Chapter 2

"Hostile tanks hammering our position! Requesting support at grid point Z-2 near the Manitari Intersection !"

Lance Corporal Jackson Allen screamed over the radio in his helmet. He and his squad of Orbital Assault Troopers had come under heavy Vaukrin assault after linking up with a main assault force outside the planetary capital. Normally, his sergeant would be the one calling for support...but that's kind of difficult considering his head is in a dozen pieces right now since a sniper got a lucky hit on him.

Heavy pulse blaster fire was beating at the corners of the buildings he and his squad were using for cover. The Vaukrin had done pretty well developing military tech, despite literally being a race of alien Foxes. Their tanks especially being dangerous. Jackson was just thankful their pulse cannons needed a recharge after shot.

His radio crackles to life.

"Dragon 6-2 , this is Guardian Actual, all air support is currently engaged, but I happened to Snag a Javelin for support. He'll be there, ETA is ten minutes."

'A damn Javelin ?!' thought Jackson in shock. Javelin's war mechs were top of the line UEN combat Machines. It's thanks to those death machines that the UEN was able to put down a huge insurrection in the Asgard Sector a few years back. If they've got one of those Demons of death , they just might have a chance.

Lance Corporal Allen pushed a new mag into his rifle and slapped the bolt release. He flipped his radio channel to proximity so the UEN marines and soldiers around him would hear. "Alright Soldiers!! Got word from Guardian Actual! Air strike is a no go, but we've got a Javelin en route! ETA ten minutes!"

Hearing that was enough to raise the morale of everyone present. They only had to last Ten more minutes. As each second ticked by, pulse rounds impacting their cover, it seemed as if time slowed to a crawl. None of the troopers had anti-armor weapons, so their bullets only harmlessly bounced off the thick blue plating of the Ik'voor hover tanks. Every 45 or so seconds, they'd recharge their main cannons and send a salvo, blasting away whatever they hit.

Nearly Nine minutes passed, and those bug freaks pushed ever closer, threatening to take their position. There had been times when Jackson thought he was about to die, but none so sure as now. As he was firing his rifle towards a tank in vain hope, he could hear the roar of engines overhead and behind as a new voice crackled in his radio.

"Dragon 6-2, this is callsign Grim Reaper I'm here to assist with the Fox issue"

Jackson looked to the street behind where he and what was left of the assault force were holding their ground. He saw a huge humanoid war mech flying down to the ground, the jet boosters on its back and feet burning white hot as it hit the ground running. He had only seen them off in the distance during ops, and never got the chance to see one up close.

'Oh holy Hades...' he thought in pure astonishment. As soon as the Javelin mech touched down, every Vaukrin gun shifted to fire at it. The mech easily dodged left and right, avoiding the larger cannon blasts as small arms fire were merely absorbed by the armor as it ran down the street, jumping over the troopers to get in front of them, blocking enemy fire with its own chassis.

It leveled a massive energy rifle, a high pitched hiss heard for a brief second as it unleashed a torrent of plasma bolts at the infantry, each hit turning the xenos into melted piles of slag and Orange viscera. A hatch opened on the back, and a swarm of anti-tank missiles shot up into the air before screaming down at the tanks, blasting them into pieces. From touchdown to tearing those foxes a new one couldn't have been more than four or five seconds.

The javelin turned around and angled its head down, it's demon face looking right at Jackson as it gave a wave.

"I heard you guys were having a fox problem,?"

Jackson rolled his eyes. He could practically hear the pilot inside that mech grinning from ear to ear. Lance Corporal Jackson Allen looked over the ruined cityscape. The battle for the capital city of Veritor, the capital and home world of the Fox like Vaukrin had been a rough one. Three weeks of non-stop action. The battle itself only wrapped up a couple days ago, when word that the Vaukrin ruling council submitted an unconditional surrender to the United Earth Nations reached the troopers. Now, he and several other detachments of marines and soldiers were occupying the city to keep the Vaukrin civilians in check. He imagined they weren't too pleased about being annexed.

'Maybe this will teach the rest of the galaxy not to test us.' he thought. The war initially began seven years ago, when a group of Vaukrin extremists, with sanction from the Vaukrin government, staged a mass casualty terrorist attack on New Hope , a UEN forge world. They'd smuggled a 80 megaton nuclear weapon onto the planet, detonating it in the most populated city on the planet. Over 250 million people died in the blink of an eye that day. The Vaukrin thought the UEN would believe it have been totally isolated.

That was quickly proven incorrect when the UEN declared war just five hours later.

And now here he was, standing on the home world of the alien scumbags who thought they could punch the UEN without getting a bullet in return. The entire Vaukrin government were already rounded up and executed on live television within a day of the surrender. Every Human citizen and even some patriotic alien residents of the UEN watching the live feed let out loud cheers when firing squad was given the order to shoot. Jackson especially raised a beer when he heard it on a radio one of his squad mates kept in his rucksack. He lost good friends cause of them. They're just lucky he didn't get his hands on them.

Jackson couldn't help but wonder what might come next. Despite the rough times, he liked being a marine. Maybe staying in the Hellfire Marine Corps wouldn't be a bad deal. Since it's peacetime now, he'll probably be living easy with a base assignment.

His radio crackles to life, breaking him from his stupor.

"Allen, this is Dragon Actual. Lance Corporal, come in. Over."

"Dragon Actual, Allen here. What's the word ." What now? His company commander is probably gonna chew him out for being a couple minutes late for muster again.

"We need you to come on back to the F.O.B, all Hellfire Marine Corps assault regiments are being rounded and redeployed. Over."

What? Redeployed? That can't be right, the war just ended. "Uh, sorry Dragon Actual, I don't think I follow. Why the redeployment? Over."

"Word just came down from the top. The UEN is under attack and all available military forces are to regroup and get set for redeployment. Over."

Under attack? "Dragon Actual, I don't get it. Under attack by who? Over."

The next words his company commander said really sent a shake. "By the Republic of Man. They just launched a full scale incursion into our space under pretext of 'peacekeeping' and 'liberation'. We're fighting Earth Allen."

Allen Sat there devastated. Earth is where his father fled to leaving Jackson alone and an orphan. His company commander Took him in as a child.