Here's chapter 14. Enjoy.
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It was then that the defenders of Edge waited. Most were in fear but all were determined. There was a deafening silence surrounding the men. Occassionally, there were whispers here and there, or the sound of clothes brushing against the soil.
There were also the sounds of equipment being tinkered with, mostly in order to verify their optimum efficiency. Some of the men began opening their portable water containers and taking in small sips of water.
Despite the activity, none took their hands off their weapons. During the wait, Cloud took the moment to study his own rifle. Although he preferred using his sword, a bit of knowledge about using these long-ranged weapons will definitely help. It's been a long time since he held one of these himself. The last time he held one was when he worked in Shinra. He had been using the rifle given to him before, during certain conflicts against Avalanche forces. Since then, his marksmanship became above average. Right now, he's not sure if he still possessed this skill.
The afternoon was about to end yet nothing came. They estimated that they've been there for almost two hours- or so they think.
Cloud turned his back and rested it on the side of the trench. He laid the rifle on his tummy and rubbed his hands together to remove the sweat in his palms. He could see the young soldier beside him did not shift his position. He still laid on the side of the trench, pointing his rifle at the same direction. The boy continued on trembling.
"See them?" Cloud asked.
The boy shook his head, "Nothing." his voice was a bit shaky.
Men trudged down the long trench, their heads down in case the enemy was present and had a clear shot at them. They moved from different areas of the trench, repositioning themselves to find the best defensive positions. One man laid next to Cloud.
The blonde then noticed one man get up and walk away from the trench and a bit further into the plains were Shinra's army was supposed to come from. Cloud turned in curiosity and watched as the daring soldier walk a few meters in front of them. Cloud then knew why:
At the feet of the soldier was a patch of beautiful flowers. They were small yet their pinkish-white color attracted him. He suddenly had the urge to get up and pick some for Tifa and Marlene. But something told him he shouldn't.
But hey, it was only around four meters away. If he could get in there quick and pick some, it wouldn't be much of a problem. Anyway, the soldier was still there, getting some.
"Hey, can you pick one for me?" one of the men in the trench shouted.
"Alright, how many?" the soldier replied.
"Two's fine. Thanks dude."
Maybe it would be better if Cloud asked the man to get some for him as well. Then again, the man might not pick a nice one for him. So the blonde hoisted himself up and prepared to walk to the flower patch.
"Better hurry back dude!" another voice warned.
Cloud then heard a whizzing sound. It sounded as if something was falling from the sky.
Then, the flower patch blew into bits. The soldier was tossed back a few inches before dropping back down. In instinct, Cloud dropped back down to the trench. Some of the soil went in his hair and got stuck.
Then, another explosion occured right in front of the trench. Then another went off behind them. Then another, then another. All the men pressed themselves to the side of the trench as the barrage of explosions continued.
Cloud barely lifted his head to peek. Hopefully, he can get a glimpse of the Shinra army as it advanced. But the blonde saw nothing except for the dead soldier- 'Wait a minute.'
The supposedly 'dead' soldier stirred on the ground. In between explosions, the blonde could hear his shocked moan. "He's alive!" the blonde exclaimed.
"Sir?"
"The man's still alive! I'm going to get him!" the blonde shouted as he was sprayed with soil from another explosion.
The other men looked up and tried as hard as they could to provide cover for the blonde.
Shells greeted him as they dropped all around. Cloud ran all the way towards the fallen man. He grabbed the the fatigues of the soldier and dragged him back. He was luckily able to dodge one explosion which occured near him.
Another shell dropped near the groaning soldier but he was lucky since it was a dud. As soon as Cloud neared the trench, he dropped the man in and dove in the trench.
Immediately afterwards, the others brought their heads down to shield themselves from shrapnel.
"We need a medic here!" one of the soldiers shouted.
"I'm here!" another replied. He wore a similar uniform to the one who helped Tifa the night before. The medic ran, head ducked towards the group. He tripped as the shockwave of another explosion hit him. The man got up and resumed his approach.
The medic settled down beside the group and began checking the shocked man. It was a miracle he survived.
One of the shells entered the trench and landed beside a group of soldiers. They were not as lucky as the man Cloud saved.
The continuous shelling pinned them down to the lowest depths of the trench.
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The usually smooth-flowing highway now looked like a congested parking lot. The multitude of cars of various shapes and sizes met each other in this large road, all trying to escape the chaos and the fear of death.
But with traffic as bad as this, chaos and death will definitely catch up to them.
The ambulance shut its sirens since it may begin to annoy and provoke the other panicked motorists.
The patient in the ambulance stared at the silver figurine in her hand. She traced each and every line in the figure more than twice.
This figurine was the only pillar of hope she had. This figurine never ceased to remind her that 'he' would come back safe and sound. The woman hoped so.
Unless...
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Cloud covered his head with his hands as another shell exploded near him. Amidst the relentless bombardment, he could hear the familiar sounds of helicopter blades above him. Four choppers hovered the trench.
He could see the Shinra logo on the sides of the four choppers.
But due to the relentless bombardment, they were pinned down so much that they can do almost nothing to stop them. The choppers did not bother to slaughter the men and entered the city.
Cloud realized that the bombardment was actually a means of cover to slip the four attack choppers in the city. These choppers will pound through the various defensive positions in the city to lessen or eliminate the strain on the ground assault forces.
This was too late for them. Anyway, with their current position, they can do nothing to stop them even if they knew. The only viable option is to hurry.
Finally, the shelling stopped and the men in the trench were given room to breathe. They resumed their old positions, aiming their rifles at the open plain.
Only this time, the open plain sprang to life as a large dust cloud approached them with speed. In the middle of the cloud, black objects can be seen, their engines roared through the still air as hundreds of horsepower pushed the machines forward.
Cloud asked for the binoculars of one of the lieutenants with them.
The lieutenant unhooked it from his belt and handed it to Cloud. The blonde began using it.
"They have more than ten tanks and APC's. Can't count them clearly. But one thing's for sure,"
"What's that?"
"We're definitely outgunned."
"We'll survive if we play our cards right."
"If we have any more cards left, that is..."
Their conversation was interrupted when bullets whizzed by. Again, they ducked for cover. The loud gunfire from the Shinra tanks pinned them yet again but this time however, they still stood a chance.
"Get some anti-tank support down there and light them!" the lieutenant ordered.
Three men holstered their rifles and pulled their portable missile launchers out. One of the men exclaimed, "We need to draw their fire away, we're too pinned to move!"
Cloud partly stood and crossed over the lieutenant and the three missile-armed infantry men. "When our right flank fires, you take your shots, understood?"
"Yes sir!"
The ex-SOLDIER resumed his walk, crossing over the soldiers laying down in wait. When he was a considerable distance away, he grabbed the attention of the men around him, "You guys, listen!"
They partly turned their heads to hear him better.
"We have anti-tank support waiting to light those tanks up. When I count to three, suppress them. We need to draw the tanks' attention away to give the tank busters a good firing position."
"Better than doing nothing," the six men whom Cloud enlisted prepared themselves.
"On three!" Cloud readied them, "One, two, three!"
The seven of them knelt, exposing their upper bodies and fired at the tanks. As planned, some of the tanks' turrets turned in their direction.
Three smoke trails headed towards the tanks. Each missile hit their marks and the lumbering machines were knocked out. Though the tanks did not visibly show much damage, their internal workings were completely disabled. The missiles were designed to penetrate their tough armor and hopefully kill the crew.
"Everybody down!" Cloud ordered as another wave of missiles hurdled towards the other tanks. This time, only one was knocked out while the other two were unaffected.
The blonde figured that they managed to dent at least one fourth of the tank force. The remaining tanks began rolling towards them.
The two Avalanche light tanks began dislodging themselves from the sandbags and retreating further in the city. Their 20mm cannons are completely worthless against tanks. And against Shinra's heavy tanks, a direct hit will completely obliterate the light tanks.
The tanks came ever nearer to their position; a move which Cloud and the others wanted the enemy to do. As soon as the heavy vehicles were close enough, the soldiers scrambled in the trench, making way for the tanks.
The lead tank driver wrongly calculated the size of the trench. His tank dropped in the trench, the front end lodged in the other side of the trench. Due to the speed of the tank, the rear end of the vehicle lifted and it toppled over, breaking its cannon before landing upside down on the side of the trench.
The other tanks met the same fate. Though they did not topple over like the lead tank did, they were stuck in the trench. The other tanks behind them collided with them, further wedging them in.
The Avalanche soldiers took the opportunity. Some of the men climbed the incapacitated tanks and dropped grenades down the hatches to kill the crews inside. The others just took their rifles and gunned down the helpless crewmen inside the tank.
The other tanks that were left behind fired their cannons at the incapacitated tanks as the Avalanche soldiers swarmed on the turret to get to the hatches. The resulting explosions killed some of the soldiers.
The lieutenant ordered the men back, "Alright! We've done what we can here! Reposition at location two!"
The remaining soldiers jogged back in an orderly retreat to their second position. This position is another smaller trench just at the other end of the gap which lay between the two buildings.
Here the defenders will set up another position. Now that the tanks are incapacitated, their massive bodies will block the line of fire of the tanks behind them from this new position.
And since the previous trench proved to be impassable to the vehicles, the Shinra soldiers will be forced to disembark from their APC's and attack by foot. They will then be gunned down by the defending Avalanche infantry.
Cloud found himself running alongside other retreating soldiers. Most of the men had already made it to the other trench and are now covering their retreating comrades. He could see the young soldier settled down in the trench.
He looked over his shoulder to see if the enemy infantry have shown. The only infantry he saw was a medic carrying the still-shocked soldier, staggering towards the trench.
The blonde stopped for a while and helped the heavily-laden medical personnel reach the temporary safety of the trench.
Shortly after they settled down, there were loud gunfire from the machine-gun teams in the trench. Automatic rifle shots followed immediately afterwards. Cloud turned and saw black-clad figures in masks emerging from the sides of the incapacitated vehicles.
Tracers from the machine-guns told them whenever the bullets hit their marks. The attacking soldiers dropped beside the tanks. Some even fell in the previous trench.
Others who climbed out of the trench were shot back inside.
Some were lucky to escape the hail of machine gun fire and took cover behind the two buildings on either side of the gap. They fired back at the defending infantrymen.
The pile of bodies grew as more Shinra soldiers were slaughtered.
As Cloud ducked to reload, he noticed the soldier beside him drop his head down and let go of his rifle. He never picked it up again.
"Keep up the fire," the lieutenant urged, "we're holding them back like a dam!"
But just when things were looking good, the Shinra army gained a tremendous advantage as some of their engineers managed to create makeshift bridges to allow the APC's through the trench.
Soon, the gap began to fill with six APC's. The pinned Shinra soldiers in the buildings stuck close behind the APC's to cover them as they advanced.
One APC met a missile as one of the anti-tank support infantrymen fired one at it. Thirty less soldiers to worry about.
Another lowered its front gate to allow the infantry out. The men were unlucky however, as a missile found its way right inside the cargo bay and destroyed the transport. The men who made it outside were either gunned down or burned by the explosion.
The passengers of another transport were unlucky as well, as bullets met them when the gate lowered.
Avalanche began taking its casualties in this leg of the battle as men were shot in the trench.
One of the machine-gun teams trained their gun on the gate of another approaching APC. Like the others, they will shoot down all the infantrymen inside before they have a chance to evacuate the transport.
As soon as the gate opened, their desired effect of bullet-hitting-flesh was unfulfilled. Instead, they received a bullet-hitting-metal reply. Inside the APC, there was a large metal wall that shielded the soldiers. Soon, this metal wall moved and separated into smaller metal walls.
"Watch out," Cloud warned, "They brought out the heavy troopers!"
Soon, the firefight intensified and Avalanche casualties drastically rose. The smell of gunpowder became as normal as the smell of fresh air and the screams and gunfires became as normal as the sounds of a busy street.
The heavy troopers took the bulk of Avalanche's defense as their metal shields were shot at.
Since these shields were impregnable from the defenders' small arms fire, they replied with grenades. A lucky grenade went over the troopers' shields and detonated behind them. The shields flew a few meters before dropping, and exposed the undefended infantrymen taking cover behind the troopers.
The bullets took this opportunity and began clawing through their flesh.
When the heavy troopers and the infantrymen swarmed the trench, Cloud took out his sword and prepared for melee battle. The Avalanche soldiers took out their short stabbing swords and prepared as well.
The lieutenant held strong as Shinra stormed their position. He would have to get ready to give the signal to retreat to their third position. But before he could say the order, bullets whizzed at him and found their marks.
Cloud pointed his sword forward and waited for an unlucky soldier to run into it. Soon enough, one poor fool did. The blonde pulled it out and slashed the two Shinra troopers beside him.
During this movement, his eyes catch a glimpse of the bloody lieutenant sprawled on the side of the trench. Cloud turned and drove his sword into another Shinra trooper. He realized that he was a meter back from his original position, nearing the side of the trench.
Then, the heavy troopers dropped down in the trench and started hacking away at the helpless defenders. Their favorite tactic was to smash their shield into the defending soldiers, then stabbing them in their side.
Around Cloud, he could see more Shinra soldiers than Avalanche soldiers. Most of the Avalanche soldiers were already on the ground. It was clear that they could not hold this position and so the blonde sounded the retreat towards the choke points.
The retreat came even bloodier than the defense. Men were shot from behind as they ran. Cloud heard a bullet whiz by his ear and he took another route through the network of alleys. Some lucky soldiers followed him and together, they were able to form a small band.
The blonde was partly surprised to see the shocked soldier and the young soldier in his group. Somehow, they survived.
The group of six trudged through the alley they were in, relying on their sense of direction and the various landmarks to navigate. The landmarks are unreliable at times, as demonstrated by a towering watertank that served as a cushion for a burning Shinra chopper.
When they approached a corner, one of the men peeked around it.
"What do you see?" a man, around his early thirties, inquired. He had a gash across his right hand which, by the looks of it, can hamper the effective use of his rifle. Fortunately though, Cloud realized, the man was left handed.
The rest looked on at the other man, anxious for a reply. Some indistinct yells and an intense gun battle could be heard from the corner.
Finally, in light of this, the man said, "Let's not go there, we got a truckload of 'em." The others agreed without a word.
On they moved along the narrow alley, Cloud and the lefty covering the rear, while two others, one was another lieutenant who got separated with his troop when Shinra overran their position and the other was a sergeant whose only remaining man in his team was the lefty, led the way.
The young soldier and the guy who had recovered from the shock covered their left and right flanks respectively as well as above them.
As they turned right through a clear alley, Cloud passed by what used to be a day care center. Just yesterday morning, he could still see the toddlers playing there, a symbol of hope for their fledgling world.
Now it was nothing more than a pile of their unrebuildable future.
The group was approaching the end of the alley. Every step they took brought them closer to the unknown. The gunfire grew louder and louder with each passing moment, causing the unnerved lieutenant to calm himself. Each time their foot trampled on the rough cement, time slowed. Each thud taking a longer time to be heard than the ones that preceded it. The lieutenant tightened his hold on the rifle as his eyes caught glimpses of tracer bullets passing from the left end of the alley to the right.
Gunfire grew even louder... Much too loud for him, in fact. The next thing he knew, he was slumped on the ground, feeling a tremendous amount of weakness surging through his body.
"Lieutenant's hit!"
"They're behind us, take cover!"
The downed officer could hear bullets hit the ground next to him, fragments of cement splintered the air. Bullets hailed the peaceful alley, compensated by loud bangs and pings from missed targets. A sharp pain coursed through his back, followed by a strong tug from his upper fatigues. He could feel thick liquid ooze down his back and to his side as the force of this strong tug pulled him to the side.
Amidst the chaos and the constant thumping of discarded bullet cases on him, he could hear his breathing slow down gradually. His tensed body began to relax. He gazed at the lefty on the other side of the wall, reloading behind a large trash compartment. When he stood and aimed, a bright spark flashed on his helmet, causing it to fly off his cocked head and revealing his bloody face.
The small inescapable firefight intensified, spelling a gleam outcome for either side.
As soon as the dead man hit the ground, the lieutenant's world stopped.
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At the other part of town, three Shinra soldiers desperately enganged in close combat with an unknown figure. The figure danced in between the bewildered men, giving them absolutely no chance of fighting back.
The figure quickly side stepped behind one of the men, and kneed him on the leg. The shocked man knelt in pain as his adversary used him as a boost, somersaulting over his head and landed its legs around the neck of the other man in front of him.
The figure twisted, snapping the neck of the man and dropped to the floor, using his corpse as a shield for the other man who had accidentally thrusted his bayonet on the corpse.
As the man struggled to recover his bayonet, the figure let its legs go of the corpse and twisted, recovering from the ground.
The other soldier who had been kneed had recovered from the assault and began to aim his rifle at the figure. Unfortunately, he was too late as the figure spun behind him immediately after recovering, locking his arm behind him, grabbing his rifle in the process and firing the gun at the other soldier who had recovered his bayonet.
The bullets whittled down the bayonet-totting soldier and before he dropped to the ground, the figure kicked the last soldier into him.
The bayonet went through the soldier, the force of the impact causing both men to drop alongside their dead comrade.
The figure watched until none of them moved before throwing the rifle away and turning its back to them.
It coughed and lost its balance, still having the effects of weakness in its fragile body. It clung to a wall as it walked with much difficulty into the ongoing battle.
Determination pacified dizziness as the figure set off in search of someone.
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End of chapter 14
There everyone, I am very sorry for the uber long update! We just migrated to another country and it's been a while before we can settle down and get a computer for my files.
To the fans, don't worry. This ain't a dead story... Yet. Haha. Please R and R and I hope you still enjoy it. :-)