In the ruins of an ancient 23rd century industrial city, the thirty soldiers of Assault 12 crept through the gravel littered streets. They all donned a grey uniform. Round full face helmets with oval visors, light body armour and leggings, skin tight gloves and steel capped boots. In the hands of each man was a medium sized gun with a hand slot in the back. A012-A6-2732 was in the middle of the line, peering at the towering buildings in the eerie silence of the dark concrete city.The group met a battered Y inter-section with still smoking craters in the ground. "I'm not liking this" announced the captain A12 over the com, "let's split up, 15-30".
The command was simple enough, half of the team would go one way, the other half of the team would go the other way. A6 broke off to the left, carefully avoiding the charred remains of a cannon. Strangely enough the road was bottlenecked by several other remains of weaponry.
'Something's not quite right here' thought A6
Twang!
The point man A14 looked down. He'd hit a wire.
"Ambush!" shouted A14 trhough the com.
All the members of the team dove for cover as fifty enemy troops dressed in purple uniform poured out of the surrounding buildings, coilguns blazing.
A6 landed behind a concrete barrier next to A28 as he waited for a break in the enemy fire. Several members of A012 were felled by the first wave of projectiles, screaming.
A6 flipped his gun into "hot stuff" mode and counted to 3.
3..2..1..
Poking his gun over the barrier, he aimed at a cluster of enemy "Purples", starting the counter attack. Crackling plasma blasted out of his gun, melting some of the road and forcing the enemy to retreat to cover. Ducking down to reload, A6 heard the captains voice in his ear, "OK A012 I want everyone to follow this plan, we're going to-". A flat tone was delivered into the teams com. It had been jammed. A28 dropped his mouth piece and shouted over the noise of the battle "You got it too?". A6 nodded to reply. "Ok! We better go join the others, we're dead by ourselves here!".
Easier said then done, the street was deadly crossfire of different projectiles.
A6 shouted back "You go first, I'll cover!" Bullets ricotched off the floor around him as he slotted his fist into the back of his weapon. A crosshair appeared on his visor's HUD along with the weapons details.
"Initiate auto-aim!"
Loading a cartrage of LPB's into his gun, he crouched up and fired several capsules at the slowly advancing enemy. A28 crouched, ready to run.
CRACK!
The capsules burst, letting the ionized particles fly out electrifying anything within range, downing half a dozen enemy soldiers.
A28 jumped out of behind the barriers and began to run, bent low.
Keeping up the cover, A6 fired repeatedly at the Purples, trying to ignore the projectiles pinging off the concrete and the plasma melting his only source of cover.
A6 heard somthing thud a metre from him and turned to face it.
It was a flusher. Designed to release a strong blast with a 45 metre radius to "flush out" covered enemy.
It would blow in roughly 6 seconds.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Gun in hand, A6 stumbled to his feet and ran for his life.

The HUD in the visor indicated the distance.
40 metres
Slipping in the dust, A6 felt the sights of the enemy guns on his back.
35 metres
The bullets honed in, striking off the buildings around him.
25 metres
His team mates, just realising the situation spun around and started to flee, kicking up dust clouds.
20 metres
Visibility impaired, A6 saw nothing but flashes of light around him.
15 metres
Something struck him on the shoulder, sending him spinning to the ground hard.
Other members of A012 dashed past him out of the blast radius.
Winded and injured, A6 struggled to his feet.
Wrong move.
BOOM!
The flusher detonated, sending A6 flying and several concrete barriers after him.
Soaring five feet above the ground, he landed with a loud CRUNCH! as the armour of his right arm collapsed, crushing the bone. He slid through the debris with the concrete barriers crashing down inches from him.
A6 clenched his teeth in agony and tried to relax as his suit worked on suppressing the pain of his crushed arm.
Taking deep breaths, A6 lay on the ground and evaluated his options. To run was basically impossible in his current situation, as was defending himself.
Glancing over at a fallen B12 he had an idea.
He couldn't.
Hearing the sound of approaching enemy forced him into action.
A6 dragged himself over to the body and dipped his hand into the blood flowing from B12's chest.
After splashing the blood over himself, he switched his helmet with B12's helmet which had been shot through.
Smothering more blood over himself, he covered himself with some dirt and lay face down a few metres from B12.
With his broken blood splatter armour, crushed arm and what appeared to be a headshot, playing dead would be the best possible choice.
About a minute later, A6 heard the crunching footsteps of two approaching Purples.
"OKfnajjekssp" said the one with no gloves.
"Ilppoo isdksj?" asked the other one.
Even though the helmet was heavily damaged, it still translated the words for A6.
"Hey, there's more of them"
"What do do with them?"
No-gloves comically slapped his partner on the head.
"We make sure that they're dead!"
"Oh yeah..right..."
The Purple with gloves knelt over B12 and checked for a pulse.
"No pulse with this one.."
No-gloves wasn't so sure.
"He might have hyper-oxygenated blood or something. Y'know, so he can be dead and alive at the same time."
"So...you're saying he's a ghost?"
A6 sighed in his head at how thick this Purple was.
Shaking his head, No-gloves flipped out his pistol and blew a hole through B12's neck.
"Now check on that other guy" said No-gloves, nodding at A6.
The Purple took one look at A6 and shook his head.
"This guy's gotta be long gone. See his arm? He's totally covered in blood."
A6 held his breath as he was flipped over and tried to act limp.
"Uhhgg...and see this? He got a head shot. No chance."
"Yeah whatever, c'mon let's go."
Without wasting more time, the two Purples left kicking up dust behind them.

A6 lay on the street, covered in the blood of his team mate until night fell. Now he had to get back to base. Looking around, he spotted the only open window on a building to the left of him. A6 slowly crawled to his feet, careful not to disturb the gravel on the floor and shuffled to the window. On closer inspection, the window wasn't open, just smashed through with jagged pieces of glass hanging from the battered frame.
A6 cursed his luck.
Not that the glass would cut him, his armour would protect him, but the noise of breaking glass would have Purples calling.
He peered through the window hoping to find a latch. There wasn't one. He'd have to take the chance of being discovered.
Taking a few quiet steps back for a run-up, A6 launched himself through the window with a loud CRASH! and landed on his left-hand side with an equally loud
THUD!
Wasting no time, A6 took a second to survey his dark surroundings, visible by the moonlight. It was a small concrete room dressed with a large closet in the corner furthest from him.
Closest to him was a table set with deactivated hover-chairs. To his right, in the middle of the room, was large rug. The sound of falling glass had stopped, replaced with silence.
Thump!
A6 turned his head towards the door. Someone was coming.
'JUst after I've come into a deserted room, naturally' he thought and sprung towards the closet as the sounds of footsteps grew louder.
Tearing open the door of the closet, A6 slipped in and jammed the door shut just as the door of the room opened.
Even though it large, it was claustrophobic being trapped in a dark closet with only your heavy breath for company as a possible enemy was roaming just outside.
'Ah...there's a little crack in the wood here for me too look through aswell' was A6's thought as he found a space between the hinges of the closet door to look though.
In the moonlit room, a Purple was standing on the rug, inspecting the glass, rifle in hand. The man turned his head a bit, following something.
A6 realised his mistake, when he stood on the glass, it left a bootprint of crushed glass.
Suddenly the man swung his gun towards the closet.
A6 dove to the ground and swore as the top of the closet was torn into a hail of splinters as the man opened fire, releasing some sort of glow-in-the-dark projectiles.
Through the deafening sound of gunfire, he found a small square hatch at the bottom of the closet.
'Yes!'
Opening the hatch he found it was covered by a thick metal grille.
'Damn!'
The gunfire stopped and A6 heard the crunching of glass and wood while the Purple neared his hiding place. Another mistake, he hadn't brought a weapon with him.
The Purple scanned over the remains of the closet and seemed stunned to find A6 alive in the pile of splinters. When he was about to fire, A6 grabbed the man's ankle and pulled hard, sending the man to the floor.
He jumped up and launched himself at the Purple on the floor, swinging his good arm at the man's face.
His opponent grunted in pain and pulled the trigger on the rifle spitting projectiles flying past A6's ear and sending down a shower of concrete as they hit the roof.
Disorientated by the sound A6 tumbled sidewards onto his broken arm and cried out in pain, managing to put in a glancing kick as he went down. He'd have to act fast or he'd be dead soon.
The Purple seemed a bit concussed with dizzy eyes but somehow managed to pull himself to all fours slowly, gun by his side.
Both soliders were in some sort of inhibiting pain and were struggling to get back into the fight.
A6 launched the first attack. He rolled onto his knees and tackled the man sending them tumbling across the floor. But the man seemed to have quick reflexes and grabbed his rifle as he was carried away but A6's attack.
They traded punches while they tussled on the floor, A6 on top and taking more hits.
Headbutting A6 in the neck, the man managed to get a proper grip on his gun and pointed it at A6 who was busy trying to breathe.
A6 fell on the side of the gun as it fired and grabbed it, wrestling it from the man who kept his hand on the trigger causing automatic fire to destroy the room. The man pushed desperatly against A6 who was slowly twisting the muzzle towards him.
CLICK!
There was no more ammuntion in the gun.
The two soldiers looked at each other and jumped apart. They got to their feet and kept the fight going.
A knee in the stomach and a punch in the helmeted face flipped A6 to the ground.
A6 retaliated by kicking the man in the shins then trapping the Purples legs in between his, twisted sidewards and forced him to the ground.
Landing another kick, A6 heard more people coming. He quickly grabbed the empty gun and hobbled over to the ruined closet, leaving the man moaning on the ground.
After positioning the butt of the gun over the metal grille, A6 hammered it out and tossing the gun through the open hatch he looked up at the door to see three men running into the room.
They had seen him.
Not only was he the enemy but he had also left one of their brothers in arms in a thoroughly battered condition. Payback time.
The first of the three men ran at A6 but was too late as his target slipped through the hatch to the floor below.
A6 didn't have time to study his surroundings and simply ran towards the nearest door in the empty concrete room. Just before he reached the door he heard a thump! of a person landing underneath the grille. The enemy was giving chase.
A6 flung open the door and locked it behind him, giving him a few extra seconds to run across the long empty underground hallway he had just entered.
BRAPP!
The pursuing Purples broke down the door with automatic gunfire and raced after A6, taking occasional shots at his legs.
Projectiles ricocheted off his armour. They didn't want to shoot him dead, A6 realised, they wanted to kill him close and personal probably with viciously blunt knives. At the thought of being decapitated with a spoon, A6 put in more effort in running.
About two thirds down the long hallway, he heard the Purples call in for back up from up ahead.
A few seconds later, an armoured Purple burst out from around the corner gun raised and firing at A6's legs from some 10 metres away.
Somehow all the bullets missed allowing A6 to continue his dash and strike the man on the side of the head with the butt of his empty gun. A6 was burning with exhaustion already.
He needed to get out.
He turned left from the end of the hall way and continued running up a concrete staircase to an open door at the top.
Bursting through the doorway, he found himself in the empty, broken streets of the city again.
A6 stood in the moonlit street panting, hands on knees, when the three Purples that had been chasing him also came through the door.
A6 couldn't do anything as they slowly advanced on him, knives drawn.
All of a sudden the leading Purple stopped in his tracks and looked around as if listening to something in his helmet.
After a few seconds, he signaled to his partners and they hastily descended back into the underground hallway, locking the door as they went.
A6 couldn't believe his luck. He'd survied the lion's den even after all those mistakes. And, looking up the street, he was only a few hundred metres from

the city exit. Congratulating himself, he stood up and started to walk towards the city exit.
Fzzzt!
It was his broken radio. A garble of sound came out of the helmet set.
He ignored it. It was probably HQ contacting some other team. A6 kept walking down the ruined street until he heard the radio spout,
"ftsss...abort...ffsssssss...city..crrrssss...wipe bo...ftssss"
He stopped in his tracks. As if by magic, the radio started to work somewhat properly again.
"Fzzztts...I repeat, A-12 abort mission. Your city is to be wipe bombed at 2100 hours."
As trainees, everyone learnt that "wipe bomb" is a device that is pretty much the equivalent of "Screw this, if we can't have it, no one will."
A6 checked his HUD clock.
2058 hours.
A6 was exhausted, injured, and dizzy from both lack of oxygen and blood loss. He'd have to run 580 metres in 2 minutes to escape alive.
For the second time in 24 hours A6 ran for his life, but this time he flung off his gun too free some weight.
At first he wasn't so worried about it. He was sprinting (however slowly) like hell was after him, under the full moon in an empty street with no indication that everything would be destroyed very shortly.
It all seemed ridiculous, but he had heard the command they never lied.
His HUD indicated that he had 59 seconds to go and he had only covered 250 metres.
A6 kept a steady run but started to slow from absolute exhaustion.
EEEEE!!
A loud screeching noise penetrated his helmet. A6 didn't need to look up to know that it was the wipe bomb homing into the centre of the city.
A6 gave it his all, scrunching his face up in effort and concentration.
50 seconds, 290 metres to go
40 seconds, 220 metres to go
30 seconds, 170 metres to go
20 seconds, 120 metres to go
10 seconds, 70 metres to go
5 seconds, 20 metres to go
The screeching of the incoming bomb was deafening, cutting out all sounds from A6 but his own ragged breathing.
WHUMP!
The bomb had hit the ground. The explosion followed shortly.
BOOM!
Roughly 10 metres from the city exit A6 heard the dense shockwave rushing towards him causing the tall buildings around him to come crashing down like they'd all had their foundations removed. They were dead lucky compared to A6.
While he was at the very edge of the blast radius, the treatment was still pretty rough.
The force of the bomb tore his armour apart and tossed him forewards at over 60 miles an hour. A6 flipped backwards as he was carried forewards, his limbs dashing against the ground, almost like extreme tumbling.
Huge chunks of concrete and steel rained down around him, some smaller parts crumbling off and pelting A6 at high speed.
The shockwave dissapated quickly once A6 was outside the blast radius, dropping him to the floor momentum taking him another 5 metres across the dusty ground.
A6 lay motionless on the floor. A large rock had bashed the side of his head, leaving a gaping hole in his helmet while his right arm was twisted at a hideous angle. What little remained of his armour was so damaged and worn that it was flimsier then cardboard.

The last thing that A6 had ever seen before his body shut down was the cracked earth rising up towards him.