Author Note: So, Chapter 7...thanks for all the reviews so far, they really help me keep writing this, seeing as I've been wasting my time on Red Alert 2, killing poor Soviet soldiers into the small hours of the morning. Homicidal games-playing aside, after this chap I'm going to pick up the pace a bit. Red Mesa need to finish off Blue Moon, Orange Star has to whip Black Hole, and I still have to somehow involve the other countries...sigh...
Disclaimer: Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, and their content are copyright Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Red Mesa and its CO's are my intellectual property.
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Advance Wars: Red Mesa – Chapter 7: The Red Zephyr.
By CO Shade.
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Location: Intensive Care Unit, Red Mesa Capital Hospital.
Time: 1200 Hours OS time, 2 months after Swift was captured.
A steady, high-pitched beep sounded again and again, accompanied by the whirr of machinery, as Diesel and Cougar sadly looked over Shade, hooked up to a drip and all sorts of machines, breathing slowly. "This isn't good," Diesel said quietly. "First Swift being captured, now Shade nearly killing himself..." Cougar massaged his temples, forcing himself to stay awake. He hadn't slept for the past day, and he was getting a major headache. "For all we know, Shade could be dead. The sheer power coursing through him could have wiped his mind clearer than a pane of glass." Diesel nodded. However much she wanted to deny it, it was true. The amount of energy Shade used could have left him brain-dead. "How long will it take for him to recover?" Cougar stroked his chin, feeling rough stubble, and decided to shave ASAP. "Perhaps a month until he regains consciousness, the he'll still be bedridden for half a year at the least." Diesel looked at Shade's face, obscured by a breathing mask. "Knowing him, he'll want to be mobile...I guess a wheelchair is in order. And a truckload of painkillers." She then turned to look at Cougar. " We still need to know where Blue Moon have taken Swift," She said, abruptly changing the subject. "Then we can pull her out and raze it to the ground." Cougar started pacing back and forth, arms folded. "The Zynkov POW Camp," He said at last. "It's where they take all high-ranking prisoners." Diesel raised a sceptical eyebrow. "And you know this how?"
Cougar stopped pacing and turned to look at her, "Didn't I ever tell ya? I used to serve in the Blue Moon Army when I was younger." Diesel leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. "Same here, although I never heard about Zynkov. I think all of us came to Red Mesa after serving in other countries. Swift served in Green Earth, we served in Blue Moon...I wonder where Shade served? He's never told us..." Cougar resumed his pacing. "We need to decide a definite COA. I think we should rescue Swift, beat Blue Moon to within an inch of their lives, then go help Orange Star." Diesel smiled and stood up. "In concur," She said. Cougar cracked his knuckles. "Right. Let's get to work. First things first, the Red Zephyr is ready for launch, as you no doubt know. We send in a Viper Team, rescue Swift and-what?" Cougar noticed a look of disgust on Diesel's face. "I hate it when people crack their knuckles. It's sick, and you're damaging the cartilage in your joints." Cougar looked down at his hands. "Ah. So...when do we launch the RZ? Diesel looked down at Shade. "As soon as Shade wakes up and gives the order...if he ever does."
Location: Black Hole Field HQ, Orange Star.
Time: 2135 Hours OS Time, a month later.
"Final launch sequence activated. Launch in T-Minus 60 seconds and counting." At long last, Lash had managed to get her missile platform ready for launch, although much later than planned, as well as being a night-time launch. The sudden defeats at the hands of the Orange Star Army, and with their best scientists trying to figure out what in the name of Sturm Red Mesa had done with their troops in the Capital City battle had pushed back the launch date considerably. Hawke and Lash oversaw the launch from the C&C room of the Black Hole Field HQ. Lash smiled, showing that her childlike demeanour hadn't vanished completely. "I have to admit, having a new weapon to play with is fun. Maybe I should reform my R&D team," She said. Hawke nodded absent-mindedly, watching the countdown intently. "If it can produce weapons like this," He said, motioning to the curled-up missile platform, attached to the launching module, "Then you have my full permission." Lash grinned as the digital readout in the bottom-right of the screen reached zero. "It's launching!" She cried happily. The both looked on as the launch module, a conventional orbital delivery rocket, started to rocket upwards, plumes of smoke billowing out from it's boosters. The light from the rocket lit up the night sky as it ascended higher into the atmosphere. Hawke turned to Lash, who was enraptured by the launch. "How are the missiles themselves coming along?" He asked. "The first two are nearing completion," She replied, still gazing at the column of smoke. "We've given them the names Alpha and Omega." Hawke smirked as he realised what she meant. "Alpha and Omega...the First and the Last...quite witty, and it's true. We'll probably only need to launch two...the other countries will surrender quickly and render any spare missiles useless, apart from nuclear deterrence." As Hawke finished, the comm screen flickered into a split-screen view, one showing Adder, the other showing Flak. They both saluted Hawke (reluctantly in Adder's case), who nodded in acknowledgement. "Good to see you both. How are your campaigns going?"
"Neither myself nor Flak have gained or lost any considerable amounts of ground...sir," Said Adder, adding the 'sir' as an afterthought. "It seems that Orange Star morale has been boosted, and the Army itself strengthened, since the...incident...at the capital." Flak nodded in agreement, scratching the back of his head absent-mindedly. Lash frowned. "None of the countries really know what Red Mesa did back then," She said. "The only clue we have is that electromagnetic readings went off the scale. Estimates put it at several billion times the planet's own magnetic field." Hawke rolled his eyes. More scientific talk. "Let our scientists worry about that," He interrupted. "Adder, Flak, all I want you to do is hold out against Orange Star until we've armed the missile platform. Then...we'll go annihilate a couple of capital cities!"
Location: Zynkov POW Camp, Blue Moon.
Time: 0900 Hours BM Time, a week later.
Swift yawned and stretched as she awoke from a dreamless sleep. She rose from the bed in her cell - it's more of a penthouse suite than a cell, she thought. At least they treat me well. As she washed, her mind drifted to Shade. Please let him be okay, she wished silently. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he'd died trying to rescue me...she put on her uniform - which had been cleaned overnight, much to her relief when she first arrived here - and sat down in the nearest chair she could find. She sighed deeply, and started to reflect on what had happened. She'd been treated well enough - it wasn't imprisonment, more of an enforced leisure - and had been fed well. Either Grit or Olaf checked up on her every day, not daring to actually enter the cell and talk to her. Not since they'd searched her for weapons - and found two Red Panther .50 caliber pistols, and several shuriken and throwing knives (the last two being gifts from Shade). Swift chuckled grimly as she recalled the look on Olaf's face as the guards found them - and Grit's timeless remark of "Well Boss, looks like you owe my fifty." She leaned back in her chair, stretching out and putting her hands behind her head. "Wonder how long it'll take Diesel and Cougar to mount a rescue attempt - and Shade...if he's not..." She mentally slapped herself. Of course he's not dead. I hope...she looked sadly up at the ceiling, fighting against herself and her emotions, furiously blinking back tears. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands. She had to be strong...she had to...but the sadness and the stresses of everything that had happened were beginning to take their silent toll on her. Swift felt herself start to shake, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. She tried her best to calm down, tried telling herself that this was just what Blue Moon wanted her to do...in this state, she would talk...
A single tear trickled down her cheek.
Swift heard the cell door swish open, but didn't have the mental strength to look up and see who it was. She heard the door close, and saw someone sit down in the seat opposite to her. She looked up slightly to see that it was Grit, with an expression of mingled pity and sadness on his face. Grit sighed, and leant forwards to look at her. "Sad...I didn't think you could 'do' sad," He said. "What's gettin' ya down?" Swift steadied herself, but her voice was still shaking. "Shade..." She said, looking up at him, defeated. "I..I...just want to know if he's...alive..." She hung her head. "If he died back then...I wouldn't be able to live with myself." Grit nodded, understanding what she was going through. "You love him, don't you?" Her expression said more than enough. "This isn't easy for me either," Grit said. ""If I had my way, Blue Moon wouldn't even be in this war...Olaf's just in it for the land." Grit sighed as he saw no response from Swift. "He's alive," He said at last. "Someone like Shade can't die like that...not that easily. At the worst, he's on life support...but as soon as he wakes up, he'll be rarin' to attack us..." Swift looked back up at him, and gave a small smile. "Hell hath no fury like Shade pissed off..." She said softly. "And they know exactly where to find me." Grit paled, his eyes wide with shock. "What?!"
"Both Cougar and Diesel used to serve in the Blue Moon Army," Swift said matter-of-factly. "They'll know where I am. I myself used to serve in Green Earth...quite a good army, Blue Moon is a shambles compared to them." Grit's expression became neutral as he processed this latest revelation. He stood up, and walked over to the cell door. "I think that's all Olaf will wanna know...if it isn't, screw him." Swift raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't speak bad of your superiors," She said playfully. "But then again, it's Olaf, so you have a good reason." Grit looked at her for a few seconds, then left. Swift frowned as the door sld shut. Was that a smile she saw on his face?
Location: Red Zephyr Dock, Mesa 2, Red Mesa.
Time: 1300 Hours OS Time, one week later.
The Red Zephyr lay in it's dock as countless numbers of units were marched up massive ramps into the belly of the craft. Resembling an elliptical cylinder, it had large, stubby canard wings near the front of the nose, with massive SCRAMJets (Supersonic Ram Jets), almost 50 meters in diameter, mounted on their undersides. At the very front of the nose, two large and suspicious-looking holes marked the end of two tubes that ran nearly the entire length of the ship. Near the ship's rear, a massive building with sloped sides sat between two large vertical fins. In front of it, the bridge, elevated above the deck by forward-slanting supports. The main wings, attached to the rear of the ship, were several hundred meters wide and three times as long. Currently, they were folded up against the body of the Red Zephyr, so the ship could actually leave the dock. Five SCRAMJets were mounted on their undersides at regular intervals. At the very back of the ship, five more SCRAMJets, four of them twice the size of the normal ones, were mounted in a trapezium formation. The entire ship bristled with turrets, missile launchers and rockets, not to mention the ability to launch aircraft from the wings. With a red and black paint job, and the Red Mesa logo adorning it's sides, the ship looked more dangerous and advanced than anything Red Mesa had built or designed, including the Heavy Tank. All in all, it was Wars World's first non-nuclear based 'Superweapon' - any weapon or machine that could destroy an entire city.
Three people stood on an elevated balcony up above the ship. Well, two of them stood. The one in the middle was in a wheelchair, flanked by the other two. The now-conscious Shade, in the wheelchair, smiled coldly. He had woken up a week ago for no apparent reason, his eyes snapping open as he sat up, only to collapse back on the bed because of the pain. He was now on five different painkillers a day, but was going to be stuck in a wheelchair for at least six months. At least the Red Mesa Government had the courtesy to install wheelchair access, he thought dryly. On the outside, he gave a harsh laugh, and Diesel and Cougar, the two by his sides, looked at him. "I thought the painkillers sent you to sleep?" Diesel said, looking at him quizzically. Shade folded his arms, a wry smile twisting his features. "The only thing that could knock me out at the moment is industrial-grade alcohol, a large mallet, or one of Sonja's Intel lectures. I've been out cold for three months; I'm not losing consciousness without a fight." He turned away from the massive hulk of the Red Zephyr, and wheeled himself into a nearby lift. "Ready for the launch?" Diesel and Cougar nodded, and went over to join him in the lift. Arriving at the ground floor, the three made their way to the boarding tunnel connected to the bridge. It took them almost five minutes to walk up to the bridge, and Shade wished that he hadn't ordered the Red Zephyr to be this big. He let out a contented sigh as he looked around the bridge. It was time. Grabbing a microphone and switching on the tannoy system, he spoke, his voice heard both inside the ship, and the dock. "This is Commander Shade. Will all crew please board within the next five minutes, we are ready for launch. Open the dock doors." Right on cue, the massive doors at the end of the dock slowly slid and ground apart, letting the sun shine through the entrance. No doubt the launch will be picked up by every other country, Shade thought. But that doesn't matter, not when they see what the RZ can do...then again, they might accelerate their own advanced weapons development. I wouldn't be surprised if each country chose a different avenue of technology...our Vipers have heard about Green Earth nanotech weapons, Yellow Comet's designs for a Weather Disrupter, heck, even Orange Star have plans for a advanced weapon...something called the 'Orange Shroud'. I wonder what type of tech Blue Moon and Black Hole have chosen...we've gone for EMTech, but then again, our army has suffered while our tech has benefited. Shade decided to wait and see what happened.
Five minutes later, with all the crew on board and in position, and the dock cleared, Shade felt the ship vibrate as the massive engines and the EM hover systems powered up. Everyone on the entire ship held their breath as the Red Zephyr slid slowly, gracefully and silently out of the dock, the doors sliding closed behind it. A rousing cheer went up from the bridge crew, and the main wings swivelled out and down into their flying positions. The massive ship started to pick up speed as it flew higher and higher, eventually clearing the cloud tops as it veered off towards its destination.
The Zynkov POW Camp.
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End of Chapter 7
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Author Note: That's Chap 7 over and done with...and how did Shade regain consciousness so quickly?
Shade: Because it drives the plot forward, you moron.
But I write the plot!
Shade: Let's face it. The people want action. They want the Red Zephyr blowing things up. I might not be in the condition to command in battles yet, but I can still blow stuff up with the aforementioned battlecruiser.
...Makes sense. In Chap 8, Shade does the above and blows stuff up with the Red Zephyr, and Olaf will make a decision that will affect Blue Moon for years to come...