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Here is the 5th Installment of The Spyro Wars. I hope you enjoy for I'm happy this didn't take long to type. It is also short by my standards... oh well. Some parts of a story are long while others are shot.

Chapter 5: The Lost City

UER Colony World Desmal

July 17, 2209

0232 Hours

Forest Bordering Marsha City

The M2 blared as Miller held down the trigger and mowed down the creatures. The Jeep swerved a bit, temporarily throwing off his aim. However he recovered and kept firing. The creatures had retreated into the forest and the rain splattered them as the jeep went on through the night.

Lightning lit up the area, revealing the road they were on was a ravine which leads deep into the forest. A blanket of darkness obscured anything beyond 40 yards as the rain continued to fall. They were drenched but kept at it. Miller saw a gang of creatures sitting on the side of the ravine as they speed along. They were just sitting there, watching them. He served the M2 at them and fired off a long burst. They still didn't move, even as the rounds hit them and some toppled over from the wounds.

The story was the same as he looked all around. They were just watching. Soon the jeep's lights gave out and darkness consumed them. Miller detected movement off his right. The GI kept going, even though they were driving blind. Miller heard more movement all around them and Crystal turned on the flashlight that was attached to the Carbine. It revealed a gang of the creatures running alongside the jeep. She screamed and fired a prolonged burst into them, cutting down two of them before they leapt out of the way.

"They're everywhere!" The GI yelled. Finally the lights on the jeep came to life to reveal that they were indeed surrounded. Miller used the M2 to cut them down as much as he could, but there were far too many. They jeep abruptly came to a halt as it hit an unseen tree stump. The creatures leaped from the sides of the ravine about 20 yards behind them and charged their position. The GI and Crystal grabbed their Carbine and the old M16 that Crystal had held onto.

The rifles blared as they pressed the triggers and tracers from the M2 and the rifles danced through the night and impacted the assailants. They kept coming and soon their machine gun fire was joined by a rapid fire M32LMG. The LMG split the night and tracer fire danced to the targets. The .30 caliber ammunition from the LMG cut down the creatures as efficiently as a Carbine would, but more weapons such as Carbines and an M74D rifle with an M203 Grenade Launcher were also thrown into the mix. A grenade flew from the barrel of the M203 and detonated in a mass of the creatures. Miller continued to fire his M2 until the weapon's ammo was depleted. He leapt from the M2 and grabbed his Carbine and threw his own gunfire into the mix.

Soon the large ravine was clear of any contacts and they turned to see a squad of Army Infantrymen and Marines emerge from a wooden shack nearby. There were at least 5 members in the squad and Miller could not have been more thankful to see real honest to God Humans. They were also alive which was a bonus!

"Oh thank God... you guys are a sight for sore eyes!" The GI proclaimed as he reloaded the Carbine he had with him.

"You're telling me!" The lead Marine said. The Marine had a 'Private First Class' emblem on his shoulder.

"Yeah, the only damn things we been seein have been them things comin out of the woods there." A GI with a mustache said.

"Private First Class Augustus Malain, 26th Marines." The Marine said as he extended his hand out to Miller.

"Corporal Shaun Miller, 407th Marines." Miller said while shaking the soldier's hand.

"So who's in charge here?" Miller asked.

"As of right now, you are sir. Our Sergeant got hit a few hours ago so you're the ranking officer here." The Marine said.

"Ah damn..." Miller muttered. Crystal was shaking in the rain and Malain saw this.

"Come here young lady, let's all get our hellos done in the shack." Malain offered. She didn't waste another moment and started off to the wooden shack.

"You guys got any food?" The GI asked as he walked from the jeep.

"We have hot food, enough for everyone! 'Cept Jenkins course... he's too fat for food!" One of the other soldiers said. The other Marine next to him, presumed to be Jenkins, hit the other in the gut with his rifle butt. At least they were in a playful mood. After all they had seen, Miller would not be laughing for a while.

They all walked off to the jeep and suddenly Miller remembered their other passengers on the jeep.

"Hey, we need medical help!" Miller yelled as he walked back over to the jeep. Malain whistled in the direction of the cabin.

"We need a Medic out here! Somebody get Foresal out here!" The door to the cabin opened up and a GI with a cross on his head emerged and sprinted over to the scene. A few others came over to help carry them.

However, once they saw the unconscious bodies of Spyro and Cynder they looked at Miller weird and one of them even had a rifle pointed at them.

"Get them in there I will explain later." Miller said. With many nervous glances they grabbed the dragons and moved them into the cabin. Jake and Hanna were also taken into the cabin.

Upon entering they found that the cabin was actually a wooden building erected over a pit dug in the ground. In this pit, which descended a good 8 feet from the door, there were a handful of civilians sitting around with a few GI and Marines mixed in. There were about 15 civilians, and 3 other soldiers. Many of the civilians wore Marine pads and wore the armor and vests the Marines and GIs wore. This was obviously for extra protection.

The squad came down and they lowered the unconscious members onto the tables. The civilians immediately came to their aid and eyed Spyro and Cynder with most interest.

Nevertheless they took to their wounds but they were out like a rock. Whatever Macanious had injected in them, it had sapped their strength. They remained out cold. However, their breathing was normal and their pulse seemed strong and steady. They were just out in some sort of coma state.

They turned their attention to Hanna who was sweating and was breathing irregularly and was really, really pale. She obviously had a fever. They were giving her antibiotics and were giving her medicine that fought the fever. However, what she really needed was rest. They set her on a bed and let her rest as the medicine took effect.

They gave Miller, the GI and Crystal fresh clothes to change into and lead them into a hallway that had several bed rooms. They gave them a room and they changed their clothes. Miller adorned another Marine uniform, as did the GI. Miller also managed to snag himself a new helmet. Crystal put on a new shirt, pants, and undergarments.

They then all met in another bedroom where a pair of ladies gave them some hot soup and water. They sat down and consumed the soup. They hadn't eaten in hours and this was really good. Miller had gone much longer without food, but he knew Crystal wouldn't last that long. They sat at the table, relaxing and enjoying the time off. Finally they could relax. However, they didn't know how much longer this would last. They were, after all, on a planet full of creatures that wanted to kill them and strange genetically modified creatures out to do some 'Master's' bidding.

"So, you never did tell me your name." Miller said to the GI.

"Well you never asked. It's Private Ivan Hujovanti." The GI said.

"Hujovanti? What ethnicity are you?"

"I was born on Cirian, but my family is unsure of just what ethnicity we are."

"I see." Miller said.

Crystal sat in silence as she listened to the soldiers talk. She had been through so much in the last day... a nice sit down was really welcomed. Her brother Jake and she had been in that cramped and hot closet for hours until they showed up and now they had gone through those sewers and that creepy power plant! All she really wanted was to be with her family... but even they were long gone... along with everybody she once knew.

She just hoped Jake would be alright... she was her only family now. Well, at least she wasn't alone. Many of the people in here had probably suffered similar losses and at least they weren't all by themselves in this whole mess. There is power in numbers... she kept telling that to herself to soothe her uneasy spirit.

At that moment Pvt. Malian walked into the room and set his helmet down on the table and sat down next to them.

"So I guess we all need a bit of catching up..." Malian said as he straightened himself in the seat.

"Well first off, what's your situation?" Miller asked.

"Well, we have enough ammo to fire continuously for hours on end so that's not an issue. We also have adequate food supplies and water. We have been in his cabin for about half a day. We retreated out of Marsha City after that Lakador Dreadnaught destroyed the city." Malian explained as he recounted the events that lead up to them being here.

"We have been in this cabin hiding from Lakador patrols and now those creatures that we just encountered. They have been straying around here disrupting ours and the Lakador's activities."

"Yeah... we know all about them..."

"Do you know just what the hell they are?"

"Genetically modified humans and Lakadors. Some Lakador is going around calling himself 'The Chosen One' and is genetically modifying any creature he can get his hands on. A Marine detachment was unlucky enough to go to the Marsha City Power Plant and try and retake it from Lakadors when both the Lakadors and Marines were slaughtered by those things."

"So this Lakador operates outside of the Lakador Empire I suppose?"

"From the sounds of things yes."

"So this is at the Power Plant correct?"

"Yeah."

"Well it's a good thing you came when you did. We were thinking of going to the power plant to seek better shelter from this storm and set up a base of operations."

"I wouldn't suggest going near it. Those things have the place infested."

"Well, seeing how you're the ranking officer here, what do you suggest?"

"To tell you the truth I don't know. My Marine detachment was whipped out and I managed to pick up a few stragglers and we went to the power plant. After that we came here. I think our best course of action would be to get back into Marsha City somehow, hunker down or find a way to contact the UERAF headquarters or just straight up find a way off this planet."

"Well the Marsha Defense Facility has a long range communication station, maybe we could use it."

"Maybe, but we would need to find a way into the city and then all the way to the Defense Facility."

"Well if it's safe passage into the city, we can arrange that. The hallway here leads into the Subway Station which leads to the Stadium in the Eastern District. From there it's only a mile or two to the Defense Facility. However, getting there would require a move on foot topside."

"We may have to do that. Get all the men and weapons you can get, we're going to relocate these people to inside the Stadium. From there we can set up a parameter and get inside the Defense Facility."

"Sounds better then sitting here fighting weird ass creatures." Malian commented. After he said that they moved out of the room and into the main room where Malian explained the plan to everybody and they got ready. All the civilians grabbed weapons such as M74Ds, Carbines, M23As, M10s, M22s, even a Sniper Rifle and an ancient M16 rifle to go with Crystal's M16.

They walked down the hallways with backpacks and pretty soon they were in the subway tunnel. All the civilians walked around and secured the area with the help of the Marines and GIs. The GI known as Jenkins and the Medic Foresal moved along the flank, helping a pair of kids move a pack of food. A few civilians carried the still unconscious bodies of Spyro, Cynder, Jake and Hanna.

They moved through the subway tunnel, encountering no resistance whatsoever. It was still raining outside and a few streams of water leaked from the cracked roof. After a good half hour of walking they came to a hole in the wall. Malian ushered them to stop and Miller went to the soldier.

"This is where the stadium is. It's just above us." He whispered. Miller nodded and ushered everybody into the hole. They went through and soon Miller found himself walking through a bathroom that belonged to the stadium. Once they all filed inside they walked into the central part of the stadium and found that the covered structure was enormous. It could accommodate thousands of spectators and he was surprised it was still in good condition.

As they set up in the area near the bathroom, Miller and Hujovanti went to the main entrance and found the street lights still lit as the rain came down on the city. The silhouettes of buildings in the distance were still visible and fires dotted the streets.

First thing in the morning they would go down those streets and try to retake the city of Marsha. Too long had they been running. Now was the time to act. Now was the time to assault. Miller and Hujovanti retreated to the CP to turn in for the night. They had a big day ahead of them.

"Yeah, 3rd is all clear sir." Simmons whispered to Miller as he sat in a pile of rubble. Simmons, one of the GIs with Malian's group, was relaying hand signals given to them by 3rd squad that was farther up the street. So far they had made sure that the main road running down from the Stadium was clear for about 700 yards.

As the morning sun broke through the clouds and lit up the area a bit, Miller decided it was time to call it in for the morning and return to the CP.

"Simmons, tell all squads to fall back. We're pulling out!" Miller whispered to him before he sat up in the debris and clutched his M78C tightly.

Simmons used hand signals and told 3rd the message. 3rd confirmed it and started on their way back. Miller ran back with Simmons as well, covering the 450 yard distance.

Thankfully it had finally stopped raining during the night but the clouds still lingered over the city. Now they had the environment to move and work well in. As they retreated Miller made a mental note of how far they had cleared the street. They would have to slowly move the whole group through shortly. The faster they got this done, the better.

As he went back he saw something that looked like a figure standing on a rooftop in the distance, watching them. It looked like a Lakador but suddenly it leapt off to another rooftop with amazing ease. That was impossible for any human or Lakador to do, er... that he knew of them doing.

As they returned to the stadium, Miller had Mr. Begtner cover 3rd's retreat. Begtner was an excellent sharpshooter according to Malian. Miller would just have to take his word for it. Begtner held a LR21MR Sniper Rifle. The scoped weapon was perfect for nailing enemies at long range and was powerful. This weapon could fire a .30 cal slug downrange at a target 2000 yards away with ease. They only had to cover 300 yards so this was the perfect weapon.

As 3rd entered the stadium they all retreated into the stadium's interior. Pretty soon they would have to make a move of all the people to the new site: a small abandoned movie theater which overlooked an intersection. It was the perfect new staging post for them.

Pretty soon they were traveling down the road to the theater. They all traveled low and the Marines and GIs were in the front, their rifles pointed outwards. A few civilians carried rifles and aided the soldiers as well. As they pressed on, Miller caught another glimpse of that figure on a far off roof top, watching them. It was an eerie feeling.

When they were about 15 yards from the theater, Miller ushered them to stop. He dashed over by himself across the open street and got to the theater. He dashed behind a fallen piece of concrete and straightened his helmet. He looked out over the street and saw no contacts. He ushered them forward with his hand and as the first Marine dashed over the open road, a laser of dark energy zipped from a dark window and impacted the Marine. The Marine fell to the ground as it burned through his protective breast plate and scorched his skin. The Marine lay on the ground screaming as the dark energy burned away at him.

"Contact!" Jenkins yelled and soon all of them were either in prone positions on the street or had ducked behind cover. They fired their weapons at a group of Lakadors who dashed out into the open so they could get on the Humans' flank.

Tracers dashed across the noon scene as dark energy impacted the road and bullets pinged off of the walls. The Lakadors ducked behind a broken wall that used to be a building but it had collapsed into the road. The Marines moved in prone positions and the GIs set up firing positions, as did the civilians. Bullets exploded off of the Lakador position as the GIs set up the LMG in a window.

A GI and an older man firing their weapons were caught off guard when Lakadors from above fired at them. They screamed as dark energy consumed them and a civilian tossed a fragmentation grenade at the Lakadors. The grenade detonated and a cloud rose and two Lakadors flew from the position and one nearby just plain fell to the ground as his armor was punctured by thousands of tiny shrapnel.

A Lakador in turn tossed an ice grenade at the humans and three GIs had to jump from where they were to avoid its effects. The grenade detonated in a fury of white light. Snow and ice flew from the grenade and Miller kept low as he was the closest to the Lakador position and was also the most vulnerable being separated from the group.

Nevertheless he pivoted his body occasionally and fired a burst of Carbine rounds onto the Lakador position. Even though they were protected by the wall, .30 ammo could and would penetrate it and kill anything on the other side. So in truth, it offered very little protection against weapons like the Carbine or LMG.

The fire fight ensued for minutes until the Lakadors started to get hit by weapons that the men couldn't have used. Miller saw flashes from behind the Lakador positions. He used a pair of binoculars to see that there were indeed Marines and GIs behind the Lakador position, firing at them.

The next thing Miller knew, the Lakadors were in an all out run. The civilians and soldiers all cheered and fired a few more shots at them as they ran. Miller breathed a sigh of relief and they all regrouped in front of the theater where an Army Lieutenant ran up to meet them. The Lieutenant lacked any protective gear whatsoever. He only wore the Army Uniform with no vests or even a protective breast plate.

"Who's your CO?" The Army Officer asked Miller as Miller dusted himself off. From the movements of the officer's jaw, Miller could tell he was either chewing gum, or tobacco. With the ban of tobacco products some years back, the latter was impossible.

"I'm the CO of this squad sir!" Miller said to the officer.

"Well it's a damn good thin we ran into ya, ey?"

"Sir, we need some medical assistance, some of our companions are ill and we need shelter."

"Well you ran into the right guys, we got a surgeon back at base. Come on, follow us." With that the GI made hand signals to his comrades and two Medics ran up with stretchers. Miller motioned to Simmons who walked over.

"Simmons, get the rest of the men to follow these guys. Get the wounded on the stretcher." Miller instructed.

"What about Jones and K.T.?" He asked.

"How are they?"

"Both dead."

"Damn... leave them. We can't bring any dead weight with us." Simmons hesitantly nodded and ran over to get the others on the two stretchers.

As before, they had to stack Spyro and Cynder on one stretcher and Hanna and Jake on another. However, the Medics were really upset and hesitant about Spyro and Cynder. The two dragons had aroused interest and the Army Lieutenant had to be called over to resolve the situation.

"What the hell's the hold up?" He asked as he walked up, his undone chin straps dangling as he walked.

"Sir, I refuse to help any Lakador." One of the Medics said to him.

"Like I said before, they aren't Lakadors!" Hujovanti argued.

"Then what the hell are they then?" The officer asked.

"They're dragons sir." Miller explained. The officer looked at him like he was some fool.

"It's true, they are dragons and they aren't with the Lakadors. Apparently they may be at war with them too I think..." The officer looked at one of the other men in his platoon and the man only shrugged.

"Alright, we'll help 'em, but you got some explaining to do to Colonel Bradley and Major Horton." He motioned to the hesitant Medics who grumbled and moved them. The other medic with the squad already gave Miller a look of interest. Miller frowned and used his hand to signal the others in the squad and the civilians to follow.

As Miller got the others to follow, he overhead a few soldiers from the other platoon mutter things such as: "They can't be the dragons!" or "Are they really the dragons?" and the occasional, "I thought they were supposed to be white and green, what gives?"

From the sounds of those comments, Miller wondered if there had been other dragons that had made appearances on UER battle fields. He had never heard of any. This was the first he had heard of dragons being real.

They followed the other soldiers down the road and to a library. As they came to the library, they noted Marine and GI positions in the upper floors of nearby buildings. There were machine gun positions, rocket jockeys, snipers, and even a few land mines were visible.

A small cannel ran between them and the library. The cannel was 20 yards across with three bridges spanning it's length. It was a relatively small cannel, and it was only about 30 feet down where the water was. It was probably just there for decoration.

They walked across it and entered the library. Upon entry they saw about a hundred Civilians and Armed men walking around. Many were Marines, GIs, and there were even some HACOs and Air Force Pilots and other soldiers.

Where the librarian sat had been changed into a command center with two men standing near the center. The Army Officer lead Miller and the two comatose dragons to them, all the while dodging very curios stares.

The Army officer approached the two men and he saluted. They saw him and returned the salute.

"Colonel, Major, I have something that may be of interest to you."

"What might that be Lieutenant Ieghtmen?"

"Well we fount these guys in a fight with some Lakadors and after we pulled 'em out, they had these with them." He motioned to Spyro and Cynder lying on the stretcher.

"Are those... dragons?" Major Horton said as he removed a pair of glasses that had been up until now, snug on his face.

"Uh yes sir, they are."

"So there are more of them..." The Colonel commented.

"What was that sir?"

"Nothing lad. What's your name soldier?"

"Corporal Shaun Miller, 407th Marines."

"Colonel Bradley, 3rd Marines. You boys were part of Colonel Dolby's scheme to retake Desmal?"

"Yes sir."

"Well sorry for your losses, we tried a similar thing but got our asses handed to us so we came here and have been here ever since trying to secure a position."

"So what are you guys trying to do?"

"Right now we are trying to get the hell off this world, get to Earth." The Colonel nodded to Horton.

"We have managed to secure a Mark 7-A2 Javelin Transport vessel. It is in dry dock on the east side of the city. We have a Platoon under the command of Captain Bartholomew guarding the ship and we are going to move all these civilians and armed forces to the Javelin. The Javelin has a wormhole generator and EMP machinery that can disable enemy ships and has special armaments that will allow us to slip past any Lakador blockade that may exist and get to Earth."

"When will be we leaving to it?"

"We want to go now, maybe in an hour once we can get enough arms secured that we will be able to punch right down towards the facility. We have secured enough weapons and arms to get there, we just need to start the process of getting there via what we have."

"Well let's hope these two wake up soon, sir. They are really powerful and I think with their help we can get there."

"I hold no doubts amongst them. I am curious to what they can really do."

"Sir! We have enemy contacts!" A Tech Officer said as he ran up with his head microphone still resting upon his head.

"How many?" Bradley asked as he walked over to a computer monitoring radar and cameras.

"Multiple Lakadors moving towards our position sir. It looks like they know we're here and want to take us out!"

"All right, Miller, get your squad ready for combat. This is going to be fun."

End of Chapter 5

They can never really rest can they? Can they get to the Javelin and get to Earth? Who is the mysterious Lakador trailing Miller and his men? Will Spyro and Cynder awaken from their slumber with that stuff injected into them? Will they get reunited with Wagner and company? Find out in the next chapter!

BTW, sorry for shortness. The next chapter is already planned out in my head and will soon be worked on via computer very shortly. The next Malefor chapter is also underway and is heavy in the making. I will try to focus on both chapters in the next few days and get them to you by Saturday or Sunday.