General Pepper walked along the south perimeter of the Cornerian field base, where hoards of Cornerian marines were gathering. The evacuations were underway and right now all non-combat personnel were helping load all the important equipment they could into waiting transports, while others piled into dropships for evac. He returned his attention to the perimeter. A steel walkway had been hastily bolted onto part of the wall to allow more troops to fire at incoming hostiles. The walkways and guard towers were crammed with soldiers, some manning heavy tripod guns or wielding everything from assault rifles to rocket launchers. Still, five hundred against several thousand was not good odds and many of the marines clustered at the wall would die here, today, but of their own free will to allow others to escape. The sky was black now, and Pepper could see lightning flashing in the distance, soon the storm would be here too.
"There they are!"
General Pepper climbed onto one of the walkways and raised his binoculars, the marine was right. A sea of lights and dark shapes were coming up over the top of the hill, all around him weapons cocked and safeties clicked off. General Pepper climbed down from the walkway and headed away from the perimeter to let the soldiers do their work.
The army reached the top of the hill and came to a stop. Thousands of troops and vehicles spread out across the crest of the hill until they filled the tops of all the hills on this side of the valley. A roar went up as thousands of voices were raised, bellowing challenges. Neither the Brotherhood nor the Cornerians fired, but sat staring across the wide-open hillside at each other. As if whatever God governed the universe had taken pity on all the soldiers about to die thunder clashed and the dark sheet of clouds began to pour rain. The ground shook as the soldiers began to stomp in unison, faster and faster. The bellowing increased, and a Brotherhood officer climbed on top of a rock, energy sword blazing in his hand. He raised his sword high above his head and it was as if his voice boomed louder than all the others. He slashed his sword forward and bellowed a booming battle cry.
"Haaavoooc!!!"
The bellowing increased to a deafening roar as thousands of soldiers and vehicles thundered down the hill in a great tidal wave of bodies and steel. Thousands of weapons suddenly opened fire in a symphony of death and destruction.
Brotherhood soldiers fell by the dozen as the Cornerians pummeled them with weapons fire, killing countless soldiers as they ran through the vast open area between the base and the hilltop. But the Cornerians were not spared from the carnage, marines dropped like rain as walls of bullets, blaster bolts, and tank shells pounded them like so many raindrops. A marine bellowed a battle cry as he held down the trigger of his tripod gun, spraying a squad of Brotherhood troops with a flurry of high caliber bullets, before a rocket hit his guard tower and tore him into a thousand pieces. A pair of marines mowed down a two Brotherhood flag bearers before being torn apart by a hail of blaster fire. As the Brotherhood forces reached the bottom of the hill a deafening cheer went up from the Cornerian marines as the main wave of transports roared off the landing field and tore a path through the gloom and rain. A hail of artillery shells came raining down on the base from the top of the hill, shattering buildings, ripping apart soldiers, and crushing tanks. The walkways became slick with blood as marine after marine was shot down, massive cracks formed in parts of the south wall as it was pummeled with tank shells. The Brotherhood soldiers charged across the open field that ran from the base of the hill to the walls of the Cornerian base through a sea of mutilated corpses as the rain came pouring down. They were cut down in droves, the once green grass running red with their blood, but for every soldier that was killed, seven would take his place. A row of soldiers carrying heavy metal riot shields marched side by side in a long row, forming a phalanx, a platoon of machine gunners crouching behind them. Bullets bounced off the thick metal shields and blaster bolts thudded harmlessly against them, while the machine gunners crouching behind the phalanx returned fire. A flurry of high-powered blaster bolts from tripod caused the shield bearers to stagger against the force of the blows, while their shields began to glow a fiery red. A second storm of high-powered shot punched through many weakening shields, tearing through the soldiers carrying them and showering the machine gunners with blood and guts. Many shield bearers went down, and many more were torn apart by rockets and grenades but the phalanx did not stop. At that point a hail of tank shells blew apart parts of the south wall, spraying the marines inside with deadly concrete shards. The Brotherhood troops continued to fall, some within meters of the gaps in the wall, but the Cornerian defender's numbers were falling faster then the Brotherhoods. The phalanx reached the gap and marched through, shields parting just enough to admit the muzzles of a dozen assault weapons. A hail of rockets slammed into the phalanx, shattering shields and tearing apart soldiers, wiping out the phalanx… but it was too late. Brotherhood soldiers swarmed the gaps in the wall, charging over countless fallen comrades, while more charged through the blood stained field ignoring the mangled corpses, guts, and internal organs that littered the ground. Cornerian and Brotherhood soldiers flooded into the breach, firing in each other's faces and beating each other with their metal weapons, fighting harder than many of them had ever fought in their lives.
"Fall back, fall back!"
The blood drenched major who shouted the command was torn apart by a burst of bullets as he turned to run.
Sergeant Andrew Stevenson ran through the blood drenched chaos firing as he went tearing apart a pair of Brotherhood soldiers, and beating soldiers with his metal assault rifle. Marines sprinted past him, falling back farther into the base. He turned and ran, leaping over a mass of corpses and almost slipping on the blood stained concrete. A marine near him was torn in half by a flying slab of concrete as a building near them was hit by a tank shell. As he dove behind a pile of sand bags that had been set up ahead of time as a fallback point another cheer went up as a swarm of transports and dropships took off, clawing desperately for altitude, but several were not so lucky. A flurry of rockets and tank shells screamed after them and several were hit, blowing apart and spewing their hapless passengers, some still alive into the sky. An unearthly screaming came from the east and Stevenson turned to see a squadron of atmospheric fighters making a making a strafing run. Marines were hit by laser blasts and evaporated, rockets tore apart buildings and vehicles. Stevenson raised his rifle and emptied his clip on one of them, futilely. They disappeared into the gloom, but the unearthly screaming returned, they were coming back. They screamed in low, mowing down marines and laying waste to buildings, some getting hit by rockets but many undamaged. This time however they did not return. Waves of Brotherhood soldiers charged through the carnage, relentlessly pursuing the marines, gunning down stragglers or helpless wounded. Stevenson ran to a tripod gun, its dead gunner spewing his guts onto the ground from a dozen bullet holes. He pulled the charging lever and with a battle cry turned it on the Brotherhood pursuers, tearing many hapless soldiers to pieces with a hail of blaster bolts thicker than his fists. Bullets and blaster bolts tore through a group of marines standing next to him, one of them got up a wolf lieutenant with a submachine gun in each hand and spewing blood from half a dozen bullet holes in his torso.
"Go dammit, get your ass out of here, don't wait for me!"
Stevenson didn't bother to protest, he turned and ran as the submachine guns roared behind him constantly for several seconds, than fell silent. He ran past an overturned light combat vehicle and almost tripped over the vehicle's gunner, who from the looks of him had been thrown clear but had broken his legs when he hit the ground. From the blood seeping out from under the vehicle the driver and passenger had not been so lucky. He was about to bend over and throw him over his shoulders when the marine looked him in the eyes.
"Leave me."
Stevenson unbuckled his grenade belt and pressed it into the marine's blood soaked hands before running on. He was almost to the airfield now… if anyone had come back for them. A loud rumbling caught his attention and he dove face first onto the blood soaked concrete before looking up, expecting another attack from above. But rather than Brotherhood fighters it was a Cornerian dropship with its doors open and zip lines hanging down. Stevenson ran towards it, several marines were already climbing up the zip lines. It began to move again just before he reached it and he lunged for a zip line, grabbing a hold of it as the dropship blazed up into the sky. He fastened the zip line to the metal ring on his belt and began to pull himself up as it flew higher. Thankfully they began to reel in the zip lines and he was hauled into the troop bay, but as he turned to look past the closing doors he beheld a sight that would be forever burned into his memory. The sloping hills, the fields outside the base, and the streets of the base itself were red with the blood of well over a thousand soldiers, and were littered with corpses, Brotherhood and Cornerian alike, laying on top of each other, their blood mixing into one massive crimson pool. He couldn't remove his gaze from the sight until the doors closed. In all his years of fighting he had never seen anything on that great a scale, and the words he'd heard a thousand times echoed in his head; war is hell.
Fox and Krystal shot past hoards of Brotherhood soldiers as they flew over the crest of the hill oblivious to Stevenson's hardships. They raced down the hillside, while Brotherhood soldiers jumped out of the way, thinking they were more of their comrades. They blazed through a hole in the wall and through the streets before screeching to a halt. Fox pulled the small lever next to the control panel and the canopy popped open. As he jumped out of the cramped cockpit the smell of death assaulted his sensitive vulpine nose, but that was nothing compared to what he saw. Everywhere he looked hoards of corpses lay in widening pools of their own blood.
"Come on, we have to hurry!" He shouted to Krystal.
Pausing just long enough to grab the data module from Fox's LAV the pair ran through the carnage toward the airfield in time to see the last few dropships roar off into the sky. Krystal sprinted after Fox, the pouring rain washing away the dye in her fur and exposing the cerulean fur underneath. As they reached the edge of the airfield where a hoard of Brotherhood troops were engaging a platoon of bloody and wounded Cornerian marines, one of the Brotherhood soldiers spotted them and gave a surprised look as he saw the blue furred vixen. He pulled something out of his pocket, looked at it, looked at her, and tossed it aside.
"Uhhh Fox."
It was too late the soldier shouted.
"It's them, don't let them get away!"
Thirty soldiers turned away from the firefight and charged after them with weapons blazing. In an instant Fox had his energy sword in his hand and the blade disintegrated the fake wrench end as it sprung into existence. Krystal whipped out her staff and it tore off the false tool ends as it telescoped outward and locked into the combat position. Fox sprung in front of her, his sword blazing in fiery arcs as it disintegrated bullets and sent blaster bolts ricocheting off into the sky or into walls. Krystal brought her staff up and fired a flurry of fist-sized fireballs, mowing down a pair of the soldiers. The soldiers stopped firing as a dozen Brotherhood soldiers dropped from a building beside them, brandishing metal swords and bayonets. She whipped her staff up and using it like a spear stabbed through the nearest soldier's chest, then spun it up and whipped it a figure eight, slicing apart the next soldier. She ducked a slash from a bayonet and raised her staff above her head, the Brotherhood soldier raised his rifle to block the slash but her staff cut through his weapon and slashed his face into, she hazarded a quick look in Fox's direction. His blade was a blur as he cut through weapons and their wielders in half, he became a whirlwind of death as he slashed apart any soldiers foolish enough to get within his reach, a number of soldiers already laying in pieces at his feet. Krystal returned her attention to the battle and she slammed her staff's shaft into a soldier's face, then whipped it around and cut his torso open, spilling his guts onto the blood drenched ground. A few moments later they were the only fighters still standing. Krystal brought her staff up and sprayed a smoke screen of icy mist as more soldiers poured into the street after them firing blindly into the mist. Together she and Fox turned and ran onto the airfield, past rows of wrecked fighters.
"There!"
She shouted as she caught site of their Arwings sitting side by side in a corner. Thankfully Falco's and Bill's fighters were gone. She retrieved a small device from her pocket and pressed a button, Fox did the same. The canopies on their Arwings opened and she hopped into the cockpit. Fox leapt into his own ship as she engaged the engines and retracted the landing gear; a moment later she blasted off the airfield with Fox's Arwing right alongside her. Together they blazed through the rainy sky and broke through the clouds into a sunny sky that belied the carnage below the clouds. As they left the atmosphere she realized how lucky they were to have survived this day and live to fight another, while many had not.