The Philippines and China finally descended onto their inevitable war over the southeast Asian sea, The First Sino-Philippine war, the Chinese attacked first for a lot of reasons, but one of them was to control all of the southeast Asian trade, considering the Philippine geographical coordinates literally made it sit in the middle of trade in southeast Asia.

The Philippines was already fighting a one-sided battle for their lives and to our surprise the UN did nothing, even the southeast Asian countries turned a blind eye on the conflict, at the first half we were kind of winning, more or less, since our geographical position made us a quite safe being an island country of course.

But who would’ve thought that there were our traitorous countrymen that made them land not only on the capital provinces but also in the Visayas and Mindanao. Ever since their landing it was already a one sided-battle since the beginning.

The Philippine armed forces struggled fighting and resulted in guerilla warfare, the Chinese used their technologically advance weaponry and huge waves of numbers against our backward country with little to no weapons and a population that wasn’t even enough to hold the lines.

Now then time for the present day.

Forgot the introduction, I’m Theo Holland, I am just as you could say a 24-year old Lt. Colonel, I was enrolled and in the Military Academy and finished the curriculum before the war at age 21, because of my skills against the normal rebels using guerilla and unconventional tactics, I rose through the ranks, kind of.

My official promotion was to be just a major but due to the war I got more than what I bargained for, currently I am what you would call a ‘jack of all trades’ I not only joined the normal army, but also the marines, scout regiment, along with the special forces, all were just temporary.

Now then for what's currently happening, me and my scout regiment division had just recently defeated a joint rebel and Chinese army off at a nearby rural village. And my forces were currently resting, though I am quite young for my peers but I was well respected since I led successful attacks and battles.

Inside a dark and damp forest somewhere at the northern provinces of Luzon, me and my division rested, I only had a remaining force of 370+ soldiers, all are war-hardened veterans, that saw and experience hell personally, but we’re ill-equipped and ill-fed, so that was a downside.

I was already sleep-deprived, hungry, and cold, my forces also experienced what I was experiencing which was a morale drop if I could say. I just told my men to sit back and relax for the time being as I still didn’t receive any orders from the HQ or what remained of it.

Me and my men thought we were already safe from the attack until one of my forward scout personally ran to me and warned about the nearby sound of a convoy, an armed one. Nonetheless me and my men had already made a pact, if we’re cornered with lost hope, we would all fight till our last breath and make the enemy join us in the depths of hell.

“Lt. Colonel, I have recently heard the sounds of engines and voices in a nearby pass.”

My scout reported to me in the middle of the forest’s shade that hid my division. I looked at him with a glare and looked back at my resting division.

“Staff Sergeant Ville, take your men and scout the perimeter if it’s anything dangerous do not attack and retreat immediately.”

I said in a voice that was kind of very quiet but was still heard at a certain distance, he stood up from the nearby shade along with his men and responded.

“Yes, Lt. Colonel!”

He said to me whilst saluting, I saluted back and he and his squad soon escorted the scout to the place he mentioned, whilst I rested, taking a quick nap.

***

Quite sometime had passed and I finally felt that I woke up from my quick nap, I squinted my eyes and saw my men standing in attention, like there was somebody of high authority in such dire times. Speaking of high authority, there was a convoy and my men are in attention with no sounds of gunfire. Then it finally came to me.

Is it a general or a high-ranking officer?

I was supposed to stand up also in attention, but due to my insubordinate-like behavior because of what is currently happening to the war, I didn’t stand in attention except tried sleeping again. My men that were looking at the front noticed me sleep again, and started sweating their faces off.

I was supposed to sleep again, until the voice of a raspy low-tone voice suddenly talked.

“Lt. Colonel? Ehem, if you please stand in attention, I have new orders.”

Being a rebellious officer, I am, defied his order and didn’t take any move.

“Tsk, what do you want? Can’t you see me sleeping here?”

I slowly peeked to my men who shook their heads and their faces and hair bathed in their own sweat, I then noticed one of my men said through a silent-like mouth movement.

“Major… General.”

Major General?

I thought in my mind. I then decided to stand up but still defiant of the high ranking officer near me, as I stood up in attention, I looked back at him in a sloppy and slow manner unlike the normal quick 180 turn. As I looked behind me, I saw a man in his 50’s obviously weak, he was quite tall, he wore his officer’s attire that was quite dirtied maybe through a battle or something, I also saw his 1 of his 2 stars almost broken.

I saluted at him, still showing him some respect.

“Major General, Lieutenant Colonel Holland, Reporting.”

“That’s better I guess.”

As he said that he looked quite furious under his old and senile-like face. I knew he despised me, he was old and had been in the army longer but he barely led any successful battles but a young man had been giving the remnant republic victory over victory, who wouldn't be jealous.

“Lieutenant Colonel, as you can see, our lines have shifted and the high command has accepted an operation to capture back the capital.”

Ho, really now, old man?

If I was a young officer and just recently promoted, I would be filled with joy, but I wasn’t, thinking a little bit more to their plans, it was more of a suicide mission, No?

I mean leading an attack at the capital filled with millions of enemy soldiers, look at my men their exhausted, hungry and losing hope. I mean leading a suicide attack like that will certainly be one way to go out, but still.

“You will be moved to the 13^th quick reaction brigade, you have full command of them.”

He then said in a tone insulting me. Which made me look back at him with a calm face, but inside I knew their plan, they were planning to purge me.

“Oh, really now, Major General, such an opportunity and plan, why me?”

I tried making him explain in a matter concerning me only and not my men, who were more or less about to be massacred once I left.

“Don’t worry your not alone, you will be an aide to Brigadier General, Riquze.”

General Riquze, nicknamed the snake of the south, massacred and encircled an army larger than his. Hearing his name, it was no doubt an assassination attempt, it seemed they are planning to kill every single one of those that gave them victory in exchange for peace.

“I see, but why only me? Why can’t my division come along?”

I asked trying to pin him.

“Like I said, you will be moved to the 13^th quick reaction brigade, your division here will be commanded by none other than your classmate, Major Pontalles.

“Ah, Major Pontalles, that coward for a major, I heard he nearly surrendered an entire base because he pissed his pants.”

I said, insulting their choice of replacement for me, even my forces knew that man for an officer was a coward that wasn’t fit to command armies.

“do you think I can trust a man like him in my ranks?”

I cornered the major general, to which he sweated a little but he wiped it off his forehead using a dirtied handkerchief that he took from his pocket.

“Don’t worry, we have already reprimanded and disciplined him, he won’t cause your soldiers any trouble.”

He said, giving off a smile.

“I Hope so.”

I then looked behind me and saluted to my disheartened men, to which they saluted back at me with respect and goodbyes.

As I finished saluting, I walked pass the general still showing defiance of him before him stopping me with an official announcement.

“I’ll stop with the formalities and ceremony, Lieutenant Colonel Theo Holland, you are to be promoted to Colonel by the orders of the higher ups… Your truck is outside of the forest so hurry up.”

Tsk, they even bothered promoting me, when I know what’s about to happen.

I didn’t show him any respect since it has already come to this, I just continued my walk to the truck outside the forest, but I still felt his glare with animosity.

***

At the middle of the night, At the outskirt of Manila, a total of 600,000 soldiers had gathered together preparing the battle that was about to come, I was one out of the 28 commanding officers that were commanding and supervising the combined army.

Due to some circumstances, instead of the command tent being in the center of the camp, it was moved towards a nearby destroyed town, the houses there were turned to rubble and ashes, the bodies of the dead and their skeletons were still seen as both the forces didn’t clean them.

I was walking along in the center of the ghost town where I was greeted by one of my comrade officers, he was quite young, somewhere around his early 30s he wore the standard officer uniform, as both of us greeted each other, he escorted me to the command tent that was well-hidden away from the camp.

Do they know? Do they know that we were all gathered here just to be massacred?

As I entered the secret tent there were 27 of the commanding officers all seated in a massive rectangular dining table that was damaged to a certain degree, our total was 27 commanding officers including me and the officer near me, there was one left.

As both of us entered, the man in the middle of the table greeted us. He stood up with his arm extended towards us. He was obviously Brigadier General Riquze, The snake of the south.

“Welcome! Colonel Holland! Me and the other officers here have heard about your achievements and etc., you were even nicknamed the Grim reaper of the remnant Army.”

Another officer then talked.

“Your nickname out of all of us is the scariest in my opinion, I mean the ‘Grim Reaper of the Remnant army’ you’re like commanding an army of the dead.”

The rest of the officers then laughed, I then thought, this wasn’t a military meeting but a convention of sorts or like a family meeting.

“now then back to business, now that we finally have the grim reaper here.”

He sat back down to his seat and his face immediately shifted from happiness to seriousness, he clasped both his hands on the table and talked in a manner of warning us.

“As you all know, all of the officers here, have made achievements of their own, all of us even know each other, which meant one thing, they will purge us.”

He said which made the entire room’s atmosphere change to a 180 unlike when I entered before. I soon noticed it was actually a military meeting.

“All 27 of us had massacred and killed hundreds of thousands of our enemy's forces, making our enemies furious, so the remnant government had only thought of one way to peace out of this war, kill all of those men.”

He then added.

“I don’t like how all of us are clumped here, not to mention one had already betrayed us.”

The entire room then talked and whispered with each other.

“To end this once and for all, I talked with my loyal men to prepare an escape route and there has been a route out of here, if all of you want, we can escape this hell hole.”

The entire room was then shocked with most of the officers not responding from the Brigadier General’s announcement.

As I was about to say something, Gunshots suddenly rang outside of the building we were meeting in. the gunshots took not only my attention but the entire room of commanding officers.

Then the Brigadier General then responded in a straightforward and calm manner.

“It looks like it has already begun.”