The Eagle born to those who pledged their lives and sacred honors, as smiled upon by God and freed from chains and iron collar. He is held aloft on unity and by History revered, for preserving peace through strength his wings now reach across two hundred yearsbut for each of those, and one year more, God has smiled upon The Corps, from the Barbary Coast to the Eastern Sand, by sword, by gun, or by bare hand. So it's been, and shall be weighed: though many are born, few are "made". Faithful Always, they shall remain...dogs to loose when war is waged.

The Warriors Song (opening verse)

January 3, 2019 (Pre System)

After about 15 minutes I felt like a goddamn idiot. This was one long-ass hill I was walking down. It went halfway into the middle of the north part of Denver. These stranded people could just drop in neutral and blow down the mountain. I'd coasted down in my rig doing 70 before. A car or truck should be no different. They wouldn't have any defenses but as long as they had a home to hide in I was pretty sure the Leos could handle any monsters. I could take any of the people with kids who had no place to go with me until I could figure out what to do with them.

"Hey, everyone gather round. New plan." I said.

A bunch of people glanced around and came over. Some people were still sitting near their dead vehicles, not really doing anything but checking phones occasionally. Once I had a small group around I began my speal.

"Ok listen up. Apparently, none of us, including me, remembered we're on a fucking mountain. So if you have a vehicle and your home is nearby or close enough to coast too, you should definitely do that. You've all seen the critters, you all know more bad shit is likely. So if you can get home and if you have weapons there I suggest you do so before it gets dark. Most stories I read about this kinda thing said it gets bad after dark, but those were fiction. So for all I know, tonight you'll get rainbows popping out of your collective asses and be fine. I'd recommend you error on the side of not dying however. If you have a kid and no place you can reach safely hang with me and I'll take you to a safe place." I said in my best R. Lee Ermey impression.

All of the people around me got thoughtful or sheepish looks on their faces and five minutes later vehicles of all kinds were zipping past me down 70. Half an hour or so later I was left with seventeen people. Three couples with a kid each and a couple of single moms and a single dad rounding it out with a few kids ranging from six to eighteen.

Once it was clear I started looking for a vehicle that could take us all. Pickings were slim. I'd have gone to my truck but it had air brakes. If the engine ain't running it generates no air so it might as well be an eighteen-wheel brick.

Eventually, I just decided to say fuck it and jimmy a couple of the abandoned cars nearby. I guess people had left before we got here or had gotten into trouble. We piled in and I had the other car follow me. We picked up speed really fast.

I'd grabbed a minivan and a Dodge Ram Longhorn Edition. The ram had a trailer attached. More weight equals more speed. I was tempted to grab some of my stock from the truck and load up this trailer. But there was no way it was coasting as far as I needed to go.

So I decided to just pack it with people, two of the couples got in the minivan since it had seat belts. The rest of the kids ended up in the cab with me or in the trailer with the rest of the adults. Once we got rolling that thing picked up speed fast.

We lost a little speed when I turned off the 70 to the 470 and took that east, but a lot of that was still downhill. We actually made it all the way to the Ken Caryl exit. Which was good because I knew there was a sheriff station near there. I could drop these civilians off and be about my business.

I pulled us off the side of the road about a hundred yards from the exit. There were stalled cars all over the damn place blocking the road. I'd been kinda surprised to see no jams before this honestly, but you know what they say about gift horses. As we exited the vehicles I said.

"Ok group up, we made great time. There is a sheriff station less than two miles away. Once we get there you can get help from them and you should be safe till this System crap finishes up." I said.

It was mostly true. I could see several places across the city where fires had started. I could also hear a shit load of gunfire. My trained ear could pick out Ar15s, AK variants and a hell of a lot of nine-millimeter. Some of it sounded close too. One of the smaller kids came over to me. He looked about 5 or 6 with a mop of curly black hair and clear green eyes looking up at me.

"Mister, are you an army man?" He asked.

"Bite your tongue kid. I'm a member of the greatest fighting force ever assembled. The United States Marine Corps." I said. There may have been a bit of pride in my voice.

The kid just looked confused. I sighed internally and tried to explain.

"The Army is a different group. They do different jobs than the Marines. Especially my group. But I retired a couple of years ago." I said.

"What group were you in mister?" He asked.

"1st Raider Battalion. Master Gunnery Sergeant Buck Stevens at your service." I said. Then I reached down to shake his tiny hand. At my six foot six he was tiny next to me. I didn't bother to go into all the other jobs I'd had outside of the MOS I was officially listed as. He wouldn't have understood it all anyway.

Once I shook his hand he ran back to his parents screaming "mommy, mommy, I shook the army mans hand." I facepalmed.

Once everyone was ready we started walking. The Sheriff's Department wasn't much farther. Maybe six blocks down the ramp and around what was basically a frontage road. It was getting to be around 1300 if the sun was any indication. I'd let the kids have some of my jerky and water but I hadn't wanted to give out much since I wasn't sure when I could resupply. Depending on what I saw on the way home I could probably raid a few gas stations for more jerky.

As we walked, I scanned the area. I'd seen a few weird critters when we were coasting down here. One had been a massive fire lizard. I was guessing a salamander of some kind but with no way to analyze it, I was going to avoid trying anything with something that size. I'd seen a giant bird of some kind and a few little two-legged green people. Some in groups as large as twenty.

Twenty minutes later we made it to the block the station was on. We had heard the gunfire long since though. Apparently, it was in the middle of being turned into an ice cube.

As we got closer I sent the civilians into one of the condos. The part of Denver we were in was one of the more affluent neighborhoods, it was built for the suburban golf club set. In fact, the botanical gardens and country club were across the road.

As I shuffled them all inside I handed a green smoke grenade to the single dad. I explained how to use it and then turned to go. Then the kid I'd shook hands with came over and asked. "What are you gonna do now mister?"

"I'm gonna go sing that big blue lizard a song." I said.

Then I went back out the door. I heard the click behind me as I let the door shut behind me and they locked it. Starting forward I began to sing.

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Sergeant Laydon Tibbs was having a bad day. First, the entire city had lost power. As if that wasn't bad enough two-thirds of the officers who should have been on duty had never shown and the backup generators had gone down. No one knew why. Even the damn radios weren't working. Then this damn monster lizard had shown up. It had demolished three condos and had appeared to be building a nest of all things.

He'd sent two of the deputies to see what the hell all the noise was. They hadn't returned. Now they only had four deputies and himself. They had grabbed everything they could from the armory and blasted the crap out of the lizard. Nothing had worked, not 12 gauge slugs from the Remingtons, not the Ar15s, not the tear gas. Granted that last was like pissing on the thing. While that had been going on the freaking beast had been using some kind of breath ability to coat the entire front of the building in a sheet of ice. It seemed to be slowly trying to entomb them.

"What the fuck is that." Said Karl Gibbons. A 3-year veteran of the sheriff's department.

We all listened hard. Then we heard the singing. One of the other deputies, a rookie we just hired a few months ago, began to laugh. "That gentleman is the fucking cavalry." He said.

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"....Forged in a fire lit long ago, stand next to me, you’ll never stand alone, I’m last to leave, but the first to go, Hard Corps is the only way I know.

I feed on the fear of the devil inside, of the enemy faces in my sight.

Aim with the hand, shoot with the mind, kill with a heart like arctic ice...

I am a Devil-Dog I’m marching on, I am a warrior and this is my song." I sang at the top of my lungs.

The lizard had been watching me come down the sidewalk. It had large rear sweeping horns and a sort of frill around its neck. Kinda like those lizards from that Jurassic Park movie. I'll be honest. It shocked the shit out of me when I got a block away and realized it was almost as big as the three-story building it was busy coating in ice. But I'd learned long ago to hide my emotions. As I began to cross the street it freaking spoke.

"Who are you, that does not fear death?" It asked. It's voice was deep. It sounds like it was gargling gravel.

"Master Gunnery Sergeant Buck Stevens. At your service. And I'm going to have to ask you to leave the nice people inside alone. Or you and I are going to have a disagreement." I said.

The beast snorted, spraying bluish frozen chunks of snot everywhere. Yuck.

"You have no power pitiful creature. I sense no skills or magic about you. I claim this place as my nest. Go or I will eat you. These fools have already angered me. So I will save them for my young to consume." It said in that terrible voice.

Now I'm not an idiot. I knew this thing was out of my league, probably. But I also knew the system was coming. Also since this creature seemed to be relatively reasonable I was having the glimmer of a bat shit crazy plan. A Raider Specialty.

"You're here because of the system yes?" I asked.

She (nesting for young is generally a female animal thing, and I knew that) turned back to me and hissed. I just looked back calmly. You can't back down from predators. No Fear, Oorah.

"Yeah, I thought so. Look you clearly think you can't be harmed by our weapons. What if I could prove otherwise? Moreover, what if I could show you a better place to nest. Near an abundant food source that isn't my people? It's even nearby." I said in a calm tone.

She cocked her head at me.

"You would have me let you harm me and not eat you? You are a foolish thing. Yes, the system set me here. My brood will be more powerful here growing on newly formed Aether. We will finally have our own territory." She said. That clued me into a couple of pieces of information. One, Aether was gonna be a thing and two, it was going to power up a lot of newly spawned critters. That was bad in a lot of ways since most of the world had no idea what the fuck was coming and was nowhere near ready for it.

"Look, you seem like a mostly civil...what are you exactly? I don't want to be rude and just call you lizard. Lady seems appropriate but I'm not real sure on that either." I said.

"I am a Frost Drake. Dragon Kin, daughter of Hobazaxiz, Iceborne Calamity of Tornamix. You may address me as God, Supreme Overlord or Most High Excellency." She said rising up as high as she could on her four legs and puffing out her chest.

I mentally facepalmed. No way was that happening. So I began again.

"Look lady. You're on my world. And as fierce as you may be you have zero idea what a pissed off Raider is capable of. You damn sure don't have a clue about my weapons. So, we can do this two ways. You can leave these kind officers alone and follow me or I can kill you and make sure your brood never survives." I said. She most definitely didn't like that. She spun fast and I saw her begin to generate a fog of cold gas from her jaws. It slowly began leaking across the ground.

I sighed mentally and took off running to my right. As I did I shouldered my rifle and began fumbling with my pack. I slammed through the condo door just as a screech of frozen winds and icy shards came hissing up the walkway and slammed into the door, just as I closed it. Then I shivered. That was some serious fucking cold. And I'd done arctic cold-weather training.

I had two thermite grenades in my pack so I dropped the pack and started digging. One of the things I'd always loved from the Halo series was sticky grenades. So one day while I was bored the company armorer and I had fucked around and figured out how to make them. We took duct tape and wrapped it around the outside of a thermite grenade. Much like you would if you were sticking a poster to a wall we looped the tape so it was sticky side out. Then we poured glue over it and heated it mildly so the two resins merged. They became a sticky gloppy mess, but they also stick to damn near anything.

I had a lighter to melt the goop but it was an electric spark butane lighter. I'd tried it earlier and no joy. The battery was deader than this Ice Drake was about to be. I dug out both grenades and began to tape them together. I had to be fast because I could hear the bitch getting closer.

Four fast loops of tape and I grabbed my bag and MOVED. I ran my ass out the back porch door and immediately cut left to go around the building, as I turned I heard a massive boom and a lot of breaking wood being thrown around.

Peeking at what was left of the front of the house I sprinted as fast as my six foot six frame would go. I think I did ok considering I've been out for two years. I still maintain my fitness. Just not as rigorously.

I could hear mama rooting around behind me as I cut left again and took a position near the corner of the condo directly across from the police station and the street it was on. Then I dropped my gear shouldered my rifle and began looking for a soft target. The sight picture was great from my position. My Trijicon ACOG Hybrid was designed with both CQB (Close Quarters Battle) as well as mid-range accuracy in mind. The main sight was a 6x32 dual illuminated light with hash marks for incremental range adjustments. It hadn't been cheap but it had been totally worth it.

Earlier I'd noticed she lifted her frill when she used her breath weapon. So I waited patiently. I was fairly sure I could punch through her scales. My Tungsten Penetrators were designed to punch through Class IV body armor. That's basically inch thick ceramic/kevlar plated inserts. Normally they stop everything except .50 Cal.

After a few more minutes of her rooting around, I heard her huff loudly and say something that sounded like FINE! Then her frill started to light up with a new glow. It was a deep aquamarine color on the edged fading to a neon icy blue as it crept towards her neck. Then with a woosh, she opened her jaws wide and let loose. It was impressive. A massive beam of energy left her jaws and the area inside the building exploded in frost and ice.

It was impressive till I shot her in the back of the neck right where I figured her spine to be. She jet out a weird "yarp" sound like someone just kicked her in the ovaries and thrashed hard. The house absolutely exploded. It was pretty much good for kindling and not a lot else at this point.

I gave her a chance to recover for a second then put another round in her just where her tail merged with her ass. More squealing and thrashing ensued. Then I called out to her.

"Look I can do this all day, I got more shots than you got scales lady. That was two shots. And not even in particularly vital areas. The next one's going in your eye. Pretty sure I can penetrate your skull from there and damage your brain. And that's not even touching you with my other ordinance. So we need to come to an agreement right fucking now. Or I'm going to finish the job." I said.

Either she had the full measure of draconic ego or she was in rage beast mode. Cause as soon as I started talking she screeched, whirled around in the mess she'd made and charged me hard. I figured fuck it. My next offer wasn't gonna be nearly as nice. Truth was I had other plans for her. I'd kill her if I had to but that wasn't the goal here.

So I pulled the pins on both thermites and threw them at her. They arced over in a perfect quarterback dream throw. And she fucking spun and slapped it back in my direction with her goddamn tail. I had an oh shit moment, then grabbed my ruck and hauled ass around the corner. The only thing that saved me was the fact that they weren't Firestorm grenades. Thermite doesn't explode it just burns really hot. Like, burn through your car hood and entire engine block hot. She came back around and charged me again as I scrambled around the corner and booked it down the side of the building.

Just as I reached the corner and hooked another left to get out of sight the fucking wall tilted and smacked me so hard I flew through the property fence line and into the neighbor's yard. It fucking hurt. I shook off the daze and looked up to see the house I'd been next to looked like a goddamn chinese takeout box. Narrow on the bottom and the walls all at a 45-degree angle sloping up.

The shit was barely holding together. It looked like she'd reared up and slammed half her body into the roof. Fuck that noise. I pulled out my last Firestorm. This was a handheld prototype I'd been working on for sale. It was about 40% more powerful than the 40mm versions I'd used earlier. I dropped it in the Frag pouch next to my pistol holster and stood up.

"Ok bitch, let's git sum." I murmured to myself. Then standing completely in the open I waited for her to lift her head out of the wreckage, sighted in, and started unloading my entire magazine into her face. Rearing back she raised her left claw to try to cover her face. It didn't stop me though. I could see spurts of blood coming from her head and claw. I'd been going for the left eye as that was the side I was on but everything happened so fast I wasn't sure I had gotten it.

My last round left the chamber and I did a quick change dropping the mag with my right hand while my left grabbed and slotted a fresh 100 round tungsten magazine. I was burning through ammo fast. I'd only had three dual drums loaded for a demo I'd been headed for. Once this was gone I had one left. And I'd already seen how effective normal ammo was on this beast.

I hit the slide release and chambered another round. Not my fastest mag switch ever but 2 seconds ain't bad. I waited for a second to see what she was doing. So far she was still cowering. It looked like she was peeking between her clawed digits? The fuck?

I waited for another shot at her eye. Neither of us moved. Then I heard a weird gurgle-chortle-snort, it took me a second to realize she was crying!

"All I wish is to have my own territory. Ever since I arrived on this wretched world people either run from me try to attack me or throw weird farty smell bombs at me. Why can't you all just leave me be?" She asked.

"Look lady we went over this. You pissed my first two offers away. I only got one left and judging by the last two your gonna hate it. And probably try to kill me again. Then I'll have to turn you into Drake kabobs. So why don't you just go on your merry way." I said as she continued to cower and peek at me. Something didn't smell right. And it wasn't farty bombs.

"I can't just leave, I have been assigned to this territory. The only way I can leave is if someone steals my territory or defeats me in combat." She said.

"Didn't I just do that?" I asked.

"Well yes, but it doesn't count now. It has to happen once System Is fully online. Then you gain special bonuses and rewards." She said.

"So you're saying if we do this shit again after the twenty-four hours is up you can go and we won't have any more problems." I said.

She nodded her massive head, finally lowering her claws. Something smelled off here but she seemed genuinely interested in no longer fighting.

"Alright here's the deal. Go wait at the nest you made. I'll send one of the cops over to keep people from messing with you. If they won't I'll come myself. In return you keep things from eating me. And once the system is finished we will part ways after I beat you again. Fair?" I asked.

She nodded her head in agreement and turned and headed off. I watched her go for a minute then grabbed my shit and headed for the cop shop. On the way there I stopped and grabbed the people I'd brought. It was gonna be a long night. Hopefully, the leos had some goddamn Tylenol. Getting hit with walls fucking hurts.