Batman/Command & Conquer: Red Gotham

By Christopher W. Blaine

e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com

http://darthyoshi.topcities.com

DISCLAIMER: Batman and related characters and situations are ©2003 by DC Comics Inc./Yuri and related characters and situations are ©2003 by Westwood Games. All are used here without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. All original content is ©2003 by Christopher W. Blaine.

CHAPTER 10

The navy was doing its best to press the attack, but quite simply, it was being slaughtered. Just off the east coast of Gotham City, three aircraft carriers, guarded by destroyers and guided missile cruisers, launched wave after wave of Hornets to attack targets deep within the city. For most of the pilots, it was old hat, standard fare for a war. The younger air jocks, those who had not gotten enough kills to put the coveted golden chevrons were more apprehensive.

Most people joined the military with the hope of defending their country from attack; most did not join so they could wage war on their home soil. Yet, many of these pilots were being asked to do that. Certainly they had the most advanced "smart" weapons that the Allied militaries had to offer, but every warrior knew that there was always "collateral" damage in warfare.

Add to this the thick flack that the Soviet guns were putting in the air; it was like taking a ride into hell just to get to the target. The current survival rate for planes flying in was about 33%, meaning that flight leaders were coming back, but the newer recruits were not.

But the Soviets were not without their own air power. Early in the war, the decision had been made to forego increasing the MIG forces and instead concentrate on airship (Zeppelin) technology. Slow and lumbering, but armored as well as a tank through the use of secret alloys, the Kirov airships were packed with bombs and able to complete decimate a target in seconds.

The guided missile cruisers, ships specifically designated for air defense, picked up the Kirov's coming in from the their hiding place deep within the city. As soon as the massive blimps came into range, they began firing their missiles, peppering the armor of the slow behemoths. Unfortunately, they did not have the time to continue firing. Soviet attack submarines, waiting off shore for orders from Yuri, pounced upon the grouped together surface vessels.

By the time the destroyers, with their anti-submarine planes, made it to where the carnage was taking place, most of the cruisers were going down. The water was filled with drowning and dying sailors, but the Soviet air and sea forces did not let up. Bombs were dropped on groups of swimming seamen even as the task force commander contacted the Commander for reinforcements.

Ten troops in jet packs took off from the Commander's base in response, flying over the defenses of the Allies and into the darkness that hung over the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Again, as if he were reading the mind of the Commander, Yuri had several Sea Scorpion patrol vessels waiting just out of radar range. Fast and maneuverable, the ships carried flak cannons that were perfect for throwing debris into the intakes of the jet packs. One by one, the brave Allied troopers tried to get away but it was no use. They all fell into the unforgiving waters before they even came within sight of the task force.

The Batwing rose up on two vertical columns of super-heated air and just cleared the opening in the top of Wayne Mountain, the name given to the large hill on the edge of the Wayne property. Batman ignored the orders to land and instead turned the plane towards the ocean. Behind him, Robin was strangely quiet. "Are you okay, son?" Batman asked as he adjusted the focus on his heads-up display.

"I'm worried that we can't get a hold of Ray is all," the younger man said. "We've lost too many friends." It was a true enough statement Batman agreed. He had lost way too many friends in this war, but if what Oracle had told him, if the information she had discovered in the Allied database was true, then there was a way for him to make everything right.

Batman held no illusions that he was the savior of humanity. He knew better. But he did have a responsibility to the memory of everyone from his parents to Superman to Nightwing to try and correct a past wrong and bring about justice. That was all that Batman wanted, not to slip into savagery where only the strong survived. He wanted to reestablish the rule of law that everyone who had been important to him respected.

Right now, though, the Soviets were killing innocent sailors and Batman could do something about it. "Activating stealth mode," he announced as he flipped a switch. The Batwing was a one-of-a-kind plane, a highly modified prototype of a stealth fighter that WayneTech had been developing before the war. When the government had backed out of the project, Batman had used it as an opportunity to seize the plane for himself.

He did find it ironic that he had been involved in military contracts before the war, but he had been naïve enough to start to believe that the Justice League would have been able to handle anything. After all, when you can repel a Martian invasion, how much trouble could Russians be?

How wrong he had been! It still stung to realize that he had been arrogant enough to think that a bunch of people in funny costumes could change human nature! "Confirm steal mode is activated," Robin replied. "Picking up several radar trying to find us."

"Home in on the nearest one, prepare primary non-lethal weapon," Batman replied as he received the input from Robin's computer.

"Wayne! God dammit! Get your ass back here!" the Commander screamed through the communications channel.

Batman replied by tapping the Commander in to a compact disc of popular children's tunes. "Coming up on first target; it's a Soviet missile cruiser."

Batman nodded and watched as the massive vessel came up on his screen. The ships were designed to lob powerful conventional missiles onto shore defenses. They were essentially a derivative of the same weapons that were used in mechanized forces. "Their radar has locked onto a small guard outpost; I bet they don't even know they're out there!"

Batman acknowledged and took the Batwing into a dive. It screamed through the cold night air as Batman counted down how far they were from smacking into the ocean. Just a hundred feet above the Soviet vessel he pulled up so that the plane he would level out just above the smoke stacks. He pressed the primary trigger and felt as a bomb was dropped out of his weapons bay.

One of the missile racks was being elevated and the technician in charge looked up in time to see a black mass pass over the vessel, followed by a great whoosh of air and sound. Then there was a bright light and the foam bomb exploded. Upon contact with air, the concentrated foam expanded to over a thousand times its original size.

Soviet sailors cursed and yelled as they were covered in the sticky, firefighting ooze. It gummed up everything, including the tops of the stacks, forcing the captain to shut down his engines. The missiles could not be launched either as they were stuck fast to their launch rails.

The Batman was given several one-fingered salutes as he moved on to the next target.

The flying saucers were exactly that, saucer-shaped flyers that had rotating bottoms. The Batman could not even begin to guess the technology that was behind their design, but he guessed that it had nothing to do with the standard Soviet military. One of them took a shot at the Batwing as he passed.

"They can see through our defenses," Robin announced.

"Always the master of the obvious, aren't you," Batman said as he struggled to regain control of the Batwing. The shot had damaged the hydraulics.

"I was trained by the World's Greatest Detective," was the reply. "Arming electromagnetic pulse weapon."

Batman did not bother to acknowledge, but instead went out far to make a wide turn back. His flight took him into the range of some of the flak weapons and he found himself going through the same puffs of debris that the brave pilots from the carriers were having to pass through.

"I think I understand your reasoning, finally," Robin said softly from the rear. Batman took the time to look over his shoulder at the burning city below. All of the killing and conquering had done nothing but reduce a magnificent city to ashes. There were fires everywhere and Batman could see the familiar green glow on the outskirts of the city, the death place of Alan Scott. "I think Cassie needs to see this. She still respects you, but she just doesn't get it I think."

Batman shook his head and applied more engine thrust. "Nobody should have to understand this."

"Comrade Batman," a raspy voice called over the channel.

Batman remained cool and brought the Batwing in on a direct course for the nearest flying saucer. "This is the Batman," he said as the electro-magnetic pulse gun came on line. Robin furiously was working on rerouting the damaged hydraulics to the secondary systems. "I assume this is the Soviet commander?"

There was a hoarse laugh on the other end of the line. "Very cute, but very foolish, Dark Knight. I am not so ignorant as to think you have not already figured out who I am."

Batman felt the controls ease and he managed to get out of the way of a passing trio of Hornets, on their way to destroy even more of his city. He half felt like pursuing them, but there was always the chance they would simply be bombing burned out abandoned buildings; the flying saucers were killing seamen on those carriers. "Then you already know that talking to me is a waste of time."

"It is never a waste to engage in conversation with your intellectual equals, Batman," Yuri replied. "Ah, I see you are busy attacking my newest weapons. Please, continue."

Batman gritted his teeth and wondered how Yuri knew. Perhaps he had cameras on the saucers or maybe he was even watching through the Batman's mind. He lined up on the nearest saucer and fired the weapon. A small projectile launched from the forward cannon and crossed the gap between the two flyers. It contacted against the hull of the saucer and Batman pulled back on the yoke, taking the Batwing up and over the Soviet space ship.

He was coming back around when he saw the vehicle smash into the dark water. Before the foam had settled from its drop, the carriers were launching rescue craft to get the pilots and hopefully capture the new technology. "Very good, comrade," Yuri said with a chuckle. "But failure is not an option with me."

Even as Batman fired another round at the next saucer, the one he had disabled exploded into a million pieces. The fireball illuminated the horror in Batman's eyes. "My God, are you insane? You're killing your own people!"

"No, comrade, I am killing yours," Yuri confessed. "All of my saucers are manned by citizens of Gotham that are under my control. In fact, I carry out all of my experiments on your weak peers."

"Batman, what's wrong?" Robin asked.

Batman found it odd until he realized that he was not hearing Yuri's voice over the headphones, but it was being placed inside his mind. "Get out of my mind!" Batman snapped, pulling all of his anger and rage together to form a mental hammer. He succeeded in forcing Yuri out, but the distraction had led him over the city proper.

Up close the damage to the once great urban sprawl was even more disheartening. There was very little of the actual city left in the northern districts. There were several Soviet military buildings and some that Batman did not recognize; buildings he knew were not there the last time he had ventured this far on foot. Everything north of the city center was nothing but a massive industrialized military complex.

He took the Batwing down several hundred feet and activated the camera underneath. He did this as a way to collect evidence for the war crimes trials that would surely follow the conflict.

They flew over row after row of Soviet armor; production had been increased to an almost superhuman scale and the Batman realized that the Commander was in extreme dire straits. Yuri was not about to give up Gotham City without a real fight. He wanted to go further, wanted to get a look at the area where Alan Scott had gone down. The rumor was that the Soviets were training their special radiation troopers there, but the sky was suddenly full of flak.

At least twenty flak trucks were positioned around a series of battle labs and what Batman took to be several occupied allied buildings. He pulled away and headed back south, avoiding the flak and the opportunities presented by tethered Kirov airships. He could not take the chance that he was going to cause Yuri to kill more Gothamites by his actions. "What the hell do you want?" Batman whispered to himself.

"We've got a tail!" Robin suddenly called out. "Missile or something just launched from the ground near city hall."

Batman looked at the secondary threat screen and was amazed that his computer could not identify the weapon. Oracle had programmed the system herself, drawing information siphoned from the world's best military databases. Without knowing what sort of weapon it was, it would be difficult to come up with some sort of countermeasure.

"It's moving way too fast for a conventional rocket," Robin added. There was a pause as Batman hit the afterburners. "I think it's a metahuman."

Batman nodded and wondered what he was up against now. He decided to turn the Batwing back towards the ocean so that if he had to ditch, it would be away from any innocent civilians. As he turned, the Batwing shuddered at something broke through the left wing, sending the black craft flipping end over end.

In Batman's mind, he heard Yuri laughing. "I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of yours. I call him Comrade Billy. I believe you called him…Captain Marvel!"