Return to Crusade
By Sarge11
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except Crusade, Myself, B-Day, Inferno squadron, and the accelerated form of Nanotech.
Please,
Mr. D 91,
don't kill me for stealing your title! Anyway, thank you
superdork398 for reviewing and, though I really do appreciate the
praise, you seem a bit obssesive. I love that in a person!
As Ratchet is coping with his disease, our focus shifts from the heroic Lombax, to the replacement, Ranger H-22, on the frontline.
"The Tyhrranoids are coming! Where's Sarge?" asked the commanding Ranger.
Before a regular could answer, a medic cut in. "In the sick bay, poisoned. You are now the commanding officer."
"What? You mean I'm in charge? No! That means they're gonna try and kill me first!" H-22 screamed. He pointed at an AT soldier that was standing next to him. "You!" The soldier snapped to attention. "You're the new commanding officer! I have to leave because, uh, my wife is 9 months pregnant and about to give birth! Yeah that's it." He picked up a radio and held it up to his mouth, if you could call it a mouth and spoke into it. "Listen up everyone! I have to leave for personal reasons and so… you what is your label?"
"H-26, sir," said the AT soldier.
"H-26 will be your new commander." 22 ran up to him and quickly shook his hand. "Congratulations H-26, you're the new commanding officer. Let me know how it turns out." He handed him the radio and ran off screaming.
"Um, O.K. This is H-26 to all units. I'm taking command. Let's waste those Puss Buckets," said the new officer. "What do I do now?" he asked the medic next to him.
"Get everyone into position," said the medic.
"Places everyone, places," said 26.
"It's not a ballet or a play, you know," said the medic. "Say it right.
"EVERYONE INTO POSITION! MOVE IT! How was that?" he asked.
"Adefuate," said the medic, his speaking slurred because the volume of the order had briefly short-circuited his voice box.
"Here they come! Get ready," 26 ordered. "All units report status."
"2, ready."
"3, ready."
"8, waiting."
"4, ready."
"5, waiting."
"6, waiting."
"7, ready."
"Everyone, stay alert," said 26. "Here they come."
They looked out of their trench. If they had bladders they would probably have wet themselves. They had never seen so many Tyhrranoids in their lives.
"This is not just the ones left over from our last attack. This is the entire race of Tyhrranoids rushing at us," cowered H-26. "They expect us to fight this? There's no way we can defeat them. No matter, we'll fight anyway."
"Why, sir?" asked the medic.
"I don't know," he replied. "I guess stubbornness is part of my programming."
"Are you sure it's stubbornness?" asked the medic. "I think it's stupidity."
"You're decommissioned!" screamed 26.
"Yes!" whispered the medic. "I'm not gonna die today!"
"Uh, sir?" said a machine gunner next to him.
"What is it soldier?" he asked.
"That was our last medic," said the distraught MG.
As they were getting far into the argument, they were interrupted by the sounds of gunfire, a little too close for comfort.
"Those aren't our guns. Those are their guns. Why aren't we shooting? Return fire!" he shouted. He said quietly to his self, "I sure hope I don't get hurt."
The Ranger strategy was simple. Well, actually, there were three strategies. The first was to stay in the trench, and first, throw all your explosives like grenades, bombs, and missiles at them, then when you're out of those, you hold your position, pop out every now and then and start going to town with your cannon. The second strategy was to stay and hide in the trench. And the third was to run away. Some of them were brave and went with the first strategy, some not so brave, waited until the noids' were right on top of them in the trench before finally engaging. But, sadly, most of them used the last strategy and ran away.
"Shoot or be shot!" yelled 26.
That brought back about three quarters of the runaways and got everyone of the ones hiding in the trenches fighting. The ones already fighting fought harder.
"Sir!" shouted the MG. "Good news! I just got a radio alert from Command! We're getting reinforcements!" He paused. "Wait, wait. Now what was that?" He shouted, "An entire carrier battle group!" He paused again. "What? You mean they're still a few hours away?" He closed it and looked at 26. "Let's tell the others that we're getting reinforcements but, ah, let's leave out the fact that they're still a few hours away."
"Good idea," said 26. "Listen up! We're getting reinforcements in the form of an entire carrier battle group!"
A great cheer rose from the army, and the rest of the runaways came running back.
"For victory!" yelled H-26.
"Dude! Will you cut that out! It's not the middle ages!" shouted the MG.
"I know that! You spoiled the moment," whined 26.
"Sorry. Do it again if you have to," said the MG.
"No, no, I can't. You already spoiled it. It won't have the same effect that I was going for," said 26.
"Aw well. Let's fight," said the machine gunner as he popped up and tore up the front line of Tyhrranoids that were closing in on him.
"Let's," said 26.
"Seriously. You need to cut out that whole elegance thing. It's not working for you," said the MG.
"I need a new hobby," 26 whispered.
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H-26 stood alone as his last Ranger got killed and there was still one more Walker left. He had one bomb left. The only problems; it could shoot farther than he could throw, he was badly damaged, he was a long way off, and it noticed him before he could sneak up behind it.
It charged up its lasers as he started running toward it. It fired and hit him in the arm, disintegrating it. As it was charging up its next blast, he threw the bomb. Right before the bomb blew it up, the walker fired and destroyed 26's leg.
As he fell to the ground, he heard on his radio, This is dropship fleet two-one requesting permission to land over.
He picked up the radio with his good hand and spoke into it. "This is H-26, the commanding officer of the remaining army, permission granted. Oh, and you might want to pick me up. I've got a busted leg and can't move."
This is dropship 3, activate your homing beacon, and we'll pick you up.
"Thank you," said 26.
This was a long chapter for me. Anyway, if you are reading this, then review.
-Sarge11