“Soldiers, it’s been an honour,” Seake spoke into his transponder.

As he shut his eyes to prepare for the imminent death, he heard the sound of the french horn. The mellow and enriching music revitalised him. It was immediately followed by a huge explosion. The tanks at the starboard of the enemy formation did a hundred and eighty degrees flip and crashed heads down on the other tanks. Then a warcry blared in his ears, assisted with a loudspeaker.

5TH BATTALION! KILL WHAT YOU SEE!

The signaller turned towards Seake and yelled, “Sarge, new orders!” He broadcasted the livefeed to every secured channel.

“Zerga platoon, you’ve done great. Let us take over from here. Retreat to the first aid outpost to tend to your injuries. Soldiers, as of now, we are at war.”

Fresh batches of soldiers rushed up to cover the stranded platoons and defend the facility.

Seake yelled for his platoon to fall back. He glanced at his watch.

“Twenty minutes. How is that possible?” He asked himself.

The french horn sounded again. It was an official declaration of war. The great nation, Oclia, had declared war on the enemy.

Fifty Light Strike Vehicles (LSV) forced their way towards the enemy’s back line from the starboard in a diamond formation. Unlike other Commanding Officers (CO) who would direct their troops from the rear, in the first LSV was Colonel Husker himself. He spoke into the transponder.

“Bazookas standby.”

Two sections of soldiers propped their weapons on their shoulders and took aim.

The command for ‘fire’ did not arrive. Instead, Husker gave another command.

“Strike team, split!”

The LSVs travelling together separated into half, forming a huge gap. Two huge tanks drove through the gap created.

TANKER FIRE!

Two blasts from the cannons sent the remaining enemy tanks flying and left the entire enemy force bare.

BAZOOKAS ON MY COMMAND! FIRE!

The frontline of enemy soldiers were completely annihilated by the barrage of anti-tank rockets. Bazookas to defeat infantry men were overkills. It seemed as though the new CO did not care about ammunition at all. He was not planning to push the enemy forces back. Instead, his plan was to leave no survivors after this battle.

What was left of the enemy battalion retreated. The ememy vehicles were fast. With that kind of speed, there was no chance to catch up with the enemy.

Just then, Husker glowed with a faint crimson aura.

Colonel Husker commanded the strike team via the transponder. His order cackled through the radio.

“Strike team, wipe out. Radiance discharged. Hustle.”

Every LSV glowed with the same faint red aura surrounding Husker. Instantaneously, the LSVs blitzed towards the retreating force with incredible speed. The strike team was travelling at 220kmph, which was twice the maximum speed a regular LSV could reach.

“Who are they?” Seake muttered as his wounds were being bandaged by a medic.

“Those on the Light Strike Vehicles? They’re the special reinforcement team who came together with the new CO,” the medic replied.

“New CO? What about Myer?”

“Myer? His condition got worse… Heard he was sent back to the capital.”

“How’s the new CO?”

“I don’t know… Many think he can’t lead. Heard that he’s a genius though. Got his colonel rank right after finishing the officer’s course.”

“No way…”

“Heard that he’s got a jadeite as well.”

“Ghost unit?” Seake asked. He could not believe what he heard.

“I heard they call it a different name now…”

The medic glanced at Seake in silence for a brief moment and then whispered, “I heard they call it Heaven’s Command.”

A bazooka rocketed out from Husker’s vehicle, rocketing towards the disorganised militants. The special reinforcement team drove straight into the black clouds. The machine gun propped on each vehicle rapped repeatedly.

Colonel Husker was planning on piercing his way through the foot soldiers to get to the enemy’s commanding officer.

Occasionally, the explosion of a bazooka could be heard. The rest of the 5th Battalion had to imagine the fight, since their visions were obscured by the smoke.

The tides had turned. They were winning.

The soldiers on the LSVs were tough, accurate and deadly swift. It was as if they were specially trained for such fights. In a matter of minutes, they had caught up with the remaining of the retreating force. Upon passing the last enemy rover, Husker’s driver slammed the brake and skidded, rotating the vehicle around to face the enemy. With the vehicle still skidding backwards due to the momentum, Husker fired to two consecutive bazooka rounds from each barrel propped on his LSV before firing his General-purpose machine gun (GPMG) at the enemy commander’s rover. It combusted immediately and exploded. The others followed Husker, destroying the last of the enemy battalion.

The LSVs finally came to a halt. The lanky commander stepped out of his vehicle to assess the damage. He strolled towards the blackened, overturned rover and peered into the vehicle. He pursed his lips and adjusted his lopsided spectacles as he took a closer look at the enemy. The entire battalion waited in utter silence as their commanding officer assessed the situation. Only the noise of the engines could be heard. Husker made eye contact with Master Sergeant Pike standing beside a rover. He nodded at Pike. The french horn sounded once again, indicating that the battle was won. The desert was filled with triumphant roars of cheering.

Oclia had won her first battle, led by Colonel Husker. It was not a wrong decision to swap Myer out for Husker after all. After all, Husker had skills which Myer could never have. Colonel Husker should be sharing the excitement with his men. However, his expression was grim and his eyes quivered. Husker knew that his two platoons survived only because the government decided to declare war against the enemy. Had he not receive orders from the top brass, his special abilities would still be kept a secret and they could never have arrived in the nick of time. But to the 5th Battalion, the victory was not due to chance. They could not deny the fact that the speed Husker granted them was the deciding factor for winning the fight.

Amongst the excitement and rowdiness, only one knew that this was nothing to celebrate about. Husker took out his jadeite slab and stared at it. Declaring war only meant that Oclia was ready. This was not the end, but only the beginning…