---------Author's note-----------

Yay, chapter 4 is complete and here for your viewing pleasure. Sorry that it takes me forever to update- blame it on my English and Government teachers, but I really will try to update more often. Plenty of action in this chapter, and of course a good old surprise or two. :)

Just to clarify, since Foulds seems to think Sonja is far too old for Andy, I want to say that I think Andy, Sonja, and Kat are all about 18-ish. Andy was about 14 in the first invasion, and 17 by the second invasion. About a year has passed since Hawke killed Sturm and ran, leaving everyone happy. Since Sonja is a genius who can even outwit the tactical Lash, I think its reasonable that she would be several years ahead in her education and be in a few classes with Sami. Besides, she's one of the only characters in the original AW who doesn't deride Andy in some way for being a kid, leading me to believe they are actually peers. Not to mention she looks like a bloody Girl Scout in the original game. She seems to have matured a lot, and so has Andy, so now they are now both 18. So there :)

And as always, never forget to leave behind a review to prove you were here and as a bonus, get on the list of people who will survive my bloody coup to take over the world.

Be sure to enjoy!

Keeper of the Scarf

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Atop a forested mountain deep within the Orange Star territory, a shrouded figure stood and took in the view. The cloak she wore appeared black and was loose enough to billow lightly in the cool dawn breeze; its flowing fabric caught the beams of the rising sun, and the threads woven in the ebon fabric sent out glints of a deep violet reminiscent of Adder's hair. The figure sniffed the air lightly, sensing the rainclouds that were hovering somewhere beyond the horizon. Another sniff. Yes, the same pleasant breeze would soon bring a heavy rain, and with it the dampening of both uniforms and men's spirits. The overhanging hood of the cloak blocked out the light that would have lit up her dark smile. "Perfect," she whispered.

The mood at the Orange Star HQ was subdued that morning. The forecasts were calling for rain in a few hours, and the barometers were already beginning to drop. The CO's were all trying to be cheerful as they readied their troops to move in to the region where Lash and Adder were likely hiding, and Max and Sami were bantering back and forth good-naturedly as usual as they prepared the tank corps and infantry units for battle. Andy was under a Md. tank with his trusty wrench, trying to figure out why the fuel lines weren't getting the gasoline from its tank to the massive engine. As he frustratedly poked around the metal behemoth's innards, he heard someone else slide in under the tank next to him. Andy turned in surprise to see Kat lying next to him and smiling.

"Do you need any help, Andy?"

"Uh... do you have any mechanical skills?"

"I picked up quite a bit from working on Max's tanks while I was in his command. What's wrong with this one?"

As she edged closer to him to see the tubing and gears he had been fiddling with, Andy felt himself getting uncomfortably warm and found it difficult to think clearly.

"Um... er... I think something's wrong with the fuel lines."

"Have you checked to make sure nothing's pinching the line and keeping the gas from flowing through?"

Andy frowned. He hadn't considered that it was possible everything was functioning and the tubing might just be compressed at a single point. He followed the fuel line with his hands until he felt a spot where some loose part of the motor had jammed itself against the fuel line. Andy screwed the part back in place and said to Kat, "Wow, it would have taken me half-an-hour to figure out what was going on if you hadn't come along."

"It's no problem, Andy. I'm just glad to help!"

They both pulled themselves out from under the tank as its driver got in and started up the engine. The low roar, without any knocking in the engine, assured Andy that the tank was ready for battle. He gave a thumbs-up to the driver, who put the tank into gear and lumbered off towards the rest of his division.

Kat smiled and excused herself. "I'll go clean up and get ready for later today. Don't forget to bring a raincoat, Andy!" With a wink, she departed, leaving Andy blushing and again marveling at this girl he had only known for three days.

As Colin walked up towards the platform festooned with Blue Moon flags, Olaf's voice boomed over the cheers of thousands of Blue Moon soldiers. "...for meritorious conduct, outstanding bravery, and actions above and beyond the call of duty, we award Commander Colin the Blue Moon's most prestigious award, the Sapphire Crescent, not to mention a significant monetary award..." Grit pinned the medal to him, but the moment was ruined by a crazed Blue Moon soldier who charged on to the stage. He shook Colin, shouting gibberish, and soon, others were joining him, shouting.

"Sir, we just lost contact with the entire 4th Armored Division!"

Colin's eyes snapped open, and his chief of operations and communications officer pulled back and stood at attention. He jumped out of bed, smoothing out his rumpled blue silk pajamas, and saluted back to them, glancing outside the HQ window to see the morning sun being obscured by dark rainclouds. "I wanted you to let me sleep in later this...wait, what did you say?"

"The 4th Armored Division is apparently gone... One minute they were headed west in formation with all our other forces to meet up with the Orange Star forces, and the next minute, silence over the radio. No artillery or rockets were seen, no aircraft..." The communications officer gesticulated wildly. "They're just gone!"

Colin's mouth hung open as he tried to figure out what this would mean for his overall attack plan. The 4th contained almost all of his battle group's Md. Tanks, and even a few squads of Neotanks. Probably about a third of his total direct unit firepower. He swore, and his two subordinates shifted uncomfortably, realizing how bad the situation had to be for Colin to be using anything but the most proper language. Colin shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts.

"They didn't even put out a distress call?"

"No... whatever attacked them, it destroyed them all too quickly."

Colin swore again. "What could destroy an entire division in seconds and not be seen by anyone?

"Max, you'll be heading due east along the south bank of the Breed River with the majority of our tanks and some anti-airs. Andy, you and Kat will be in charge of all of our ranged units, and will stay slightly southwest of Max's main force to cover him and keep yourselves out of direct combat. Sami and I will move with our infantry and battle copters along the north bank of the river, and cross over to surprise the enemy if there aren't any enemy forces on our side. Colin's forces are already coming northwest from Blue Moon, and Sonja's forces should be coming due south from a beach in sector A7. They're unloading from the landers right now. Eagle has a few squadrons of battle copters that can fly to wherever they are needed. If we move quickly, Adder and Lash will be surrounded and forced to surrender." Nell paced back and forth in front of her three commanders and one subcommander, glancing up at the map in her briefing room to see if there were any flaws in her strategy. "Any questions? Fine then, let's make the attack that could stop Black Hole once and for all from ever invading us again."

As they left the HQ to head out to battle, a light drizzle had begun to fall. Andy, having taken Kat's advice, put on his orange rain slicker and ran over to the waiting APC, where he was joined by Kat. "Ready to kick some Black Hole tail?" she asked with a smile. Andy grinned back at her. "It's just too bad Max will clear them all out before we have a chance to fire any shells or rockets." The APC roared to life and sped along towards the forested area that all of the CO's were resolutely converging upon.

"Sir, we're at the spot where the 4th was when we lost contact."

"And?"

"We can see most of their tracks continuing on through the forest, so something must have caused all their radio transponders to malfunction and they're continuing on just fine. There's no wreckage, no bodies, no sign of any combat around here."

Colin sighed with relief. "Well, keep up the fighter recon flights and tell all of our forces to keep on the lookout. We still need to find them and give them a way to receive orders, or else they'll be charging blind into a combat zone. Contact all of the other CO's and tell them everything we know."

Sonja shook her head wearily as she sat in the command chair of a hastily constructed Yellow Comet HQ on the beach a few miles north of the likely combat zone. Only a few hours into the operation, and already a massive intelligence failure was threatening to doom the whole thing. Her recons were charging south far ahead of the main body of her force, searching for Colin's missing tanks in the dense forest. Md. Tanks going through forest without any backup units to augment their pitiful vision range were begging to be ambushed, especially with the steadily increasing rain further lowering the distance the units could see. She sighed, hoping her sharp-eyed recon drivers could locate and intercept them before they hit Black Hole forces. Sonja watched the battle map and the locations of her advancing units, still incredulous that Blue Moon's tank drivers were idiotic enough not to return to base if they couldn't find the enemy and couldn't maintain contact with their superiors. She took some more aspirin and massaged her temples with her long, slender fingers, waiting for the prey to be found and the battle to begin.

"Green Leader to Beta Squadron. How are you all holding up?"

"Beta Two. Never been better!"

"Beta Three. Visibility is clear."

"Beta Four. Let's kick some Hole!"

Eagle sighed as he switched the radio over to a private channel with Drake. "They're all lying, you know. It's raining too hard to see a Black Cannon out here, much less a tank group. Wind is picking up too, pretty choppy air to fly in."

Drake smiled. "They'd fly through a supernova if you were leading them, Eagle."

Eagle couldn't help but smile as well. "Thanks, Drake. Keep sending us the radar data so we'll know where to shoot... sure as hell won't be able to see our targets with our own eyes."

"Aye aye, Eagle. Fly well and Godspeed. Drake out."

"Green Leader out."

"Well, the game's afoot."

Adder saw Lash's reflection spin away from her computer readouts in his handheld mirror. "A game?! Where?!"

"I was speaking metaphorically, Lash, and there's little time for your childishness. Our window of opportunity is very narrow, as you must realize. The only way we will escape, short of having Hawke send over the entire armada and air force immediately, is if we wait for the moment when those fools are most distracted, and run for it. Hawke said a lander and a small force would be meeting us to escort us back, if we can get to the beach through the enemy lines."

"And Operation Quarantine?"

"The fact that such a large force is in the area means she will be slowed down, if not stopped altogether. There's nothing we can do with just a squad of tanks and a few fighters, so the best course is to simply let them fight it out, kill off as many of each other as possible, and decide what course of action to take after we see the outcome of this battle. I believe that imbecile Max will be approaching her position quite soon, so let's sit back and enjoy the show."

Max's tanks took their time as they drove along the unpaved roads crisscrossing the forest. He didn't want the tanks to leave his Md. tanks behind, and he wanted Andy to be close enough to stop his artillery and begin cover fire at a moment's notice. The way the rain churned the dirt road into a thick mire that bogged down some of the heavier fighting vehicles didn't help either. After traveling through several miles of forest, it was approaching noon, though the sun had not been seen for several hours, blocked by the black clouds. Max's spirits lifted as they came to a small region of plains between the two densest regions of forest. He turned to the driver of his personal tank, a Md. tank with incredible firepower and destructive capabilities. "Why couldn't Lash and Adder hide out here?" he asked wistfully. "Open fighting ground is always the best." He pulled out his binoculars, taking in the view as they traversed the plains. No cities, of course, since this area was too heavily forested to get around in without building expensive highways. Breed River was beginning to rise under the heavy rain, and he could barely see the lines of Sami's troops marching on the other side, guarded by Nell's flying forces. Max scanned the edge of the forest they would soon be entering on the other side of the wide clearing, stopping for a moment and frowning. Tanks of all three sizes, painted blue, were emerging from the forest ahead of them. "I bet that's the group of Colin's that got lost this morning. Signal them to stop." As a powerful strobe light on the side of the tank began to signal the message, the Blue Moon force curved off of their previous heading and approached the Orange Star force, but did not slow. As they got nearer, Max frowned. "Why aren't they stopping?" His driver's answer was drowned out by the sound of over a dozen Md. tanks firing simultaneously into the Orange Star ranks. Max's mouth gaped open in surprise during the split-second before the shells slammed into his tank and everything went black.

Amidst the sudden buzz of orders being given and information relayed in the Yellow Comet HQ, Sonja tried to concentrate on the battle screen. How could she have been so stupid? It was obvious in hindsight that the tanks had somehow been hijacked through Lash's gadgets or Adder's trickery. They wouldn't maintain radio contact because any Black Hole drone would sound different, even over a poor quality radio, from a Blue Moon officer. Sonja forced herself back to the present and the battle unfolding in front of her. The Orange Star forces were retreating slowly back across the plain under the advance of the stolen Neotanks and Md. Tanks, but with Max's men's incredible skill at direct combat pitted against Black Hole forces driving Colin's bargain second-rate tanks, it was almost an even match. Andy was moving his artillery forces forward and they would be deployed and firing in a matter of minutes. With Nell and Eagle's copters racing in to help, it appeared that the battle would be over in no time. Sonja and Colin's forces were both moving through the forest towards the battle site as quickly as possible, though only Sonja's recons had made it to the field.

"Still no sign of any other enemy forces?"

"Not yet, Commander Sonja, we're reading negative in all-- wait, we have Black Hole anti-airs and standard tanks on the radar in sector A5!"

Sonja switched the radio over to the channel used for CO communiques. "Nell! Eagle! Abort your attack runs, there are anti-airs guarding the stolen tanks!"

"Nell here, thanks for the warning!"

"Green Leader, acknowledged."

As the two copter groups pulled back through the driving rain, the tanks and anti-airs below were advancing to try and flank the beleaguered Orange Star tank corps. When they continued past the melee, however, Sonja realized their true objective.

"Andy, there are tanks and anti-airs moving in on your artillery!"

Andy's voice was strained. "We just fired a volley... it'll take at least a minute to reload."

Sonja glanced at the radar; there was no way they could fire at the tanks before the tanks reached their position. She bit her lip, trying to decide what to do. Andy would be dead if she didn't intervene. The shock of that thought moved her brain into action. "Move our recons to intercept, now!"

"Ma'am? Recons against tanks?!"

"We need to buy the artillery time to reload and take them out, or else those tanks will just be destroying our recons after they've destroyed the artillery at leisure."

"Yes, ma'am."

The Yellow Comet recons easily sped in front of the charging tanks, and then wheeled around to make a courageous stand. As the first recon exploded into flames that were quickly doused by the pouring rain, Sonja wondered for a moment whether she had just sacrificed her men for the good of the battle, or for her own love. The thought was interrupted by the thunderous salvo of Andy's artillery decimating the small strike force. Sonja turned her attention back to the battle. Philosophy later, she thought grimly. Combat now.

Eagle's battle copter sliced downward through the sheets of falling rain, firing a pair of heat-seeking missiles at a blue Neotank and strafing with machine guns as he pulled up. With the loss of their anti-airs to Andy and Sonja's quick work, the Black Hole forces were open to air attack by Eagle and Nell's elite air units. Still, he couldn't help but feel that Lash and Adder's units were putting up a much better fight than could be expected from ordinary Black Hole forces. Even with a surprise salvo that had taken out key Orange Star units, they were outnumbered almost two to one by Max's army and also two to one by Colin's, which was still struggling through the muddy forest. Only now, with the full power of the air units against them and Sonja's tanks entering the fray, were they beginning to retreat. Sami's infantry were securing all the local cities and supply depots to ensure they had nowhere to escape to, and Drake's navy would forestall any attempt to flee by sea. He smiled as he unleashed another pair of missiles against the same Neotank, but frowned when it did not explode or burst into flame as he expected the damaged tank to. Its machine gun tracked across the sky, seeking revenge, until Beta Two launched a third pair of missiles at it, finally ripping its hull plates apart and gutting it with fire. Eagle picked another target and fired, shaking his head at how hard a beating Black Hole tanks were able to take.

Within an hour, all resistance had ended. Every one of the hijacked tanks had been destroyed, as had the other Black Hole forces that had been lying in wait during the battle. All the CO's met back at the Yellow Comet headquarters, the closest secure location to discuss the battle. Max had been found injured and unconscious in a wrecked tank; he had been rushed to the hospital and was in stable condition. Little was said to Colin, who stood alone in the corner, acutely aware that his inability to keep track of his entire army had almost doomed all of them, and even after that, his remaining forces had arrived too late to make a difference in the battle. The others tried to include him in the conversation but found it impossible to discuss the battle without saying something that would embarrass the poor young commander even further. Andy and Kat were the last two to arrive in the meeting room, and they walked straight up to Sonja. Andy spoke first.

"Sonja, I... we... thanks for saving us out there. We really owe you our lives."

"Thanks, Commander. We would have been goners without your men there."

Sonja frowned at the blonde standing next to Andy. "Uh, have we met?"

Andy stepped forward. "Sorry, Sonja. This is Kat, a new subcommander who's working with me now. Kat, this is--"

"Sonja, I know." Kat grinned. "The master, or rather mistress, of tactics, reconnaissance, and intel ploys. Not to mention the princess and heiress apparent of Yellow Comet."

Sonja smiled warmly as she shook Kat's proffered hand, but remained vaguely suspicious. How do you know me so well when I have never heard of you? Nell's voice cut in before Sonja could ask any more questions of this new Orange Star tactician.

"Does anyone think it's at all strange that neither Lash nor Adder contacted us during the battle, even to taunt us?"

Sami frowned. "Yeah, and whichever one was running the battle never even used their CO powers."

As if in answer, the light on the communications console indicating an incoming message winked on an off. Sonja pressed the keys to display it, but instead of the expected pale visage of Lash or Adder, a figure not unlike the Grim Reaper stood in front of the camera. The face was concealed within the shadows of the black cloak, but the voice that came out was unmistakably female.

"Well, well, well. Not a bad warm-up battle, if I do say so myself. Congratulations on winning round one."

Nell was the first to recover from the shock, and she stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"I am the queen of darkness and misery. You may call me Wraith."

"Wraith? I didn't know Black Hole hired CO's dressed up as Halloween ghosts."

"Laugh for now, if you like. The battles today and a few days ago were only a taste of what I can do. And don't believe that I am subservient to the worms of Black Hole. I'll destroy them just as easily as I will you."

Nell was taken aback. Could there actually be a rogue CO that was not a part of any of the five nations of Wars World? She tried to think of something to say, to ask, anything to get more information from this mysterious assailant. Wraith cut her off before she could say anything more.

"Don't get too confident that you can defeat me. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Oh, and tell Olaf I'll be visiting him soon."

With a chilling laugh, she terminated the connection. The CO's looked at each other, a thousand thoughts all trying to be expressed coherently and failing at it. Finally, Nell spoke with authority. "Let's mobilize the entire alliance army. We have a war on our hands."