Disclaimer: I'm just lazy see earlier entries
Jez, well not much to say in my extensive absence, I just kind of lost the will to write for a while back there. Meh, sorry to those who read this so far, and to those just starting this now, it really doesn't matter does it?
Anyway only side notes I've got are, my spelling and grammar still bad, and it's been awhile since I typed these Japanese names, I think I got mostly right.
BY: Bryant(Blade42)
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"A brave man will charge head long into battle against his own fears and better judgment, a smart man will turn from battle without any remorse.
The world is very short on smart men"
Keitrao worked his sweaty hands over the grips of his firearm nervously trying to rid himself of the pools of moisture under his palms. The ground rumbled beneath his feet announcing the approach of the enemy. Over the lip of his shallow little trench Kietaro watched the tanks slowly crawl forward, trying the shield the infantry from the expected attack. He sat with his knees in his chest, beside one of Blade's friends; he thought it was Ross, or Rossy or something like that. Over the radio in his hand Keitaro could a gentle coaxing of " wait for it."
Keitaro worked his hands over his weapon again. It wasn't an assault rifle like most other people's but a lighter carbine to compensate for the weight of the rockets strapped to his back. He glanced over to his compatriot, in all honesty he wasn't quite sure of his name. He wanted to say Kent, but he wasn't really sure.
Kent looked over at Keitaro showing a weak smile. Keitaro replied with an equally weak thumbs up.
" I'll make you a deal," Kent, whispered over the din of the approaching tanks. "You keep loading I'll keep shooting."
" Sounds fair." Keitaro replied.
" Almost there." the radio crowed again.
" Show time." Kent muttered shouldering his launcher. Keitaro nodded, slinging his carbine over his own shoulder and pulling out a second missile from his pack.
"All right boys party time, follow the bouncing tracers." there was a loud click over the radio and across the entire front time just froze. Everyone in his or her own little world.
Naru hugged her knees into her chest besides her machine gun, silent tears rolling down her face, Motoko laid on her stomach with Spook and the rest of his team in an attic near the line, Su was doing what Su does with the help of several machinists trying to produce more weapons. Kitsune was rolling film into her camera as fast as she could, and finally Shinobu was gathered with a group of doctors and their help, waiting for their job to start.
Blade picked his head up from the earpiece of the radio and looked over at the Crazy 8. Crazy 8 was the name the crew had given the 8-barreled AA gun. The gunner stared at Blade watching him make the slightest of nods. He looked back over the eyepiece rechecking the aim and slowly pulled the trigger. And to the end of his days that young man would swear he heard the pin draw back and strike the mercury primer of that first round.
The roar of heavy machine gun fire was deafening as if chewed apart a LAV (light armored vehicle) into a shadow of it's former self, and as if the green flag at the Indy 500 was just dropped the entire line opened up on the enemy.
The opening volley annulated the forward ranks, without any care or remorse. The poor souls never had a chance. Even as their bodies fell to the ground the battle raged on. Then enemy was still pressing across the bridge not the mention the barges across the river, moving under the cover of whistling artillery.
Keitaro slammed rockets into Kent's launcher trying desperately to keep up his fevered rate of fire. Whether Kent was hitting anything Keitaro didn't have the time to look. Keitaro throw himself to the ground as a shell landed far to close to the trench. As he picked his head off of the ground he froze. His eyes rested on the man beyond Kent. He hadn't ducked fast enough and had been completely decapitated…
Blade looked over the 3d map of the battle grimacing at how fast it was going downhill. Of all the uncertainties this battle presented, there was one certainty. This was no battle. This was a slugging match, two boxers nailing each other in the face and not bothering to block. This was no challenge of strategy or training. But a simple case of who can take the most damage and keep coming. This was the worst way to fight anything never mind a war.
Keitaro tried to dig his nose deeper into the dirt away from all the shellfire. Each explosion drove him farther into the soil. Another shell struck and caused the world to buck like an angry mechanical bull. Keitaro was nearly to the point of break down when a stiff kick in the ribs. He looked up at Ross standing in the crossfire. Raining Artillery wasn't fazing him and bullets left him untouched.
" On your feet, you're not being of any use down there!" Ross yelled over the battle. As he watched this Kietaro's courage slowly grew, and so did his will to fight again.
" Reload!" Kent yelled grabbing Keitaro's attention. And Slowly Kietaro rose to his feet and slammed another rocket into the launcher.
The man screamed in pain as his wounds spilled his blood a pone the ground. He flailed against the doctors in a pain driven panic. Shinobu just stared as more people were rushed looking as if they'd be run through a meat grinder.
" Hey kid!" A doctor yelled at her. Shinbone turned slowly to face the accuser.
" Give me a hand here!" he continued.
"What?" she asked blindly to the man on the coat before her.
" Pug this." The doctor cried forcing Shinobu's hand into a throat wound imitating old faithful. She shook as the redness oozed over her fingers and the doctor tried to save his life. The man's breaths were sharp and painful becoming longer and longer apart until they stopped.
" Damn it!" He screamed slamming his fists on the dead man's unresponsive chest. The doctor just rested there his tears following out form under his eyelids his hands on the body's chest. He then just moved on, there were others who needed his help, as long as he had this job somebody always had and will and right now he had no time to weep for fallen commands. As the doctor left to help others Shinbone stood glued to the spot, her hands covered in blood.
Keitaro slammed his last rocket into Kent's launcher, dropping the carrying cradle from his back. He watched Kent strand up and freeze starring at something over the lip.
"Tank move it!" he screamed franticly scrambling from the trench as if it were small pox. Keitareo and several others followed suit leaping from the hole. It was then Keitaro saw the armored behemoth, barely thirty feet from the line. Knife fighting range to a tank. He only made it a few more steps before the main cannon fired. The shot decimated the position, tearing thought the soil and breaking up on impact with the far wall, spraying hot metal in all directions.
"Keep running!" someone yelled and automatically they ran. No one needed to tell them twice. As the group sprinted across the newly cleared earth towards the protection on the building beyond, Ketaro heard a faint sound, familiar oddly but to distant in the depths of his mind to recall. Like something slicing thought the air, almost chopping at it, like a helicopter! His revelation came far too late, as a line of hot lead flew thought the forward ranks, including Kent. The mechanical bird hovered over her prey leisurely choosing when to strike. Keitaro closed his eyes waiting for his death to descent on him. But it never came. A deafening explosion assaulted his ears and a blast wave knocked him off his feet. Keitaro opened his eyes to large patch of blue sky, across it was a line on traveling through the air, at its lead was a turtle shaped machine. Keitaro wasn't left much time to rest as the rumble of a newly approaching tank was felt through the ground. Keitaro reacted without thought. He rolled to the left picking up Kent's dropped launcher and rising to one knee, He took aim that the mountain of metal and fired. The rocket flew as if guided by fate. It launched out of the tube and entered the tank's lowered barrel. The resulting explosion tossed the 1-ton turret a good 40 feet.
"Move, it" Rossy yelled taken command of the stunned group putting action to words running at the buildings again.
Naru held her breath as the troop on soldiers marched down the street into her line of fire. She let out a ragged breath, pulling in a new one and holding it just as quickly.
"Just pull the trigger." she muttered to herself as the forward ranks leap forward into her sights.
Shirai leaned into the side of his cockpit willing it around its bank faster. He leveled out releasing a missile at the chopper in front of him. He climbed to clear the falling debits and began scanning for a new target.
" Peek-a-boo" he muttered lower the nose at a new enemy, waiting for the lock-on. A series of popping noises echoed thought the airframe. Shirai swung his plane left trying to shake this pilot. Shirai weaved his way across the sky, avoiding volley after volley of bullets.
" Hang in there shirai, I'm coming." Haitani yelled into the mike
" Haitani, get you fat ass over here and shoot this guy…" shirai stopped looking over at his wingman "look out bogie 2o'clock lo…." shirai stared in horror as his Haitani, his dearest friend since childhood disappeared in a high octane fireball. Shirai
Just stared into oblivion as a sidewinder slammed into his aircraft. As the turtle shaped contraption spiraled towards the ground he catch a glimpse of his attacker disintegrate into a fireball of his own. Along with a garbled message over the radio
" Su's come to help too!"
Keitaro curled himself into a tighter ball as the rockets and bullets destroyed the land around the building he and his fellow fighters cowered in, praying to what ever god they believed in for protection.
"Got him" Spook muttered still looking thought the scope on his rifle.
" New target, 40 yards beyond the end of the bridge." the man beside him side looking thought his own tripod scope.
" Found him." spook responded. Motoko sighed looking away from the pair and back down the stairs, at the pair of bodies on the landing in the middle of the stairs. , Their blood still flowing on her sword.
" Quite the day huh?" the man beside her said trying to break the increasingly depressing mood.
" Yes…" she paused momentarily as an expositions rocked the buildings frame. "Very, very long too, it feels like an eternity but the sun hasn't even set yet."
"It's only 5 o'clock." the man continued on.
"5?" Motoko exclaimed " the will be down in a couple of hours" she thought
The man threw up his hand, shutting her up. "If we last that long." He whispered. Shouldering his weapon the man stalked around the stairs balcony the get a better look. He was meet with a rifle burst directly into the chest blowing him backwards and killing him instantly. Motoko froze before leaping of the balcony with a silent rush of air and bringing her sword to bear on an unsuspecting soldier below. She struck him down, spin partly in place swinging with an upper cut severing a second soldier's arm at the shoulder. She then leapt back up over the railing, waiting for the rest of the squad still down stairs.
The tow missile tore the wooden Hinata tea walls into thousands of splintered shrapnel, as it slammed into the building. Those of the command and control that weren't destroyed by the incoming missile and closely fallowed bullets hide behind the bar counter seeking some kind of cover. As the rounds of the helicopter filled the room, smashing the bottles of alcohol on and in the counter. The loud report of Crazy 8 sounded silencing the helicopter into a speedy retreat.
"I know I asked for a drink but this is a bit ridiculous." said somebody farther down the counter. Blade just smirked as shook his head dry and stood up. He wished he hadn't, the bodies of the dead were mutilated beyond recognition, and the equipment was destroyed.
"Blade, Blade come in!" a voice screamed over oddly still working radio. "Blade pick up, you …"
"I'm here Jenn." Blade answered tiredly " there's no need to get testy." he continued almost hearing a sign of release from the mike.
" How bad is it?' Jenn asked, making Blade not to sure weather she meant him or the C. P.
" We're done here, this radio's basically the only piece of anything that's still working in here." Blade admitted. "We are fucked."
"Like that's news." Jenn responded sarcastically. " Well then it looks like a good time for to get your fat butt up here, there's a gift for you."
" Keitaro flinched away from the window as a bullet tore a very loud path through the window frame.
"They're getting closer." Rossy muttered as second burst flew thought the open window.
" We've noticed" Keitaro muttered nodding his head to the other 4 mean gathered in the house. The survivors of both the tank and the helicopter attack. Ross rolled over Keitaro and few feet more just beyond resting in front of a hole blown in the wall. He brought a pair of binoculars to his eyes.
" Just when you think it can't get any worst." he said
"What?" Keitaro said, in a pleading tone.
" The regular tank battalions are crossing the bridge. And we're scattered all to shit. I can't even contact the unit next door." Rossy paused momentarily, in thought. " Hey is the radio still working?"
" Ya it is." Answered the soldier carrying it.
" Broken Arrow." Rossy said looked over at the man to assure he was making the transmission. The soldier shook his head as if to rejoin reality and brought the mouthpiece up.
"Broken Arrow! I say again Broken Arrow!" he yelled into the radio.
" All right boys," Rossy said moving into a kneeing position "begin retreat."
Su jerked her plane into a steep climb narrowly avoiding the sidewinder aimed at her. She rolled over nosing down back at the air battle behind. They were losing, badly most of these guys were just local pilots, small engine bush planes and gliders, they didn't have a clue, but they were going for it anyway. Su waited for her multiple target acquisition and engagement system to lock on, before unleashing the remains of her arsenal. She smirked in the workman ship of her weapons as each and every missile reached out and touched the enemy.
"Perfect." she muttered to herself. Su jerked against her harnesses as her plane rose on the furnish hot air of a large ground bound Anti air rocket. Su tried to regain control of her plummeting aircraft, with her unresponsive stick. She stopped as she found the reason for the unresponsiveness; there was nothing to respond to. Her entire left wing was gone, along with most of the fuselage. "I'm sorry Keitaro, everyone," she thought as her plane spiraled at the ground, "I just couldn't do enough." with a single tear sliding down her cheek Su reached between her crouch and pulled the ejection lever.
Shirai struggled to keep his Tama in the air as it shook underneath him like a baby's rattle. This poor contraption had been on its last legs twice as long as it's pilot had. Its ordnance long spent, then chain gun was even empty. The engines no long held the strength to climb at all never mind the fumes it was using for gas.
" Looks like this is it. Shirai said into the empty airwaves. He hadn't been able to reach anyone of a half hour. Shirai cleared the trees on the riverbank catching a glance up river. He saw the bridge loaded with enemy personal. When the thought popped into his head at he thought he was crazy, then he agreed with him self as he angled his flying turtle up stream.
" Well Haitani old friend, I hope you saved me a seat in Valhalla," he said to the sky. Shirai 's last thought before he slammed into the bridge's center pylon was something somebody told him a long time ago. " Sometimes you don't need to step forward to be a hero, everyone else just has to step back."
Keitaro paused at the sound of the collapsing bridge slamming into the water, starring at the rising cloud of dust and water. He looked away just as quickly continuing his run towards his leapfrog point. He took a knee scan his cone as Ross ran past him followed by a second soldier. He counted to 40 before getting up and passing Rossy and then the second soldier in turn, they continued no up the street in this fashion, to columns of 3 2 men always covering the rear. Keitaro was running to the front of the group when a burst gunfire from the next street sent everyone earthward out of reflex. It took several seconds to realize the rounds weren't directed at them. Mostly because as the fire picked up from scattered shots to a deafening roar not a single muzzle flash was to be seen or a bullet heard. In response heavy cannon fire was heard ramming itself into the pavement and the panicked screaming of retreating men drifted over the buildings. Beyond the structures a large biped turtle strolled into view burping machine gun fire from its right chest plate.
"Looks like we have a chance now." Keitaro announced to the group, although on some level or another every man present already new that.
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Well that's for now. Till next time anyway.
Please leave a review, flames something. It really is annoying to put this up and not get any feed back. Thanks. ;)