Subject: Advance Wars ch1

Chapter 1

Two months had passed since the battle that won her this wonderful valley. Her forces were well at work digging further underground and building upward for her new laboratory. Maybe she would even transfer her main frontline HQ to here. The aboveground structure was green like the forest and covered in netting, it would be near impossible to spot from the air, even with how tall it is. It gives a fantastic view of the surrounding valley, and most of the mountains as well, a few well placed centuries and she would know of any enemy that got close to this valley. She has been having problems with small groups of Greens in the north-eastern corner, cannot find where they keep coming from though. "Huise!" the petite young woman in a black top, shorts and trench coat yelled; and a grim, stocky man came running from talking with some other officers. "Yes Commander Lash?" "when was Hawke scheduled to arrive?" "Commander Hawke was scheduled to arrive at 1400 hours" he replied pressing a fist to his chest. "Fine, I'll be in my tent, call me when he gets here." she said with a sigh.

Hawke's chopper flew over the mountainous region, staying low to avoid any more rocket trucks, that last one nearly took them out. It took some quick manoeuvring from the pilot to escape with their lives. He would be rewarded for his quick actions. Even so, some anti-airs got the better of their engine and they were leaving a trail of smoke that would lead anyone within miles directly where they were going. He had no choice though, the engines wouldn't hold out much longer and this valley where he is meeting lash is the closest friendly base. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of tiny dots were swarming on the forested ground below him. Hawke couldn't believe his eyes... "I didn't know that Green Earth had even half of these forces available, it seems our intelligence needs some talking to..." he said through the headset to the pilot. He wasn't expecting a reply, that was more for himself. What had he gotten himself into? They would have the valley completely surrounded within days, they were preparing for a siege. All for a seemingly irrelevant valley. Even if there is a new base in construction here, there are far more strategically placed bases under Black Hole control that they could be focusing their efforts on. "Something doesn't add up" he said aloud. "What's that?" the pilot replied. "you need not concern yourself with it.", yet Hawke wore an expression as grim as death.

"Took you long enough!" Lash yelled at Hawke as he strolled away from the chopper that was already being towed away from the makeshift airport for repairs. "Do you realise you're nearly surrounded?" Hawke asked dryly "Oh jeeze, do I realise? hmmm... Of course I do! They have killed off my entire 2nd platoon who I sent out to scout, and a number of other regiments have taken casualties. Their ground forces are still advancing around the back end of the valley, but their ant-air are already here! My tanks cannot naviga..." Hawke stopped her with a stare. "I just wanted to make sure you knew the scope of the force that was here. It's much larger than what I was originally informed of". "Didn't you bring along any soldiers?" Lash asked with a sigh, "No, In didn't feel it was necessary at the time. However, I do have a fleet of ships which can be here in under a week, They have a few Landers with them, Neotanks, infantry, artillery, anti-airs included." "Those Neotanks sounds nice, I don't have much, and the ones I do have cannot get out of the valley anymore. The Greens have both of the roads into the valley targeted with rockets and artillery, nothing with treads or wheels can get out... or in for that matter, my artillery and rockets are doing the same." Hawke simply nodded, but she smiled, feeling good about her chances, that would mean this would be fought mainly between infantry in the mountains, one of her soldiers specialties. They have enough land to survive a prolonged siege as well. As she stood there thinking, sounds of explosions started from the north-east grabbed her attention.

The Black Hole soldier tumbled forward as Blain's bullets tore through his flesh. "Frag out!!" someone shouted and a grenade flew overhead toward the enemy, it clinked against a stone and exploded rending the flesh of an unseen opponent who screamed in agony. Then he was visible, stumbling from his cover to another, Blain let loose his weapon, bullet after bullet from his machine gun shattered through the facemask of his opponent and he fell backward, blood steaming behind him. Blains back was to a wall... literally. They were trapped against the cliff, with an unknown amount of enemies in front of them. Luckily they spotted one of them before they left these rocky grounds. If they hadn't, this wouldn't be a battle; it would be a slaughter, and not in his favour. Three rockets screamed in from overhead, crashing into the trees and brush in front of him, sending enemy fleeing or flying, Those who fled soon found themselves gunned down anyways. He would have to remember to thank whoever it is up on the top of that cliff. Bullets pierced through a soldier a few feet away from him, his proned body going limp as the blood was still settling on the ground. Bullets continued to riddle his body even afterwards. They had survived in the caves for the past 2 months, waiting rescue, but they are running low on food now, and they have scavenged most of the food close by their temporary home, now they are scavenging further away more regularly, and thus they have been encountering Black Hole troops more often, this is the third time this week. Then silence. He hadn't realised there was no more guns being fired. Looking around, he counted 11 corpses, 4 of those Green Earth soldiers. 2 others were injured, one seriously. "Take them back to the caves, and hurry. Everyone else, we press forward."

"What is that?" Blain exclaimed, getting nothing of use in response from his soldiers. One of his men had found an old doorway into what looks like a bunker, heavily disguised to make it look like part of the cliff and foliage around it. If this is an old bunker from when Green Earth occupied this valley there is very likely food and ammunition inside, and if it's large enough, it would very likely be a much more suitable home for his men. "Spread out and keep an eye on the area, I'll need 2 volunteers to stay with me to figure out this door." The door was only large enough to let in a single person at a time, so there was no hope of finding any vehicles inside unfortunately. Even a simple recon unit would substantially help them at this point. "Careful!" Blain yelled as one of his privates cross wired something, sending sparks and smoke every which way. Then the door creaked open.

"First thing to do will be try and fix that door once we get all of us in here." "All of us sir?" one of the corporals Blain had located asked. "Yes, all of us, this place can accommodate our 70 odd people in here. Just from what we've seen we could accommodate twice that, and we have no idea how much bigger this place is." The inside of the bunker was very dusty, as if it was abandoned long before the valley was captured by the Black Hole forces. The three's flashlights were blinded by the dust kicked up at every step. "Look here" the private said. Blain went over to see quite a sight, there were more guns here than he had seen in awhile, mostly sub-machine guns by the looks of it, but there were a few rocket launchers and sniper's mixed in. The strangest part was he did not recognize any of these weapons; yet he was familiar with all Green Earth standard weaponry. Dismissing them for the moment, he told his men to continue looking for the power breakers.