7 – SOME FUEL BARRELS AND A PLAN
An inverted hail of automatic fire assaulted the Pelican as it descended through the atmosphere. Bradley Patton grasped onto the dashboard as the VTOL shuddered madly. "What the hell is going on?" he shouted. "I thought you said you had the site under control!"
"We did," the pilot informed him. "But the energy signature must be broadcasting on a very easily detectable frequency, because just ten minutes ago, a whole battalion of Blues came from out of nowhere. The whole place is under siege."
Bradley gave the pilot a confused look. "I was unaware that our Army was on a bad standing with the Blues. When did we enter a state of conflict?"
The pilot shook his helmet. "Lord High Commander General…I think you might as well ask the Blues. Far as anyone can tell, it's because we want whatever is broadcasting the signature, and so do they. Thus, we have conflict."
Bradley nodded. "Mm, I see. Dammit. This was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission…" The Pelican suddenly shook violently as another flurry of flak hit the bottom of the craft. "Argg, will you land this thing already!" he yelled at the pilot.
"We're almost there, sir!" the pilot shouted back. The Pelican turned sharply, and then, off in the distance, could be seen the spot of the battle. The largest ocean of XBOXL1V stretched beyond the windshield. And rising from the surface of the water was a great seastack. The two longest sides of the seastack were much taller than its midsection, such that they formed a wide ravine that stretched through the landmass. A crack in the ground traced a path directly through the center of the ravine, separating the area into two regions. The region on the Pelican's left side held two small circular bases, which were situated at either end of the ravine. Between them was some strange looking satellite antenna and several dozen vehicles, as wells as a swarm of probably more than a hundred Blue foot soldiers. On the Pelican's right side, across a bridge from the two bases, sat a grand metallic structure that dominated that entire half of the ravine. Arms of steel formed a wall around a platform with a Plexiglas floor. This was the Yellow's stronghold in the battle. A row of Yellows stood at the perimeter of the platform, firing off at the other side of the ravine.
As Bradley's Pelican accelerated towards the great structure, the Blues began to make a push for the bridge connecting their side of the landmass to the Yellow's. In response to this move, the Yellows near the bridge suddenly shot backwards and hid behind rocks, just a second before the bridge exploded into pieces, which fell down into the water, taking some Blue soldiers with them. Bradley's Pelican finally reached the Yellow stronghold, hastily coming in for a landing. Bradley hopped out instantly. Yellow soldiers were sprinting all around him, moving between battle stations to try to keep the Blues at bay. All around the perimeter of the platform, explosions caused the ground to shake. Bradley looked across the structure, searching for the Gunnery Sergeant he had placed in charge of the Yellow Company. He saw, nestled into a corner of the large platform, a small firebase that had been hastily fashioned together out of whatever the men had managed to come up with. Bradley raced towards it without hesitation.
The firebase was barely more than one small room. Some cameras and consoles lined the walls. In one of the corners, staring frantically at one of the monitors while shouting orders into a COM set, was Miles Adams. Bradley raced towards him and put his gauntlet on the Gunnery Sergeant's shoulder. Startled, Miles jolted and whirled around. "So sir, it's you!" he exclaimed.
"Gunnery Sergeant!" Bradley shouted at him. "What the hell is going on?"
"The Blues started attacking from out of nowhere, sir!" Miles shouted. "There are so many. I'm not sure we can hold them off for much longer!" Then he perked up. "The Gleam of Dawn is still above us. Surely they're sending reinforcements!"
Bradley looked at the Gunnery Sergeant a moment, then shook his helmet. "Just after I had left the frigate in that Pelican—" He pointed outside. "A gigantic Blue ship called the Wondermuffin jumped into orbit and started assaulting her. The Gleam of Dawn had to retreat to Slipspace. I can't get them on COMs, and all that I could do was come down here. There will be no reinforcements. At least, not for awhile. Not until the Gleam of Dawn figures out what to do about that Blue carrier."
Miles looked down at the floor. "Well, shit…"
Bradley shook him. "I mean, shit sir!" Miles shouted.
Bradley let the Gunnery Sergeant go and began to pace the room as more explosions sounded from outside. "This is what I get for sending my forces in advance. Dammit, how did the Blues know about the energy signature? They're not smart enough to have discovered the frequency. I never expected this…thing…to be so contested, especially since none of us even know what it is yet."
"So what do we do, sir?" Miles asked.
Bradley walked back outside. Everyone was facing away from him, looking out from the edges of the platform to the other side of the ravine, and the battalion of Blues. Bradley almost tripped over some fuel barrels as he marched. He picked himself up again and started to move…but then stopped, because an idea had struck him. He flagged down one of the nearby soldiers, who stopped running and approached the Lord High Commander General. "Private, how many of these barrels do we have?" he asked.
"Um…" The Private thought for a minute. "Maybe five dozen. I think there are more stashed in the back of the firebase."
"And do we have any propulsion cannons left? The ones that use a graviton field to launch objects across large distances?"
The Private nodded while counting on his fingers. "Two, three, four…" He nodded to himself. "Four, sir. There are four left. That are still undamaged, at least."
Bradley put his arms to his sides. "Good. Bring them all out. And the stashes of fuel barrels too. I have a plan."
The Private nodded with sudden hope. "Yessir! At once!" He sprinted into the firebase.
Bradley then turned to the perimeter of Yellow soldiers around the platform and shouted at the top of his lungs: "ATTENTION!" The mass of Yellows immediately dropped what they were all doing, stood tall, and saluted in unison. "The situation is bad, make no mistake," said Bradley seriously but strongly. "But we were all sent here to search for something that could bolster the resources of our Army. To find something that could alter the future of the entire fucking war. And we were sent here to do it under orders by the leader of our Army himself, Supreme Lord Commander General Victarion Halcor."
Everyone was definitely listening now. Even the Blues, on the other side of the island, seemed to have realized that something important was taking place, because their strikes had begun to lessen in frequency. "Now, look at yourselves," Bradley continued. "You are standing atop what could possibly be the greatest discovery in the history of the war, and yet you refuse to attain it. And why? Because Blues are attacking you. Now, are you seriously about to let Blues stand in the way of history? The Blue Fucking Army?" Bradley looked each of the soldiers directly in the visor as he walked along the perimeter of the platform. "Listen. We are going to succeed. We are going to succeed because we are facing Blues, and also because none of you will ever be able to live with yourselves if we fail, or even live at all. And also, we are going to succeed…because I have a plan!"
This was the moment when the Private returned, driving a Mongoose that had a massive wagon attached to its backside, which was carrying a mountain of fuel barrels and four circular devices, the Man Cannons.
"We are going to succeed by giving the Blues hell," Bradley explained. "Each squad will take a man cannon and activate it, then aim it at a group of enemy vehicles on the other side of this ravine. And then…you are going to make the sky rain fire!" He pointed at the fuel barrels. "The Blues, being Blues, have amassed a huge number of ground-based vehicles that they can do nothing with, because there is no longer any bridge. So what they have instead is, effectively, a mass of engines that all need exploding. And what better way is there to explode an engine than with fire!" Some of the soldiers began to whoop and clap, now realizing exactly where Bradley was going. "This is our moment in history," Bradley shouted. "And now, it is time for us to take it!"
The soldiers began to rush forward, each squad leader taking one of the Man Cannons, setting it at one point on the perimeter of the structure, and turning the device on. Meanwhile, the other members of the squad all accumulated their share of fuel barrels and loaded them up in front of their respective Man Cannons. Bradley crossed his arms and waited until all the squads were ready. Miles came to stand by his side and watch. "That's a good strategy, sir. Not sure how I had forgotten: whenever you're stuck in a situation, first thing to do is blow shit up and see what happens."
"It's textbook, of course," Bradley stated.
All of the squads had now set everything up. "Ready to give the Blues hell, sir?" Miles asked.
Bradley nodded, then turned back to the squads and shouted "FIRE!"
The Man Cannons opened up, and the entire structure became a fountain of doom. One after another, the barrels hit their targets, splashing fuel all over the plethoras of Blue vehicles. Then the squads opened up with precision weapons to target the puddles, and the other half of the ravine erupted into an explosion of fire. The sounds of engines exploding and the sight of Blue bodies flying all over the place signaled victory…at least for now, until the Blues sent reinforcements from their overhead carrier. But this, Bradley thought to himself, this is how you win a battle…
A bluish marble the size of a beach ball flashed on the forward view screen of the Instrument of Chaos. The Red Army flagship was still in slipspace, but one of the things Amnion had cleverly modded into the ship's systems was the ability to project images of the surrounding plane of realspace into the scanners. And so, Amnion could stare at XBOXL1V, and no one would have any idea that a Red armada had surrounded the puny world's gravity well. After spending its time at the hollow asteroid that Vorennius now called home, the Instrument of Chaos had gone into slipspace and headed straight for the center of the Six Way War. The giant ship, as well as the other craft in the fleet it led, had traveled through the galaxy at speeds that the other Armies would have found unfathomable. Amnion had designed the Instrument of Chaos to have superreactors that could make energy out of nothing whatsoever. This of course violated the physical Law of Conservation of Energy. But Amnion was the Lord of Insanity, so he had no reason to care. It was this limitless power which allowed all Red ships to travel across the fathoms of space in the blink of an eye, and to overwhelm whichever planet they chose.
Amnion watched the unsuspecting world, while seated in his throne of black chrome lit by red fire. The crew of Red soldiers on the bridge could practically feel the anticipation and bloodlust rising within their Army's Dark Lord. "BALDERDASH!" he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. His voice was sent into the speaker system of the entire ship, taking his exclamation to every sector of the supercruiser and scaring the bajesus out of its entire crew.
Maybe two minutes later, the plump Red soldier raced into the bridge and came to stand, panting, before the Black Throne. "Reporting for duty, Dark Lord," he exclaimed in between breaths.
"Are the supersoldiers ready?" Amnion asked sinisterly.
Balderdash nodded. "Yes, Dark Lord."
Amnion crossed his arms. "Good, good…I want them sent to a few small outposts, for the first phase of the conquest of this world. Just to make sure that the Replicant AI is working properly. Once we know it is, then my specialized minions can be sent to all sectors of the planet, and shall lead the assault."
"Which base shall come first, my Lord?" Balderdash asked.
Amnion pulled up a holographic list, which was emitted from a holoprojector on the right armrest. The list had all the small scale bases for XBOXL1V. "What about a Green one…nah, there are none that look unsuspecting enough. Aha, the Blues! I'll take one of their bases, if only to lessen their muffinous influence over this world. I've never understood the Blues, with their muffin-obsessed culture. I don't like the smell of warm muffins. But vaporized muffins, now there's a scent I love to wake up to in the morning. The Blues it is, then. Send out my superminions!" He then clasped his gauntlets in sudden thought. "Ah, but there is one more target I require as well. At Centerpoint City, that Lime Squadron did prove rather troublesome. I should perhaps send an attack on their canyon base…but there is another, larger base even closer. I think it best to destroy that, and then lure Lime into it. Yes, that's perfect…"
Balderdash nodded. "Good, a Yellow base. And along with that, which Blue base will be first to die?"
Amnion planted his finger over one specific base for no reason in particular. "Kill everything here, especially if it is responsible for baking muffins! Our domination campaign in this sector shall begin with the extermination of that treacherous pastry! And meanwhile, Lime Squadron will serve as a test for the power of my Agents of Death…"
