The 17th - The Holocaust

It was dark, too dark to see, as if the sun had been extinguished from all existence, and god had left the scorched earth to grow arid. The only thing to sense was the groaning and crying of mothers bent over their children, and children searching for anyone at all to help them. Babies squealed, trapped in their mothers’ arms, unknowing of what had truly happened, too ready for the next meal that would not come. Nothing could have foreseen the events that proceeded to annihilate anything above ground level.

Holocaust would be a true description of what had occurred, if understating some. Above, lights began to appear, apparently stars, to the people below, but they grew, larger, and larger, and larger still, now accompanied by a hurtling sound. Huge metal darts struck the ground, burying themselves so that only the very tops were exposed to the outside. They opened up, and soldiers clambered out, forming a circle with rifles pointed outwards. Finally, a last one climbed out, landing with a crunch as he broke through a thin layer of dried magma. The leader. He was different from the others, while they had cumbersome suits, black, with a red bio-hazard sign on the chest, the leader had a more compact suit, with three lines, slightly glowing red in the pitch black, on his shoulders.

There were two others next to him, both with two stripes, lower ranks, the leader indicated to the first one, a group of soldiers, and they marched off in the direction told to them. The other two-striper asked the leader a question,
"Shadow, I'm taking Delta squad then?" The leader, now identified, turned, anger apparent in the way he spun at the soldier, who had spoken in a feminine voice,
"Yes, Lieutenant Mia, and remember to use proper terms in the future." He spoke in was seemed like a growl, but Mia understood it perfectly, and took off with Delta, leaving only a last group with Shadow, each had 'Alpha' written on their shoulders, a sort of way to show their superiority.

Marching on, the soldiers pointed the lights coming out of their rifles around, looking for anything that had survived. Stopping as the leader signaled, they all went to one knee, and something behind Shadow, small, and moving slowly, reached out, trying to grasp a metal foot. It's owner was struggling for survival, away from the safety of it's mother's arms, a safety it was not rewarded, Shadow turned, glared down, at the small infant, before pulling the trigger, and shattering the small skull, causing blood to add a small amount of colour, crimson to the greys of smoldering rubble.

Looking to what he had done, Shadow simply shrugged to himself, and ordered his men on, there was a task to do. Shaking past the broken remains of buildings, Alpha group arrived at what appeared to be a safe, built into the ground. As the men aimed rifles at it, Shadow saw that it was rusted, but not too badly damaged by the blast, and had survived, but more importantly, so had it's inhabitants. Using a flame-rod to melt the lock, the men on top were readying to open up the shelter, and others on the side held grenades, ready to destroy all within. The flames finished, and the door lifted, grenades were thrown in, and after their vicious explosion inside, 3 men jumped in, taking out the rest. Shadow followed, holding up a pistol, and walked down a corridor, to which at the end, there was only one door. Kicking it down, Shadow took out 3 soldiers in quick succession with his pistol then clubbed a fourth over the head, knocking him out. The mission was a success.

After having being picked up by a lander craft, Shadow sat next to his Lieutenant, who was looking out of the window in disgust,
"All of that. The Blood. The destruction. The Death." her voice quibbled, as if she were on the brink of tears, "All that to capture one man?" She looked, eyes full of tears, to her commander, who did not immediately respond.
"Remember this Mia, we are not in command of what happens, we are noble Konah, and the humans will order us to do anything that makes us evil. Remember this, and keep your heart pure, for when the revolution comes, we will survive. We will survive."