so well for most of my companions. Able to shoot 100 yards in perfect accuracy, and is self compensating for wind and humidity.

I wish he had gotten hit last night by one of the spores so I wouldn’t have to hear Donc’s harassing any more. He is one of those guys who thinks everything he says is the right thing and should be done no matter what. Not my idea of a good commander during fighting. He will send you right to your death for “the good of mankind.”

But we are the future of mankind; without us the small pockets of civilians still alive would be killed. We are the last line of defense for the entire planet. Without us, the world itself would fall apart. It’s better not to think of it like that, a little easier on the nerves. It’s better to think of it a piece at a time, one mission at a time. Not the big picture.

I looked up to survey the team. There was Donc leaned up against the back of the door asleep, Kilp sprawled under one of the windows across from the door, Red looking out over the other window keeping watch, Charlie between Kilp and Red, Jonas was laying next to Donc, but he wasn’t sleeping very peacefully. I’m leaning on the wall to the left of the door, alone, able to get up in an instant to backup the window or the door team.

Jonas, the youngest of the Determinates woke up with a sudden start. He had one of those dreams that will scare the living crap out of you, and it is even worse when you have actually lived it. Lately we have been seeing a lot of bodies and not a lot of life. Old Determiner Units that had been made example of, by placing the heads on the ground at the feet of their dead bodies pinned to walls or blasted to pieces beyond recognition. My personal favorite was the one where they had slit the stomach open so that their intestines spilled out onto the head which was left open as to be eating himself.

“Bad dream there kid?”

“Yea, I’ve been getting a lot of those since we saw the bodies.”

“Don’t worry, you will get used to it. I’ve been serving for several years now. Usually the bad feeling goes away after a week.”

“I hope you're right Mast….”

Donc woke up and took a quick glance around the room, no more lounge time for me. He’s not a real morning person, so the second he was finished looking around he started making orders, yelling into the radio waking everyone else up.

“Command, this is Donc of Determiner unit 412. We are currently awaiting orders, or route to another possible safe house. Over.” Command is an aircraft carrier named Atace. It is safe, way off the coast; the Beags had not yet learned how to catch it since they did not have things that fly. Their drop pods could be dodged by the craft.

Then the result from Atace came over our headsets. “We have a new objective for you; we need you to move to the Yactas Research facility. They have developed a new ionization weapon to kill Facpor. We need you to retrieve this weapon and deliver it to the Redas armored company.”

“Roger that command, please relay coordinates.”

“It has been marked on your GPS. There are no safe houses between here and there.”

“Roger that command, we will move with caution, Determiners out.”

I looked down at my little GPS positioned on my sleeve like a watch. I saw the little red light of where we stood and the green light of our objective, some twenty-one miles away. Not a bad walk if we didn’t run into resistance, but we always do; especially since we will be heading through Gremlin territory. A Gremlin is the name we have given to civilians who blame the government for not being able to prevent the invasion. They decided to grab any weapons they can and kill any Beag or militant that comes near their makeshift forts.

“Listen up you pansies, looks like we’re going to get a little dirty today. Charlie you take Red and take point at twenty meters. Jonas you’re with me at middle. Mast and Kilp take flank and cover our 6,” Donc bellowed.

Lucky me, getting to walk behind everyone else, where there is never any fighting. At this point I was so tired it would be better to fight all the way there; at least the adrenaline would keep me going.

Red and Charlie took off at light run down the hall of our building. Then Donc and Jonas took up their positions. Next was mine and Kilp’s turn. She wasn’t very happy to be paired with me; actually she’s never really happy ever. Never has a nice moment, just is a bitch all the time. We went out the door, she went out first. Down the short flight of stairs and out met up with Donc and Jonas. Red and Charlie had already moved out the door. A second passed and on the mics we heard “Clear” in Red’s raspy voice.

Donc and then Jonas moved out and then I saw Charlie move to the next buildings door frame, followed by Red. Our turn, we moved to the first building. We held there for a while, then when we decided it was safe, went into a more casual walk, still in our pairs.

Then the conversations started. Red and Charlie talked something about a bar they had been too. They both wished they had seen Kilp, asked her out and then how far they would have gone. Jonas got into the conversation; Donc just stayed out of it and kept an open eye. I just sat back and listened, waiting to hear Kilp get mad at them. As we walked I saw her oval face turn redder and redder until it got to be the color of Red’s hair. It stood out even more to her blonde hair. She gripped her gun tighter, and I knew she was about to blow. So I decided to join to try to calm it down, by adding sarcasm. It seemed to help a little but she was still going to lay it to them.

The moment before she went off Donc whispered, “Shut up all of you…left side.”

I looked over and there was a small group of Terrorlings. Probably the ones we had fought last night; there weren’t many of them left so it wouldn’t be that bad of a fight, just enough to keep the blood moving.

We split up into our basic fighting teams. I grouped up with Donc and Kilp. Jonas grouped with Red and Charlie. Jonas’ team ran up to the wall 2 houses down from the Terrorlings. My team ran to the other side of the street, with any luck we could get by them without a confrontation.

They saw us and Donc yelled “Take em out!”

We all started firing; it wasn’t long till Jonas ran out of ammo. He yelled “Need some spares.” No one really wanted to give Jonas any ammo. He wasn’t that accurate and we needed every shot to count since the only way we can get ammo is by killing a warrior.

The Terrorlings did the only thing they knew, charged. Fifteen of them came barreling upon my team. Between Donc and Kilp’s accurate shots, half of them fell. With Red, Charlie, and Jonas all firing, the rest were laid to waste. With the charge ended I could see further down the street. Three of the Terrorlings had decided to run down the street in a retreat.

I saw a Terrorling running behind a building to avoid our fire. Before I could say anything about it Kilp screamed, “Ones going for the warriors!”

I pulled my sniper over my shoulder and roared, “Like hell he is.” I didn’t even wait to line it up; I had gotten used to the gun and knew right where it would hit. One shot fired and the next second a large explosion as the spore on the Terrorling’s neck exploded. The acid like liquid flew around covering cars and walls, instantly eating away at them. I had half accomplished what I had wanted. The live Terrorling would never be able to get the warriors, but the explosion it made did.

Around ten warriors came flooding out of the building into a rain of fire. We all stopped firing at the two remaining Terrorlings; they weren’t as much of a threat anymore.

My team moved up to place more accurate shots on the warriors. I ran up and ducked behind the next ally wall. Kilp ran up beside me on the inner side of the wall. Donc ran up and took a knee between what was left of a tree and the wall. I moved out from behind the wall to be on the other side of the tree as Donc. Kilp moved to the corner of the ally to be able to shoot out. Jonas’ team did a similar maneuver, except there side no longer had a tree, but what was left of a trashcan.

We all fired and took out three of them before they stepped off the side walk. Another two were killed while they were looking for something to hide behind. Three of them had taken up a position behind a car. That made my job very easy. I unhooked a grenade from under my arm, pulled the pin and yelled “Fire in the hole!” All of us ducked behind building walls or we rolled back into the allies to avoid the blast.

The warriors knew what was coming, they tried to run out of the way and get behind another car, but only one of them made it there. The other two got caught in the blast, and the fuel of the car exploded, erupting in a fountain of flame. It sent the car about a foot into the air, and pushed the car the remaining were hiding behind enough to run him over.

We waited for a moment to make sure there weren’t any stragglers left hiding anywhere. No sounds or movement of anything so we moved in. I went to one that was run over by the car and found his gun was crushed by the car. I took the ammo out of it and picked up a grenade of theirs.

It was very odd looking; it had no pin, just a little piece that you twist in the middle. I had never seen one of these get used, which surprised me considering how many prime opportunities they had. I wanted to try one out to see what it would do. I latched it on with the other grenades and picked up the ammo. The others did the same.

With the new ammo, we would be able to make it to the research facility. As long as we didn’t run into heavy resistance, we would be fine. We quickly started the long walk down the street again, knowing that soon more Beags would arrive in greater number.

The conversations basically picked up where they had left off. No one was fazed by the combat; it had actually seemed to wake them up, so the conversation was a little more full and constant. I started to add to the conversation. We talked about games we had played when we were younger and how they resembled what we were doing now. In the games the good had always won, but this fight wasn’t like any game that was created. We had a chance of losing, and there was no reset button, but most of us had already accepted we wouldn’t be living for much longer. Jonas is the only one who still has a problem with dying. He will grow into the thought though; most of us did the first time we saw someone else die.

An interesting feature that we point out was our armaments. In the game, the heroes were always pictured as having thick armor freshly made, and a weapon that was deadly accurate that would kill someone in one precise shot from a great distance.

The guns we have would kill a human in one shot, but they would hardly kill a Beag in three shots. The armor that we carried was not as bulky as one would think. Having that kind of armor would make us too slow and would limit our movement. We went with the thinner body plate armor. It has chest, thigh, and shoulder plates. Not the ideal defensive damage preventer, but it would certainly double our chances of living. One of the bonuses we get for being Determiners.

Red thinks the armor needs something medieval to make us look more intimidating, which I am not a fan of. Why carry a sword when you can have a gun.

We walked for the rest of the day without running into much, just a few Beag scouts here and there; nothing a good sniper or a team of Determiners couldn’t handle.

As night fell, we found a building that looked like it was still in good condition, with just a few shot out windows and a small firing hole here and there. It would make a good defensive position if we ran into any problems.

“We’ll hold here for the night. Mast, you take first watch, wake up Jonas for second,” Donc ordered.

Luckily I get the best time to watch, you don’t get woken up and you basically just stay awake a little longer.

The night was very quiet, far off in the distance I could hear very soft sounds of rain. The team seemed to sleep very soundly; it makes it hard to stay awake when everything is so quiet.

I covered my shift then woke up Jonas, who wasn’t very happy. I made sure he wouldn’t go back to sleep, then went and rested on a couch that was left over in the building. Soon after, I was out.