Prologue

        “Get to the hill!” A man screamed at the top of his lungs, muffled by the exploding shells overhead.

         “What hill?!” Screamed another voice, tucked away towards the back of a squad of soldiers rushing across the hellscape of a once mountainous region.

In front of them a large mound of blackened dirt, thrust from craters that littered the area, that stretched across the battlefield like a natural wall. The first man, who commanded the squad to the mound, slammed up against it; the back of his tinted green tactical armor clumping the dirt. The rest of the squad ran towards him, but not before a green explosion blew away two of the rushing soldiers.

The Sergeant surveyed his remaining troops, looking to his left and right at the bloodied and soot-stained soldiers, then looked back at the crater that took two of them. A billowing stream of smoke emanated from the crater and through it a pair of soldiers ran to the hunkered down squad. The pair, however, carried no weapons. They ran up next to the Sergeant, bracing against the dirt, and the woman of the pair looked at the Sergeant. The woman’s face was patted with soot, but next to the soldiers she was almost spotless. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a tight ball, and her dark green eyes scanned him. She edged closer to the Sergeant so that he could hear her shouting.

 “Who’s in charge here?!”

“I am! Who the hell are you two?!” The Sergeant shouted over a barrage of artillery fire that screamed overhead.

The barrage landed a few yards ahead of them, over the hill, and into the dusty chocked distance; the flames from the explosions burning brightly against the cloudy green tinted night sky.

“We’re with the H.T.P! I’m Agent McMara,” She shouted and gestured to the man beside her, his black beard almost invisible with soot, “and this is Agent Feldman.”

“It’s about time they sent you guys to the front!” The Sergeant gave them a weary smirk. “We only just got here! Longest run we’ve had in three hours and it was just a few yards! We’re stuck here as long as this fire keeps up!”

McMara looked back at Feldman and then to the Sergeant. “We can’t stay here Sergeant! Command sent us here so that you could assist us! We need you and your men to get us to the base of that Obelisk!”

“Just you two?!” He asked.

“There are two other pairs that will advance with squad attachments and link up with us at the base of the Obelisk!” She shouted.

The Sergeant looked at his soldiers, then nodded. “Okay, let’s get you to the Obelisk!”

McMara nodded. “We’re right beside you!”

The Sergeant stood facing the mound, eyeing up and down the side then towards the cloudy sky. The deep dark green strands pulsated slowly but grew quicker as his eyes rested just above the top of the hill. The top of the blackened Obelisk struck through the sky like a knife, its hulking structure the source of the pulses.

“Alright, listen up!” He shouted, “Command has ordered us to escort our two friends here to the base of the Obelisk! Typically, I’d be much less optimistic of our chances – but in this case we don’t have a choice! They either get there, or we’re all screwed! Get them to the Obelisk and make me damn proud! Move up!”

The Sergeant roused whatever spirits were left in his troops, and they began climbing the mound. They crested the mound, and before them a vast bleached crater filled wasteland stretched out. They wasted no time descending the mound and began rushing across the bleached dirt. The screaming artillery shells slammed into the ground shattering chunks of the already dead earth. The Sergeant pushed through, hoping that he would not get lucky and catch one of the shells close by.

Of all the thoughts that could press against his mind in a hail of scattered shrapnel, the Sergeant could only think of the panic behind this barrage. Command was so scared of the enemy that they ordered constant barrages like this on positions they were not even sure the enemy occupied. Instead, it often resulted in their own casualties. He, like Command, however, had to believe that these desperate means kept their enemy at bay – or what was any of it for.

The further he ran, the further the explosions became until they were distant thundering echoes behind him. His pace slowed and instead of running he walked across the barren landscape. He took a moment to catch his breath and survey who had survived the onslaught. Thankfully, it appeared everyone had managed to follow him through - the Agents also catching their breaths right behind him. After a moment, the Sergeant uttered no words and began running again, the rest of the squad quietly followed; only the sound of their boots scraping against the dirt.

Nearing the Obelisk, the sides seeming to stretch for miles, they spotted the other squads. The other squads escorted two other pairs of individuals without weapons, the other HTP agents, and they closed distance with their squad. Each squad remained at a cautious distance, bunching together could prove fatal, but they were close enough to see each other clearly.

Over the last few minutes their hustle had become a light jog, then a fast walk. The Sergeant halted, eyeing the structure in front of him. The Obelisk took up everything in front of him, its smooth and dark metallic exterior eerily silent beneath the clapping of green lightning overhead. He looked up but did not bother tilting his head beyond restraint – the structure was simply far too large for him to do so.

“Something isn’t right.” A voice whispered behind him, yet it seemed louder in the still air.

The pair of agents walked up beside him, giving the area in front of the Obelisk a scan.

“This whole place isn’t right.” One of the soldiers joked morbidly.

 With a jerk, the front of the Obelisk began moving and changing. A wide gate formed from the metal surface and scraped open. With a piercing screech, the creatures plowed through the gate like a river. Indescribable creatures, of no ordered form or appearance. Creatures of pieced together human bodies mixed with a blackened wreathing organic material. The screeching was not of one tone or rhythm – it was simply noise. The noise, however, was human in nature – human screaming gurgling together into an indescribable mess of human vocal cords.

The creatures ran on two legs, or four, or not at all. The mass of humanoid bodies flooded towards them, no matter how they got there – they would. Some of the soldiers began screaming and immediately firing into the mass of creatures, driven mad by the creature’s screeching.

“They’re beneath us!” One of the soldiers yelled as a tendril grabbed her leg, then pulled her into the bleached surface. She desperately fired her weapon until it ran dry and pulled her pistol to fire it as well. Cracking followed, and she cried in agony as the bleached ground beneath her turned red. Her screaming ended quickly, and she was pulled beneath the surface.  

The Sergeant fired his weapon into the charging creatures, their folding flesh absorbing the bullets, and quickly went through a magazine of ammo. He reloaded, letting the empty mag fall to the ground – just as a creature with two heads but no jaws rushed him down. Its tongues dangled as it scratched at his torso attempting to rip him to shreds, his weapon pressed against his chest, unable to move it beneath the creature’s weight. As he reached for the pistol on his hip, the creature was lifted off him and torn in half by McMara. She threw the carcass to the side and helped him up. She quickly turned and ran towards the mass of creatures. The ground beneath her formed into a small column that pushed her into the air, and in a fluid motion slammed into the ground with her right fist. The blow thrust back the bleached ground, blowing away a portion of the charging creatures.

The Sergeant ran to a nearby soldier, firing his handgun into the creature that was on top of them. The creature, however, seemed to ignore the bullets and ripped the soldier to shreds. It stood and turned its attention to the Sergeant; blood falling from its mandible. Its face gnarled as bullets thudded against its body, and it charged at the Sergeant. He quickly holstered his handgun and pulled up his rifle. He fired, blowing off its head - the creature staggered for a moment, but still walked towards him. He shot off whatever counted as limbs until finally it stopped moving. He looked at what little ammo he had left on his vest, using two whole mags on the creature he managed to kill. He had found a way to kill them, but there were far too many for the remaining soldiers and far less ammo to kill them all. He looked around at the mess of creatures and mangled bodies of soldiers that were under his command.

Suddenly the ground pushed up and formed around him, a walled in circle for protection; a fortress made of the bleached earth. In front of him an opening carved itself into the rock, and the remaining soldiers ran inside. The entrance closed, and walkways formed at the top of the walls. The Sergeant and soldiers ran to the battlements, taking up positions to fire down into the mess of creatures. The Sergeant, however, scanned the area around them. The Agents were still fighting on their own terms, McMara pummeled any that were close, while Feldman moved the ground in swaths, throwing boulders and burying the creatures by forming cracks in the ground. The other Agents seemed to be holding their ground as well - one was far too fast for him to see until they stopped moving, while another seemed to sprout daggers from their body. The Sergeant snapped himself back from his astounded gaze and looked at his own situation: The creatures were far too many, and his soldiers were dwindling.

“Agent McMara! McMara!” He shouted over the hazy, bloody battlefield.

McMara knocked five creatures away from her and turned back to the Sergeant.

“Run to the Obelisk! Now’s your chance! We’ll distract them!”

McMara looked at him stunned, but the expression quickly faded.

“Ray!” She shouted to Feldman and he quickly joined her. “We need to go now!”

Ray did not argue, instead he nodded his head while solemnly looking at the walled in bastion of soldiers. Ahead of them the Obelisk’s gate slowly began to close, and the flood of creatures faded until the last creature ran through. The Agents ran towards the gate, crashing through the creatures in their way, the creatures throwing themselves at the Agents, attempting to stop them from reaching the closing gate. Together, however, McMara and Feldman made an unstoppable team. Feldman raised a wall on their left and right, making a narrow passage for them to run through, while McMara slammed her way through whatever creatures remained in their way.

The Sergeant ran his rifle dry, not a single magazine left. The creatures scaled the wall on top of one another, clawing apart the defending soldiers. The Sergeant looked at the Obelisk, watching McMara and Feldman reach the gate. The other agents, however, could no longer be seen. Soldiers crumbled around him, blood spraying onto the walls of the bastion. The Sergeant threw his rifle at one of the creatures scaling the wall in front of him and clicked off a grenade on his belt. The creatures around him, and in front of him, pushed their way onto him, throwing him from the battlement and slamming onto the ground below. Before they ripped his arms off, he thought of the panic - the fear. He did not want to die.

McMara and Feldman ran through the gate, and with a sliver left open – watched as the explosion threw dust into the air.