Dion's D-Day
#9 of The War of Man, Anthros and Machines; The Second Great War
"We will gun you down in the Sea and Boil you alive! We will skin your rotted Families and lay their pelts beneath our Steel Boots! Lay down your arms and Repent by our Bullets! You are filth and vermin who deserve to DIE!"
-Russian demotivational message played during D-Day.
"The Hell am I doing?" was the only thought that ran through Dion's mind, as she waited with her sisters- and brothers-in-arms. The boat's hull was bleak and smooth, metallic in texture but soft to the touch. The boat itself was not metal, but was in fact made of synthetic organic fibers that, when exposed to extreme heat, stiffen to steel and iron like consistency.
But still, she knew well the moment the hull doors swung open, the Clunkers would rain down Hell on the Evolutionaries.
To her left stood a 6'5" Lizard, his humanoid fingers wrapped tightly around the grip of his Eagle Eye '102 Semi-Auto Rifle, dressed in light-weight recon armor with no sleeves and only cargo shorts, lacking basic bandolier most infantry carry, the only extra magazines where strapped to a belt around his waist. His scales where smooth and reflective, the only sighs of injury being a scar that ran from his left cheek, down his throat, and continued to the right at an angle, disappearing behind his armor.
But it was his eyes that scared her the most... They where cold and empty, like all the heat of his body had been drawn inwards to keep a fire raging in his heart... It was not uncommon to find many Anthros' sign up for the Army to avenge the deaths of there family and friends, taken by the meat grinders of the war.
Dion felt small and helpless, standing only at 5'0", many people seeing her only as cute and cuddly, not a conscript with a gun. She was the smallest of her generation, her parents both being at 5'9" and 6'10". Her brother was just as tall as their father.
The Lion to her right, though, was huge, around 6'8". He wore no helmet, probably because of his thick, well-kept mane, and had on armor that was contoured to the muscles of his body, which probably could stop a bullet themselves! The arms where in sections, the elbows', wrists' and knuckle joints missing, as with the legs, missing the knees and ankles joints. His massive paws, probably able to crush a Clunker skull, engulfed the trigger of a Rottweiler '135 Heavy Assault Rifle, which was probably loaded with venom/acid rounds.
Dion felt at ease, her twitching stopping, knowing that she was standing next to a living legend. His bare face and skin didn't show it, but he was the elites of elites. But her ease was to be broken by the loud voice booming into the hull.
"1 MINUTE!"
"This is it..." was the new thought that raced through Dion's mind, the thought of her impending doom, her Death, just beyond the safety of the synthetic doors.
What scarred her most was that there was no pigging or clanging of bullets, shrapnel and shells hitting the boats...
The Channel was gentle to the boats, calm and soothing, luring, into a false sense of safety and relaxation...
"This is it!" roared the deep-voice Lion, "Today, is the day we liberate our brethren and sisterens from the tyrannical ruling and genocidal killings of The Russkies from The East! A victory here would be the start of liberation of Europe form oppression of Steel and Steam! A step closer to restoring the midnight glow to The City of Light, Paris! Then East across the Rhine River, where we will extract vengeance from their machines of war for the mass-murder and fire bombings of millions of Anthros families and our Human Allies across Nova Germania!"
"And finally, we will cross the Volga River and capture Stalingrad, take Leningrad with the Swedish, run the Caspian Oilfields dry, and burn down the Kremlin of Moscow! The seat of power from which this so-called "Nation of Augmented People`s Empire" will be formed if we fail here on this day!"
"We will not fail!"
"30 SECONDS!"
The soldiers in the boat brought their rifles to the ready. Safety switching off, clips and sticks being unloaded, checked, and reloaded, chambers loading fresh rounds, the boat rang with these sounds for a moment, and then all was quite once more.
"For Darwin! For Liberty! For Freedom!" cried the Lizard, who Dion realized was a lieutenant and the Lion's right-hand man.
Suddenly, the hull was filled with the blinding mid-day sun. The first out was the Lion, and then the Lizard, and finally Dion, the frigid waters of the Channel gripped their feet in icy shackles.
The rest of the platoon stood, frozen, before following in courage, in bravery.