Character stats
Character Name - Description
Hair - (Black, Brunette, Blonde, Redhead, etc.)
Build - (Guys = Light, Medium, Heavy / Gals = Slender, Normal, Chubby)
Height - ex. 5'7, interpreted as 5 foot 7 inches.
Ability - The Ranking Ability of the Pilot
Estimated Earth Race - (Caucasian, Black, Guamian, Laotian, Latino, Chinese, etc.)
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Alex - A son of an elite commander. Has no last name, for he forgot it 10 weeks into his training in the Arm. He did not know his father, and has not met him in his entire life. Joining the Arm at the age of 9, he was put though what is called "kiddie training." By age 13, he was already transferred to Lion Special Forces, and by age 17, has taken commander of Lion Special Force 2. He is well respected for his achievements, as he is a Lt. Commander, but his personality is not so great. Non-sociable in anyway, his astrological sign is the Scorpio, which means he has many sides. His leadership skills are outstanding though, and his mind is of that of a no hesitation soldier, which has gotten him out of difficult situations time and time again. Many wonder how much heart he has, or for a better one, does he have a heart at all?
Vital Stats
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'10
Ability - Extremely Good
Estimated Earth Race - Chinese/Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Shooter, Maverick
May Tanilla - A mysterious girl. Has no known parents, and appeared out of the blue at the age of 10. Has shown exceptional piloting skills. Transferred from Goblin 4th Force to Lion Special Force 2, those that know her have said that she is, "sociable, if you were crazy or drunk." The Lieutenant's heart apparently is made of stone, shows no feelings on or off the battlefield, and is often misinterpreted as a fearless soldier attitude.
Hair - Black
Build - Slender
Height - 5'4
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Guamian
ARM Kbot - Maverick
John Ferrous - Head Commander of the Lion Special Forces Battalion. Always straight to the point and his skills should reward him a High Commander rank. He has refused the High Commander rank 3 times, and believes his mission in life is with the Lion Special Forces Battalion. It always seems that he always has a secret he is always trying to hold back though.
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'11
Ability - Astonishing
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Commander
Terry Mackilian - A gentle hearted man. Unlike his fellow friend and officer, Alex, or Silver as he calls him, he tends to do everything that Alex wont do when it comes to social life. Of course, on the battlefield, his skills can only go so far, and is eventually will only be as good as a commander. What got him his rank, as Lt. Commander is his leadership skills, as they are extremely good.
Hair - Blonde
Build - Heavy
Height - 5'9
Ability - Superb
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Zeus
Malik Anderson - A nice guy who is a fearsome in the battlefield. His attitude is so nice he even talks to patterns mid-battle before utterly destroying them. Many wonder why Commander Ferrous chose him to become a Lt. Commander, but Ferrous saw though his personality as saw him as a good leader in the battlefield. As much as he talks to the other side, he finds out more of the personality of the CORE soldiers, and he adjusts his battle plan secretly according to how the CORE soldier would react, which makes him a fearsome Lt. Commander in combat.
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'7
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Black
ARM Kbot - Fido
Kevin Bautista - One of the many in the military. Filipinos are quite common in the navy of both sides, and is also true in history when many joined the U.S. Navy. Kevin is one of the few who wanted to join the front lines instead of a post on a boat. His piloting and leadership really stuck out, but his effort had no bounds. He keeps trying to make anything work until he actually does it or is forced to stop.
Hair - Black
Build - Light
Height - 5'9
Ability - Superb
Estimated Earth Race - Filipino
ARM Kbot - Zipper
Greg Ballard -
Hair - Black
Build - Heavy
Height - 6'0
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Vehicle - Bulldog
Leon Gray -
Hair - Brown
Build - Medium
Height - 5'10
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Mexican / Caucasian
ARM Vehicle - Bulldog
***********************
The Natural Elite
Arm Remote Special Forces Base- Cylix
Time- 800 hours
Alex checked over his k-bots systems again. Everything was working in top condition in his Shooter k-bot. His Shooter, along with some of the others in his Special Force, has some special features, as with any Special Force. His Shooter still has the standard heavy laser right arm, but his left arm, usually a balancing arm to make sure the Shooter doesn't fall over to the right, was equipped with a heavy gauss gun. He also has two power generators installed, they are specially made Talon Power Generators, they are small and very powerful, good for any k-bot, essential in Alex's, as well as everyone else's k-bots for that matter. His k-bot is also equipped with heavy grade A armor, which is rare now for normal forces, since grade A armor take so long to produce, but they are 200% more effective than normal armor, which means his shooter can take 4x the damage that would usually kill a normal Shooter. The look of his shooter was quite bad and needed washing. Black burn marks indicated where the Shooter was hit in previous missions. The smell of the marks still lingered, as with everyone else's k-bots, since theirs have not been washed also.
Alex turned on his command console, two screens turned on, one with his force's status, which consisted of 21 assorted k-bots, excluding him. The other screen showed the cockpit view from each k-bot. Radar and sight was shared thoughout the force. All green lights were on except one, then after 15 seconds, turned from yellow to green.
"Lets move out!" Alex said, and the two Special EQ. Bear Hover Transports, which has also a 200% more effective armor and is equipped with a Sentinel grade laser on the top of the crane that usually picks up k-bots or anything else and places it in the hanger of the Bear, the laser provided cover for the landing force. It also had a front door, something you usually don't see in a Bear, and that door opened, and since their isn't a ramp, the k-bots jumped out of the door and onto the ground. They ran into the forest, and grouped up around the eraser k-bot. Alex then turned on a switch, and a 3-D mission map came up.
"All right, listen up, the Core have set up base nearby here. We presume that it is at these coordinates right here." Alex said to his squad, while a Red Core icon came up on the 3-D map. Arrows moved as Alex went on talking.
"We are to go to Point Alpha and wait for a peeper to check if the Core base is indeed there. We are then to go to Point Beta and check which targets should be targeted first. We are then to go down this pass full of trees here. We will then stop here, at Point Charlie. There are no defenses at the end of this pass, and an occasional k-bot or two will pass by. Attack squads from a Arm base near here will be attacking in waves every 15 minutes. When we are ready, we will make a pincer attack with any force attacking the Core defenses exactly on my order. Should if needed, Bertha shelling from the nearby Arm base may happen. All right, lets move out!" Alex said, and the k-bots lined up in a 4 by 5 row, with Alex and a Maverick in front, and the jammer k-bot in the middle.
The squad moved quickly and silently, every once in a while a Core k-bot would appear, and the squad would get around it and after reaching Point's Alpha and Beta, they arrived at point Charlie. In front of them was the small base. It was only consisted of mostly level one units and a few number of level two units here and there. They were currently setting up the base for building advanced buildings, but by the way the nanolathes kept turning on and off, they were low on ether power or metal.
"When is the next attack Jammer?" Alex asked the Eraser k-bot.
"2 minutes sir." It replied.
"Okay on my signal, all shooters and myself will take out any level 2 structures. Everyone else, take out any level one buildings and k-bots, but avoid the front line." Alex said. Everyone gave a simultaneous agreement. Two minutes passed by, and shelling on the Core front began. Another minute, and it stopped and the sound of EMG's was heard from afar. Core k-bot after k-bot left their positions and ran to the front line to help out in repulsing the attack. After 10 seconds of it being cleared, the area was just a wide area of rolling grass except for c-bots and factories were that were still there. Just then, a Core Commander appeared, apparently by himself. He turned and started nanolathing the Adv. K-Bot Factory being built.
"Guys, on my signal, shooters, switch to that Core commander, if we are lucky enough, we can take that guy out with just our lasers. Alright, on my signal, all shooters will fire on the commander, once he is eliminated, I will give a second signal." Alex said. He waited 10 more seconds to make sure no other k-bots came by.
"Alpha codes go." Alex said, and the shooters fired their heavy laser beams at the unsuspecting Core Commander, and it exploded, but it was small.
"Decoy...Beta code go!" Alex said, and his 21 combat force unit attacked. The eraser stayed where it was, listening in on the Core, making message intercepts.
Alex maneuvered his Shooter toward the Adv k-bot building a Krogoth gantry. He shoots and killed the k-bot with the heavy gauss gun when a big thud was heard. Alex looked around, his squad wasn't all that much damaged. Their quick and sudden move caused the downfall of this base. Trees outlined the entire base, protected from any plasma cannon on three sides. Too bad that none of those sides protect the base from the Berthas at the Arm firebase.
"Sir! A Krogoth is on his way over here. ETA one minute." The eraser said.
"Guys, wrap it up! We need to take out everything before the big guy gets here!" Alex yelled though his comm. Within 30 seconds, most of the Core structures were gone except for a K-bot lab and a Vehicle plant. They were managing to fight off his force with quickly built A.K.'s and Instigators.
"Who got Remotes?" Alex asked over the radio for Remote mines.
"I got one!" yelled out a Maverick pilot.
"Plant it on that k-bot lab!" Alex said.
"Yes sir!" the pilot replied.
"I got one also sir!" yelled a Zipper pilot said.
"You know what I'm going to say, get out there NOW!" Alex yelled over the radio.
"Yes sir!" the pilot said.
The bombs were set, and it would be 10 seconds before the Krogoth was in range.
"Get out of here now!" Alex yelled, as his force retreated back into the trees in the hidden mountain path. Just when they made it under the Eraser coverage, the Krogoth appeared.
"This is Lion Special Force 2 to Cylix Firebase 19, over." Alex said over the nearby Arm base.
"CF19 here. What do you need?" the radio dispatch said.
"I got a Krog at coordinates 2929.90,6738.20, sending digital information. Requesting single burst fire." Alex said, and hit a button, and his visual view of his k-bots and his own was linked up to the base.
"I see him, will commence Single burst Bertha firing in one minute, sit tight and don't let that dumb big guy spot you." The dispatch said as the whirring of the Big Bertha's turning gears was heard in the background.
"Sir! The Core is about to move the Krogoth out of LOS." The eraser said.
"Sir, let me distract him, I got the speed to avoid most of his attacks." said a Zipper.
"Go ahead, be careful not to get yourself stomped." Alex said.
"Yes sir!" the pilot said, and ran out. The Krogoth spotted it immediately, and the Zipper went right though it's legs. The big Krogoth fired two missiles, and the Zipper barely avoided each missile and rolled into a tree, and it gave enough time for the Krogoth to point it's big arm at the small Zipper. The pilot of the Zipper gulped, and quickly hit a button
------------------
The New Pilot
Classified Location - Cylix
Time - 1200
The Zipper then fired a Zip line from its left arm to a nearby tree, and seemed to loop around 10 of the trees there. He then barely avoided get toasted and went around the right leg and turned past the left leg going left, toward the 10 trees he fired his line at. The Krogoth tried to turn itself by turning right but the legs caught the line and it fell, making what seemed like a dust storm. Just then, 10 Bertha shells came closing in on their destination, their high speed made them seem like they were screaming as they came out from the sky, and about 7 shells missed but 3 shells made a direct hit on the Kroggie and it exploded, It created a small quake, a big dust cloud, and shrapnel flew everywhere. The Zipper managed to get out of range on time.
Once the smoke cloud cleared, all that was left of the Krogoth was heated scrap metal and small fires still burning within the Krogoth.
"Good job Zipper. Lets move on out." Alex said, and Lion Special Force 2 left the mission area.
****************************
Alex walked down the hall and opened the door to Commander John Ferrous.
"Sit down Lt. Commander." Ferrous said.
"Good day sir." Alex said as he sat down.
"We are currently going over improvement designs over the Eraser k-bot. We are currently trying different weapons that would match the eraser for use if under attack. I want you to look over these plans, the engineers at C-Block suggested this is the best one." Ferrous said as he gave a clipboard with paper clipped to it. Alex looked over the two-page layout of the improved eraser.
"Sir, are they going to only use one power generator?" Alex asked.
"It seems so." Ferrous replied.
"Then why use a light laser without the power to maintain the jammer. They need to find space for a second generator to use the laser, and another one for the jammer." Alex directed as he showed a space where they can fit another generator.
"You have a keen eye, I like that in a subordinate. You still have much to learn. If you place the generator there, one shot from anything can instantly kill the eraser, compromising your position. If you place it here, it is under better armor, thus more safe." Ferrous pointed out as he pointed at different spots.
"I see sir. Thank you for this command exercise." Alex said.
"You did very well, you are dismissed." Ferrous said. Alex started toward the door and as he opened the door.
"Alex, talk to your men, it does no good to just command them while they talk behind your back." Ferrous said.
"Sir, am not the one who likes to socialize about other topics than war." Alex said, and was about to walk out the door again.
"Your getting 5 more subordinates, one is just like you. In short, two more Zippers, 2 Fidos, and a Maverick. Try not to get them killed. I also heard that Mav pilot is like yourself." Ferrous said, and Alex walked out and closed the door without saying anything further.
***********************
"Tanilla!" the sergeant yelled out. The 19 year old natural born stepped forward.
"Yes sir!" She shouted.
"You are being moved to from Goblins 4th force to the Lion Special Force 2. You will undergo a week training session with them before entering service with them. Pack up and a shuttle will take you to Cylix. Everyone [b] dismissed! [/b]." The Sergeant said to everyone.
The 5'4 slender, long black haired Guamian girl moved toward the living quarters. She packed everything she needed up and walked over with her two bags to the shuttle. Apparently, se wasn't alone, as two more were joining her. She took her seat and the shuttle lifted off from the ground and headed for the galactic gate that would send them to Cylix.
"Hi, my name is Steven Laterious, lieutenant." The guy next to her said as he stuck out his hand.
"Name is May Tanilla, lieutenant." May said, and didn't bother to shake the guys hand, and they guy took his hand back. The shuttle landed on the repair pad it was told to land at. The 3 pilots jumped out, and was greeted by two other pilots who just arrived also. A soldier just then came out of the command bunker, but the look of his rank, he was a Commander.
"Attention!" He barked. Instantly the 5 of them lined up and saluted.
"I'm Commander John Ferrous. Welcome to Lion Special Forces remote base. You absolutely will not be allowed to leave this base without permission. You will follow the Lieutenant Commander orders at all times, you are allowed to question the order, but to not do the order will get you send back to your mama. There are no bars here, which means no alcohol, which means you keep a cool head at all times. I want sober, experienced soldiers, not drunk, wreck less mishaps. If you do not like it here, get back aboard your shuttle and return to your base."
No one moved from his or her position. They actually were still saluting the Commander. The commander continued as the two shuttles left.
"Good, now listen up, you will meet your lieutenant commander tomorrow at 0800 hours. He is not a guy who likes to socialize; I suggest you better keep your mouths shut while he speaks. He only gives mission orders once. If you screw up, you will most likely die, though tomorrows mission is a training exercise. You are now hereby stationed here; today you will fill out a k-bot request layout and turn that in before 1800 hours. You can choose what to have on your k-bot. Be warned, if you have only one arm for combat, you will become the laughing joke of this base. There are 5 squads at this base, you five will be assigned to squad two. Go to the living quarters now; go get your bunks, the k-bot papers are already on your bunk. [b] Dismissed! [/b]" The commander said, and walked back in the command bunker.
The 5 pilots choose their bunks. The room was full of double bunks for an entire garrison of soldiers, but only 21 bunks of them were in use. May choose a bottom bunk under a girl pilot. She filled out her k-bot papers. She decided with a Maverick, with the usual layout, plus a medium laser rifle and boosters. She also decided to get small spikes on the k-bots knuckles, it was fairly small to avoid messing up any weapon she carried, but big enough to mess up a Core k-bot in a hand to hand fight. She went to the Command bunker and turned in her form. The dinner bell rung then, and she went to the cafeteria to eat.
She sat down by herself at a far table. A guy joined her. May looked up to see his rank, and his rank showed he was a Lt. Commander. He has short black hair, medium build, and was 5'10. Everyone was around 5 feet, so he was most likely around the tallest of everyone here. There were exceptions of course, but besides that, she noticed he wasn't trying to be friendly, so she went back to eating her food.
'Whatever he thinks, its none of my business..." May thought to herself.
No one else came to sit by them, and both of them got up and put their tray's away and they all went to their bunks to sleep.
-------------------------
Short and Easy
Arm Lion Special Forces Base "Lion's Den" - Cylix
Time - 0800
The 26 soldiers that make up the Lion Special Force 2 waited for their Lt. Commander. Alex came out and walked to the front of the now 26-member group.
"Today we are on a training mission with Lion Special Force 4. All 21 of you guys must show the ropes to our 5 new lieutenants joining us. If you babies need to know my name, call me Alex or Silver. Though I prefer 'sir' to other names. Today's game is paintball CTF. On the request of Commander Ferrous, their commander and myself will be sitting out this mission, and will be directing the mission from the command bunker. You all will give the most attention to Laterious, our new Fido pilot. We all know what happened to the last Fido pilot we had, so don't do anything stupid. If any one of you do, I'll put a request form to send you to hell. Suit up!" Alex barked, and the 26 pilots ran to their k-bots.
The lone Fido pilot walked up to Alex.
"Permission to speak sir!" Steven Laterious said.
"Granted." Alex replied.
"What happened to the last Fido sir?" Steven asked.
"We had some stupid PW prankster on the squad 2 months ago, he put explosives on the connection joints of the legs of the Fido. Thought it was funny when it fell apart, unfortunately for him, it blew up, killing the pilot. So I sent in his request form to send him to Hell. Now, go suit up." Alex answered and walked away.
"Alex, do you have to be so mean to your subordinates. If you go on in this rate, you might as well have one of them put a bullet though you're back of your head to get you straight." A guy said.
"Well, I don't like Fidos, they are big targets, and they need more space than a normal k-bot. You should be thinking what you could do with your troops and worry about morale later Terry." Alex said as he walked in the command bunker.
"That guy, he needs to wake up." Terry said to himself as he walked in the command bunker.
**********************
May flipped on some switches and she flipped on her main power switch, and everything came to life. The 4 screens on her left and right side came on. The HUD and everything else wasn't set to her liking yet, so she flipped some switches to set her preference. Then she hit the ready button. She waited for half a minute then a voice came over the radio.
"This is your Lt. Commander, move to Point Alpha and wait to receive further orders." Alex voice said over the radio. May looked at her map, and a Green dot indicated where to go. She and the rest of the force moved along in a single line. They finally reached the green dot and in front of them were small walls to indicate out of bounds. Also in front of them was a small bunker base, as well as a thick forest, with 7 paths going different directions.
"All right, Commander just said I can't guide you, so follow instincts, instruments, and maybe squadmates. Good Luck, mission starts now." Alex said, and the radio was then full of chatter from other force members.
It was decided that the force would be split into 3 groups of 8, with two of the squads having an extra k-bot. Apparently they were in luck, because the map was revealed to them, but they still cant see beyond LOS. The second in command, Lt. Jack Zipper, showed them a plan. Apparently, he was a son of a general, so his plan was excellent. They were to have two of the squads move under of the jammer coverage, then the squad the split would move to the open area in the middle in a wide open formation. The plan was to draw each enemy squad, ether in 5 squads of 5 or 3 squads of 8 with one extra k-bot. Each Force has a small advantage over the other, with one able to build fortifications, but nothing else besides radar towers, and the other with a radar jammer k-bot that could hide among shadows.
May led her group to an excellent position on a cliff. Another group on their side appeared on another cliff nearby. Then, the bait, the one Jack Zipper was leading entered the lower, open area. All of a sudden, floods of paint came from the sky, and each k-bot in Jack's group avoid the paint. Even one drop of paint on your k-bot deactivates your k-bot, and then your declared dead. The entire Lion Special Force 3 came going down the hill in a big spread formation, firing away at the smaller 8 k-bot group.
"Guys, head back to the forest and take position!" Jack declared and turns his legs and the k-bot moved to the forest with the arms of his k-bot firing back.
The 8 k-bots led the 26 k-bots of Lion Special Force 3 to the open. May waited to give the signal then they reached the middle. She fired her twin guns to the unsuspecting force below, and many of them were deactivated as her group and the group on the other cliff blasted away. It was only until the last 8 k-bots of Lion Special Force 3 was left that they noticed the two groups raining paint down on them. They started firing on the group on the opposite cliff of May's cliff. The cliff was only good as a sniper position, and most of them on the cliff were hit by paint. The now 4 remaining Special Force 3 group started to fire on May's cliff. Her group was protected though by positioned rocks, and her group fired back from behind these rocks. Finally, the 5 remaining k-bots from Jack's group came out and rushed at the last 4 k-bots and finally all of Special Force 3 was disabled. Jack himself went in his Zipper; the only Zipper not deactivated in ether group, and retrieved Force 3's flag and returned to their starting point for the win.
Alex got up from his seat and walked over to Terry. They shook hands.
"That is why I'm so mean, because I don't want my guys attached to me." Alex said as he left the bunker as Terry just sat there wondering what went wrong with what he did in training his guys. It would be the next week that would prove the worth of Lion Special Forces to the ARM.
-------------------------------
The Trench
"Lion's Den"-Cylix
Time - 0500
"Heads up! The Lion Special Force battalion is being deployed to the Sepoy system. Your job there is that of everyone else, cause some havoc on the CORE using strategic strikes from quick build firebases. At some point, you all will be leading a small group of k-bots of your own. For right now, you are to follow your Lt. Commander's orders to the letter. If you don't, you will jeopardize yourself and your force mates to most probable death. Now, move!" Commander Ferrous barked and then everyone started running to what seemed like everywhere.
Alex ran to his Shooter, already prepped, and even had all of the things he wanted to bring already stored, if there was any at all. May was also ready, she made a last systems check before showing she was ready. All the Lt. Commanders were ready, as was Commander Ferrous in his Commander suit. Mostly everyone else was somewhere doing last minute things. The first of the Bear transports that would take the battalion to the planet of which of conflict arrived though the galactic gate nearby the base. It took an hour to load all the k-bots and then the bears one by one entered the gate to the Sypoy system.
The Sypoy system as Alex recalled was a 7 planet system, with the only 1 gas planet, the first planet to the sun in that system. It took 4 hours from leaving the Lion's den, the Headquarters of the Lion Special Force Battalion, to the planet Mulisk. Mulisk is a converted metal planet, since Arm forces last came here were pushed back, the CORE was desperate for metal, so they used the devastating resource blaster, a CORE space ship capable of blasting a planet and exposing the metal and gas resources on the planet at the expense of losing any sign of life that may have been on the planet. It was then the CORE pushed the Arm out of the system to a neighboring system. Since then the Arm managed to push back the surge of the CORE back to the Sypoy system, and now the Arm was having problems on the converted CORE planet and called in the nearest elite force, which so happened to be the Lion Special Force Battalion.
Finally, the bears arrived at the CORE planet, and Ferrous was already building defenses, while the 6 divisions of the Lion Special Force set an overlaying fire defense. A couple of A.K.'s came by, each one by themselves, and all killed to quickly to report their findings. It would take 3 standard days from the first A.K. to figure out why the A.K. went out. Ferrous didn't need 3 days; he only needed 5 hours to set up a Arm Firebase. Clones of elite Lion members of the past took over positions of those of their natural brothers and sisters. The 6 Lt. Commanders and Commander Ferrous held a meeting at one of the 3 k-bot labs set up. Already, k-bots and vehicles were churning out new units as fast as they can.
From left to right, in a circle, sat Malik, Kevin, Alex, Commander Ferrous, Leon, Greg, and Terry. In the middle of the circle is a 3d holo-display showing the area around them and the 2 nearest CORE bases.
"Okay you guys, we are on a big island, we just happen to be in the middle. The CORE has two bases, one is in the north and the other is in the south. Normal Arm forces have managed to slightly damage the south base at the CORE, and caused heavy damage to their resources in the south, so they wont see any action soon since their nanolathes will be slow. So I suggest to hit the north base as soon as we can." Ferrous said.
"Do you remember the paintball training battle we had with my force and yours Alex?" Terry asked.
"Yes, my men used a decoy attack to draw your guys to a open area and then your guys got barraged by my guys who were on cliffs." Alex said.
"My plan is this, if we have Force 2 expend some clones and draw most of the CORE k-bots to this area that's a trench, we can do the same thing. Meanwhile, My force and another force will enter from the open fields with support artillery and move to severely damage the base, and hopefully make the patterns try to return to base, making it a turkey shoot at the trench." Terry said.
"I would suggest that plan of action." Leon said.
"Any objection?" Ferrous asked.
"Sir, may I add to that, how about we bring in air support as well as artillery fire from Bertha's?" Malik asked.
"Granted. Any objection?" Ferrous asked. Silence.
"Operation starts tomorrow night, 2000. Dismissed." Ferrous said and all 7 men got up and walked outside.
'The k-bot, the home away from home." Alex said as he jumped in his Shooter and went to sleep. Some hours later, a message beeped, waking up the sleeping commander of the Lion Special Force 2.
"Silver, prepare your force, mission starts in 4 hours. You may want to organize your newly added clones, and remember, you got 4 hours, not just before mission start but also to get to position. Ferrous out."
Alex looked up from his comm. screen and saw about 129 k-bots in front of him. He had about 20 clones as the draw group, and about 20 more for cap group, including a c-bot. The rest, including himself, would setup outside the edge of the trench, and on his signal begin the attack. He also set a formation and then himself and his force moved out from the firebase. His force was the last out of base, with Force 3 and 4 already moved out about an hour ago, but it would take them longer to set up to position. He looked to his left, and the Maverick k-bot next to him was that girl that Ferrous talked about. Already, he felt himself get tingles thinking of her...for some odd reason. He shook it off, knowing that she can be a weakness.
**********************
After 3 hours of marching, they made it the their open end of the trench. The CORE hasn't encountered them yet, and radar jammers kept them off CORE radar. Alex set the exact points the decoy force would do. The c-bot then "teethed" in the 40 k-bots in the trench. Lucky for them, there were 2 convenient ramps. Alex moved cautiously, making sure no surprise viper would come out and scare his troops. Finally, he reached the point he wanted to go, and looked over the trench, and a shooter gave him a okay. They then lined against the wall in a row of 3.
"20 seconds to start, begin action." Alex said as the decoy team moved down the trench. It was just then a Fink flew overhead.
"Shoot. Silver to Big Eyes, over." Alex said over his radio.
"Big Eyes responding." A husky male voice said.
"Move in over my area and do a forecast will you. We just had a Fink fly over, and we might get some bombs shoved up over the trench when the shabam starts." Alex said using some lingo.
"Will give you a beer, over out." The voice said.
The decoy group grabbed the Core's attention, and the k-bots bit for it, and followed the 20 Arm k-bots down the trench. Unfortunately, the CORE had k-bots on the top of the trenches already, and they quickly appeared and began attacking. Alex kept the level one attack at bay coming from the front with his heavy laser. An A.K. got too close and Alex blasted it to rubble with a well-placed gauss shot. The pattern managing to jump out just as the A.K. went into small scrap metal. As good as the counterattack on the top of the trench was, it was no match the Alex's forces and now they came in 3 k-bot waves. Hawks flew in and took out Hurricanes right out of the sky, while Phoenix bombers dropped their bombs in the trench, effectively taking out loads of CORE Kbots. The loss rate of the bombers were getting high though, with AA defenses talking them out quick. The CORE was about to get pounded though as Bertha shells came screaming down on the base. Brawler squadrons came out of nowhere and started to remove AA defenses.
"Man, even with this help, they are pretty tough, don't you think Silver?" Terry said.
"Just shut up and kill the guys in front of you." Alex said as he blasted another Pyro before it gets to close.
It just so happened it wasn't going to be Lion Special Force's 2 day.
The Mysterious Missile
Harris Island - Mulisk
Time - 2100
The battle was looking extremely good for the Lion Battalion. They weren't taking as much casualties as the CORE. No reports of any naturals lost in the battle.
Terry ran his Zeus Kbot down the middle of the base, taking out anything in sight. Terry just managed to see a missile silo get off a missile. What was weird about the silo was that it was of ARM design.
"Guys, get a load of this, they're using ARM tech!" Terry said.
"What type of-" The static cut off a member of Force 2.
"Oh boy, we got a bunch of disabled Kbots now." Terry said.
A Maverick took another Heavy laser hit and went down to a smoldering hulk. Alex checked the pilot, it just so happened to be that girl. Just then, loads of Patterns came and opened the hatch to the Maverick and started to carry off with the knocked out pilot.
"Hey! That's my pilot you got there!" Alex said and moved his Heavy Laser to the patterns, when just then, an EMP missile came from out of nowhere, though it came from the CORE base, hit the ground near LSF 2, disabling the ARM Kbots while somehow keeping the Patterns unharmed. Alex pulled the trigger again and again, but no response from the weapon. Alex slammed the console in front of him, and grabbed the rifle in his cockpit and jumped out and started shooting Pattern Bodies left and right. Just as Alex closed in on May, a Pattern knocked him down, and many other patterns joined in on the mugging. The last thing Alex saw was the stars and two patterns carrying May.
Alex woke up in the intensive care of the makeshift hospital at the Special force firebase.
"Hey, what happened? You are one hell of a pilot, and somehow, patterns drag you out of your cockpit and mug you. I don't get it." Terry said, his face looking down at him.
"How'd...we...do?" Alex said painfully and slowly.
"Success, though most of your guys got carried off in a transport after the battle. A peeper tracked them and followed them to the CORE base to the south." Terry said.
"How'd...they...get...the...EMP...Missile...to...do...that?" Alex said slowly again.
"They managed to switch the insides of a EMP missile to not disable a CORE k-bot or pattern but were able to disable a ARM Kbot." Terry said.
"When do we go in?" Alex asked, feeling better.
"Tomorrow." Terry said.
"I'm game." Alex said as he began to sit up and he felt some awesome pain and kept him in his place.
"Hey, don't do that, you broke 3 rib bones, you should just get some rest. Well, see ya." Terry said as he left.
Alex slammed his right fist on the small table next to his bed.
...
"Why do I care so much for them..." Alex said to himself
Unknowingly, Terry heard what he said, because he leaned against the wall with the door not fully shut.
---------------------------------
The Stone That Cracked
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1800
Alex nearly completely abandoned his philosophy of no weakness. He certainly had one now, with have his force captured, and most likely will be patterned. They had to nanolath his bones and ailments to get him fully healed. They also had to fix his Kbot, which took intensive internal damage from the converted ARM E.M.P. Missile. He didn't pay attention to anything said in the mission, except for one instance.
"Okay, so it is set, we will start with a sniper shot from a shooter and then commence bombardment by sea as soon as ARM fleet that is being held off by Punisher batteries. A peeper flyby indicates that there are no AA defenses, and only Gaat guns. Don't expect this to be the defense at mission time. By now, they must know we are about to attack soon. We need someone who has a good enough aim to start the attack though." Ferrous said.
"I'll do it, I'll combine the rest of my force with someone else's and I'll take the shot. I have an obligation to my men to lead them safely. I have failed to do that in our last mission." Alex said.
This caught the attention of the other Lt. Commanders and Cmr. Ferrous.
"I' am I hearing this right? Do you actually care for your men?" Terry asked, trying to act surprised.
"You can say that." Alex said.
"You got it. You'll go with Leon's tank division. Dismissed." Ferrous said.
'I don't get it...why did Ferrous just let Alex out there in his condition?' Terry thought to himself.
***************
'How'd I get myself into this?' Alex thought as he led the way to the CORE's south base.
It was mostly flatland, though there are a few rocks left to hide behind, but the area can still be transversed by the tanks. It was a metal planet, after all. A.K.'s and weasels were the only things sent at them, and it didn't slow them down, as the force easily dispatched them on the move. It was then that Alex realized that he would have to fire on the run, not easy for any shooter pilot to do. He saw the base, and the many CORE k-bots awaiting them. Alex switched to infrared, and saw his comrades in a building. They were strapping two of them on a table. Alex carefully aimed; he would only have 10 more seconds to fire.
'5...4...3...2...fire.' Alex thought to himself, his forefinger hitting the trigger.
The Hidden Attack
Enemy CORE base - Mulisk
Time - 1400
The blue laser emitted from Alex's shooter went right the armor of the building of the k-bot lab and it nearly blew up the building, if not for a well placed hit from the laser. Already, a transport with their k-bots came in to take the pilots in and get them ready for battle. Unfortunately, the CORE was mobilizing their troops and was coming at the transport.
"Sir, we got Dips bringing fire, it wont be long before they find the transport as a good target." A Rocko reported next to him.
"Get behind their attack line and get the dips before they cause damage." Alex ordered, and just noticed two peewees.
"Hey you 2 PW's! Come with me, let's make them think there are more k-bots than they think." Alex commanded and the Shooter and 2 Peewees came charging down the hill in front of the tanks.
A massive firefight ensued. Alex managed to fight his way to where the stranded pilots were, and kept the plant from producing more k-bots by occasionally firing into the plant with his gauss gun. His outside vidscreen to his back showed running pilots getting out of there and getting in the door of the hovering Bear transport, while the transport was taking out k-bots ready for service. They came and also protected the rescue mission.
Alex made a painful realization. May didn't come out of the plant. Alex shook his head momentarily, trying to shrug off that fact, but couldn't.
"Watch my k-bot, am getting out and going in the plant to check for more pilots." Alex said to his troops.
Meanwhile, the diplomats got into range of the transport and one diplomat rasied it's missile to fire, when all of a sudden, the missile exploded, which took the diplomats back as half of the Lion Special Forces 2 division came out of nowhere behind the front line and began attacking the diplomats, and easily wiping them off radar. Then they began working on the defenses, which were working on Lion Special Force 5, the tank division of the elite force. One by one, each missile tower, laser tower, or plasma cannon was taken down by the firepower of LSF 2.
After the defense clean up, a Hammer bragged, saying, "Hey, where is my broom?"
Back where Alex was, the plant was already falling apart. It didn't take him long to find May. She was strapped tight to the patterning machine. A falling piece of debris hit a lever, and the machine came to life. Alex, looking for something in his suit, found a knife and cut the wire leading the inactive helmet needed for the machine to work, and the machine started to overheat and It caught on fire. He looked at May for a second, in reverie as he looked up and down her body. He broke it immediately and quickly removed the restraints to her and he carried her in his arms.
He ran to the blasted hole he made, but the integrity of the plant wasn't good and was ready to blow. A stupid or uncaring CORE LRPC Pillager fired and hit the plant. The plant went critical and then it went off the radar. Smoke and fire filled the area of the plant. Alex's Shooter was knocked over from the explosion, and Alex and May they didn't appear.
"God...what am I doing, Division 3, attack!" Terry said as he got up from his position and charged the CORE base from the exact opposite direction from the rescue area.
Division 4 and Brawler air support also came in as well as the expected naval bombarding after their short sea battle.
"CORE, you've already taken too many friends, now it is time for you to die!" Terry said as he electrocuted an A.K. that got too close. "I will avenge my friend!"
Out of Context
Enemy CORE base - Mulisk
Time - 1500
"Hey Terry, why do you have such poor faith in me?" Alex powered up his k-bots systems.
"Alex! I thought you've---"
"Guys like me don't die easily. Say, if you don't mind, can you help me get me upright?" Alex asked as Terry's Zeus lifted up the Shooter to its upright position.
"Thanks."
"What's up with you, you have been out of context? Say...is it that new girl in your force?"
"What! No way, I just want to make sure the CORE doesn't get any of my guys, no matter how long they have been under my command."
"What happened to the guy I knew? Did he die and a clone replaced him before we got here?" Terry wondered, in response, Alex grabbed the back of his neck.
"I don't feel any insert chip. Look, lets just drop this and get to the task at hand, okay?" Alex demanded as he took out a Punisher Cannon trying to hold off the Naval Barrage from the Conquerors and Millenniums.
"Well, I would, but I got one more thing to say, watch out for those incoming Gunships and Bombers!" Terry yelled out as he just managed to move his k-bot back to avoid a rocket.
"This is attack force to LFB, asking for some fighter cover. We are getting rockets getting shoved up our anal systems! It doesn't seem there are any black fighters. Send fighter cover immediately." Alex requested.
"This is LFB, we have half our fighters already heading over there, but are being intercepted by CORE air support. We can't spare any more, or else we will compromise the firebase. Just hold on till they manage to get there all right." The dispatch replied back and cut the channel.
Alex managed to take a rocket down with his laser but it won't be long before he will have one lick to many. His gauss cannon was fending off multiple Pyros in the meantime, while Hammers behind him blast away and try to pick them off. It wasn't looking good though, as Rapiers were picking off the Hammers one by one. A rocket was about to hit Alex's backside when an energy bullet made it explode, sending fire and debris went all over the place. Alex checked his active roster. The Maverick that always made him feel weird lined up with him, and was helping with holding back unwanted Pyros.
"This is air support, sorry for the inconvenience, we will now resume cleaning up these flying pieces of crap." The lead pilot of the fighter support said as they flew overhead.
"What took you guys so long!" Terry yelled up to them.
The fending off of Pyros now became chasing down Pyros as they turned and started to run to the mainland. Instead, they ran right into the waiting Tank Division and were quickly annihilated by the Arm forces as they took the day.
"As you all know, Mr. Bautista took one to many hits in the south base assault. That means I will have to find a replacement for his rank as Lt. Commander and take over his position. Three troops in Division 2 have shown worthy of this role. They have tied in every possible category in the last battle. I have found out though that one of them had managed to hold off a couple Rapiers and has even managed to take two of them down, and assisted with others to take more down by leading them to waiting Jethros. She will head Division 4." Ferrous told the other 5 Lt. Commanders of the LSF.
'No way. You got to be kidding me.' Alex thought to himself as May walked in. She shook the hands of Leon, Greg, and Malik.
"I presume you have already met Lt. Commander Terry MacKilian, and of course your former superior, Lt. Commander Alex." Ferrous presumed. Alex just gave a nod and walked out of the room, a quick look of disgust that May barely noticed.
May, after all the promotion and command things and know how's, walked outside. Alex just sat at the foot of his shooter. May decided to sit down next to him.
"So, what are you thinking?" May just openly said. No response.
"What am I doing, I'm just going out of context."
"Your not alone on that one." Alex openly said.
"So he speaks. You seem normal though."
"Saving my own troops is something I never do. You have been my subordinate for a week and two days. You should know that by now."
"I guess. There is just sides to people you never know about till you know that they are there." May looked from the ground to the night sky.
"The sky always changes, that is one thing I learned from day one being a Arm soldier."
May grabbed the back of Alex's neck.
"No, I'm not a clone. Don't bother to ask about my personal history." Alex bluntly said.
"Give me a summery then."
"All right, I never knew my father, stuck with my mom till I was eight, she died in the middle of the battle for Lyres, a stray A.K. laser hit her right though the middle of her body and cut her in half in front of my eyes as I was ushered into a evac. Shuttle."
"That explains your silence. I wish I had a great reason like that. All I am though is just Virgo who is putting up a great act."
"Is your fighting an act?"
"No, why?"
"Then you'll last. You know, I really got myself out of context now." Alex said as he got up and was about to walk away when he felt his arm get grabbed.
He turned around and looked at May, who stood up, and kissed him in the cheek. She then turned around and walked away, leaving Alex to stand there and reflect on what just happened in the last minute or so.
'Why did let her do that? One thing I set on was not to get myself wrapped up in stuff like this. Okay, you got 11 more years and you are in the clear Alex, don't screw it up now.'
It was then the red alert siren decided to go off. Things were about to end.
The Enemy Commander
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1600
Alex immediately by reflex grabbed and tugged the rope that would carry him to his cockpit. He quickly sat down and closed the cockpit door, and the H.U.D. came down with the cockpit windshield. He immediately pulled up a radar display. On the screen were maybe a hundred, or a thousand, red dots coming their way. About 150 of them were really quick, indicating air support. It also showed about 15-20 dots staying where they were, and from their distance, most likely a transports and CORE warships. Alex then looked over to his command screen, there, about 15 were on standby, but the rest were somewhere. He looked out and saw everyone scrambling for whatever his or her position was. Finally, the 25th green light lit up on the command screen, and Alex checked what he was up against. A peeper above showed all level 1 k-bots and vehicles, but level 2 air support.
"Guys, keep alert. They wouldn't send in level 2 air support with only a level 1 force." Alex alerted.
He quickly took up a position behind the dragon's teeth with the other forces. The exterior defense towers were just chewing up the level one attack. Well-placed sentinels and defenders, as well as Guardians pounded and were making quick work of the thousand level one k-bot force. Not until out of nowhere came the familiar nightmare of a D-Gun bullet, in this case, quickly taking out 6 towers, the tip of the iceberg was a Guardian desperately trying to turn it's barrel at it but it just wasn't fast enough. This created a hold big enough to cause considerable damage to the base. A vidscreen popped up on the H.U.D. and May's face showed.
"We have to cause enough damage to the commander to kill him." May quickly made adjustments to her communication equipment.
"May, we can't kill the commander from where we are, he'll take out a good portion of the base. We need only to damage him to red." Alex moved his Shooter next to her Maverick.
Another vidscreen came up; it was Leon, coming in with static.
"You guys know we have to go for the commander right?" Leon told them.
"But not here, I don't think we can get close enough quickly to cause enough damage. All we need to do is make him pull back. If we kill him here, he'll take most of the base!" Alex quickly replied.
"I got long range capabilities, I'll set my harder armored guys to set up a mobile shield for your guys to suppress their oncoming level one force while our Merls and Lugers rain fire on their commander." Leon said.
"Okay, good plan, you'll join us right May?" Alex moved behind Leon's Bulldog.
"Of course. I'm supposed to help you guys out." May quickly followed as her Maverick un-holstered her guns.
The 2 tank divisions lined up to form a mobile wall. Then k-bots behind them, as well as each tanks guns rained fire on the oncoming level one force. Missiles and Plasma bullets rained down ahead of them. Then the CORE commander appeared. It took some commands but everyone fired on the on coming support while some fire on the commander. Finally, the commander was getting beat back, his ground force nearly defeated. Alex got hit by the light laser by the CORE commander, and accidentally changed his comm. Channel. That channel had the eerie voice of a pattern.
"Bring in the reinforcements." It said. Another said, "My radio is out, commander."
"Beta force-" the voice was cut off. Alex lowered his heavy laser barrel. His shot hit the radio transmitter of the commander suit, knocking it out.
The commander then looked at him and rasied his D-Gun. The D-Gun started to charge up when a D-Gun shell nearly hit the commander, forcing the CORE commander to reel back. Alex looked back, and there was Commander Ferrous, lowering his D-Gun. Two more missiles hit the CORE commander's suit. Another missile would kill it, and unfortunately, before the cancel order got to the artillery, one last missile was launched. Looks like game over for everyone.
The Stingers of Scorpions
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1630
May quickly fired a round from her right gun and it hit one of the hoses connected to the CORE commander's D-Gun. Another shot hit the other hose, knocking out the nanolath. All of the sudden, the CORE commander's suit had no energy or metal, and it exploded like a decoy commander.
A small robot was running from it, and it quickly got behind other level one k-bots. As it looked back as it ran, it stared coldly at Alex. After the battle, the wreckage was searched, and nothing turned up with the enemy commander's pattern. A Valkyrie was spotted leaving the island, so it has been assumed to that he got away.
About 10 minutes after the battle, Terry and Malik came back from patrol.
"What happened?" Terry asked as he came in the base, going though the wreckage of which is being reclaimed.
"An enemy commander decided to drop in." Alex said as he opened the cockpit of his shooter. Terry's Zeus came up in front of his shooter, and the cockpit opened.
"So how the base hold up?" Terry asked.
"It was only a level 1 force, it was that blasted D-gun from the enemy commander that gave us problems." Alex said, pointing to the D-gun marks on the ground.
"So where is he? Where did he die?" Terry asked.
"The commander pattern got away, after managing to eject out of his commander suit." Alex said, pointing to the wreck that is the CORE commander suit. May in her Maverick came up, her cockpit open already.
"I'd say we barely managed to survive. If I didn't shoot off the commander's Anti-Matter pack hoses before he went, we would've went with it." May boasted.
"You must be a pretty good shot." Terry said, as Alex looked away from the two of them.
"Hey, what's depressing you?" Terry asked. Alex didn't bother to reply, he just got out the cockpit of his suit and started to walk into the dense forest surrounding the open grass plain ARM base.
May quickly hurried off behind him. Terry was about to get out of his suit when Commander Ferrous came on the Comm. Screen, forcing the Lt. CMR to do something else, and he closed his cockpit and got to work.
"Hey, what is wrong with you?" May asked as she caught up to him. He shrugged her off, and jump up the trees and sat at a branch.
"You're just being stubborn." May said, and climbed the tree Alex was on, and just when she got to Alex's branch, Alex jumped to another branch on another tree.
"Why are you running away? Aren't you a MAN!" May yelled at him.
"You have your words wrong, it's getting away, not running." Alex said, and jumped to another branch farther away.
"Why are you mad at me?" May asked.
"Why are you mad at me May? Whatever I'm thinking doesn't involve you." Alex said, leaning against the trunk of the tree.
"Well, now it does. I'm not going to leave till you tell me what you are thinking." May stubbornly said.
"Who's the stubborn one now? If you really want to know what I'm thinking, I'm thinking you are annoying." Alex said.
"Whatever." May simply said, and went down the tree she was on, and left the forest.
"Why do stings from Scorpios always hurt? ...How am I going to find my father at this rate..."Alex silently said to himself. He thought of that little Commander pattern, whom stared at him, as if he saw right though the cockpit of his suit.
"Could...he be...father...?"
The Firebase Falls
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time- 1100
"Another CORE strike force on their way. Reports find that they had escort this time, and our fleet got pounded, so we will not expect relief this time. But our defenses are better now. We have Guardians pounding them as we speak, and laser and missile towers everywhere. Their beach force has already landed, with Crock tanks leading the way." Commander Ferrous said.
The Lion Firebase waited, looking at where the CORE was. They managed to amass 1,200 units for the defense, but it isn't enough against the estimated 3,000 units coming at them. Finally, after an hour, a lone Pyro reached the first base perimeter, and was utterly annihilated by an annihilator. Then they came in large groups, but that wasn't the worst part. A nuke from one of the bases destroyed was repaired and a nuke came screaming toward the base, and it got knocked by a anti-nuke missile, and hit a big part of the defense at the beach, allowing transports to drop off their cargo and go.
Lasers, EMG's, Rockets, Missiles, and Plasma Bullets flew everywhere on the battlefield, taking out ARM and CORE units alike. On instinct, Commander Ferrous D-gunned the Galactic Gate, not allowing the CORE access to the planet they came in from. Unfortunately, an Atlas picked up the Commander and pulled him away from the battle.
"Atlas pilot, where are you taking me?" Ferrous asked.
"To our base. We are sending Bears to get your important men out of there, and Atlas for your Lt. Commanders." The pilot said.
Amiss in the battle, Alex ran into May, and somehow CORE forces surrounded them.
"I'm taking a lot of damage, I don't think I'll last long." May said, looking at her status indicator.
"Just keep firing! We can't give up now." Alex yelled back.
Just then, the CORE commander appeared and fired its light laser. Alex barely avoided the laser. May was backing up also, trying to keep all of them off. Then, they reached the edge of a cliff. Alex looked behind him, and then looked back to the CORE commander, and then the light laser that hit his suit.
"ALEX!!!" May screamed as Alex's Shooter fell over the cliff. Then a rocket hit her from the side, knocking her suit facing forward over the cliff. Then with a well-placed shot, the CORE commander shot May's Maverick over the cliff.
Secrets
Last Stand Cliff- Mulisk
Time- 1423
It was a hard landing for Alex. His cockpit windshield broke during the fall, so all he had was scratches. He was also lucky he chose soft cushion seating, so he was still able to move. Then he saw May's Maverick falling, and then sharp pain as a shard of glass from May's Maverick fell right into his midsection. What made it more painful is that the Maverick landed on top of his Shooter. The cockpit doors were blown off, and the Maverick's cockpit was directly over the Shooter's.
"Are you okay Alex?" May asked, as she gritted her teeth, as she removed a metal piece that stabbed her in the back.
"Nope, I'm losing blood, I don't think there will be any help coming...so I think-"
"Don't think that." May interrupted.
Alex pulled out the shard, and then looked at May. May took off her cockpit restraints, and she fell on top of Alex. It also made a music player activate, and it began to play a song from Earth. A song that is called "Eyes on me." She then put her arms around Alex. Surprisingly, Alex put his arms around her.
"I'm...sorry." May slowly said.
"Sorry? Your sorry for what just happened just now?" Alex said surprisingly
"No, I'm sorry for what I said, two days ago...I didn't know what came over me."
"Don't worry about that..." Alex said, showing a smile to her, he has never been seen with a smile with anyone...until now.
"Is it true, what you said?"
"No, of course not."
"What were you thinking...at that time..."
"My father...where he was."
"Your father?"
"Yeah, I started to think...that the CORE Commander could be my father..."
"We might not know now..." May said, as Alex tried to look away, only to look at May's eyes.
"I used to listen to this song a lot. It reminds me of our relationship."
"Yeah..." Alex said, as the song was the only thing heard for a while.
"So who would've guessed, that we'd be here, together, with death closing in on us?" May said.
"I wouldn't. Maybe it was supposed to happen this way?" Alex said.
"At least we know now...we both know now..." May said.
"That we love each other..."
"But why does it have to start and end so quickly?"
"Maybe it doesn't have to."
The two lovers slowly moved their lips toward each other, and shared a passionate kiss. Then fire spewed from all around them, and then for just an instant, the two disappeared from the universe.
"Commander Ferrous, who are your Lt. Commanders?" An atlas said overhead.
"Leon Gray, Malik Anderson, Greg Ballard, May Tanilla, Terry Mackilian, and Alex...Ferrous." Commander Ferrous forced out.
"Okay, we will try to get them back here as soon as possible." The pilot said as it joined with 5 other atlas and went to look for the 6 Lt. Commanders.
"It's all my fault. I should have held back his squad. By now, most of them are most likely already dead..." John Ferrous said to himself.
"C'mon my son, you can make it though this..."
The two lay seemingly lifeless on top of each other. It begins raining and the look of their k-bots faces makes it seem like they are crying. Lighting and Thunder come forth, lighting the Core Commander standing above on the cliff.
The End
Character Name - Description
Hair - (Black, Brunette, Blonde, Redhead, etc.)
Build - (Guys = Light, Medium, Heavy / Gals = Slender, Normal, Chubby)
Height - ex. 5'7, interpreted as 5 foot 7 inches.
Ability - The Ranking Ability of the Pilot
Estimated Earth Race - (Caucasian, Black, Guamian, Laotian, Latino, Chinese, etc.)
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Alex - A son of an elite commander. Has no last name, for he forgot it 10 weeks into his training in the Arm. He did not know his father, and has not met him in his entire life. Joining the Arm at the age of 9, he was put though what is called "kiddie training." By age 13, he was already transferred to Lion Special Forces, and by age 17, has taken commander of Lion Special Force 2. He is well respected for his achievements, as he is a Lt. Commander, but his personality is not so great. Non-sociable in anyway, his astrological sign is the Scorpio, which means he has many sides. His leadership skills are outstanding though, and his mind is of that of a no hesitation soldier, which has gotten him out of difficult situations time and time again. Many wonder how much heart he has, or for a better one, does he have a heart at all?
Vital Stats
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'10
Ability - Extremely Good
Estimated Earth Race - Chinese/Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Shooter, Maverick
May Tanilla - A mysterious girl. Has no known parents, and appeared out of the blue at the age of 10. Has shown exceptional piloting skills. Transferred from Goblin 4th Force to Lion Special Force 2, those that know her have said that she is, "sociable, if you were crazy or drunk." The Lieutenant's heart apparently is made of stone, shows no feelings on or off the battlefield, and is often misinterpreted as a fearless soldier attitude.
Hair - Black
Build - Slender
Height - 5'4
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Guamian
ARM Kbot - Maverick
John Ferrous - Head Commander of the Lion Special Forces Battalion. Always straight to the point and his skills should reward him a High Commander rank. He has refused the High Commander rank 3 times, and believes his mission in life is with the Lion Special Forces Battalion. It always seems that he always has a secret he is always trying to hold back though.
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'11
Ability - Astonishing
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Commander
Terry Mackilian - A gentle hearted man. Unlike his fellow friend and officer, Alex, or Silver as he calls him, he tends to do everything that Alex wont do when it comes to social life. Of course, on the battlefield, his skills can only go so far, and is eventually will only be as good as a commander. What got him his rank, as Lt. Commander is his leadership skills, as they are extremely good.
Hair - Blonde
Build - Heavy
Height - 5'9
Ability - Superb
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Kbot - Zeus
Malik Anderson - A nice guy who is a fearsome in the battlefield. His attitude is so nice he even talks to patterns mid-battle before utterly destroying them. Many wonder why Commander Ferrous chose him to become a Lt. Commander, but Ferrous saw though his personality as saw him as a good leader in the battlefield. As much as he talks to the other side, he finds out more of the personality of the CORE soldiers, and he adjusts his battle plan secretly according to how the CORE soldier would react, which makes him a fearsome Lt. Commander in combat.
Hair - Black
Build - Medium
Height - 5'7
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Black
ARM Kbot - Fido
Kevin Bautista - One of the many in the military. Filipinos are quite common in the navy of both sides, and is also true in history when many joined the U.S. Navy. Kevin is one of the few who wanted to join the front lines instead of a post on a boat. His piloting and leadership really stuck out, but his effort had no bounds. He keeps trying to make anything work until he actually does it or is forced to stop.
Hair - Black
Build - Light
Height - 5'9
Ability - Superb
Estimated Earth Race - Filipino
ARM Kbot - Zipper
Greg Ballard -
Hair - Black
Build - Heavy
Height - 6'0
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Caucasian
ARM Vehicle - Bulldog
Leon Gray -
Hair - Brown
Build - Medium
Height - 5'10
Ability - Exceptionally Good
Estimated Earth Race - Mexican / Caucasian
ARM Vehicle - Bulldog
***********************
The Natural Elite
Arm Remote Special Forces Base- Cylix
Time- 800 hours
Alex checked over his k-bots systems again. Everything was working in top condition in his Shooter k-bot. His Shooter, along with some of the others in his Special Force, has some special features, as with any Special Force. His Shooter still has the standard heavy laser right arm, but his left arm, usually a balancing arm to make sure the Shooter doesn't fall over to the right, was equipped with a heavy gauss gun. He also has two power generators installed, they are specially made Talon Power Generators, they are small and very powerful, good for any k-bot, essential in Alex's, as well as everyone else's k-bots for that matter. His k-bot is also equipped with heavy grade A armor, which is rare now for normal forces, since grade A armor take so long to produce, but they are 200% more effective than normal armor, which means his shooter can take 4x the damage that would usually kill a normal Shooter. The look of his shooter was quite bad and needed washing. Black burn marks indicated where the Shooter was hit in previous missions. The smell of the marks still lingered, as with everyone else's k-bots, since theirs have not been washed also.
Alex turned on his command console, two screens turned on, one with his force's status, which consisted of 21 assorted k-bots, excluding him. The other screen showed the cockpit view from each k-bot. Radar and sight was shared thoughout the force. All green lights were on except one, then after 15 seconds, turned from yellow to green.
"Lets move out!" Alex said, and the two Special EQ. Bear Hover Transports, which has also a 200% more effective armor and is equipped with a Sentinel grade laser on the top of the crane that usually picks up k-bots or anything else and places it in the hanger of the Bear, the laser provided cover for the landing force. It also had a front door, something you usually don't see in a Bear, and that door opened, and since their isn't a ramp, the k-bots jumped out of the door and onto the ground. They ran into the forest, and grouped up around the eraser k-bot. Alex then turned on a switch, and a 3-D mission map came up.
"All right, listen up, the Core have set up base nearby here. We presume that it is at these coordinates right here." Alex said to his squad, while a Red Core icon came up on the 3-D map. Arrows moved as Alex went on talking.
"We are to go to Point Alpha and wait for a peeper to check if the Core base is indeed there. We are then to go to Point Beta and check which targets should be targeted first. We are then to go down this pass full of trees here. We will then stop here, at Point Charlie. There are no defenses at the end of this pass, and an occasional k-bot or two will pass by. Attack squads from a Arm base near here will be attacking in waves every 15 minutes. When we are ready, we will make a pincer attack with any force attacking the Core defenses exactly on my order. Should if needed, Bertha shelling from the nearby Arm base may happen. All right, lets move out!" Alex said, and the k-bots lined up in a 4 by 5 row, with Alex and a Maverick in front, and the jammer k-bot in the middle.
The squad moved quickly and silently, every once in a while a Core k-bot would appear, and the squad would get around it and after reaching Point's Alpha and Beta, they arrived at point Charlie. In front of them was the small base. It was only consisted of mostly level one units and a few number of level two units here and there. They were currently setting up the base for building advanced buildings, but by the way the nanolathes kept turning on and off, they were low on ether power or metal.
"When is the next attack Jammer?" Alex asked the Eraser k-bot.
"2 minutes sir." It replied.
"Okay on my signal, all shooters and myself will take out any level 2 structures. Everyone else, take out any level one buildings and k-bots, but avoid the front line." Alex said. Everyone gave a simultaneous agreement. Two minutes passed by, and shelling on the Core front began. Another minute, and it stopped and the sound of EMG's was heard from afar. Core k-bot after k-bot left their positions and ran to the front line to help out in repulsing the attack. After 10 seconds of it being cleared, the area was just a wide area of rolling grass except for c-bots and factories were that were still there. Just then, a Core Commander appeared, apparently by himself. He turned and started nanolathing the Adv. K-Bot Factory being built.
"Guys, on my signal, shooters, switch to that Core commander, if we are lucky enough, we can take that guy out with just our lasers. Alright, on my signal, all shooters will fire on the commander, once he is eliminated, I will give a second signal." Alex said. He waited 10 more seconds to make sure no other k-bots came by.
"Alpha codes go." Alex said, and the shooters fired their heavy laser beams at the unsuspecting Core Commander, and it exploded, but it was small.
"Decoy...Beta code go!" Alex said, and his 21 combat force unit attacked. The eraser stayed where it was, listening in on the Core, making message intercepts.
Alex maneuvered his Shooter toward the Adv k-bot building a Krogoth gantry. He shoots and killed the k-bot with the heavy gauss gun when a big thud was heard. Alex looked around, his squad wasn't all that much damaged. Their quick and sudden move caused the downfall of this base. Trees outlined the entire base, protected from any plasma cannon on three sides. Too bad that none of those sides protect the base from the Berthas at the Arm firebase.
"Sir! A Krogoth is on his way over here. ETA one minute." The eraser said.
"Guys, wrap it up! We need to take out everything before the big guy gets here!" Alex yelled though his comm. Within 30 seconds, most of the Core structures were gone except for a K-bot lab and a Vehicle plant. They were managing to fight off his force with quickly built A.K.'s and Instigators.
"Who got Remotes?" Alex asked over the radio for Remote mines.
"I got one!" yelled out a Maverick pilot.
"Plant it on that k-bot lab!" Alex said.
"Yes sir!" the pilot replied.
"I got one also sir!" yelled a Zipper pilot said.
"You know what I'm going to say, get out there NOW!" Alex yelled over the radio.
"Yes sir!" the pilot said.
The bombs were set, and it would be 10 seconds before the Krogoth was in range.
"Get out of here now!" Alex yelled, as his force retreated back into the trees in the hidden mountain path. Just when they made it under the Eraser coverage, the Krogoth appeared.
"This is Lion Special Force 2 to Cylix Firebase 19, over." Alex said over the nearby Arm base.
"CF19 here. What do you need?" the radio dispatch said.
"I got a Krog at coordinates 2929.90,6738.20, sending digital information. Requesting single burst fire." Alex said, and hit a button, and his visual view of his k-bots and his own was linked up to the base.
"I see him, will commence Single burst Bertha firing in one minute, sit tight and don't let that dumb big guy spot you." The dispatch said as the whirring of the Big Bertha's turning gears was heard in the background.
"Sir! The Core is about to move the Krogoth out of LOS." The eraser said.
"Sir, let me distract him, I got the speed to avoid most of his attacks." said a Zipper.
"Go ahead, be careful not to get yourself stomped." Alex said.
"Yes sir!" the pilot said, and ran out. The Krogoth spotted it immediately, and the Zipper went right though it's legs. The big Krogoth fired two missiles, and the Zipper barely avoided each missile and rolled into a tree, and it gave enough time for the Krogoth to point it's big arm at the small Zipper. The pilot of the Zipper gulped, and quickly hit a button
------------------
The New Pilot
Classified Location - Cylix
Time - 1200
The Zipper then fired a Zip line from its left arm to a nearby tree, and seemed to loop around 10 of the trees there. He then barely avoided get toasted and went around the right leg and turned past the left leg going left, toward the 10 trees he fired his line at. The Krogoth tried to turn itself by turning right but the legs caught the line and it fell, making what seemed like a dust storm. Just then, 10 Bertha shells came closing in on their destination, their high speed made them seem like they were screaming as they came out from the sky, and about 7 shells missed but 3 shells made a direct hit on the Kroggie and it exploded, It created a small quake, a big dust cloud, and shrapnel flew everywhere. The Zipper managed to get out of range on time.
Once the smoke cloud cleared, all that was left of the Krogoth was heated scrap metal and small fires still burning within the Krogoth.
"Good job Zipper. Lets move on out." Alex said, and Lion Special Force 2 left the mission area.
****************************
Alex walked down the hall and opened the door to Commander John Ferrous.
"Sit down Lt. Commander." Ferrous said.
"Good day sir." Alex said as he sat down.
"We are currently going over improvement designs over the Eraser k-bot. We are currently trying different weapons that would match the eraser for use if under attack. I want you to look over these plans, the engineers at C-Block suggested this is the best one." Ferrous said as he gave a clipboard with paper clipped to it. Alex looked over the two-page layout of the improved eraser.
"Sir, are they going to only use one power generator?" Alex asked.
"It seems so." Ferrous replied.
"Then why use a light laser without the power to maintain the jammer. They need to find space for a second generator to use the laser, and another one for the jammer." Alex directed as he showed a space where they can fit another generator.
"You have a keen eye, I like that in a subordinate. You still have much to learn. If you place the generator there, one shot from anything can instantly kill the eraser, compromising your position. If you place it here, it is under better armor, thus more safe." Ferrous pointed out as he pointed at different spots.
"I see sir. Thank you for this command exercise." Alex said.
"You did very well, you are dismissed." Ferrous said. Alex started toward the door and as he opened the door.
"Alex, talk to your men, it does no good to just command them while they talk behind your back." Ferrous said.
"Sir, am not the one who likes to socialize about other topics than war." Alex said, and was about to walk out the door again.
"Your getting 5 more subordinates, one is just like you. In short, two more Zippers, 2 Fidos, and a Maverick. Try not to get them killed. I also heard that Mav pilot is like yourself." Ferrous said, and Alex walked out and closed the door without saying anything further.
***********************
"Tanilla!" the sergeant yelled out. The 19 year old natural born stepped forward.
"Yes sir!" She shouted.
"You are being moved to from Goblins 4th force to the Lion Special Force 2. You will undergo a week training session with them before entering service with them. Pack up and a shuttle will take you to Cylix. Everyone [b] dismissed! [/b]." The Sergeant said to everyone.
The 5'4 slender, long black haired Guamian girl moved toward the living quarters. She packed everything she needed up and walked over with her two bags to the shuttle. Apparently, se wasn't alone, as two more were joining her. She took her seat and the shuttle lifted off from the ground and headed for the galactic gate that would send them to Cylix.
"Hi, my name is Steven Laterious, lieutenant." The guy next to her said as he stuck out his hand.
"Name is May Tanilla, lieutenant." May said, and didn't bother to shake the guys hand, and they guy took his hand back. The shuttle landed on the repair pad it was told to land at. The 3 pilots jumped out, and was greeted by two other pilots who just arrived also. A soldier just then came out of the command bunker, but the look of his rank, he was a Commander.
"Attention!" He barked. Instantly the 5 of them lined up and saluted.
"I'm Commander John Ferrous. Welcome to Lion Special Forces remote base. You absolutely will not be allowed to leave this base without permission. You will follow the Lieutenant Commander orders at all times, you are allowed to question the order, but to not do the order will get you send back to your mama. There are no bars here, which means no alcohol, which means you keep a cool head at all times. I want sober, experienced soldiers, not drunk, wreck less mishaps. If you do not like it here, get back aboard your shuttle and return to your base."
No one moved from his or her position. They actually were still saluting the Commander. The commander continued as the two shuttles left.
"Good, now listen up, you will meet your lieutenant commander tomorrow at 0800 hours. He is not a guy who likes to socialize; I suggest you better keep your mouths shut while he speaks. He only gives mission orders once. If you screw up, you will most likely die, though tomorrows mission is a training exercise. You are now hereby stationed here; today you will fill out a k-bot request layout and turn that in before 1800 hours. You can choose what to have on your k-bot. Be warned, if you have only one arm for combat, you will become the laughing joke of this base. There are 5 squads at this base, you five will be assigned to squad two. Go to the living quarters now; go get your bunks, the k-bot papers are already on your bunk. [b] Dismissed! [/b]" The commander said, and walked back in the command bunker.
The 5 pilots choose their bunks. The room was full of double bunks for an entire garrison of soldiers, but only 21 bunks of them were in use. May choose a bottom bunk under a girl pilot. She filled out her k-bot papers. She decided with a Maverick, with the usual layout, plus a medium laser rifle and boosters. She also decided to get small spikes on the k-bots knuckles, it was fairly small to avoid messing up any weapon she carried, but big enough to mess up a Core k-bot in a hand to hand fight. She went to the Command bunker and turned in her form. The dinner bell rung then, and she went to the cafeteria to eat.
She sat down by herself at a far table. A guy joined her. May looked up to see his rank, and his rank showed he was a Lt. Commander. He has short black hair, medium build, and was 5'10. Everyone was around 5 feet, so he was most likely around the tallest of everyone here. There were exceptions of course, but besides that, she noticed he wasn't trying to be friendly, so she went back to eating her food.
'Whatever he thinks, its none of my business..." May thought to herself.
No one else came to sit by them, and both of them got up and put their tray's away and they all went to their bunks to sleep.
-------------------------
Short and Easy
Arm Lion Special Forces Base "Lion's Den" - Cylix
Time - 0800
The 26 soldiers that make up the Lion Special Force 2 waited for their Lt. Commander. Alex came out and walked to the front of the now 26-member group.
"Today we are on a training mission with Lion Special Force 4. All 21 of you guys must show the ropes to our 5 new lieutenants joining us. If you babies need to know my name, call me Alex or Silver. Though I prefer 'sir' to other names. Today's game is paintball CTF. On the request of Commander Ferrous, their commander and myself will be sitting out this mission, and will be directing the mission from the command bunker. You all will give the most attention to Laterious, our new Fido pilot. We all know what happened to the last Fido pilot we had, so don't do anything stupid. If any one of you do, I'll put a request form to send you to hell. Suit up!" Alex barked, and the 26 pilots ran to their k-bots.
The lone Fido pilot walked up to Alex.
"Permission to speak sir!" Steven Laterious said.
"Granted." Alex replied.
"What happened to the last Fido sir?" Steven asked.
"We had some stupid PW prankster on the squad 2 months ago, he put explosives on the connection joints of the legs of the Fido. Thought it was funny when it fell apart, unfortunately for him, it blew up, killing the pilot. So I sent in his request form to send him to Hell. Now, go suit up." Alex answered and walked away.
"Alex, do you have to be so mean to your subordinates. If you go on in this rate, you might as well have one of them put a bullet though you're back of your head to get you straight." A guy said.
"Well, I don't like Fidos, they are big targets, and they need more space than a normal k-bot. You should be thinking what you could do with your troops and worry about morale later Terry." Alex said as he walked in the command bunker.
"That guy, he needs to wake up." Terry said to himself as he walked in the command bunker.
**********************
May flipped on some switches and she flipped on her main power switch, and everything came to life. The 4 screens on her left and right side came on. The HUD and everything else wasn't set to her liking yet, so she flipped some switches to set her preference. Then she hit the ready button. She waited for half a minute then a voice came over the radio.
"This is your Lt. Commander, move to Point Alpha and wait to receive further orders." Alex voice said over the radio. May looked at her map, and a Green dot indicated where to go. She and the rest of the force moved along in a single line. They finally reached the green dot and in front of them were small walls to indicate out of bounds. Also in front of them was a small bunker base, as well as a thick forest, with 7 paths going different directions.
"All right, Commander just said I can't guide you, so follow instincts, instruments, and maybe squadmates. Good Luck, mission starts now." Alex said, and the radio was then full of chatter from other force members.
It was decided that the force would be split into 3 groups of 8, with two of the squads having an extra k-bot. Apparently they were in luck, because the map was revealed to them, but they still cant see beyond LOS. The second in command, Lt. Jack Zipper, showed them a plan. Apparently, he was a son of a general, so his plan was excellent. They were to have two of the squads move under of the jammer coverage, then the squad the split would move to the open area in the middle in a wide open formation. The plan was to draw each enemy squad, ether in 5 squads of 5 or 3 squads of 8 with one extra k-bot. Each Force has a small advantage over the other, with one able to build fortifications, but nothing else besides radar towers, and the other with a radar jammer k-bot that could hide among shadows.
May led her group to an excellent position on a cliff. Another group on their side appeared on another cliff nearby. Then, the bait, the one Jack Zipper was leading entered the lower, open area. All of a sudden, floods of paint came from the sky, and each k-bot in Jack's group avoid the paint. Even one drop of paint on your k-bot deactivates your k-bot, and then your declared dead. The entire Lion Special Force 3 came going down the hill in a big spread formation, firing away at the smaller 8 k-bot group.
"Guys, head back to the forest and take position!" Jack declared and turns his legs and the k-bot moved to the forest with the arms of his k-bot firing back.
The 8 k-bots led the 26 k-bots of Lion Special Force 3 to the open. May waited to give the signal then they reached the middle. She fired her twin guns to the unsuspecting force below, and many of them were deactivated as her group and the group on the other cliff blasted away. It was only until the last 8 k-bots of Lion Special Force 3 was left that they noticed the two groups raining paint down on them. They started firing on the group on the opposite cliff of May's cliff. The cliff was only good as a sniper position, and most of them on the cliff were hit by paint. The now 4 remaining Special Force 3 group started to fire on May's cliff. Her group was protected though by positioned rocks, and her group fired back from behind these rocks. Finally, the 5 remaining k-bots from Jack's group came out and rushed at the last 4 k-bots and finally all of Special Force 3 was disabled. Jack himself went in his Zipper; the only Zipper not deactivated in ether group, and retrieved Force 3's flag and returned to their starting point for the win.
Alex got up from his seat and walked over to Terry. They shook hands.
"That is why I'm so mean, because I don't want my guys attached to me." Alex said as he left the bunker as Terry just sat there wondering what went wrong with what he did in training his guys. It would be the next week that would prove the worth of Lion Special Forces to the ARM.
-------------------------------
The Trench
"Lion's Den"-Cylix
Time - 0500
"Heads up! The Lion Special Force battalion is being deployed to the Sepoy system. Your job there is that of everyone else, cause some havoc on the CORE using strategic strikes from quick build firebases. At some point, you all will be leading a small group of k-bots of your own. For right now, you are to follow your Lt. Commander's orders to the letter. If you don't, you will jeopardize yourself and your force mates to most probable death. Now, move!" Commander Ferrous barked and then everyone started running to what seemed like everywhere.
Alex ran to his Shooter, already prepped, and even had all of the things he wanted to bring already stored, if there was any at all. May was also ready, she made a last systems check before showing she was ready. All the Lt. Commanders were ready, as was Commander Ferrous in his Commander suit. Mostly everyone else was somewhere doing last minute things. The first of the Bear transports that would take the battalion to the planet of which of conflict arrived though the galactic gate nearby the base. It took an hour to load all the k-bots and then the bears one by one entered the gate to the Sypoy system.
The Sypoy system as Alex recalled was a 7 planet system, with the only 1 gas planet, the first planet to the sun in that system. It took 4 hours from leaving the Lion's den, the Headquarters of the Lion Special Force Battalion, to the planet Mulisk. Mulisk is a converted metal planet, since Arm forces last came here were pushed back, the CORE was desperate for metal, so they used the devastating resource blaster, a CORE space ship capable of blasting a planet and exposing the metal and gas resources on the planet at the expense of losing any sign of life that may have been on the planet. It was then the CORE pushed the Arm out of the system to a neighboring system. Since then the Arm managed to push back the surge of the CORE back to the Sypoy system, and now the Arm was having problems on the converted CORE planet and called in the nearest elite force, which so happened to be the Lion Special Force Battalion.
Finally, the bears arrived at the CORE planet, and Ferrous was already building defenses, while the 6 divisions of the Lion Special Force set an overlaying fire defense. A couple of A.K.'s came by, each one by themselves, and all killed to quickly to report their findings. It would take 3 standard days from the first A.K. to figure out why the A.K. went out. Ferrous didn't need 3 days; he only needed 5 hours to set up a Arm Firebase. Clones of elite Lion members of the past took over positions of those of their natural brothers and sisters. The 6 Lt. Commanders and Commander Ferrous held a meeting at one of the 3 k-bot labs set up. Already, k-bots and vehicles were churning out new units as fast as they can.
From left to right, in a circle, sat Malik, Kevin, Alex, Commander Ferrous, Leon, Greg, and Terry. In the middle of the circle is a 3d holo-display showing the area around them and the 2 nearest CORE bases.
"Okay you guys, we are on a big island, we just happen to be in the middle. The CORE has two bases, one is in the north and the other is in the south. Normal Arm forces have managed to slightly damage the south base at the CORE, and caused heavy damage to their resources in the south, so they wont see any action soon since their nanolathes will be slow. So I suggest to hit the north base as soon as we can." Ferrous said.
"Do you remember the paintball training battle we had with my force and yours Alex?" Terry asked.
"Yes, my men used a decoy attack to draw your guys to a open area and then your guys got barraged by my guys who were on cliffs." Alex said.
"My plan is this, if we have Force 2 expend some clones and draw most of the CORE k-bots to this area that's a trench, we can do the same thing. Meanwhile, My force and another force will enter from the open fields with support artillery and move to severely damage the base, and hopefully make the patterns try to return to base, making it a turkey shoot at the trench." Terry said.
"I would suggest that plan of action." Leon said.
"Any objection?" Ferrous asked.
"Sir, may I add to that, how about we bring in air support as well as artillery fire from Bertha's?" Malik asked.
"Granted. Any objection?" Ferrous asked. Silence.
"Operation starts tomorrow night, 2000. Dismissed." Ferrous said and all 7 men got up and walked outside.
'The k-bot, the home away from home." Alex said as he jumped in his Shooter and went to sleep. Some hours later, a message beeped, waking up the sleeping commander of the Lion Special Force 2.
"Silver, prepare your force, mission starts in 4 hours. You may want to organize your newly added clones, and remember, you got 4 hours, not just before mission start but also to get to position. Ferrous out."
Alex looked up from his comm. screen and saw about 129 k-bots in front of him. He had about 20 clones as the draw group, and about 20 more for cap group, including a c-bot. The rest, including himself, would setup outside the edge of the trench, and on his signal begin the attack. He also set a formation and then himself and his force moved out from the firebase. His force was the last out of base, with Force 3 and 4 already moved out about an hour ago, but it would take them longer to set up to position. He looked to his left, and the Maverick k-bot next to him was that girl that Ferrous talked about. Already, he felt himself get tingles thinking of her...for some odd reason. He shook it off, knowing that she can be a weakness.
**********************
After 3 hours of marching, they made it the their open end of the trench. The CORE hasn't encountered them yet, and radar jammers kept them off CORE radar. Alex set the exact points the decoy force would do. The c-bot then "teethed" in the 40 k-bots in the trench. Lucky for them, there were 2 convenient ramps. Alex moved cautiously, making sure no surprise viper would come out and scare his troops. Finally, he reached the point he wanted to go, and looked over the trench, and a shooter gave him a okay. They then lined against the wall in a row of 3.
"20 seconds to start, begin action." Alex said as the decoy team moved down the trench. It was just then a Fink flew overhead.
"Shoot. Silver to Big Eyes, over." Alex said over his radio.
"Big Eyes responding." A husky male voice said.
"Move in over my area and do a forecast will you. We just had a Fink fly over, and we might get some bombs shoved up over the trench when the shabam starts." Alex said using some lingo.
"Will give you a beer, over out." The voice said.
The decoy group grabbed the Core's attention, and the k-bots bit for it, and followed the 20 Arm k-bots down the trench. Unfortunately, the CORE had k-bots on the top of the trenches already, and they quickly appeared and began attacking. Alex kept the level one attack at bay coming from the front with his heavy laser. An A.K. got too close and Alex blasted it to rubble with a well-placed gauss shot. The pattern managing to jump out just as the A.K. went into small scrap metal. As good as the counterattack on the top of the trench was, it was no match the Alex's forces and now they came in 3 k-bot waves. Hawks flew in and took out Hurricanes right out of the sky, while Phoenix bombers dropped their bombs in the trench, effectively taking out loads of CORE Kbots. The loss rate of the bombers were getting high though, with AA defenses talking them out quick. The CORE was about to get pounded though as Bertha shells came screaming down on the base. Brawler squadrons came out of nowhere and started to remove AA defenses.
"Man, even with this help, they are pretty tough, don't you think Silver?" Terry said.
"Just shut up and kill the guys in front of you." Alex said as he blasted another Pyro before it gets to close.
It just so happened it wasn't going to be Lion Special Force's 2 day.
The Mysterious Missile
Harris Island - Mulisk
Time - 2100
The battle was looking extremely good for the Lion Battalion. They weren't taking as much casualties as the CORE. No reports of any naturals lost in the battle.
Terry ran his Zeus Kbot down the middle of the base, taking out anything in sight. Terry just managed to see a missile silo get off a missile. What was weird about the silo was that it was of ARM design.
"Guys, get a load of this, they're using ARM tech!" Terry said.
"What type of-" The static cut off a member of Force 2.
"Oh boy, we got a bunch of disabled Kbots now." Terry said.
A Maverick took another Heavy laser hit and went down to a smoldering hulk. Alex checked the pilot, it just so happened to be that girl. Just then, loads of Patterns came and opened the hatch to the Maverick and started to carry off with the knocked out pilot.
"Hey! That's my pilot you got there!" Alex said and moved his Heavy Laser to the patterns, when just then, an EMP missile came from out of nowhere, though it came from the CORE base, hit the ground near LSF 2, disabling the ARM Kbots while somehow keeping the Patterns unharmed. Alex pulled the trigger again and again, but no response from the weapon. Alex slammed the console in front of him, and grabbed the rifle in his cockpit and jumped out and started shooting Pattern Bodies left and right. Just as Alex closed in on May, a Pattern knocked him down, and many other patterns joined in on the mugging. The last thing Alex saw was the stars and two patterns carrying May.
Alex woke up in the intensive care of the makeshift hospital at the Special force firebase.
"Hey, what happened? You are one hell of a pilot, and somehow, patterns drag you out of your cockpit and mug you. I don't get it." Terry said, his face looking down at him.
"How'd...we...do?" Alex said painfully and slowly.
"Success, though most of your guys got carried off in a transport after the battle. A peeper tracked them and followed them to the CORE base to the south." Terry said.
"How'd...they...get...the...EMP...Missile...to...do...that?" Alex said slowly again.
"They managed to switch the insides of a EMP missile to not disable a CORE k-bot or pattern but were able to disable a ARM Kbot." Terry said.
"When do we go in?" Alex asked, feeling better.
"Tomorrow." Terry said.
"I'm game." Alex said as he began to sit up and he felt some awesome pain and kept him in his place.
"Hey, don't do that, you broke 3 rib bones, you should just get some rest. Well, see ya." Terry said as he left.
Alex slammed his right fist on the small table next to his bed.
...
"Why do I care so much for them..." Alex said to himself
Unknowingly, Terry heard what he said, because he leaned against the wall with the door not fully shut.
---------------------------------
The Stone That Cracked
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1800
Alex nearly completely abandoned his philosophy of no weakness. He certainly had one now, with have his force captured, and most likely will be patterned. They had to nanolath his bones and ailments to get him fully healed. They also had to fix his Kbot, which took intensive internal damage from the converted ARM E.M.P. Missile. He didn't pay attention to anything said in the mission, except for one instance.
"Okay, so it is set, we will start with a sniper shot from a shooter and then commence bombardment by sea as soon as ARM fleet that is being held off by Punisher batteries. A peeper flyby indicates that there are no AA defenses, and only Gaat guns. Don't expect this to be the defense at mission time. By now, they must know we are about to attack soon. We need someone who has a good enough aim to start the attack though." Ferrous said.
"I'll do it, I'll combine the rest of my force with someone else's and I'll take the shot. I have an obligation to my men to lead them safely. I have failed to do that in our last mission." Alex said.
This caught the attention of the other Lt. Commanders and Cmr. Ferrous.
"I' am I hearing this right? Do you actually care for your men?" Terry asked, trying to act surprised.
"You can say that." Alex said.
"You got it. You'll go with Leon's tank division. Dismissed." Ferrous said.
'I don't get it...why did Ferrous just let Alex out there in his condition?' Terry thought to himself.
***************
'How'd I get myself into this?' Alex thought as he led the way to the CORE's south base.
It was mostly flatland, though there are a few rocks left to hide behind, but the area can still be transversed by the tanks. It was a metal planet, after all. A.K.'s and weasels were the only things sent at them, and it didn't slow them down, as the force easily dispatched them on the move. It was then that Alex realized that he would have to fire on the run, not easy for any shooter pilot to do. He saw the base, and the many CORE k-bots awaiting them. Alex switched to infrared, and saw his comrades in a building. They were strapping two of them on a table. Alex carefully aimed; he would only have 10 more seconds to fire.
'5...4...3...2...fire.' Alex thought to himself, his forefinger hitting the trigger.
The Hidden Attack
Enemy CORE base - Mulisk
Time - 1400
The blue laser emitted from Alex's shooter went right the armor of the building of the k-bot lab and it nearly blew up the building, if not for a well placed hit from the laser. Already, a transport with their k-bots came in to take the pilots in and get them ready for battle. Unfortunately, the CORE was mobilizing their troops and was coming at the transport.
"Sir, we got Dips bringing fire, it wont be long before they find the transport as a good target." A Rocko reported next to him.
"Get behind their attack line and get the dips before they cause damage." Alex ordered, and just noticed two peewees.
"Hey you 2 PW's! Come with me, let's make them think there are more k-bots than they think." Alex commanded and the Shooter and 2 Peewees came charging down the hill in front of the tanks.
A massive firefight ensued. Alex managed to fight his way to where the stranded pilots were, and kept the plant from producing more k-bots by occasionally firing into the plant with his gauss gun. His outside vidscreen to his back showed running pilots getting out of there and getting in the door of the hovering Bear transport, while the transport was taking out k-bots ready for service. They came and also protected the rescue mission.
Alex made a painful realization. May didn't come out of the plant. Alex shook his head momentarily, trying to shrug off that fact, but couldn't.
"Watch my k-bot, am getting out and going in the plant to check for more pilots." Alex said to his troops.
Meanwhile, the diplomats got into range of the transport and one diplomat rasied it's missile to fire, when all of a sudden, the missile exploded, which took the diplomats back as half of the Lion Special Forces 2 division came out of nowhere behind the front line and began attacking the diplomats, and easily wiping them off radar. Then they began working on the defenses, which were working on Lion Special Force 5, the tank division of the elite force. One by one, each missile tower, laser tower, or plasma cannon was taken down by the firepower of LSF 2.
After the defense clean up, a Hammer bragged, saying, "Hey, where is my broom?"
Back where Alex was, the plant was already falling apart. It didn't take him long to find May. She was strapped tight to the patterning machine. A falling piece of debris hit a lever, and the machine came to life. Alex, looking for something in his suit, found a knife and cut the wire leading the inactive helmet needed for the machine to work, and the machine started to overheat and It caught on fire. He looked at May for a second, in reverie as he looked up and down her body. He broke it immediately and quickly removed the restraints to her and he carried her in his arms.
He ran to the blasted hole he made, but the integrity of the plant wasn't good and was ready to blow. A stupid or uncaring CORE LRPC Pillager fired and hit the plant. The plant went critical and then it went off the radar. Smoke and fire filled the area of the plant. Alex's Shooter was knocked over from the explosion, and Alex and May they didn't appear.
"God...what am I doing, Division 3, attack!" Terry said as he got up from his position and charged the CORE base from the exact opposite direction from the rescue area.
Division 4 and Brawler air support also came in as well as the expected naval bombarding after their short sea battle.
"CORE, you've already taken too many friends, now it is time for you to die!" Terry said as he electrocuted an A.K. that got too close. "I will avenge my friend!"
Out of Context
Enemy CORE base - Mulisk
Time - 1500
"Hey Terry, why do you have such poor faith in me?" Alex powered up his k-bots systems.
"Alex! I thought you've---"
"Guys like me don't die easily. Say, if you don't mind, can you help me get me upright?" Alex asked as Terry's Zeus lifted up the Shooter to its upright position.
"Thanks."
"What's up with you, you have been out of context? Say...is it that new girl in your force?"
"What! No way, I just want to make sure the CORE doesn't get any of my guys, no matter how long they have been under my command."
"What happened to the guy I knew? Did he die and a clone replaced him before we got here?" Terry wondered, in response, Alex grabbed the back of his neck.
"I don't feel any insert chip. Look, lets just drop this and get to the task at hand, okay?" Alex demanded as he took out a Punisher Cannon trying to hold off the Naval Barrage from the Conquerors and Millenniums.
"Well, I would, but I got one more thing to say, watch out for those incoming Gunships and Bombers!" Terry yelled out as he just managed to move his k-bot back to avoid a rocket.
"This is attack force to LFB, asking for some fighter cover. We are getting rockets getting shoved up our anal systems! It doesn't seem there are any black fighters. Send fighter cover immediately." Alex requested.
"This is LFB, we have half our fighters already heading over there, but are being intercepted by CORE air support. We can't spare any more, or else we will compromise the firebase. Just hold on till they manage to get there all right." The dispatch replied back and cut the channel.
Alex managed to take a rocket down with his laser but it won't be long before he will have one lick to many. His gauss cannon was fending off multiple Pyros in the meantime, while Hammers behind him blast away and try to pick them off. It wasn't looking good though, as Rapiers were picking off the Hammers one by one. A rocket was about to hit Alex's backside when an energy bullet made it explode, sending fire and debris went all over the place. Alex checked his active roster. The Maverick that always made him feel weird lined up with him, and was helping with holding back unwanted Pyros.
"This is air support, sorry for the inconvenience, we will now resume cleaning up these flying pieces of crap." The lead pilot of the fighter support said as they flew overhead.
"What took you guys so long!" Terry yelled up to them.
The fending off of Pyros now became chasing down Pyros as they turned and started to run to the mainland. Instead, they ran right into the waiting Tank Division and were quickly annihilated by the Arm forces as they took the day.
"As you all know, Mr. Bautista took one to many hits in the south base assault. That means I will have to find a replacement for his rank as Lt. Commander and take over his position. Three troops in Division 2 have shown worthy of this role. They have tied in every possible category in the last battle. I have found out though that one of them had managed to hold off a couple Rapiers and has even managed to take two of them down, and assisted with others to take more down by leading them to waiting Jethros. She will head Division 4." Ferrous told the other 5 Lt. Commanders of the LSF.
'No way. You got to be kidding me.' Alex thought to himself as May walked in. She shook the hands of Leon, Greg, and Malik.
"I presume you have already met Lt. Commander Terry MacKilian, and of course your former superior, Lt. Commander Alex." Ferrous presumed. Alex just gave a nod and walked out of the room, a quick look of disgust that May barely noticed.
May, after all the promotion and command things and know how's, walked outside. Alex just sat at the foot of his shooter. May decided to sit down next to him.
"So, what are you thinking?" May just openly said. No response.
"What am I doing, I'm just going out of context."
"Your not alone on that one." Alex openly said.
"So he speaks. You seem normal though."
"Saving my own troops is something I never do. You have been my subordinate for a week and two days. You should know that by now."
"I guess. There is just sides to people you never know about till you know that they are there." May looked from the ground to the night sky.
"The sky always changes, that is one thing I learned from day one being a Arm soldier."
May grabbed the back of Alex's neck.
"No, I'm not a clone. Don't bother to ask about my personal history." Alex bluntly said.
"Give me a summery then."
"All right, I never knew my father, stuck with my mom till I was eight, she died in the middle of the battle for Lyres, a stray A.K. laser hit her right though the middle of her body and cut her in half in front of my eyes as I was ushered into a evac. Shuttle."
"That explains your silence. I wish I had a great reason like that. All I am though is just Virgo who is putting up a great act."
"Is your fighting an act?"
"No, why?"
"Then you'll last. You know, I really got myself out of context now." Alex said as he got up and was about to walk away when he felt his arm get grabbed.
He turned around and looked at May, who stood up, and kissed him in the cheek. She then turned around and walked away, leaving Alex to stand there and reflect on what just happened in the last minute or so.
'Why did let her do that? One thing I set on was not to get myself wrapped up in stuff like this. Okay, you got 11 more years and you are in the clear Alex, don't screw it up now.'
It was then the red alert siren decided to go off. Things were about to end.
The Enemy Commander
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1600
Alex immediately by reflex grabbed and tugged the rope that would carry him to his cockpit. He quickly sat down and closed the cockpit door, and the H.U.D. came down with the cockpit windshield. He immediately pulled up a radar display. On the screen were maybe a hundred, or a thousand, red dots coming their way. About 150 of them were really quick, indicating air support. It also showed about 15-20 dots staying where they were, and from their distance, most likely a transports and CORE warships. Alex then looked over to his command screen, there, about 15 were on standby, but the rest were somewhere. He looked out and saw everyone scrambling for whatever his or her position was. Finally, the 25th green light lit up on the command screen, and Alex checked what he was up against. A peeper above showed all level 1 k-bots and vehicles, but level 2 air support.
"Guys, keep alert. They wouldn't send in level 2 air support with only a level 1 force." Alex alerted.
He quickly took up a position behind the dragon's teeth with the other forces. The exterior defense towers were just chewing up the level one attack. Well-placed sentinels and defenders, as well as Guardians pounded and were making quick work of the thousand level one k-bot force. Not until out of nowhere came the familiar nightmare of a D-Gun bullet, in this case, quickly taking out 6 towers, the tip of the iceberg was a Guardian desperately trying to turn it's barrel at it but it just wasn't fast enough. This created a hold big enough to cause considerable damage to the base. A vidscreen popped up on the H.U.D. and May's face showed.
"We have to cause enough damage to the commander to kill him." May quickly made adjustments to her communication equipment.
"May, we can't kill the commander from where we are, he'll take out a good portion of the base. We need only to damage him to red." Alex moved his Shooter next to her Maverick.
Another vidscreen came up; it was Leon, coming in with static.
"You guys know we have to go for the commander right?" Leon told them.
"But not here, I don't think we can get close enough quickly to cause enough damage. All we need to do is make him pull back. If we kill him here, he'll take most of the base!" Alex quickly replied.
"I got long range capabilities, I'll set my harder armored guys to set up a mobile shield for your guys to suppress their oncoming level one force while our Merls and Lugers rain fire on their commander." Leon said.
"Okay, good plan, you'll join us right May?" Alex moved behind Leon's Bulldog.
"Of course. I'm supposed to help you guys out." May quickly followed as her Maverick un-holstered her guns.
The 2 tank divisions lined up to form a mobile wall. Then k-bots behind them, as well as each tanks guns rained fire on the oncoming level one force. Missiles and Plasma bullets rained down ahead of them. Then the CORE commander appeared. It took some commands but everyone fired on the on coming support while some fire on the commander. Finally, the commander was getting beat back, his ground force nearly defeated. Alex got hit by the light laser by the CORE commander, and accidentally changed his comm. Channel. That channel had the eerie voice of a pattern.
"Bring in the reinforcements." It said. Another said, "My radio is out, commander."
"Beta force-" the voice was cut off. Alex lowered his heavy laser barrel. His shot hit the radio transmitter of the commander suit, knocking it out.
The commander then looked at him and rasied his D-Gun. The D-Gun started to charge up when a D-Gun shell nearly hit the commander, forcing the CORE commander to reel back. Alex looked back, and there was Commander Ferrous, lowering his D-Gun. Two more missiles hit the CORE commander's suit. Another missile would kill it, and unfortunately, before the cancel order got to the artillery, one last missile was launched. Looks like game over for everyone.
The Stingers of Scorpions
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time - 1630
May quickly fired a round from her right gun and it hit one of the hoses connected to the CORE commander's D-Gun. Another shot hit the other hose, knocking out the nanolath. All of the sudden, the CORE commander's suit had no energy or metal, and it exploded like a decoy commander.
A small robot was running from it, and it quickly got behind other level one k-bots. As it looked back as it ran, it stared coldly at Alex. After the battle, the wreckage was searched, and nothing turned up with the enemy commander's pattern. A Valkyrie was spotted leaving the island, so it has been assumed to that he got away.
About 10 minutes after the battle, Terry and Malik came back from patrol.
"What happened?" Terry asked as he came in the base, going though the wreckage of which is being reclaimed.
"An enemy commander decided to drop in." Alex said as he opened the cockpit of his shooter. Terry's Zeus came up in front of his shooter, and the cockpit opened.
"So how the base hold up?" Terry asked.
"It was only a level 1 force, it was that blasted D-gun from the enemy commander that gave us problems." Alex said, pointing to the D-gun marks on the ground.
"So where is he? Where did he die?" Terry asked.
"The commander pattern got away, after managing to eject out of his commander suit." Alex said, pointing to the wreck that is the CORE commander suit. May in her Maverick came up, her cockpit open already.
"I'd say we barely managed to survive. If I didn't shoot off the commander's Anti-Matter pack hoses before he went, we would've went with it." May boasted.
"You must be a pretty good shot." Terry said, as Alex looked away from the two of them.
"Hey, what's depressing you?" Terry asked. Alex didn't bother to reply, he just got out the cockpit of his suit and started to walk into the dense forest surrounding the open grass plain ARM base.
May quickly hurried off behind him. Terry was about to get out of his suit when Commander Ferrous came on the Comm. Screen, forcing the Lt. CMR to do something else, and he closed his cockpit and got to work.
"Hey, what is wrong with you?" May asked as she caught up to him. He shrugged her off, and jump up the trees and sat at a branch.
"You're just being stubborn." May said, and climbed the tree Alex was on, and just when she got to Alex's branch, Alex jumped to another branch on another tree.
"Why are you running away? Aren't you a MAN!" May yelled at him.
"You have your words wrong, it's getting away, not running." Alex said, and jumped to another branch farther away.
"Why are you mad at me?" May asked.
"Why are you mad at me May? Whatever I'm thinking doesn't involve you." Alex said, leaning against the trunk of the tree.
"Well, now it does. I'm not going to leave till you tell me what you are thinking." May stubbornly said.
"Who's the stubborn one now? If you really want to know what I'm thinking, I'm thinking you are annoying." Alex said.
"Whatever." May simply said, and went down the tree she was on, and left the forest.
"Why do stings from Scorpios always hurt? ...How am I going to find my father at this rate..."Alex silently said to himself. He thought of that little Commander pattern, whom stared at him, as if he saw right though the cockpit of his suit.
"Could...he be...father...?"
The Firebase Falls
Lion Firebase - Mulisk
Time- 1100
"Another CORE strike force on their way. Reports find that they had escort this time, and our fleet got pounded, so we will not expect relief this time. But our defenses are better now. We have Guardians pounding them as we speak, and laser and missile towers everywhere. Their beach force has already landed, with Crock tanks leading the way." Commander Ferrous said.
The Lion Firebase waited, looking at where the CORE was. They managed to amass 1,200 units for the defense, but it isn't enough against the estimated 3,000 units coming at them. Finally, after an hour, a lone Pyro reached the first base perimeter, and was utterly annihilated by an annihilator. Then they came in large groups, but that wasn't the worst part. A nuke from one of the bases destroyed was repaired and a nuke came screaming toward the base, and it got knocked by a anti-nuke missile, and hit a big part of the defense at the beach, allowing transports to drop off their cargo and go.
Lasers, EMG's, Rockets, Missiles, and Plasma Bullets flew everywhere on the battlefield, taking out ARM and CORE units alike. On instinct, Commander Ferrous D-gunned the Galactic Gate, not allowing the CORE access to the planet they came in from. Unfortunately, an Atlas picked up the Commander and pulled him away from the battle.
"Atlas pilot, where are you taking me?" Ferrous asked.
"To our base. We are sending Bears to get your important men out of there, and Atlas for your Lt. Commanders." The pilot said.
Amiss in the battle, Alex ran into May, and somehow CORE forces surrounded them.
"I'm taking a lot of damage, I don't think I'll last long." May said, looking at her status indicator.
"Just keep firing! We can't give up now." Alex yelled back.
Just then, the CORE commander appeared and fired its light laser. Alex barely avoided the laser. May was backing up also, trying to keep all of them off. Then, they reached the edge of a cliff. Alex looked behind him, and then looked back to the CORE commander, and then the light laser that hit his suit.
"ALEX!!!" May screamed as Alex's Shooter fell over the cliff. Then a rocket hit her from the side, knocking her suit facing forward over the cliff. Then with a well-placed shot, the CORE commander shot May's Maverick over the cliff.
Secrets
Last Stand Cliff- Mulisk
Time- 1423
It was a hard landing for Alex. His cockpit windshield broke during the fall, so all he had was scratches. He was also lucky he chose soft cushion seating, so he was still able to move. Then he saw May's Maverick falling, and then sharp pain as a shard of glass from May's Maverick fell right into his midsection. What made it more painful is that the Maverick landed on top of his Shooter. The cockpit doors were blown off, and the Maverick's cockpit was directly over the Shooter's.
"Are you okay Alex?" May asked, as she gritted her teeth, as she removed a metal piece that stabbed her in the back.
"Nope, I'm losing blood, I don't think there will be any help coming...so I think-"
"Don't think that." May interrupted.
Alex pulled out the shard, and then looked at May. May took off her cockpit restraints, and she fell on top of Alex. It also made a music player activate, and it began to play a song from Earth. A song that is called "Eyes on me." She then put her arms around Alex. Surprisingly, Alex put his arms around her.
"I'm...sorry." May slowly said.
"Sorry? Your sorry for what just happened just now?" Alex said surprisingly
"No, I'm sorry for what I said, two days ago...I didn't know what came over me."
"Don't worry about that..." Alex said, showing a smile to her, he has never been seen with a smile with anyone...until now.
"Is it true, what you said?"
"No, of course not."
"What were you thinking...at that time..."
"My father...where he was."
"Your father?"
"Yeah, I started to think...that the CORE Commander could be my father..."
"We might not know now..." May said, as Alex tried to look away, only to look at May's eyes.
"I used to listen to this song a lot. It reminds me of our relationship."
"Yeah..." Alex said, as the song was the only thing heard for a while.
"So who would've guessed, that we'd be here, together, with death closing in on us?" May said.
"I wouldn't. Maybe it was supposed to happen this way?" Alex said.
"At least we know now...we both know now..." May said.
"That we love each other..."
"But why does it have to start and end so quickly?"
"Maybe it doesn't have to."
The two lovers slowly moved their lips toward each other, and shared a passionate kiss. Then fire spewed from all around them, and then for just an instant, the two disappeared from the universe.
"Commander Ferrous, who are your Lt. Commanders?" An atlas said overhead.
"Leon Gray, Malik Anderson, Greg Ballard, May Tanilla, Terry Mackilian, and Alex...Ferrous." Commander Ferrous forced out.
"Okay, we will try to get them back here as soon as possible." The pilot said as it joined with 5 other atlas and went to look for the 6 Lt. Commanders.
"It's all my fault. I should have held back his squad. By now, most of them are most likely already dead..." John Ferrous said to himself.
"C'mon my son, you can make it though this..."
The two lay seemingly lifeless on top of each other. It begins raining and the look of their k-bots faces makes it seem like they are crying. Lighting and Thunder come forth, lighting the Core Commander standing above on the cliff.
The End