Battlestar Galactica: Lions of Leonis

"We will come for you once the bombs have fallen...

It may seem that all hope is lost and that the end has finally come, but…we will endure…"

-Field Marshall Montgomery during the height of the bombardment of Leonis.

Chapter One: From the Ashes

There was a tumultuous silence throughout ARC-16 (Command) as the Cylons continued their nuclear bombardment of Leonis. Whether in numerous halls and open spaces or command levels and cargo areas, those within this vast underground bunker felt the weight of the war, a war they did not want nor star, press down upon them with every vibration of a nuclear impact which permeated the planet. But they would stay strong, even as all around them their world came crashing down. And why would they stay strong? Because to do otherwise would mean not just defeat but death and would be a stark insult to the many deeds of those fleet officers who had died in order to buy them time.

Armed Recovery Complex 16 or ARC-16 was one of 82 such facilities spread across Leonis. These facilities were either built from disused mines or constructed in secret (secrets that people had been killed to protect) in areas known to have stable caving systems or with substantially stable bedrock. It would be wrong to think of the ARCs as bunkers, after all when you think of bunkers you think of underground complexes capable of protecting up to a few thousand and for only as long as the supplies held out. ARCs on the other hand were something different, each one different to the next they were capable of housing between ten thousand and three hundred thousand people for long periods of time thanks to immense stores of food (5 years worth) and the ability to hydroponically grow vast genetically modified crops in both areas set aside for agriculture and along the sides of numerous corridors. However these crops were primarily to extend the lifespan of each ARC. In addition to the foodstores, each ARC had large quantities of raw materials and small to mid-scale manufacturing facilities for a number of technologies from weapons and ammunition to ceramics and microchips, the amounts varied ARC to ARC.

Depending on both location, terrain and ARC size spread out over a couple of miles were combined garages and hangers accessible through parking structures (entrances hidden by false walls or floors), tunnels (Train and road) or entrances covered by grass or road. Each garage hanger was located a bare minimum of 100 feet below ground and not directly above the main body of each ARC in case of discovery by the Cylons. Each had a vast amount of vehicles to support the military. (In the event of discovery tunnels leading to the main body of each ARC are lined with explosives).

Power supplies were primarily fusion based with the reactors being a bare minimum of 1.2km below ground with a tylium back-up. Water purification was developed from Osmosis technology developed for the Battlestar fleet as was the air purification systems. Sewage and refuse went to be broken down into its base chemicals before being added to the hydroponic agriculture as needed, everything that it was possible to recycle would be recycled in order to best hide their presence. A handful of ARCs were in prime locations for mining minerals which meant that as long as the structural integrity of the ARCs were not put into question then mining would be allowed.

In addition there were hospitals, labs, barracks, firing ranges, workshops, gyms, recreation areas and then the habitation areas. These areas again took their cue from the Battlestar fleet in order to maximise on space, so you have up to 10 people bunking in 7x5 metre dorms, with 5 dorms to a bathroom and 20 dorms to a mess. Contingency plans state that if possible then military would be bunking with civilians in case of the need for evacuation (Survival rates of civilians in such circumstances should be a lot higher).

ARC-16, although it was seen as the Command ARC was a midsized ARC at 120,000 capacity. However it had a larger number of Garages and Hangers at 10 due to its location beneath the industrial sector (designers realised that they could better hide any entrances in warehouses). It was never designated as ARC-01 due to the fact that intelligence analysts believed that it was possible the Cylons would focus on destroying ARC-01 first due to its designation and the belief that it would be appropriated by a command authority. ARC-01 was uninhabited and was designed to remain that way just in case.

Deep in the heart of ARC-16, the CIC was abuzz with activity as reports were passed between officers as the base came to life amongst all the carnage that had befell Leonis. These officers were newly arrived and the vast majority were unaccustomed to the base due to its construction being a tightly guarded secret, but still the systems were designed to be similar to those available on the earliest class of battlestars. They weren't the best systems or the most powerful but they were the most durable systems that weren't the easiest to hack.

In the centre of the vast chamber, stood by the side of a large map table watching a bank of monitors as they relayed topside views of a devastated Leonis was the most powerful man on Leonis, Field Marshall Montgomery (equivalent to a five star general). The images on the various screens were breaking up and dropping out as the digital relays were being taken down by the overwhelming amounts of radiation and destruction caused by numerous thermonuclear and neutron missiles detonating in Leonis atmosphere, but enough was being made clear and that was that nothing would ever be the same again. The shining and majestic city of Luminaire which shone with life from the Crimson Palace to the Stonewall Plaza were being reduced to irradiated, and in some cases shattered mausoleums. Montgomery was so sickened that he eventually became glad for the dropouts in coverage. Soon it would be over and the Cylons would move onto Virgon, and then the war could begin in kind.

47 minutes later

"General, dradis sweeps are still showing approximately fifty Basestars surrounding the Kraken" (Cylon Colony) a colonel told the Admiral as he read the information coming through.

Taking a look at the position of the Cylon fleet that remained behind, Montgomery asked "How bad are the radiation levels?"

It was a moment before a major replied "350 rems, sir".

Knowing that this was still too high even with anti-rad meds, Montgomery realised that the levels were manageable enough if you wore a radiation suit and topped up with the meds. They had to start moving now. "Colonel, get the demolition teams suited up and ready to move out in ten minutes. Demolition plan X-ray and see if you can regain contact with the other ARCs. Major Trent, I need the 21st, the 14th, the 19th and the 40th ready to start search and rescue operations in half an hour, for now though, get a few Raptors flying as close to the ground as possible, they need to start mapping the city and notify the SAR teams of any and all standing structures".

"Yes, sir".

Going over to join a middle aged General, stood by the side of the communications consoles, Montgomery nodded saying "Hell of a mess we've gotten ourselves in Harry" as ever the Leonosion habit of understatement getting the better of him. Before the other could say anything, with hands behind his back, Montgomery asked "How would you feel about sending your men off planet?"

General Harry Fermash looked down at the man, a grin creasing one side of his face as he asked "Off-planet. What have you got in mind, Monty?"

Lowering his voice, Montgomery said "I was thinking…the very last thing the Cylons will expect is for us to start planting Commandos on the other Colonies, at least not right now…"

21st Legion (Panther Legion)

Major Natalie Ford

Due to a change in the winds it was another 20 minutes before it was deemed safe enough for the search and rescue teams to be sent out clad in a lighter version of a radiation suit similar in size to the flightsuits worn by Viper and Raptor pilots. But still when the doors to the ARC were finally thrown open, a blast of superheated air still caught Major Ford off guard as it struck her like a punch. Behind her were more than a thousand Legionaries, each one waiting to finally get out and do their jobs. Taking a booted step forward, Natalie was struck by the turbulent clouds suspended in the sky and seeming to forever block any view of the outside universe. Shaking her head, her hands resuming a more sturdy grip of her assault rifle, Natalie looked ahead and started walking through the ruins of the warehouse, all the while her boots crunching on millions of shards of glass that had been blown from the overhead windows, now just overhead spaces. Here and there parts of the warehouse walls had cracked and fallen leaving gaping holes in the cavernous room, but still looking around it was hard to imagine that this room could have survived the nuclear bombardment relatively intact.

It was another minute before she finally reached the entrance to the warehouse. Levelling her rifle at it, the Major ordered "Pauli, Sam get the door open". A third legionary (the last member of Nats squad Jammer) moved to stand near her and like her, levelled his rifle at the door, ready just in case there were Cylons on the other side of it. Putting their full weight into it, Pauli and Sam got a tight grip on two handles welded onto the door and started slowly moving it to the side, all the while a harsh screech coming from the half-melted wheels on it as they scraped along the runners.

Before Natalie, the world opened up to her and where the view towards the city of Luminaire should have been blocked by the industrial and manufacturing district they were now in, so much damage had befallen the area that she was able to see almost clear through the area and to the towering skyscrapers that rested in the heart of Luminaire. It was hard to make out from this distance but you could just barely see gaping holes in some of the skyscrapers and on some it was obvious that half of the floors had been destroyed, most likely fallen onto the nearby areas. What really surprised Natalie though, was the fact that the skyscrapers remained standing even though it was obvious that half of them were missing.

A heavy hand slapped down on her left shoulder, the weight behind it almost hammering Nat into the ground and a voice barked out "Look ahead Major. That's why we're going to fight. That is why we're going to kick those Toasters right back to the scrapyard they came from. Frak the eleven, the only colony that can win this war is this one. Move out!"

Glad to be free of Colonel Blighs presence, Natalie exited the warehouse with her squad joining her. Looking behind them when they were a safe distance away, Jammer said "Who the frak does he think he is. `Frak the eleven`. Guy should go and deep throat a shotgun".

Shaking her head, Natalie replied "He's a tosser but he's supposed to be good in command".

An T-34 Tank sporting what looked like a snowplough on its front drove past them as it slowed down to a halt, behind it a motorcade of what looked like the Leonosion equivalent of Humvees and open topped trucks joining it. Jumping into the first Humvee, Natalie heard Jammer say to her "Just keep Bligh away from me" the look on his face reinforcing the words and the tattoo on his neck seeming to pulse in reaction. A moment later the convoy pulled away.

Queen Alexandria

Looking at this woman as she worked away at patching up the wounded that were filling the halls of this hospital bunker, it would be hard to believe that she was the Queen of the ruling house of Leonis. True she didn't have much power, her ancestors had willingly gave most of it back to the people with the formation of the senate but the monarchy still signed away laws and stood with the people in all their triumphs and tribulations. Not yet 38, the Queen still held a great deal of the beauty that had brought suitors running two decades previously. Her skin seemed as smooth as velvet with barely a hint of a blemish, her eyes a bright blue seeming to have a light of their own and her lips a satisfyingly succulent red and her nose seemed to possess an almost perfect curvature. Alexandria swept a loose lock of curled brown hair behind her right ear before she turned and rushed towards the door just managing to catch a collapsing soldier under his shoulders. As the queens guard came to rushed to her side, Alexandria got a good luck at the soldier she was clutching. Covered in a thick layer of dust and crumbled concrete, his face stood out to her eyes as his head rolled to his left and a vast patch of bloody red, blotchy radiation burned skin covered the entire right side, clumps of hair marring that side of his head, the rest a radiation scarred waste.

How he was still alive, Alexandria didn't know but what she did know was that she would do everything in her power to help this young soldier who had risked his own life to defend Leonis during the bombardment.

Through clenched teeth the Queen said "Quick, help me get him to a bed. Thomas, get Doctor Swan". Whilst one bodyguard went off to find the Doctor, the other quickly moved to the other side of the soldier and slipping his right arm under his shoulder, took as much of the weight as possible, leading the man to a nearby bed. Laying the man down, Alexandria then squirted an anti-bacterial agent onto her hands, rubbing it and then pulling a white plastic gown from a nearby wall mounted holder and slipping it over her head before she moved back to assess the injuries of the unknown soldier.

As she hovered over the man, the Queen called "Marcus, I need some better light", then she gently lifted the soldiers left eyelid, noticing by the way the pupil was positioned that he was slipping into unconsciousness. Looking at the burnt side of the face, Alexandria didn't dare risk trying to open the other eyelid and it was only in this position that she actually realised that his right ear was a bloody carcass of itself. The space around the bed lit up as Marcus positioned a free-standing lamp next to the bed, manoeuvring the head so that it pointed toward the centre of the soldiers body. A medical student that had been tending a patient at a nearby bed moved towards the Queen so as to help her rubbing a cleaning gel into his hands as he did so.

Pulling a pair of scissors from a nearby table, Alexandria started cutting along the centre of the soldiers uniform and from there across to the right arm of the shirt although most of the shirts arm was missing already this didn't stop Alexandria being especially careful not to hurt the tender skin beneath. Without even looking at the medical student, Alexandria ordered "I need adrenaline and 80cc of UB-8 (a type of anti-radiation medication) and get me some Senatrisol cream (another form of anti-radiation treatment)". As the student got to work getting the required drugs, Alexandria looking at the soldiers tags called out "Corporal McGuire, I need you to stay awake. Do you hear me Corporal, stay awake". Getting no response from the soldier, Alexandria-even though she hated herself for it-slapped the soldier across the left side of his face shouting at him "Corporal, stay awake, its your best chance at survival". This time there was a response as his left eyelid fluttered open when she struck him and even though it didn't seem like he could focus on anything, his eye moved to cover Alexandrias general direction.

The medical student returned with the medication and taking a syringe from him and the ampule of adrenaline, Alexandria withdrew the required amount before cleaning a spot on McGuires chest with an alcohol wipe, positioning the needle in the required spot and after pulling back slamming the needle past his ribcage and into his heart, injecting the necessary drug before withdrawing the spent needle and handing it to Marcus. Turning, Marcus deposited the needle in a nearby toxic yellow tub.

With the rapid flow of adrenaline into McGuires body, stronger signs of alertness were shown as his left eye became more focused and he took in a big gasp of air revealing a dry, broken rattle as he did so. Taking the anti-rad meds, the Queen told Marcus to get a bottle of water for the soldier before she wiped down his left arm near the elbow with another wipe and injected the anti-rad meds into a vein. The dose she gave McGuire was twice the that you were meant to give at any one time, but looking down upon the extensive radiation burns, Alexandria knew that the only chance he had-which wasn't much of a chance at all-was with a strong dose of meds. Looking down at McGuires face and seeing his eye focused intently on her, his left hand reached down and into his pants pocket , while his right gently took hold of hers. Allowing her strength to flow from her hand to his Alexandria informed him "Ive given you a dose of adrenaline to keep you awake and accelerate your heart rate so that the anti-radiation med have a better chance at spreading throughout your body", tears welling in her eyes as she spoke to this 20 year old soldier. Marcus carefully poured a small amount of water into McGuires open mouth while Alexandria forced out in as strong a voice as her body would allow her "Im going to do everything I can to help you".

A sharp cough tore through McGuires burnt throat, forcing his body into an upright position before he collapsed back down. His lips struggled to move and his words were lost in the air forcing Alexandria to move her head closer to his. Finally she made out "Send medics to Centuria building, 43rd floor…had to get help, my Lady". His hand came out of his pocket and rested an envelope on his chest saying "For my wife".

Looking up at Marcus, who like her had his head close to Mcguires, Alexandria asked "Did you get that?"

Nodding, and taking a look at the patch on the torn shirt sleeve, Marcus said "I'll get the guard to inform command".

Giving McGuires hand a tighter grasp of assurance, Alexandria said to him, "We will see that they're taken care of" before she let go and took the anti-radiation cream from the medical student, all the while wondering where Doctor Swan was and just when she should expect a flood of wounded to come bursting through the doors.

Major Natalie Ford

It seemed like the journey out of the Industrial district and into the heart of Luminaire was taking forever, something made much worse by the horrors that the young, dark haired Major was having to endure as the convoy pushed its way through endless trails of rubble and past countless dead bodies strewn among the wreckage of this once glorious city. But the reality was that despite the amount of debris they were forced to fight their way through when they couldn't go around, that the journey was proceeding much faster than would have seemed possible, this mainly because of previously established contingency plans being in effect, the architects of those plans planning for the very worst eventualities.

From the air, as close to the ground as it was safe to be, Raptors and Ravens mapped the city below them and with every pass they made, these maps were being turned into 3D maps at groundside mobile intelligence stations before being sent back to headquarters using groundbased communication lines. But it didn't stop there. Riding ahead of the convoy, advanced scouts were verifying safe routes through the city for the convoy following behind them. At the head of the convoy and spaced at intervals throughout it was the real beast of burden though, the APCs. Fitted with what looked like a cross between a snowplough and a cattle grill off a steam train and sporting two powerful engines, these APCs weren't designed to be racecars (although they could easily do 88mph), they were instead designed to clear the way with brute strength. Coming to a main road crowded with abandoned cars, the APCs drove on right down the centre. The ploughs backed up with the two immense engines forced aside any and all cars that happened to be in the way of the convoy clearing a route through the middle. As long as the advanced scouts did their jobs then the convoy wouldn't get blocked by fallen buildings.

At certain points, the rear sections of the convoy would break off and head down a different route, the trucks and Humvees being led by and APC so that as much of the city could be covered as possible. This wasn't just a search and rescue mission, the various Legions had to prepare the battlefield and know the areas they would be fighting in.

Craning her head to look out the window at the sky ahead of them, Major Natalie Ford saw a Raven start lowering a fireteam with full loadouts onto the roof of an untouched apartment complex, their jobs Natalie knew were likely to prepare point defences on and in this building. Already Montgomery and the other Generals at the top of the chain of command were carving up Luminaire and the rest of Leonis towns and cities into zones ready for the fight to come. True, the fireteams landing on the roofs would also check the apartment for civilians, but those defences were the word of the day.

It was only another ten minutes before the Convoy pulled over and into a side street, allowing Major Ford and her squad to disembark.

Boots crunching on gravel as she stepped forth, Natalie saw the ten other fireteams in her half century (80 in a full century plus support staff)disembark from their own vehicles, the drivers stepping out to join them and check the status of their vehicles. While the half-century were going to be heading into the surrounding area, the drivers out of need of protecting the convoy and partly out of the fact of them being auxiliaries (if British think of the TA and if American think of the National Guard for Earth equivalent). Coming down the line from the APC, Colonel Bligh started handing out printed orders fresh from Command and newly created aerial maps of the area to each squads commanding officer. Taking hers, Natalie made note of them and the buildings and streets being assigned to her squad and the areas assigned to the other fireteams if support was needed before handing them onto Pauli.

Hefting her Backpack on and clipping her assault rifle onto a safety sling sewn onto the front of her uniform, Natalie went to the rear of the Humvee and opening it up extracted two holdalls passing one onto Jammer and the other to Sam before extracting two sets of collapsible stretchers and after double checking her radiation disk and doing a wireless check, said "We top up on meds in half an hour. I'll take point".

Nodding to a friend in another squad as they set out, Natalie noted that the half century were starting to disperse into this wrecked city on their search for survivors. In her heart she secretly prayed that they would find some welcome news.

Operation X-Ray Target Codename AP-3

14th Legion, 1st Cohort, R.E.D auxiliary corps (Royal Engineers and demolitions)

With rebreathers strapped tight to their faces, the Demolitions teams forced their way through kilometre upon kilometre of fermenting faeces in pursuit of their objective. Every once in a while one of the EDs would double over, ripping away the mask from their faces and throw up their guts into the sewer as the unbelievable stench of the sewers overwhelmed the rebreathers filters. This was made even worse by the oppressive heat that seemed to push in on the soldiers who were already roasting from the radiation uniforms they were being forced to wear. All told there were 20 Engineers in this section carrying eight highly suspect and exceedingly heavy packages in addition to their own expanded kit.

Shining his torch on a nearby sign attached to the curved sewer wall and with two lamps next to it instead of the usual one, the lead Engineer was glad that they had finally gotten to their first objective. Using hand signals so as to save having to risk breathing in the rancid air speaking, the commanding officer motioned for the first device to be set in place. At his command, an engineer moved forward and after pulling out a couple of bricks of C8 and installing the firing pins, attached them to the wall before moving to join the rest of the Engineers whom had moved out of the line of danger. While there was a danger of the planned explosion being worse due to the normally rich methane environment they were in, due to the attack likely setting alight much of the methane in the sewers there was currently an average 70 percent drop in methane levels.

At a safe enough distance the Engineer activated the detonator causing a deep explosion to thrust a sonic boom their way through air and faeces before the echoing explosion caught up with it. Once the explosion had died down and the dust started to clear two Engineers carrying a heavy package in a large metal crate between them moved to a previously hidden bulkhead. Due to the way the explosives had been set and with this section of tunnel being reinforced the vast majority of the damage was confined to the false wall. Upon pulling the locking leavers and pushing it open, stepped into a 10 metre diameter circular hemispherical chamber.

The commanding officer and the rest of the Engineers moved onto the next objective leaving those two to set up their parking warden.

Twenty metres above their heads lay nothing except for a patch of hardened Tarmac like a vast carpark.

Sacred Paeon Hospital Bunker

Queen Alexandria

Alexandria had spent the last 30 minutes going between treating the radiation burnt soldier and the 20 odd patients that she had before things really got bad. Her bodyguard had returned to her during that time to inform her that Doctor Swan was currently suffering a mental breakdown after finding out his wife and two daughters had been killed in the bombardment. Shaking her head as she too suffered, her eldest son, had served as a commander of the Battlestar Ulysses which had already been reported as lost in action with barely a handful of survivors making it off ship. She knew that he would never willingly abandon ship when there were still people on board. Then there was her youngest son who was only 16, but she knew that he was safe in the Palace bunker. One child however had made it into the Colonial Fleet, her daughter, the second in line to the throne, Princess Sarah. Her heart ached at the likelihood that she would never see her daughter again, never help her choose a wedding dress and be there at her wedding.

Tears started to sting the Queens eyes, and Marcus after serving her for 20 years knew her better than anyone. Using as much decorum as was possible, Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder giving it a light squeeze and causing the Queen to cover it with her own. The doors to the underground ward burst open admitting a flood of wounded civilians and soldiers brought in by a mere handful of Legionaries.

Forgetting her own comfort, Alexandria called out to the few interns that were in the ward to come and help her perform triage and go gather what Doctors and Surgeons they could before she moved forward and armed with a pen checked each patients injuries and sent them to where they needed to be, but the stream of wounded seemed never ending.

At the side of the ward, Marcus spoke to a Legionary who told him that the hospital would be evacuated once the medical facilities had been in the ARCs had been powered up and a safe route had been established for the convoys in 30 minutes time. The soldier then continued "We followed up your lead on the Centuria building, by the time we got there, two had died of radiation poisoning and the other is paralysed. How's your guy doing?"

Keeping his voice low, Marcus answered "He's received too much radiation…I don't think he'll make it even though there is a tiny chance".

Shaking his head, the Legionary muttered "The guy is lucky to have survived this long, most of those who stayed manning the defences didn't make it…I wanted to volunteer but…" tears broke this man's face as his voice broke "…I have…I have a kid. I'm a lone parent, who would look after her if I died?"

Supporting this man in what way he could, Marcus muttered "There's been too much bravery and death today…may the Gods welcome the volunteers and everyone else who has died today, and if they don't then they don't deserve to be worshipped". With that and the mutual respect for the dead and the dying passing between the two men, they shook hands in a warriors grip before the soldier departed and Marcus returned to help the Queen.

Leonis, Overview

With every passing minute it seemed like the actions of the Leonosions was increasing exponentially. Across the planet more and more Legions began their search and rescue operations and prepared the towns and cities for the coming battles. Raptors and Ravens crisscrossed the skies mapping the new and in certain respect the oldest face of Leonis and carrying soldiers, medics, wounded and supplies to the necessary destinations. Other Raptors and Ravens and a handful of slightly larger military transports the size of a bus took off from their previous coordinates (a lot of time this was the middle of nowhere since due to the evacuation of personnel and equipment from the military bases, the best place to land the military vehicles where the risk of destruction was slight was the middle of nowhere). The destinations of these ships were the other 11 colonies and the 4 smaller lightly colonised planetoids.

Temporary bridges were erected, main roads were swept clear of vehicles, food warehouses and retail parks were raided by the military, safehouses were set up as were point defences and a single Raptor was diverted to Lake Cassidy and the suspected Graystones compound which had been nuked. This was a planet ready and now more than willing to fight for the right to survive. This was war.

Major Natalie Ford

"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME! WERE ROYAL LEGION, WERE HERE TO HELP! SHOUT IF YOU NEED HELP!"

Her helmet now hanging from a loop on her backpack now that the radiation levels were deemed safe enough, Natalie felt like she had been repeating herself forever as she called out her message to any possible survivors that were nearby. But as with the umpteen other times she had shouted she got no response yet again. Coming out of a block of apartments on the other side of the road, Jammer and Sam shook their heads. "Nothing?" Natalie questioned.

A grim look to his face, Sam replied "There were some bodies in there, we moved them ready for cremation but there was nobody alive. Frankly I would be surprised if there was, you can get up three flights of stairs before you find out the buildings an empty shell". This was something that was becoming quite common to the squad, empty shell syndrome or in other words a building where the front wall stands but everything inside has collapsed. Cremation would begin when the sector had been cleared, they would double back, pour tylium fuel (for a hotter burn than diesel) on the bodies and set them alight. It was a harsh and disgusting method of dealing with the dead, but they didn't have time to dig mass graves and they couldn't allow the bodies to remain and spread disease.

As Natalie was about to reply, Pauli coming up beside her interrupted, "Shh…" they all went quiet and listened carefully but whatever Pauli had heard, it had stopped.

"IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE", Natalie shouted again and listened carefully afterwards. When nobody replied, Natalie was about to take a step when she heard it, the sound of a frantic dog barking away maybe fifty metres down the street. Noting where they had finished off, Natalie and her squad took off in the direction of the barking. Jammer was first to reach the apartment and started trying to kick the door in, but each time his boot pounded against the PVC door, Jammer was forced back. Reaching the door Pauli said "Allow me" before reaching out to try the handle. Without much force the handle turned and Pauli pushed the unlocked door open causing Sam and Natalie to burst out in laughter at Jammers mistake.

The laughter quickly died away as Natalie called out to any survivors as they stepped into the apartment complex. Smoke hung in the air and rubble lay on the ground but the building was still in good condition. Noting that it looked like it was built in the years just after the first war, Natalie wasn't all that surprised. Following the barking, the squad moved down a flight of steps that led down to a basement. Then they started hearing voices start calling out for help. Turning the last flight of stairs, the squad came to a door blocked by a fallen concrete beam. Double checking that the beam wasn't propping up anything that could collapse on them, Pauli pulled out a length of rope and looped it round the beam before he and the rest of the squad moved up the stairs, each grabbing hold of the rope and in tandem giving a strong pull and then another until the concrete beam groaned and with a massive bang crashed to the ground and through the bottom two steps.

Stepping over the cracked beam, Natalie pulled the door open to a reveal a large laundry room and inside, with tears in their eyes and overjoyous expressions on their faces 53 men women and children and one very wise Tauron Shepherd (German Shepherd, dog) who cocked her head at Natalie.

All Natalie could say was "You're safe now", she only wished they were.

Well I hope you liked this chapter. I intend this story to be a vivid realisation of a planet at war and will be focusing around the capital city and turning it into a Stalingrad situation. It may seem like it would be highly improbable that you would be able to build the ARCs (similar just better to the Vaults in Fallout) in secret but in the future I plan on having flashbacks take place that will cover the inception of the ARCs as well as their construction.

The main army, the Legions I am loosely basing on the Roman Legions but crossed with a modern day army. The makeup of a Legion from bottom up is;

Fireteam (made up of four highly trained Legionaries similar to commandoes)

Pincer (made up of two fireteams)

Century (made up of 10 Pincers, usually supported by up to 20 Auxilaries)

Cohort (made up of 8 Centuries)

Legion (Made up of 5 Cohorts)

Would appreciate reviews, both good and bad and will update soon.