Chapter 3 , part 3

Chapter 3

For One Impossible Second

Part 3: The Gathering of HellGuard

The sky was no longer empty.

It belonged to HellGuard.

Blue-white engine trails streaked across the clouds from horizon to horizon as hundreds of aircraft converged on the deadlands. Dropships. Gunships. Heavy transports. Orbital insertion craft. Every available combat unit was racing toward the canyon.

The war had become impossible to ignore.

The Crowned One watched the approaching fleet with open amusement.

Its burning eyes tracked the incoming armada.

"So."

Its voice rolled like distant earthquakes.

"The defenders arrive."

Behind it, the portal continued widening.

The infernal army beyond the breach stretched farther than anyone could see. Endless ranks of Hellspawn, Rift Stalkers, Ash Legion Brutes, Pyre Heralds, and things too large to identify moved within the burning darkness.

An entire world waiting to invade.

And now another army was arriving to stop it.

The first flagship appeared through the clouds.

Massive.

Armored.

Built for war.

Its hull blotted out entire sections of the sky as it descended toward the battlefield.

The name painted across its forward armor was visible even from miles away.

HGS IRON RESOLVE

Max smiled.

"Tobias."

The flagship's engines thundered across the canyon.

Then dozens of deployment bays opened simultaneously.

And HellGuard began to fall.

Thousands of soldiers.

Armor glinting blue and silver through the firelit sky.

Entire battalions descending toward the battlefield below.

The Last War had officially begun.

The Crowned One's smile slowly faded.

Not from fear.

Recognition.

Because among the descending forces were names Hell itself remembered.

The first strike team hit the ground like a meteor.

Six armored figures landed atop a shattered overpass overlooking the canyon floor.

Every HellGuard soldier nearby immediately recognized them.

Alpha Team.

At their center stood a broad-shouldered warrior with a backwards cap beneath combat gear, mirrored sunglasses, a trimmed beard, and a cybernetic left arm gleaming beneath the firelight.

Danny Ice-Cable.

Call sign:

DoubleBack.

Alpha One.

The first in.

The last out.

DoubleBack looked toward the portal.

Then toward the Titans.

Then toward the Crowned One.

"...Well."

He adjusted the rifle hanging across his chest.

"That looks expensive."

Several Alpha Team members laughed nervously.

Not because it was funny.

Because nobody knew how else to react.

Anchor stepped beside him.

The scar across his eye caught the red light from the portal.

"Orders?"

DoubleBack looked toward the battlefield.

"Same as always."

The cybernetic arm locked with a metallic click.

"We go where it hurts."

A second wave landed moments later.

Delta Team.

Commander Ozzy stepped from the dust cloud first.

His cybernetic eye glowed faintly beneath battle scars stretching across the left side of his face.

The missing lower right arm had long ago been replaced by brutal military hardware.

Behind him came Delta's veterans.

Soldiers who had survived too many wars to count.

Ozzy looked at the widening portal.

Then at the Crowned One.

Then at the Titans.

His expression never changed.

"Wonderful."

A trooper beside him groaned.

"You say that every time."

"And every time I mean the opposite."

Across the canyon, Echo Team finally linked up with incoming HellGuard forces.

Max looked toward the descending fleet.

Toward the incoming reinforcements.

Toward the impossible battle ahead.

Then a transmission appeared on every surviving communication channel simultaneously.

The entire battlefield heard it.

Every soldier.

Every pilot.

Every commander.

Even the Iron Fangs.

The voice belonged to Tobias Ironwarden.

Commander of HellGuard.

The man who had stood against Hell itself more times than anyone alive.

"Tactical command to all units."

The transmission carried across the deadlands.

Calm.

Steady.

Certain.

The kind of voice soldiers followed into impossible situations.

"We are now operating under extinction-level conditions."

Nobody argued.

Nobody questioned it.

The portal alone proved it.

"The objective is no longer victory."

The words surprised everyone.

Even Max.

Tobias continued.

"The objective is survival."

The battlefield fell silent.

"The enemy intends to erase humanity."

The portal crackled.

The Crowned One watched.

The Titans waited.

HellGuard listened.

"So we will remind them."

A pause.

Then the line every soldier would remember for the rest of their lives.

"Earth belongs to us."

The transmission ended.

And the deadlands erupted into cheers.

HellGuard.

Echo Team.

Alpha Team.

Delta Team.

Entire battalions.

For one brief moment humanity remembered exactly why it kept fighting.

Lord Asp stood atop the wreckage of a ruined transport watching the celebration.

His crimson visor reflected the descending fleet.

Then another figure landed nearby.

Heavy boots striking concrete.

The crowd immediately parted.

Tobias Ironwarden had arrived.

Massive hammer resting across one shoulder.

Scarred face.

Braided beard.

The commander of HellGuard finally stood face-to-face with the leader of the Iron Fangs.

Neither spoke immediately.

The battlefield itself seemed to hold its breath.

Max watched carefully.

So did everyone else.

Two men.

Two armies.

Two visions for humanity's future.

Standing beneath the end of the world.

Finally Tobias broke the silence.

"You planned this."

Lord Asp nodded once.

"Yes."

Tobias looked toward the Titans.

Toward the portal.

Toward the endless armies gathering beyond it.

Then back toward Asp.

"If humanity survives this..."

His grip tightened on VoidSmasher.

"...we're going to have a very long conversation."

Asp actually smiled beneath the helmet.

"Agreed."

Then the portal exploded.

And something enormous began forcing its way through.

Bigger than the Crowned One.

Far bigger.

The war had only just begun.