World War Guppy
Chapter 4: Riviera in ruins
"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor." —George Orwell
Somewhere in space, near the Earth's atmosphere
Objective: Contact WPP resistance and establish a radio link with HQ
"We barely got spotted by a nearby OD patrol." Gil announced through the ship's loudspeakers. "Nonny, can you come for the maps?"
Nonny stood up from his chair. Oona and Goby were sitting too, checking their equipment one last time, and Deema sat at the communications desk, trying to catch signals from survivors. Molly was in the cockpit too.
"Valen and Richardson said we had to land somewhere in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea." Nonny said.
"Yeah, but, where exactly? We don't even know specifically what parts are controlled by us or the OD." Gil exclaimed.
"That's what we have to find out, Gilly. I suggest you land somewhere central, and on the continent." Molly said. Gil looked at the holographic map and pointed his finger on one spot.
"Here we will go!"
"That's Nice." Nonny replied.
"I know, thanks. I'm good with choosing places and—"
"Gil, that city is called 'Nice'." Nonny added.
"Oh, that's a, nice, name, haha!" Nonny rolled his eyes.
"We've lost enough time now. Let's go to it." Molly ordered. Nonny ran back and attached himself to a seat. Gil accelerated into the atmosphere.
"I will never forget this feeling!" Gil shouted. The shock was intense, but it calmed down. Clouds appeared. Gil went further down, and a sea appeared. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at Earth with our first destination planned for, Nice!"
"How many times will we hear this joke?" Nonny mumbled.
"Find the city, Gil. It's to the North." Molly ordered. Gil nodded. He looked on the digital compass and went in the right direction.
Only some minutes later, the 2 could see the coastline appear.
"Remember Molly, this is kinda a stealth mission, so we need a right place to hide the ship. This thing is very big."
"Yeah, we must find a resistance camp immediately. This ship is our only way back to space."
"We have the radio equipment to communicate with our new HQ. They can send us another ship for evac."
"I know, but that would be a failure for us. We can't risk to fail, not now."
"Where do I land now?" The ship reached the shores. The 2 took a closer look at the city. It was completely in ruins.
"I see a wide alley there. Just land there, and we'll do a quick scouting of the area." Molly ordered, and Gil flew to the destination.
The ship landed. Molly went to the briefing part of the ship where everyone waited.
"This is a quick scouting mission. Goby, Oona and Nonny, come with me. Deema and Gil stay here. It won't be long." Molly retracted her spacesuit. Underneath was her old ordinary outfit. The 4 went to the airlock of the ship and jumped out.
"The air smells much better here!" Oona exclaimed.
"All air in space was artificially produced, so it's normal that it had a different smell." Nonny explained.
"I don't know, the smell of a city in ruins isn't particularly pleasant." Goby added, looking around him.
"Let's walk that way. Stay close to each other. Gil, Deema, we stay in contact." Molly ordered. The 4 walked on the destroyed road, jumping over stone debris and broken cars.
At one moment, Molly peaked over a pile of concrete, and a shot hit the debris centimetres from her. She crouched.
"Enemy fire. Cover guys." She shouted.
"Where was it from?" Goby said. He looked over his cover, and the same happened as with Molly. "Woah, close call!"
"Oh shit! Guys, from behind!" Gil shouted through the comlink. All turned around and saw several lobsters and crabs with weapons, varying in technological advancement, pointed at them.
"Haut les mains!" One said. Molly and her friends didn't understand until the guy shouting it pointed his gun up.
"They don't look like OD soldiers." Oona whispered.
"Yeah, look at their clothing. They are civilians." Goby added.
"Do we intervene?" Gil asked through the comlink.
"No, I'm going to try something." Molly replied.
"I said hands up! Both hands!" The same lobster said. This one had a dark blue beret. Molly looked at it and recognized the WPP logo.
"We are friendly. We are from the WPP." Molly said.
"The WPP? They can't have such high-tech ship! They lost everything!"
"We don't want to fight, we have the same enemy, the OD!"
"Yeah, she's right!" Oona added.
"You 4 look very young to be soldiers! Nor the WPP, nor the UN recruits teens."
"Hey, we turned 18 last year!" Goby snapped back and got a nasty look back, making him quiet down.
"Who are you then? Where the hell do you came from, if it's not from any OD base."
"We are the ETS, and we came from space." Molly said. All were silent for a moment, and burst out in laughter.
"The ETS? If only it was true. They disappeared in the assault on the OD HQ. You wish you were."
"I swear it's true! We are the ETS. How blind are you?" Molly snapped.
"I'm the one with the gun here, so you better stay calm. They are probably impostors, or OD infiltrators, and we can't really afford to have prisoners. To that wall, against it!" The lobster screamed. The 4 gulped.
"Gil, do something!" Molly now said as she walked.
"War is war, and you guys destroyed Earth. You all are responsible, and you will pay!" The militia pointed their guns and were ready to fire, until…
"Stop!" A voice yelled. It was a female lobster, and she jumped in front of the ETS to look at them.
"Caroline, move out of the way!" The other said, but she refused.
"Are you Sergeant Molly?" Molly sighed in relief.
"Yes, that's me. And them are soldiers Nonny, Goby and Oona." Molly removed her helmet to reveal her pink hair. The group's leader started to think too.
"You survived! We thought you all died in action! We are a reconnaissance group for this area, but only I and Pierre are from the WPP. This shows you a bit the desperate situation we're all in. But with you back, the power balance changes completely!"
"Hehe, thanks, but could you order them to stop pointing their guns at us?" Molly asked. The militia obeyed, except their group leader.
"Pierre, come on, they are the ETS!" Caroline insisted.
"I see 4 here and 2 in the ship. The ETS contained 7 soldiers in it!" Molly looked at him coldly. She still had the backpack and took Zooli's head out of it. The group leader looked down.
"We lost her…" Molly added.
"Okay, I believe you. I'm becoming very paranoid last weeks. How did you survive, and get here?" Pierre asked.
"It's a very long story, and I'm afraid we don't have the time to explain it all. Plus that we're exposed here."
"Don't worry, this part of the city is relatively safe, compared to the rest…"
"The WPP is preparing its comeback from space. We took over the OD HQ on the Moon, and now we're trying to contact WPP survivors. From the last report it appeared that this region was a hotspot for resistance."
"You're not wrong. WPP, UN, and civilian forces could secure a good part of the area, but the OD remains a present menace."
"That's why we need to find the WPP responsibles here that lead the resistance. Where is your HQ?"
"Don't call it a HQ. Some officers established themselves in the ruins of the airport. Follow the coast to the West, and you'll find it. Ask for General Verendrye."
"You were really helpful to us, but we must go now. Thank you for everything, and watch your back." Molly said. The Guppies could safely walk back to the ship.
"Que Dieu vous protègent." Pierre mumbled, looking at the ship flying away.
The Guppies changed directions and headed east. It didn't take long before they saw the airport.
"It's quite big. Where could the resistance hide?" Gil asked himself.
"I'm sure they'll see us coming, and hopefully they don't shoot us down." Molly replied.
"I'll try to land in one of the hangars, the ship will be hidden from the OD."
"Just don't crash us into it…" But Gil could successfully land in an empty hangar next to the main buildings. The ETS all left the ship, all carrying parts of the radio post and headed onto the airstrips.
"This seems so weird, it seems like the airstrips are build on the sea." Deema said.
"We're right next to it, they probably needed more space." Oona added.
"Guys, let's focus. I'm sure we'll get an as positive welcome as earlier today." Molly ordered. Everyone went silent while walking to terminal 2.
Without a lot of surprise, from behind the damaged concrete walls and broken windows appeared armed individuals, with their weapons pointed at the squad.
"We are friendly!" Molly shouted, holding her hands up. The rest followed. A dozen WPP soldiers approached them. "We are the ETS, on a special mission. We need you to bring us to your commander."
"Sacré bleu, it's really them!" One soldier said. All pointed their weapons down.
"That went better than thought." Molly thought.
"How did you survive? What are you doing here?" Another soldier asked.
"We don't have time to explain that now. We are back with a special mission to turn the tide of the war. We need to speak to your commander here." Molly explained.
"I understand. Follow me Sergeant, I'll bring you to the General." The lobster with the most stripes on his arm said.
"Can you guys guard our ship in the hangar, please? If it gets destroyed, we're stuck here." Gil asked a couple of guards who nodded excitedly.
The group went into the large terminal 2 room. It was damaged, messy and sombre. The seats were pushed against the windows where glass was missing as a makeshift barricade. The group jumped over the security check and headed to a large circular room. More resistance fighters were present and turned to the ETS.
"Wanquier, qu'apportez-vous là? Des civils égarés?" An officer said.
"What a shame Zooli isn't here to translate." Gil thought.
"Not lost civilians, General, the ETS!" The soldier answered, in English on purpose. The General approached the 6.
"Sacré bleu, it's the ETS." He said with surprise.
"They all say the same thing when they are surprised. Is sacré bleu French for 'I am amazed?'" Gil thought out loud. Molly giggled a little.
"This is a pleasant coincidence. As all our forces left the battlefield on the Moon, we thought you had died inside the OD HQ. I am General Verendrye."
"Great to meet you, General." Molly replied.
"All the equipment you carry, we wouldn't even dare to dream about it right now. It's a real logistical disaster here. Une catastrophe. There's a lack of everything."
"I can tell." Molly said, looking around.
"But your presence here probably has a reason linked to an important mission."
"Indeed. I will keep it simple. We did survive the OD HQ as it was abandoned. As we left it, 2 of our allies waited outside for us. All of us got on a ship we found and left for the Hannibal where we rescued a maximum amount of WPP personnel. Then, we teamed up with mister Richardson who had escaped the Earth HQ. With the soldiers and equipment left, we went back to the OD HQ and took over it. The WPP is reorganizing itself from space, and we were send here to establish a radio link and how the situation down here is."
"Finally some good news. This will certainly have an impact on the war. Now I will explain the situation here, or what I know about it. All WPP resistance groups were cut off from each other, so I have no idea how they are doing. Last message we had from a WPP army in northern Germany was 2 weeks ago. Now, the southern parts of France, eastern parts of Catalonia and northern Italy are under our control. The Balearic islands, Corsica and Sardinia are ours as well."
"Is the sea safe?"
"We have a navy, but no access to fuel. Half of the ships cannot be used. Luckily, we won an important seabattle against the OD, and now they are hesitating more to attack us. But it's only a matter of days before they notice our fuel problem…"
"Hmm, not good. Anything else?" Molly asked.
"Maybe we should install the radio post. The HQ will know what to do." Gil said from behind. Molly agreed.
Goby assembled the parts of the radio together, while Nonny programmed the systems afterwards. The integrated micro-reactor powered the radio and activated it. Deema approached it.
"Okay, I gotta find the right signal… And done! HQ, do you copy?" She said.
"HQ here, affirmative. Wait a moment please." A voice said. Everyone waited.
"ETS? McCrab here. I see you found a resistance group and installed the radio post, nice work! How is the situation?" Molly started to explain everything. WPP personnel next to McCrab listened too and took notes for the report.
"We lack everything and require supplies. Weapons, medical equipment, fuel…" Verendrye added.
"The OD HQ here has been completely cleaned up and most of the systems are working. Our engineers reprogrammed the production chambers to produce our equipment. The first shipment of weapons is being loaded into a ship for your resistance area, as it's the only one we have direct contact with."
"We will supply the world, but will it be enough?" Gil asked.
"The HQ contains several large production factories. the production of supplies will only increase, but we will have to recapture factories on Earth too. We lack ships for transport. And the fuel will also be a problem. The refinery is active, but our scientists must adapt it to produce artificial fuel that fits in our vehicles."
"We don't really have the time." Verendrye reacted. McCrab was silent.
At the moment, a formidable explosion could be heard outside. The shockwave made everyone inside of the airport fall on the ground.
"What was that!?" Oona shouted. They looked through the destroyed glass walls and saw a giant submarine next to the airstrips. Other OD transport boats arrived and a large amount of soldiers appeared.
"An amphibious attack! The explosion was a missile from the submarine!" A soldier reported.
"Graziono!" Verendrye mumbled in anger. "He's the General in charge of this area, for the OD."
"We must evacuate this place quickly!" Molly ordered.
"We can't do this! If this place falls, Nice will fall, and the front will be split in two. Intelligence reports told us that this type of sub needs 1 hour cooldown before it can launch a missile again."
"We will send all the aid possible! McCrab out." The radio said. Verendrye turned to the Guppies.
"ETS, I need you to find a way to destroy this sub. My men and I will distract the OD troops. Go right and you'll find the exit. Bonne chance."