Prologue

 The year is 1918 C.E on the continent of Erbaros. In the nation of Rusland, a civil war has begun to end the tyrannical rule of its king. This war has continued for 2 years with no side closer to admitting defeat. This war is different from any other conflict fought in this world because this is the first to involve “Mech Warfare”. Mechs are tall humanoid machines that are highly durable. These mechs are not the usual futuristic high power machines that move at light speed like in other worlds, these mechs are slow, bulky, and run on coal and steam power but are highly durable. They are more like a one manned tank that’s shaped like a person, and since tanks don’t exist, haven’t been invented, and the idea have been replaced by mechs, mechs are the replacement for the term “mechanized warfare”.

Now the main focus of the story, Alex Willwater, is a soldier that became conscripted at the age of 19 to fight in the rebel’s army. He grew up in a small village but went along with his brother to the closest city after the rebels took it over to join their side to fight for freedom. He trained for 12 weeks along with mech maintenance study as he was interested in mechs but the chain of command wouldn't allow him to drive a mech due to specific standards of a certain amount of soldiers fighting boots on the ground while a certain amount are dedicated to drive mechs.  They put his skills he to use by putting him on a mech maintenance team. We now meet Willwater on the back of a truck with his backpack full of tools on his back and his weapon in hand. His platoon of fellow engineers in the truck following of group of three mechs with another group of 4 trucks with platoons in them as well.

Story

Alex pokes out his head of the cover of the truck and feels the cold wind of snow and winter. “There’s a ton of snow coming down and starting to pile up too, might be a blizzard later.” says a engineer next to Alex.“Wouldn’t that be bad for the trucks” Alex says curiously while turning back to the engineer.“Yeah but the rate these trucks are moving we could be at the rendezvous point before the blizzard gets serious” He takes a deep breath and says while releasing

“Hopefully”.“What are you a weatherman” Alex says in a funny tone

“No my father taught me when to look out for blizzards the same way his father taught him.” He then adds on.”What’s your name soldier” the engineer says while pulling his hand out.”I’m Bob Tucker by the way”.

“Alex...Alex Willwater” Alex says shaking his hand in return.

“How close are we to the rendezvous point anyway.” Alex ask Bob.

“I don’t know actually, along the way we might have to give the mechs a quick checkup.”

“What do we do when we get attacked along the way.”

“I don’t know I guess we follow the lieutenant or someone on the chain of command thats higher rank.”Bob says while looking at the other soldiers to see if any of them have a badge higher than the lieutenant in the front but to no avail.

“Looks like we are all rookies in this platoon being led by a lieutenant”

The window in front opens with the captain leaning back to talk to the lieutenant, the lieutenant gets up and the captain shuts the window and looks forward on the road.

“Alright listen up soldiers, we are on our way North to the rendezvous point to finally go on the offensive to push the enemy’s offensive line further back. Now this plan is risky but I believe we-” suddenly the side of the truck explodes.

Alex wakes up to the sound of explosion and the charging of men yelling at once. His ears still ringing from the previous explosion. All he remembers is the explosion causing the truck to tumble then everything else is a blur. He gets slapped a couple times on his face, then realizes that it’s Bob.

“Come on man get up we are under attack” Bob says while helping Alex up.

“What happened, where’s the Captain and Lieutenant” Alex says in low tone still trying to recover from the attack while being helped to walk by Bob.

“The truck was hit by a missile...the Captain didn’t make it but the Lieutenant is trying to take control as new commander of the platoon. The other soldiers are holding off the enemy while we gather whatever men we can from the attack then fall back.”

Bob takes Alex to the medic for patching up and sits him down.

“Any internal damage or bleeding” The medic ask.

“None that I can feel Miss” Alex replies with a smirk.

“Alright big guy if you can reply with a smirk then you can fight.” The medic says while bandaging his bleeding head then patching him on the shoulder to signal he’s good to go. Alex and Bob get up and hear the Lieutenant shout “Listen up soldiers group up on me!” and then hurry over picking up any available weapon the ground.

The available soldiers huddle around the Lieutenant who appears to be loading his weapon. “Here’s the plan, we are going to retreat back to the main force but we need to hurry before our soldiers fighting can not hold any longer. As soon as I shoot this flare we are going to rush north but we are going to protect the one heavy mech until we get to the main force.” The men look around nervously at each other while Bob and Alex also look at each other then look back at the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant says “Remember soldiers, we fight for ideals, we fight for democracy, and finally we fight for the overthrow of the king!” which gives the men enough moral to raise their weapons in the air and chant “For the Rebellion!”.

“Ready soldiers!?”  

“OOOORAH” all the soldiers chant loading their weapons.

The Lieutenant finally shoots the flare in the air which the man in the mech sees and runs back to the soldiers along with the other platoons. The soldiers surround the mech while running back in formation.

Four hours pass but forty percent of the soldiers are lost to the enemy. Bob and Alex remain along with the Lieutenant. Along the way as the soldiers lose morale, the Lieutenant inspiring words keep them in formation. The mech trying to help but was tasked with remaining in formation and make it back to the rendezvous point. Eventually as time passes the man in the mech gets hit and instantly falls to the floor, as the Lieutenant looks around and sees the carnage and the amount men lost he makes a decision and shouts “Willwater!”. Alex hears this then decides to leave Bob behind to the Lieutenant. 

“You needed me Captain?” Alex says

“Don’t get sassy with me private, I’ve got a very important tasks for you and possibly my final task”

Alex looks back at the Lieutenant in seriousness

“I need you to go to the rendezvous point in the mech...alone, while we distract them. You will also stay hidden in the snow”

“Why me Lieutenant, I’m sure there are better people suited for this task than me.”

“I’ve read your record no one knows more about mechs than you, besides even if someone was more ready than you...they are no longer with us”.

Alex nods his head, opens the hatch of the mech, then sits down in the seat in awe due to this being his first time in a real mech. He does the necessary terms in order to start the mech back up. The mech stands up with its large weapon in hand, too large for any human to pick up himself. The mech faces the Lieutenant, the Lieutenant replies “Remember you go North to the rendezvous point and tell them exactly what happened with no details left out.”

“Roger that, I’ll make sure to tell them your heroism and and your taking of leadership of the company.”

The Lieutenant chuckles and says “Get a move on”.

Alex puts all the power to the legs, follows the compass, and runs at full speed blindly into the blizzard. The soldiers defend the position to distract the enemy from the mech.

After 2 hours it begins to turn midnight, at least to what Alex thinks it is as the blizzard is too thick to see the sky. He begins the power to the heater as the mech begins to freeze, eventually after a couple more hours with no rendezvous point insight the mech’s power eventually cuts out due to the cold and excessive power to the heater. Alex begins to walk on foot, trying to keep himself as warm as possible. After more time passes he eventually can’t take the cold anymore and begins to freeze to death as he falls to the floor. He eventually accepts the impending doom and begins to lie there eyes close ready for the end, but a slimmer of hope appears with a flash of light appears on his eye.