Chapter Four.
A cool breeze ran through the empty kitchen of the Ketchum's house as the pair of red curtains that Ash had sent back home from his military visit from Hoenn flapped in the wind. The wind roamed throughout the room gently cooling off a hot stove top that Delia had just used to cook and running into the living room. The living room was empty as well as everything was perfectly set in place as if it had just been cleaned, Mr. Mime silently entered the room his once joyful smile now a weakened frown. Mr. Mime was use to Ash not being around but when he was gone Delia would always be in a cheerful mood, but ever since he was deployed things had been different.
Mr. Mime whimpered lowly in pain as his eyes fell upon the picture Delia had sitting in the living room's table. It was of Ash in his dress uniform freshly out of officer's training school, besides that picture was one of Ash and Pikachu taken three years ago at the yearly Pallet Town festival. Mr. Mime slowly sat down on one of the sofas and sighed heavily, his eyes glued upon the two pictures. A light gust of wind tickled Mr. Mime's face causing the Pokemon to turn his attention to the glass slider leading outside, it was half open. As Mr. Mime got up to close the slider he was surprised to see two figures in the center of the yard under the large tree, one was sitting in the old swing that Ash and Gary had made as children and the other was leaning against the tree.
It was Delia and Oak.
...
"A day doesn't go by that I don't think about him and his safety," Delia whimpered lowly as her eyes were red from the countless sleepless nights that she had spent all alone. Every morning she'd wake up to find that Mr. Mime had made her breakfast in hopes to brighten her mood, after that she'd flip through the newspaper in hopes to see anything related to Ash, she then would clean and go on countless errands in hope she could keep her mind busy, but in the end it never worked. Every Pokemon she saw reminded of her son's love for them, every child she saw reminded her of her only child, and every military flyer she'd find hanging up in the market made her cry.
It had only been a week and she could barely handle it.
"I was fearful for Gary's safety for some time," Oak began to explain as his eyes weakly stared off into the distance, "But those two boys are strong and I know that they'll be watching out for each other while over there."
There was silence.
"What do you do when you've ran out of tears?" Delia whimpered lowly as Oak simply placed his hand upon her shoulder.
As the Kanto forces pushed farther and farther into the central mountains they began to come out more woodlands and grass fields within the still rough mountain terrain. The first, second, and third Mountain Divisions leading the way of the Kanto push along with several Infantry units following from the rear and on their far flanks as support. Of course with their advanced training in mountain terrain the Mountain Divisions found themselves without any extra infantry support at their flanks as the infantry units found it hard to keep up. As traveling in the mountains was rough and infantry soldiers needed more rest, found it harder to eat, sleep, and had a harder time breathing within the mountains. The Mountains Divisions lived for these conditions.
The 2nd Mountain Division was leading the advance in the Western section of the Kanto advance, they had been on the front line for just a week and since their first day in battle where they faced the challenging task of taking out a machine gun many other men had been killed and many others wounded. Of Abra Company there had been several men wounded and about five killed since their first casualty on day one.
"I forget what grass felt like," Gary moaned lowly as he dropped to his knees within a small patch of grass located at the side of the dirt road that they were now traveling on. About two days ago small patches of grass were starting to appear and now there was a large amount of grass and trees all over the mountain, but the beautiful wild life didn't mean the terrain got less rough. If anything the wild life made it harder to travel through as the terrain was still rough and now they had to worry about enemy hiding within the trees and tall grass.
"Still can't see this so called town we're suppose to take," Bryson groaned lowly as he stood beside Ash and Gary who were sitting down in the grass at the road side taking a break, his eyes peering through a pair of binoculars that he kept hanging around his neck most of the time.
The road side was filled with men from Ash's company who were heading towards a large town not to far from their position with the rest of their battalion. Their orders were to take the town back as Johto soldiers now occupied it and had forced the Kanto civilians that lived in it out. Hundreds of civilians were retreating from their villages and towns within the mountains in fear that the war would soon arrive at their doorstep.
"Who even wants to live in a village in the middle of the mountains? We've been training for a year now in the mountains and I'm already sick of it," Gary grumbled lowly as the idea that they'd have to preform urban warfare in a large town was unsettling for many of the men. They had been trained in urban warfare during their year long training, but they were still nervous about how well protected the town was.
"It seems peaceful up here," Ash stated with a smile as he had always enjoyed the fresh mountain air.
"Yeah, until some asshole of a region decides to start a war," Bryson snickered lowly.
There was silence among them as the three of them realized their ten minute break from the march was over and they all knew they'd reach the town within a few hours. They had only ran into a few patrol and sniper fire, but their large battalion easily pushed through the small amount of resistance leading towards the town.
"Break is over! Back into formation!"
The old bank was filled with Johto soldiers running around many of them officers trying to pass around intelligence reports about the quickly advancing Kanto forces. The occupied Johto forces were doing their best to reinforce the town in hopes they could repel the Kanto forces before they could even step foot into the town, but reports of the Kanto division having been supported with about five tanks hit the HQ hard. Luckily, three of the five tanks were unable to keep up due to the rough mountain terrain and had to fall back to the supporting infantry units. Still two tanks could cause some trouble for the defending forces.
A large table sat in the center of the room as several officers scrambled around the room nervously as they were trying to set up machine gun placements in the proper place to make defending the town much easier. The Johto officer's defending the town were under the command of Colonel Chuck, a officer well known for his incredible defense skills and known for training his men in the art of hand to hand combat. Chuck's plan was to bombard the advancing forces with mortar rounds causing chaos but allowing them to enter the town as defending the town line would just create problems as the Kanto forces would at some point break the defense. Once, the Kanto forces were in the town he'd set up multiple road blocks with squads stationed at them, machine guns placed on roof tops at every road block, and he'd use the town's underground tunnel if a retreat was needed. Once, the tunnels were cleared they'd set off the explosives. Luckily, when Chuck had the Kanto civilians leave the city he sent them through the mountain canyon so they wouldn't run into the Kanto forces advancing on the main road and warn them about their numbers, defense, and usage of the tunnels.
"Colonel, it seems Captain Falkner is hear to speak with you," A Staff Sergeant called out from the entrance of the bank as Chuck nodded in agreement to allow the Air Corps Captain to enter the HQ to speak with him. A blue haired twenty six year old entered the room casually he wore the tan uniform of a Johto soldier along with a black leather Air Corps jacket with his rank visible on the collar, a collection of white fur was located on the back collar, and he had several patches located on his breast pockets and sleeve. Hanging from his neck was a pair of goggles and waiting outside for him was his over sized Pidgeot.
"Colonel," Falkner stated in his usual professional fashion.
"Bird Brain."
Falkner just sighed heavily at the Colonel childish behavior. Although, Chuck and Falkner were not in the same unit the two of them had been ordered to work together in order to hold the Western sector of the Central Mountain. Falkner was in charge of the 4th Air Corps and Chuck was in charge of a armored battalion, but of course due to the rough terrain all of his tanks had to stay behind and try to find another way to the town. Yet, they were never able too and all Chuck had to work with was his heavily armed infantry.
"My air scouts have spotted the advancing Kanto forces about fivde miles away. They seem to be from the 2nd Mountain Division if I'm correct, they're about a battalion size, and have two tanks," Falkner explained as Chuck had been using Falkner's men as scouts and the occasional attacks upon convoys as his men could fly in, cause confusion, and fly out. Falkner was annoyed that he hadn't used them to their full power yet, but Chuck didn't want to expose one of his greatest keys to victory to early in the battle. He wanted to save their large numbers for when they truly needed it.
Chuck sat there in silence as he had expected the Mountain Divisions to be leading the assault but had thought they'd come to a halt and allow an infantry unit assault the town. That would of given him time to reinforce the town and harass them with Falkner's men.
"Sir! My men can take off right now and attack the Kanto forces before they reach the town! We can deplete their numbers before they even reach the town!" Falkner cried out as he was tired of acting as the Colonel's personal scouting party and he wanted to get some real action in. He wanted to prove the higher brass that his men were the best in the Johto military.
"Fine," Chuck simply stated as he grinned at the sight of Falkner smiling with excitement. Although, Chuck wanted to save Falkner and his mne for later he knew he couldn't keep the flying type loving Captain back anymore.