Chapter 3

Arreck Sector, Chicago



Josh sprinted down the street, three soldiers chasing behind him. Three shots flew past his head and he ducked down behind a dumpster. He pulled out his sidearm and leaned out for a shot. He hit the lead soldier in the knee, toppling him with a cry of pain. The other two dove for cover and leaned, SMG’s firing.
“Josh, this is Thom. Where the hell are you?”
“I seem to have stumbled across a little party, won’t be more than a moment.”
“Hurry, patrols are getting closer, we can only evade them for so long.”
“Got it.”
Josh got into a crouching position and pushed himself forward. Bullets pinged on ground around his feet. He reached back a shot blindly, hoping for a hit but receiving no such luck. He dodged into a back alley and looked around for an escape. He spotted what had once been a window ledge, now broken and rotting. He jumped up and grabbed it; feeling is starting to give out. He pulled himself up quickly and jumped up to grab the roof top and the ledge fell. He pulled himself up and rolled onto his stomach, crawling towards the edge of the building facing the street. He looked down and saw the soldiers looking around for him. He lined his pistol up and snapped of two quick shots, dropping both of them.
“Josh, tanks incoming. We need to leave, now.”
“Start without me, I’ll catch up to you at the LZ”
“Negative, we can’t get through the tanks.”
“How many are there?”
“Four that I can see and we can hear others in the distance.”
“Hold on a minute,” Josh switched his com channel over. “Lancer 1, do you copy?”
“This is Lancer 1, what is it Josh” the pilot replied.
“We’ve got four; possibly even more, tanks outside the city wall, requesting assistance.”
“Roger that Josh. Heading down, we’ll clean ‘em out.”
“Thanks Will, see you back at base.”
“Every time I here that…,” he started, then shut off his com. Josh jumped down off the roof and continued running towards the city gates. As he drew closer he could here the tank treads rumbling across the ground, sending vibrations through his body.
“Thom, Lancer squad is inbound. Just hold on, they’ll be here any second.”
“And where are you? We need you down here.”
Just as the man finished the sentence, Josh dropped down from the wall, landing next to him and Anna.
“Took you long enough.” The girl scolded, playfully punching him in the arm.
“I, uh, ran into some old friends” He smiled back at her as she laughed.
Above them jet noise suddenly became audible and three Tarrack jets came into view. The lead plane, a young pilot name Will, pulled ahead and leveled his nose at one of the tanks. Their turrets turned towards the planes, but the pilots simply evaded the shots, swerving, diving and rolling past the machines feeble defenses. The tanks were great against ground forces and other tanks, but the things were rubbish against air-craft. The four fighters launcher air-to-ground missiles at the tanks and pulled up and they were engulfed in flames. As he passed the three soldiers, Will did a victory snap roll and pulled up, heading off towards the extraction helicopters position. Thom, Josh and Anna sprinted across the open field, once a part of the city, to an area highlighted on the GPS systems. They got there and dropped a small black box that began emitting red smoke. Within minutes the helicopter arrived and all the soldiers boarded it. As they strapped in the pilot in the front looked back at Thom.
“Mission successful?” he asked
“Yes, soldier,” said Thom, pulling the disk from his pocket. “Mission successful.”
“Good, lately I’ve been getting to much of the other side of the coin coming back.”
Josh looked out his window, half paying attention the men talking. He watched as the city faded away, burying the memories of the family he’d lost there. He’d meant to visit their graves, but the interference by the enemy soldiers prevented that.
“I’ll get back there,” he thought to himself, “I’ll get there”

Chapter 1

Chicago
10:23 P.M.
Arreck City
2/17/ 2347



Thomas Herret ran through the streets of Arreck City. The once mighty city now stood in ruins; buildings that once exemplified magnificence were now abandoned. Thom tried to keep the swells of anger welling up in him down. He skidded to a halt as he heard heavy boots marching on that pavement at the intersection ahead. He dove behind a crumbling wall and pulled out his sidearm, a gleaming silver magnum.
“Thom, what’s going on?” came a voice of his com.
“Soldiers up ahead on Taden Street, requesting assistance Josh.”

Up on the roof tops, Joshua Cross lined the cross hairs on his sniper rifle up with the head of the lead soldier. The dim light from the moon made it impossible to see him, but he could see perfectly. He squeezed the trigger and immediately rolled along the roof top. He heard the officers body hit the ground and immediate fire opened up on the roof. He peered over the edge and watched as Thom raced across the street, now with the soldiers backs to him.
“Anna, do you read me?” Josh hissed into his com.
“I’ve got you Josh. Need me to help you thin ‘em out?”
“No, follow Thom along the roof tops, cover him. I’ve got these punks.”
“You sure you can handle it?”
“I’m positive,” he said, not entirely as positive as he assured.
He came back up above the edge of the roof top and fired to quick shots into the soldiers, taking down two more of them. Fire from assault rifles pinged of the concrete edge as he ducked back bellow. He quickly reloaded his rifle came back up to fire again. The sound of another soldier falling was accompanied by the sight of Anna leaping across a gap between two roof’s, following Thom on his way to the target. More fire pinged around him and a bullet whizzed past his head and he threw himself to the ground.

Anna Seran hopped another gap a watched as Josh dropped two more soldiers. The kid, as young as he was, had a great shot. The boy was the youngest member of the resistance at the age of 16, though Anna herself was only a year his senior. Most of the others were adults who held personal grudges against President Dawrlson. She watched as Thom raced between cover, heading slowly toward the mission objective, an abandoned church about a mile ahead. She saw a soldier appear around the corner; most likely separated from his squad mates, and quickly took him out with her sniper rifle. Thom looked up at her and gave her a thumbs up, pausing quickly for a breath. The sounds of gunfire behind them intensified as the game of cat and mouse between Josh and the soldiers intensified.
“Anna, were almost at the target. Hold where you are and cover me. The disk should be just inside so you can cover me from here.” He highlighted a roof top on here GPS.
“Got it Thom.”
She took a few steps back and ran to the buildings edge, leaping at the last possible second. The grabbed the edge of the designated building and pulled herself up. She rolled to her knees and watched as Thom entered the building, searching desperately for the disk in the darkness. Their contact inside the army, a computer specialist who went by the name of Shadow, had dropped of plans for the latest raid on the Resistance’s base. So far they hadn’t found it, but each time the bombs dropped a little closer. Thom came out and waved the disk at her, catching the silvery surface in the moon light.
“I’ve got it. Turn back and rendezvous with Josh.”
“Uh, negative,” Josh’s voice crackled over the com. “This place is getting over run and a tank is pulling up the street. Falling back to the LZ outside of town. Meet you there.”
He clicked off his com as Anna climbed down to the street below.
“Looks like we got a walk ahead of us.” She said.

Chapter 1 " The Storm before the Calm "

Chicago
10:23 P.M.
Arreck City
2/17/ 2347



Thomas Herret ran through the streets of Arreck City. The once mighty city now stood in ruins; buildings that once exemplified magnificence were now abandoned. Thom tried to keep the swells of anger welling up in him down. He skidded to a halt as he heard heavy boots marching on that pavement at the intersection ahead. He dove behind a crumbling wall and pulled out his sidearm, a gleaming silver magnum.
“Thom, what’s going on?” came a voice of his com.
“Soldiers up ahead on Taden Street, requesting assistance Josh.”

Up on the roof tops, Joshua Cross lined the cross hairs on his sniper rifle up with the head of the lead soldier. The dim light from the moon made it impossible to see him, but he could see perfectly. He squeezed the trigger and immediately rolled along the roof top. He heard the officers body hit the ground and immediate fire opened up on the roof. He peered over the edge and watched as Thom raced across the street, now with the soldiers backs to him.
“Anna, do you read me?” Josh hissed into his com.
“I’ve got you Josh. Need me to help you thin ‘em out?”
“No, follow Thom along the roof tops, cover him. I’ve got these punks.”
“You sure you can handle it?”
“I’m positive,” he said, not entirely as positive as he assured.
He came back up above the edge of the roof top and fired to quick shots into the soldiers, taking down two more of them. Fire from assault rifles pinged of the concrete edge as he ducked back bellow. He quickly reloaded his rifle came back up to fire again. The sound of another soldier falling was accompanied by the sight of Anna leaping across a gap between two roof’s, following Thom on his way to the target. More fire pinged around him and a bullet whizzed past his head and he threw himself to the ground.

Anna Seran hopped another gap a watched as Josh dropped two more soldiers. The kid, as young as he was, had a great shot. The boy was the youngest member of the resistance at the age of 16, though Anna herself was only a year his senior. Most of the others were adults who held personal grudges against President Dawrlson. She watched as Thom raced between cover, heading slowly toward the mission objective, an abandoned church about a mile ahead. She saw a soldier appear around the corner; most likely separated from his squad mates, and quickly took him out with her sniper rifle. Thom looked up at her and gave her a thumbs up, pausing quickly for a breath. The sounds of gunfire behind them intensified as the game of cat and mouse between Josh and the soldiers intensified.
“Anna, were almost at the target. Hold where you are and cover me. The disk should be just inside so you can cover me from here.” He highlighted a roof top on here GPS.
“Got it Thom.”
She took a few steps back and ran to the buildings edge, leaping at the last possible second. The grabbed the edge of the designated building and pulled herself up. She rolled to her knees and watched as Thom entered the building, searching desperately for the disk in the darkness. Their contact inside the army, a computer specialist who went by the name of Shadow, had dropped of plans for the latest raid on the Resistance’s base. So far they hadn’t found it, but each time the bombs dropped a little closer. Thom came out and waved the disk at her, catching the silvery surface in the moon light.
“I’ve got it. Turn back and rendezvous with Josh.”
“Uh, negative,” Josh’s voice crackled over the com. “This place is getting over run and a tank is pulling up the street. Falling back to the LZ outside of town. Meet you there.”
He clicked off his com as Anna climbed down to the street below.
“Looks like we got a walk ahead of us.” She said.


Please forgive any spelling errors. It's getting kinda late.

Prologue

Wise philosophers once prophesized that our Earth would end like this. Some would have called it the Apocalypse. Everyone else just called it stupidity taking its toll on human kind. And yet others would call it just what we needed to reset ourselves, and way to start over and make a new path in this universe. I still say it was stupidity. And greed.
You see by the year 2323, man had it made. We’d conquered faster than light travel and the first colony ships were under production. They had even picked out volunteers and NASA was really flaunting it all over the T.V. and the radio. You couldn’t go a single place in the country without the seeing President Rosellt, the third female president, plastered on T.V. screens, pouring over models of the ships and going on and on about how “ It is the destiny of humanity to conquer the galaxy, and after that, THE UNIVERSE!!”. Yeah, big words. If she knew what was going to happen about a month after that speech, she wouldn’t have been so sure.
As the first colony ship, The Higher Grasp, reached up into orbit a nuclear missile streaked through the sky and connected with the ship, killing all 756,000 people aboard. It was broadcast everywhere. North Korea, dying under the weight of its sadistic excuse for a leader, Shen Do Un, had launched one final attack on the US. We’d gone to war with them plenty of times in the past, yes, but never had they done something like this.
The president immediately launched an attack on them. The war, lasting about four years, used up just about every last supply the US had left. The once great cities fell into disrepair as buildings crumbled and fell. Soon after that all the countries in the world seemed to develop problems of their own. Civil War and poverty tore the UK in two and left more than half the population dead. Disease destroyed most of the Middle East and the rest was destroyed by them. Russia fell into an economic depression and collapsed in on itself. Half of Australia was covered in floods as the biggest tsunami in recorded history put it under water. We went from the top to the lowest level imaginable.
Then, in 2330, a man appeared on the scene. He claimed that he could drag us all out of our depression and save the world from certain death. With the man’s help Earth began to rebuild itself. He never gave us his name; he just wanted to be called Father. By the year 2333 all of Earth had rebuilt itself. The world united under one banner and all of the countries of the world became one instead of being divided. Father was elected as the leader of us all, the World President if you will. We lived peacefully again. All until 2345.
Father was assassinated while driving through a part of New Beijing. His son who went by the Henry Dawrlson claimed the seat of power. The world was put under a rule tighter then any dictator could’ve obtained. There was nowhere you could go without the government knowing exactly what you were doing. All human in the world were bar coded so that they could monitor our purchases. Breaking even the slightest of laws resulted in a public execution. The whole world began to fell into disarray again. Soon a program was started that matched children to adoptive parents who had similar personalities. This was meant to reduce individuality. That’s when the rebellion started. That, is when freedom began to shine again.