Fichina's Demise Part 3

Battalion Headquarters

"Most of the defense has been taken out," said James. "And I've just gotten the report from all of the companies. All of our soldiers are in position."

"Good," replied Banks. "7th and 9th are ready as well. We just need to wait for 3rd and 5th."

"Yes sir." He watched as the camp was being taken down. Sipping on his coffee, he directed the technicians where to put his computer and the rest of his gear.

"5th's in position," said Banks. "3rd is just about there, so let's go." He strapped himself in the seat of an army truck. "Get in the back."

James looked at the backseat, unsure. "Um..."

"Oh, right..."

"I'll just hitch a ride on top of one of the tanks."

Base of Operations – Exterior

The surveillance team was spotted by a Searcher about four hours prior to this, and they had to abandon their posts. The last image they had managed to get was Andross watching over his army. Next to him was a figure nobody could recognize, except for the fact that he was a swine. But it didn't matter; the important thing was that they knew that Andross was still at the base.

Peppy's platoon had the launchers all set up on top of the valley. On command, they were to fire rockets into the sky, which would then fall down onto the base (or at least near it). Afterwards, Reynolds would lead them down the mountain peaks, along with the other platoons and many of the other companies, and they would all blitz the area. They just needed to keep themselves moving, with no hesitations.

Three of the tanks arrived, with James on top of one of them, along with several army trucks, containing the regiment officers. Banks got out of his truck and went to pat Reynolds on the back. James slid down off the hull of the tank and greeted A Company. He noticed that he couldn't recognize most of Reynolds' platoon. He hadn't gotten the casualty report – that went to Banks – so he had no idea prior to this that they had lost so many.

"Jimmy," said Peppy, "it's been a mess."

James sighed. "Well, you know it wasn't your fault, right?"

"I know, but... I don't think we're going to make it out of this. I mean, especially with him in command," Peppy said, gesturing to Reynolds.

"Just make the best out of the situation, alright?" He put his hand on Peppy's shoulder. "Never give up, trust your instincts."

Peppy nodded. "Right."

"Alright, everybody! It's showtime!" yelled out Banks. Peppy ordered 2nd Platoon to get the launchers ready, while the other soldiers readied themselves to charge.

Moment of truth, thought James.

"Fire!" shouted Banks.

Peppy repeated the order, and the launchers fired several rockets into the air, making a high pitched whirring sound. Seconds later, they could hear the impact explosions. Over on the other side of the valley, more and more rockets were sent flying into the air, landing down below.

"Charge!"

All of the platoons bolted forward in unison – except for Reynolds', who had hesitated. From here on out, the entire company was under his command. The first wave of companies followed suit, bringing down a rain of laser fire. The enemy troops retaliated. Heavy artillery down below fired madly at the crowd of soldiers, taking out a few of them. The tanks up above did their best to knock them out.

Peppy looked to the side, seeing Reynolds' platoon lagging behind. He kept his head forward, focusing on not getting hit. Nothing to worry about really; they were too small of targets and were moving too fast. 4th Platoon reached the bottom first, followed by Peppy's, 3rd, 5th, then finally Reynolds'. They took cover behind the wreckage and anything else they could find. Peppy looked over at Reynolds, who looked scared out of his mind.

"WHAT'S YOUR COMMAND, SIR?" Peppy shouted over the commotion.

"HUH?" Reynolds yelled back. A soldier behind him took a shot to the head.

"I SAID, WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW, SIR?"

Reynolds looked around, scanning the area worryingly. "WE'LL STAY HERE!"

What? thought Peppy. Banks had specifically suggested that they keep moving while down here. Staying in one spot while they were being hit with all of this shit was suicide.

Up top, James saw through his binoculars that most of the soldiers had started to engage the enemy soldiers – except for a small group, which was completely stationary behind some wreckage just outside of the area. It took James a while for him to realize it was A Company. What the hell were they doing? That was a sure–fire way to get killed.

Peppy looked up at the valley and saw the second wave of soldiers charging down. "SIR, SECOND WAVE'S ALREADY COMING! WE NEED TO GO NOW!"

"NO! STAY HERE, WHERE IT'S SAFE!" argued Reynolds, another one of his soldiers taking a hit.

Fuck, thought Peppy. He really was going to get them all killed.

"SIR!" yelled out the 3rd Platoon leader. "WE'RE SITTING DUCKS HERE! WE HAVE TO KEEP MOVING, OR WE'LL GET KILLED!" Two of his soldiers were simultaneously struck down.

"LT., FOLLOW MY ORDERS, OR I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!"

"Sir? Our company's not going anywhere," said James.

"What do you mean?"

"Reynolds has the entire company behind cover. They're being picked off like flies down there!"

"Radio him, see what's going on."

James grabbed his PDA, calling up Reynolds. Down below, Reynolds fiddled with the buttons to get it to answer the call.

"Cpt., what the hell is going on down there? You've got to move!"

"SIR, I THINK WE NEED TO STAY BEHIND COVER!" Reynolds shouted into the PDA, distorting the sound on James' end.

"Cpt., Banks over here is telling you to get your ass moving! And everybody else seems to be reaching the base just fine! Now get to it!"

Reynolds shook his head, shutting off his PDA. "We're not going anywhere," he said to his platoon.

"Sir, they're still not moving," said James.

"Shit, what is he doing?" asked Banks.

Peppy couldn't stand watching more of their soldiers being mass murdered. "Let's go," he ordered, and his platoon gladly followed him.

"HARE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" screamed Reynolds. "FOLLOW WHAT I SAY, OR – "

"FUCK YOU, REYNOLDS!" Peppy shouted back, leading his platoon to the base. The other platoons followed suit, merging with the second wave of soldiers that had just reached the bottom. Reynolds watched angrily as his soldiers disobeyed his orders before his very eyes. He grudgingly followed them, his platoon trailing his path in frustration.

Finally, thought James. Now they just needed to survive the interior.

Base of Operations – Interior

Being that Harry Caroso was one of the richest beings alive, he had quite a large base. So large, in fact, that it was the perfect place for Andross to hide. It was also the perfect place to hold a large scale shootout inside one of the hangar bays. While most of the battle was taking place outside, two platoons (Peppy's own and another from D Company) had managed to sneak in. He had no idea where the rest of the company was, but he couldn't worry about it now. They just needed to find Andross, and to do that, they first had to deal with the hangar bay full of enemies. Luckily, there were plenty of ships and rows of steel boxes of ammunition to hide behind.

The platoon spent the entire time acting as a firing squad, each of them kneeling behind a steel box or any other source of cover, and giving it all they had to the enemies, which were disposed of pretty quickly.

"Lt. Hare," called out Cpt. Hunt. "I'll lead my platoon this way." He pointed to a tight hallway on the right side.

"Yes sir," responded Peppy.

Exterior

Along with the third wave, the regiment officers and most of their tanks descended towards the bottom as well. Thanks to the extremely strong traction on these things, they didn't have to worry about having these things slipping and toppling onto the soldiers. James stuck close by one of tanks, away from the crowd, to avoid fighting. All he had with him was a pistol anyway. The rest of the regiment officers, however, started to kick ass. More enemy soldiers were erupting out of the base, countering their attack. As he watched the two armies obliterate each other, he wished how he could just join in.

Interior

Peppy and his soldiers inspected all of the rooms they encountered in this hallway, finding nothing of interest or importance so far. Monroe had found a data log, which only further confirmed that Andross was still here. Everybody else couldn't find jack shit.

The hallway that Hunt took linked up to the hallway Peppy took, and they met up at a cross, where they found another pair of hallways to explore. "Alright, I'll take the right one again," said Hunt.

Peppy nodded. He was about head for the left hallway before he heard, "Wait just a moment, Lt." All of the soldiers turned to see Reynolds, with his platoon in front of him, and a rocket launcher aimed right for Peppy's head.

Hangar

As he looked inside one of the hallways, a cold sweat ran down James' neck. No way could he survive in there. He backed away and stayed in the middle of the hangar, where it was more open.

"They've seem to have done quite a number on this place," said Banks.

"Yeah," agreed James, breathing easier over here. 3rd Platoon watched over them, inspecting every part of the hangar to see if there were any more enemies.

An echo of footsteps were heard coming from the left hallway. All of the soldiers aimed their weapons toward the opening, only to lower them as they saw a fellow A Company soldier rush into the hangar – one that James recognized.

"Daltrey? Where's Reynolds? Aren't you in his platoon?" he asked.

"Sir..." gasped Daltrey. "He... Reynol... gone... completely... insane..."

"What?"

All of the soldiers stopped what they were doing to listen.

Daltrey took a second to catch his breath. "He has... rocket launcher... threatening... to kill our... platoons."

Banks couldn't believe what he was hearing. "He's lying! Reynolds wouldn't do something like that!"

But James had more trust in what Daltrey was saying. Besides, he knew him well. "Threatening to kill? For what?"

Daltrey shook his head, saying, "I... don't know..."

"There has to be some sort of mistake," concluded Banks. "Continue on," he told the platoon.

Shit, thought James. Peppy was in those hallways. If Banks wasn't going to do anything about it, that meant he had to, since Daltrey was too tired to even do anything right now. He walked over to the hallway, looking inside. Just from the look of it, he shook in fear. The tight space, the lack of air. It scared him to death. No, he couldn't do it! But his best friend was in there... his soldiers that he trained were being held hostage by a psychotic... he had to... fuck his condition...

Hallway

"Traitor," said Hunt.

"No no no, I'm no henchman of Andross," Reynolds said calmly. "It just really pisses me off when a soldier doesn't follow my orders, let alone my entire company."

"Reynolds, you were going to get us all killed," said Peppy, backing away.

"You didn't know that. We could've saved more soldiers staying there than we would've otherwise. Besides, aren't you supposed to follow your superiors at all times, Lt.? Somebody failed to do that."

"But – "

"Shut up!" he shouted, raising the rocket launcher higher. "I'm gonna do it! I swear to God, I'll fucking do it!"

"Shit, he's psychotic..." exclaimed Moon.

"Look, Reynolds, what's that going to accomplish?" asked Peppy, keeping his calm. "You're going to get yourself killed, and you're going to waste all of these good soldiers' lives!"

"Fuck them!" he shouted. "They don't respect me! I know what you've all been saying about me! How you've all mocked me of my leadership, my navigation! Who fucking cares that I can't do any of that, I'm a captain! You don't show any proper respect!"

Peppy became angry, not caring anymore whether he was going to get blown up or not. "Because you don't fucking deserve it! We were getting tired of your unorthodox training and your constant berating! Not to mention the fact that you've completely abandoned us in combat! Who the fuck gave you the privilege to be a captain?! Or hell, part of the army?! You don't even deserve to be part of the maintenance staff!"

Reynolds' smiled. "You've got a lot of guts to say shit like that. Now you're going to pay for – "

He didn't finish his sentence as a sharp jolt of pain in his forehead knocked him out cold. Peppy and the rest of the soldiers gazed as if it were a miracle. They couldn't believe it as they saw James twirl his pistol around his fingers.

"How the – wha – uh..." stammered Peppy.

"Let's just continue on, alright? I'm in charge of this platoon now," said James. "Hunt, proceed."

Hunt, who was still trying to digest what the hell was going on, nodded and headed off with his platoon. James walked over Reynolds' body, picked up his rocket launcher, and ordered his platoon, along with Peppy's, to follow him.

"You're claustrophobic! You shouldn't even be here!" exclaimed Peppy.

"That's not going to be a problem anymore," assured James, smiling. His PDA started to ring, which he answered. "Yes?"

"James, get back up here!" Banks shouted. "We have a huge problem!"

"What is it, sir? More enemies?"

A loud, shrieking noise was heard, which both confused and startled all of the soldiers. "You could say that..."

Exterior

Outside, James could see that the fighting had stopped. All of Andross' forces had retreated, leaving all of the Cornerian and Fichinian soldiers down below. Why? Well, maybe it had something to do with the gigantic insect-like creature flying up in the sky, completely obliterating countless aircrafts. It was the ugliest and scariest thing James had ever seen. It looked like some sort of moth, with its wings having a purplish puke color to them. Its eye (well, it looked like an eye, anyway) had no iris, and shined a bright purple.

"Sir?"

"James, we have to get out of here..." said Banks.

"But Andross..."

"Andross already escaped! We saw his ship leave as soon as this thing appeared. Look at what it's doing, we can't defend ourselves against that!"

James nodded. "Everybody back to the Great Fox!" His platoon carried Reynolds' unconscious body along as all of the soldiers ran for their lives out of the valley, while the creature flew overhead, as if to tease them. ROB had the Great Fox ready at the top of the valley, in case they needed it. James stood at the hangar door, waving the soldiers in. Everybody scrambled inside, with a couple of the Fichinian soldiers running in as well. When the last soldier loaded on, ROB took off. He fired a couple of shots at the creature, which it shook off pretty quickly. The creature returned fire with lasers firing out of its wings. ROB tried to avoid all of them, failing to do so on the last laser, which shook the entire ship like a can of soda.

Everybody wanted to look out the windows to get a better look at the monster. James, Banks, and ROB had the best view inside the cockpit. This thing was absolutely disgusting. Around the monster, all of the air force pelted it with all of ammunition they had, barely making any marks.

"We've gotta get the Arwings out there," said James.

"Yeah," said Banks. "Order up a flight squadron."

James nodded. "Is Arwing #7 still on board?"

Banks smiled. "It's good to have you back, McCloud."

Eladardian Flagship

Andross watched as the monster wrecked havoc upon the area as the ship flew away. Pigma watched also, in complete awe. "Wow. That thing is quite a beauty. I don't know how you do it."

Andross turned to look at him, with a confused look on his face.

"You did make that thing, right? You were talking before about the pollution bomb, about how it could alter any animal's appearance, behavior, all that shit?"

He shook his head and shrugged. Pigma raised his eyebrow. "Then where the hell did it come from?"

Fichina

All twelve Arwings, led by James, shot out of the hangar bay, joining the fight. Still a little shaky from not flying in a long time, the controls took a few minutes to get used to again. He locked his viewpoint onto the creature, firing away, with the other Arwings doing the same. The creature seemed to be taking absolutely no damage as it happily wiped away building structures down below and fighters up above. "You see that eye? Aim for it!" ordered James. That might be able to inflict at least some pain onto it, but it wasn't going to be easy. From the distance they were from it right now, the size of the eye could be compared to a pinball.

Countless Cornerian ships fell out of the sky, either from being hit by one of the lasers, or from being tackled by it. At times, it would just downright fly into a crowd of ships, knocking them all out of the sky. All of the debris dropping down would cause more damage down below, as if there wasn't enough. James maneuvered around the massive amounts of ships, readying his smart bomb. He charged up his laser and tried to lock onto the monster's eye. Increasing his speed, leaving the other Arwings in the dust, he started to close onto his target. The monster couldn't see what he was trying to do, as there was too much shit hitting it that it could barely see anything.

"Everybody out of the way!" yelled James. The ships obliged and cleared a path for him. The eye came into complete focus; he had the perfect shot. Getting just a little bit closer, he fired the smart bomb and the charged laser.

A direct hit! The eye had exploded into a flame, a green liquid pouring out of its socket. All of the ships retreated to avoid a large explosion; and they rightfully did so. The creature let out a ring of fire as it let out a gigantic wail of death that everybody could hear clearly, even inside their cockpits. It fell towards the ground, landing right on top of a factory of some sort, completely crushing it under its weight.

Surface

While the battle was raging inside the cluster of mountains, this creature seemed to be causing trouble around the entire planet. Countless cities and towns had been totally annihilated by this thing, since most of the Fichinian soldiers had been captured and they had no defense. Thankfully, many people had escaped or had found cover, but the number of casualties overwhelmed that number.

General Pepper agreed to let the Cornerian soldiers stay on the planet for a bit to help clean up. They were going to need all the help they were going to get to rebuild everything. Caroso was wealthy, but all of this was going to seriously drain his money.

As everybody started to clean up, James took a look at the creature he just destroyed. It smelled worse than it looked. Inspecting the eye, he noticed a small, round object inside, about the size of a basketball. He dug into the eye and took it out, shaking off all of the goo.

"What is that?" asked Peppy.

"I don't know, but we'll have to get it to Beltino. Maybe we can find out what the hell this thing is."

"You know, I've overheard the other regiment officers having a conversation with Pepper. They're thinking about giving you the Medal of Honor."

James looked up at him. "What?"

"Yeah. I mean, you were the one that destroyed this thing. Also, how you overcame your condition and took out Reynolds for us."

James smiled, as they both began to walk around. "He'll need to be court-marshaled for that. Even Banks won't keep him around anymore for threatening you guys."

"Not to mention all of the casualties our company suffered. We've lost thirty-one, not counting replacements, which is about 20 percent of the company." Peppy was silent for a moment. "Still, we didn't do too bad, since we virtually had no leader."

"No leader, huh?" James walked past a couple of technicians, giving them the object. "Well, from what I've been told, from Cpt. Hunt and the soldiers, they've always had one. Somebody who really looked over his soldiers and cared for them. Somebody who stuck his neck out for them when they were really taking a pounding. Somebody who was a thousand times better of a leader than Reynolds was."

Not knowing who James was talking about, Peppy slowly nodded.

"You don't know who I'm talking about, do you?"

He shook his head.

"Hell, it was you, Peppy. Ever since I left, the soldiers considered you the real leader of A Company."

Peppy smiled slightly, touched that the soldiers would say that about him.

"Well, I gotta go contact Beltino, see how Fox is doing and tell him about the object," said James.

"Alright."

James had begun to walk away, before remembering something. "Oh yeah, another thing. I, too, overheard the regiment officers talking to Pepper about something. Apparently, you're not going to be a Lt. any longer."

"What?"

"You'll get the confirmation within a week or so. Congratulations, Captain."