Suddenly, the air erupted with the deafening cracks of gunfire, followed by the ominous roar of explosions echoing from the entrance of the church.
Piper nodded, his face set in determination as he quickly grabbed a rifle and bolted up the stairs. As he ascended, he spotted two soldiers hunched behind makeshift barricades, their eyes bandaged and legs injured, each clutching their pistols like lifelines in this brutal reality. The church, once a place of refuge, had devolved into a hellhole filled with gunfire, cries of pain, and the piercing shrieks of an infant—once calm, now steeped in panic.
"Die, Legion scum!" Sergeant Hawthorne shouted, rallying his men with fierce determination. "We need to hold for 300 seconds!"
Piper rushed to the window and peered outside. The statue of the Virgin Mary stood resolutely in the middle of the field, a haunting image amid the chaos, with apartment complexes lining both sides of the street at a T-intersection. Just beyond, the remnants of two T17 armored vehicles smoldered, their once-imposing presence now mere husks of defeat.
"They took out our T17s!" one of the soldiers grumbled, disbelief etched across his face.
"Use smoke grenades for cover!" Hawthorne barked, urgency lacing his voice. "Then throw some Mk2 grenades past the smoke screen! We need to flush them out!"
"200 seconds!" Hawthorne reiterated, his commanding presence unyielding.
Without hesitation, Piper grabbed smoke grenades and hurled them into the fray. The canisters burst open, enveloping the battlefield in a thick haze, obscuring vision and offering a flicker of security within the chaos. Loud whistles and explosions punctuated the air, creating a cacophonous symphony of destruction.
"They've got a mortar nest behind the sand barrier northeast!" Hawthorne yelled, urgency palpable in his tone. Just then, a nearby explosion claimed two soldiers, and Piper felt the sickening thud of a severed leg landing dangerously close, a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes could change in this hellscape.
"Piper! Take out the mortar nest!" Hawthorne ordered, his voice rising above the chaos.
Fueled by adrenaline, Piper dashed through the smoke screen, eyes fixated on the T17 to his right. Without a second thought, he jumped, mind racing as he sought the mortar position. His heart pounded in rhythm with his hurried footsteps until he spotted it—the mortar nest nestled in a crater, protected by makeshift sandbags.
Piper sprinted closer, pulling out an Mk2 grenade, his hands steady despite the chaos swarming around him. He yanked the safety pin and threw the grenade into the crater.
Just as the grenade exploded with a thunderous blast, his heart dropped as he caught sight of an even more horrifying scene: six to eight dogs charging toward the church, each fitted with suicide vests, their frantic barks echoing like a sinister warning.
"No! No, no!" Piper shouted in horror, a sense of dread cascading over him. The nightmare was far from over.
The deafening explosion from the grenade morphed into an all-consuming chaos, and before he could process it, another explosion nearby sent a shockwave through the air, and then—darkness.
His vision blurred, fading into oblivion as the echoes of chaos, explosions, and gunfire drummed in his ears until, eventually, they all faded away.
Silence enveloped him, and in that dark void, Piper was left with a single thought: **Was this how it would end?**