Anger, Rage, Hatred, Revenge

By Sarge11

Disclaimer: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I can't tell you how sorry I am about how long this took. I blame my computer, some spineless hacker, and my dad for the wait. But, again, sorry. And just for you Ganhiem (or Ganheim) Alema is a perfectionist. And I couldn't really decide what kind of technology the creatures would have, so I used the Yuuzhan Vong as a model. I appolagize. I realize that these aliens make sucky soldiers.

Chapter3: Tactical Retreat

Angela was grumbling to herself about how she had let herself be left behind in the orbital comms station hanging in orbit over Crusade. Alema was sitting at the monitor that measured sound waves (kind of like an outer space sonar), and was preparing the Dropship for planetary assault.

Requesting you start pre-flight checks, came the pilot's voice over the speaker.

"Commencing," Alema said into her mike. "Hang tight." As she was looking through the many cameras hanging around inside Dropship to make sure everything was secure, she heard Angela grumbling. "You don't have to stay here, you know."

Angela's back straightened, her ears perked up, and she blinked her eyes twice as if she had just woken up. "Wha-?" She turned to face Alema.

"I said, you don't have to stay here. It only takes one person to run a comms station." Alema didn't even look away from her work. "The security around here is extremely shabby, and you could easily stow away. And you could make it if you hurry-there's ten minutes to lift-off." As she turned around to face her mother, she wasn't shocked at all to see that she had already left. Alema shrugged her shoulders, turned back toward the monitor, and got back to work.

Angela didn't have any problem getting to the Dropship. Alema was right-the security around there was extremely shabby. She didn't run into a single patrol. She figured the Galactic Military was pretty understaffed since the attack of the Beast and destruction of the Phoenix.

However, as she neared the Dropship, she had a very profound revelation that would have stopped her in her tracks if she couldn't multitask. She had been left behind for a reason. Sarge11 and Ax were there because of there combat experience. Screw was in orbit with the medical forces in orbit because of his powers to detect those who were wounded. Ratchet was there because of his combat powers and his versatility in combat. She, Alema, and Clank were in very specific stations on the station because those were the environments that best suited their skills. She almost considered going back, but she could already see the Dropship and she figured it was too late to go back.

The Dropship shuddered as the magnetic field holding it in the hanger deactivated and the landing craft dropped into space. It hung back and waited for the other Dropships to disengage out of their interspace drives and join it in orbit. While they were waiting for the strike team to arrive, they reviewed the plan, and the beach they would be attacking (Although they really didn't need to since it was the same beach they had attacked on B-Day-Return to Crusade-Chapter3: A Helping Hand). When the entire assault group was assembled, they reviewed the plan to make sure they had it down pat. Ratchet shook his head in near disgust. Even though the war was just getting started, the Galactic government was already going into the Volksturmm (German militia in WWII made up of entirely people too young or too old to fight-one of Hitler's last desperate stands) stage of the war.

The Dropship activated their intraspace drives and slowly descended toward the planet. The ships jolted as they entered Crusade's rough atmosphere. The ship's radar/tactical engineer detected highly concentrated masses of hydrogen headed up for the ships.

"This is it," Ratchet said to himself as he pulled on his helmet. He turned to his men (somehow his unit always managed to stay elite) and said to them, "Lets review the plan one more time." He paused, waiting for the pre-battle chatter to wear down. He continued "First, the Hoverships and Turbosliders will drop and make first contact with the enemy. The ground is sure to be swarming with enemies so we'll have to hot-drop you; the Turbosliders have been equipped with jump-jets to stabilize their drops and give them a soft landing. The Hoverships will destroy the missile sites and the Turbosliders will keep the enemy infantry busy. Then the troops will freefall from the Dropships and hold the enemy from the position on the beach so the tanks can land and push the attack. The tanks we are using are too heavy to be hot-dropped, so we'll have to land the Dropships directly on the ground."

The missiles started blowing up around the ship and the crew thought that the old-fashioned hydrogen bombs (by that time in history, even nuclear weapons were old-hat) were shaking the ship a little too much. One particular missile exploded a little too close to the ship and one of the Turbosliders broke loose from its chains and started wobbling. As it was bucking and swaying, the assembled group heard a shriek from the inside of a turret of the Turboslider.

Ratchet leaped up on top of the vehicle and produced his Fusion Rifle. However, just as he was pointing it at the intruder, all he found was Angela. As she looked in his eyes, she could see that he was seething, but he managed to hold it in very well.

"You know youwere left behind for a reason, don't you?" Ratchet spoke in a calm, even voice.

Angela dropped her eyes. "Yes."

Ratchet sighed. "I'll check and see if we have any spot for you."

Angela looked more hopeful.

"We need a good pilot for one of our gunships," Ratchet gestured at a Hovership. "We're getting close to the drop-off point. You'd better get to your ship."

Author's note: The Hovership is pretty much the same. Except for two laser podsaddedbeneath thefuselagewhich eachfire a single beam of pure energy that can honest-to-God slice you in half. They had their own batteries because continueous fire would drain the ship's other systems too quickly.

Angela climbed into the cockpit and ordered her crew to get in their positions. Ratchet told them to man first only the absolutely necessary positions first. The Rangers complied, albeit slowly. Ratchet hopped into the driver's seat of the nearest Turboslider.

Author's note:I will give you more detail on this vehicle since the Turboslider sequence in this chapter is much more entertaining. The improvements made to the Turboslider are more numerous, since the action it would be in is more intense.Bulletproof glass windshields have been added to give a little added protection. The duel turret cannon and forward gun have been replaced by powerful miniguns that each have seperate ammo stores and average about 1,000 rpm (rounds-per-minute). The cannons fire ballistic ammunition instead of energy bolts. This makes the ammo more powerful, but limits the capacity. A crew compartment was added in the back of the vehicle in case something got through the bulletproof glass. The ammo was stored in the crew compartment. Oneach side of the turret were addedtwo platforms (also protected by buletproof glass),each equippedwithone smaller energy cannon that had their own batteries. There are two types of ammunition that can be changed, while still firing, with the flip of a switch. There is armor-piercingincendiary, which has an explosive tip, that is useful against lightly armored vehicles and weak bulidings, and there is the good-old-fashioned 50. caliber round, big enough to tear through any kind of body armor and stillmaul the person's insides.

"Open the bay doors," Angela said into the mike to the ship systems engineer. However, to her surprise and horror,as the doors opened and she started up her engines, she could see a missile screaming right for the open doors of the Dropship. "Everybody out now!" she yelled into the mike. The Hovership dropped from the Dropship's open doors, Turbosliders shot from the ramps going full speed, and thetroops and even the crewjumped after the Turbosliders the second they were clear. Angela juked just in time so that herdescentwas only slightly disturbed by the missile's turbulence. The missile hit the Dropship and exploded. Angela could here the screams of the Rangers over her headset as the fireball consumed and disintigrated them. The explosion was so large and hot, that some of the other Dropships were blown off course, the paint on her Hovership started to boil, and even with the jump-jets the Turbosliders were having a hard time leveling out. Angela watched her altimeter spinning like a helicopter rotor. She pushed all of the lift fans past the safety limits and she could hear the engine wining and the fuselage creaking and groaning as it was stressed almost beyond its limits. She almost became afraid the gunship would break apart and eased back on the throttle. The descent slowed to a crawl and she adjusted the power settings on the fans to just enough so that she could stay afloat.

Angela pushed forward hard on the throttles and it shot forward. She did a corckscrew roll, but instead of coming out of it, stillflying at the same level, she turned downward into a steep dive. As she was diving down she thought she was looking at a thick, massive rainforest, but realized, to her dismay, that the green stuff was actually enemy infantry. At the last second she pulled up and leveled out.

She told the bomber to attack the missile sites and the laser pod gunners to fire on the infantry. She herself would attack the other AA platforms and aircraft hangars. And they set about their work.

It looked like they were winning too... at least until she heard lock alarms chiming. She didn't have any room or time to get away from the missile and she was forced to take a hit. The expected shudder came, but there was no explosion.Instead, sparks shot from the control board and the ship started to descend rapidly. The missile was EMP tipped and it had shut down her ship's systems (except for the laser pods). As she heard the backup generator attempting to start up the lift fans again, the ship rocked as the effort tore the fans off of the ship. She heard somethingscraping on the windshield. She equipped a small pistol and opened the glass barrier. She saw alittle, black,bug-eyed, spider-like creature eatingthe armoroff ofthe ship. However, instead of just one, she found several crawling around all over the ship. They must have ridden it up on the missile (think Buzz Droids). She was falling so rapidly now, that she had to sit back down and close the shield to keep from falling out.

With the ship tearing itself apart from trying to start itself up again and the bugsbiting chunks out of her ship, it was evident that the ship would fall apart at any moment. When it did, instead of seeing the chaos of battle, she saw a bright blue light surrounding her and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of calm.

Her sense of calm was broken, however for an instant, when a Ranger asked, "Are we dead yet?"

(Flashback to when the missile hit the Dropship)

Ratchet's Turboslider shot from the Dropship's ramp just as the missile shot through the open bay doors and exploded. The explosion temporarily knocked out the communication gear.The assault vehicle bucked and shook as it plummeted faster and faster towards the ground, thousands of feet below. Ratchet gunned the jump-jets, always watching the fuel stores for them. The vehicle finally leveled out and started to descend. Ratchet pressed an emergency button that was normally pressed in case the vehicle became submerged. A large raft sprang outon all sides of the Turboslider and kept the assault vehicle even as it fell.

As Ratchet neared the ground he checked his radar and his heart skipped a beat. The entire are in front of the scanning radius was red. The entire screen was filled with enemy units. He hit the jump jets and the descent slowed to a crawl. He knew that it took at least one hundred enemies to fill that screen and he knew there were at leastten times that many outside of the radar screen. Four Turboslider against a hundred thousand enemies didn't leave a very high chance of survival.

A high-pitched beeping sounded in the canopie that told him the jet fuel was out. The Turboslider dropped the short distance to the ground with a thud.

The second the wheels touched the ground, Ratchet gunned the engine and the wheels started spinning, kicking up a storm of dust and dirt. The ATAV (All-Terrain-Attack-Vehicle)lurched forward and shot into the crowd of enemies with all guns blazing. The front windshield was almost immediately covered in gore. However, there were so many hostiles that, even though he was shooting without aiming, he knew that he was hitting enemies because his windshield kept getting bloodier and bloodier.

The Turbosliders blazed through the enemy resistance, seeming like they were making a difference in numbers. However, soon after the Turbosliders left one area of ground, it was quickly filled up again by enemy units, despite the extra firepower and guns.

Ratchet silently cursed as one, then two of the Turbosliders were put out of commission.

He distinctly heard a click on the back of the vehicle and instantly knew that one of the creatures had latched on to the back. Before he could yell out a warning though, he heard the scream of the gunner as he was torn out of the turret and thrown out of the turret (the two other smaller gunners had fallen out long ago), and into the hungry jaws of the Beast. He heard the wind start to rush in to the Turboslider as the roof panel was being pryed open. The Rangers, in their usual, um, show of courage and self control, started screaming, not yelling, mind you, screaming that it was coming through.

The Rangers tried to take it down, but slowly the cannonfire ceased (Ratchet pretended not to hear). Slowly, the alien climbed into the canopy, so to speak, equipped his Bomb Glove, which he still kept for sentimental reasons (always stockedwith at least ten bombs) and waited until he could feel the creature breathing down his neck. Ratchet finally turned around and thrust it's mouth open, shoved a bomb down its throat, and, using some of his "abilities", threw it out the front window and was immediately covered in gore.

By now, the Turboslider's pilot guns had long run out of ammo, and the vehicle was almost out of gas. However, the main turret still had some ammo left. So, he climbed up to the turret, positioned his feet so he could stand, and cut loose with the cannon.He was able to keep the advancing hordes of creatures at bay for about a minute and a half, where he ran out of ammo.

He hopped out of the turret and opened himself fully to the flow of energy and adrenaline that came when he was using his powers. The fact that all four of the Turbosliders were now down made him even angrier.

He charged through the crowd of enemies, decapitating and mutilating as he went. As an added bonus, before the battle, he'd made a stop at Slim's and got napalm pads added on his boots. Soas he ran, his boots were pumping out a trail of napalm behind him, keeping the empty spaces empty a little longer.

Author's note: For those of you who don't know jack about napalm, even after playing Ratchet: Deadlocked, napalm, of course is a fiery liquid much like glue. Once you get it on you, you can't get it off, and ifit sticks to you,it burns into your skin and keeps going. Interesting fact, napalm was one of the major ingredients of Greek Fire.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tank force "coming to rescue them". But Ratchet's years of experience on the battlefield told him that the tank force would not be enough.

As he was running, something grabbed his leg. Unfortunately, it was strong enough and had a good enough hold on his leg to halt his sprint, despite the fact that napalm was pouring all over his hands. The force of being stopped so suddenly and at such great speeds broke his leg, and he fell to the ground. But, fortunately, a side effect of having all that adrenaline flowing was that he couldn't feel any pain.

The creatures got closer and closer, but Ratchet fought on with his wrench, removing body parts with each swing. Just as Ratchet was losing hope, he saw a strange blue light descend on him, the sounds of battle was replaced by a soft, soothing hum, and anoverwhelming sense of calm came over him. All at once, time seemed to stand still and he felt a lifting sensation. As he was rising, he saw the source of the light. It was Screw! Slowly, time began to speed up again.

His sense of hearing also returned and he was aware of gunfire. .Instinctively, he flinched and waited for the impact. But it never came.The gunfirewas not coming frombelow him, but on the same level as him. He looked toward the source of the gunfire and saw Angela, Sarge11, Axe, and a handful of Rangers.

Ratchet pulled out his own gun and started shooting. Then, to Ratchet's surprise, a small group of creatures jumped up and grabbed Sarge11, Angela, and a couple of Rangers. The creatures were able to get a good grip on all of them and started pulling them down. Screw started to ascend toward a hospital ship.

Ratchet yelled, "Wait! Go back down there!"

Axe floated over to where Ratchet floated,struggling madly to reach his wife and friend. Axe grabbed his father by the shoulders, looked him lovingly in the eye, and shook him real hard and yelled, "Hey! Yur' actin' like a nut!" and slapped back and forth across the face a couple times. "Pull yourself together, man! They didtheir duty, now you have to do your duty. We have orders to retreat. we're gonna have to leave them behind."

Ratchet would have objected, but he heard Angela telling himto go on without her. Sarge11 told her the same. After hearing this, Ratchet stopped struggling and was lifted upwards towards the medical ship. He completely ignored the Rangers yelling at him to come back.

Ratchet was now filled with rage. It is in this stage that he loses his sense of friend or foe and attacks indiscriminately. He started to float over toward Axe, but he equipped a Tempest and tranquilized Ratchet.

I would like to apolagize for however long this chapter took. You see, the computer's motherboard was messed up or something. And after it was fixed, I didn't write for a while because I guess that I had lost that flame, so to speak, that I had writing the first story. I mean, after maybe two stories the oxygen supplying the flame sort of gets used up, if you get my meaning. I promise, the next update will come faster... just as soon as I'm finished thinking it up.

-Sarge11