• John Hazhar laid on his back staring up at the star filled night, something his father and him had done since he was seven and before his father died. His father's death, calatorial damage of a senseless war. A war that John was more than willing to participate in, for he did not care for life anymore. He had lost everyone who was close to him. His father, his mother, his brother, his wife and son all gone, they had left him alone. His father was killed by sharpnel from an enemy artillary shell, one of many that was fired at a command post that his father had been stationed at. The insurance company failed to cover the costs of the funeral and John's jobless mother commited suicide to escape the inevitable financial tragety she was sinking into. The memory still holds firm in John's mind.
    He remembered hearing a mournful cry and the jingling of brass. He walked into his father's lounge where his mother managed to find his father's gun. She had just loaded a single bullet into the chamber, his mother lifted the gun barrel into her mouth and had nothing to say to her speechless son who was standing there in the doorway. She only hesitated a few seconds before pulling the trigger, John flinched as the booming sound of the gun echoed in the spacious room. He didnt know what to do, he stood there crying and shaking until his older brother came home and had called 911.
    His brother had died the year before John graduated from college. He was killed in action, "KIA" as the letter John recieved said. His brother's death was another blow to John's emotional stability. It had taken him months to move on. John's wife was killed a month after John joined the New Earth Recon Squadron (NERS). They had been killed by a drunk driver who had crashed his fuel tanker into them straight on.
    John stumbled to his feet as he heard a loud whistling sound echoing off from somewhere. IT was followed by a quake in the ground and an explosion approximatly seventy yards off from John's location. It looked to have hit one of the many bunkers inhabited by a few hundred soldiers. John grabbed his rifle and started to sprint off towards the general direction of the booms of guns and exploding of artillary shells. An almost ear shattering siren sounded as more artillary shells hit the west wall of the base and more bunkers exploded into flames.