Chapter 20

Luck

            For Wutaian Corporal Dokin, life consisted of sleeping, staring out the window, and the occasional trip to the soda machine. He ran Chamuri Base with ten other men, chamuri meaning cheetah in English. But their base shared none of the qualities of a cheetah, unless it was some sort of deranged, lame, old cheetah. In all it's years, and countless wars, the base had seen no action whatsoever. That would soon change.

****

            This morning I took some extra quality time with my coffee and grits; they could be the last meal I ever had. Hate to be so morbid, but this damn mission of Apollo's just didn't feel right. Since it was one of those lovely "mission mornings" we were all up and reenergizing for the day. Even Nairne had hit the cafeteria this morning for some coffee; we all figure he kicked it up with some vodka though.

            As I broke the tough film over the grits with my spoon, for the first bite of gritty goodness, Azrael came over and sat down across from me.

            "Mornin'." he said between sips of coffee.

            "Same to you. Hey you ready for today?" I asked, trying to get an idea of where he was at with the mission.

            He already knew what I though about it, but he indulged me.

            "Damn right I'm ready. Haven't flown for a good three days now, gettin' rusty."

            The look on my face still stayed grim.

            "Oh come on Cid, what the hell could go wrong?"

            Just then the launch sirens went off.

            "Ten minutes until mission launch. Eclipse and Phoenix squadrons report to airfield…" blared the intercom.

            Looks like we're about to find out.

****

            "When this is all over we can go back to camp and get some good, solid sleep. Until then we're gonna march!" shouted Major Podran over the steady, yet un-rhythmic clomp of boots.

            Podran's company had been marching non-stop since they'd gotten their orders from General Staniv, but they still hadn't reached Chamuri base. The major had been told little about the mission, and the soldiers even less; all they knew was that Chamuri could not fall.

            With only a hundred and sixty men, the forces would be spread rather thin; but the men felt up to the challenge. After losing their commander they needed some reassurance that normal life would still go on, and they would still fight just the same. Just then a scout came running breathlessly back to the major.

            "Base is just over that hill sir, right in the middle of a big old valley." he panted.

            "Very good. Alright boys, one last push and we're there. I want a flat out run over that hill or else we'll lock you out of the building when the Shinra get here!"

            Not wanting to be stuck in that predicament, the Wutaians swept onto the field like a tornado, not one of them stopped until they reached Chamuri Base. A bewildered Corporal Dokin came rushing out to investigate the newcomers, but all he received was a handshake from Podran before the company swarmed into the base.

****

            Maiten's Mixed Platoon.

            It sounded more like a circus than a Shinra military force, but it was no circus. There was no place for fooling around in the military. Colonel Maiten was as military as you could get, and he was damn proud of it.

            Over the years he'd acquired all kinds of friends in the different military groups; and one day he'd decided to put together a platoon, roughly forty men, out of all of them. That had been thirty years ago, back in the fourth world war, or maybe the fifth, he lost count. And in those thirty years "The Mixed" had won quite a few battles, today was looking like it would be another victory.

            As the tanks and assorted soldiers made their way over the Wutaian plains, Maiten bumped along in the lead tank. His fingers brushed the controls for the special top mounted machine gun, but did not hit the trigger. It was customary for him to fire the first shot in every battle, for luck of course.

            He had a feeling that they would need no luck today though.

****

            As the darkness of early morning began to release its hold on Wutai, Colonel Daegon sat in a simple lawn chair on the airfield. He liked to be there first thing to greet the pilots before any mission. All of the fighters had been scrubbed clean from the paint exercise the other day, and some even sparkled. Within the next twenty minutes the airfield would be empty, and the Wutaian pilots would be on their way to Chamuri Base for a little rumble with their Shinra friends.

            He couldn't wait.

****

            Corporal Dokin had all he could do to keep himself from just screaming.

            Five minutes ago he had been contentedly thumbing through an old Playboy, and now he was in the middle of full-scale chaos.

            The minute Podran had walked in the door he'd begun assessing the situation. The building mainly consisted of three stories of solid concrete, and endless banks of floor to ceiling windows. The major immediately ordered that all windows be shot out and placed men through the building in sniping positions.

            Corporal Dokin had spent months cleaning those windows.

            A small group of demolitions troops were sent out to place a few mines outside the perimeter of the building, a little something to slow down any assaults. The rest of the men, including Corporal Dokin and his fellow Cheetah Base troops, were stationed in defensive positions throughout the area, and just waited.

            This all took amazingly about ten minutes to accomplish, Podran's men were efficient. At the end the only person who had no place to go was Major Podran himself. So, taking advantage of the free time, he curled up in a corner and took a quick nap. His rest would not last for long.

****

            The techs had gotten the ships all ready the night before, so we took off quickly. I'd caught a glimpse of Shera, but she was too busy with last minute checks to notice me, need to hook up with her sometime.

            "Gonna be about five minutes till we get there kids, relax for a minute. Then we can get this thing over with." grumbled Nairne over the squad communicator frequency.

            Taking his advice I put the fighter on autopilot, zoned out for a few minutes, and thought about happy things. Like ice cream, and getting promoted…

            Suddenly a chill ran up my spine and I abruptly looked up. As I flew over a large declivity, a valley appeared. In the middle of it sat the ugliest building I had ever seen.

            "Get ready, we're here. Do whatever you have to do, but when it's all over that building better be gone." said Nairne.

            What the hell is this? A free for all? Had the man totally lost his mind?

            "Three Flight, form up on me." I ordered angrily.

            I'm not gonna let this mission turn into feeding time at the zoo. Time to bring a little sense to the table.

****

            As the platoon thundered across the plain Colonel Maiten was receiving constant reports from his scouts. Apparently the base was right in the middle of a valley, prime target.

            "Colonel, the base is just over the hill, awaiting orders."
            The colonel rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.

            "Go over that hill full speed and charge the base until I say otherwise." he said confidently.

            While his tank rolled down the hill, his hand moved towards the trigger for his mounted gun, but he never finished that motion. From outside the tank he heard a loud scream and a set of wet thuds as bullets pounded into the dewy grass around him.

            So much for taking the first shot.    

            "Fire!" he yelled over everything else.

            His men quickly obeyed, their very lives at stake. Maiten's hand returned to the trigger and squeezed. His bullets joined the rest in pelting the enemy position. Somewhere very close he heard, and felt an explosion. Damn it, they had anti-tank rockets too.

            "Somebody kill that guy with those goddamn missiles!" he screamed, losing his normally calm demeanor.

            They were gonna need all the luck in the world to pull this one off.

****

            Daegon was quite pleased.

            The launch had gone off very smoothly, and the three Wutaian squadrons were on their way to the valley. This day would be one to remember, a day to proudly tell future generations about. What satisfied Daegon the most though, was that the damn Shinra would realized, right before they died, that they'd been sold out. And in the last seconds of their lives, their minds would be racing, questioning.

            Who could it have been, a squad mate, the cook, the guy who seemed odd the other day in the cafeteria…?

            The only thing that got Daegon was that he didn't know who the traitor was either. Sooner or later he would find out, it would drive him crazy otherwise.

            "Sir, we have two enemy squadrons ahead." shouted a worried squad leader.

            Oh good.

            "Sir, thirty seconds until we're in range…in range now, no hostile action yet."

            Daegon smiled slightly.

            "Engage."

**

            It looks like this mission might actually turn out all right. Nairne's flight just went in for the first strafing run on the building, and there's still no sign of any Wutes. A Shinra platoon even showed up, things had started goin' our way.

            Or not.

            The Wute base just opened up on the platoon, and they're gettin' torn apart.

            That can't be good.

            Suddenly there was an explosion behind me, sending a wave of heat and high-pressure air to rock my ship off course a little.

            "What the hell was that?!" I yelled, kind of freaked out.

            "Holy, fucking…" someone said, I think it was Hector, sounding very shocked.

            "Cyril's gone Cid." reported Az gravely.

            I moved sharply off course to run right into a whole mess of Wutes. I fired into the swarm of 'em to make it look like I knew what the hell to do, and pulled up hard.

            "Nine and Twelve, form up on me. All fighters, we've got a shit load of hostiles over here!" I shouted.

            Az swooped over towards me, but Hector had some issues. Two flights worth of Wutes were on him tight. Before I could do anything, Az was in there crackin' skulls. He got a couple of 'em, but that still left a good six guys to deal with. Soon Az and Hector were both trapped, and it didn't look good. Without another thought I dove right into the middle of it.

**

            Major Podran's nap hadn't lasted long. The second the Shinra platoon had peeked over the hill, all hell had broken loose. But it seemed like they were driving the enemy back, even the tanks. That reminded him, those soldiers manning the rockets deserved a pat on the back, or something of the sort.

            He made his way across the building to go and find one of the two soldiers manning the rockets. The company had originally had about six rocket units, but the rest had been lost in the village skirmish. As he approached the first of the two, a huge section of the ceiling collapsed right in front of him. Once the dust cleared, the major realized that the man he'd wanted to talk to had been crushed, along with the rocket unit. Well, there was still one more around somewhere.

            Dodging bullets and flying bits of concrete, Podran finally saw the sole rocket unit and the soldier manning it. He cautiously approached, not wanting to be crushed under any more loose ceilings. He arrived unharmed, and watched the soldier in front of him shoot off another rocket into the enemy platoon.

            "Good work soldier, you're really making short work of those tanks!" Podran shouted.

            The soldier looked up quickly.

            "Thanks major, I…"
            He was cut off as a bullet passed cleanly through his right eye, and thudded into the concrete wall behind him.

            "Shit!" screamed Podran, as he wiped some of the man's blood from his cheek.

            He quickly got out of the way before the Shinra sniper could take him out too. With the tanks relatively out of harm, the Shinra forces could advance easily now, once again not good.

            "Increase fire, we can't let that platoon get down here!" he ordered over the company's communicator frequency.

            What fun being in the army was.

**

            "Colonel Maiten sir, we seem to have eliminated all enemy anti-tank rockets."

            Hmm.

            "Very good, continue to concentrate your fire on the key structural points on that base, with any luck we can bring the thing down around them."

            As Maiten surveyed the scene outside through a small window, he could see that his men were doing well; but they were taking too many casualties just standing in one place.

            "Mixed, if you want to win this, there's only one way to do it. Reload, take a breath, and advance at all costs on that base. We're not goin' home with some consolation prize, we're taking the whole goddamn thing."

            Within seconds the Mixed were charging the base like a herd of elephants, and taking very few casualties. Further back in the assault, the remaining tanks continued to plug shells into the Wutaian base.

            With a little luck, the whole thing might work.

**

            Only a short distance away, Commander Nairne could see Chamuri Base quite clearly. In only the past couple of minutes the valley had turned into total hell, and it was all giving him a large headache. Or maybe that was the vodka, who the hell cared.

            "Two Flight's run is complete, your turn commander." said Lieutenant Thanton over the communicator.

            Without bothering to signal his wingman, Nairne dropped down to a lower altitude and switched over to rockets. After a few seconds of mental targeting, he fired off a rocket and pulled up out of the way. His shot brought down a larger chunk of the roof, and probably killed a few Wute grunts. But he wanted some real kills, he wanted to watch some stupid Wute get disintegrated in the explosion that he set off with his bullets.

            He quickly found a wayward enemy fighter, and shot it down easily. It wasn't enough though, he needed more, some sort of challenge.

            Then he saw it, barreling right towards him. A sleek, polished Wutaian fighter, with a brilliant white lightning bolt painted on either side of the cockpit.

            Finally, a challenge.

**

            Bullets flew past me left and right, but most missed. With a hard roll to the left I moved closer to Az and Hector, and managed to avoid some of our pesky attackers. One of the Wutes flew right in front of me, very bad flight etiquette; so I reprimanded him with a few bullets through the fuel tanks. As he careened down to the ground, his ship exploded into so much shrapnel.

            Out of the corner of my eye I saw Az score a quick kill, he was turnin' out to be pretty good. Below me I could see Hector was somewhat screwed, but as I dove down to help him, he managed to get the kill himself. Now it's even; three of us, three of them.

            Suddenly I found myself in the middle of a Wute sandwich. Two of 'em were just flying with me, one on either side, don't really know why. With a polite nod to each, I pulled a tight arc up, killing one on the way back down. The other ship swooped over to bug Az, leaving me all alone. Off in the distance I could see a whole mess of fighters, Shinra and Wutaian. It looked like there was more of the Wutaian black though, not a good sign.

            "Hey Highwind get over here, I can't shake this guy!" yelled Az.

            I immediately shot over there, not going to let another squad mate die cause I didn't get there in time. When I got over, I saw that Az definitely had a follower, the guy was on him like a magnet. No matter how bad he tried, Az couldn't shake him, and it looked like the guy was closing in.

            I saw only one way to do it, and it'd only work if Az had gained a level of maturity higher than a seven year old, which wasn't likely. Switching to rockets, which we'd gotten especially for this mission, I began to aim.

            "Az roll left!" I yelled.

            Without a second of hesitation, he rolled neatly left, and I fired my rocket at the Wute. It hit right in an engine port, causing a good-sized explosion. Gritting my teeth, I flew through it, and came out just a bit singed.

            "Thanks Cid, I owe you one." he said gratefully.

            "No problem."

            Hector flew over to join the two of us, and we headed for the big battle. We'd taken on twice as many Wutes as us, and come out without a scratch; not bad. But wait, we'd only gotten five kills total in that last little fight, where was the other guy?

            "Wute on you Cid!" yelled Hector.

            Never mind.

            I quickly looked back over my shoulder, and sure enough, there he was. As a batch of bullets flew past me, I turned back to flying.

            "Can't get him, he's following me on every damn move!"

            Ten seconds later I heard a lot of breaking sounds and turned around to see the other fighter dropping to the ground. A cry of triumph from Az told me he was the one to thank.

            "Thanks Az, now I'd say we're even."

            "Say so, now let's go and take out a few more Wutes before the sun rises."

            Good plan.

**

            Colonel Daegon had never felt so exhilarated, it seemed that the twin lightning bolts on his ship had given him an enormous, new amount of power. And to top it off, he'd found a worthy opponent!

            He came charging in at the grizzled, old Shinra fighter, but pulled up before he took any damage. With a quick inverted loop, the Shinra fighter was on him, targeting his exposed engines. As the other man fired, Daegon pulled the ship up out of his reach.

            "Nice try." murmured Daegon to himself.

            But suddenly the Shinra fighter was back, and riddling the right side of Daegon's fighter with bullets. He dropped low and then pulled left, assessing the damage. Nothing major, although a lightning bolt had pretty much been destroyed, since that whole section of the ship was full of bullet holes.

            The Shinra man would pay for that.

            Not wasting anymore time, Daegon flew up behind the Shinra fighter, and fired a rocket. In reality the rocket flew in at a speed faster than most fighters could fly; but to Daegon it seemed like hours were passing as he watched. The moment of impact soon came though, but not quite as it had been intended. At the last second the Shinra fighter juked out of the way, thinking he could avoid Daegon's wrath.

            Not quite.

            The cap of the rocket clipped the tip of the other man's right wing, and exploded.

**

            Corporal Dokin was finally doing what real Wutaian soldiers did, fight. Stopping for a second to reload his gun, the man wiped some sweat and concrete dust from his brow. The Shinra tanks had begun to slowly destroy the base, systematically taking out support beams and girders. At least half the casualties had been from falling chunks of concrete. Although Podran's platoon had only lost about forty plus men so far, it seemed like the Shinra forces were winning.

            The tanks had begun a somewhat slow, but formidable push down the hill to the base. As for the actual Shinra ground soldiers, Wutaian snipers had picked most of them off, but a few still remained. One in particular had been evading Dokin's best efforts to take him out, and so he'd made it his mission to kill the bastard. Every time Dokin fired, the enemy soldier ducked behind a tank though. Oh well, he could not hide forever.

            But after a few more minutes, Dokin had not accomplished his mission. If only he could get this one kill, the whole battle would be worth it. He slowly sank into his own little zone, focusing only on the other man. His gun's muzzle moved as the enemy soldier did, and finally, when the whole world had stopped around him, Dokin fired.

            The Shinra soldier's helmet made a loud ping as a bullet hit, but it had been weakened already in the battle, and so Dokin's bullet went right through. With an intense spray of blood, the man hit the ground.

            Victory.

**

            Colonel Maiten had all he could to stop himself from getting up, and sticking his head out the tank's hatch. He wanted to know how the battle was going first hand; he wanted to actually be in the battle. Maybe another day, but not this one; the Wutes would knock his head into pieces the second he popped out.

            From what he could tell, the Shinra tanks certainly were advancing, but an increasing number of Shinra foot soldiers' bodies had been strewn across the ground. Bloodied and mangled, those men had been torn apart by the Wutaian gunners. They hadn't even been given a chance to fight, the worst way to go.

            He vowed to avenge them, to take that damned base. The tanks had managed to do some good damage to it, but it still stood. To win this battle, the Shinra forces would have to get right up to the base, and drop a couple of shells right down it's throat.

            Yet he wondered if they would ever make it there.

**

            In all his life, Commander Nairne had never been so scared. He had danced well with his Wutaian opponent; but when that rocket had shown up on his scanners, he'd had enough.

            As the rocket drew closer, he realized that maybe it was all for the better. There was nothing left for him in this life. All of his family was dead, he was fighting a war against a pretty much innocent country, and commanding a bunch of smart asses. But even with all this, life still was appealing. This war would probably be over soon, maybe he could get a new job, find a wife…

            And then it hit.

            The ship jarred violently, jamming him into his now taut flight harness His cockpit window shattered, ushering in a wave of orange flame, singing his face and hair. He looked out to see that his right wing was gone, and then felt the ship lurch waywardly into a dive. He blinked away some smoke, coughed and tried to rub his eyes.

            But he was not dead.

            Suddenly life was the most beautiful thing in the world, and he was going to do everything in his power to keep it.

            He wildly pulled on the flight stick, trying to regain control of his rapidly dropping ship. The ship would not divert from it's present course though, all engines had been fried it seemed. Yet he remained in the ship, any other pilot would have ejected by now. Not by their choice though, all fighters automatically ejected their pilots when critical damage had been sustained. He'd refused to get the system installed though, he'd be the one to decide when to eject, not some computer.

            And now he was deciding to eject, there was no other way. His hand frantically reached for the manual ejection lever, and yanked back on it roughly. But nothing happened, it would not budge, no matter how hard he tried.

            He was trapped.

            His trusted manual lever was so outdated that it had broken, it had run its course, and then jammed permanently. Sort of like him, he was outdated, stubborn, and finally he'd jammed.

            So as the once great Commander Jack Nairne completed his last thoughts, his weathered old fighter plummeted to the ground, trailing a stream of thick, black smoke behind it. And as the battle raged on all around, it hit the ground, with a loud cacophony of metal being rent out of place, and bones breaking; completely crumpling in the nose.

            A few seconds later it exploded, leaving only a few random pieces of metal, and a burnt mark on the grass.

**

            Me, Az and Hector had gotten over to the main battle as quick as we could to join the fun; but it was anything but fun.

            We'd lost about a squadron's worth between Phoenix and Eclipse, and so had the Wutes, but they'd brought three squads for this party. Winning the battle had pretty much gone out the window for us, survival was our main interest. What really gets me is that it sure as hell seems like the Wutes knew we were gonna drop by.

            Luckily Thanton was still around, cause Nairne seemed to have disappeared. We'd both agreed that the bombing runs had to stop, we were losing too many fighters, and it seemed like the tanks could handle the base.

            "Commander Nairne, do you copy?" asked Commander Arkanian of Phoenix over the general frequency.

            "I dunno, I think he fell asleep or somethin'." I joked.

            That got a few laughs, but one cry of dismay.

            "I just saw an Eclipse fighter go down!" yelled some random pilot.

            Well that sucks, but it's no surprise.

            "You're right, hey it looks like Nairne's!"

            No fucking way. As much as I hate the guy, he didn't deserve to die.

            I dodged a Wute fighter with lightning bolts suddenly, narrowly avoiding some more bullets. Well this looks like it could be fun. I followed the fighter down through the whole mess, trying to pop his engines, but failing. This guy's good, I'll give him that. All of a sudden more Wutes were on my tail though, and I had to abandon the chase. I'll find him again, some day.

            I managed to slip out from my three pursuers with a little work, and some help from Hector; even got a kill. But within a minute we'd lost at least three more fighters, and soon enough we'd all be dead.

            "Let's get the fuck out of here!" I yelled to no one in particular.

            Never thought I'd say that.

            "I'll second that." piped in Az, helpfully.

            The communicator was silent for a second, letting me take in the overwhelming sounds of battle. Bullets flying, metal being torn apart, random things exploding.

            "Commander Arkanian, I think they're right. We need to pull out." suggested Thanton.

            While they deliberated, I took down another Wute, great only twenty four our so to go…

            "All Shinra fighters, form up with your commander or flight leader and retreat. This just isn't our day." ordered Arkanian.

            To whatever god that wants to listen, thank you.

**

            Major Podran had never enjoyed being awake before as much as he was at the moment. When you were awake you could be productive; do things like win battles. Although he hadn't won the battle yet, but the Shinra fighters were retreating, and that had to mean something.

            The Shinra tanks on the other hand, were still rolling along steadily, looming ever closer to the base. The Wutaians had successfully managed to kill every single foot soldier, except for a few who'd hopped in tanks. And so the valley had quieted a bit, most of the Wutaian soldiers having stopped uselessly pelting the tanks. They needed more than bullets to win this battle. Without any rocket units left, they were in a bit of a dilemma.

            With any luck the ignorant Shinra would do something wrong.

**

            Colonel Maiten, surprisingly enough, was in his own dilemma. Even if the tanks did make it to the base, what would they do then? The men very well couldn't just hop out and say "Hi". The Wutes would slaughter them in two seconds.

            Suddenly though, a more pressing issue presented itself. Right in front of him, a tank shot up in the air a few meters, flames spouting from the center. As he stared at the blackened, smoking tank, it hit him.

            Those dirty little Wutes had mines!

            "All tanks halt!"

            "Colonel, with all due respect, we're going to be destroyed if we just sit here." said his driver.

            Maiten shot him a glare and continued.

            "That tank just hit a mine, and I'm sure there's more where that came from, stay on your toes."

            There was really nothing else they could do, if they got out to dig the things up they'd be shot for sure. The only way was to keep going, and hope someone made it.

            "Mixed, advance, someone has to have control of this base when the day's over, and it might as well be us!"

**

            Colonel Daegon had heard Commander Arkanian order the retreat over the open frequency, but it didn't bother him much. The Shinra fighters had sustained massive losses, and that was enough for him. They'd come in with twenty-four fighters, and were leaving with eight, oh wait seven.

            "All Wutaian fighters, let them go. I repeat, let them go."

            Someone had to go back and tell the other Shinra scum what happened.

            A few disappointed groans came over the communicator.

            "We'll get them next time, don't worry. Now we need to wrap this battle up though. Drop some rockets down on those tanks if you've got any left, that should finish them off."

            They had this one in the bag, everything was under control; beautiful.

**

            Major Podran didn't quite share Daegon's optimism, but he did feel a sense of impending victory.

            Their well-placed mines had cut the already small number of tanks in half, leaving about five. But those five were still coming, and were still very dangerous. Even though it was pretty much ineffective, Podran still had a handful of men firing at the approaching enemy, the silence would be too eerie otherwise. Everyone else was either just waiting for something to happen, or frantically trying to find a solution

            The actions of the former soon paid off though, for something did happen. That something came in the form of fighter rockets hailing the enemy tanks. Some tanks survived a couple rockets, but after a good three or four they exploded. Within thirty seconds the five had been reduced to one, one that somehow had managed to avoid any fatal damage.

            Very odd.

**

            At this point, Colonel Maiten knew that this battle could not be swung back to Shinra's advantage. With only two Shinra soldiers, being himself and his driver; against a good hundred and twenty plus Wutaians, they stood no chance.

            But to retreat would be pointless. After losing all of those brave men and women, he could not face their families. He had not asked the driver what he thought, but it was safe to assume he felt the same, most any Shinra soldier would. The building loomed close now, a motley mix of rubble, concrete and steel. It was all because of that damn building that the events of the morning had transpired, not a very worthy cause.

            Suddenly Maiten felt the tank shake as it crashed over a pile of rubble, and stalled, right in the middle of the ground floor of the base. Swarms of Wutaian soldiers converged on the tank, but Maiten still remained calm. He grimly loaded his pistol and looked at the driver.

            "Fire a shell, if you can."

            While the driver fumbled with the control panel, Maiten briefly thought of his family. They would be proud, hopefully, of his sacrifice.

            The tank rocked back sharply as the last shell they had shot out, taking out a few massive concrete pillars. So without another thought, Maiten gave the driver a nod, and they both vaulted out of the tank.

            "Surrender now and…" began an anxious Wutaian.

            Maiten stopped him with a bullet, and kept on going. The driver did the same, even tossing out a small hand grenade. But the Wutaian soldiers weren't stupid, it only took them a few seconds to get their guns up.

            Never stopping, running on pure adrenaline, the two Shinra men fought viciously until they were literally torn apart by bullets.

            Luck had not been with them today.

****

            Later that morning, Major Podran stood atop Chamuri Base, looking out across the valley.  

            In only a half hour or so, the once pristine valley had been turned into a graveyard. The mangled wreckage of crashed fighters, blackened husks of Shinra tanks, bullet riddles bodies of soldiers and huge chunks of concrete lay in every direction.

            Wutaian soldiers would begin the cleanup, but it would be a long and arduous process. Burying bodies, whether they were enemy or ally, was never easy. But no matter the carnage, they had won, and that was all that mattered at the end of the day. And above all, the Wutaians finally had a victory in this god-forsaken war, there was hope after all.

            Off in the distance, the waking, reddish sun began to rise over the lip of the valley.

Note – As usual, I know it took a while to get this up, but you're all used to that by now ;). I'd been looking forward to writing this chapter for a while, and I think it came out pretty good, and although it was mostly action it did accomplish a few important plot points. Next chapter will be around sometime, got finals and junk though so that might slow me down, thanks for reading!