DISCLAIMER - I do not own Advance Wars or anything copyrightedly relating
to within, which is copyrighted and owned by Nintendo, although I do happen
to like this piece of work I've written and if I ever discover some random
lamer forging it in their name I will be substantially cheesed off, and
nasty letters from me will commence bombardment on said lamer. So don't
even bother stealing it. However, you MAY place this on your website
without my consent should it have an Advance Wars fanfiction section. If
that happened and I discovered such a thing has occured, I'd actually be
quite flattered. Thank you, and enjoy.
______________
The Fighters - Part II
By RustyD
______________
~----~
~Mission Twelve: Rude Awakening~
~----~
The Reagan Air Force Base was encased in darkness. The starry sky nor the brightness of the moon would have much effect on the deep blackness of night, as dark as it was, but there was still a very small hue of the moon's light shining down onto the ground. An occasional chirp of a cricket off in the high foliage just outside the base sounded off near- silently, only to be accompanied by the mysterous, low swishing of grass, despite there being no wind whatsoever.
Not only was the outside of the base dark, but inside as well. Since it was the middle of the night, not a soul hung out in the halls of the pilot's wing area. There was no reason for any of the pilots to be up and about anyway, since all the quarters had their own restrooms and food supplies. Not even Tuxedo Ral was awake, galloping around the halls like a cowboy like he usually did. He and all the other pilots needed their rest due to the mission they had performed earlier that day. Some of them were still trying to get fog out of their ears.
Unfortunately, Glenn Gordon was still awake. He'd awoken only thirty minutes before and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. His mind had begun to wander around itself as well, bored with the darkness as he waited for himself to drift back into unconciousness, and he'd ended up thinking of Rainey Banker.
"Are you alright?" he had asked as soon as he'd gotten out of his fighter jet when they'd returned to the base with Rainey. She'd had to have an escort back to Reagan since the squadron had needed to finish the mission, and she had hitched a ride with the convoy until then. Glenn was quite glad to see her when they'd returned.
"I suppose so," she'd said, wooziness still detectable in her voice, even though the mission had ended rather long ago. Glenn couldn't help but feel bad for her, feel bad that he hadn't been there in her time of need, feel bad that he was still such a lousy excuse for a squadron leader, or a leader, period.
They'd continued talking a while, mostly over everything that had happened in the past few weeks, but the conversation had turned towards something Glenn was not expecting to talk of.
"I hear that ripe fool Tux has been talking about us," Rainey had told him.
Glenn had looked at her strangely, fearfully. Tuxedo's banter about how cute a couple Rainey and the Thunderbolt leader made wasn't something he really wanted to converse about. "Just what have you heard?"
"Well," she had said, "he's been going on like a broken record about how you and I seem to be more than friends."
"Pah!" Glenn spat. "He's a pretty lousy rumor-creator."
She'd looked at him oddly. "You think so?"
"Anything Tux says is mostly half-assed. He once told me that if you stare long enough at a glass of milk, it turns into cheese."
Rainey had, for some reason or another, stood there, not saying anything. Eventually, Glenn had asked her if something was the matter, and she had responded that it was nothing. They'd continued talking, though she hadn't had as much spite in her as previously.
Gordon had been utterly confused by her demeanor, and only now, as he lay there in bed at two in the morning did he really begin to think about what she'd been troubled about. She had certainly seemed a little put-out by his response concerning crazy old Tux, but that was only natural. Wasn't it?
His heart skipped a beat.
He wouldn't get to ponder over the situation with Rainey, for at that very moment, something passed by the window. The ominous shadow was illuminated into the room thanks to the very slim, nearly-black blueish hue the moon projected.
Immediately Glenn jerked his head over to Tux's bed. The guy was lying there, snoring like a car rotor. It was the only noise apparent in the darkness, and this worried Glenn. Tuxedo Ral was usually the only person up at night, and no one on base was permitted to leave their quarters - unless during an emergency.
Curious, Glenn very, very carefully moved the drapes to catch a peek outside, but it was really too dark to get a view on anything out there. Who on Wars World was up at this hour?
His mind began searching possibilities. It could have been a base guard, but they didn't hang around here at nighttime. Or there really could have been an emergency going on, but wouldn't the base alarm be sounding? Or perhaps it was just some lost ghost, trying to find its way home, wherever that may have been - Glenn didn't really want to know. Who really knew who was out there?
Glenn couldn't help it. He slipped out of bed quietly as to not wake Tux and stepped out of their room.
The hallway wasn't any brighter, but Glenn knew which way he was supposed to go. Carefully maneuvering down it, his bare feet allowing silent footsteps, he reached the end of the hall and looked towards the desk near the pilot's wing entrance door, his eyesight now adjusted to the darkness since he'd been awake for so long.
But the instant before he got there, he heard the audible outtake of air from the door opening. Glenn moved himself up against the wall as though he were some sort of secret agent. He leaned there, his body completely pressed up against it, and he heard the very soft but deep sound of metal making contact with the smooth rug. That was very strange. Either someone was wearing metal shoes, or. . .
The sound grew closer, causing a sweatdrop to run down Glenn's face.
The large bulk of a body in the darkness became visible, its back oviously to Glenn, but in the split second that he saw it, the body turned around, and a horrifying pair of very large, completely red eyes came into contact with his own.
Glenn's fist came right up into the eyes, but the powerful hit didn't make it. Instead, the attack crashed against something, presumably some sort of glass, causing it to break and shatter instantly. The ambiguous thing, startled, began to shriek, but another immensely strong fist hammered right into its face, accompanied by the crack of bones somewhere within.
Glenn had not expected to hear such hideous, spine-chilling cracks, and this stunned him greatly, but whatever the creature was, it was falling onto its back, dead, its now-bleeding eyes stuck wide open uselessly.
He stared down at it, his heart running like a race horse. It was a sickening sight. But before he could really question the terrible creature's identity or origin, he caught something outside of the corner of his eye. Immediately, Glenn jerked his head over towards the door, and outside, there were clearly more of these things, wandering around stealthily outside - and some of them were making their way towards the door.
"Good Lord," he mumbled under his breath. What in the world was going on here?
Tux was still lying on his butt in bed, sound asleep when Glenn came rushing back in. The lead Thunderbolt went right up to his roommate and shook the blue blazes out of him, causing Tux to snort loudly and pop out of whatever dream he'd been enjoying. "The hell? Stop, Glenn! Just stop."
"Tux," Glenn said, exasperated, "come on! We've got a huge problem."
"There I was," Tux was grumbling, "sitting there on Alara Mountain, my arms around two supermodels, one for each arm. One of 'em even looked like Nell, and the other was the spittin' image of that Sonja chic. And they was about to plant big old kisses right on my cheeks when you come in, waking up all of Creation and telling me about some little bitty old problem no one gives half a damn about. And that wonderful dream, it just popped like a big old balloon. Have I ever told you how much I hate you, Glenn Gordon?"
But Glenn was already busy rummaging through the emergency locker near their room door. He fished out a small semi-automatic handgun and some extra ammunition for it - As all of the rooms were required to have. Glenn never thought he'd have to actually use the blamed thing. It looked as though that wouldn't be possible, though. This was dogged serious.
He opened their room's door slightly and peeked out, but he still couldn't really see anything, except from the dark blue light emenating from the moon into the main lobby of the pilot's wing, where that mysterious creature still lay inanimate, no life inside it whatsoever. Glenn's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the terrible thing.
Then his eyes moved down the hallway. Illuminated by a tiny red light on the wall was the fire alarm. Glenn at first considered heading over there and activating it, but whoever was outside obviously wasn't friendly at all, and with the Thunderbolt pilots all scrambling, disoriented, they'd all just get mown down.
Tux stumbled tiredly over to the locker and looked at the other gun inside of it quizzically. "Glenn, what exactly is so doggone disturbing that you need to-"
"Shhh!" Glenn growled suddenly, waving his free hand for the guy to close his big yap. Then, very stealthily, he crept out of the room and headed towards the opposite side of the hall, quietly opening the door where the roommates Bubba Boggs and Tristan Royal slept.
They would obviously be startled by Glenn's presence, so he needed to be careful. It probably wouldn't work out too well, but he had to try. Silently, he went right up to Bubba's bed and put a hand on his arm. "Bubba."
The big man didn't stir at all. Glenn shook him rapidly, growing annoyed. Bubba slept way too much already, why couldn't he have been a light sleeper? "Bubba! Wake up, you old fool!"
Bubba snorted loudly, just as Tux had done. "Grmphf? Glenn?"
"Yeah. We've got a big problem here. I think we're being attacked, just stay calm and get your equipment out of your locker. And wake Tristan up too - and be careful."
Bubba didn't hesitate. He jumped right out of his bed and rushed over to Tristan while Glenn creeped back over towards the door. Looking across the hallway as he stood there, he motioned for Tux to stay where he was. The sleepy, irritated fellow did, though not without showing his aggravation with an irritated mumble.
Then Glenn looked down the hallway again at the lobby.
Like a stealthy group of SWAT officers, the unknown assaulters crept up towards the body of their comrade. The lead armored creature knelt down and examined the body with its large, imposing eyes strangely. Glenn heard it whisper something to the others behind it, but the words only came out like gibberish. The creature sounded as though it were trying to drink mouthwash while it spoke. These things definitely didn't have a trace of human blood inside of them.
The kneeling creature seemed to hesitate a moment, then it looked down the hall towards the pilot's rooms. Glenn could tell from the jagged, swervy motion of its big pupils. The direction the body of the creature was lying in seemed to signify that it had been attacked by something - or more likely, someone - in that direction, right where Gordon was. And in that moment, Glenn spied its arm. The armored thing was not a ligament, but was actually a large, imposing machinegun, and now that Glenn looked a second time, all of these mysterious attackers were armed in the very same way.
The lead creature, with a flick of its big, free, unarmed wrist, made the motion for its fellow assaulters to follow it, and the lot of them began to warily sneak down the hallway towards the pilot rooms. Glenn's eyes widened a considerable amount as he realized how little time he had left to prepare.
What was he supposed to do now? He hadn't alerted all of the Thunderbolts yet, and they were about to get torn apart.
Onward the attackers crept. Within seconds, they were less than twenty feet from the rooms - and where Glenn hid. Sweat began to break out on his forehead.
There was only one thing he could do to save his friends.
No longer hesitating, Glenn Gordon leaned outward into the hall from the room and raised his handgun right up into firing position, pointing it directly at the lead attacker's enormous, blood red eyes that shone brightly despite the darkness. He felt the gun kick backwards as he pulled the trigger, and not a split second later, there was the sound of glass shattering as the lead set of eyes dipped backwards, a great "BOOM" emanating through the base to accompany Glenn's shot.
A noisy collapse occured as the creature and its heavy set of armored crumbled to the ground backwards. But without warning, the five other enemy attackers opened realized what was happening and opened fire, right at Glenn.
The Thunderbolt leader pitched himself backwards as bullets shredded the walls around the door. But the second there was a break in the firing, he leaned right back out the doorway and proceeded to return fire. By now, Tux was doing the same, having less-than-pleasantly realized what exactly was going on here.
More sporadic shots came from the enemy attackers, but now they were scrambled by the bullets coming back at them. The entire, pitch-black hallway became consumed by the sounds of the gun battle.
Some of the enemy attackers rushed back into the lobby to find some sort of cover. Glenn took this oppurtunity to bolt across the hallway, back into their room with Tux so Bubba and Tristan wouldn't have him standing there, hogging up all their firing room. And as soon as he'd headed out of their room, the two of them were already sending gunshots at the armored assaulters.
"Surrender immediately, meatbags!" It was the gurgly voice of one of the creatures who had taken cover. "The Black Hole cause will consume and kill you if you do not accept it! The enemies of the Leader will be extinguished like the pathetic flame of a match!"
Glenn's eyes widened even more at this horrifying revelation. These terrifying, inhuman creatures were Black Hole soldiers. And they had found the Reagan Air Force Base. For all Glenn knew an entire legion of Black Hole forces could be on their way to back up these miserable monsters.
He grit his teeth angrily and continued firing. The response from the Black Hole troops was similar.
By now, an alarm was sounding out across the base. But none of the lights had come on yet. Glenn didn't know if this helped or burdened their situation - Who knew if these things could see in the dark?
He spared a quick glance down the opposite end of the hallway to make sure no Thunderbolt was running around like a beheaded chicken, but he saw the recognizable sheen of armor in the darkness, heading right into one of the rooms. They were coming in from the other entrance, now. "Damn it!"
He raised the gun and fired at the trooper heading into the random Thunderbolt room, but he was too late. The bullet he fired sprayed off the wall, shattering paint and concrete with no effect on the enemy trooper. As soon as he fired, though, gunfire came from the troops in the lobby, and he was forced to duck right back into his own room.
But Glenn nearly swallowed his tongue when he heard much more gunfire than there had been until just then - And this new round of shots was coming from the very room Glenn had tried to keep the enemy trooper out of.
He couldn't help it. Forcing his mind to keep away the obvious danger of being shot, Glenn Gordon brazenly rushed right out of his room and into the hallway, bursting down it maybe ten feet and plowing right into the room where the enemy trooper had disappeared into, doing all this in nearly complete darkness with bullets whizzing by him. He could only hope he wouldn't get mown down like grass by whatever vile being wasn't supposed to be in there as soon as he popped in.
And there were those huge, red eyes, completely illuminated despite the darkness. Glenn pumped a shot out from his handgun instantly, and a vicious, high-pitched screeching sound came from the creature as it took a hit to its moldy neck area, the glass on its helmet shattering at once. Bullets sprayed out from the dying trooper's gun-arm towards Glenn, but the pilot was already diving down behind one of the beds for cover.
The bullets continued spraying towards the door and out into the hallway. Thankfully, it wouldn't pose much of a danger for much longer. The creature paused, unleashed some sickening, terrible excuse for a cough due to the giant hole in its throat, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Glenn raised himself up from the floor when he heard the dead alien trooper tumble over, but as soon as he did, a flurry of lights flashed on outside the base, in the watch towers. Some of the spotlights from them shone towards the window, and as one of them passed the window of the room, Glenn saw whatever was left of Cassie LaGall, lying on the ground, six red holes in her mid-section.
He stared at her remains a moment, horrified.
Whirling around, feeling dizzy-headed, Glenn rushed over towards the doorway to try and continue his attack. But then a question popped into his mind, one that terrified him greatly. Where was Cassie's roommate, Rainey Banker?
Though he was afraid to do so, he turned and scanned the ground again to see if she had suffered the same fate as Cassie LaGall. But there was no sign of her, even though Glenn didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Well, no news was good news, apparently, at least in this situation.
He stuck his head out the doorway, trying to shake off the effects that seeing one of his comrades dead had on him, and scanned the hallway. Now, the spotlights were pouring in more often, letting Glenn get a better visual on his targets. There was no sign of enemy troops from the other end of the hallway, but they were still plentiful down in the lobby.
Lifting the gun up again, Glenn pumped off one more shot at the troops as he leaned farther out the door. Then he tried to unleash one a second time, but nothing happened. Immediately he realized he had run out of ammunition, and his hands shot downwards to search his pockets, to try and find the necessary replacement.
But in this very moment of weakness, his luck took a direct spiral downwards. He felt bullets whizzing past him all of a sudden, but then, one of those rounds that had been fired from the random Black Hole trooper in the lobby found its place. The bullet slammed right into Glenn's lower- right gut area, where he had just barely been exposing it out from the doorway. Glenn found himself flying backwards without warning from the impact, and he was thrown against the opposite side of the doorway painfully.
His mind couldn't concentrate on what had just happened. Glenn felt himself sliding downwards, back into Cassie's and Rainey's room. Slumping down against the wall, he felt tears welling up in his eyes as he placed his free hand over the wound.
"Oh, no."
That was all he could say. He'd never felt so much pain in his entire life. It was so terrible, and it wouldn't subside. Not in the least little bit.
He looked down at the wound, but he immediately wished he hadn't done so. Precious blood was pouring out of the hole that had been created in his body, and holding his hand tightly over it didn't help stop the flow. He couldn't tell if the bullet had penetrated anything vital inside of him, but it sure felt like it did.
Glenn leaned his head backwards as he leaned there on the floor against the wall. He didn't moan or grunt, or curse himself angrily, but only a lone tear ran down his eye, accompanying the beads of sweat that had already formed on his face earlier. This was impossible. This couldn't happen.
Then he realized it was happening. He had been shot, and he'd been shot bad.
Struggling to stay upright, he glanced over at Cassie's body. The thought suddenly crossed him that he may die, right there in this stupid room, leaning against the wall like a typical war victim. This was just wrong, but it was happening, and Glenn accepted it.
Then, as though it had a mind of its own, his free hand moved towards his neck, and it gripped the cross on the necklace that Dario Yossarian had given him so long ago. He gripped it as tightly as he'd ever gripped anything in his life.
The terrifying amount of panicking sadness he felt suddenly drained like water. A Black Hole trooper was poking its head through the door while gunfire still raged out in the hallway. It started to race right into the room, but Glenn, sliding himself along the wall out of panic and desperation, mustered up enough strength to point the gun at it.
Then he remembered he was out of ammunition.
Glenn leaned there painfully against the wall, lowering the gun, an absolutely pathetic look on his face as the trooper entered the room, staring at him. The troopers eyes centered on Glenn's face, then on the wound for a few seconds, then to the man's eyes.
No words were exchanged between the two of them. The trooper raised its gun-arm and pointed it at Glenn's head, as though it wanted to finish the job early for some disgusting reason. Perhaps it was just that it wanted to claim the kill for itself. Perhaps it wanted to stamp as much Orange Star life by itself as it could. Whatever the case, it was going to kill him.
Glenn just sat there, staring down the barrel, waiting. Seconds passed.
The creature's eyes narrowed into slits suddenly. And without wasting another second, it turned back towards the door and raced out of the room, leaving Gordon to lie there and die.
The gunfire in the hallway - and now around the base - continued. There looked to be no end to it, but it didn't matter to Glenn. He just lay there against the wall, waiting for his body to give out, wondering what kind of apartments they had up there in the holy clouds, since he'd probably be taking a trip up there soon enough.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of the base's military police rushing down the hallway, followed by a whole platoon of the same sort of folk. And there appeared to be a few medics with them, as well. One of them raced into the room housing Glenn and whatever was left of Cassie.
But by that time, Glenn had already blacked out.
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Author Notes:
Microsoft Word is being a pain. A major pain. The files are ending up being much larger in size than I want them to be, so bear with me here if this (and the previous) chapter(s) takes long to load for you. In any case, thanks for reading, and I hope you review.
______________
The Fighters - Part II
By RustyD
______________
~----~
~Mission Twelve: Rude Awakening~
~----~
The Reagan Air Force Base was encased in darkness. The starry sky nor the brightness of the moon would have much effect on the deep blackness of night, as dark as it was, but there was still a very small hue of the moon's light shining down onto the ground. An occasional chirp of a cricket off in the high foliage just outside the base sounded off near- silently, only to be accompanied by the mysterous, low swishing of grass, despite there being no wind whatsoever.
Not only was the outside of the base dark, but inside as well. Since it was the middle of the night, not a soul hung out in the halls of the pilot's wing area. There was no reason for any of the pilots to be up and about anyway, since all the quarters had their own restrooms and food supplies. Not even Tuxedo Ral was awake, galloping around the halls like a cowboy like he usually did. He and all the other pilots needed their rest due to the mission they had performed earlier that day. Some of them were still trying to get fog out of their ears.
Unfortunately, Glenn Gordon was still awake. He'd awoken only thirty minutes before and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. His mind had begun to wander around itself as well, bored with the darkness as he waited for himself to drift back into unconciousness, and he'd ended up thinking of Rainey Banker.
"Are you alright?" he had asked as soon as he'd gotten out of his fighter jet when they'd returned to the base with Rainey. She'd had to have an escort back to Reagan since the squadron had needed to finish the mission, and she had hitched a ride with the convoy until then. Glenn was quite glad to see her when they'd returned.
"I suppose so," she'd said, wooziness still detectable in her voice, even though the mission had ended rather long ago. Glenn couldn't help but feel bad for her, feel bad that he hadn't been there in her time of need, feel bad that he was still such a lousy excuse for a squadron leader, or a leader, period.
They'd continued talking a while, mostly over everything that had happened in the past few weeks, but the conversation had turned towards something Glenn was not expecting to talk of.
"I hear that ripe fool Tux has been talking about us," Rainey had told him.
Glenn had looked at her strangely, fearfully. Tuxedo's banter about how cute a couple Rainey and the Thunderbolt leader made wasn't something he really wanted to converse about. "Just what have you heard?"
"Well," she had said, "he's been going on like a broken record about how you and I seem to be more than friends."
"Pah!" Glenn spat. "He's a pretty lousy rumor-creator."
She'd looked at him oddly. "You think so?"
"Anything Tux says is mostly half-assed. He once told me that if you stare long enough at a glass of milk, it turns into cheese."
Rainey had, for some reason or another, stood there, not saying anything. Eventually, Glenn had asked her if something was the matter, and she had responded that it was nothing. They'd continued talking, though she hadn't had as much spite in her as previously.
Gordon had been utterly confused by her demeanor, and only now, as he lay there in bed at two in the morning did he really begin to think about what she'd been troubled about. She had certainly seemed a little put-out by his response concerning crazy old Tux, but that was only natural. Wasn't it?
His heart skipped a beat.
He wouldn't get to ponder over the situation with Rainey, for at that very moment, something passed by the window. The ominous shadow was illuminated into the room thanks to the very slim, nearly-black blueish hue the moon projected.
Immediately Glenn jerked his head over to Tux's bed. The guy was lying there, snoring like a car rotor. It was the only noise apparent in the darkness, and this worried Glenn. Tuxedo Ral was usually the only person up at night, and no one on base was permitted to leave their quarters - unless during an emergency.
Curious, Glenn very, very carefully moved the drapes to catch a peek outside, but it was really too dark to get a view on anything out there. Who on Wars World was up at this hour?
His mind began searching possibilities. It could have been a base guard, but they didn't hang around here at nighttime. Or there really could have been an emergency going on, but wouldn't the base alarm be sounding? Or perhaps it was just some lost ghost, trying to find its way home, wherever that may have been - Glenn didn't really want to know. Who really knew who was out there?
Glenn couldn't help it. He slipped out of bed quietly as to not wake Tux and stepped out of their room.
The hallway wasn't any brighter, but Glenn knew which way he was supposed to go. Carefully maneuvering down it, his bare feet allowing silent footsteps, he reached the end of the hall and looked towards the desk near the pilot's wing entrance door, his eyesight now adjusted to the darkness since he'd been awake for so long.
But the instant before he got there, he heard the audible outtake of air from the door opening. Glenn moved himself up against the wall as though he were some sort of secret agent. He leaned there, his body completely pressed up against it, and he heard the very soft but deep sound of metal making contact with the smooth rug. That was very strange. Either someone was wearing metal shoes, or. . .
The sound grew closer, causing a sweatdrop to run down Glenn's face.
The large bulk of a body in the darkness became visible, its back oviously to Glenn, but in the split second that he saw it, the body turned around, and a horrifying pair of very large, completely red eyes came into contact with his own.
Glenn's fist came right up into the eyes, but the powerful hit didn't make it. Instead, the attack crashed against something, presumably some sort of glass, causing it to break and shatter instantly. The ambiguous thing, startled, began to shriek, but another immensely strong fist hammered right into its face, accompanied by the crack of bones somewhere within.
Glenn had not expected to hear such hideous, spine-chilling cracks, and this stunned him greatly, but whatever the creature was, it was falling onto its back, dead, its now-bleeding eyes stuck wide open uselessly.
He stared down at it, his heart running like a race horse. It was a sickening sight. But before he could really question the terrible creature's identity or origin, he caught something outside of the corner of his eye. Immediately, Glenn jerked his head over towards the door, and outside, there were clearly more of these things, wandering around stealthily outside - and some of them were making their way towards the door.
"Good Lord," he mumbled under his breath. What in the world was going on here?
Tux was still lying on his butt in bed, sound asleep when Glenn came rushing back in. The lead Thunderbolt went right up to his roommate and shook the blue blazes out of him, causing Tux to snort loudly and pop out of whatever dream he'd been enjoying. "The hell? Stop, Glenn! Just stop."
"Tux," Glenn said, exasperated, "come on! We've got a huge problem."
"There I was," Tux was grumbling, "sitting there on Alara Mountain, my arms around two supermodels, one for each arm. One of 'em even looked like Nell, and the other was the spittin' image of that Sonja chic. And they was about to plant big old kisses right on my cheeks when you come in, waking up all of Creation and telling me about some little bitty old problem no one gives half a damn about. And that wonderful dream, it just popped like a big old balloon. Have I ever told you how much I hate you, Glenn Gordon?"
But Glenn was already busy rummaging through the emergency locker near their room door. He fished out a small semi-automatic handgun and some extra ammunition for it - As all of the rooms were required to have. Glenn never thought he'd have to actually use the blamed thing. It looked as though that wouldn't be possible, though. This was dogged serious.
He opened their room's door slightly and peeked out, but he still couldn't really see anything, except from the dark blue light emenating from the moon into the main lobby of the pilot's wing, where that mysterious creature still lay inanimate, no life inside it whatsoever. Glenn's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the terrible thing.
Then his eyes moved down the hallway. Illuminated by a tiny red light on the wall was the fire alarm. Glenn at first considered heading over there and activating it, but whoever was outside obviously wasn't friendly at all, and with the Thunderbolt pilots all scrambling, disoriented, they'd all just get mown down.
Tux stumbled tiredly over to the locker and looked at the other gun inside of it quizzically. "Glenn, what exactly is so doggone disturbing that you need to-"
"Shhh!" Glenn growled suddenly, waving his free hand for the guy to close his big yap. Then, very stealthily, he crept out of the room and headed towards the opposite side of the hall, quietly opening the door where the roommates Bubba Boggs and Tristan Royal slept.
They would obviously be startled by Glenn's presence, so he needed to be careful. It probably wouldn't work out too well, but he had to try. Silently, he went right up to Bubba's bed and put a hand on his arm. "Bubba."
The big man didn't stir at all. Glenn shook him rapidly, growing annoyed. Bubba slept way too much already, why couldn't he have been a light sleeper? "Bubba! Wake up, you old fool!"
Bubba snorted loudly, just as Tux had done. "Grmphf? Glenn?"
"Yeah. We've got a big problem here. I think we're being attacked, just stay calm and get your equipment out of your locker. And wake Tristan up too - and be careful."
Bubba didn't hesitate. He jumped right out of his bed and rushed over to Tristan while Glenn creeped back over towards the door. Looking across the hallway as he stood there, he motioned for Tux to stay where he was. The sleepy, irritated fellow did, though not without showing his aggravation with an irritated mumble.
Then Glenn looked down the hallway again at the lobby.
Like a stealthy group of SWAT officers, the unknown assaulters crept up towards the body of their comrade. The lead armored creature knelt down and examined the body with its large, imposing eyes strangely. Glenn heard it whisper something to the others behind it, but the words only came out like gibberish. The creature sounded as though it were trying to drink mouthwash while it spoke. These things definitely didn't have a trace of human blood inside of them.
The kneeling creature seemed to hesitate a moment, then it looked down the hall towards the pilot's rooms. Glenn could tell from the jagged, swervy motion of its big pupils. The direction the body of the creature was lying in seemed to signify that it had been attacked by something - or more likely, someone - in that direction, right where Gordon was. And in that moment, Glenn spied its arm. The armored thing was not a ligament, but was actually a large, imposing machinegun, and now that Glenn looked a second time, all of these mysterious attackers were armed in the very same way.
The lead creature, with a flick of its big, free, unarmed wrist, made the motion for its fellow assaulters to follow it, and the lot of them began to warily sneak down the hallway towards the pilot rooms. Glenn's eyes widened a considerable amount as he realized how little time he had left to prepare.
What was he supposed to do now? He hadn't alerted all of the Thunderbolts yet, and they were about to get torn apart.
Onward the attackers crept. Within seconds, they were less than twenty feet from the rooms - and where Glenn hid. Sweat began to break out on his forehead.
There was only one thing he could do to save his friends.
No longer hesitating, Glenn Gordon leaned outward into the hall from the room and raised his handgun right up into firing position, pointing it directly at the lead attacker's enormous, blood red eyes that shone brightly despite the darkness. He felt the gun kick backwards as he pulled the trigger, and not a split second later, there was the sound of glass shattering as the lead set of eyes dipped backwards, a great "BOOM" emanating through the base to accompany Glenn's shot.
A noisy collapse occured as the creature and its heavy set of armored crumbled to the ground backwards. But without warning, the five other enemy attackers opened realized what was happening and opened fire, right at Glenn.
The Thunderbolt leader pitched himself backwards as bullets shredded the walls around the door. But the second there was a break in the firing, he leaned right back out the doorway and proceeded to return fire. By now, Tux was doing the same, having less-than-pleasantly realized what exactly was going on here.
More sporadic shots came from the enemy attackers, but now they were scrambled by the bullets coming back at them. The entire, pitch-black hallway became consumed by the sounds of the gun battle.
Some of the enemy attackers rushed back into the lobby to find some sort of cover. Glenn took this oppurtunity to bolt across the hallway, back into their room with Tux so Bubba and Tristan wouldn't have him standing there, hogging up all their firing room. And as soon as he'd headed out of their room, the two of them were already sending gunshots at the armored assaulters.
"Surrender immediately, meatbags!" It was the gurgly voice of one of the creatures who had taken cover. "The Black Hole cause will consume and kill you if you do not accept it! The enemies of the Leader will be extinguished like the pathetic flame of a match!"
Glenn's eyes widened even more at this horrifying revelation. These terrifying, inhuman creatures were Black Hole soldiers. And they had found the Reagan Air Force Base. For all Glenn knew an entire legion of Black Hole forces could be on their way to back up these miserable monsters.
He grit his teeth angrily and continued firing. The response from the Black Hole troops was similar.
By now, an alarm was sounding out across the base. But none of the lights had come on yet. Glenn didn't know if this helped or burdened their situation - Who knew if these things could see in the dark?
He spared a quick glance down the opposite end of the hallway to make sure no Thunderbolt was running around like a beheaded chicken, but he saw the recognizable sheen of armor in the darkness, heading right into one of the rooms. They were coming in from the other entrance, now. "Damn it!"
He raised the gun and fired at the trooper heading into the random Thunderbolt room, but he was too late. The bullet he fired sprayed off the wall, shattering paint and concrete with no effect on the enemy trooper. As soon as he fired, though, gunfire came from the troops in the lobby, and he was forced to duck right back into his own room.
But Glenn nearly swallowed his tongue when he heard much more gunfire than there had been until just then - And this new round of shots was coming from the very room Glenn had tried to keep the enemy trooper out of.
He couldn't help it. Forcing his mind to keep away the obvious danger of being shot, Glenn Gordon brazenly rushed right out of his room and into the hallway, bursting down it maybe ten feet and plowing right into the room where the enemy trooper had disappeared into, doing all this in nearly complete darkness with bullets whizzing by him. He could only hope he wouldn't get mown down like grass by whatever vile being wasn't supposed to be in there as soon as he popped in.
And there were those huge, red eyes, completely illuminated despite the darkness. Glenn pumped a shot out from his handgun instantly, and a vicious, high-pitched screeching sound came from the creature as it took a hit to its moldy neck area, the glass on its helmet shattering at once. Bullets sprayed out from the dying trooper's gun-arm towards Glenn, but the pilot was already diving down behind one of the beds for cover.
The bullets continued spraying towards the door and out into the hallway. Thankfully, it wouldn't pose much of a danger for much longer. The creature paused, unleashed some sickening, terrible excuse for a cough due to the giant hole in its throat, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Glenn raised himself up from the floor when he heard the dead alien trooper tumble over, but as soon as he did, a flurry of lights flashed on outside the base, in the watch towers. Some of the spotlights from them shone towards the window, and as one of them passed the window of the room, Glenn saw whatever was left of Cassie LaGall, lying on the ground, six red holes in her mid-section.
He stared at her remains a moment, horrified.
Whirling around, feeling dizzy-headed, Glenn rushed over towards the doorway to try and continue his attack. But then a question popped into his mind, one that terrified him greatly. Where was Cassie's roommate, Rainey Banker?
Though he was afraid to do so, he turned and scanned the ground again to see if she had suffered the same fate as Cassie LaGall. But there was no sign of her, even though Glenn didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Well, no news was good news, apparently, at least in this situation.
He stuck his head out the doorway, trying to shake off the effects that seeing one of his comrades dead had on him, and scanned the hallway. Now, the spotlights were pouring in more often, letting Glenn get a better visual on his targets. There was no sign of enemy troops from the other end of the hallway, but they were still plentiful down in the lobby.
Lifting the gun up again, Glenn pumped off one more shot at the troops as he leaned farther out the door. Then he tried to unleash one a second time, but nothing happened. Immediately he realized he had run out of ammunition, and his hands shot downwards to search his pockets, to try and find the necessary replacement.
But in this very moment of weakness, his luck took a direct spiral downwards. He felt bullets whizzing past him all of a sudden, but then, one of those rounds that had been fired from the random Black Hole trooper in the lobby found its place. The bullet slammed right into Glenn's lower- right gut area, where he had just barely been exposing it out from the doorway. Glenn found himself flying backwards without warning from the impact, and he was thrown against the opposite side of the doorway painfully.
His mind couldn't concentrate on what had just happened. Glenn felt himself sliding downwards, back into Cassie's and Rainey's room. Slumping down against the wall, he felt tears welling up in his eyes as he placed his free hand over the wound.
"Oh, no."
That was all he could say. He'd never felt so much pain in his entire life. It was so terrible, and it wouldn't subside. Not in the least little bit.
He looked down at the wound, but he immediately wished he hadn't done so. Precious blood was pouring out of the hole that had been created in his body, and holding his hand tightly over it didn't help stop the flow. He couldn't tell if the bullet had penetrated anything vital inside of him, but it sure felt like it did.
Glenn leaned his head backwards as he leaned there on the floor against the wall. He didn't moan or grunt, or curse himself angrily, but only a lone tear ran down his eye, accompanying the beads of sweat that had already formed on his face earlier. This was impossible. This couldn't happen.
Then he realized it was happening. He had been shot, and he'd been shot bad.
Struggling to stay upright, he glanced over at Cassie's body. The thought suddenly crossed him that he may die, right there in this stupid room, leaning against the wall like a typical war victim. This was just wrong, but it was happening, and Glenn accepted it.
Then, as though it had a mind of its own, his free hand moved towards his neck, and it gripped the cross on the necklace that Dario Yossarian had given him so long ago. He gripped it as tightly as he'd ever gripped anything in his life.
The terrifying amount of panicking sadness he felt suddenly drained like water. A Black Hole trooper was poking its head through the door while gunfire still raged out in the hallway. It started to race right into the room, but Glenn, sliding himself along the wall out of panic and desperation, mustered up enough strength to point the gun at it.
Then he remembered he was out of ammunition.
Glenn leaned there painfully against the wall, lowering the gun, an absolutely pathetic look on his face as the trooper entered the room, staring at him. The troopers eyes centered on Glenn's face, then on the wound for a few seconds, then to the man's eyes.
No words were exchanged between the two of them. The trooper raised its gun-arm and pointed it at Glenn's head, as though it wanted to finish the job early for some disgusting reason. Perhaps it was just that it wanted to claim the kill for itself. Perhaps it wanted to stamp as much Orange Star life by itself as it could. Whatever the case, it was going to kill him.
Glenn just sat there, staring down the barrel, waiting. Seconds passed.
The creature's eyes narrowed into slits suddenly. And without wasting another second, it turned back towards the door and raced out of the room, leaving Gordon to lie there and die.
The gunfire in the hallway - and now around the base - continued. There looked to be no end to it, but it didn't matter to Glenn. He just lay there against the wall, waiting for his body to give out, wondering what kind of apartments they had up there in the holy clouds, since he'd probably be taking a trip up there soon enough.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of the base's military police rushing down the hallway, followed by a whole platoon of the same sort of folk. And there appeared to be a few medics with them, as well. One of them raced into the room housing Glenn and whatever was left of Cassie.
But by that time, Glenn had already blacked out.
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Author Notes:
Microsoft Word is being a pain. A major pain. The files are ending up being much larger in size than I want them to be, so bear with me here if this (and the previous) chapter(s) takes long to load for you. In any case, thanks for reading, and I hope you review.