Broken Armageddon

For Heart and Home [Final]

Alexos Treskowiek, former Assistant  Commandant promoted to Lead Commandant of the V-Reservist Corp, saw the troops who had gathered inside the casino turned command center.

He saw the weary faces and forlorn looks sewn on each of them as they struggled to keep their minds from crumbling after bearing witness to the aftermath of a massacre across the river; the refugees whom they had fought so hard to protect, reduced to ashes and charred bones.

There was no where left to run or hide, the metro tunnels were flooded and the bridge leading away from the city was now nothing but a deformed ruin of steel and rubble.

All around them their city, Pyiskova, was in flames. Their enemy, the Tengu, danced around what remained of the V(Fifth)-Reservist Corp like a pack of hungry wolves circling a wounded prey.

Looking over to his left past the destroyed slot machines, he saw a familiar face that belonged to the young man he had spoken to hours prior.

Squinting his eyes to see clearer, he realised that it was none other than the nineteen year old Yorkosly curled up rocking back and forth against a wall. His empty traumatized eyes stared off into space, his body flinched at every noise be it the exchange of gunfire or a distant explosion.

"Is there even a God ?," thought Commandant Alexos questioned himself pitying the boy. He shouldn't be here --- all of them weren't meant to be here.

The stench of blood, burnt flesh and smoke was heavy in the air and outside on the streets, there was nothing but flames and ember.

"Hold your ground, comrades! , " ordered an officer. Alexos looked to his front and saw Major Doztrizkiy going around commanding the defences and inspiring the able bodied troops.

"One more minute! That's all I'm asking from you, comrades!," Doztrizkiy commanded.

Alexos watched this man, twice his age and nearing senility, run around helping the injured troops move away from the front line. His words,"One more minute." rang in his head.

"Yes... ," he silently said, "... One more minute. ," he repeated affixing a bayonet on his rifle in preparation for when his ammunition would inevitably run out.

This land was where their heart belonged and it was where they made their homes.

Feeling the embroidered image of a boar on the red and white arm band wrapped around his trench coat, a sense of pride and invigoration was reignited in his heart.

"Doztrizkiy, send an ad-hoc squad to reinforce the entrance barricade!," he ordered the Major upon noticing that only four soldiers were standing guard.

All the other officers had either been killed or shot themselves after being overcome with dread, fear and to not be captured.

If they could hold out for at least one more minute then perhaps fate might play it's hand in their favour.

The attacks began to intensify to which the defenders responded with ever increasing ferocity. When their guns ran dry, they charged at the Tengu catching them off-guard before bleeding back into the casino to prepare for the next wave.

Eventually all of them would soon expend the last bit of ammunition they had which concerned them especially the last two remaining officers - Commandant Alexos and Major Doztrizkiy.

During a lull in the battlefield, both of them met inside a room which was once a gambling area to formulate a plan which would ensure at least the survival of at least some of the young soldiers.

"How many troops do we have left, Major?"

"Less than a hundred. Half of those are wounded."

Upon hearing those words, Alexos knew that it would take nothing short of a miracle to make this plan of his come to fruition. After thinking for a while, there was spark of brilliance.