The war was not going well. Stryke’s platoon were pinned down behind a craggy ridge. The enemy were advancing slowly but surely with energy weapons tearing chunks out of the planet’s surface. The day was ending and long shadows were forming on the ground.

It seemed he had been fighting all of his life but Stryke never got tired of it. There were duties to perform: troop inspections; battle strategies to be planned and morale to be maintained. That was apart from dealing with the constant to-ing and fro-ing of this conflict. They advanced one day and fell back the next it was an endless cycle of aggression.

Two troopers broke cover and opened fire. They made several glorious kills but the enemy picked them off too quickly, their bodies burned to carbon powder. Now there were only three troopers left and himself. It was getting much darker now and this didn’t affect the enemy at all. Stryke pressed a control button on his battle suit and thermal imaging sensors covered the narrow vision slits on his helmet, this compensated for the lowering light levels.

"We will use the last of our grenades to lay down a barrage and fire on maximum setting. Do not miss a single target we cannot afford it." The plan was simple, killing usually was if you thought about it.

The three troopers and their officer went through the tactic and achieved a number of casualties but it wasn’t enough. Stryke spoke into a small recording device. "Today we lay down our lives for our people and our honour. Let it be known that the 5th Legion performed with exemplary courage and not one single Sontaran failed to show honour, dignity and bravery in the face of death. Field Commander Stryke." He switched the recorder off. "Today we have shown the Rutan how we fight, now we will show them how we die."

The sun was almost set now as they readied their weapons and waited for their destiny.