"Do not fear death, but fear failure."

- General Menlor Kingsman

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[A faint memory]

A mother and son were watching the aquarium.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I wanna be like my dad someday, Mom."

His mother was silent, with a disappointed look on her face.

"You'll know later, you definitely will."

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The infection has started.

Years later, it overran the planet, Orm.

The Great Solum System Alliance, deployed soldiers on the planet to evacuate the general population and eradicate the virus.

"May they find fortune in this crisis," The Prime Minister announced to every single human being watching.

...

Many soldiers were sent into Orm, knowing their fate.

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The GSSA deployed soldiers to many locations, the infected hotspots were given to veteran and seasoned SAS soldiers, and the general evacuation was given to new soldiers to train them.

An automated voice of a woman was speaking.

"Bravo 2, this you're final mission before returning to the main base. Do not fail the mission. And prioritize saving Dr. Helma. You will not return without them."

The unit did not respond. Stoic silence can be heard inside the truck.

Bravo 2, a team of new soldiers, tasked with general evacuation

The Bravo 2 is a team composed of Sneer, Hans, Jorgen, and Kleimer.

Kleimer, a medic, specializes in recovering their team whether in battle or not.

Hans is a support soldier specializing in suppressing a large number of enemies in an area.

Both Sneer and Jorgen are assault soldiers, who specialize in quick assaults on enemy forces and effectively eliminate hostile threats.

The team sits inside an enclosed space, with an armored door near Sneer and Hans. They are currently inside a light troop carrier, the cramped space of the vehicle compressed their body, but they can no longer complain.

The Elios Space Station deployed them; they were tasked to secure as many people as possible and prioritized saving an important person, Dr. Helma.

They thought their mission was easy, considering at least they weren't tasked to capture infected bases, especially on infected hotspots like Mount Aureli, Hutheim City, and densely populated and highly defensive areas.

Inside the vehicle, was silence. Everyone on the team is not talking to each other. They felt tense since they were about to arrive on Orm, a planet overrun by the hordes of infected.

Sneer was confident with the mission, but then, the team received a message from HQ.

"Warning, a horde of infected is approaching Lai, proceed with caution."

"How many?" asked Hans.

"418."

Again, silence can only be heard inside.

Hours later, they finally arrived on Orm.

The village Lai is on the outskirts of Roh City, a village surrounded by trees, and lush green plants everywhere, or it was before the catastrophe.

And they went to work quickly. The first one in the team to speak was Kleim, asking for the number of the civilian population in Lai, a village that is about to be attacked by a horde of 418 regular infected.

"There are 135 civilians in this area, we would need two heavy transporters," Jorgen replied.

"Copy that."

The team needs to evacuate the civilians in 3 days. They only need to defend the area from any hostile threats. A whole group was tasked with detecting any infected inside the perimeter and was also tasked to load the civilians into the transporters.

Hours later, when the civilians were finally being loaded into the transporters, the ground shook violently. And then, a yellow gas was slowly creeping into the location. And then, the group received a message.

"ALERT, THE HORDE IS APPROACHING RAPIDLY."

The same messages kept repeating again and again.

The team prepared their weapons, as the civilians hurriedly loaded into the transporters. A stampede could be seen, people being trampled, and lost children crying and screaming for their parents.

Sneer saw a girl, presumably 8 years old, desperately looking for her mother and father, but her cries were hidden because of the stampede.

Sneer can only watch the people as they desperately try to flee.

But Sneer does not lower his guard, and still stands with his rifle pointed at the gas.

Dr. Helma was loaded into a very secure transporter, while the other people could only watch as she left in comfort. Dr. Helma looked out the window, and with a grim expression on her face, she asked grimly,

"Is that what happens to other people too?"

As her hover transporter leaves the area, the team still pointing their guns at the gas, they hear screeches from hundreds of infected, as they see the silhouette of a figure, a humanoid but with a turtle-like shell on its back, spewing toxic gas, slowly approach them. As the figure approaches, the silhouettes of hundreds of infected, fastly approach them. Running and screeching.

They pulled the trigger.

The loud noises from the guns and the horde covered the whole area, as the bullets ripped through the regular infected like nothing. Hans, fired his heavy gun, with 900 ammo at his disposal, and tore through the horde, with blood bursting everywhere. Sneer, Kleimer, and Jorgen also fired theirs.

Their helmets were repeatedly covered by the flashing lights from their guns, no fear could be seen.

...

After a long while of loud gunshots and screeches, the horde is erased by the bullets.

And the final regular infected fell down, with chunks of its body gone.

But the evolved is still standing, screeching and covering its body with thick, vile platings coming from its shell.

It ran towards Sneer first. The team fired, but the bullets could not penetrate its armor. As the infected ran towards him, Sneer went to his right and dodged it.

The infected, unable to stop at such high speed, crashed into the team's only way of transportation.

"Shit!" Sneer shouted.

Hans, breathing heavily, decided to pull out his BAU-57, a light rocket launcher.

He squeezed the trigger and the rocket flew at a high speed. The rocket pierced through the infected's shell, killing it instantly, but the rocket blew up too late, and blew near their transporter, immediately destroying it.

"No!"

The team shouted in unison.

The team, silent, lay down on the ground, exhausted. Kleimer healed his team.

"We can't retreat, for now, we need to call for evac immediately." Said Jorgen.

"We lost our communication devices because of those acid-spewing bastards," Hans replied.

The team was devastated.

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Back at the Space Station, they received the success of the mission.

In the Commander's office, secretary Claire said,

"The operation was a success, sir."

"Good." Commander Johan replied.

"But there is no sign of Bravo 2's transporter. We couldn't contact them, should we rescue them, sir?" Claire said.

"We cannot afford to rescue a team of soldiers when thousands upon thousands of people are dying," Johan replied.

"But we can tell them to reach the next evacuation site. Then they will be able to escape."

"Affirmative, sir."

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Orm.

"What now?" Hans said.

"We find places that we can stay in, then we request evac," Kleimer replied.

"Will they even rescue us?" asked Sneer

Silence can be heard.

Then, a message was received.

"If you want to escape from here, reach Ilsu, an evacuation of the civilians will be held there. Reach there before the evacuation is done. If you fail to reach the destination before the evacuation is finished, then you cannot leave Orm. This is the last evacuation that will be conducted by Elios, leave now. We can't save everyone."

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"Get prepared, we leave now," Sneer said

"Affirmative." Everyone replied.

...

The team is on a planet overrun by the infected.

If they can only hope.

Then they cannot escape.

The hope is slim.

They can escape.

They are, after all, soldiers.