Chapter 1

"-Come in Red Leader, this is Foundation, come in, Red Leader. Respond!" came a voice from a helmet on the pavement. It was lying on a trail of blood leading into a nearby supply closet.

"Any units on this channel, please respond!" came the voice again.

"Any units on this channel, please respond!" the voice repeated.

"Any word, Mr. Yu?" Commander Azlan Mustapha asked the communications officer.

"Nothing, sir. Not a single squeak," Mr. Yu said as he tried again.

"Mr. Banu, can you confirm me what Red Team's assignment was?" the commander asked a man sitting behind the console marked as 'OPS'.

"Yes sir. They were to investigate intelligence mentioning a shopping mall being used as a holding area for human captives. Their objectives were first, to determine whether or not there were really humans being held captives there at any capacity. Second, to estimate how many humans are there and where. Third, to identify any loopholes in enemy's defenses and recommend a course of assault. Fourth, they are to report back every 2 hours," Mr. Banu, a wrinkly-faced Indian man said.

"How long has it been since they lost contact?"

"Over 3 hours now, sir,"

"What did Oracle report the last time they made contact?"

"Red Leader reported that they ran into a few of those dog-faces, but dispatched them without alerting the others."

Commander Azlan Mustapha pondered for a bit before saying, "Which teams are ready to launch now, Mr. Banu?"

"That's the problem, sir. We don't have any teams ready for launch."

"How so?"

"Tuah Team that was on standby, was sent to reinforce Blue Team when they encountered heavier opposition than intelligence expected. Now we have Han Team and Green Team suiting up, but they're not yet ready to depart."

"Get them to suit up quickly and have someone compile Red Team's mission log so far. Send it to my tablet."

"Yes sir."

Oracle a.k.a. Commander Hazri Amran, peered behind the ruined wall he was sitting at. He was catching his breath, weapons ready in case the dog-faces were still on his tail. He steadied his breathing, taking in calculated gulps of air as he saw movement in the alley between the two buildings in his sight. He gripped his MR-5 gauss rifle tighly in both hands, ready to aim it at the enemy as soon as it apears.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered it was only a cat. He briefly wondered why cats were allowed to roam free, when the dog-faces took every man, woman, child and dog up to their massive mothership high up in orbit. But he didn't ponder that question for long as he scanned the alley with his heat vision goggle. It came up empty, no heat, no colour, just blackness.

"Blasted 'Made in China' product," he cursed, as he pulled the goggle off his head and smacked it a few time with his palms. He tried it on again and was annoyed that it still gave a black screen.

"Gotta tell Tech to design a better kit," he muttered to himself.

He sat down more comfortably, finally feeling the ache in his muscles and joints. He wondered how the rest of his team fared. Thinking back, he started to identify what went wrong and realized that there was nothing he could do back then.

They were dropped off to the mission site via a cloaked KK303 Hovertank, as was standard operating procedure, which he himself helped design at the start of their resistance. They had proceeded quickly through the ruined buildings of the city, a remainder of what humanity had lost since the aliens invaded Earth. They had to get rid of some of the wandering dog-faced aliens that were blocking their way, but it was unavoidable. To get to within sight of the mall, they had to either get close to the building, which would be too risky, or climb the stairs of an adjacent building to get a clear view. The building they chose apparently had a few of those dog-faces using it as a recreational area. Without their personal armour it was easy to slit their throats from behind with a store-bought bowie knife.