RED ALERT CHRONICLES
PART 3: PSYCHIC TROOPER
By Michael O'Hare
The trees' minds. That's what surprised her the most. The very fact that trees had actual minds. Granted, it was an incredibly simple, empty mind, the mental equivalent of a plain white sheet of paper, but it was still a mind, nonetheless. In fact, whenever she had the free time, she would often entertain herself by controlling a nearby plant's mind. There was not much she could do with it, if anything, but it was still fun.
At the moment, however, she had no free time. She stood in the middle of the park, situated in the heart of Indianapolis, not far from an Allied base. Her unsettlingly bright blue eyes scanned the park for any Allied units. So far, there had been nothing. She had occupied herself by controlling the occasional civilian and playing around with them. That, however, became boring rather fast.
She sighed impatiently, and ran her hand through her short, violet hair, until she touched the metal band bolted to the back of her head. She continued, running her hand across the tubes until they entered her trench coat. For a city that was supposed to be heavily defended, there were upsettingly few soldiers running around.
"What are you doing??"
She cringed with annoyance, as the turned to stare into the exposed eye of the dynamite toting man yelling at her.
"I'm taking a break, Ivan," she muttered. "I'll be searching again shortly. Just have some patience, okay?"
The man growled, squeezing the dynamite in his hands.
"I want to blow something up," he yelled, "and I want to blow it up NOW!!!"
She scratched her head and hissed angrily. Just then, a squirrel ran up to them, and sat obediently in front of them.
"Okay, Ivan, if you want to wire something with dynamite," she muttered, trying to suppress her anger, "wire that thing, maniac."
"YES!" Crazy Ivan knelt down before the small rodent, pulling a stick of dynamite free and preparing to tape it to the hapless animal.
"Damn it!" she screamed, slapping the bald, eye patch wearing man as he knelt down before she squirrel, "I was kidding!"
"Aaaw..." Ivan groaned, before going off into a rambling tirade of unintelligible babbling. She sighed in exasperation. It was a well-known fact that Crazy Ivans were all recruited from the Russian Empire's insane asylums, and that a good number of them were homicidal maniacs. She had a feeling the man she was with was one of them. There had been an occasion where he had actually tried to wire her with explosives, for which she had slapped him around. This was torture. She would rather be paired with a Desolator than with one of these maniacs.
She sighed, and spoke to him again.
"I'm going to search again. If you try anything on me, I'll make you walk into that base naked. You hear me?"
The only response she got was more inane babble. She shook her head, and stood perfectly still, shutting her eyes. Her short, violet hair lifted up, as she scanned the area.
At that moment, the only sense she was paying attention to was her mind. She reached out to every mind of every living thing around her. Her mind was saturated by their thoughts, their emotions, their desires, and the very essence of their existence. Slowly, her head lifted, her back arched, and her body lifted off of the ground, floating serenely in the air. She was in a state of complete peace and lucidity, as every living thing, from the human beings, to the simplest life from, within her reach, shared their thoughts with her. She felt their fears, their sadness, their anger, and their misery. This war was causing intense suffering. But, she did not care. She had a job to do.
Just then, her mind touched with another, the type she had been searching for. Her eyes opened, her back straightened, and her feet touched the ground once again. She turned towards Crazy Ivan, who was busy tossing a pack of dynamite into the air over and over again, humming.
"Stop that," she said, "I've found one."
Crazy Ivan laughed loudly in maniacal delight, as he fiddled with his dynamite. She ignored him, and smiled darkly, moving towards her target, her mind at the ready.
Slowly, she moved along the city's sidewalks. There were very, very few people along the streets, and those who did litter the streets were either too confused to be blamed for it, or civilians who had taken it upon themselves to protect their homes. These people were particularly laughable, as most of them were usually to scared to do anything once they saw an actual Soviet soldier, like herself. Right now, however, she had no time to laugh. She was homing in on the Allied soldier's mind. She pressed herself against the wall, moving silently towards the turn. She was getting closer, and closer. She turned the corner, and, much to her grief, saw not one, but five Allied GI's.
For a brief moment, they stared at her, surprised to see her. She did likewise, not quite sure what to do now. She did not have to bother thinking, as the soldiers did that for her. They lifted their weapons, and fired at her.
She did not panic. She was more than capable of controlling herself, and preventing that. She bounded away, dodging bullets, and diving behind a mailbox. She heard the soldiers scream, as they rushed towards her, more bullets streaking past her weak cover. She waited, as the soldiers got closer, before suddenly bounding from behind the mailbox, much to the surprise of the Gi's.
Their target fearlessly bounding from her cover and landing in their midst was the last thing the soldiers were expecting. As she leapt into the air, she pressed her finger against her forehead. In the few seconds she was moving, she felt the overwhelming surge of psychic power flood into her head. She landed in the middle of the group, and smiled, a blue aura surrounding her head and hands.
Before the soldiers could react, an intense, liquid - like blue light flowed from her head, filling the area around her with its radiance, and enveloping the GI's. They only had time enough to give out a small, intense scream, before a bright light burst from their eyes and mouth. At the same time, she felt a thrilling rush and an intense burn, something like the feeling one would get after running several miles nonstop. The sensation filled every part of her body in an almost orgasmic experience, as it coupled with the sensation of the GI's minds sizzling.
Then, the light slowly dissipated into nothingness, and the soldiers were violently hurled to the pavement, smoke pouring from their eye sockets and mouths. She gasped for a few seconds, quickly composing herself once again. She looked around at the corpses littering the street, and was quite surprised to see one of the soldiers had been outside of her radius. He was sitting on the ground, staring at her with complete terror, his body trembling beyond his control.
She smiled darkly when she saw him, and approached him slowly. He tried his best to scuttle away from her, with little success.
"Well," she said, her voice tinged slightly with arrogance, "how convenient for me. I was afraid that I had killed all of you."
The soldier lifted his weapon towards her, but trembling too much to aim. Her smile deepened, as her eyes glowed slightly.
As her eyes glowed, her vision glowed. She felt a sensation within her mind, one that would be impossible to describe, much less experience if one was not gifted as she was, as
Suddenly, the soldier dropped his weapon, and an empty, emotionless look filled his widened eyes. She chuckled slightly as this happened. She never got tired of doing this.
"You belong to us, now. Come along, we have someone to pick up before I accomplish my mission."
The trio stood in a patch of trees outside the Allied base, monitoring the patrols as they paced the area around the base. As she scanned the layout of the base, searching for the best place to send her doll, Crazy Ivan wired the controlled GI with ungodly amounts of dynamite, chuckling madly as he did so. She scanned the walls surrounding the base, the prism towers rising into the sky, and the Patriot missile launchers, pointed skyward.
Those were her targets. Those were the only things stopping the Kirov airships from decimating the base, and handing this city to the Soviet forces.
"Well, this is it," she thought out loud, "everything is in our hands, Ivan. It is solely up to us whether or not this mission succeeds or fails."
"Ivan's not home..." was the only reply she was given. She sighed, and shook her head.
"Why do I even... Are you done, yet?"
"Yah!"
"Great," she said, turning towards the controlled GI. "Now, my friend, move forward, as fast as you can without arousing suspicion, into the Allied power generators! For the glory of Russia!"
The GI said nothing, as Ivan activated the bombs, and he was sent on his way.
As the GI marched into the base, acting as if nothing were wrong, she made a big mistake. Quite by accident, she began scanning the contents of his mind.
At first, there was little to startle her, just the usual. The man's childhood and passage into adulthood, his hope, his dreams, and his instilled hatred for her and her comrades. Nothing out of the ordinary, until she hit something she was not expecting.
She was quite suddenly and unexpectedly assailed by visions of the man's young daughter. The little girl, no more than ten, with her bright - brown eyes and long, curly, blonde hair, stared up at her through her father's eyes. She could feel the little girl's love and admiration for her father, flowing from the man's mind, into her own. She was assailed by visions of the little girl's birthday, of her first words and steps, their numerous vacations and trips around the country. The more she saw, the more it tore her apart inside.
"Damn it," she thought, "why did I have to choose someone like this? Why the Hell did I have to go so deep into this man's mind?"
She stopped, when she was suddenly assailed by the worst image yet. Standing in front of the GI, and her, and looking into both their eyes, the little girl spoke.
"I love you, Daddy!"
She almost cried when she heard this. Her conscience was tearing her apart from the inside.
"Perhaps she should let him go..."
She stopped herself from carrying that notion any further. If she let him go, the Patriot missile launchers would stay online, the entire base would be alerted to her presence, and her mission would be a total failure. There was no way she would do something that stupid.
Quickly, the GI moved through the base. Through his eyes, she saw the target. Rising before the enthralled GI was a group of Allied power generators, humming away, giving life to the base's death dealing defenses. He looked around, making sure nobody had caught onto her, and moved into the midst of the structures.
"There's still time," she thought to herself, as she ran the image of the man's daughter through her head over and over, "you can still set him free with enough time to have it diffused. You can still let him live."
He moved into the center of the structures, and waited. As he waited, she noticed an engineer milling around nearby. This made things even more difficult for her.
"Thirty seconds," she thought, "it only takes them two seconds to diffuse these things. They can still get to him."
Twenty seconds.
"I can still allow him to live," she thought, "I can still allow him to live..."
She paused, as something else dawned on her."
"... So that someone else can kill him."
Ten seconds.
"Hey, you!"
The GI turned, and she saw another Allied soldier approaching her vessel.
"What are you doing here?" he asked forcefully. "Whatever your post is, and I know it isn't here, why aren't you at it?"
Five seconds.
She frowned, and had the GI pull his vest open, revealing the dynamite strapped to his body. As everyone nearby burst into screams of panic, the man's daughter flashed before her eyes once again.
"I love you, Daddy!"
The once silent air of the city was violently rocked by a loud explosion, the plume of smoke and fire visible from where they were. It was followed and amplified by several power generators exploding and collapsing with it. Soon, the base went still, its prism towers and Patriot missile launchers dying.
Crazy Ivan screamed so loud, his voice cracked, as he flipped in the air, over and over again, relishing his victory. She did nothing of the sort. She simply watched as the Kirov airships floated overhead, headed towards the base. Her mission was accomplished, and she did not have to worry about Crazy Ivan anymore.
She stood on the roof of a tall building, watching as the Kirov airships dropped devastating payloads upon the doomed Allies. Crazy Ivan had wandered off earlier, to wire cars and mailboxes with bombs. She simply watched, completely still and silent, as the enemy was reduced to smoking powder. The pyrotechnics of both Ivan and the Kirovs was very impressive to her.
As she watched, a bird suddenly fluttered onto her shoulder. At first startled, she smiled at the small avian.
"Hello there," she said, "what do you want?"
The bird chirped contentedly, as it picked at a piece of bread it held in one of its claws. She smiled serenely as she stared at the beautiful creature on her shoulder. Both were interrupted from their actions as a Kirov target and an Ivan target exploded simultaneously.
As she saw the fire and smoke of both targets rise into the air, she sighed.
"You're so lucky," she told the bird.
The battle was over. The Soviet forces had won, and the entire state was theirs. They were now moving through the suburbs, solidifying their control. As she strolled through the picturesque neighborhood, watching conscripts entering houses, she froze, as her eyes fell upon the last thing she expected to see. Standing in the yard of a ruined house, crying her eyes out, was the little daughter of the GI she had sent to his death. She stayed completely still, not quite sure what to do, as the child cried loudly in the midst of the soldiers running around. Finally, she sighed, and moved towards her.
"Hey!" a nearby conscript yelled, running up to her. "We have a group holed up in their home. We need you to - "
She silenced the man by staring into his eyes intently. A shiver ran up his spine, as he backed away slowly.
"On second thought," he said weakly, "we'll just roll over the house..."
"Good choice," she responded, and continued towards the girl.
The child was radiating misery, and it was palpable to her. Fortunately, everyone else seemed to be ignoring her at the moment. She approached the child, and knelt before her.
"Hello, there, little girl."
The child jumped, looking up with puffy eyes, as she smiled back gently. The girl stared at her suspiciously, not saying anything. It was at this point that she realized with her glowing eyes, the rune tattooed on her forehead, and the metal plate and tubes on her head, that she looked rather unusual to the little girl.
"Who... who..."
The little girl tried her hardest to speak, while being constantly interrupted by her hiccupping.
"I can't... I can't find my Mommy or... or my Daddy!"
She frowned as she heard the little girl say this, as guilt washed over her once again. Now that she was here, she thought, she might as well do something.
"I'm sorry your parents are gone," she said gently. "But, would you like to stay with me?"
The little girl looked up at her, very much surprised at the question. Her face was a mixture of suspicious fear and outright confusion.
"What??"
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be out here alone," she said to the little girl. "You'd be much safer with me."
She offered her hand to the girl. Slowly, the fear and suspicion melted from the child's mind, and was replaced by calmness. Finally, the little girl took her hand. She smiled, and squeezed the girl's hand gently.
"There we go," she said. "Don't worry, you're safe, now. You - "
"Excuse me!"
She cringed slightly with extreme annoyance, hearing a conscript call out to her.
"I thought I told you, that - "
"Ma'am," the conscript continued, "the commander wishes to speak with you, to commend your success, and... and who is this?"
She stood up, the girl still holding tightly to her hand, and smirked at the conscript.
"None of your business," she replied, "don't you have houses to rummage through?"
The conscript nodded slightly, staring at the pair suspiciously, before returning to his duties.
"Well, then," she said to the girl, "shall we go?"
The little girl nodded, gripping her hand tightly. She smiled at this, and walked off, leading the child towards the newly built Soviet base.
"I'm not sure what's going on," the little girl told her, "but, somehow, I feel safe with you. I don't know why, but... Can I stay with you?"
"Of course," she replied, "I suppose I do owe you that much."
DISCLAMER(S)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and all related characters and concepts are owned by Westwood Studios. This fanfic is owned by the author, which is me. The laptop that this is written on is not written by me, it is borrowed from someone else. I don't make enough cash to buy a laptop. God, I'm pathetic...
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Ah, the Psychic Trooper, far and away one of my favorite Soviet infantry units. Nothing like sending an alligator or polar bear against enemy infantry, or a pack of civilian vehicles loaded with dynamite into an enemy base.
I sort of felt that the last part of this story, with the little girl, came off weakly, but I also felt that I had to include it. It was sort of a Catch - 22 situation, but I'm still satisfied by it. Poor kid...
This is also, in my opinion, one of my favorite stories of this series so far. I think this came off very well. I really did not want to make her bald, though. That would not have come off well, I think. Then again...
Now, the Soviet flak trooper, he's one of the funniest units out there. "FLAK ATTACK!" was my quote for the week once. At the moment, it's "Grey is GOOD!" from Shinesman.
...But, you don't care about that, do you?
PART 3: PSYCHIC TROOPER
By Michael O'Hare
The trees' minds. That's what surprised her the most. The very fact that trees had actual minds. Granted, it was an incredibly simple, empty mind, the mental equivalent of a plain white sheet of paper, but it was still a mind, nonetheless. In fact, whenever she had the free time, she would often entertain herself by controlling a nearby plant's mind. There was not much she could do with it, if anything, but it was still fun.
At the moment, however, she had no free time. She stood in the middle of the park, situated in the heart of Indianapolis, not far from an Allied base. Her unsettlingly bright blue eyes scanned the park for any Allied units. So far, there had been nothing. She had occupied herself by controlling the occasional civilian and playing around with them. That, however, became boring rather fast.
She sighed impatiently, and ran her hand through her short, violet hair, until she touched the metal band bolted to the back of her head. She continued, running her hand across the tubes until they entered her trench coat. For a city that was supposed to be heavily defended, there were upsettingly few soldiers running around.
"What are you doing??"
She cringed with annoyance, as the turned to stare into the exposed eye of the dynamite toting man yelling at her.
"I'm taking a break, Ivan," she muttered. "I'll be searching again shortly. Just have some patience, okay?"
The man growled, squeezing the dynamite in his hands.
"I want to blow something up," he yelled, "and I want to blow it up NOW!!!"
She scratched her head and hissed angrily. Just then, a squirrel ran up to them, and sat obediently in front of them.
"Okay, Ivan, if you want to wire something with dynamite," she muttered, trying to suppress her anger, "wire that thing, maniac."
"YES!" Crazy Ivan knelt down before the small rodent, pulling a stick of dynamite free and preparing to tape it to the hapless animal.
"Damn it!" she screamed, slapping the bald, eye patch wearing man as he knelt down before she squirrel, "I was kidding!"
"Aaaw..." Ivan groaned, before going off into a rambling tirade of unintelligible babbling. She sighed in exasperation. It was a well-known fact that Crazy Ivans were all recruited from the Russian Empire's insane asylums, and that a good number of them were homicidal maniacs. She had a feeling the man she was with was one of them. There had been an occasion where he had actually tried to wire her with explosives, for which she had slapped him around. This was torture. She would rather be paired with a Desolator than with one of these maniacs.
She sighed, and spoke to him again.
"I'm going to search again. If you try anything on me, I'll make you walk into that base naked. You hear me?"
The only response she got was more inane babble. She shook her head, and stood perfectly still, shutting her eyes. Her short, violet hair lifted up, as she scanned the area.
At that moment, the only sense she was paying attention to was her mind. She reached out to every mind of every living thing around her. Her mind was saturated by their thoughts, their emotions, their desires, and the very essence of their existence. Slowly, her head lifted, her back arched, and her body lifted off of the ground, floating serenely in the air. She was in a state of complete peace and lucidity, as every living thing, from the human beings, to the simplest life from, within her reach, shared their thoughts with her. She felt their fears, their sadness, their anger, and their misery. This war was causing intense suffering. But, she did not care. She had a job to do.
Just then, her mind touched with another, the type she had been searching for. Her eyes opened, her back straightened, and her feet touched the ground once again. She turned towards Crazy Ivan, who was busy tossing a pack of dynamite into the air over and over again, humming.
"Stop that," she said, "I've found one."
Crazy Ivan laughed loudly in maniacal delight, as he fiddled with his dynamite. She ignored him, and smiled darkly, moving towards her target, her mind at the ready.
Slowly, she moved along the city's sidewalks. There were very, very few people along the streets, and those who did litter the streets were either too confused to be blamed for it, or civilians who had taken it upon themselves to protect their homes. These people were particularly laughable, as most of them were usually to scared to do anything once they saw an actual Soviet soldier, like herself. Right now, however, she had no time to laugh. She was homing in on the Allied soldier's mind. She pressed herself against the wall, moving silently towards the turn. She was getting closer, and closer. She turned the corner, and, much to her grief, saw not one, but five Allied GI's.
For a brief moment, they stared at her, surprised to see her. She did likewise, not quite sure what to do now. She did not have to bother thinking, as the soldiers did that for her. They lifted their weapons, and fired at her.
She did not panic. She was more than capable of controlling herself, and preventing that. She bounded away, dodging bullets, and diving behind a mailbox. She heard the soldiers scream, as they rushed towards her, more bullets streaking past her weak cover. She waited, as the soldiers got closer, before suddenly bounding from behind the mailbox, much to the surprise of the Gi's.
Their target fearlessly bounding from her cover and landing in their midst was the last thing the soldiers were expecting. As she leapt into the air, she pressed her finger against her forehead. In the few seconds she was moving, she felt the overwhelming surge of psychic power flood into her head. She landed in the middle of the group, and smiled, a blue aura surrounding her head and hands.
Before the soldiers could react, an intense, liquid - like blue light flowed from her head, filling the area around her with its radiance, and enveloping the GI's. They only had time enough to give out a small, intense scream, before a bright light burst from their eyes and mouth. At the same time, she felt a thrilling rush and an intense burn, something like the feeling one would get after running several miles nonstop. The sensation filled every part of her body in an almost orgasmic experience, as it coupled with the sensation of the GI's minds sizzling.
Then, the light slowly dissipated into nothingness, and the soldiers were violently hurled to the pavement, smoke pouring from their eye sockets and mouths. She gasped for a few seconds, quickly composing herself once again. She looked around at the corpses littering the street, and was quite surprised to see one of the soldiers had been outside of her radius. He was sitting on the ground, staring at her with complete terror, his body trembling beyond his control.
She smiled darkly when she saw him, and approached him slowly. He tried his best to scuttle away from her, with little success.
"Well," she said, her voice tinged slightly with arrogance, "how convenient for me. I was afraid that I had killed all of you."
The soldier lifted his weapon towards her, but trembling too much to aim. Her smile deepened, as her eyes glowed slightly.
As her eyes glowed, her vision glowed. She felt a sensation within her mind, one that would be impossible to describe, much less experience if one was not gifted as she was, as
Suddenly, the soldier dropped his weapon, and an empty, emotionless look filled his widened eyes. She chuckled slightly as this happened. She never got tired of doing this.
"You belong to us, now. Come along, we have someone to pick up before I accomplish my mission."
The trio stood in a patch of trees outside the Allied base, monitoring the patrols as they paced the area around the base. As she scanned the layout of the base, searching for the best place to send her doll, Crazy Ivan wired the controlled GI with ungodly amounts of dynamite, chuckling madly as he did so. She scanned the walls surrounding the base, the prism towers rising into the sky, and the Patriot missile launchers, pointed skyward.
Those were her targets. Those were the only things stopping the Kirov airships from decimating the base, and handing this city to the Soviet forces.
"Well, this is it," she thought out loud, "everything is in our hands, Ivan. It is solely up to us whether or not this mission succeeds or fails."
"Ivan's not home..." was the only reply she was given. She sighed, and shook her head.
"Why do I even... Are you done, yet?"
"Yah!"
"Great," she said, turning towards the controlled GI. "Now, my friend, move forward, as fast as you can without arousing suspicion, into the Allied power generators! For the glory of Russia!"
The GI said nothing, as Ivan activated the bombs, and he was sent on his way.
As the GI marched into the base, acting as if nothing were wrong, she made a big mistake. Quite by accident, she began scanning the contents of his mind.
At first, there was little to startle her, just the usual. The man's childhood and passage into adulthood, his hope, his dreams, and his instilled hatred for her and her comrades. Nothing out of the ordinary, until she hit something she was not expecting.
She was quite suddenly and unexpectedly assailed by visions of the man's young daughter. The little girl, no more than ten, with her bright - brown eyes and long, curly, blonde hair, stared up at her through her father's eyes. She could feel the little girl's love and admiration for her father, flowing from the man's mind, into her own. She was assailed by visions of the little girl's birthday, of her first words and steps, their numerous vacations and trips around the country. The more she saw, the more it tore her apart inside.
"Damn it," she thought, "why did I have to choose someone like this? Why the Hell did I have to go so deep into this man's mind?"
She stopped, when she was suddenly assailed by the worst image yet. Standing in front of the GI, and her, and looking into both their eyes, the little girl spoke.
"I love you, Daddy!"
She almost cried when she heard this. Her conscience was tearing her apart from the inside.
"Perhaps she should let him go..."
She stopped herself from carrying that notion any further. If she let him go, the Patriot missile launchers would stay online, the entire base would be alerted to her presence, and her mission would be a total failure. There was no way she would do something that stupid.
Quickly, the GI moved through the base. Through his eyes, she saw the target. Rising before the enthralled GI was a group of Allied power generators, humming away, giving life to the base's death dealing defenses. He looked around, making sure nobody had caught onto her, and moved into the midst of the structures.
"There's still time," she thought to herself, as she ran the image of the man's daughter through her head over and over, "you can still set him free with enough time to have it diffused. You can still let him live."
He moved into the center of the structures, and waited. As he waited, she noticed an engineer milling around nearby. This made things even more difficult for her.
"Thirty seconds," she thought, "it only takes them two seconds to diffuse these things. They can still get to him."
Twenty seconds.
"I can still allow him to live," she thought, "I can still allow him to live..."
She paused, as something else dawned on her."
"... So that someone else can kill him."
Ten seconds.
"Hey, you!"
The GI turned, and she saw another Allied soldier approaching her vessel.
"What are you doing here?" he asked forcefully. "Whatever your post is, and I know it isn't here, why aren't you at it?"
Five seconds.
She frowned, and had the GI pull his vest open, revealing the dynamite strapped to his body. As everyone nearby burst into screams of panic, the man's daughter flashed before her eyes once again.
"I love you, Daddy!"
The once silent air of the city was violently rocked by a loud explosion, the plume of smoke and fire visible from where they were. It was followed and amplified by several power generators exploding and collapsing with it. Soon, the base went still, its prism towers and Patriot missile launchers dying.
Crazy Ivan screamed so loud, his voice cracked, as he flipped in the air, over and over again, relishing his victory. She did nothing of the sort. She simply watched as the Kirov airships floated overhead, headed towards the base. Her mission was accomplished, and she did not have to worry about Crazy Ivan anymore.
She stood on the roof of a tall building, watching as the Kirov airships dropped devastating payloads upon the doomed Allies. Crazy Ivan had wandered off earlier, to wire cars and mailboxes with bombs. She simply watched, completely still and silent, as the enemy was reduced to smoking powder. The pyrotechnics of both Ivan and the Kirovs was very impressive to her.
As she watched, a bird suddenly fluttered onto her shoulder. At first startled, she smiled at the small avian.
"Hello there," she said, "what do you want?"
The bird chirped contentedly, as it picked at a piece of bread it held in one of its claws. She smiled serenely as she stared at the beautiful creature on her shoulder. Both were interrupted from their actions as a Kirov target and an Ivan target exploded simultaneously.
As she saw the fire and smoke of both targets rise into the air, she sighed.
"You're so lucky," she told the bird.
The battle was over. The Soviet forces had won, and the entire state was theirs. They were now moving through the suburbs, solidifying their control. As she strolled through the picturesque neighborhood, watching conscripts entering houses, she froze, as her eyes fell upon the last thing she expected to see. Standing in the yard of a ruined house, crying her eyes out, was the little daughter of the GI she had sent to his death. She stayed completely still, not quite sure what to do, as the child cried loudly in the midst of the soldiers running around. Finally, she sighed, and moved towards her.
"Hey!" a nearby conscript yelled, running up to her. "We have a group holed up in their home. We need you to - "
She silenced the man by staring into his eyes intently. A shiver ran up his spine, as he backed away slowly.
"On second thought," he said weakly, "we'll just roll over the house..."
"Good choice," she responded, and continued towards the girl.
The child was radiating misery, and it was palpable to her. Fortunately, everyone else seemed to be ignoring her at the moment. She approached the child, and knelt before her.
"Hello, there, little girl."
The child jumped, looking up with puffy eyes, as she smiled back gently. The girl stared at her suspiciously, not saying anything. It was at this point that she realized with her glowing eyes, the rune tattooed on her forehead, and the metal plate and tubes on her head, that she looked rather unusual to the little girl.
"Who... who..."
The little girl tried her hardest to speak, while being constantly interrupted by her hiccupping.
"I can't... I can't find my Mommy or... or my Daddy!"
She frowned as she heard the little girl say this, as guilt washed over her once again. Now that she was here, she thought, she might as well do something.
"I'm sorry your parents are gone," she said gently. "But, would you like to stay with me?"
The little girl looked up at her, very much surprised at the question. Her face was a mixture of suspicious fear and outright confusion.
"What??"
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be out here alone," she said to the little girl. "You'd be much safer with me."
She offered her hand to the girl. Slowly, the fear and suspicion melted from the child's mind, and was replaced by calmness. Finally, the little girl took her hand. She smiled, and squeezed the girl's hand gently.
"There we go," she said. "Don't worry, you're safe, now. You - "
"Excuse me!"
She cringed slightly with extreme annoyance, hearing a conscript call out to her.
"I thought I told you, that - "
"Ma'am," the conscript continued, "the commander wishes to speak with you, to commend your success, and... and who is this?"
She stood up, the girl still holding tightly to her hand, and smirked at the conscript.
"None of your business," she replied, "don't you have houses to rummage through?"
The conscript nodded slightly, staring at the pair suspiciously, before returning to his duties.
"Well, then," she said to the girl, "shall we go?"
The little girl nodded, gripping her hand tightly. She smiled at this, and walked off, leading the child towards the newly built Soviet base.
"I'm not sure what's going on," the little girl told her, "but, somehow, I feel safe with you. I don't know why, but... Can I stay with you?"
"Of course," she replied, "I suppose I do owe you that much."
DISCLAMER(S)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and all related characters and concepts are owned by Westwood Studios. This fanfic is owned by the author, which is me. The laptop that this is written on is not written by me, it is borrowed from someone else. I don't make enough cash to buy a laptop. God, I'm pathetic...
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Ah, the Psychic Trooper, far and away one of my favorite Soviet infantry units. Nothing like sending an alligator or polar bear against enemy infantry, or a pack of civilian vehicles loaded with dynamite into an enemy base.
I sort of felt that the last part of this story, with the little girl, came off weakly, but I also felt that I had to include it. It was sort of a Catch - 22 situation, but I'm still satisfied by it. Poor kid...
This is also, in my opinion, one of my favorite stories of this series so far. I think this came off very well. I really did not want to make her bald, though. That would not have come off well, I think. Then again...
Now, the Soviet flak trooper, he's one of the funniest units out there. "FLAK ATTACK!" was my quote for the week once. At the moment, it's "Grey is GOOD!" from Shinesman.
...But, you don't care about that, do you?