For the entire life of the northern berserker he remembered that day at wet and rainy Gath where the blood had run like a river rushing and the beast men had been driven back across the Doom.
The City States of the West were safe that season.
And though he had many adventures and other battles, he remembered that dark day when the strange and beautiful elves of the Wyld had come out against their common foes in those darkest of hours of Gath of the North.
He remembered that moment on the walls, forward near the gates when twenty of those elven warriors had come in like hellhounds enraged, bright swords slashing, arrows like comets burning. His brothers of Bear Clan were all dead by then, each slain in the defense of the wall. And later that day, in the night, he would burn them as the lone survivor.
But the elves had come and relieved the wall they’d died defending at just the last moment. The honor of the clan persevered. And the battle changed, and won at dire cost.
Their leader, wiping blood from her face and fine armor that bloody day of slaughtering, had given him her name… a rare thing for an elf. A sign of brotherhood among war’s veterans.
‘Summer’s Storm, Brother of battle,” she whispered. “I am sister to you in your darkest hours.”
She was young and beautiful and like every human he ached for that wonder and gossamer strangeness, and “other” of her kind.
But he was a man. And she was an elf. He would age and die. She… would not. And there are reasons the two must live apart.
The Berseker returned to his high hills and the other clans, and lived for many other battles and long expeditions. And when he was old, and dying in the tents of another clan, surrounded by his weapons and the weapons of his enemies, she returned once again.
Still young. Still beautiful. The clan cleared away, giving the veterans space for their whispers. She held his ancient scarred trembling hands, and brushed away the last strands of the grey long hair that remained him.
And then he was gone.
Ageless and beyond beauty, that strange elven comrade from that day of long ago battle, closed his sightless eyes and whispered in his ears, Brother of battle, I am sister to you in your darkest hours as you were to me.”
Veterans Day.
Every day is Gladiator Training
Static stretching all day through the day. Stretch a muscle and hold for three minutes.
Road march
Abs
100 crunches
100 seconds overhead cable hold
100 leg lifts
100 seconds leg lift hold
100 side crunches right side
100 side crunches left side
100 cable crunches
100 seconds cable crunch hold
100 sit ups
100 crunches
Steady-state cardio end of day. 1 hour
15000 steps total.
“Almost two centuries of starflight since the dawn of exploration and you’ll still find these early Dumb-Thrusters drifting out there in the void. Engines dark. Nav corrupted. No supplies, or some critical flight system with zero back-up damaged beyond repair. All the records from those first hundred years are corrupted from the plague and so whatever you can find out about these drifters won’t be in the Secure Archives on Sigma Prime. So… you dig into the ship, document what personal items you can, and have the drones scan all the serial and parts numbers. No one cares and half the salvagers out there are just looking for what they can sell to the private collectors. But… Syndicate Archives will pay for the flight and trouble if you get captures on all the data. So we spent three days out there on that ship, scanning. On the last day… it was J8a who insisted we take care of him. She was right. We gently removed him from the pilot’s chair so carefully it must have been like the first time his mother held him. We wrapped him tight for transport, and then… as we stood there with no real idea who he was or where he was from… or what adventures he’d had out here in the dark, what stars he’d seen, what worlds he’d tried, we thanked him for doing his best to get humanity, us, out here. Among the stars. He didn’t make it. But we did.
And he was part of us.
Monday morning started earlier for the PLA in the Southern California LA basin.
Airborne troops already in-country and inserted for years across the open souther border, and surging in the recent months via simple airline travel in groups, and finally the large cargo container ships, coalesced at the Port of Long Beach.
By 0600 hours all LA freeways were shut down due to People’s Liberation Army Special Missions combat engineer teams .
LA commuters already flooding the streets thinking this was just the beginning of the work week, ignoring the political commentary between state governments and POTUS, were caught, pulled from their cars, and executed or taken into custody based on their social media activity.
The 10 was littered with corpses by 1100 hours.
By 0800 hours, the California Governor announced PLA troops were UN troops and to be welcomed as such during these dark and divisive times.
By 1200 hours, several street battles had already erupted around several major LA high schools as the PLA moved in to eliminate teachers and local police while preparing the students to be either armed for the Red Brigades, or sent to the re-education camps being set up in Dodger Stadium which had been taken in the pre-dawn hours before the strike.
The PLA 56th (motorized) conducted a recon-in-force against Orange County, and Huntington Beach in particular, as missile strikes were launched from the Port of LA off cargo ships, against critical targets in Orange County and San Diego.
By dusk the PLA had control of the Santa Ana Court House and the OC Sheriff’s department. American Insurgents were identified by their firearms license and prioritized by PLA hit squads. The first assassinations were carried out beginning at 2200 hours by the PLA. Commandos dressed as local Sheriff’s department SRT squads conducted raids, round ups… and assassinations.
By 2400 hours Camp Pendleton was hit with a devastating chemical munitions attack that killed 90% of the gathering marine combatants force over the next week. And much of the local populace in Escondido and northern San Diego county.
Day One of Shining Dawn Liberation had been accomplished.
Every day is Gladiator Training
Road march
Chest
5x5
Chest 5x5
Dips
5x5
Shoulders
5x5 overhead pres
Side felt raise
5x5
Face pulls 5x5
Triceps Skullcrushers
5x5
Abs 1000
15000 steps
1 hour steady state cardio end of day
All day long practice magazine swaps on rifle from prone position.
Triceps
Since we've gotten quite a few eyeballs on this ... If you like Soldier, Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc. then you'll definitely rock with the WarHulk Marines!
Book 1 is out now, and Book 2 is up for preorder ...