My counsellor told me it would help ease the mental anguish if I talked to others about the horrors of the war I had witnessed. She went on to advise that in the past her patients had found that talking to others helped to ease the flashbacks and the constant nightmares of blood, guts and body parts flying through the air. With a sense of fear at reliving the warzone’s horrors I sat up in bed reaching for my laptop my hands shaking uncontrollably as I did so. When my fingers finally came to rest on the keypad my vision blurred. I had the unnerving feeling a sniper had his sights trained on me. I felt the urge to run for cover and I even thought I heard the unmistakable sound of a bullet zipping inches past my head, the thought of Jas-n laughing bought me back to my senses and I started to type, grinding my teeth as I did so.

What follows is the first part of a true account of two battles, the names or those involved haven’t been altered in order that everyone shall remember the glorious dead:

The troops were getting nervous and tensions were running high as news of the network being down filtered through the ranks. We had been training for this moment for ages  and without the network the training meant nothing as we couldn’t join the battle. As the 8pm infiltration deadline drew nearer there were rumours spreading that the network was recovering. Morale amongst the troops was buoyed as we reached around to strap up our light body armour. I looked down at my standard issue pistol wishing it was something more, but I couldn’t help a smile spreading across my face as I felt my knife and remembered the last time I’d used it, plunging it between the ribs of some Eucadian scum just as he was about to call in an airstrike.

I only just had time to grab a couple of grenades before we were thrust into battle, and then it hit me. As the huge wasteland of ‘The Badlands’ opened up in front of me we didn’t even know where we were going before now, a quick look at the map showed a large and predominantly rocky desert wasteland, interspersed only by a handful of deserted bases and ruined buildings. A quick look around revealed I had emerged from the infiltration amongst some destroyed buildings, there were flames flickering around us and I knew I didn’t have any more time to waste. Through a window I could see a rocket launcher glistening in the misty sunlight so I set off scrambling up a pile of rubble hoping to grab it before one of my buddies did. Then, just under some shelter, I could see a rifle and a couple more grenades. My confidence grew as I realised that our weapons-drop team were doing their job and it would be a matter of seconds before my squad members would benefit from more drops.

Up ahead on a small hill I could see the Nemesis, so I made a break for it knowing that the first few seconds of battle are vital, with one last look around to make sure no one was wanting a lift I took to skies, pleased that the engineers had managed to tweak it to make it every bit as manoeuvrable and deadly as the enemy Warhawk. I was in the air for a matter of seconds before I came across a deserted base, so I touched down to claim it as our own. Later, in the heat of battle, we would welcome the respawn point. As I took to the skies again I saw some squad members drive past at top speed in a jeep, the driver doing an excellent job on the difficult terrain, I even thought I heard whoops of joy from the man on the back manning the machine gun turret. As I was hovering I thought I saw nofi jumping over a small wall, leaping in to a tank and setting off to join the battle, it was then that I knew that what was to come would be awesome.

I flicked my Nemesis effortlessly in to flight mode and immediately I was temporarily blinded by the sunlight, regaining control I flicked the boost button passing another disused base seeing the lads from the jeep claiming at as there own, they didn’t have time to wave as they were busy rounding up weapons themselves, knowing that their next move was going to be where they would come face to face with the enemy scum; the evil Eucadians.

I took a quick look at my HUD to check on the rules of engagement, this time round it was Team Death Match so I was glad I had almost reached the island’s centre point, knowing this was an ideal place to rack up a couple of early kills. At the same time my navigation software showed that a couple of stragglers had been left at the home-base, I tried to hide my frustration as I knew they weren’t contributing to the outcome and were probably running around aimlessly trying to pick up every possible weapon, I told myself to calm down as I remembered that I to, was once like that. If they were anything like me they would probably spend the rest of the battle holed up in a bunker or a missile silo.

As I reached the central fortress I was pleased to see that it was still deserted. It was time to claim it as Chernovan, greatly aiding our respawn ability – then I started to worry; was this all to easy? Was I walking into a trap? As I climbed out of my Nemesis my fears were confirmed as I could make out an enemy Warhawk in the distance perched on top of a rocky outcrop, then I heard a bullet zipping past my ear. Pleased it was only a sniper and not a Binocular Strike I decided to keep moving, making myself as difficult a target as possible. Arming my Rocket Launcher I fired off a loose shot harmlessly falling short, it was then that I made a fatal mistake as I steadied myself to line up a second shot and as I did so my last memory was the flash of the sniper’s muzzle, I felt the rush of air, took a deep breath knowing it was going to be my last.

Death came quickly but was thankfully only temporary as I knew that within seconds I would respawn in the midst of the action, my HUD showed my killers name, Jas-n. I grimaced remembering our previous encounters in the many hundreds of hours of service we each had clocked up. I made a mental note that he was going to be my first kill, the battle had well and truly begun.

To be continued…