The news reports coming out of the Desert Kingdom of Al Salcar were garbled with static as a lone dark skinned female news anchor wearing a rather drab blue wool suit reported upon the situation and subsequent military incursion.
She was on a highly elevated floor overlooking the majestic Al Salcar suspension bridge which spanned the Isis River, pointing towards an armored column moving across the massive structure in the direction of the Imperial Capitol like a black wave of armored vehicles.
It was like a sea of tanks moving five abreast across the bridge, Darkland soldiers marching by the mechanical monsters sides with rifles across their chests, spreading out as it were into the mud brick buildings which made up the city of Al Do-Raman, capitol of the Al Salcar Kingdom.
"As you can see ladies and gentlemen, the forces of 'King' Bowser have invaded Al Salcar, and reached the sovereign capitol. We already are receiving reports of widespread looting, and Darkland atrocities occurring in the streets."
There was a brief moment of static as the news broadcast changed showing Darkland Soldiers, men in green and red uniforms with large packs upon their shoulders which made them seem rather turtlish, gunning down citizens in the streets. They were advancing through the mud brick hive of of Al Do-Raman, escorting Hammer 98 Tanks towards the Imperial Palace off in the distance.
"المنزل Коопас жой"(Koopas Go Home) yelled a man dressed in rags, ducking around a blind corner to toss a Molotov cocktail at one of the lumbering tanks. The flames from the alcoholic explosion light up the face of one of the armored beast before splashing outward in a wave which set three Koopa Troopers aflame, their limbs flailing as they fell to their knees in agony while skin and clothe was burned and charred away from fatal wounds.
Additional soldiers instantly opening fire upon the Molotov tossing rebel, their bullets drilling holes into his torso, painting the wall behind him blood red with artery spray, before his lifeless body clumped against the mudbrick walls.
Afterwards, the bodies of the dead Koopa Troopers were pulled away from the streets so that the armored column could continue its advance, more infantry covering the sides with raised rifles aimed at the jumbled semi-vacant windows along the vast avenue leading towards the Al Salcar Palace.
Once more the news feed went to static before this time changing to show a formal address from Princess Peach of the nearby Toad Kingdom, "Ladies and gentlemen, the foul dictator 'King' Bowser refuses to see reason and has once more invaded a neighboring sovereignty. This time we will not bow down like cowards to his demands," she said, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, her white gloved hands slamming down upon the podium as she motioned angrily in her pink business suit, "Therefore, as of three hours ago I have ordered troops to move into Al Salcar to push back the Darkland advance. We will not stand by and watch Al Salcar fall to the Koopa Legion. This is the last straw… effective immediately… WE ARE AT WAR!"
The news feed quickly shifted to show King Bowser's counter speech, "Sons and daughters of Darkland, our people were once enslaved by these vermin cowering in their castles. Long ago did we, the Koopa people throw off our bonds of forced servitude and build this great nation to deliver righteous justice down upon these tyrannical dictators," spoke a somewhat husky man dressed in an elegant black military dress uniform, his face hidden behind a white porcelain mask. King Bowser, the King of the Koopa continued his long speech, droning on and on about justice, and the former enslavement of his people by the surrounding kingdoms before ending his lengthy lecture with the phrase, "Everybody pays!" Having evidently given his speech before a large assembled crowd, millions of Koopas instantly yelled back his words in a loud chant, "Everybody pays! Everybody pays! Everybody pays!"
Further news feeds were a continuation of the Darkland military advance into Al Salcar, troops gunning down mobs of protestors, helicopter gunships patrolling the skies to enforce order through unfiltered military might, and the burning of former Al Salcar flags by cheering Koopa Troopers. All the while arguing news anchors mixed their channels in the background.
"King Bowser is the first person to effect change in Al Salcar in ten decades. Furthermore, his actions have earned him the hearts and minds of every downtrodden Koopa across the globe. You can't just dismiss him!"
"With his capture of Al Salcar, King Bowser has proven one thing and one thing only… that he cannot be trusted. His invasion, and make no mistake about it, is a formal declaration of war upon the other kingdoms!"
"I'm more worried about the vast resource reserves in Al Salcar. King Bowser has proven time and again his capabilities to exploit a vast military industrial complex. Even if we ignore his unlawful invasion of another country, we cannot turn a blind eye to his pillage of Al Salcar's vast natural resources.
"This world belongs to the Koopa!" spoke King Bowser, cutting back into his former speech re-airing on the news cycle, "We built these kingdoms for these glutinous superpowers, and then when they were done with us, they sent us off to die in Darkland, but we prospered, and now that we have returned to claim what is rightfully ours… meanwhile all these ingrates can do is hide behind their petty laws and pretend none of their crimes ever happened. Victory for Darkland! Victory for the Koopa!"
The vast legion of Koopas assembled at Bowser's rally repeated his final words with deafening applause, "Victory for Darkland! Victory for the Koopa! Victory for Darkland! Victory for the Koopa! Victory for Darkland! Victory for the Koopa!"
The smell of oil and human sweat filled the canopy of the Osprey as it flew in formation over the massive empty wasteland of the great Al V'ran Desert. These numerous aircraft populating the skies belonged to the Toad Kingdom, and were flying low over the shifting sands in order to avoid detection from the Darkland forces occupying Al Salcar's Capitol City of Al Do-Raman.
There were numerous 'Toad-men' gathered in the hold, sitting on benches with their rifles at rest upon their laps. Some were smoking or playing cards to pass the time as the VTOL covered ground. Toad-men, the military jargon used to describe the Mushroom Kingdoms soldiers wearing their odd assortment of red and white camouflaged helmets and fatigues. At a distance, the soldiers looked very similar to one another, and few could tell one soldier apart from his brethren until they came face to face with the princesses forces.
One of the toad-men, with his white and red camo helmet removed, pointed towards the rear of the hold where a man, a single man, dressed in bizarre set of blue and red body armor, leaned back upon his bench with his helmet pulled down over his face to blot out the sunlight eking in through the transports windows, "Who's the merc? I don't remember seeing him back at Lewis Fields?"
"Oh him," replied another Toad-man with a smirk, "Surely you've heard about this guy… Mario, the same Mario who helped re-take Freidrikheim from the Darklanders. Bloody ice kingdom, I have no idea how he did it?"
"That's Mario?" asked the other Toad-man with a disbelieving laugh, "In that case… where's his… brot…" Before an answer could be provided, the door to the cockpit opened allowing a similarly mustached, taller, yet slimmer man dressed in similar green and blue combat armor to step forward unto the transport hold as it abruptly jarred from wind turbulence. This man looked at the other mercenary; the one dressed in red and blue, and sighed humorously.
"Hey brother," he said while gently kicking the other mans legs. The mercenary in red and blue armor pushed his helmet up, back atop his head, and looked at his sibling with a fond slight smile, "Luigi… are we there yet?"
"Almost," The green armored brother stalled nervously while looking over the hold where the numerous Toad-men milled about their personal affairs. These soldiers had no idea what they were about to step into. Darkland, wasn't like the other kingdoms, they were far more dangerous, more vicious in the pursuit of their ideological military campaigns of revenge, than what the media liked to let on.
To that end, there was far more to the Koopa Imperial Army than what the most recent news reports were letting on, way more, given that more demented weapons had since been fielded by the Koopas since the Fridrikheim Campaign.
In fact, most of these assembled Toad-men wouldn't survive the upcoming operation to retake Al Salcar from King Bowser's Legions. They were for all intensive purposes 'cannon fodder.'
Luigi glowered internally to himself; these men had no idea about the biological plaque abomination called Gumbas, or the Grinder drones, or the numerous grizzly torture techniques employed by the Koopa Legions to get information from those they captured. They were like children, innocent, and soon that innocence would be lost when confronted by the true horrors of war.
"It's bad?" asked Mario, sullen, he knew that look on his brothers face, the shadows under his eyes when something terrible was about to occur. Luigi nodded and handed his sibling a small earbug. Mario placed the micro-radio in his ear and instantly heard what was happening on the ground just a few miles away from their LZ.
"They're everywhere… surrounded… being overrun… turn back…" the radio cut out into silence as Mario looked at Luigi with a hardened face, "Was that the last from beachhead?" he asked.
Luigi nodded and once more looked over the Toad-men milling about the cargo hold. This was bad, Beachead was the first wave of the assault on Al Salcar's Capitol, and if the first wave had failed to hold their ground then the second wave could be running straight into the meat grinder without any defensible positions. Most of the men on this aircraft wouldn't survive the next few hours if the Koopa Legions were still on their front feet and not backpedaling towards the Castle Keep.
"Now hear this," spoke the pilot, gaining everyone's attention in the passenger hold, "We're on final approach… ETA four minutes."
The assembled Toad-men made themselves fit for combat, checking their weapons, re-adorning their helmets, and generally getting hyped up for the assault. Meanwhile, Mario took this brief opportunity to equip his black shades to combat the desert sun, and look out of the holds windows as the aircraft made its final approach on the city of Al Do-Raman.
Everything was quite across the mud brick buildings as far out as the eye could see. Yes, this was way to quite, and clearly a trap waiting to be sprung. Furthermore, the tattered mud brick buildings contrasting the white marble palace were made all the more decrypt from numerous large black smoke beacons burning across the landscape. Down below, Mario could see flash mobs running through the streets as the Mushroom Kingdom Ospreys dusted rooftops on their approach, some amongst the bewildered masses down below even pointing towards the flying aircraft with an odd mixture of disbelief and fear. Why were they afraid the Mushroom Kingdom was here to help, wondered Mario.
"What's with that smoke?" asked one of the Toad-men as the aircraft weaved through a series of black signal fires eking obnoxious suet into the sky which served further to blot out the intense sunlight beaming down from the Heavens.
"This you're first outing?" asked Mario while checking his rifle, eyeing the young Toad-man with annoyance, "Yes-sir," replied the Mushroom Soldier with a hint of pride.
Mario nodded and motioned towards the black signal fires, "Raw oil, when the Koopas invade a kingdom, the respective leaders of their realms like to sabotage important infrastructure in order to deny the Darklanders valuable resources. King Akhbar of Al Salcar blew the caps on his oil wells, and had them light ablaze. If the Koopa Legions want to use those wells… then they'll need to cap them… which will take time…"
"Wait, we did this?" asked the soldier in disbelief as the Osprey circled an oil field light aflame and sending large volumes of toxic black smog into the atmosphere, "I thought we were the good guys in all this."
Mario gave the young soldier a faint smile as the Osprey turned sharply, and started to slow down for its vertical landing approach, "It's not that simple son," spoke the red suited mercenary, "You and I can be hero's all we want, but the people who tell us to do the killing… they can be real bastards… just you wait and see."