Sixclaw
Chapter 40
HOVERCRAFT
Most of the diplomatic envoy to the Bullet Farm was asleep, trying to catch up on rest before the upcoming battle, which they all knew they might not survive.
Not Sixclaw, though. She felt horrible. She had killed another living creature. Not in battle or self defence, but in pure spite.
"You okay?" asked One-Eye, slumping into the seat next to Sixclaw. "Suppose it could have been worse, eh? We coulda left the Farm a few creatures short."
Sixclaw looked into his dead eye, and wondered how many beasts had seen that white orb before losing their lives. "Just… Worried about the hellscape is all."
"Ah, I get it." said the wildcat. "You know, every battle my beasts have fought could have been our last. Any one of them. But we fought 'em, and in the case of some, didn't make it home to see the creatures we love, but-"
"That's a chance they were willing to take." said Sixclaw. "I'm going to fight, and nothing's gonna change that."
"If you want to back out though, now is the time." said One-Eye. "I'll let you go, it's not too late."
Sixclaw looked the other wildcat in the eye. "I would never back out."
"Good, because it's too late now." said One-Eye, smiling. "WAKE UP, WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" screeched the thin warlord.
The shout awakened Deyna and Crabfang. Deyna almost fell out of his chair, and Crabfang sat bolt upright. "Where's the air raid?" droned the feral cat's mask-filtered voice.
The pilot laughed. "We are the air raid." As if it was a response, the signature sound of screams and artillery fire filled the ears of the envoy.
Suddenly, the shots seemed to become quite a bit closer, and a shell exploded in front of the hovercraft. The sound of this cracked the glass windows and damaged the hovercraft controls.
It was at this time that Sixclaw got a glimpse of the battlefield. It was an enormous field, directly between the forest, flatlands, coast, and in view of the cliff. In Sixclaw's mind, it appeared to be a neutral ground. Massive wrecks, mangled from cannonfire, half in and half out of large craters. The Seahammer weaved between these wrecks, hull peppered with scorch marks and the large autocannons emptying ammunition boxes at a massive wave of green-clad soldiers.
This surreal moment was interrupted when the hovercraft stopped hovering. It plummeted towards the ground. The pilot was thrown out of the craft, but managed to slam his paw into a button, sealing the passengers inside the cargo bay, and Crabfang managed to secure himself by digging his metal claws into the wall of the ship.
Deyna was now seriously reconsidering his take on reality. Can someone explain to me why in the actual hellgates I am doing this?
One-Eye managed to put on his black battle helmet before slamming into a wall with a sickening crunch.
"Three… Two… One…" said Crabfang. "Bombs away."
The hovercraft crashed into the ground and bounced along the battlefield, finally coming to a stop, halfway in and out of the churned-up soil.
Alarm bells went off in Deyna's head. The otter decided that the best option for survival was to get out of the wreck. He turned and saw the door to the cockpit, and recognized it to be the only thing keeping him in there. Deyna drew the sword of Martin and began hacking at the metal sheet like a madbeast. After about ten minutes of this, he punched the door in frustration.
When he punched the door, he had hit the control panel, causing the door to slide open. "Ironic." said the otter, a smirk flitting across his face for a moment.
"Fucking perfect." said Crabfang. "We might have been safe in here, but you had to open the damn box." as he said this, Crabfang sidled in front of the door.
"Scared?" said Sixclaw, a confident look on her face.
"No." said Crabfang.
"Let's go, then." said One-Eye, standing up.
Crabfang remained in front of the door. "No, I don't think I will."
"We don't have time for this!" said Sixclaw.
"I'm the spy." blurted Crabfang. "I'm sorry, but I- AW SHIT!"
One-Eye had immediately ripped a long sharp chunk of metal from the side of the ship, and impaled Crabfang through his good shoulder. The wildcat then drew his scimitar and emotionlessly slammed the blade into Crabfang's artificial limb, ripping most of it from the socket.
Crabfang screamed his head off, the screaming only interrupted by a long string of expletives. "I'M YOUR FRIEND! I BROUGHT YOU TO FORT SKULL! YOU WOULD HAVE DIED IF I HADN'T BEEN THERE, YOU SONOFABITCH!"
"Crabfang did all those things." said One-Eye. "And you are not my friend." With that, One-Eye withdrew his blade from Crabfang's prosthetic arm, and walked out of the hatch.
Deyna, looked at the wounded feral cat and made a noise of pity, before shrugging and walking out of the hatch behind One-Eye, and directly into the line of fire. Several shots pinged off the wildcat's armor, before Deyna pushed the wildcat behind a large piece of shrapnel in the ground.
"Thanks!" said One-Eye, drawing one of his stockless assault rifles, and firing around the improvised cover.
"No problem." said Deyna.
By some miracle, Sixclaw still had her comlink and locator beacon, which she immediately used to contact the Seahammer, which swooped around to pick them up.
"Go, get in the ship." said One-Eye, drawing his blade. "I'll meet you when this is over. Go. GO!" said One-Eye, as he advanced towards the enemy.
The last glimpse she saw of the warlord, he was surrounded by bodies, screaming his head off, and his bloodied scimitar sweeping from side to side. She wanted to say goodbye, but Deyna shook her, and pointed towards the ladder, just as a large shell impacted close to them, temporarily deafening her. She did not hear the words, but she got the message, and pulled Deyna along to the ladder, as Bootbrain laid down lane after lane of cover fire at the bombers circling overhead.
A/N
This chapter is unfinished, but I wanted to submit something, so here we are. Another update. Now go review, I'm tired.
Read and review, please.