[headquarters]

SHANDON , CA October 11 0830hrs +2 C*

Lt.Benito Tecumseh Pain of the Praetorian Assault Company no.4 was running for his life.Every step hurt all over his body were concussion damage and shrapnel damage from several grenades had gotten him .He even had bullet wounds in several locations.A less physically robust man would have perished by far.
His ears were ringing with the sounds of the emergency klaxons .The howling siren warning of impending calamity.Running away from the firing position ,he had to clear a field several hundred meters long .He gritted his teeth against the pain and kept up his speed when he suddenly had to skid to a near instant stop.There were people moving in front of him .A company of NDP infantry had hust gotten up from the shallow ditch they had been hiding in some 300 meters in front of him .The sudden appearance of almost 100 dustcovered and suited men shocked him.
Several squads took notice of him - he could tell by the way they positioned the LMGs, the waiving,pointing hands of the squad leaders.
The rest of the company turned as a man and started trotting down the hill -the same way he was going .

Perplexed since being caught out in the open he stopped to think for a second.His musings were rudely interrupted .An old Huey helicopter roared a hundred meters overhead in a wide arc . It would seem they were checking him out .

Beyond the retreating rifle company was the valley and the roads and the village.
If only he had been down there .He would have had a chance . Or maybe not .A long line of infantry and vehicles were moving through the streets- pulling away .But not all . A battery of self propelled howitzers were busy taking up positions and elevating their guns at the hill.

The shrieking klaxons deafened out the ruckus from the helicopter for a second .

His boot was slowly filling with dripping blood from his leg wounds.
The sun in the east had barley gotten over the rim of the horizon.

This was not going to be the best of days.