Bloody dawn

[Mister_X]

CHAPTER 1: The Crash

As the jumphole in Leeds activated, a small Coalition "Partisan" class vessel appeared. Captain Ivan Karpov checked his systems and got green readings all across the board. He proceeded towards his objective which was to monitor and record the newest fleet movements of the Gallic Royal Navy. Everything seemed clear as he aproached the planet. Then all of a sudden the ships sensors went of the board. A Gallic patrol spotted his ship and diverted it's interceptors towards him. "Внимание, галльских судов заметили", a voice suddenly started repeating. Karpov engaged his cruise engine and activated his countermesure dropper, but it was too late. One of the enemy ships already fired a missile and disabled the cruise engines. There waas no other option but to fight.The inevitable battle insued and Karpov quickly disabled one of the fighters, and as he proceeded to take out the other, the rest of the patrol caught up. One "Lynx" class fighter fired it's missiles which quickly dissabled Karpov's shield. The next one was even more fatal. The missile hit the engine, and the ships core started going critical. Karpov new his only chance was to try and crash land on planet Leeds. He transmited one simple message: "Капитан Карпов отчетности, выстрелил над Лидс планете, пытаясь аварийную посадку"...
As Karpov was slowly regaining conscience, through a fog he could hear voices shouting and saw people staring at him as he was being carried through a corridor. He fell unconscious again. He was dreaming of being back on Volgograd with his wife and daughter as he was suddenly woken up by a bucket of water spilled to his face.
"Who the hell are you, what are you doing here?",a man dressed in what once was a business suit. "Is one of those bloddy Gauls? Let me kill him right away!"a voice said form the background. "He's no Gaul, I recognize those markings, he's a goddamn commie". Hearing that, everyone looked at the man standing at the door, an eyepatch on his left eye and a worn out, almost unrecognisable uniform of Her Majesty's Royal Marince Corps on him. "Commander Dooran, sir, we saw his vessel crash 2 miles north of here during a salvage mission. It looks like the Gauls shoot him down." As Karpov came fully to his senses he looked around and started asking questions in aa distinct russian accent: "Where am I, what is this? Release me right away!". "My name is commander James Dooran, of the Royal Marines, well at that is who I used to be", said Dooran looking at his filthy, torn apart clothes.. "You are currently located in the North District of what used to be Leeds City. This around you is what is left of it. We are what is left of the residents, the Gauls call us insurgents, but we like to refer to ourselves as freedom fighters."As the man was finishing his sentence a huge blast broke one of the walls of the ruined factory, screams and gunshots insued, a massive panic and confusion. Everyone grabbed their guns and ran out of the room. Karpov dropped his chair, pulled his tied up hands over his legs, grabbed the little knife he always carried in his boot and cut the rope. Just as he aproached the door a Gallic marine stormed in. Karpov quickly grabbed his rifle, hit him in the face wiht his elbow, grabbed him and used him as a human shield for the incoming shots form the rest of the soldiers. He took down 3 soldiers before breaking his "hostages" neck. He ran outside and the sight was a terrible one. Dead bodies lied everywhere, women, children, soldiers, Gauls and Bretonians. The battle lasted for almost an hour but to Karpov everything ended in a minute.
Soon, everything was over. He looked around and few meters from him comander Dooran's body was lying on a pile of bricks, his one, lifeless eye staring into the sky. "Are you alright? Have you been injured?",a woman's voice was heard among the screams of the scared and wounded. "I am fine, what happened?". "It's the Gauls, they found us somehow, goddammnit, how did they find us?"
People were runing all over the place, helping the wounded, overing the dead....Karpov recognised the man in a worn out business suit and aproached him: [color=#FFA500]"You need to move your people out of here, you are not safe in this place"[color=#FFA500]"I know, bloody hell, how did they get us in here....My name is Michael, by the way",said the man extending his hand to Karpov. Commander Dooran is dead, what are we going to do now, he was the only one with any knowledge of how to fight."
Karpov grabbed a rifle, went near the huge hole in the wall overlooking the city, crouched and started staring into the city.
"Michael, what are we going to do now?", Janet said rubbing her forehead...."Dooran is dead, I guess that makes you the leader now Michael."..."Trust me Janet, that is the least thing I could desire in my life. But what about him?",he said looking at Karpov who was still observing the city..."I saw him take down 4 Gauls single-handedly, he seems to know what he is doing. We need him Michael."
Michale looked down around, before dropping his head to his palms: "I know goddamnit, I know."....

---