All for one. One for all

March 13th 1923

It was a dark day that day...
An unending horde of cultists had overrun the lines. It was then I heard the bell and lay eyes upon IT.

Even though rumor stated it as a mere fairy tale. A unit of unimaginable power, an unstoppable force, an immovable object; stronger than any ‘Shock Trooper’ ever deployed.

It was deployed one year ago today. On the Ides of March.

ONE YEAR BEFORE

"SIR! SIR!"

I turn my eyes to a frantic soldat. Scrambling across the bodies of his comrades, his face smeared with dirt, his uniform in tatters.

"A small company of Jaegers have flanked us and hit us in the rear! Julian and Bethany have gone down!"

A nod in acknowledgement and grimace at our situation. We had barely 80, no 70 reserve troops left, and the cultists keep coming. Not only have my two best friends and comrades. Shock troops of some of the highest calibre perished due to leadership's incompetence. This position was becoming a bloodbath of hand-to-hand fighting and disease; we could no longer hold it.

I ordered the general withdrawal

"BACK TO BASE. LEAVE THE LINES! BACK TO BASE AND HOLD OUT THERE!"

I smiled to myself while I ran as fast as I could back to the solid concrete foundations of the outpost we had made earlier that month. I had one last trick up my sleeve, and I will not perish like a dog. No. I will go down fighting.

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It was beautiful. A Magnus Opus of the engineer division I had once been a part of—a final gift from friends long past. A final send off into the dark pits of this clostophobic hell.

With the help of a mortician who had injected me with enough painkillers to strap on the impervious set of armour, he gave the signal.

"You have 10 minutes. Make the most of it. Old friend."

I stepped out into the light as the bells tolled the end of the Empire's corrupt reign.

I had become the unstoppable force as I fired off hundreds if not thousands, of .30-06 into cultists, their bodies folding, ripping, breaking under the enormous pressure of freedom. I had become the unmovable object as rounds bounced and buried themselves in the coffin that surrounded me. I kept moving forward. Capturing point after point as I relished ending the lives of so many, and for 10 minutes of my unremarkable life, I had become a god. Unmovable, indestructible, all powerful.

I chased these golden figures back to their compound. An unremarkable construction of wood where I buried them beneath the bodies of their treacherous comrades, and as I kneeled, gasping for air and my eyes blurred from the extensive use of my body, I knew my time was up.

And I didn't regret a SECOND of it.