Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

BANG

The Darscen Colonel fires the last round in his rifle, hitting a young Erusean soldier charging at him with a fixed bayonet in the torso. As the poor young boy collapses to his death, the Darscen Colonel switches his grip on his Mauser Model 1935 rifle, using it as a club to bash the head of another Erusean. That Erusean thought he could exploit the Colonel's lack of ammo. He thought wrong as the Darscen Colonel is not just a helpless old man. No, he is a pissed of old man. The buttstock of the old Darscen cracks at the strike caved the Erusean's steel helmet and even his skull. Discarding his broken rifle, the Darscen Colonel bends down and loots the corpse of his enemy in a practiced manner. This is not the first time he has done the morbid act in this past hour. The Colonel forages munition and weapons from the bodies of friends and foes alike. It's an act that is unfortunately mirrored by the survivors of his Infantry Regiment.

Already low on munitions and supplies due to prior battles with the Belkans, not to mention the multiple casualties they were bringing with them on their path to surrender, the Darscen Infantry Regiment was nearly wiped out when the Erusean scums suddenly betrayed. The Darscens' ranks would have been overran by Valentines and Vicker-equipped Vren Carriers if not for the Colonel bravely leading a defensive blockade. With him was a sole Infantry Company that was at half-strength, using nothing but rifles and grenades to stop the Eruseans dead in their tracks.

The Darscens now holding the armored vehicles and bloodthirsty Eruseans back at bay are fighting an uphill battle. Yet, behind them are the injured and those who can't continue the fight due to sheer ammo shortage. The Colonel and his men can't give up, especially not when the Eruseans seem to have gone mad and are out for their deaths. The constant losses they suffered on the fields must have gotten to them. Since they also blatantly violated the Geneva Convention, they also had no choice but to kill all the witnesses. This Darscen Infantry Regiment got the short straw today and is facing total annihilation because a bloody Erusean officer just has to be trigger-happy!

Looting a fully loaded Tommy Gun with another space drum magazine, the Colonel rejoins the fight. Having retreated his Regiment back into the woods, albeit a bit too sparse for his liking, the Darsen Colonel succeeded in limiting the force deployment of the Erusean Mechanized Battalion. As what remains of the Colonel's defensive Company is holding a stretch of terrain that is otherwise inaccessible to the Eruseans' slow-ass Valentines, the enemy has no choice but to mount an infantry charge. Despite the terrain advantage, the Eruseans found themselves stuck in the open while the Darscens retreated into the forest, the Eruseans still had a distinct number advantage over the Darscen Colonel's force. Coupled with the suppressive fire provided by the Valentine Is and the escort of a few Bren Carriers, the Erusean troops should manage to flush out the Colonel's Company with a simple frontal charge... At least, that was what the Erusean officer thought. Unfortunately for the Erusean betrayers, they run into a particularly hard wall that is a very competent Darscen Colonel, something that also trickles down from the Regimental to Company level.

Crouching behind a rock cover, the Darscen Colonel fires short bursts of .45 caliber bullets at the mass of Eruseans hiding behind the burned carcasses of some Bren Carriers. Despite lacking AT weapons and ammo overall, the Darscens keep up a good fight with nothing but grit, courage, and camaraderie. After emptying their guns, the Darscens rush to greet the treacherous trashes with their fists and daggers, punching and clawing their ways, claiming themselves new weapons of war every single time. Darscens, like a bunch of feral hounds, fight tooth and nail, uncaring if they're shot and their brown uniforms blackened with fresh blood. The sight of the Darscens, their faces red and eyes bloodshot with fury seem to put the fear of Gods in the heart of the Eruseans coming into this stretch of woods.

The Eruseans tried to overpower the defenders directly by sending in the Bren Carriers with their machine guns before. It worked, at first, before some crazy Darscens rushed out and suicide bombed the Carriers using foraged grenades. Their bravery temporarily turned the tide in favor of the Darscens, giving them just enough time to continue the evacuation of the non-combatants. However, the damage inflicted by the machine guns was catastrophic to the Darscen Company.

After the Colonel has just reloaded his looted Tommy Gun with the last drum magazine, the Darscens only have two Platoons in the fight, while the Eruseans seem to outnumber them 3 to 1. Worse, most of them are suffering from varying degrees of injuries. Courage and stubbornness can only get the Colonel and his men so far against overwhelming firepower and numbers. The Eruseans are poised to win these outlandish battles today, which the Darscen Colonel understands fully.

Yet, the Eruseans aren't the Belkans. Unlike the Reich and its military, the Eruseans can't feel the sense of crushing hopelessness and despair. They can't magically drop a bomb on you or spirit you away like the Belkans do. Just because of that and the overall incompetency of the Eruseans to delete the Colonel's force outright, the Darscens believe that, at last, they can finally give their enemy a bloody nose. Though it may not be inflicted upon the former enemy they've been fighting for days, it's still cathartic to make the traitorous Eruseans pay. It's this line of thinking that also keeps the Darscens' fighting will burning bright.

However, before the Colonel can bring his Tommy Gun back to an aiming position, successive explosions happen between the ranks of the Darscen defenders. One of the explosions even knocks the Colonel onto his back, his head bleeding after taking a metallic fragment and he can't seem to feel his arms. It seems that the Eruseans have deployed their rifle grenades, arching them between the trees to decimate the remaining Darscens. Turning his head with his ears thrumming with tinnitus, the bodies of his men mixed with their now mortal enemies. Some survived the onslaught of grenades. They're either stunned and fading in and out of consciousness, or are desperately crawling toward their dislodged weapons. The Colonel too would have done the same if he could still move his hands.

Then, much like what the Colonel fears, the Eruseans advance. Instead of taking prisoners, they straight-up shoot at the downed Darscens, executing them in cold blood and rage. The Colonel is righteously angered, but he can't seem to control his body, at least not yet. Whoever is leading these Erusean scumbags, they must have been a worst than a butcher to order this bloody affair. The Darscen Colonel ingrains the faces of the bastards who participate in this horrific act. It's a long shot, but if there's ever a chance, he will kill them all with his own two hands and teeth if he has to.

Suddenly, as the Eruseans start stepping closer to where the Colonel's lying on the ground, bullets cut through the trees, mowing the ranks of Erusean executioners. More than that, the Darscen Colonel feels the thrums of explosions traveling through the soil. Something is blowing up and killing the Eruseans big time, and boy it feels good to have his newfound hatred for the Eruseans validated nearly instantly. The Darscen Colonel may not be much of a religious man, but she sure is thanking the Heaven above in his mind now.

A military boot, not Erusean nor Darscen, comes into his view before a shadow can be seen looming over the Colonel. It takes the Colonel's eyes a while to adjust and see the telltale markings that denote the affiliation of this newcomer. Flecktarn camouflage pattern, a gun with a boxy magazine, the obvious Belkan patches on the shirt and vest... Yeah, that's a Belkan soldier, alright. The Darscen Colonel can't see their face due to their balaclava, but he can make out the large red cross patch emblazoned in the middle of their chest rig.

"Hey!" The figure shouts in Belkan. "We got a live one here! Get a stretcher!"

While the other Belkan soldiers move to take out Erusean stragglers, Belkan CASEVAC rescues the Darscen survivors and relocates them to a safe position for treatment. Being carried away with care by his former enemy, the Darscen Colonel can't stop himself from thinking just how twisted this world is. An enemy by day yet a friend by night is a thing, huh.