The ground shook and the air rumbled, numerous explosions lit up the clouded sky. The screams and cries of dying men filled John's ears.

"How I get here?" John mumbled to himself.

He tucked his rifle under his arm and popped a piece of chewing gum in his mouth to calm his nerves.

A dark figure could be seen rounding the corner of the trench. The face of his squad mate, Coulson, became visible in flashing light.

"Just like the simulations, eh?" He asked in his good natured voice.

"Not even close." John shouted to be heard over the mortar shells.

Coulson checked his rifle one last time and gave a toothy grin. "Well if it was easy it wouldn't be any fun would it?"

John pulled both of their heads down as dirt and shrapnel pinged off their helmets from a nearby explosion. "You call this fun?"

"Are you kidding? Everything is a blast when I'm around!"

John muttered under his breath"That's a poor choice of words."

Coulson patted John's shoulder and clambered up the side of the trench to make a dash towards enemy lines. "See you on the other side buddy! Yeah-hoo!"

John slung his rifle over his shoulder and jumped jumped up to follow suit. It's a wonder Coulson hasn't gotten himself killed already.

John made a mad dash towards the enemy trenches. Keeping his head down was the only way he could keep from tripping in the mud or over dead bodies. Several projectiles whizzed past his ears as he got closer the mouth of the trench.

A loud boom shook the earth and made John's ears ring but he managed to dive into the trench and raise his rifle.

A lone alien stood about ten feet away, clutching his side. John didn't have to think twice before putting a bolt of plasma right between his eyes, putting him out of his misery.

John quickly examined the body of the fallen lizard man. He had no weapons in his hands, but his claws and teeth were deadly enough. Shrapnel was embedded in most of his scale hide and red blood poured out of his fallen body.

This was the first "lizard" John had ever seen. He honestly thought they were better armed than this, although it wasn't uncommon for one to forgo the use of weapons in favor of ripping the flesh of a human with their fangs and claws. Or so he was told.

John spun around to make sure there were no other lizards in his general vicinity. That's when he noticed a dead human slumped on the opposite wall. Apparently he too had been caught in the mortar blast.

John rushed over to see if he recognized the soldier. To his dismay, it was Coulson. A cheesy grin was still spayed across his face, and blood covered his body from head to toe. John closed the mans eyes, grateful he didn't have to watch him die.

John spun about when he heard a rushing noise. An arrow had nearly planted itself in his shoulder. And the archer who fired it had already knocked another arrow. Two quick shots from John's plasma rifle and the lizard dove for cover.

John crouched down and began a slow advance, keeping his rifle trained on the corner where he last saw the lizard

A blue orb rebounded off the wall and landed at John's feet.

"Grenade!" He yelled out instinctively. And kicked the explosive back where it came from.

He must have had some luck because the bomb exploded right as it passed the corner where the lizard was hiding. John scrambled forward to finish off his foe but the lizard was nowhere to be seen.

"Blast it!" He muttered, popping another stick of gum in his mouth and spitting out the old one.

The last thing John wanted was to be hunted by a giant green lizard and eaten for a midnight snack. He rushed off down the trench wondering where the rest of his platoon was and hoping he didn't run into anymore aliens first. Unfortunately for John, there were worse things he could run into than a lone alien.

After a few more turns John ran into his platoon alright, but none of them had any life left in their bodies. He quickly passed over a few of them. Ringo, Cross, Twitch, Harvey; all dead.

How had he gotten so separated from them? Although he couldn't say it wasn't better that he wasn't with them, but now John was on his own behind enemy lines.

An alien command bunker was just ahead. If he could get some explosives and take it out he might be able to hold out and wait for another officer to show up and give him orders. John searched the bodies and found what he was looking for, a rocket launcher.

John loaded it up and slunk over to the corner to shoot through the door. He peered around the corner to the right to get a better glimpse. Just as he caught sight of the door a plasma shot grazed his helmet.

It heated the material so much Johns hair lit on fire and he tossed the helmet off to pat it out. Now if a mortar landed nearby, he was done for sure. No helmet meant there was nothing to protect his head from shrapnel, but it was too late to put it back on now, the lizard had him pinned.

The second worse part of this scenario is that he'd have to shoot the rocket launcher left handed if he didn't want to peer around the corner again. Not that shooting left handed was a problem for John, but this rocket launcher was built for shooting right handed.

John slid in a little closer to the corner and fired off a blind shot. To his surprise he heard hit hit the bunker door and blow it open. He reloaded quickly and peered around the corner again and saw he hit his mark.

"I guess I have some good luck after all." John raised the rocket launcher and fired at the center of the buncker's interior.

A column of smoke and debris erupted from the opening and John rushed over to the entrance. The wall surrounding the entrance had been cracked by repeating bombing, it was no wonder it buckled under the force of the rocket.

John took a deep breath and practiced his room clearing skills. Three aliens were still standing, two of them were so dazed and disoriented they couldn't aim their weapons, their shots went wide and landed harmlessly in the wall beside John. He fired several shots at each alien to be sure they were dispatched before moving on the the third.

The third didn't seem to be stunned or concussed at all, instead, he had his arms full of metal cases. He glanced back at John and rushed towards a big metal construct in the farthest corner of the bunker. John took a shot at him but his aim was thrown wild by an arrow hitting his rifle.

He spun around to see the lizard he had previously fought charging towards him. By the time John raised his rifle it was too late, the lizard grabbed a hold of his weapon and began to wrestle him for it.

After a few seconds of struggling John managed too flip the lizard on his back and wrench his arms free. Ordinary this wouldn't have been possible because the lizards were much stronger than humans but this one was injured from their previous encounter.

Out of the corner of John's eye he noticed the machine in the far corner had been booted up and a swirling green portal had opened in the wall. The alien carrying several cases rushed through to safety before John could do anything to stop him. But he had more pressing problems at the moment.

The lizard on the ground had not yet given up. Even as John lowered his rifle and shot the prone creature it let out a powerful kick that sent the weapon flying into the ceiling with a crack.

A second later John had pulled out his secondary firearm and pulled the trigger but the lizard was too quick. Even with his injuries he managed to evade the shot. The stray blast hit the portal machine. A whirring and whining sound emanated from the machine and the portal changed from a smooth green color to a turbulent orange before going blood red.

The last remaining alien rushed to the portal and dove through, but not before disarming John one more time. Now, with an unstable portal and no reason to stay he rushed towards the exit. Before he made it to the door he heard the familiar screech of an inbound mortar.

Instead of running for certain death outside, or waiting for the unstable portal machine to overheat and explode. He dove through the only escape route he could think of. As the bunker exploded behind him he entered the swirling maw of the red portal...