The commander of the Infantry Fighting Vehicle Shouts, followed by the loud noise of the hydraulics traversing the turret, then an explosion as the gunner sends off High Explosive shells towards the Separatist Trenches. The gunner bends down, picking up another shell and carrying it across his arms as he stands up, rotating and laying down the casing of the shell on top of the open breech block, using his opposite hand he slams the round straight into the breech, he closes the breech and shouts.
"ON THE WAY!"
Followed by a click and then another bang as he sends off another shell. I barely hear Ashton shout, probably signaling to us that we're about to dismount, this is it, i'm going to attack a position, defending is entirely different because you have the option to run away and live to fight another day, but for attacking, you have no choice, it's either you win or you die. I wait inside of this tracked steel coffin for our most definite demise, the inside is filled with the sounds of the gunner firing the main gun of the IFV, all the while machine gun and rifle rounds slam into the sides of our vehicle, even when they have explosives coming at them they still shoot back, It's either stupidity or they're just asking to die, I will never know.
I felt a tap on my shoulder on my right, I looked and saw Elliot, giving me a simple nod, his face says it all, it's not panic or excitement. No, It was entirely different, It was stern, It was the same for pretty much all of us, None of us were excited, None of us were scared, Every single one of us had one thing on our mind and that was DONT FUCKING DIE. I gave Elliot a nod back, this was followed by the sunlight invading the inside of our steel coffin as the doors swung open, I saw Albert and Prince jumping out first, this was followed by Elliot and Miller, then it was my turn, I sat up and bent down, my hand brushing against the seat so i don't lose my balance, My feet meet the edge of the floor which separated me from the ground and the IFV. I turned my head to the right side and saw Charles making his way out as well, I felt a bump on my back as Charles was urging me to get out. He was shouting
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! GO!"
I hurried out and turned to the squad who were inside one of the dozens of bomb craters that our artillery had caused . I could hear Albert shouting, coordinating with the rest so we could all get in safely. I fixed up my rifle quickly and ran as if my life depended on it, well, it did. I jumped into the hole and immediately landed on my knees, I quickly picked myself up and crawled next to Elliot who was peaking just out of the hole, I set myself up next to him on his right. I turned my head around and saw Charles, Magnus and Ashton sliding into the ditch.
Ashton moved up towards Albert and shouted at him so he could hear him, the sound of gunfire, the IFV's cannon and coaxial machine gun firing were tremendously loud, I could just about make out what the two were saying.
"ALBERT, CHANGE OF PLANS, ELLIOT AND MAGNUS WILL BE ON MY SQUAD."
"WHY?!"
"DONT ASK WHY, TAKE CHARLES AND MILLER AND PUSH THOSE PIGS."
"GOT IT."
Albert turned his head towards us and shouted with all his might.
"MILLER, CHARLES, YOU'RE WITH ME NOW, ELLIOT AND MAGNUS, YOU'RE WITH ASHTON."
"WHY?!" Elliot shouted, I could tell he was just as confused as we all were.
"I DONT FUCKING KNOW EITHER, LET'S JUST GET THIS DONE."
We all nodded in agreement. I watched as the IFV backed away, leaving us alone to the task of taking this position, I wonder what the crew's thoughts were, knowing that they just dropped us off to an obvious one way trip to death, They've probably done this countless of times and they are most likely used to it, or maybe not. Albert climbed out the hole, I followed suit as quickly as possible, The two of us both taking the lead in the assault as we both jumped into the trench. As we jumped in, several shots rang out as Albert fired his rifle point blank into the trench. I saw 2 Separatist's collapse, one of them screamed in agony, we both spoke the same language and we understood what he was saying.
"MOM! HELP!" The Separatist shouted as his buddy lay dead on the floor, I could see blood spilling out his bullet wounds, there was 1 in his neck and another 2 inside his side, he simply wore a chest rig without any form of protection which explained why he was killed in an instant. I continued firing over the side of the trench towards the other side so as to suppress and slow down any Separatists who were there. I heard the Separatist continue shouting.
"WAIT! PLEASE! NO! DON'T KILL M-" He's cut off as several, probably a dozen shots rang out as Albert finished him off, I didn't blame him for this, I didn't consider the Separatist's human after the atrocious stuff they did to us. I saw the now 2 dead Separatist's laying on the muddy trench ground, his body had been completely riddled with bullet holes as his blood stained his clothes and body armor, I could see one of his eyes had been gouged out from the shot and his skull and his brain was now exposed after he was shot up, it was disgusting, but not as horrific as Dylan's injuries.
I continued moving forward with Albert, Charles and Miller following behind us too, I heard the voice of Ashton shout out from behind, all the while the Machine Gun was firing to keep us covered.
"ALBERT! TAKE ONE GUY AND CLEAR OUT THOSE HOLES OUTSIDE OF THE TRENCH!" By holes, He meant the small little dugouts that they made on the sides of their trench, they were small holes that they dug and covered with blankets, cloth or anything they could find really. We didn't make them because they were quite exposed and in very poor locations, but these guys sort of connected some of them to the trench, It was pretty smart to be honest, even though they were quite stupid, they had some form of intelligence it seemed.
Albert nodded as he motioned to me to come with him, I nodded as I climbed out of the trench with him and dashed over to one of these holes. There was a tree above it and on the side were a row of trees. It was quite green in this area, surprisingly. Albert and I both fired a couple of rounds into the opening of this dugout, He looked at me and said.
"I'll go and clear it." I nodded as he got up and quickly moved over to it, the dugout was covered with blankets and the Separatist's personal belongings, he fired a couple of rounds through the blanket.
"Is there anyone inside?" He said, lifting up the blanket. This was followed by a barrage of bullets as he then collapsed and fell onto his back, Then a grenade exploded just below his legs as his body bounced off the ground and I saw what seemed to be some of his flesh as it got thrown into the air. It took me a couple of seconds to process this, I shouted in pure agony.
"ALBERT..!? ALBERT?!?"
"WHAT THE FUCK- NO!" I shouted out, I cannot describe the amount of despair in my voice as I witnessed Albert die right in front of my eyes. I ran back into cover as I had to simply process his death. It all happened so fast, from the shots being fired and then the grenade going off. I panted as I looked over and saw Charles run beside me and hit the deck as he said.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"
"ALBERT IS DEAD!"
"WHAT?!"
"DO I HAVE TO SAY IT AGAIN?! ALBERT. IS. FUCKING. DEAD!"
I could see him go white, I looked back at the trench and ran forward, Only to be stopped as a few rounds were fired in my direction, I threw myself to the floor and crawled back to Charles, He was still reeling from the shock, even though we've had our fair share of death, We were still not used to losing our own, killing Separatist's was the norm, but the deaths of our own wasn't.