"For me, Jack's, Victor's and Kiliari's service, we all got promoted to lower colonels. We all got our own little flat with 2 bunk-beds, a TV, a radio and a nice window. I took the lower bed to the left and Victor the one just above me. Caroline and Kiliari took the right beds and Jack accepted to sleep on the couch. They also, due to my R&D experience, gave me my own little section of the R&D laboratory.

Me and Victor put up the Romanian flag on our side of the barracks, as a small sign of our patriotism :3

As I and Kiliari were sitting in the lab, Caroline was playing around with some interactive zero-G gel, I finally made the final touches on my newest projects. Eureka! It was a small box of about 3 cm, with a few buttons around it and a strap attached to it. It was supposed to be put around my waist and once I press the buttons in a certain order, the little hatch on the box would flip open and a bunch of nano-bots would come out and surround me. They are pretty tough and could block a lotta bullets before even one was destroyed. They had some cool LEDs on them and they would have stylish blue glow.

I show it to Kiliari and he seemed to be pretty impressed, but he was still pretty skeptical that it would work. So I put a smirk on my face and open the lower drawer of the desk. From it I pull out a 45. revolver I kept from my grand-dad and hand it to Kiliari.

Here, just to prove it would work. Shoot me! I tell him.

You're insane, you know that? He says to me.

You don't need to tell me what I already know.

We get prepared and I... UNLEASH THE SWARM, heh, I always wanted to say that. Kiliari aims the revolver at me and pulls the trigger. The bullet bounces right off the nano-shield. A 2nd shot, it bounces off again. A 3rd shot, a 4th shot, a 5th shot. They all bounce off.

EUREKA! I yell like a maniac.

Damn, you WERE right. :\ He says back.

That's when Victor comes in and says that we have to come to the meeting hall.

We fallow him and reach the hall, where a bunch of other generals and commanders. Me, Kiliari, Jack and Victor took a seat and all the other generals begin to talk about military tactics.

Err... Why are you making all these military desicions? Isn't the war ending in 2 days? I dare to ask, interrupting one of the commanders talking about a siege.

What are you on about, kid? We're at war with someone else! They reply back to me.

With... Who? I murmur beneath my voice.

The Harridans! They say to me.

Oh no... We're at war with the Harridans, the worst part is.. They won't give up as easily as the other enemy.

Commander, these four men have great combat experience. We should ask them about advice in dealing in combat. One of the general says.

Indeed, what do you know?

Me and Kiliari look at eachother.

You need to take in account the soldier's psyche. If you're just going to throw soldiers in a battle you have no chance of winning, the main army will be very upset.Says Kiliari.

And then, next thing you know, you have an angry mob banging your door down. Says Jack.

The generals look at eachother, before nodding and looking at the map that lies on the large desk.

Well, there goes the siege of Nagiki. Says one of the commanders.

Kiliari pokes me with his elbow and points to the nano-swarm I still had attached around my waist and wisphers to me to show them.

I did the same thing I did with Kiliari (him shooting me in the face), but this time I showed them to the commanders. They seemed very pleased.

Ok. You and the other guy (he points at Kiliari) will lead an attack on this city. One says, before pointing at a dot on the map, right next to the border with the Harridan Empire.

I silently gulp:

Y-yes sir.

We're going to get support from our new ally in that battle, the United Terran Republics."

"We reach the fortress walls, oh God, I'm still alive? I touch my face, still there, my legs are still on, my skin is still intact... Thank Goodness. I look behind us, just a battle-scarred wasteland, filled with craters, bullet-holes and riddled with dead boddies and ship... wrecks? Didn't Kiliari tell the L96's to back off? Sh*t, why didn't they listen... Now there goes our air-support.

I look at those who made it too, not a lot... I see Kiliari and Jack and a few others. I begin to count them in my head... Only 13... ONLY 13?! There were about a hundread of us! What the Hell happened?!

Where the Heck are the others?! I whisper to them, so as not to get noticed.

There are no others.Says Kiliari. 

I silently curse to myself, then look up. We made it right underneath a machine-gun nest. Those things were tightly inter-locked with eachother via a radio. Victor was waiting with a tank collum a few kilometers away, listening closely to our singal to come. There's no way in Hell he will get through all those defences by himself. I got an idea... I grab Kiliari and Jack and tell them what's up.

Jack nods and grabs a shock-grenade, before tossing it into the machine-gun nest. We heard the crew screaming before me and Kiliari broke down the nest's door and downed all the f*ckers inside. I grab the radio and begin blasting the message on all frequencies to the rest of the Harridan force.

ATTENTION ALL AVAILABLE PERSONELL. The enemy has penetrated our defences! So as not to remain encircled by them, return to your positions inside the Fortress this instant or be terminated! I yell into the microphone, trying to put on my best accent I could master.

Minutes later, the rest of the nest's doors opened and their crew went out towards the fortress, leaving all the cannons and machine-guns un-manned and virtually useless.

We were about 2 kilometers away from the walls themselves, far away enough from any major damage-dealers, other than artillery. Victor got the signal to advance and he did as we told him. We look outisde the small holes for obsevation in the nests and see our salvation. A huge column of allied tanks and infantry was going straight towards us. I don't know wheather I should have been happy or not. I was happy because we finally breached the 1st line of defence, but still sorta sad because I was pretty much sending all these men and women to what will end up being their deaths.

The tanks looked bad-ass. They were some brand new Schimmitar Assault tanks. They could hover, were un-manned and had a large front-mounted plasma cannon, that could fire a condenced blob of plasma that will expand on impact and pretty much melt everything in a 20 meter blast radius. They also had some laser Anti-Personell guns on the sides.

I see Victor climb off of one of the tanks and he asks me what the plan will be. Sh*t, we had to think of a plan? I tell him to station his men here and take him into one of the deserted nest, where I take off a map of the fortress from the wall. I show him the new plan.

He agrees and lines his men. The tanks made a large V shape and the infantry and heavier weapons sat behind them. I gave one of the nano-belts to Victor, a green one. I program the bots to line up above us, to protect us from artillery. Me, Kilairi, Victor and Jack released the swarm of bots and they made an epic shield above us coloured different shades. It was pretty much modern art, I wonder for how much a photo of that would sell?

Victor yells at the soldiers to charge and we advance into the unknown. Artillery was raining down on the bots like crazy, in some areas the nono-bots would plainly give up, either running out of power or just being plain incinerated by the artillery shells. Once we reached the danger close area where the arty couldn't fire at us the shield of bots was so thin that even a dust-mite could have probably made it through. Now, the tanks began unleashing Hell on the walls and after a few minutes of constant firing at them, the walls gave in and allowed us to enter. We split into groups, Kiliari would be group 1, I will lead group 2, Jack group 3 and Victor group 4. Each one had a different role.

1 would go towards the main reactor and shut it off to give us an adavntage.

2 would go towards the flak and artillery cannons to disable them and allow reinforcements to come.

3 would go and attack the barracks to hinder them from counter-attacking.

4 would encircle the fort and stop reinforcements from arriving.

The nano-belts were exhausted of bots, so they were pretty much useless... This is going to be though..."

"As we set up the teams, I grab whatever personell I had and went into the Fortress. I saw Kiliari and the others go seperate paths, Kiliari took an elevator down to the core, Jack climbed the stairs to the main barracks and Viktor boarded a Schimmitar tank and went to encircle the rest of the fort. We climb some stairs to the roof, where I manage to get a glance at the map of the building... This thing has 30 floors. This is going to be a looooooong trip.
We rise up to floor 14 or so before we see, well, anything. That's when we heard yelling coming from the corridor a few meters away. I signal to the soldiers to stay quiet while I peak over some barrels to see what's with all the yelling. Saw a Harridan commander talking to a sub-ordonate. What they were saying, I don't know. But I waited 'till the sub-ordonate left and the commander was alone. I sneak behind him with my light sword and pull him into a janitor's office a few steps away from where he was. Then, stuff I would rather not mention happened, before I went out of the office with blood and goo staining my trenchcoat.
We sneak up to the next stair-well, then the alarm is sounded. SH*T, there goes the stealth! Fire at anything! Fire at everything!
I turn around and see a Harridan officer pulling the alarm, I grab out my 45. revolver from the holster, then with one shot the guy goes flying off a hand rail about 14 storeys, that's going to leave a mark. A bunch of Harridans storm out of some doors around us and we all open fire. I grab out my rifle and down a few soldiers, smearing the walls with purple goo, eugh...
Then the electricity goes out. Good to see Kiliari's doing his job. We all put on our goggles and switch on the night-vision. Then all Hell breaks loose. The Harridans had no clue where we were, so we eveded them and managed to reach the top un-noticed.
Once we reached it, we noticed something bad... All the flak guns were put elsewhere and these ones were not working replicas. They weren't even well-made, just a bunch of wooden poles lodged between a few oil drums, how could we have been so blind? There were some Harridan officers there and once we raised our guns at them, they surrendered on the spot. I grabbed one by their collars and demanded they tell me where they put the guns. It was a douche-baggy thing to do, but these were the same guys that killed so many of our friends with pretty much no remorse.
Through whatever English he knows, he murmurs he doesn't know, but I could instantly tell he was lying. Still holding him by the collar, I hang him over the edge of the walls, demanding again that he tells me otherwise he will meet his maker. He finally gives in and tells me that they took them and hid them 2 storeys beneath us. I throw him to the soldiers and tell them to take "good care" of him.
We take the stairs downwards then, as soon as we enter a room, the doors slam shut behind us, before 2 pumps come out of the walls and begin spewing toxic gas at us. Everyone takes out their gas-mask and puts it on. I frantically search my bag, before a disturbing realization sparks in my mind...
While I was running from the artilley at the beggining of the battle, something dropped out of my bag, it was my gasmask... I didn't pay it mind, since I thought it was unimportant.
As I fall to the ground, caughing and wheezing, my lungs begin to feel like they're burning, and my eyes are begining to tear up. I was surely going to die, nothing will save me this time. I survived through so much stuff and knowing I was going to die from my own ignorance was plain dissapointing...
I fall to the ground and my vision slowly fades away...
I feel something pull me up, before waking up surrounded by my men. The gas was heavier than air and it sunk down to the buttom of the room, so they lifted me above the toxins before I could die. I stand on my feet and still feel light-headed, but not enough to fall over. I tell them they're surely getting a promotion after this.
We continue to advance towards the flak cannon storage, until we reach it. There were Harridans EVERYWHERE. We rise our weapons and unleash Hell on eachother. Bullets and plasma bolts were going around everywhere. I down a few guys before I notice a gas-tank next to a bunch of standing Harridan soldiers. I order all men to fire at it and it explodes, unleashing a massive fireball into half the chamber and incinerating most of the threats and cannons. While the soldiers continued battling eachother, I went to the flak and artillery cannons and placed a bunch of TNT onto them.
I yell at everyone to leave the room and quickly. We all evacuate and seal the door behind us. Then I push the button to blow up the TNT, fallowed by a deafing bang.
I say in the radio that the flak is killed and reinforcements can come safely now. We're one step closer to clearing this damn fortress."

I am a human engineer.

I go to my job, get some 1500KI and teleport to my home.

I listen with my radio transciever through the radio spectrum - I find this signal that sounds like a digitally encoded audio signal, I pick up a decoder board that sat somewhere and hooked it up- sounds like some sort of earpiece-type quality but signal is clear.

I hear "We're under cover",suspecting that it might be your transmission by the small ammount of

binary data mixed in.

I put on my nanobotic belt with a box,that when opened releases a layer ofnanobots over my body. If one dies, it spawns a new one. They can take about 1600 bullets before they self destruct plus they make me glow in the dark.

I use my teleport-thingy to find where you are and teleport...

I open with my temporary hole spawner a hole through where i shoot all the enemies with my plasmagun  I made, although it has a bit of plasma leakage around the sides so I say "Careful, there is plasma leakage!"

"While we were trying to get out of the fortress, we got shot-at by a few leftover Harridan soldiers, that got as pinned-down behind a bunch of storage barrels. We couldn't have even poked our heads out to shoot at them, because if we did we would have gotten riddled with bullet-holes.

Just as we thought we got f**ked by those guys and were preparing for a desperate dash to the emergency exit, a loud, electric noise filled the room, distracting the soldiers. This gave me time to look behind the barrels to see what was going on. Through a portal, someone or something was firing at the soldiers, killing most of them. One of his shots hits a plasma mini-reactor and plasma begins spewing out of it, melting a bunch of our cover. I didn't notice it at first, since I was to busy looking at the figure to realize who it was, but I only notice when he yells:

CAREFUL! There is a plasma leakage!

I quickly turn around and notice the hole in the plasma reactor. I inform my men to leg it to the emergency exit ASAP. We dash towards it and climb down the stairs as we hear a loud bang from the room we were just in. I was glad we made it out, but sort of worried at the man in the portal, did he survive?

We continue to go down towards the bottom floor to meet Kiliari and the rest."

Too long. Did not read. BTW I gave up.

(Damn. Looks far too late to start... although..)

I follow you and say "wait a minute... aren't you "Mortem"? I know your name because you apparently have an RFID chip and my palm has an RFID chip reader stuck in it for some reason"

and, you meet Kiliari and the rest so I introduce myself.

I hide my plasma gun in my pocket (it shrinks by 20 times by using a button) and show the box-of-infinite-nanobots and you say "wait a minute...isn't this a clone of my box?" and I reply: "Well, it is a partial copy. I found the plans on my holographic-watch-computer thing from 2386."