As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. In addition the character of Fresko the Feline belongs to Deviant Art user Yoshi Lord. I own only my own characters and this story.

Now here's chapter 40:

40 – THREE LEVEL ASSAULT

Over the next 24 hours Fresko worked steadily to prepare his special forces for the scheduled attack on the Marauder encampment. Although I could give you all of the advance technical details of what he was planning that would slow down the story. Instead it's best to cut right to the chase and show you exactly what happened during the battle that occurred.

One piece of intelligence that influenced Fresko's initial planning was the name of the Marauder's commander.

"XL-Jack-3 sent one-eyed Durago to head this force" the Mole told Loco and Fresko before they started out from the Animal City. Fresko started.

"Durago?" he said.

"Yes" said the Mole, "your old friend." Fresko didn't respond, but he wasn't surprised that the Mole knew the story.

"Hmm, Durago" said Loco, "that's good, and not good. Durago is pretty vicious. He'll kill anything that moves, he'll have his men do the same, and he has an efficient guard system."

"Around the edges of his camp yes" said Fresko, "and they'll watch the skies too, but that still leaves one option which they won't prepare for, especially at night."

"Agreed" said the Mole, "Klure might think of it, and XL-Jack-3 definitely would, but from what I know about Durago, he won't. He's been in a lot of battles, but rarely against animals (even the Metramegopolitan ones). He doesn't really know how we think."

"But he is prepared for surprises" said Loco, "which is why we have to put our animal instincts to use here. We can expect a camp that's on its guard. If they discover us before we're ready to reveal ourselves it will be a harder battle. We'll have to move fast."

And move fast they did, as only animals can move. The day after the Lifty and Shifty incident Fresko was ready. At exactly midnight that night he gave the first of three pre-arranged signals and the battle began.

What Fresko had created was something known as the "three level assault," with attacks coming from the air, the surface level, and, most importantly, from below ground. The underground attack was the key to a successful three level assault in this situation because it was the one direction which Durago's forces could not effectively guard against.

XL-Jack-3 was well aware of the animal tactic of attacking from below, and if he had been there he would have guarded against it out of habit, but when he had given this mission to Durago he had ordered him not to be caught by the residents of the city. If the animals were taken completely by surprise then there would have been no need for a defense against an underground attack.

XL-Jack-3's mistake was of the classic kind of arrogance many a tyrant has had: thinking that no one can really be as smart or as able as he is. He had been in existence for so long, and had survived so many battles, that he had definitely gotten a superiority complex which left him open to making silly mistakes. In this case it did not occur to him that, even if the attempt to make Metramegopolis crash should fail, anyone would discover his plans for the Animal City, so he didn't give Durago the equipment he would have needed to guard from an underground attack. That was why when the animals did begin their attack the Marauders were taken completely by surprise, just as Loco had hoped.

Fresko positioned himself in a tree near the edge of the Marauder camp. There, from a branch about ten meters up he was able to see the camp without being seen. The night was clear and, with a few lights burning in the camp, he had a good view of it. There were guards all around the edges but Fresko wasn't concerned with this. He knew that he could see them a lot better than they would have been able to see him even if they'd known he was there. The scene was relatively quiet; it seemed most of the marauders had gone to sleep.

Although Fresko was alone in the tree he was still in contact with his forces. On his front right leg he wore a comm-link that kept him in touch with all of his sub-leaders, all of whom had been instructed to wait for specific signals from him. As midnight struck Fresko tapped the first signal into his comm. and leaned forward to observe the results.

Almost at once sections of the ground began to shake, sort of like an earthquake but it wasn't a general shake of the whole ground; the rumblings were localized in many areas around the camp and, within seconds, tents and vehicles began falling rapidly into the ground as if some lower floors had just given away from beneath them.

What had happened was that during the previous two days Fresko had deployed the members of the special forces who were great diggers to burrow around underneath the Marauder encampment. All of the moles, rabbits, dogs, shrews, gophers, prairie dogs, rats, muskrats, woodchucks, raccoons (not including Lifty and Shifty), badgers and many of the other animals who specialized in digging had spent two straight days digging tunnels which stretched all over the area of the marauder camp. Working together, and always far enough under the surface so that they were not heard (or felt) by their enemies, they had significantly loosened the ground under much of the camp. The holes that they dug were not small either; they made big holes, big enough for larger animals to walk through, and they kept them from falling in prematurely with strategically placed supports that could be removed in an instant when necessary.

It was into these holes, shortly before Fresko gave his first signal, that the snakes went; big snakes. The anaconda and python divisions were in the lead and they positioned themselves right under the very center of the camp, supported by the boa constrictor squadrons. Around them were the venomous snakes: cobras, rattlesnakes, cotton-mouths, coral snakes, pit vipers, and so on, preparing to bite their ways to glory. They didn't have long to wait before the signal came.

As soon as the ground started shaking the large snakes launched themselves upward toward the surface, erupting from the ground just as the marauder tents were falling. As soon as tents and equipment came within their reach the large constrictors began using their strength to wreck everything they could touch. It didn't take long to throw the entire marauder camp, most of which was receiving a very rude awakening at that moment, into complete chaos. Men who had suddenly awakened found themselves staring directly into the eyes of what they thought were huge monsters. Little wonder that many of them, still half-asleep and not sure what was going on, panicked. The poisonous snakes, emerging out of the ground behind the constrictors, quickly bit most of them either incapacitating them or killing them outright.

But enough of the marauders were seasoned veterans that they kept their heads. They realized the camp was being attacked and immediately grabbed their guns. It was for these that Fresko had reserved the second and third signals which he now tapped out, one right after the other.

From all sides of the camp the big land animals rushed in to attack. The large carnivores who have always been a menace to humankind charged in. The big cats led the charge – jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, puma, lions, tigers – followed closely by the wolves, the bears (especially the polar and grizzly bears), the wolverines, badgers, alligators, crocodiles, and all of the other great land predators. At the same time from the air the great birds of prey came screaming in to attack: eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, kites, buzzards, harriers – all of the raptor birds. And with them were bats of all kinds, big and little, led by the giant flying foxes who swooped down on the encampment for the attack.

For the most part the animals did not use artificial weapons; they used the weapons nature had given them and they used them supremely well. But this didn't mean they didn't know how to use blasters or other weapons. They did and many of them carried blasters with them into the fight, however few of them found it necessary to use them.

This was the three level assault; the Marauders might have been able to fight off a one or two level assault, even taken by surprise, but not one that came at them from all directions like this. But they fought back as best they could, and even though the battle was short it was still pretty savage, with casualties on both sides (although far more on the marauder side).

Fresko dropped from his tree and entered the fray as soon as he had finished giving all three signals. Even though the battlefield was already extremely chaotic he didn't stop for anything but streaked straight toward the center of the camp where the command tent was, and where he knew he'd find Durago. He had fought Durago once before during the final battle of the last war at Metramegopolis. That fight had been inconclusive; Fresko had been injured enough (albeit non-seriously) to land him in the hospital for several days, but Durago had not only been badly slashed on the face by Fresko's claws, but had lost his left eye too, hence why he was now called "one-eyed" Durago.

Sure enough when Fresko reached the command tent – or what was left of it, since most of it had collapsed in the initial attack – the first thing he saw was Durago battling it out with a lion and bear at the same time. Fresko hissed an order to his two soldiers who, recognizing their captain, immediately fell back and left Fresko face to face with Durago. The Marauder commander recognized him at once.

"You!" Durago snarled.

"Me" said Fresko, "long time no see, eh Durago?"

(To Be Continued)