"Never say die, Kerix. Just keep fighting. Do whatever it takes to get back here, boy." Kerix smiled, "I will, girl." The warm sunlight shown through the thin window lace, turning the room a strange shade of blue. "Keep a watch on Sam, for me, huh?" The two kissed a short while, holding each other close for what very well could be the last time. They always kissed a while before Kerix left for the latest mission with Arthas.
"Kerix...remember...when your out there...." Then a different voice finished his loves sentence, the voice of a commanding officer, "Infantry advance! Hold the line! Shields up! Swords out! MARCH!" Instantly he was back on the road to Strathlome, the large city growing ever closer in the distance, and the comforting blue glow of his window and embrace of his wife turned into a dark overcast and the hug of hard steel. The 1200 men of the 12th regiment marched 20 across, down the highway, towards the metropolis. Captain Kerix Falco, of S company, turned, as he marched, covered in the signature bulky gray armor of Lordaeron with his long, wide kite shield, with his men, occasionally looking back, and even walking backwards, to get a better look, making sure they were in line.
S company was in front, followed by G (Great) company, then F (Fire) company, then K (Kill) company, then L (Long) company, and finally C (comet) company. Each of the companies had their forte. S, and G companies were heavy infantry. F was a regular infantry company. K was a mechanized light infantry company. L was a pike man company, and then C was an archer company. C company was often split up to provide assistance to the other companies.
Arthas rode ahead of the formation of troops, with his knight escorts, and stopped just before the city, and a few hours after he suspended Uther. None of the 12th left. They followed their orders and marched to Strathlome with Arthas. He jumped from his horse and drew his blade, "Major!" he yelled, a man, in armor no different from the rest, but with no helmet and a green sash around his sholder, ran through the mud puddled left by the pouring rain, which pinged off of S company, who stood like statue, ominous, in the rain. Not men, but trained killing machines with no emotion. "Yes sir?" the Major replied, fearful of Arthas in his near crazed state, "Get the men in there, and purge the city. Don't let anyone out. S company will come with me, you stay here and co-ordinate the camp." The Major confirmed the command and ran down the side of the road, along the formation of troops, splashing mud every now and then, barking out orders.
Captain Falco turned to his men, and in a deep, inimidating voice, he roared, "S company...!" and paused a moment, then roared out, "Ahhhhhrm!" In unison all 200 men of S company drew their weapons. "MARCH!" barked Kerix and the men marched, not breaking formation, behind Arthas. The other companies moved off to other entrances, to other areas, with other orders. S company stayed with Arthas.
"Captain! Get up here, now!" Kerix obeyed, and ran a handicapped run, his shield encumbering him slightly, and matched paces with Arthas, who walked briskly through the rain, past the park area which served as an opening area to the actual city. "Take your men to the narrow causeway up this road," Arthas made his hand flat and aimed it up the road, "And cut off the residential area. Build a barricade. Purge the area." Kerix responded without flinching, "Yes, milord." And ran back to his still marching men, and quickly ordered, "Alright, everyone move into the center of the residential area except 3rd platoon." The men in that group all groaned, as the others laughed at the poor luck. "You will be constructing, and manning a barricade at the entrance. You are to guard that entrance with your life, and let nothing pass through it! Do you understand, LET ME HEAR YOU!" the entire, still marching, platoon grunted three loud times, and quickened their pace.
As they reached the entry way to the homes, the platoons broke off to their assigned missions. 3rd platoon began making the blockade, And all the others marched down each road, came to a house, busted in the doors, entered, and began to execute the civilians. Kerix chose to go with 1st Platoon. It's lieutenate and first sergeant approached the door, and a Corporal on the other side with a single-man battering ram and with a slow pull back and thrust into the door, the weak slab of wood split in to and flew into the house. The Corporal quickly slide out of the way as A sergeant, six privates, The lieutenate, first sergeant, and Captain Falco stormed the three floor building. In the first room were three men, obviously prepaired, in light chain mail, with spears, fearfuly jabbing at them with crude wooden spears. The shields of the break in team jerk up and the 10 soldiers approach, swords drawn back like a scorpion stinger. The three men stabbed franticly, but to no avail, at the seemingly invincible line of shields. After a few hard strikes, the spears splentered, and the men were backed against the wall. "Break! Attack!", ordered Kerix, and the line broke and the shields from their wall formation and they moved in. Three men went up one flight of stairs, which led to the second floor and three others to another flight which, odly enough, only led to the third. "Not my wife!" screamed a younger man, about 25. He jumped on Kerix back as he made his way to the stairs to the 3rd floor. Kerix simply backed as hard as he could into the wall, crushing the innards of the man. When he turned around to examine the body, he could see the Sergeant, and a private finishing off the other two, laying dead, and they cleaned of their blades.
He quickly turned, with a slight grunt, and took point with the team up the stairs. At the top of the wrap around stairs, which hugged to the wall, Was a long corridor. After checking each room, and finding it empty, they went to the final room and the end of the hallway. Kerix crushed the weak door with his sheild and entered to see a room full of children, ranging from infants to about 12 to 13. And older women in their 20's, a few elderly. Kerix gave his blade a spin, and entered to complete his orders...
He exited the house, wiping his blade clean, all other 9 men behind him, and saw the rest of 1st platoon moved on and took out most of the residential area he was ordered to handle., which were houses mostly smaller than the one they just entered. Later they would find out it was a rich mans house, but it made little difference to them.
"Good work, lieutenant. I'm going to check on the other platoons, keep up the good work." The lieutenant responded with a quick nod and, "Yees sah!" in the typical northern Lordaeronian accent. Kerix sheathed his weapon and marched on down the road. When he reached a group of men, in Lordaeronian armor, he at first saluted them, but a few archers behind them, obviously not Lordaeronian, opened fire. His shield snapped two, and the arrows thudded into his thick, and broad forged steel. He took a quick second to peak behind his shield to see the 12 or so armored men, not being attacked by the bandit archers, coming towards him. He quickly deduced they stole the armor from dead soldiers, and are pillaging the city.
Kerix only knew to fight, he would not run. They had no formation, so right then the battle was, more or less, even. He could easily kill all of them one on one, but if they attacked as one, he would die. He locked his shield, looking over top of it with his steel, battle hardened gaze, and slowly marched towards the quickly advancing impostors. They were quite scattered. A bout two every 10 or 12 feet. The first pair came at him, both, with over hand swings. He simply put his shield over his head, lightning quick, hefting the steel slab, and gave the first a quick jab in the side, where the armor was weak, and felt the satisfying slice, slide, and crunch. He, just as quickly as the entry, pulled it free and kicked the man. The next actually got a hit on his shield, which did little more than nick the gigantic thing. Kerix used his shield like a bash and raised to his full height, towering over the man, and threw his left, shield, arm out, knocking the man back. Giving him a chance to walk over to the now scrambling, cowardly, fool and thrust a sword in his gut, in the same weak area.
The others now saw what they were up against: A trained killer. They all quickened their pace, and ran at full speed at Kerix. The next two struck simultaneously, one a cross swing at his right side, the other a (terrible) thrust at his face. At the same time, Kerix raised his shield, and turned his arm over, his sword upside down, putting his sword to block the slash. With both attacks foiled, he moved his shield quickly to the right, clipping the head of the slasher, causing him to turn with alarming speed, and also resulting in his head turning unnaturally. He continued with the momentum of his shield and spun around to knock the feet out from under the second, thrusting, attacker, who quickly tripped back, in the air for a slow second, and hit the ground. In the same fluid motion, Kerix brought his sword to the mans neck, loving the sound of the blade ripping through his spine.