Disclaimer: see first chapter, I'm feeling lazy again.
Ok yet again to anyone reading this I'm sorry for the lateness I have no excess. To be honest I've being sitting on this for about a week and if not for Berretta Pakin mailman's reminder I would have sat on it another week before finishing the last page and proofreading it. As inept as I am at it.
Ok same as before i apologise for my spelling/grammer they both still need work. And for the record ShinboneShinobu. I've done it before and I think I didn't this time but just in case.
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The rain covered the soldier's footsteps as he moved though the dark air. He crawled up behind a pile of ruble that was once a house, peering over the edge. The minimal lighting from the Hinatasou silhouetted the people defending the high ground. The solider watched the shadows carefully examining all that he could in a quick peek over the top. He crouched back down, turning around slowly to not make any noise; he raised his arm into the light and waved it around as rapidly as he could. The flapping appendage caught the attention of a half wake man up on the hill, who raised his rifle to his shoulder and cried out an alarm. It was too little too late. A whistle sounded in the distance and hundreds of men rose up to assault the fragile line around Hinatasou.
The bullets zinged though the air destroying many men standing in the open. Blade ducked low and ran crouched over to his fighting walker, amongst the mass of people running to and fro, searching for cover and desperately trying to repeal the attack. Blade threw himself at the ground as the rapid putt-putts of a submachine gun fired on him. Several men fell to the ground around him, some taking cover, others taking their last breaths. A woman landed on top of Blade, with a line of holes running up her body. The rain of lead stopped suddenly and Blade lifted the corpse off of him and ran forward again. He heard the cracks of rifles behind him and guessed the enemy shooter was killed because he never answered. Blade blocked out the battle and ran all out to his Tama walker, praying to whatever gods were watching this gladiatorial match that the enemy didn't reach it first.
Keitaro shielded his eyes from the flashes of nearby explosions. The din of battle was deafening to the unaccustomed ears. To Keitaro now it was…. unpleasant. A bullet zipped by his head lodging it's self in a support beam behind him, the roar of his comrade's return fire was ear shattering, to unaccustomed ears. The poor soul was ripped to shreds, his cloths were turned into ribbons by the sheer volume of fire, his flesh was turned into pudding. Kietaro saw all of this with dispassionate eyes. His soul was too spent to care about anything. He picked his carbine off the ground, disengaging the safety he looked back out of the cave. "Naru's dead, all my friends will be dead if not already, my home is gone, never really had a future…." Keitaro said calmly to the field of death. "I have nothing left to lose." Keitaro held up one second before running out of the cave with the next group of men rushing to the field of battle, fully expecting death to come within the hour.
Blade ducked and zig-zaged around bodies, holes and bullets trying desperately to reach the cockpit of his walker. The trip seemed like it had taken an entirety, but finally the machine was in sight. He slammed into the metal leg, nearly trampling the people crowded around it in its defense.
"What kept you!" Rossy cried out, firing shots at the flashes in the dark, the men surrounding Ross followed his aim and fired along it.
"Got hung up." Blade yelled over the noise, placing a foot on the first rung up to the cockpit, "Ross take all the men you can to reinforce and extend the right flank, we're going to get swamped if they punch a hole through."
"No shit Sherlock!" Rossy exclaimed back at him like an upset child "we're still going to die if you don't get your ass up that ladder and do the hard stuff!" Rossy continued to yell at Blade a near smirk on his face.
"Hard stuff?" Blade yelled climbing one rung higher "I blow shit up, and make sure important shit don't get blown up. I have the easiest job on the planet."
"Except for the people shooting at you part!" Jenn butt in "You get up there and you watch your self you hear me? And I mean both of you" Jenn scolded over the roar of gunfire. Blade smirked and turned away starting to climb the ladder. He heard a sound like several spikes going through a ripe watermelon, and his pant leg was soaked. Blade looked down and saw Jenn's corpse, leaning like she was resting against the walker's leg, expect for the large hole in the back of her head, and the head matter sprayed over everyone present. Blade stared at the body in total disbelief. He started to climb once again, watching the body as long as he could.
Blade slid into the chair and initiated the start-up program, in took about a minute. As the machine hummed and its panels began to glow, Blade oblivious stared at the view screen, in encircled him 210 degrees, allowing the pilot to see as if a glass bubble was around them not 8 inches of armor. The screen light up flashing thought its visual modes, thermal, radar, normal magnified, before settling into the preset slightly green tint of minor light amplification as the screen said, it was just a fancy work for night vision. In the center of the screen flashed, time to combat maneuvers, 20 seconds, 19, 18, 17….
"I guess you were right Jenn, gotta watch my back." He said to the spirits of the dead, friend and foe. "We're not invincible, but I was a fool to think this was just a test of morality, a chance to earn my redemption. Hell maybe I did." Blade fell silent as the count hit zero and cross hairs appeared in the screen. " I was a fool" he said again . I made a mistake, and hope humanity will forgive me, I hope they forgives me, she forgives me. If they do then may be there is some honor in what I am." Blade slipped his hands into the control nobs and scanned the screen. He spyed a line of men, takeing cover form Blade's men in an ditch once held by defenders. Cover from the men shooting at them, not the mech watching them like a vulture. "we're all going to die." Blade said to his enemy "and we're going to take some of you with us." Blade smiled a freal, evil smile. A smile loaned to him by the gods of war. Blade pulled the triggers.
Kietaro leaped out of his hole running full speed to the second defense line. He slide behind the remains of a wall, beside a group of men and women, trying to hold the right flank. Keitaro leaned around the corner and squeezed of a burst at the muzzle flashes in the distance. They had the advantage the defenders were silhouetted but the burning lights of Hinatasou. Bullets flew at Kietaro guided by his shadow. He ducked back behind the safety of the wall.
"We can't stay here." A man yelled over the noise. "They're going to start rolling us with tanks soon "we need to take the first line back. There's a 90 mm recoilless rifle with a night sight on the right." A second added
"Where?" Keitaro demanded.
"Over in the building." The man pointed "it has a machinegun nest for watching its back."
"I can get there if you cover me!" Keitaro informed him.
"Cover you? The man said all most insulted "I'm going with you!" behind him several more nodded in agreement.
"Only if you can keep up." The man smiled, all most beaming at Kietaro.
"Get ready." The man pressed himself against the wall ready to run around it. The order came to cover the 4-some, and they ran. Keitaro ran with the ferocity of a berserker. The rounds ripped the air apart around them, sucking the oxygen out of the air. The death bearing metal seeked him out eagerly but never found Keitaro. He slide into the trench, alone. Keitaro quickly sought out the cannon, loading a five round clip. Pressing his face into the night vision scope, he saw soldiers scrambling around under the blanket of night. He swung the barrel left to right before finding his target. An idle tank, waiting for the infantry to move so they could charge the pathetic ramble of defenders. It was the first of 4 or 5 in a line.
"Peek-a-boo." Keitaro announced, smiling like a cat catching his prey. The 90 mm slug Kietaro fire passed through the side armor of the crew compartment. It ricocheted around before penetrating the ammunition hold. The explosion leveled any thing within twenty feet and burned brightly for hours, lighting the aim for his comrades and showing the way to Keitaro's next target.
Shinobu cling to the rock wall of the cave like it was a hard cold teddy bear. Her tears furrowed paths down her checks in their paths to the ground.
"I wannta go home." She sniffed out between gabs of air "I wannta go home!" a rocket strike the outside of the cave sending tremors racing down the wall. Shinobu was thrown off the wall on to the ground. She laid there a while, on wanting to move an inch right now. She was tired. Tired of the fighting, tired of helping, tired watching, men and women die in her arms with no hope at all. She just wanted to sleep where she lay and never wake up again.
"Hey kid." Shinobu feel a gentle pressure on her shoulder, a nudging to arise. "Are you all right? Did you hit your head?" the voice inquired gently, Shinobu lifted her head slowly, cautiously. Her eyes meet the face of an RN. The face of the middle aged nurse, she was wore and just as tired as her, but she kept going. Shinobu peered into the depths of the woman's eyes, drawing hope and strength from them. Shinobu rose to her feet, she could sleep later.
Keitaro fire the clip's last shot, a strange contentment falling over him as the tank erupted into fire, and smoke, lighting the night's sky. He dropped to the ground, feeling around the ground for a second clip of rounds. He heard the sound of lose ground falling onto it's self and a rifle burst about 3 feet from his head. He whipped around raising carbine. He aimed at a woman her cloths were dirty and covered in blood.
"You should pay more attention landlord." She said mockingly.
"Kitsune!" Keitaro cried in relief. "I though you were all dead by now!" he added loading the recoilless rifle and pulling the bolt.
"Not all of us." She answered simple, "and I brought friends." Keitaro looked over his shoulder as a man rushed past him to man the machinegun nest placed in the building to his right. All down the trench people swarmed over it like ants. Filling the positions and remanning the line.
"The more the merrier." Keitaro answered happily aiming down range again. The found a truck, and fire on it. The first shot missed but the second one nailed the read axle. He found out another truck and destroyed it as well. Unable to find anymore vehicles Keitaro fired on anything else that moved. He hadn't the chance to bend down before Kitsune reloaded his cannon for him.
"I hope the army show up soon we can't hold out much longer." Kitsune said in-between Keitaro's shots.
"The army's not coming." Keitaro said staring at the weapon for a second before continuing. Kitsune watched Keitaro almost dumbfounded.
"You're just being pessimistic."
Blade fired blindly into the dust cloud created by the falling Walker that had been covering his left. The bullets parted the smoke, killing several men trying to jump the downed pilot. Blade's warning alarm went off like a church bell in his ear. It had picked up a large metal object. Blade spun his machine around as an Anti-armor shell passed thought the air he had occupied. Blade raised the arms and fired a 100mm canon shell back at the offending tank. There was no time to celebrate as an RPG rammed into Blade's back. The rocket nudged Blade's walker enough for Blade to get thrown against his harness. He turned back around and saw the shooter perched in the open cockpit hatch. The man inside was gone. Blade unleashed his full arsenal on the downed walker. When he saw no one moving he stepped over it and moved on down the line a little bit. Several tanks took pot shops at him but they were all eliminated with the TOW missiles in the shoulder racks. He parked himself where ever there was a fight, but he was stopping less and less towards the left. Actually from the left center over. Blade looked in that direction, scanning with all the power his walker could spare. He picked up a massive amount of metal.
"Conscripts don't have that kind of armor…." Blade said aloud as he looked. He just caught sight of a low ground flash and an exposition from the back of a walker's head. A calm well aimed shot. "Oh Shit." Blade said quietly. The entire attack was a decoy. The enemy and hit the dead center with their regulars, their professional soldiers. The left flank was gone, surrounded and destroyed.
"All units fall back to D-line!" Blade ordered into his radio "I say again all units fall back, the enemy is though the main line is breached! Everybody…" that's as far as he got, a rocket slammed into the cockpit knocking Blade out cold.
Blade slowly opened his eyes, setting his jaw against the throbbing of his head and the uncomfortable robe around his wrists. Blade looked about at his captors. In the lights the men had set up to read their maps and to fix their broken odds and ends before the last assault, Blade saw one man standing guard and several others around the area busy with things other than the prisoners. In front of him a man with a radio was barking orders to the men around the Hinatasou. Blade shook his head to clear it and listened. He heard gun fire not too far off, he guessed himself to about a quarter mile or so back.
"Your friends are rather resilient." The guard said to him "they're fighting to the bitter end."
"You invaded their country. What did you expect?" Blade sneered
"Political borders are irrelevant; the world has grown too corrupt to survive. It needs cleansing."
"If these people were corrupt they wouldn't be risking their lives by opposing you to defend their home, families, and a country of strangers." Blade curled over with the rifle butt the guard trust into his stomach.
"Lippy bastard." The guard became silent after that. Blade breathed in and out deeply as his wind came back to him. Blade closed his eyes trying to think as the now drizzling rain soaked him further than it had already. Blade felt down his back until he found the razor hidden in his top band of his pants and slowly started cutting.
Keitaro peered over the edge of the window frame into the darkness, the enemy was out there, they'd just stopped shooting for now.
"So now what?" Kitsune said pissed off as all hell
"Don't know." Keitaro answered blowing a bit of his hair out of the way "I wasn't expecting to live this long."
"Well you are so start thinking." Keitaro chose no to answer. "I have and we're all gonna die." Keitaro said, besides them a young man nodded in agreement
"It's just a matter of time now. I just wish we could have stopped them."
"There was never a chance of stopping them; we were here to slow them down. Give the army a chance to respond and our families a little time to run far and fast."
"We were a speed bump." Kitsune concluded
"I think we were a little more than that. Our families got out and we bought the army a day or two. We did what we set out to do." The kid answered
"Too bad we couldn't do more" Keitaro commented
"What more could we do?" Kit asked.
"nothing." He stated "we couldn't save our land but we gave our children a chance to live and love before it falls. And that that is an end more than worthy of my life" Both Keitaro and Kitsune looked at him like he had 4 heads and a tail. "It's something my great grandfather wrote to my great memi. He was a company commander on Okinawa.
"I'm sorry." Kitsune and Keitaro said out of habit.
"Don't be. He wasn't, and neither should we." The man
"We did our part and more, I think we can stop fighting for a cause and start fighting for ourselves. Make a real mess when those bastards try to take this house." Keitaro said. Kitsune's mouth dropped onto the floor, this was way out of character for Keitaro. Naru's death must have rattled him to the core. He didn't even care for his own life anymore. At least not beyond the most basic instincts and those were questionable right now.
"What about the cave?" the man asked
"What about it?" Keitaro asked. Mildly puzzled "the enemy's between us and the entrance."
"If we hide in there will they waste men and time digging us out?" Kitsune asked avidly, excited at the sudden possibility of survival
"Probably." Keitaro said "but it's worth a shot."
Blade grumbled mentally as he nickel and dimed his way though the bindings around his wrists. They had to use the 800 test line he complained to himself.
There were only two people nearby now, one guard, and single man working a radio. Only two, can I get away? Blade wondered. The fire in the distance had slackened to a slight purr. There were not many people left, and those that were are either in the processing of running away (smart) or trapped in the cave (unlucky and dead). If some moron decided it was worth the casualties to take it there would be no survivors. That was sure to happen with these emotion morons. Blade realized this just as he heard something come out of the radio that made him jump in surprise, voices speaking english!
The radio operator was just as surprised as Blade was but that didn't last long. Blade strained his muscles and far as he could and snapped the last threads of rope. With-in seconds he had snapped the guard's neck and drawing his knife slew the radioman. Blade sat down in front of the box. Trying to get it to speak the new forces. He was starting to hear aircraft over head, carrier planes most likely, and some limited fire .He did not know why they held back. Blade moved the tuner trying to contact the new forces. They had to be UN or NATO. Who else would help? Blade signed in relief as the two ways light came on.
"Friendly unit this is Whisky-Romeo requesting broad fire on the town of Hinata, 23.6548 by 119.3654." Blade asked recalling the GPS of the town center. It was printed on a sign by the road and in seemed useful to remember, he was very happy he did.
"Whiskey-Romeo, we have no record of your unit's existence in our computers." The female tech at the end of the line answered.
"We are not a unit we are civilian resistance in the town of Hinata." Blade paused before continuing "unnamed unit your personnel's radio's freqs are overlapping the enemy's recommend switching to secondaries."
"Roger Romeo, passing in on." After that the radio went quiet they switched radio frequencies and Blade was in the dark again. He sat beside the box. Watching around him. The radio clicked back to life after several minutes, it felt like the earth and dies and been reborn several times over.
"Romeo this is Juliet, welcome to the net, repeat request."
"Request board area fire mission the town is overrun I want it flattened now!" Bade ordered
"We are aware of the op-4's location. We are using caution around local forces." Blade stared at the mike steeling himself to admit the truth
"Local forces have been decimated; I repeat there are no local forces. Survivors have gone to ground or are in full retreat." The radio was quiet again for a few seconds
"Understood Romeo aircraft on station and missiles are away, better get to ground yourself."
" Heard and understood Juliet, do not accept any more fire missions from this Freq I can't be sure how secure it is once I'm off the air."
"Roger Romeo ordnance is inbound, splashdown two minutes." Blade didn't respond he turned of the radio and put his foot though it twice to make sure it wasn't working anymore. The he ran. Blade needed cover and fast.
20,000 ft above the island a B-52 and her pair of wing mates flew a holding pattern over the town of Hinata. They had flown in from Guam and were holding over their target because on the airplane's nature. The B-52 was a strategic bomber. Originally designed to carry nuclear weapons, so it was big, really really big. The B-52 could cause a path of destruction a mile long. So without knowing were the lines started and ended they couldn't drop their ordinance. So when the all clear came through the crews of all 3 planes were relieved to finally do their jobs. On the lead plane the bombardier snorted at the irony. His great grandfather had dropped bombs on this country. This father and grandfather fought to defend it and now he was dropping bombs on it again. The world is truly insane….
There was no warning to anyone ground side. Blade the only one who had a clue by this point had found a convent manhole and dove more or less head first into the sewer. The bombs rained down on Hinata adding their fire and steel to the mess. The B-52's pass was in many ways was the finally thumb of bass at this little dance. The enemy was to face the full weight of the US 7th fleet and the marines they carried. This was all anticlimactic though. The enemy was beaten. In its current state the force couldn't add enough firepower to the main attack to take Tokyo. Although it took several days the remains forces where pinned between to two allies and were wiped out.
Blade climbed the scattered stairs up to the Hinata Inn, an AK-74t in his hands. Behind him a mix group of survivors. These 4 were the cream of the crop from the civilians pressed into the fight. 2 young ladies and two guys one about his age and the other was couple months short of 30. Blade crested the hill and dropped his jaw as far as it would go. The Hinatasou was gone. G. O. N. E. The only thing left was random pieces on wall and a stair case to no-where. The area around the ruins was busy with helicopters taking off. And people were moving about trying to find loved ones and friends. The 7th
Fleet had found the cave during the mop up and turned the area into a camp for the survivors, as most of them were there anyway. There were some tents and a mess set up in the back of the ruins, along with a small Mash. The focus of the camp was two sheets of plywood nailed to 2 by 4's. One had messages for people the other was a running list of the dead.
The seen made him want to cry. His home was gone, his friends and company dead and all those civilians…. It was all on his shoulders. The blood on his hands. This made the destruction even harder to bear. The entire town was in ruins, everyone's home gone; the bombers had just added insult to injury on the town's remains. Tearing 3 mile long rifts of nothingness into the town.
The group Blade came with spilt as soon as they reached the camp's safety. The 3 kids going t try and find people. The older guy looked crest fallen at the sight of the survivors, guilt hammered on his face. His family was gone, depression was already visible in him. Blade wasn't too worried though, if he hadn't killed himself yet Blade doubted he ever would. What they both needed was a stiff drink to drown their sorrow in.
Surprisingly enough that was a mute problem, by some divine intervention the Hinata tea house had survived everything more or less intact after the enemy to a bite out of it. It even served pretty well as a watering hole if you ignored the sunlight beaming though bullet holes, ply wood over the big hole and the slightly damaged and mismatched furniture.
Blade walked in and sat at the bar counter. He placed his head on the counter burrowing into the elbow of his arm. He didn't care anymore; this whole damn world could run itself for a while. Right now he just wanted to drink himself into oblivion. Blade heard a click of a glass on wood and the pouring of liquid. He suddenly didn't want his drink right just then and buried deeper into his arm. Blade stiffed his body as a set of fingers ran though his hair, gently and with some nails on them, Blade relaxed if some bar girl wanted to pity the burnt out kid he wasn't going to stop her.
"War is hell isn't it?" The female voice said, the sound was familiar to Blade or maybe his brain was just screwing with him.
"Sure is, kind of used to it by now"
"Good thing you were you were, I don't think this would have worked without you." She knew him? And Blade was certain he should know that voice "right place right time." The woman continued after Blade didn't answer.
"Right place wrong time," Blade corrected her "it's the story of my life. This place was paradise." The woman kept stroking his hair. "Or at the very least within tolerance." Both were quiet for a minute.
"Blade…" Blade lifted his head to look at the girl, and stared into Shinobu's soft face. Her eyes filled with all the compassion they had before. "I'm sorry. I …was angry and I didn't know. I'm sorry... how I treated you before. I didn't see you were just as angry and bitter, and and sad. I didn't understand…." Blade launched across the counter embracing her in the tightest grip he could manage, cryingthe whole time.
"You shouldn't have to. No I'm sorry." And for a minute all was right in the world.
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That's it for now as you can tell this little tale of mine is winding down. There's only 1 or 2 more chapters left. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I should have them up in a couple of weeks. One of them anyway. If I don't you all have my permission to frag my ass.
Please R+R and thanks for reading.