This story takes place about 10 or so years down the line from the end of Advance Wars 2. As far as Chapter 1 goes, it's more of a prologue. That's why it is relativly short and doesn't seem as "Advance Wars 2 Related" as some of the other chapters will. But it still is necessary and blah, blah, blah. So, with all that gobbledygook said, let's get on with the reason why you came here. Enjoy.
Rating: M
Legacy, an Advance Wars 2 Novel
Chapter 1: Fall of a Hero
Dressed in all black for the occassion, Sonja was holding a handkerchief up to her nose as she sobbed quietly. Her eyes were watering, making it impossible for her to focus on the speaker. She wasn't listening to him anyway...all she could think about was her father. Kanbei had recently been taken by a cold of some sorts, but it unfortunately intensified and his aging body couldn't fend off the infection. ...Kanbei had died.
To Sonja it had always seemed as though her father would live forever. He was the embodiment of vitality and vigor. Through the years, he had always been there for her, but now she was alone in the world. Her mind wandered to old memories of him, both on the battlefield and off it, and her crying intensified. The woman next to Sonja moved her hand over and grabbed Sonja's to clam her down. This was Nell, who had also come to pay respects to the finest leaer Yellow Comet had ever had. The two looked at the casket. Sonja couldn't believe it was her father. His lifeless body didn't seem to eminate any of the energy and spirit that Sonja knew and loved. She lowered her head and listened to the speaker again in a very somber manner.
The funeral was winding down, and most of the attendants were walking around and talking to each other; catching up with old friends and that sort of thing. The atmosphere was not a pleasant one, but people were trying to move on and not dote on the unfortunate events. Sonja sat alone near her father's casket though, not wanting to talk to anyone. Hours went by, and finally the procession was over and people started to walk down the hill on which the funeral had been held.
There was still a fairly large crowd though, when a loud CRACK was heard. Sonja immediately lifted her head and looked around. Suddenly, a young man in his twenties who was fairly close to Sonja was struck by something. This all happened in an instant, and as the man was hit, blood spattered upwards, and he fell backwards to the ground. Sonja looked on in disbelief, but the grief she had been experiencing, mixed with this newfound sense of fear, immobilized her. People crowded around the victim of what was apparently a gunshot. As they did this, Sonja became cool-headed again and stood up.
"Everyone, we need to get out of the area! They may be shooting more rounds!"
The remaining people in the area needed no further persuasion. They rushed down to their cars and started peeling out of the parking lot. Sonja looked back at her father's casket one last time. She took in a deep breath, and then went down to her own vehicle, a small white limosuine.
"What happened, Miss? The people seem to be in hysterics." asked the driver.
"I'm not entirely sure...someone fired a bullet and struck one of our field workers."
"Good heavens! Are you alright, Miss?"
"Yes, yes. I'm fine. A bit rattled, but I'll be okay." Sonja looked out her window and up at the hill. Two corpses now lay atop it. She was just about to pick up the phone in her car to call for medical help when it rang. She lifted the receiver.
"Hello?"
"This is a prerecorded message to: Sonja." said an animated voice on the other end. A different, raspy, but deep voice spoke next. "Today's actions were carried out by none other than Black Hole!"
After that, the message was over and Sonja hung up, dazed.
'Those...FIENDS!' she though. 'I can't believe that at my father's funeral...one of the most respected men to ever step on a battlefield...they'd prepare a deliberate attack! It's as if they have no emotions...no sense of respect and honor when it comes to battle. They're just killing machines...they don't care how they get the job done as long as they get it done...'
Sonja continued to curse Black Hole in her head. Her grief now fed her rage. This day, already blackened by the funeral, was now tainted by a pre-meditated attack. Sonja was nothing short of livid, and she ripped the phone off the car's wall.
'I suppose this is how they fight their wars: never a moment's peace.'
---
Chapter 2: A Spirit Altered
Three weeks after the events that transpired on the day of her father's funeral, Sonja was sitting in the Intel Room of Yellow Comet Headquarters. Yellow Comet's top military advisor was sitting next to her, and both of them were looking at computer screens with various information displayed on them.
"What is it Black Hole seems to be targetting right now?" asked Sonja.
"Their recent attacks seem to be moving them in a northwest direction...perhaps they're headed for the armory up there." answered Hilton, the military advisor.
"No new attacks in a few days though, right?"
"Right."
"...Then they're due for one."
The two continued watching the radar and satellite tracking monitors for a few minutes, and then the automatic door entering the room slid open behind them. A musky looking fellow of a stocky build came in and saluted Sonja and Hilton. They returned the action, and then he began to speak.
"Ma'am, Sir, we have found a batallion of Black Hole forces deep within a forested region. They seem to have a rather large base of operations in the area."
"How long has this been there?" asked Sonja, perplexed by this information since she had seen nothing of it on her informative computer screens.
"We're not sure. We only found out when one of our camps was assaulted and overrun."
Hilton took this information in and then said, "Did they take any prisoners?"
"...Yes."
"How many?"
"Well, how many people were at that camp? You know, the one Zimmler was running."
Sonja's eyes widened at this response. The Zimmler Camp had a good 20 people operating a pretty hefty artillery-based-squadron. For them to all be overrun seemed incredible, even for the en masse tactics of Black Hole. Sonja thought for a minute and then said, "Well, we have got to save them, then."
Hilton turned to her and said, "I'm not sure it would be a good idea, ma'am. The reports say that they have a large base, they've got plenty of forest to use as cover, and they've got hostages. That sounds like a darn good trap to me."
"It doesn't matter! We have to save them!"
"But ma'am...the intel...we could lose hundreds of lives taking on an operation like that. You've got to pick your battles..."
Sonja began breathing a bit heavier. "I don't care! Those heartless Black Hole thugs are not going to worm their way into killing my men through torture and what not. We're here to protect these people; we are their last line of hope."
Hilton's response was short and bitter, "You're starting to sound like your father."
"What?" Sonja snapped back at him. Her eyes narrowed as she watched Hilton, waiting for an answer.
"Your father, even though he was a great man, was very reckless. You have always been the strategic one, guiding him away from death traps like these. Why, then, do you want to throw away lives here? If we don't fight, we lose 20 men. If we do fight, the numbers could be catastrophic."
"It's not how many we lose," Sonja said, between clenched teeth, "it's how we lose them. I don't know if you heard, but a man was shot...he was KILLED while I and many other people were paying our last respects to my father. Black Hole doesn't deserve the satisfaction of 'victory' over the Zimmler Camp. Our men may go down in the name of their country today, but think of the lives they save, and the moral blow it deals to Black Hole. My father would have taken this battle, yes. But not because he was reckless. It's because he cares about every single soldier he has. He-" Sonja began to tear up. "He was a great man..."
Hilton was not so satanical with his next comment. "There's no questioning that, ma'am, but this decision wouldn't even be wise. We've got to save troops for the larger invasion that we know is coming..."
"We are fighting this battle, Hilton, whether you like it or not. We are going to fight it in the name of my father and the man who died next to him on that hill. We are going to fight because those 20 lives mean just as much as any other 20 lives out there." Each senetence, Sonja got louder. "We are going to fight because Black Hole is made up of nothing but killers, and I want to drive stakes through all of their hearts--every one! We are going to fight because the honor of battle and the value of comrades cannot be measured! WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT BECAUSE YELLOW COMET IS A FIGHTING NATION, AND WE WILL RISE TO ANY CHALLENGE OUR ENEMIES BRING OUR WAY! WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT..." Sonja calmed down again. "...because I loved my father."
---
Chapter 3: Encounter
The Yellow Comet forces had been dispatched and they had reached the site of the Zimmler Camp. A large forest loomed in front of them, but they valiantly marched on. Word had spread to them of the noble things Sonja had said earlier this morning, and they were all determined to fight for her until the end. They were fighting for much more than the 20 men on the other side of the forest. They were fighting for Kanbei, yet again. His legacy lived on despite his passing.
Sonja was ready for battle in the rundown HQ building near the remnants of the camp. Her prowess in Fog of War was going to be a major help to her troops as they tried to work their way through the forest. Sonja hadn't the slightest idea what kind of forces she'd be up against since the Black Hole site refused to show up on radar, so she brought a sprinkling of all sorts of troops, both in the air and on the ground.
As the troops began their march into the forest, Sonja instructed them to stay frosty and start making sweeps of the area to find any enemies. The going was slow through the forest, but the air units managed to work their way North. They could find nothing in the forest yet. Sonja continued her methodical combing of the forest: she did not want to rush into this battle without knowing entirely what she was up against. Her APCs kept the front lines gassed up and ready to go, so there was no rush at all in the attack. Finally, an enemy was sighted. It was nothing more than a lone infantry though, and a couple of B Copters quickly eliminated it. At this point, she had her air units fall back as she expected more Black Hole troops to funnel down through the forest, now that they knew Yellow Comet was here.
But nothing happened.
"This is too easy..." Sonja was feeling on edge now. As terrifying as a large enemy force is, nothing is more eerie than a lack of troops in an area that managed to wipe out a fairly decent-sized camp.
Sonja made a radio call back to headquarters. "How new is this intel?" she asked.
Hilton answered the call, "It was fresh this morning, ma'am."
"Well, I'm not finding anything out here. We saw one squadron of Infantry and that's it."
"Perhaps they've all focused their forces near the actual base of operations. See if you can get across that forest and then tell me what's up."
"Alright. Sonja, over and out."
Sonja was a bit less cautious now, and she moved her troops up at a faster pace. Still she saw nothing, so the troops continued marching. The morale with which they came to the field was vanishing as they went longer and longer without having anyone to kill. Finally, they reached the edge of the forest. A radio call to Sonja came in from the front lines.
"Looks like we've got a fortress on our hands...complete with Black Cannons."
"So, that's what it is? Are there any enemy troops though?"
"I don't see any right now, but they could still be hiding in the trees around here."
"Alright, well, avoid the cannons and inspect the trees. We'll work on the cannons once we know the area is secure."
The first scout sent out was a T Copter, and it immediately ran into an Artillery unit hiding in the forest. It seemed to be a Yellow Comet unit, but it immediately fired at one of Sonja's tanks, so she ordered it destroyed. A volley from a Rocket vehicle and a blast from a Tank easily took it out. Once this was accomplished though, a Neotank jolted out of another patch of the forest and started gunning down some Infantry. The Infantry were killed, but Sonja flew her one Bomber in and wiped out the Neotank. Strangely enough, it too had looked like a Yellow Comet unit. The Bomber had just finished destroying the Neotank when it started taking fire on its left side. An Anti-Air had snuck in from the forest as well. It looked like a Yellow Comet unit too, and it was gunned down by a couple of Tanks.
"Sonja, ma'am, why do these enemies look like us?"
"My guess is that they hijacked the vehicles from the Zimmler Camp and are using those. If that's the case, all they have left is Artillery, so have the air units take out the Black Cannons.
It took some time, but the Black Cannons were systematically eliminated without any damage to Sonja's troops. Sonja then had another thought...she radioed back to Hilton.
"Hilton, we reached the end of the forest and there seems to be a fortress up ahead with Black Cannons. Now we've already taken the cannons out, and we've also run into some enemies...but they were using Yellow Comet vehicles."
"That's odd..."
"Yes, well, I assume they merely hijacked them from the Zimmler Camp, but I'm still baffled as to where this force is that took out the camp in the first place."
"Perhaps they evacuated after they beat the camp and stole the vehicles."
"Hmm, I suppose that could be true." Sonja digested this information and it seemed pretty logical. "Alright, well, we managed to clean up this areas without any casualties. See? You were worried for nothing. We're going to infiltrate the fortress now and resuce the POWs."
"Copy that. Over and out."
Sonja sent her Infantry into the fortress. She radioed the squadron leader as he entered the building.
"Give me a description of what's going on in there." she said.
The Infantry leader, Timothy, answered, "Can do, ma'am. So far we've just entered the building."
"Do you see any Black Hole forces in there?"
"No, it almost seems like this place is abandoned too."
"Well, perhaps they just left the prisoners in there to die. It's a good thing I chose to come rescue these guys, then."
"Yeah...we're going up the stairs now. If this place is built like all the other fortresses we've seen, the prison cells are on the top floor."
"Affirmative, that is the case with most of those buildings."
"Ok, we're almost there now...alright we're in the prisoner roo--What the?"
"What is it?"
"Nobody's here, either. There aren't any prisoners...wait, her's a note lying in one of the cells. Perhaps this will shed some light on what went on here."
"Well, read it."
"Hang on, we're breaking down the door to the cell...Ok, I've got the note here..."
"What's it say?"
"It...doesn't make sense..."
"I don't care, read it. Maybe I can make heads or tails of it."
"It says, 'You're just like your father'."
Sonja was silent.
Timothy spoke again, "Hello? Sonja, are you ther-"
But as he started to say this, he was cut off. Sonja heard the radio jam, and then she heard a loud explosion. She quickly looked out the window of her HQ. From over the forest, she could see a pillar of flame and smoke rising upwards. She could see none of her units anymore, and the blast seemed to intensify. A wave of ash and dust hovered over the forest, and it eventually ran right into the HQ Sonja was in. It crashed against her window as she kept looking outside. Everything turned brown or black...even the trees became coated with dirt.
"This was all a trap..." Sonja muttered.
The fortress had self-detonated. Sonja couldn't believe the destruction she saw as she looked out the filthy window.
None of her men survived the blast.