Panda Bear's Art of War (PB's AoW)
AN: I'll update every weekend since I really don't have time in the week to write anything, please bear with me in the mean time! Thanks for the support Halosobssessed1010, Natination, Cpt. Shaneschofield and system crashed (this guy is slowpoke)! You guys made my day with your awesome reviews!
Chapter 3: CAVE ATTACK AND DEFENSE Part: 1
20:03 hours, March 3, 2006 (Civilian Calendar)\Sol system, Bloodgulch, Simulated Halo.
If there was one thing that Panda Bear ever cared about, it was teamwork. And so far in his Halo online mayhem career, that has rarely materialized into being. So when he spawned on top of the blue base one day and saw seven green arrows all clustered in one place somewhere in the map, he was more than surprised. He glanced quickly at his radar and found no contacts, either were there any signs of battle around him; no smears of blood, no blackened dirt, it was as if all these Spartans all just got up one day and decided to be peaceful and fluffy. The last time Panda had seen this clean a floor was when he had tried to start his OWN 16 player CTF, and that turned ugly quick.
(Spartan 117 was killed by Jimmy) (Red 7 was killed by Jimmy) (Caboose was killed by Blue 002) (2kewl4u was killed by 7up) (Dirtbag was killed by New001)
Okay… strike that thought; if it were peaceful, the message boards wouldn't be clustered with death tolls. Wherever this fight was going on, there were sure to be lots of kills to be had. MUWAHAHAHA.
After picking up 2 grenades and 48 armor-piercing rounds for his pistol, Panda Bear jumped off of blue base and headed for the… warthog. He landed on the grass and found that the Jeep was gone. He turned and looked to where the rocket jeep should have been, and it was gone too. Strange. You don't usually find a deserted base PERIOD. Finding a deserted base, warthogs included, is even stranger… something fishy is going on here.
Panda was a natural borne investigator, and he was determined to get to the bottom of this case. After grunting in disapproval of having to run all the way to the battlefield, wherever THAT was. But he was overdue for a good exercise anyways. The blue Spartan began to move. While he covered the first hill, the death toll continued to pile up in the message boards. And it seems as if the same few people kept getting all the kills.
By the time that Panda Bear had topped the second hill, he understood. There he was, standing on top of the tallest hill in the map, with the red team teleporter but a few meters from where he stood. A cave that was hidden in the shadows, with a very large boulder standing beside its entrance, usually a very good sniping spot, was being crowded like he had never seen before. The edges of its entrance was blackened beyond recognition, literally a pile of red bodies littered the floor, forming a type of perimeter around the entrance, sprawled out in all forms of brutality. Ammo and grenades covered the ground. Three red Spartans, standing at the bottom of the slope leading up to the entrance, began charging towards it at once.
They had their assault rifles and pistols drawn. Judging by the ugly, dark marks around the entrance and the blood smeared all over the face of the boulder, those Spartans were soon to die. Just as Panda had suspected, when the team of reds had approached to a distance of about 5 meters from the cave entrance, the spot where most of the red bodies lay, 4 rockets came zooming out of the cave and, catching one red as he was in the action of throwing a grenade, blasted the invaders to oblivion before they could say "mommy."
Panda understood, they were playing CAVE DEFENSE AND INVASION.
The concept of "Cave defense and invasion" was first thought up by Panda Bear himself and his friend Slowpoke. They had had many 2-player games where all they did were hunt and destroy; Warthog tag, hide and seek etc. (a series of lazy little mini-games) And one day, Panda Bear finally got tired of old fashioned multiplayer battles and wanted to play something cool. Something similar to old-styled medieval castle attack and defense. So he picked a spot (The cave), and one Spartan would drive a warthog inside, then he/she would systematically blast the invader to heck as the enemy tried to take possession of the cave
It was fun with 2 players, and when Panda invited a few of his friends online into a full blown 8-player battle, it was a blast. 4 on 4 defense and attack, more rockets and fuel rod guns and grenades and machine guns were stocked inside the cave, while the invading army had to work out elaborate strategies to take the cave before their entire team got blasted. And gradually, more and more strangers came to play and adopted the type of game.
Now, when panda saw his own game come to life and being played by 15 other strangers, he was proud. I am soooo proud.
Before his thoughts could carry him any further into happy land, 4 red Spartans materialized almost instantaneously near his feet at the red teleporter. Because Panda Bear was standing still, he apparently didn't show up on their motion-sensing radars, so the 4 reds ignored him and took up formation. One of them went for the rocket lying near their teleporter and 2 more enemies rushed to the alternated entrance hidden in the rock formations to Panda's left. This is trouble, our rocket and machine gun hogs are probably lined up inside that cave, one rocket fired inside would practically cause a chain effect and take out 2 warthogs while the other 2 reds flanked my team from the entrance with the flamethrower. This is going to turn disastrous if I don't do something.
Before the enemy noticed the blue Spartan standing on the most obvious spot on the map (Probably due to over excitement at yet another chance to get blown up), Panda Bear cocked his trusty M6D pistol and fired three shots into the enemy going for the rocket. One more bullet finished him off. Then he leaped off of the hill and went for the second red taking up a position behind the large boulder beside the entrance. The real trouble lies with those two Spartans flanking his team from the alternate entrance.
"There are two reds flanking you from behind." Panda quickly keyed to his team on their private channel.
"Thx." Came the hastily typed reply. Panda focused his sights onto the Spartan behind the large boulder. One successfully thrown grenade from outside will also do disastrous damage to his team who were inside the cave. And Panda bear had to get inside the cave quick, more red teams were bound to come through the teleporter at any given second, and they won't be caught off guard twice.
Panda Bear pulled the trigger 5 times, five ultra sonic slugs shot into the enemy, but he didn't go down. Instead, the red Spartan turned and threw a grenade in the direction of Panda Bear, the fragmentation explosive landed skillfully beside Panda's foot, detonating only a moment afterwards. The lone Blue Spartan cursed as the red menace leaped high and prepared to put Panda out of his furry misery. But alas! By rushing towards Panda Bear, the red Spartan had presented himself as a perfect target for the Blue team stationed inside the cave. Machine gun fire instantly poured out of the entrance and a rocket zoomed out of the cave and miraculously caught the enemy squarely in the side. The armored soldier changed his descending trajectory in a heartbeat and he flew 25 meters horizontally away from where the rocket had blasted him and landed inside a tree.
((Sc) Ron was blasted… ahem, I mean, killed by New001)
"NICE!"
"Nice!"
"Ns!"
"NC."
In an instant, every type of "nice" was written in all its 'txt tlk' glory. An unspoken tradition in Halo Online multiplayer is that after a good fight, ending up with one side dead; the dead person could either say "NOOB!" Or, "Nice". The winner, on the other hand, could either walk up to the dead Spartan and 'hump' him/her or blast the dead body with a full sixty rounds of assault rifle ammo or be indifferent and move onto the next victim after salvaging what's left of his /her victim's ammo and explosives. So it is always nicer to win, and not lose.
One of the "nicers", not-surprisingly, was the poor lad who got exploded by that damn wocket jeep.
Panda Bear made a beeline for the entrance.
"Don't blast me, I'm coming in." He typed quickly to his team and ran up the slope. As he approached the entrance to the cave, he was suddenly hit in the side by dull thumps, knocking away his composure. Panda knew that red team was coming out of the teleporter and methodically trying to kill what they could of the blue team. His shield was rapidly dwindling with each shot that hit its mark. At this rate Panda was going down fast.
Suddenly, a rocket was fired from inside the cave and exploded a few meters to the left of Panda Bear, in between him and his enemy. The splash washed away what remained of his shield but also effectively created a cloud of dirt that blinded his enemy's vision long enough for Panda to make one final leap into the cave with 4 bars of health left.
He didn't have enough time to say thanks as 5 red dots on his radar, clustered together, were rushing towards the entrance quickly. Panda quickly scanned the inside of the cave and found 4 warthogs and two Spartans, both Rockets and Machine guns on the warthogs were manned by blue team while the two Spartans each held a personal rocket launcher over their shoulders. Panda Hastily threw a grenade outside near the entrance and fell back into the cave. Rockets and machine gun fire zoomed past his head and exploded in a wall of unraveled dirt, blocking the entrance with soil. Three red dots disappeared while the last two turned and headed in another direction, most likely going for the alternate entrance.
"Nice, but they're coming in from the rear again." Panda Warned.
"No problem, we've got turtleneck guarding the entrance below with an over shield and a flamethrower." Jimmy said quickly on the team COM.
"Kay, I'm going down to give him some support, afterward, I'll have to get out there and get the rocket launcher, we can't let them get that."
"10/4." Panda ran into the small tunnel in the back of the cave and descended into another, smaller cavern. A large rock jutted out in the middle while the alternate entrance to the outside stood on the other side. A blue Spartan was already there, holding a flamethrower at the ready. If any reds were to come and rush into the narrow entrance, the flamethrower would make short work of their soon-to-be-crisp bodies. The remaining two red dots appeared and soon after, the figures of two red Spartans rounded the corner and charged into the cave, machine guns blazing. The bullets bounced off of the large rock harmlessly while Turtleneck unleashed a stream of bright yellow flame directly into the enemy's paths.
(JediMaster was killed by Turtleneck) (Longcat was killed by Turtleneck)
The flame ceased, and revealed two still-burning bodies lying in a large, blackened spot on the floor.
"Who loves you now! HAHAHA" Turtleneck spammed on the COM to everyone.
"Turtle, help Panda get out there and get that rocket, give em' cover or sumthin."
"Okay."
Panda sprinted outside with Turtle closely following at his heels, his pistol was closely trained on the teleporter, determined to make short work of any red team that decided to materialize. Panda ran past the teleporter and turtle stopped right reside it to burn anyone that comes out. Quickly grabbing the rocket, Panda and Turtle quickly retreated back into the cave.
"Good job guys." Said Jimmy on the team COM.
"We rock!" Babbled New001. And then no one talked, and they waited, and waited. Normally, the red team would be coming for their cave again, but no. It's been almost 10 seconds and no one is coming. Panda Bear quickly checked the game roster to make sure that no one on the red team had decided to quit; all the red team were still in the game.
"Okay guys," Started Panda, "They are plotting and scheming against us."
"Lol."
"I know they know rushing the entrance won't work, they're planning, don't let your guard down."
SOMEWHERE IN THE RED BASE"Yes, hehehe, and 2kewl4u, you go here with grenades and Longcat goes here. You, Blue002, get the sniper." Said one obscure and evil voice from the dark depths of the red base. "The cave'll be ours, OURS I SAY! MUWAHAHAHAHA, BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
To Be Continued
Just to explain, CAVE ATTACK AND DEFENSE isn't really known in the halo online multi games, but I'm trying to promote the game through this fic, so go and try it, it's really fun!
And what will the evil scheming red team do to the poor blue team? Find out in the next chapter! Please review for… … just to make me happy!