Chapter 2:
The Great Purge
The Fourth Battalion soon was credited another Lieutenant, just before the planned invasion of Jall, a small fortress on the outskirts of Hylia. It was after another not quite so sober celebration that they were confronted with their destiny. Well, it certainly sobered them. After a dreadful morning of harpy headaches and lukewarm antidotes, the group sombered about a rather large run, cut into jerky fragments by rounds of intensive resistance training. That knocked them clean of their gin.
Next it was to the main tent for specific briefing and company division. The assignment was fairly laconic, and the soldiers retired shortly afterwards to their bunkers. However, unforeseen by the oblivious ranks, they soon became part of a different agenda.
Head division scientist La-jal Lombardi was approached during the soldiers' strict regimen, with the same ice that incapacitated Lieutenant Fathom. He was instructed quietly to spike the usual battle serum (an extremely potent stimulant) with a small vial quickly entrusted to him. He knew better than to challenge this authority. The deed was done, and the venerable doctor awaited the next day, when he would witness firsthand the effects of this new drug. This was his only excitement offered in his entire career; he would not deny it.
The soldiers slept well and rose early. They headed out for Jall, brimming with anticipation and adrenaline, the syringes of newly-imparted battle serum strapped to their ammunition belts. The new Lieutenant rode in front, his heavy truck armed for siege. The rest followed in smaller vehicles. All brandished turrets, rifles, and mortars. None predicted what happened next.
Without warning, and still a ways from Jall, the serum ignited. First the Lieutenant's, then the soldiers'. A purple aura seized the men of their garments, purged their souls, and removed even their bare flesh and muscle. Only fragments of calcium littered the dust where the men stood. This instance occupied only a bare moment of time, not enough time to react. Only the doctor remained standing, his posture frozen in confusion.
Yet it was only the beginning of the magic, for the bones began to shake. They shook with the ferocity of wildebeest and the speed of bee wings. But not into ambiguous arrangement did they shake, no, they bound and formed and shifted, two heaps joining to create a third, splitting clockwise into a recognizable pattern, one that shook the lands only in myth and children's tales: Stalfos. This grand army bowed to their leader, which the doctor could now recognize as the donor of the vial himself.
Ganondorf roared out from his makeshift dune pulpit, forcing their attention: "Now on to Jall, satisfy your lusts for blood!" The army creaked and clattered in approval, racing their skeletal figures that never tired, over the dune, rifles and mortars in hand, ever onwards towards their target, one currently oblivious to this frightening development.