Advance Wars: Dark Star
-Chapter 10: The Final Encounter
The bullet left the chamber and sped across the room in a downward trajectory. It hit Andy in the leg driving him toward the ground. Sturm turned away as the bullet impacted, and with a huff began to move away.
"Don't move." He told Andy sarcastically.
He began to pound the console angrily and a radio signal was sent out. There was no visual but instead a read out of the frequency.
"Adder!"
There was no immediate response only a deafening silence. Sturm was gripping his gun angrily and his right arm began to shake.
"Adder! Report right now!"
"You know, if your lucky. Grit and Max took care of Adder before Hawke could backstab you."
Sturm fired a burst of bullets in Andy's direction but didn't aim. Most of the bullets impacted the wall and was enough to shut him up for a time. No matter how many times Sturm demanded it. There was no response from Adder, only a constant silence. He then tried another frequency and yelled out loud at the top of his voice.
"Hawke! What the hell is going on!"
"General Sturm. So nice of you to call."
"Shut up! What the hell is going on with Adder?"
"Adder... Is being pushed back toward the rocket facility. I believe his radio was shot out."
"All right! Get in here this instant. Land your jet and get in here right now!" Sturm demanded.
"Ok." Hawke's voice came from the stairs and Sturm spun around with his gun armed.
Hawke had a confident grin on his face and had a radio in one hand and a pistol in the other. The two were at a stand off for awhile until Andy knocked his tool kit to the ground and caused both of them to turn toward him. It was then Hawke decided to walk toward Sturm but stopped as he heard the click of Sturm fingering the trigger.
"What's a matter general? It's not like you to point a gun at one of your own officers." Hawke pointed out calmly. "Is something wrong?"
"Shut up. The boy just brought my attention to something quite interesting. Oh, is something wrong. Something is definitely wrong. With you Hawke, my most loyal supporter."
"Supporter?" Hawke sounded surprised. "No, not supporter. Casual follower."
Andy was looking back and forth between the both of them trying to decide what was going on. He had thought he was on to something when Sturm had reacted to his question about what Hawke had to gain from his plans. From there it seemed things had gone downhill for Sturm. But something was wrong, Andy felt, Sturm was not one to make mistakes with out plans for correcting them.
"Casual follower..." Sturm repeated angrily. "Interesting choice of words. It's like I couldn't even hear you blatantly admit your betraying me."
"You betrayed Dark Star first. One, by denying me to test my son in combat. You had me reassigned. I could possibly live with that. But then you let Boris die, then I knew we were just expendable pawns. No value to you as officers, but plenty as cannon fodder. Just like Black Hole. Isn't that right, general?"
"So what of it?" Sturm asked unfazed. "What made you think you were any more important that a front line soldier? Because you command others? I think you were trying to find your real position all those times you joined your men on the front."
"Like the dogfight against Eagle? Yes, I was there too. He's just as good as I thought he would be. I can sleep a little easier knowing he's a capable pilot and officer. That's all I really wanted in the end."
"Wait a second." Andy interrupted. "You joined Sturm just so you could see Eagle fighting? Couldn't you just watch him from the safety of a Green Earth position?"
"That wouldn't be satisfactory. He would be trying to please me, not himself. That's no way to prove anything. I had to see him completely motivated by his own accord."
Hawke ducked down as Sturm suddenly opened fire and began to shatter the monitors and glass on the wall in front of him. But the fire didn't last long as the gun gave an empty click and refused to fire anymore. Andy saw Sturm toss the gun angrily to the side and then as Hawke slowly rose out from behind one of the consoles.
"Andy, don't be so naive." Sturm hissed. "Seeing his son fighting was just a by product of his true purpose. Undermining me!"
"Some truth to that." Hawke said casually as he aimed his pistol at Sturm.
"What do you think your going to do with that gun? It's not gonna do anything to my suit." Sturm laughed.
"That's true."
Hawke pulled the trigger anyway and soon Andy could see one of the eyes on Sturm's mask explode into glass shrapnel. The next thing he heard was Hawke's voice ordering him to get moving. With a last look of Sturm reeling backwards with his hands around his damaged eye piece he began to follow Hawke upstairs to the damaged viewing area. The rocket was in clear view ahead of them and so was the fire fight from Sami's troops.
"Sami! Oh no Sheila is gonna pick them all off!" Andy cried out.
"One crisis at a time. First we stop the launch." Hawke explained.
An infuriated roar from below was followed by the ominous rush of footsteps below. Sturm's heavy footsteps could be heard as he rushed up the stairs and was now armed with one of the Orange Star assault rifles. He wasted no time firing at Hawke and Andy as they rushed out onto the balcony.
"What will we-"
Andy couldn't say much as Hawke picked him up and threw him off of the balcony, before jumping off himself. Sturm charged outside and leapt of the side as well. All three of them landed on top of a Black Hole harrier. The jet began to pull away from the control center and slowly turned around heading toward the rocket. Andy had landed on top of the cockpit as Sturm had leapt back near the engines and tail fins. Hawke was in between the two of them lying down to keep from rolling off. But he instantly rolled to the left wing as Sturm managed to aim the rifle and fire it. Some of the bullets blew holes through the upper cockpit which was empty. The bullets crippled the canopy and soon collapsed sending Andy falling into the rear seat. The Black Hole pilot didn't even look back as he continued to fly toward the launch site.
The view from the cockpit allowed Andy to see Hawke dangling off the left wing and trying to get footing on a missile that hung from the underside. He didn't get far before Sturm crawled toward the edge and fired at him keeping him from getting out of his precarious position.
"Hey!" Andy cried out to the pilot flying the jet. "You need to get us near the rocket platform! Something Hawke can land on! He's gonna fall!"
"I have a better idea." The pilot told Andy. "You better buckle in."
After Andy had secured himself in the seat, the pilot flipped the jet on it's side giving Hawke some footing on the missiles and sending Sturm tumbling toward the right wing. The jet began to swerve away from the rocket platform though as Hawke gave a signal to the pilot and flipped around to the topside of the wing as the jet leveled itself.
"You guys are crazy." Andy muttered.
"That's Hawke for you." The pilot answered simply.
But suddenly a chorus of jet engines made them all turn to see a formation of Green Earth jets heading toward the harrier and firing off their machine guns.
"I don't suppose they know you guys have defected? Do they?" Andy asked worried.
"No, they don't."
The harriers engines came to life as they began to take off and fly away from the incoming Green Earth fighters. It wasn't long before they were out over the ocean and still with Sturm and Hawke hanging onto each of the wings.
"What the hell are you doing!" Andy cried out uncontrollably. "We need to go the other way!"
"Hey kid! Shut up! Do you know how a jet works? Do you? If I could turn on a dime without getting shot down I would! Ok!"
The Black Hole cruisers soon began to shoot at the incoming jets as they cut a path over the main body of the fleet. But the Green Earth jets behind them were undaunted and continued to stick to their tails.
"I don't suppose you could talk to them?" The pilot suggested.
"Oh yeah! Great idea!"
Trembling from the heat of the moment, Andy gripped the radio and began to shout out.
"Hey you guys! Stop shooting! It's Andy! I'm in the jet you guys are tailing! Hawke's forces have defected! Come in! Stop shooting!"
They soon received confused shouts from the Green Earth jets following them.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's one of those damn clones I tell you!"
"Oh crap..." Andy muttered realizing he wasn't going to stop them.
He gave a quick glance to see Hawke still holding on and then looked to the right wing to see that Sturm was nowhere in sight. Then he looked back to see Sturm crawling across the left wing toward Hawke.
"How the hell!"
"His suit! He's like magnetized to the plane!" The pilot explained in bewilderment. "I tried to shake him off a couple minutes ago. It's like he's glued to the body of the plane!"
Something was pouring from the eyehole Hawke had shot earlier. It looked like blood, but it was brown and oozed like oil. Andy had seen it plenty of times, it was hydraulic fluid.
"Look we gotta land this thing somehow! Can't you slow down and let them pass! This jet flies like a helicopter!" Andy pleaded.
"And risk them running into us? That's just stupid!"
"Well then Hawke is gonna get thrown off anyway!"
The pilot gave out a sigh and hit a switch. The harrier began to slow down drastically and it seemed to bring the bullets closer to the plane. It was then Andy watched as the fire from one of the Green Earth jets hit Sturm and caused him to arch back. Sparks and debris of the suit went flying everywhere.
"Whoa! Sturm just took a bullet, I mean a couple bullets for us!" Andy said amazed.
"I bet you anything he's still alive!" The pilot warned.
Soon afterward the jets screamed past then and began to turn to circle around giving the harrier pilot time to race back toward the rocket and hover to the ground. The harrier settled between a couple of hangars. Andy undid the restraints and leaped out as Hawke dropped to the ground and tumbled across the asphalt. Sturm's yells of agony could now be heard as he rolled of the wing and hit the ground shortly after Hawke did. He stood up slowly, there was the brownish fluid from before leaking everywhere and sparks shooting all over the place. The harrier pilot pulled the jet away and began to fly off somewhere.
"Andy!" Sturm cried out. "If anyone deserves a bullet to the head. It's you!"
Sturm's aim quivered. The suit would shutter with every spark that flew from the gaping holes created by the Green Earth fighter. But since the weapon Sturm was weilding was a machine gun, the aim was not overall important. Andy wanted to run, but as he stood up the shot to the leg earlier reminded him about his ability to move quickly. He looked over to Hawke only to see him unconscious. Sturm began to groan and got his attention but he didn't fire the gun.
"Grrr! Malfunctioning piece of garbage!" Sturm growled. "I need to take this suit off."
In an instant, a loud hissing sound began to escape the suit. Sections of it began to fall off, first the arms, then the leg sections then the torso section which was so badly damaged by the jet machine gun fire. Before long Sturm looked like he did before, just a man in a mask with a black officers uniform. Pieces of the suit lie all around him and looked like dismembered body parts.
"Much better. You know, I was hoping the whole harrier would be shot down. Then I wouldn't have to bother myself with all this nonsense."
Sturm reached for a handgun at his side and cocked the hammer back. It was exactly the same make as Adder's automatic handgun.
"Is there a moment when your caught without a weapon?" Andy muttered trying to move.
"It's all coming apart again. You know, I've finally realized my mistake. All these years I keep trying to crush you with a concrete form of opposition. You keep pulling together, and you keep winning. Well next time, I'm going to collapse each country the way I did Black Hole. It'll take years, much longer than a military campaign, but at least I'll win. And you won't know till it's too late."
Sturm's hand was shaking, but more so with exhaustion than anger. Andy was sure he would have accidentally fired it off by now. Then he heard the loud bang and rolled to the side as the bullet impacted the asphalt. Now Andy faced the ground, Sturm's footsteps shuffled behind him, telling him he was taking aim again and rolled as he did before. Now Sturm was firing it off in full auto mode. One of the bullets clipped Andy in the shoulder and he groaned in pain facing upwards toward the sky. The next thing he saw was Sturm's damaged mask and him pointing the gun straight down.
"Now I know why you hide behind all your troops and tanks and planes. You don't have the backbone to kill anyone yourself." Sturm told him in a cold voice. "You've never put a clip in a gun."
Sturm dropped the empty clip to the asphalt and let it send a clattering noise before placing a new one back into the gun.
"You've never cocked the hammer back."
He pulled the hammer back into a position ready to fire and then pushed the muzzle into Andy's face.
"And you've certainly never killed anyone."
"Wrong Sturm." Andy replied suddenly. "You know someone had to have killed Boris."
"Your lying." Sturm shot back angrily.
"Grenade, into his walking tank. Split it in two. Like a nut when you hit it with a hammer. Or a mask when you break it with a fist."
A bomb went off not to far away, a bombing run by Green Earth now that the skies were clear of any enemy harriers. In the initial blast, Andy shot up in a furious motion and let Sturm have it between the eyes. He wheeled back in pain and held his fist while Sturm's head whipped back and caused him to lose his balance. The handgun was shot off like a crazy man and bullets went everywhere until the gun was empty. Some of the bullets ricocheted off of the hangar walls and came right back into Sturm's mask. He screamed out aloud and soon the mask fell to the ground cut to ribbons, much like the rest of the suit not too far behind them both.
Sturm dropped the gun and covered his exposed face and began to run off. Andy didn't see anything, but stood up and began to limp after Sturm despite the pain running up and down his leg.
"Sturm! Stop! Your not getting away!"
The fleeing general had almost rounded the corner of the hangar when a loud whistling sound filled the area.
"Sturm! Stop! Now!"
Just as Andy had guessed what was going to happen, a bomb landed right behind Sturm and then on top of the hangar sending debris to rain down all around the area. The first explosion threw Andy back to where he had run from, and Sturm was soon covered by the falling metal and debris.
"Oh... Man..." Andy groaned. "No more front line stuff for me..."
Following the sudden withdraw of Hawke's air force, any Black Hole units caught on the ground were bombed to smithereens. The Blue Moon re-enforcements finally arrived and any Black Hole unit still hanging around was blown to kingdom come. Orange Star cleaned up what the reckless Blue Moon strike missed. It wasn't long before they met up with Sami's team who had been caught at the base of the rocket forced to have it out with the nearly endless Black Hole forces. But as soon as Sturm lost contact with his forces, it was all over. From there, it was only a matter of time before they discovered Andy.
------------------------------
"Hey kid. You awake yet? We're bored waiting for you to open your eyes." Max complained. "Ow! Sami, you didn't have to hit me so hard!"
"Serves your right you big lug. You should be more grateful Andy is still alive!" Sami said angrily.
The voices swirled around Andy's head until he opened his eyes slowly. Max and Sami stood at the end of the bed dressed in full uniforms. Max was rubbing his head with a painful expression on his face. It was then Andy realized he was in some kind of hospital.
"Whoa. Where am I?"
"Victor Hospital, Green Earth territory." Sami explained. "You've been through some rough stuff Andy."
"Hawke! Where's Hawke?" Andy cried out.
"Hawke? What do you mean?" Max asked.
Andy began to sit up slowly groaning from the aches and pains in his body. He looked around the room slowly taking in the surroundings before turning back toward them.
"I was in the control room, and then Sturm showed up. Then Hawke showed up. Guys! He wasn't working for Sturm at all! Then he saved me in a way, then we-"
"Whoa kid. Slow down. Like Sami said before, you've been through a lot. Now tell us again."
But Andy didn't tell them again, he simply thought about it. He now had a question for Max and Sami.
"What ever happened to Sonja?"
"Sonja was doing her usual stuff. Working alone, occupying the Black Hole continent and doing stuff without anyone else knowing until the last second." Sami explained annoyed.
"Occupying Black Hole?"
"Yeah, instead of leaving them to their own devices like we did last time. Now she's gonna make sure they don't fall under Sturm's influence again. As much as we didn't want to do it, she wanted Adder and Sheila released from our custody so Yellow Comet could reform them to serve Black Hole and not Sturm."
Andy shook his head in agreement.
"That's a good plan. I know she'll pull it off."
"What?" Sami gasped. "What are you talking about? Black Hole is Sturm's home continent! They're just as crooked as he is."
"Your wrong Sami. I don't think Sturm belongs to any one country. He told me himself, he uses everyone for his own gain. Whole countries right down to individual people." Andy explained. "We'll be all right as long as Sturm doesn't have the ability to get hold of a countries military. We had ignored them for so long..."
"Ignored who?" Now Max was confused. "Black Hole? Sheesh. You'd think a simple reminder would be better than invasion."
"Naw Max. You don't understand. We were so caught up in Blue Moon and everything else. We never even thought about showing Black Hole we even knew they existed. When they attacked and all that, it was like 'hey, see us now? Now you can't ignore us!'."
Max crossed his arms and eventually nodded in agreement. Before much more could be said, the door to the room opened and Olaf and Grit entered. Some soldiers that were escorting them stayed in the hallway after being shooed away by Grit. Andy could also see some Orange Star soldiers out in the hall as well. Olaf was his usual decorated self, but Grit wasn't wearing any kind of formal uniform, still his usual apparel.
"Howdy Andy. You've been through some rough times. Nice to see your still kicking." Grit said tilting his hat back.
"You bum!" Olaf growled. "I told you to wear your uniform, but no. You just had to ignore me. You'll make Blue Moon look bad at the ceremony!"
"Geez." Grit groaned. "You always gotta go about putting a damper on the whole thing. It's time for celebrating boss. Let by gones be by gones you know."
"What ceremony?" Andy asked breaking up their argument.
"Oh yeah, Green Earth's gonna hold a ceremony for us helping them out of a clench. Should be better than Blue Moon's snore fest." Grit explained.
"Snore fest?" Olaf exclaimed. "Why I ought to-!"
The door opened again before Olaf could complain more to Grit and Eagle and Drake entered. Now the only country missing was Yellow Comet, Andy half expected Kanbei to show up for some reason, even though he was busy trying to restore Yellow Comet from Boris's attacks.
"Mornin' Andy. How's yer head feeling?" Drake announced.
"Morning? Was I out that long?"
"Actually it's mid day." Eagle explained. "Drake just doesn't adjust to time zones very well. It's nice to see nothing serious happened to you. We were able to move in quite easily after the Black Hole air force withdrew."
"Hey, guys, could I have a moment alone with Eagle?" Andy asked.
Grit was quick to nod and pull Olaf along with him while Max and Sami followed shortly afterward. Drake tipped his head and said goodbye before he left. Eagle didn't seem confused at all and simply waited for Andy to start talking again.
"If it makes you feel any better. He never was serving Sturm." Andy explained. "He was serving Black Hole."
"What do you mean by that?" Eagle asked.
"I mean he never wanted Sturm to lead Black Hole. I can only guess, but when Hawke was MIA, he was in Black Hole living a new life. I bet he's still there, working with Sonja to get Black Hole back on it's feet."
"I see..." Eagle replied after a time. "So I might still be able to see him again."
"I would put money on it!" Andy said cheerfully.
Outside in the hallway, the door was cracked and Olaf, Grit, and Drake pressed their eyes up to the crack to try to see in.
"Ouch! Move over you beached whale!" Olaf grumbled to Drake. "Grit! Tell me what you see?"
"Something about, mind your own business." And with that, Grit slammed the door.
-The End
(I always wanted to type that)
-Thanks for Reading!
-Chapter 10: The Final Encounter
The bullet left the chamber and sped across the room in a downward trajectory. It hit Andy in the leg driving him toward the ground. Sturm turned away as the bullet impacted, and with a huff began to move away.
"Don't move." He told Andy sarcastically.
He began to pound the console angrily and a radio signal was sent out. There was no visual but instead a read out of the frequency.
"Adder!"
There was no immediate response only a deafening silence. Sturm was gripping his gun angrily and his right arm began to shake.
"Adder! Report right now!"
"You know, if your lucky. Grit and Max took care of Adder before Hawke could backstab you."
Sturm fired a burst of bullets in Andy's direction but didn't aim. Most of the bullets impacted the wall and was enough to shut him up for a time. No matter how many times Sturm demanded it. There was no response from Adder, only a constant silence. He then tried another frequency and yelled out loud at the top of his voice.
"Hawke! What the hell is going on!"
"General Sturm. So nice of you to call."
"Shut up! What the hell is going on with Adder?"
"Adder... Is being pushed back toward the rocket facility. I believe his radio was shot out."
"All right! Get in here this instant. Land your jet and get in here right now!" Sturm demanded.
"Ok." Hawke's voice came from the stairs and Sturm spun around with his gun armed.
Hawke had a confident grin on his face and had a radio in one hand and a pistol in the other. The two were at a stand off for awhile until Andy knocked his tool kit to the ground and caused both of them to turn toward him. It was then Hawke decided to walk toward Sturm but stopped as he heard the click of Sturm fingering the trigger.
"What's a matter general? It's not like you to point a gun at one of your own officers." Hawke pointed out calmly. "Is something wrong?"
"Shut up. The boy just brought my attention to something quite interesting. Oh, is something wrong. Something is definitely wrong. With you Hawke, my most loyal supporter."
"Supporter?" Hawke sounded surprised. "No, not supporter. Casual follower."
Andy was looking back and forth between the both of them trying to decide what was going on. He had thought he was on to something when Sturm had reacted to his question about what Hawke had to gain from his plans. From there it seemed things had gone downhill for Sturm. But something was wrong, Andy felt, Sturm was not one to make mistakes with out plans for correcting them.
"Casual follower..." Sturm repeated angrily. "Interesting choice of words. It's like I couldn't even hear you blatantly admit your betraying me."
"You betrayed Dark Star first. One, by denying me to test my son in combat. You had me reassigned. I could possibly live with that. But then you let Boris die, then I knew we were just expendable pawns. No value to you as officers, but plenty as cannon fodder. Just like Black Hole. Isn't that right, general?"
"So what of it?" Sturm asked unfazed. "What made you think you were any more important that a front line soldier? Because you command others? I think you were trying to find your real position all those times you joined your men on the front."
"Like the dogfight against Eagle? Yes, I was there too. He's just as good as I thought he would be. I can sleep a little easier knowing he's a capable pilot and officer. That's all I really wanted in the end."
"Wait a second." Andy interrupted. "You joined Sturm just so you could see Eagle fighting? Couldn't you just watch him from the safety of a Green Earth position?"
"That wouldn't be satisfactory. He would be trying to please me, not himself. That's no way to prove anything. I had to see him completely motivated by his own accord."
Hawke ducked down as Sturm suddenly opened fire and began to shatter the monitors and glass on the wall in front of him. But the fire didn't last long as the gun gave an empty click and refused to fire anymore. Andy saw Sturm toss the gun angrily to the side and then as Hawke slowly rose out from behind one of the consoles.
"Andy, don't be so naive." Sturm hissed. "Seeing his son fighting was just a by product of his true purpose. Undermining me!"
"Some truth to that." Hawke said casually as he aimed his pistol at Sturm.
"What do you think your going to do with that gun? It's not gonna do anything to my suit." Sturm laughed.
"That's true."
Hawke pulled the trigger anyway and soon Andy could see one of the eyes on Sturm's mask explode into glass shrapnel. The next thing he heard was Hawke's voice ordering him to get moving. With a last look of Sturm reeling backwards with his hands around his damaged eye piece he began to follow Hawke upstairs to the damaged viewing area. The rocket was in clear view ahead of them and so was the fire fight from Sami's troops.
"Sami! Oh no Sheila is gonna pick them all off!" Andy cried out.
"One crisis at a time. First we stop the launch." Hawke explained.
An infuriated roar from below was followed by the ominous rush of footsteps below. Sturm's heavy footsteps could be heard as he rushed up the stairs and was now armed with one of the Orange Star assault rifles. He wasted no time firing at Hawke and Andy as they rushed out onto the balcony.
"What will we-"
Andy couldn't say much as Hawke picked him up and threw him off of the balcony, before jumping off himself. Sturm charged outside and leapt of the side as well. All three of them landed on top of a Black Hole harrier. The jet began to pull away from the control center and slowly turned around heading toward the rocket. Andy had landed on top of the cockpit as Sturm had leapt back near the engines and tail fins. Hawke was in between the two of them lying down to keep from rolling off. But he instantly rolled to the left wing as Sturm managed to aim the rifle and fire it. Some of the bullets blew holes through the upper cockpit which was empty. The bullets crippled the canopy and soon collapsed sending Andy falling into the rear seat. The Black Hole pilot didn't even look back as he continued to fly toward the launch site.
The view from the cockpit allowed Andy to see Hawke dangling off the left wing and trying to get footing on a missile that hung from the underside. He didn't get far before Sturm crawled toward the edge and fired at him keeping him from getting out of his precarious position.
"Hey!" Andy cried out to the pilot flying the jet. "You need to get us near the rocket platform! Something Hawke can land on! He's gonna fall!"
"I have a better idea." The pilot told Andy. "You better buckle in."
After Andy had secured himself in the seat, the pilot flipped the jet on it's side giving Hawke some footing on the missiles and sending Sturm tumbling toward the right wing. The jet began to swerve away from the rocket platform though as Hawke gave a signal to the pilot and flipped around to the topside of the wing as the jet leveled itself.
"You guys are crazy." Andy muttered.
"That's Hawke for you." The pilot answered simply.
But suddenly a chorus of jet engines made them all turn to see a formation of Green Earth jets heading toward the harrier and firing off their machine guns.
"I don't suppose they know you guys have defected? Do they?" Andy asked worried.
"No, they don't."
The harriers engines came to life as they began to take off and fly away from the incoming Green Earth fighters. It wasn't long before they were out over the ocean and still with Sturm and Hawke hanging onto each of the wings.
"What the hell are you doing!" Andy cried out uncontrollably. "We need to go the other way!"
"Hey kid! Shut up! Do you know how a jet works? Do you? If I could turn on a dime without getting shot down I would! Ok!"
The Black Hole cruisers soon began to shoot at the incoming jets as they cut a path over the main body of the fleet. But the Green Earth jets behind them were undaunted and continued to stick to their tails.
"I don't suppose you could talk to them?" The pilot suggested.
"Oh yeah! Great idea!"
Trembling from the heat of the moment, Andy gripped the radio and began to shout out.
"Hey you guys! Stop shooting! It's Andy! I'm in the jet you guys are tailing! Hawke's forces have defected! Come in! Stop shooting!"
They soon received confused shouts from the Green Earth jets following them.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's one of those damn clones I tell you!"
"Oh crap..." Andy muttered realizing he wasn't going to stop them.
He gave a quick glance to see Hawke still holding on and then looked to the right wing to see that Sturm was nowhere in sight. Then he looked back to see Sturm crawling across the left wing toward Hawke.
"How the hell!"
"His suit! He's like magnetized to the plane!" The pilot explained in bewilderment. "I tried to shake him off a couple minutes ago. It's like he's glued to the body of the plane!"
Something was pouring from the eyehole Hawke had shot earlier. It looked like blood, but it was brown and oozed like oil. Andy had seen it plenty of times, it was hydraulic fluid.
"Look we gotta land this thing somehow! Can't you slow down and let them pass! This jet flies like a helicopter!" Andy pleaded.
"And risk them running into us? That's just stupid!"
"Well then Hawke is gonna get thrown off anyway!"
The pilot gave out a sigh and hit a switch. The harrier began to slow down drastically and it seemed to bring the bullets closer to the plane. It was then Andy watched as the fire from one of the Green Earth jets hit Sturm and caused him to arch back. Sparks and debris of the suit went flying everywhere.
"Whoa! Sturm just took a bullet, I mean a couple bullets for us!" Andy said amazed.
"I bet you anything he's still alive!" The pilot warned.
Soon afterward the jets screamed past then and began to turn to circle around giving the harrier pilot time to race back toward the rocket and hover to the ground. The harrier settled between a couple of hangars. Andy undid the restraints and leaped out as Hawke dropped to the ground and tumbled across the asphalt. Sturm's yells of agony could now be heard as he rolled of the wing and hit the ground shortly after Hawke did. He stood up slowly, there was the brownish fluid from before leaking everywhere and sparks shooting all over the place. The harrier pilot pulled the jet away and began to fly off somewhere.
"Andy!" Sturm cried out. "If anyone deserves a bullet to the head. It's you!"
Sturm's aim quivered. The suit would shutter with every spark that flew from the gaping holes created by the Green Earth fighter. But since the weapon Sturm was weilding was a machine gun, the aim was not overall important. Andy wanted to run, but as he stood up the shot to the leg earlier reminded him about his ability to move quickly. He looked over to Hawke only to see him unconscious. Sturm began to groan and got his attention but he didn't fire the gun.
"Grrr! Malfunctioning piece of garbage!" Sturm growled. "I need to take this suit off."
In an instant, a loud hissing sound began to escape the suit. Sections of it began to fall off, first the arms, then the leg sections then the torso section which was so badly damaged by the jet machine gun fire. Before long Sturm looked like he did before, just a man in a mask with a black officers uniform. Pieces of the suit lie all around him and looked like dismembered body parts.
"Much better. You know, I was hoping the whole harrier would be shot down. Then I wouldn't have to bother myself with all this nonsense."
Sturm reached for a handgun at his side and cocked the hammer back. It was exactly the same make as Adder's automatic handgun.
"Is there a moment when your caught without a weapon?" Andy muttered trying to move.
"It's all coming apart again. You know, I've finally realized my mistake. All these years I keep trying to crush you with a concrete form of opposition. You keep pulling together, and you keep winning. Well next time, I'm going to collapse each country the way I did Black Hole. It'll take years, much longer than a military campaign, but at least I'll win. And you won't know till it's too late."
Sturm's hand was shaking, but more so with exhaustion than anger. Andy was sure he would have accidentally fired it off by now. Then he heard the loud bang and rolled to the side as the bullet impacted the asphalt. Now Andy faced the ground, Sturm's footsteps shuffled behind him, telling him he was taking aim again and rolled as he did before. Now Sturm was firing it off in full auto mode. One of the bullets clipped Andy in the shoulder and he groaned in pain facing upwards toward the sky. The next thing he saw was Sturm's damaged mask and him pointing the gun straight down.
"Now I know why you hide behind all your troops and tanks and planes. You don't have the backbone to kill anyone yourself." Sturm told him in a cold voice. "You've never put a clip in a gun."
Sturm dropped the empty clip to the asphalt and let it send a clattering noise before placing a new one back into the gun.
"You've never cocked the hammer back."
He pulled the hammer back into a position ready to fire and then pushed the muzzle into Andy's face.
"And you've certainly never killed anyone."
"Wrong Sturm." Andy replied suddenly. "You know someone had to have killed Boris."
"Your lying." Sturm shot back angrily.
"Grenade, into his walking tank. Split it in two. Like a nut when you hit it with a hammer. Or a mask when you break it with a fist."
A bomb went off not to far away, a bombing run by Green Earth now that the skies were clear of any enemy harriers. In the initial blast, Andy shot up in a furious motion and let Sturm have it between the eyes. He wheeled back in pain and held his fist while Sturm's head whipped back and caused him to lose his balance. The handgun was shot off like a crazy man and bullets went everywhere until the gun was empty. Some of the bullets ricocheted off of the hangar walls and came right back into Sturm's mask. He screamed out aloud and soon the mask fell to the ground cut to ribbons, much like the rest of the suit not too far behind them both.
Sturm dropped the gun and covered his exposed face and began to run off. Andy didn't see anything, but stood up and began to limp after Sturm despite the pain running up and down his leg.
"Sturm! Stop! Your not getting away!"
The fleeing general had almost rounded the corner of the hangar when a loud whistling sound filled the area.
"Sturm! Stop! Now!"
Just as Andy had guessed what was going to happen, a bomb landed right behind Sturm and then on top of the hangar sending debris to rain down all around the area. The first explosion threw Andy back to where he had run from, and Sturm was soon covered by the falling metal and debris.
"Oh... Man..." Andy groaned. "No more front line stuff for me..."
Following the sudden withdraw of Hawke's air force, any Black Hole units caught on the ground were bombed to smithereens. The Blue Moon re-enforcements finally arrived and any Black Hole unit still hanging around was blown to kingdom come. Orange Star cleaned up what the reckless Blue Moon strike missed. It wasn't long before they met up with Sami's team who had been caught at the base of the rocket forced to have it out with the nearly endless Black Hole forces. But as soon as Sturm lost contact with his forces, it was all over. From there, it was only a matter of time before they discovered Andy.
------------------------------
"Hey kid. You awake yet? We're bored waiting for you to open your eyes." Max complained. "Ow! Sami, you didn't have to hit me so hard!"
"Serves your right you big lug. You should be more grateful Andy is still alive!" Sami said angrily.
The voices swirled around Andy's head until he opened his eyes slowly. Max and Sami stood at the end of the bed dressed in full uniforms. Max was rubbing his head with a painful expression on his face. It was then Andy realized he was in some kind of hospital.
"Whoa. Where am I?"
"Victor Hospital, Green Earth territory." Sami explained. "You've been through some rough stuff Andy."
"Hawke! Where's Hawke?" Andy cried out.
"Hawke? What do you mean?" Max asked.
Andy began to sit up slowly groaning from the aches and pains in his body. He looked around the room slowly taking in the surroundings before turning back toward them.
"I was in the control room, and then Sturm showed up. Then Hawke showed up. Guys! He wasn't working for Sturm at all! Then he saved me in a way, then we-"
"Whoa kid. Slow down. Like Sami said before, you've been through a lot. Now tell us again."
But Andy didn't tell them again, he simply thought about it. He now had a question for Max and Sami.
"What ever happened to Sonja?"
"Sonja was doing her usual stuff. Working alone, occupying the Black Hole continent and doing stuff without anyone else knowing until the last second." Sami explained annoyed.
"Occupying Black Hole?"
"Yeah, instead of leaving them to their own devices like we did last time. Now she's gonna make sure they don't fall under Sturm's influence again. As much as we didn't want to do it, she wanted Adder and Sheila released from our custody so Yellow Comet could reform them to serve Black Hole and not Sturm."
Andy shook his head in agreement.
"That's a good plan. I know she'll pull it off."
"What?" Sami gasped. "What are you talking about? Black Hole is Sturm's home continent! They're just as crooked as he is."
"Your wrong Sami. I don't think Sturm belongs to any one country. He told me himself, he uses everyone for his own gain. Whole countries right down to individual people." Andy explained. "We'll be all right as long as Sturm doesn't have the ability to get hold of a countries military. We had ignored them for so long..."
"Ignored who?" Now Max was confused. "Black Hole? Sheesh. You'd think a simple reminder would be better than invasion."
"Naw Max. You don't understand. We were so caught up in Blue Moon and everything else. We never even thought about showing Black Hole we even knew they existed. When they attacked and all that, it was like 'hey, see us now? Now you can't ignore us!'."
Max crossed his arms and eventually nodded in agreement. Before much more could be said, the door to the room opened and Olaf and Grit entered. Some soldiers that were escorting them stayed in the hallway after being shooed away by Grit. Andy could also see some Orange Star soldiers out in the hall as well. Olaf was his usual decorated self, but Grit wasn't wearing any kind of formal uniform, still his usual apparel.
"Howdy Andy. You've been through some rough times. Nice to see your still kicking." Grit said tilting his hat back.
"You bum!" Olaf growled. "I told you to wear your uniform, but no. You just had to ignore me. You'll make Blue Moon look bad at the ceremony!"
"Geez." Grit groaned. "You always gotta go about putting a damper on the whole thing. It's time for celebrating boss. Let by gones be by gones you know."
"What ceremony?" Andy asked breaking up their argument.
"Oh yeah, Green Earth's gonna hold a ceremony for us helping them out of a clench. Should be better than Blue Moon's snore fest." Grit explained.
"Snore fest?" Olaf exclaimed. "Why I ought to-!"
The door opened again before Olaf could complain more to Grit and Eagle and Drake entered. Now the only country missing was Yellow Comet, Andy half expected Kanbei to show up for some reason, even though he was busy trying to restore Yellow Comet from Boris's attacks.
"Mornin' Andy. How's yer head feeling?" Drake announced.
"Morning? Was I out that long?"
"Actually it's mid day." Eagle explained. "Drake just doesn't adjust to time zones very well. It's nice to see nothing serious happened to you. We were able to move in quite easily after the Black Hole air force withdrew."
"Hey, guys, could I have a moment alone with Eagle?" Andy asked.
Grit was quick to nod and pull Olaf along with him while Max and Sami followed shortly afterward. Drake tipped his head and said goodbye before he left. Eagle didn't seem confused at all and simply waited for Andy to start talking again.
"If it makes you feel any better. He never was serving Sturm." Andy explained. "He was serving Black Hole."
"What do you mean by that?" Eagle asked.
"I mean he never wanted Sturm to lead Black Hole. I can only guess, but when Hawke was MIA, he was in Black Hole living a new life. I bet he's still there, working with Sonja to get Black Hole back on it's feet."
"I see..." Eagle replied after a time. "So I might still be able to see him again."
"I would put money on it!" Andy said cheerfully.
Outside in the hallway, the door was cracked and Olaf, Grit, and Drake pressed their eyes up to the crack to try to see in.
"Ouch! Move over you beached whale!" Olaf grumbled to Drake. "Grit! Tell me what you see?"
"Something about, mind your own business." And with that, Grit slammed the door.
-The End
(I always wanted to type that)
-Thanks for Reading!