War of the Melee Worlds
Chapter 10 – The Boiling Point
By Pelican (Pelican_13@yahoo.com)
The Hylian forces had been equipped with Hylian shields to hopefully block any enemy laser fire. The Ripple Star forces held Lon Lon Ranch like a jewel stolen from a watchful shopkeeper. The very fact that they could land on Hylian soil and capture an entire area infuriated the Hylians and they allowed their emotions to get the best of them. They were preparing to move out. The Gerudos stood near the makeshift, wooden, guard post established near their valley. Some of the women were armed with bows and ice arrows, a specialty item of the Gerudos.
One of the higher-ranking soldiers gave the command and the Hylian soldiers began to move out towards the ranch. The first row of them held their shields high. Farther back men were armed with bows along with their standard issue spears. Another command was given and everyone broke out into a mad charge. They sprinted with all their might towards the very center of their kingdom.
Inside the Ripple Star perimeter a waddle dee ran up to a few other waddle dees arming three large pieces of artillery.
"The enemy is charging! Open fire!" he ordered.
The artillery operators responded and began firing over their established walls and into the mass of oncoming soldiers. The first projectile landed in front of the charging force. Bits and pieces of the soil blasted up at them. The group ran forward, through the crater blasted right before them and through the mass of dirt coming at them from the explosion. Another artillery shot was well aimed. It hit one side of the first row of incoming soldiers. The shields provided absolutely no defense, and the armor didn't help either, and around 10 men went down instantly.
"Go!" ordered Ganondorf while pointing his sword towards the ranch. The Gerudo tribe's warriors followed instructions and began their own charge towards the ranch. From atop the tower constructed in the ranch the two fairies looked down at the Gerudo's activity. They aimed the heavy machine gun at the warrior women and began to open fire.
Another five men went down to a hellish artillery explosion. A few young soldiers discontinued the charge and retreated towards Zora River. The Hylians left on the attack began to seriously dwindle in number.
Three Gerudos were taken out by the machine gun fire. Two skilled Gerudos wielding ice arrows took aim at the two atop the tower. They fired and with precise accuracy hit the Ripple Star fairies in their hearts. Not only were they bleeding externally but also the arrows embedded in them virtually froze their insides. One fell off the tower, surly to die upon his impact on Hyrule Field.
"The Hylian military is occupied! Launch now!" ordered a fairy. He was directing his order at Kirby, his team of nine waddle dees, and a Cornerian transport. The ten designated quickly boarded the transport and closed the doors. The craft began to steadily lift off, while artillery fire rained down between the ranch and the town and Gerudo warriors began to fire ice arrows into the air and let them wall on the ranch.
Once the transport had reached an altitude high enough to get over the castle walls it began propelling forward. Below more Hylian guards began retreating. The main force was hardly recognizable amongst the fleeing soldiers. The transport past over the city walls. The two stationed archers took a shot at the craft's cockpit but to no avail. After an extremely short flight the craft descended into the front lawn of Hyrule Castle. Kirby and his team exited. They were armed with Star Rods with the exception of the pink hero himself. He wielded a long sword, taller than himself, that was ignited and stayed ignited by some unknown method. The team ran towards the drawbridge, which was raised. Kirby had planned that and also brought with him a few sticks of dynamite. He threw it over the moat and it landed on a ledge next to the drawbridge. He and the waddle dees fell back behind a small cliff. The explosion was loud; anyone in the castle or the nearby town could have heard it. Kirby stepped out from his cover to see a hole had been blown into the drawbridge, still raised, and the nearby stones. He led the way into the moat and to the castle's entrance.
Three Gerudos aimed upwards at the ranch. They let their arrows fly, which had a grapple instead of an arrowhead attached. The arrow was connected to a rope and as the arrows grabbed something inside the ranch they had a way to climb into the garrison. The first three Gerudos began up while several others took aim. Inside the garrison the waddle dees and fairies were busy repelling the Hylian force and the Gerudo force went almost unnoticed.
From a naturally occurring bridge over the outlet of Zora River three Hylian guards watched the mayhem unfolding. Almost all Hylians had retreated, if not dead. Two or three made it to cover at the Lon Lon ranch's walls but were pretty much pinned down there. Craters were blasted into the soil by relentless artillery fire. The field between Hyrule Castle Town and Lon Lon Ranch was covered with blood and bits of flesh scattered by explosions. One of the watching Hylians put his head between his hands and shook his head, thinking this carnage was too unreal to be true.
Special news reports flooded the major television stations and radio stations all over the Lylat System. General Pepper and his team of officers were frantically trying to do anything they could after the attack. In the background a television was tuned into a common station and the same reporter as before was bring the breaking news to the public.
"A hijacked transport shuttle has crashed into a skyscraper right here in Corneria City," she calmly reported. "We have unconfirmed reports that this act was committed by an extremist group on Yoshi's Island known as the Dark Yoshi. The shuttles were supposedly stolen near Peach's Castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. The vigilante Katt Monroe reported shooting down one of the hijacked transports in the valley leading to the city."
The view switched to a live shot of the impacted tower. Smoke was billowing out of it while powerful water cannons were being fired in by ground and air-based vehicles.
Inside the war room, which happened to be in the building next to the one on fire, General Pepper had ordered air patrols throughout the Lylat System and security stepped up everywhere on the Mushroom Kingdom. The highest-ranking officers were too worried about another attack on them and failed to pay enough attention to their ally's force on Hyrule. It would seem that the garrison at Lon Lon Ranch would go without additional reinforcements.
Kirby and the waddle dees ran down a marble hallway in Hyrule Castle. On either side of them were rows of doors leading to the countless rooms in the castle. The team's destination was the throne room, where the king hopefully resided. Ahead lied one of the larger doors in the main hallway. Kirby reached it first and waited for the waddle dees to catch up. The waddle dees aimed held their Star Rods and were ready for a fight. Kirby took a slash at the door with the Fire Sword. It made a sizable cut and the wooden door began to burn. Kirby took a few more slashes and cut an entrance big enough for one to fit though. He entered first and was followed by the nearest waddle dees. Before them was a large room with stairs leading to the throne chair on the other side. In the chair sat the king of Hyrule himself, and near him stood captains of the guard. A few waddle dees fired star projectiles from their rods. The shots were accurate and the two captains fell. The king stood and tried to get away.
"Stop!" commanded Kirby, who was backed by nine waddle dees aiming their Star Rods at the king. The Hylian king froze in his tracks. The Ripple Star team had hit the castle at its weakest time. Almost all military were fighting in Hyrule Field. The king offered no resistance and raised his hands with dignity.
The first Gerudos rappelled to the top of the tower on Lon Lon Ranch. Two of the first three females had taken command of the mounted machine gun. The dead body of one Ripple Star fairy was kicked to the ground far below. The attackers spun the gun around and aimed down at the ranch. Chaos was everywhere. Machine gun fire was raining down on the garrison, as well as being fired at the converted tower. Star projectiles flew up towards the Gerudos climbing the wall, many hit the area nearby and caused damage to the tower or the surrounding wall. The sounds of artillery fire still boomed out in the field. Debris was sent in all directions in the path between the ranch and the town. It was a fierce gunfight in which many on all sides were taking casualties.
The king of the Gerudos, Ganondorf, made it to the top of the tower. The three occupying the gun ducked below the high-point of the roof and were generally safe from enemy fire. Ganondorf got a glimpse at the main Hylian city while he was repositioning himself to be in better cover. He saw a lone Cornerian transport lifting off and moving towards their direction.
"There!" he called, pointing to the sky. "Shoot at that!"
One of the Gerudos aimed the mounted weapon towards the sky above Hyrule Castle Town.
In the cockpit of the transport the pilot could easily see the gunfight going on around the base. When machine gun fire came near the ship he took hard hold of the joystick and turned right, towards the Gerudo Valley and Lake Hylia. A row of bullets hit the engine and caused a violent release of energy. A ball of fire trailed the transport and it began going down. The Gerudos continued shooting relentlessly at the enemy transport. As it went out of view behind one of the cliffs above the river leading to Lake Hylia the gunners switched back to firing down on the ranch.
The shuttle suffered another explosion in its engines. The pilot was unable to control the ship anymore and it drew nearer to the surface. A few wooden objects crashed into the cockpit and less than a second later it impacted the water of Lake Hylia. The fuel remaining exploded, causing a shock wave in the water and destroying everything in the transport. A small amount of gas reached the surface, still aflame. It continued to burn as some remains of the transport floated to the surface. Pieces of metal from the ship and wood from the bridge the crash had taken out littered the water.
On the roof of an observation station overlooking the lake a flash of green light appeared. In a magical yellow swirl the princess of this land, Zelda, and the famed hero, Link, appeared. They looked down at the burning water and debris floating in the water below.
"No," Zelda said silently to herself. Link put his hand on the princess's shoulder, offering support.
"I can't believe this happened," Zelda said.
"Let's go," suggested Link, "there's nothing we can do for them."
They looked down at the burning water for a moment
"But there is," Zelda replied.
"What?"
"There is something we can do, for my father and everyone else that died in this senseless war."
"What?" Link asked again.
"I'll show you." She used another Farore's Wind and the two disappeared.
They soon reappeared atop the tower overlooking Lon Lon.
"Ganondorf!" Zelda tried to get Ganondorf's attention over the loud artillery. Ganondorf spun around to see the two other Hylians in Melee.
"What do you want?" he yelled.
"Come with me," Zelda said probably not loud enough for Ganondorf to hear. She used yet another Farore's Wind and transported Link, Ganondorf, and herself away from the battlefield.
The three artillery guns in the middle of Lon Lon Ranch were pushed to face the left by several waddle dees. When they had the weapons facing where they wanted they opened fire again. The explosions hit the top of the tower and the walls the Gerudos were climbing over. Bits of stone flew off the structure, along with bodies of Gerudo warriors. The fairies and waddle dees rallied and begun to repel the Gerudos coming over the wall. Craters began to appear at the tops of the wall and the roof of the tower was looking in really bad shape. One more shell hit the tower and exploded. The roof was virtually blown off. Pieces fell back down into the tower and over the wall into Hyrule Field. The Gerudos still on the ground began retreating as stone debris fell on them.