Chapter One: Surrender
Boom! Bang! Brrooowm!
Artillery shells exploded with hellish fury as they landed on the dusty plains. Their target, a pitifully small brigade of damaged anti-air tanks, exploded as well in a hellish blast of mangled metal and fire. All around the battlefield were the same sights and cacophonies: roaring tank engines, screaming rockets and grenades, blasting cannons, and yelling from the soldiers as numerous as grains of sand.
Except now these soldiers were mostly clad in an alien black armor and translucent glass visor: the regular uniform of the feared Black Hole Army. And those roaring tank engines, too, were now mostly from the Black Hole lines – the silent ones, the destroyed ones left in the wake of a tsunami of fire and steel and hell were those from none other than the Orange Star Army, which was scrambling back to the unusually untouched HQ in hasty retreat.
A lone orange helmet poked out of a mangled anti-air tank turret and into the dark grey skies. After that strike, the whole unit was wiped out from fifty percent strength to essentially nothing. The helmet tumbled off the smudged blonde hair of its wearer, who struggled to free himself from the wreckage of his now-obliterated tank. This soldier, a rather small youth, peered from the mountain of wreckage and gazed unsteadily around him.
Blackness.
His unit completely destroyed, the tanks now little more than mounds of charred metal, and his comrades most likely dead underneath the destruction, the young soldier sat down wide-eyed in nothing but shock. Zero remaining tanks; no survivors save himself, he knew. The cloudy, blackened skies lit up with a faint red as more rockets exploded in the distance, briefly splattering light and noise.
The youth knew none of those rockets were those of Orange Star. Black Hole was winning this hellish battle, and all his unit could do after sustaining its own losses was to retreat back to the sanctuary of HQ. Never mind the waves of Black Hole scum and tanks; never mind the factory, their prime target, just in sight – retreat was an order he as the new commander of his unit ordered after an ambush from a tank brigade from who-knows-where. But obviously, that little mission failed as well. The blonde-haired soldier wearily reached back into the mess of his tank and gripped a headset. As he tiredly adjusted it onto his head, he took a good look at the slowly-advancing black line in the grey-and-red horizon, just only a couple miles down the road where he sat.
"Headquarters..? Private, er, Sergeant Rick calling in. Hello?"
Some odd miles back in a rather untouched HQ and within bustling command offices, a young voice bounced back, full of vigor and anticipation. "Hey Rick! Nice to hear from you! How's the western front? Did you guys get to reach the city near the river base?"
"Commander... Commander Andy? Is that-?"
"Yep! It's me, all right. How are you holding up?" the youthful voice popped back, too unaware of the reality blasting past by just down the road.
"Andy, I- I'm fine, thanks. But I must report that our mission... it's not going so well. Well, first, we failed to get our unit to the factory."
"Oh? Did you guys reach the city first? I think Jake's medium tank brigade was supposed to meet up with you and-"
"We were ambushed by another one of Flak's tank units and turned back before getting completely annihilated by some hidden artillery placement. Current unit strength is..." he wearily mumbled while gazing the surrounding orange, charred wreckage, "current strength is zero percent mobility. Complete destruction. Flak's weird CO power might have had something to do with everything."
The young CO dropped the cheer and cautiously inquired. "Any survivors besides you?"
"None. Hang on, maybe – no. Sorry Andy, but we're all..."
"Understood. But how are you holding up?"
"Ah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine as long as we can kick those Black Hole butts out of our country!" Rick dryly chuckled, fiddling with the headset cord.
But the sixteen-or-so-year-old in the tattered orange uniform knew his wistful thinking as he eyed an approaching black line now over the hills. He pulled out a pistol from inside the destroyed turret and loaded it before hearing the familiar voice.
"Hey, don't worry! It's guys like you who do that sort of thing!" Andy cheered. "Are you injured? I think we can get you outta the road ASAP. You're okay, right?"
Rick chuckled, checking himself for any of the sort. Charred, torn-up uniform, bruises and cuts everywhere, and a leg that didn't seem to want to move without shooting pain upward. But nothing dire, not like the rest from his now-dead crew. Hang on, maybe one or two helmets from the other anti-air were moving...
"Andy!" Rick frantically yelped back into the headset. "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah! What's up? Are you fine?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm still alive; don't worry about me. But I think we've got a couple more – I think one or two right now – guys moving. Don't know if they're injured badly, but they're most likely alive – yes I can see them pulling themselves out now! Hey guys! Are you-"
"Sweet!" the boy on the other end cut off in a cheer. "Rick, I think we can send an APC from a couple miles north your way – oh, huh?"
While the two orange figures limped out of a nearby burning turret, Rick heard a second voice demur from the other end.
"Oh, um, nevermind. I don't think we've got any APCs left; Sonja just told me that..."
"Sonja from Yellow Comet? Your adviser...and girlfriend?" Rick mused.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Andy snapped. "But I'm glad that she's around, helping out even when Yellow Star's under attack too... guess Kanbei really wants her to be safe. I dunno why she'd be sent here instead of Green Earth, though. Strangely calm there right now. Anyways, even if we don't have any APCs left, I think I can send a couple recon units your way to pick you guys up instead. Couple more miles from the east, but it'll take less than fifteen minutes I think. Sounds good?"
"Yeah!" the young tank commander hollered, "I think we can fend off 'til then. Thanks, Andy!"
"Hey, no problem. You just keep alive, okay?"
"No problem. We'll make it out okay from this battle and beat these guys outta our land – I swear to you on that! Over," the blonde-haired youth smiled as he shut off the headpiece and scurried over to help his injured comrades. Rick chuckled, knowing CO Andy would do everything he could to keep Flak's waves of tanks at bay; though the greasy-haired commander was barely old enough for the job, he had more than the drive for it and more than the faith from his men. Maybe a bit brash and inexperienced, Andy was, but Rick was sure he'd save the day – and rescue him and the two other injured guys while he was at it. That was Andy's style anyway: to never leave a fellow friend behind. With his back turned toward the hills during the conversation with the Orange Star battalion's commander, the young soldier didn't notice the dust rising in the distance, the advancing line forming into close view – but instead of this dim line in the distance now drove forward all too quickly a speeding recon unit. But it wasn't the orange-colored cars as Rick expected.
...
In the dense jungle of papers, maps, computers, wires, empty snack bags, and books stood wearily inside a top-floor room overlooking the battlefield a greasy-black-haired officer in orange-red fatigues and a girl of the same height in a simple green skirt. Well, officer wasn't the most accurate term to describe the two: they were mere youths, officers thrown into a firestorm of war with the newly-lowered military age, thanks to the thunderous, if not sloppy, assault by the Black Hole CO, Flak.
Sixteen-year-old Andy fidgeted, drumming his fingers as his friend Sonja prattled a stream of battle intel on the other side of their map-covered table and bounced between the hordes of incoming officers. The messy black hair of the boy CO shone weakly in the dim light of their top floor command center; his eyes filled with excitement and worry and fear and hope all at the same time. On the other end of that spectrum, the girl's eyes coolly reflected sharp intellect and unflinching foresight... for now.
"Hey Sonja, what's up on the western front? How are we holding up against Flak there? Are we OK?" he rose, scratching his head over the sea of papers and empty soda cans.
"Hmm. Not so well. It appears that the factory there, the one right by the central river and nearby mountain range has just fallen to a Black Hole infantry platoon, so Commander Jake tells me," she, clad in a more casual dress calmly replied while adjusting her tie and beret.
Andy's eyebrows furrowed in dismay. "They've been churning out units outta nowhere, huh? I guess that's how they got it."
"Indeed. Their mega-factory up north spews rocket trucks and medium tanks daily; it's a wonder we're still managing to survive."
"But that factory's still not ours anymore?" the boy in the red-orange jacket weakly asked.
His companion sighed and slumped in her chair. "I believe not since yesterday. Orange Star units have faced massive losses trying to defend it, hopefully to use that area of factory and cities as a launchpad to the megafactory up the road. But now it seems we're on the tail end of the battle. Only time will tell when Flak himself rolls over to this HQ."
Andy nodded, running his grease-stained hands through his hair. The boy had faced dire tribulations like these, but none so disheartening as to face wave after wave of Black Hole tanks and infantry.
"And the worst part is that the factory's stealing up Orange Star resources," the boy CO mumbled, slumping into his own chair. "Got anything new?"
"Freshest intel I've got is that all units on that front are retreating back to HQ. The other bit I know is that the northern front is still advancing slowly upward past the three rivers toward the pipe seam –remember that convenient joint? They've just reached the northernmost bank and are almost are within striking distance," the green-skirted girl commented, pulling back her hair as she sifted through another ream of paper. "But just like the western group, they're running dangerously low on units. A lot to do with Flak's odd ability of random hits, I suspect."
"So put all our western division's troops into the northern front to attack the pipe seam? Sounds easy enough," Andy tried to smile.
"Well, you're the CO right now, not me. I'm just a military adviser here assigned by Father- er, Yellow Comet to-"
"Aw, don't give me that. You're a CO too, and you're my friend!" he beamed. "Remember last time Sturm invaded our land and made a clone outta me? You were there beside me all the time to help! Even when Eagle got really scary mad..."
"Thank you, Andy," she blushed, remembering that he still saved her from captivity from Sturm. "Still... as an intelligence adviser and aide from Yellow Comet I recommend either concentrating all force to that pipe joint in a spearhead maneuver – a victory likelihood of only 10% - or ordering our forces to retreat from the battle."
Grim truth had never really shattered the young CO, and it wasn't going to mess with him today.
"Retreat? But this is Orange Star land! We can't retreat from our own country! That's, that's... what would Nell say? What would your dad Kanbei tell you?!"
"I know; never give up. But what I also do know is that by now there are so many Black Hole tanks flooding this are that victory's almost impossible."
"So you're saying we're gonna just give up?" Andy tried to weakly snap back.
"Andy, I'm giving two options. Retreat or push north. I really hate what Black Hole just as much as you do, but with each day here in hell..."
"With each day we're losing our chances. We have to do something!"
"Push ahead toward the pipeline adjacent to the factory? It's heavily fortified, but it's not impossible to do."
"So let's do it," Andy rose, the dim lights now flashing brighter on his messy black hair and wrinkled fatigues. "Call all available units from the west back here for repairs and all others up north to attack the pipe joint."
Sonja grinned a smile back before turning toward the evening skies. "That's the Andy I've always known. Always sparking, even when he's had difficulty in getting dressed in the morning as usual."
"Hey! You're not suggesting anything, are you?"
Sonja's eyes darted away from the fuming boy's own. "Nothing of that sort. But in the meanwhile, we're going to have to lose that whole western section of cities and factory."
"Just as long as we can destroy that pipe and regain this place from dumb old Flak. We've got enough units for the job?"
"Intel suggests maybe, maybe not. Ground forces are currently somewhat inadequate and air forces are barely holding, but hopefully when your CO power's ready we can get another shot at this."
Andy weakly grinned; his coveted power allowed his forces to repair twenty percent of damage in a single day, no matter what the cost or situation. He didn't know how exactly it worked, but he did know that it helped him climb up to the CO spot through academy and more importantly save too many of his soldiers' units from complete annihilation.
But even a superpower couldn't save the day from the tsunami of black armor and helmets rushing toward the lone HQ, and the wave was growing larger by each day. No matter how careless Flak ordered his troops to pursue, he always had three more tanks for every one foolishly lost. And unfortunately for the boy, there was such a thing as "too little, too late".
"Right, Sonja. Hyper Repair... wonder when that's gonna work out for us. But aren't our guys retreating back here?"
"Yes, and by retreat, the western section is high-tailing it on the road at maximum speed straight back-"
A thought popped back into Andy's head; he couldn't have forgotten it just a couple minutes ago!
"Hey! Wait! They're coming back here, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"They have to pick up Rick before they get back! Get me hooked up with Sergeant Rick, pronto!" he yelped, suddenly rejuvenating himself with a familiar juvenile energy. "I gotta make sure his crew comes back all right!"
"Right away, Andy!"
Sonja hurriedly punched numbers into a keyboard hooked to a headset and tossed the whole thing, earpiece and mic and all, to her companion on the other side. Andy slipped it on, hearing the static feedback and eagerly awaiting his friend's response. He didn't expect something else, however.
On the other side of the receiver, under a headset of a mangled anti-air tank beneath the greyed, darkening skies sat a frantic soldier in orange uniform clutching the earpiece. When that sweet, familiar voice came into hearing range, Rick let out a stream of plea and despair, for the black line had come to them as a full cohort of recon cars, drivers thirsty for assault.
"Andy! Andy! Rick coming in! Andy!" he yelped, hiding behind the wreckage as the vehicles sped closer and closer.
"Rick! Are you guys okay? Did the APC, er, recon group ever come? We're going to get you back to safety!"
"Yes! I mean, no! I mean, a full recon unit from Black Hole is here!"
The boy's mouth dropped in complete shock. "How could they have..? But I thought Jake's medium tank brigade was there to stop anything from passing! Even a tiny recon-"
"Jake's whole unit's gone," he sputtered. "I just saw them get torn up nearby. The whole damn brigade... it's..! Gah! They're here! Recon units dead ahead!"
Andy clenched his hair in his fist. Why, why, why? The Yellow Star intel head noticed the CO squeeze his hair like a ragdoll – she knew all too well, unfortunately, the grim battle's situation.
He set his headset down for the brief moment and turned to the similarly weary green-skirted adviser. "Any other units in the area?"
"Just received further briefing," Sonja commented, shooing away a scurrying officer. "It appears that... that Flak, he..."
Even with the headset around his neck, Andy could hear the dreaded whiz of Black Hole recon cars' machine guns shoot away nearby. He gently set the piece on his ears and pushed the microphone to his lips, mumbling something to the young tank commander. "Rick? Are you still there? We- a couple of our own recon cars are still coming down your way to pick you guys up. You'll be fine, okay? I promise."
He didn't need to make that promise, though, when Rick replied back. "Don't send them here, please don't! Flak's just released it, his super CO power, so that means that even if they do come they'd be torn to- agh!"
A couple shots loud enough for all the two children in the room to hear rang eerily through cold dark night's air.
"Rick? Rick?! Rick! We can still... we..."
But no answer to the boy's pleas. Gasps, then whimpers, then silence.
Sonja gently walked over to his stone-faced friend and relayed the old news: the burly ape-of-a-commanding-officer, Flak, had just released his maximum power, his super CO power, a far greater force than even Andy's own regular tank-repairing, regular CO power.
"All units on the western front, as of Day Twenty-One," she weakly announced to the ghosts, "have been annihilated. Destruction complete and casualties..."
One look from Andy's face made the Yellow Comet CO stop in agonic tiredness. "Our western regiment is gone, thanks to Flak's superpowers. Not even Jake's brigade could stand against that wild power."
"Flak'll be here in just a day," Andy feebly nodded. "And we couldn't even save Rick and his guys."
The blood-red moon rose slowly across the grey skies; midnight cast its long glare over the two youths in the top floor room. In the distance, too, was a thin stretch of black line silhouetted against the dusty ground.
"Flak's super CO power allowed him to crush through all those tanks. Even if he did manage to screw up and deal forty-five percent less damage sometimes, he easily broke through everything. Now, the whole sea is rolling over to HQ."
The black-haired boy nodded, plopping himself tiredly into a tattered sofa and burying his face into his arms. "Did we... are we going to lose?" the little boy, too young for the horrors of it all, pointlessly asked.
So too did Sonja, the bastion of sensible strength falter. "I-I don't know. But I think the pipe joint... it's going to have to wait for another day."
"Can we call reinforcements from Sami or Max? They're nearby, right?"
"I... maybe. I believe Max is locked up in a battle with Lash, and Sami's helping Nell with another procedure. But I can dial them up."
"Thanks. I'll talk and see," Andy sighed, reaching clumsily for a phone in the darkness of night.
"Sami? Is that you?.. Hey, it's Andy," he mumbled. "I think we're gonna need some help."
...
The boy set down the earpiece, and with a murmur of a "thanks, see ya later", dropped it and nodded.
"Any luck?"
"Three days. Sami said she'd send a whole lot of infantry and mechs, and Max said he would come in four days with a whole load of tanks and anti-air units as soon as he's finished with Lash. Maybe we can hold down HQ until then?" he mustered, flashing a weak grin.
"That means... according to our calculations," Sonja paused, typing down a slew of numbers into a mounted computer, "we don't have enough units to assault the pipe joint up north. We only have enough to defend the HQ and a couple surrounding factories, but even then..."
Andy rose up, pushing himself from the mounds of papers and walking toward the wide, open window. The dark night was clear, and the black skies showed bleak as can be. But against the window, with the little moon's silver light in the far-left corner piercing through the air, he leaned up and cut his friend off. "Hey, don't worry. Max and Sami will be here real soon. They'll be there for us; I'm really sure! We just have to keep the HQ for a couple days. We can do that, right Sonja?"
The intel chief nodded. "In that case, I recommend that we call all units from the north to turn back to HQ to defend it from capitulation until reinforcements from both COs arrive."
"Yeah. Just remember that we can do it, okay? Just like good old days against Eagle and your dad!"
"...Just like good old days," she relented, grinning to the young CO propped against the window with his unfailing smile etched across a youthful face.
Andy picked up a headset and punched in some numbers. With a deep breath and unshaking voice, he spoke to every one of the few remaining, ragtag tank, infantry, and airplane units still limping on the battlefield.
"Attention; this is Commander Andy speaking. Calling all units to turn back to the east area to defend the HQ. Repeat: calling all units to turn back to the east area to defend the HQ. Defend the HQ area from Black Hole attacks until further orders. Over."
Sonja noticed something different in Andy, though. Something that day – it was just over midnight, anyway – seemed a bit odd, yet a bit familiar at the same time. She knew this exact feeling emanating from his partner, and in a frenzy, as if something clicked together during the night, clutched the lapel of his orange-red jacket.
"Andy! Andy! It's a new day!"
The CO spun around in astonishment and barely had time to sputter something to his wildened friend. "Hunh? Sonja, what are you talking about? It's almost one in the morning; that really doesn't-"
"No, silly! That means your CO power is ready! Activate it now!"
"Huh... oh yeah! That's right; it's ready – yes!" Andy cheered, realizing the odd power was bulging, just ready to be released. He hastily flipped back on the headset and punched in another number a little too excitedly.
"All units!" he hurriedly yelled, "All units activate secret code 'Hyper Upgrade'!"
With a flash of light and bursts of energy across the black horizon, the code immediately took effect. The ragtag team of orange infantry, tanks, recon cars, artillery trucks, and more all rushing back to the east suddenly lustered in an instant, flashing off a blinding radiance against the darkness of the night sky.
"Even Flak in his silly goggles could see it," the girl in green mused, pulling away her dark hair and green beret to see the wonderful sight.
"Sonja! It's happening! It worked! We got it! Yay!" Andy cheered, jumping across the walls in joy.
"Well, it's happened before in that last war with Sturm. Even so, he escaped. It's nice and all, but I don't know why it's so super-special this time."
"But it is special! With Hyper Repair, 'this time' means that we can keep them from HQ! And maybe we can even push Flak outta Orange Star!"
Sonja paused. Her colleague was right. Sure, his CO power meant that all the Orange Star units on the field repaired or regained twenty percent losses or damage, just like that in a blinding light (even Andy didn't know exactly how his mechanical superpower worked out – he was just glad to use it). Sure it was a paltry boost to the crumbling army, paling in comparison to the black tidal wave on the other side.
"And this means we can protect our HQ, wait for Sami and Max, then push Black Hole outta our home! Then get pizza and ice cream after it's all over," he continued.
"You're right, Andy," Sonja smiled, watching the battle out the window as orange vehicles and soldiers rushed from over the rivers and plains back toward the base, glowing in that strange light with the Black Hole army hot on their heels. The blasts and explosions and gunfire began to rise up again, and the skies painted red-and-orange with more explosions afoot. "Orange Star's defense starts now. I think we both ought to coordinate this immediately and prevent Black Hole from gaining an inch beyond what they've got."
"I think your dad would be real proud of you too," Andy commented while fawning over summary after summary after summary of successful Hyper Repairs in each unit. "In fact, he'd be jealous that you weren't there to help him!"
"Um... thank you," she faltered (slightly), chuckling for the moment. "I suppose I can persuade Father to do so after we successfully drive the Black Hole army out of Orange Star."
"We can definitely do this. We've got three days. Sami and Max will come in no time!" Andy cheered as they watched for a moment, then restlessly went back to relaying orders and plans in a mad, frenetic, and hopeful dance in the darkness of night.
...
They were supposed to defend the HQ for just three days. Sami would come with her relief crack infantry, then the next day Max would arrive with battalions of tanks in tow.
A black APC rumbled across a dusty road and dropped off a squadron of space-helmeted soldiers and one odd one out, all heading straight for that tall, orange building. Two more APCs rushed in, and a line of black tanks rolled behind to crush any resisting defenses. A stream of artillery and rocket vehicles set themselves up along the roads and shell-blasted buildings, and waves of other odd vehicles streamed toward the area in droves. No more explosions, no more shooting; there was nothing more for Flak's grubby henchmen to shoot at.
Was it impossible? It was just two kids supplanted by a tiny team of more officers, and it was just a ragtag, horrendously outnumbered group of tanks and soldiers. Some of the soldiers and officers, thanks to a dire need of manpower and lowered fighting age, were the two's age anyhow.
"We did the best we could, right?" Andy tiredly asked his partner, who was half-asleep and slouched over a map-and-computer-laden table.
"We all gave our best fight. None could argue that..." Sonja groggily answered from behind a pile of papers and energy drinks. "We haven't slept for days..."
"Ugh... don't remind me. I can't even wake up early on a normal day," the greasy-haired boy chuckled. "It's morning again, right?"
"Right... Day 24 on beautiful March. Today Sami is supposed to come. She even sent a message to confirm that she'd be here... right away."
"Ooh, did she say anything extra about her Eagle-poo she loves?" Andy joked. A double-burst of laughter followed.
The early morning's golden grace shone brightly through the crater-pocked valley, and the light, wet dew reflected so serenely the shine of blood and steel across the battlefield. Orange tanks, cars, and b-copters, or rather, the remnants of them, lay sweetly wrecked or ablaze, and too many of the few orange helmets and uniforms lay bloodied and strewn all along the roads leading to the HQ, a lone tree standing in a felled orange forest.
Andy trudged toward the big window and saw all the billowing smoke nearby and the black vehicles rumbling about. "Seems like my CO power didn't really work," he noticed in dismay. "But at least Sami's gonna come today."
"...Andy. I don't believe you seem to get that we've lost."
Those words hit like bullets, bolting Andy up. "Lost?! Whaddaya mean, lost?! I thought you knew me – we'd never lose Orange Star to big old meanies like Flak!"
Boots thudded up a flight of stairs, followed by a whalloping pounding of another pair of boots.
"Andy..." Sonja yawned, "did you notice that APC?"
"Yeah, why?"
"That's Flak's personal carrier. It's a bit larger than the rest to support his... girth."
"Heh, heh. Yep. So? Doesn't mean anything," he pouted.
"They're here. Flak and his henchmen are personally here to capture our HQ. That means that we have completely lost, and from the intel I've received, I think we're just about to lose this battle through rout too."
"We can't escape now, Sonja!"
"I know, and even if we wanted to, the escape t-copter would've been torn to pieces before it left. Flak's missile and rocket trucks are deploying everywhere as we speak."
More bullets. "I..! But-"
"Andy, what I'm saying is that we've lost. But we gave a good fight, and we did all we could – isn't that what Nell wanted us to do all along? Try our hardest to defend Orange Star?"
"Yeah. We tried our hardest, I guess. So... now what?"
Boot stomps came louder and louder; stifled gunfire rose and fell silent – they were on the top floor now.
Sonja paused, taking a good look at the sitting boy and his disheveled uniform and, more importantly, his face full of odd doubt and worry. She walked over, looking down and giving a gentle smile. "Well, as Father would say: 'there comes a time when we win honorably..."
Louder those stomps came when they finally reached, knocking down the door of the room of the two COs.
"...and there comes a time when we lose honorably.' But he would always add that when we lose honorably, it is our duty to honorably win back-"
The door fell with a slam, and quickly streamed in a double squadron of helmeted, black-uniformed infantry, rifles pointed directly at the two youths.
And last came in the dreaded, baboonish Black Hole CO behind the mad mayhem: Flak, guffawing so hard he had to hold on to his black helmet with a meaty palm.
"Haha! Yess! Here comes Flak! Hah, what are these little twerps doing up here?"
"We're not twerps!" Andy piped up, rising from his chair. "Sonja's a Yellow Comet CO here to help, and I'm Andy of Orange Star! You're not gonna get an inch of our homeland!"
"We are not afraid at all of your likes," Sonja coolly added while barrels trained on the both of them.
"Hah! So Hawke was right that some runts were running the country. Maybe that's why I crushed 'em all with my power!"
"Hawke? Who's this Hawke you're talking about?" Andy questioned. Hawke? Eagle's evil twin? Sturm's subordinate... or the real man behind the sudden invasion? Even with Flak's blubbery language, a million thoughts swarmed through the boy's mind about this "Hawke" guy. Somehow, the name sounded eerily familiar.
"None of your business, kid! Haha, never thought victory would be so easy. I win again!"
"Maybe the battle, but definitely not the war," Sonja refuted.
"Yeah, yeah; shut yer trap, girl! A whole lotta tanks are waiting out there from my factory to cream you two! Gwahah!"
A timid, machinelike voice from one of the helmets rose. "Um, sir... so... what do we do now?"
"Huh? Oh, whaddaya want, runt? ME? Oh, uhm. Right. Well, I was gonna beat that Andy kid up for beating me... twice... then maybe get rid of 'em both when I'm done."
The boy winced after looking at Flak's tree-trunk arms. Whatever he never had in brains, he certainly made up in pure brawn. But Andy hardly got to lift a muscle or even move his mouth to say something before he was held high in the air, with the collar of his shirt gripped tight by a grabby, thick arm from Flak.
"Haha! Little kid like Andy should know how to act in front of Flak!"
Sonja acted quickly, snatching a pistol from underneath a cabinet and pointing it directly at the hunk of muscle and evil. In response, all the rest of the Black Hole grunts' guns followed her. "Let him down now, gorilla," she announced, sharply and unflinchingly. "Don't you dare lift a finger against him."
"Hah! The little runt's girlfriend wants to fight me. But she doesn't know I won! Isn't it precious?! Wait'll Adder hears about this; his skinny little soul will be surprised when he sees me win again!"
A smooth, raspy voice from the entrance, however, cut his hey-day off. "Heh heh... you haven't an ounce of brains to know that you haven't won any victory at all."
"Hunh? Who was that?! Who's dumb enough to – oh. Hey there, Adder. What sort of rock did you crawl from under? Weren't you supposed to be invading Yellow Comet?"
"Heh heh. Indeed, and in fact that little girl's father's there to put a marvelous resistance against my grand army," the purple-haired, pencil-thin general in black boots emanated, almost slithering through the doorway and into the command room. "But I came here to see the great Orange Star invasion itself, and for all I'm seeing I'm thoroughly disappointed in your 'invading force'," he hissed, with condescension and hatred seeping with each word.
"So you're the freak invading Yellow Comet?" Andy mustered. Sonja, too, was disgusted, now staring daggers at the pale-faced, grinning Black Hole CO.
"These children are quite adorable. Almost as disgusting as Lash and you, Flak, combined. But to continue, you've done a splendid job of getting your forces – meat shields, I'd better say – slaughtered away and wasting off Hawke and I's precious time."
"Grr... whaddaya see here?" Flak protested, shaking Andy with his left fist and pointing back with the other. "I've captured their HQ all by myself and even got these two twerps under my control."
"With only the help of a megafactory churning out units for you. Else, you'd be defeated instantly by that boy you're holding. Besides, your whole mission was a distraction, anyway, for Hawke and I's grander plans. We wouldn't have a care if you'd have lost. And do be careful with the child, he's an asset for my own ideas."
"An asset? Whaddaya mean, 'asset'?" Flak – and Andy – cried in unison. The Black Hole infantry began to feel a bit of confusion here too.
"Heh. Simpletons. But I shall elaborate: intelligence reports – things a hunk of meat like you would never be able to discern – show conversations between this HQ and Orange Star COs Sami and Max. The prior is to come later today to send massive infantry and mech reinforcements, and the latter tomorrow for further forces of tanks."
Sonja mentally slapped herself for forgetting to secure the communications line before Andy could get ahold of the headset. Already, she knew what Adder would dare to suggest.
"Yeah, so? We'd beat them off in a heartbeat with all the tanks I've got," Flak noted.
"Glad you're with me on the learning train. But why would those detestable Orange Star COs come to the rescue when you've mauled and ridded of their precious kids? That's all they are after, anyway – there's nothing left to defend this heap. So let's all give them a wonderful surprise when they come running for little Andy and Sonja."
"Huh. So you wanna make these runts bait... Hah! I see now. Okay, little buddy, I'll put you down now," Flak laughed, dropping Andy onto the floor with a splat and an ensuing "ouch!"
"Now do make them comfortable, Flak, else they refuse to cooperate. They need to sound as genuine as possible if either one of those Orange Star COs call in. I've got more important business to attend to in Yellow Comet – some self-proclaimed samurai wants to resist against my grand army – so I'll leave you here with the rest. Talk to Hawke if you mess up again."
Hawke. So he was the one in charge of all the invasions, Andy noted. At the same time, more Black Hole infantry streamed into the jumbled, messy control room, pointing their guns all the same and awaiting Flak's – or Adder's - orders.
"So this means we're going to be part of a trap for Sami and Max," the boy mumbled to his friend. "And they'd be beaten too. We can't – we can't let that happen."
"They're nothing but monsters," Sonja replied. "But how we get out of this... think, think!"
The boy wasn't much for complex, strategic thinking but rather talking – or in this case, blurting something out anyway. "You'll never take over Orange Star!" Andy yelled back, "Or Yellow Comet or Blue Moon or Green Earth either!"
"Charming, to the last," Flak hissed. "Though you shall swallow back your own words soon enough, child."
Andy wouldn't hear a word of it, and his mind raced frantically. He would not let himself lose, and he knew Sonja wouldn't either. As the tall, bleach-faced Black Hole CO turned about to leave, the boy in the orange-red jacket yelled back something out.
"Wait! Don't just go yet! I... I have a deal."
Everyone spun around in surprise, including Adder. "Hmm? What, boy, would you ever want? Reading lessons from Nell?"
As arrogant and ear-curdling as his voice was, Sonja had to stifle her welling laughter.
"Hey! I can read just fine... but my point is this," he announced, raising both his arms up high into the sky. "I surrender."
"Hah! You've already lost," Flak guffawed again. "He's even dumber than me!"
"No; I mean it this way. You can take me wherever you want as hostage. I don't care about that. But in return you have to take away all your units from this place. That means no trap for Sami and Max."
"Andy!" the girl yelled, pistol in hand, "You cannot do that! What would Sami and Max say? What would Nell think if she knew you were captured by Black Hole?! Do you know what you're doing? We can fight Flak off – I mean, technical chances range less than 7% - but it's not impossible that we can do this without having you surrender yourself to that hideous Adder!"
"That's pretty much no chance with all these Black Hole guys around, and even I know that! And me surrendering for now is better than having Sami and Max both lose to Flak! And what about you, Sonja? What would your dad say when all this happens?"
"Father wouldn't dare have someone like you lost to Black Hole; he sees you as almost his own son! And how do you know this will work as you think? You cannot; I'll, I'll-"
Andy smiled, placing a steady hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll be fine, okay? You just make sure Sami and Max know everything."
Adder grinned, seizing the primest of opportunities right in front of his own eyes. Flak even started to slowly get the gist of it all.
"Heh, heh. So you two are worth your own hats. But Andy, I think I can sense mutual agreement here."
"So you're agreeing, Adder?" Flak questioned. "But you've got a perfect trap right here. I dunno why you'd do it."
"Nonsense. Having a captive CO as precious as Commander Andy is to Nell is worth far more than a mountain of your troops or the other two CO's routs. As an honorable Commanding Officer of Black Hole, I, Adder, solemnly and completely agree to your proposal, Andy."
Sonja could not believe a single word of it. Her mouth dropped open in utter shock and dismay, but her hand gripped the pistol tighter than ever. "So you dare to take Andy hostage. How disgusting."
"Child, it is a mere contractual agreement, heh heh! Well, you're right in that. So say goodbye to your little Andy before he comes with us."
Andy nodded and gave another cheeky smile to his friend. "Don't worry, Sonja, it'll be all right. We can make everything better, I'm sure about it! Maybe I'll even meet up this 'Hawke' guy everyone keeps talking about."
Adder strutted about, laughing as the girl fumed and the boy gave a half-smile back. "Heh, heh! A fool you are to believe a mere thing like you could see the magnificence of Hawke himself. We shall take you in nonetheless, but I'm afraid we can't have you see too many sensitive locales before we get to your suite. Flak?"
"Yeah, Adder? What do you need?" he grunted, now looming tall and menacingly over the tired boy.
"Give Commander Andy the old knockout for now. We can't have him too awake on the ride to headquarters, can we?"
"Wait!" Andy protested, "But this wasn't part of our plan!"
Too late: the goggled face gleamed at the sound of old-fashioned violence, and in a gleeful, wordless instant he smashed a tree trunk of an arm into the youth's jaw, sending him flying then sprawling across the room. An ugly bruise welled up, but more importantly, the defeated CO lay unconscious atop a table, as if to present and personify the purest of defeats.
Sonja gaped in horror. "No!" cried she, whipping out the pistol to fire a hail of bullets into the brutish figure – but too late, for right before shot at her arm a Black Hole rifle trained at her. Red stuff oozed, and the weapon dropped in an instant, with Sonja cursing at herself for allowing this gigantic error, this tragedy to happen.
"As an honorable CO myself, I'll hold up to the other end of the bargain. I'll see you again soon defending your pitiful Yellow Comet, yess?" the wiry Adder chuckled before turning about. A simple order from him, and a cohort of black-helmeted soldiers cuffed and carried the boy out of the room and into some awaiting carrier, ready to send directly back into the depths of Black Hole headquarters.
And with an instant, just like that, just as quickly as those Black Hole troops stormed into the HQ, they all left with their captive. As Sonja compressed the bleeding wound, angrily holding it and fighting back odd tears, she saw outside the big window the swarms of black vehicles stream out the area and off toward the west, the opposite side of the rising mid-morning sun.
Black Hole would leave Orange Star, just as Andy and Sonja had fought for, but at a terrible cost: Rick, legions of soldiers and tanks, and even the young CO Andy. Sonja could eventually forgive herself of tactical errors and mishaps, but she would not forgive herself for losing him.
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