Two months have passed since the decision to rebuild the forces of the New Age Alliance. During this time very little occurred on the front lines. There were minor attempts to take back NAA territory in Fallarbor and Mauville, but both were easily dispelled and provided valuable battle experience to the new recruits.
Light, now fully healed, has called the entirety of the NAA army to Mauville to announce his battle plan for taking back Mt. Pyre. Standing atop a large building, Light began his speech to the troops
"Welcome back to Mauville everyone." He began. "Two months ago the NAA launched simultaneous attacks on both this city and Fortree, pulling off the greatest military feat by a third party since the start of this war. Now these victories were not without cost as a large number of our allies fell in these battles and I myself was wounded seriously. Let us take a moment to remember those we lost."
After a brief moment of silence, Light continued. "Today we honor their memory by undertaking another mission to further our great cause: An attack on Mt. Pyre."
The audience began to whisper amongst themselves until they were quieted by a wave of Light's hand.
"Many of you know the past of Mt. Pyre but for those who don't: Mt. Pyre was once a sacred place for Pokemon of the Hoenn region to pay respect to fallen comrades. This made it a priority target for the humans once the war began. Once it was captured, this sacred ground was desecrated with technology and its research. To this day, Mt. Pyre still receives the most advanced of the technology humans have to offer. I won't lie. This will be a tough battle but if we win we will both honor our fallen comrades and prove our dominance by facing the best technology has to offer and prevailing." Raising his voice for one final line, Light yelled, "Are you ready?!"
"YES SIR!" was the resounding reply.
"Good. Report to your squad leaders to receive further details, we leave in thirty minutes."
Stepping out of sight of the crowd, Light walked over to Grunt, Nate and Momo who were waiting for their information regarding the upcoming battle.
"You sure know how to rile up a crowd don't you Light?" Momo remarked. "Exciting the Pokemon by mentioning the destruction of sacred land and exciting the rest with the promise of extreme prestige if we win, nice job."
"We need everyone at their best." Light replied. "With our period of dormancy, many believe that the NAA has lost its edge. A large victory is needed to quiet our vocal opposition."
"So, how are we going to obtain this large victory?" Nate asked.
"The past two months of training troops is essential to my plan to take Mt. Pyre. Since it is an island, we can't take Mt. Pyre by normal means. Instead of fighting for it…"
"We're going to put it under siege." Momo finished.
"Exactly, we are going to cut off the supply flow to Mt. Pyre and force them to surrender. The best sieges require a large body of troops to both intimidate enemies and cut off supplies. While this may not be a bloody battle, it may take a while."
"Ahhh.." Grunt moaned at the lack of apparent destruction in Light's plan, "I wanted to blow some stuff up. I even finished replacing the railgun on my Knight with a rocket launcher."
"You may still get that chance." Light replied. "If we fail to intimidate them sufficiently with our forces, they may counterattack turning this into a bloody battle."
"Let's do our best to make sure it doesn't come to that OK?" Momo cut in, trying to steer the conversation away from the worst case scenario.
"Get ready to go. We'll be leaving in an hour for Mt. Pyre."
The following day at the shores surrounding Mt. Pyre
"Well we're here." Momo declared. "We made no secret about our arrival and yet the enemy hasn't made a move. I wonder why?"
"They're waiting to see what we do." Light said. "Grunt, pass a long a message to all troops to destroy any vessels that seem to be approaching Mt. Pyre."
"K boss."
"Nate, could you project my voice over your speakers?"
"No problem Light, but what for?"
"To open a channel of communication and give them a chance to surrender." Light said as Nate handed him a microphone. "Attention inhabitants of the Mt. Pyre military base! This is Light of the New Age Alliance. Your base has been completely surrounded and supplies cut off as we speak. We ask for your unconditional surrender of the base."
A couple minutes passed before a reply was received from the base. "We would never surrender this fortress to scum like you! Now tell your forces to retreat or we will be forced to open fire!"
Crap. Light thought to himself. They have more confidence in their base's defenses then I anticipated.
"What now Light?" Momo asked anxiously. "It has to be a bluff right?"
"We've come all this way. We can't retreat now." Light replied. "Prepare the troops for battle. Try to identify where forces may exit the bases and have our forces concentrate fire there. Looks like this is going to be bloody after all." Picking back up the mic, Light continued. "We will not retreat. We are prepared to launch.."
Light was then suddenly cut off by a large laser blast launched directly overhead.
"Holy crap!" Grunt yelled. "What the heck was that?"
"That was but a small glimpse of the power held within our base. Would you like to reconsider?"
"As I said before we are prepared to launch a full scale attack on this base and we won't hesitate to do so."
"Are you sure about this?" Momo asked. "The energy output in that thing is even greater than the chest cannon in Grunt's Knight."
"There's no going back now Momo." Light said while awaiting the enemy commander's reply.
"Very well then. We shall let the battle commence!"
Little more than a second later, hundreds of blasts like the one before began to rain down on the NAA forces.
"Forces scramble!" Light commanded as he launched a Shadow Ball Shield to block oncoming blasts. "AKs, get into the air. You'll have more mobility there!"
"So what's the backup plan boss?" Grunt asked.
This is the other reason we waited for two months, to make sure I was healed enough to participate. "Momo, can you absorb these things?"
"Their energy density is incredible but yeah I can absorb a couple and use Solarbeam to block more."
"Good. Here's the plan. Momo and I will block these blasts for you two. While the blasts are being launched try to find their origin and then fire. We can go on the offensive once we've taken out some of their defenses.
"Sounds good boss!" Both Nate and Grunt replied in short order.
And thus the battle commenced with the humans gaining a slight advantage in the North but the NAA holding strong in the South under the defensive shield of its two commanders, Light and Momo. Meanwhile, Nate and Grunt were systematically destroying the source of each blast one by one until almost all of the cannons on the southern side of the mountain were disabled.
"What's the status of our forces?" Light yelled while blocking yet another cannon blast.
"You two have been able to keep most of the southern forces safe," Nate replied, "But our forces to the North seem to be falling apart pretty fast..."
"Fire in the hole!" Grunt yelled from behind Nate at a charging AK.
"Add onto that that they've begun to send AKs out to fight us as well.. It doesn't look so good right now."
"Darn it." Light muttered under his breath. "Momo, how are you holding up? Can you keep up this makeshift shield?"
"I don't think I could make an assault on the HQ but I think I can keep protecting the troops." She replied promptly.
"OK then." Light said, deciding on a strategy. "All northern forces are to take the shortest available route to the southern side of Mt. Pyre. Momo, you and Nate go around the eastern side of the mountain and keep taking out those cannons. Grunt, you'll be giving me covering fire. I'm going to make a run at their base."
"We can go around the eastern side but what about the forces coming on the western side?" Asked a concerned Momo. "They'll be sitting ducks to those cannons!"
"There's nothing but water to the west." Light commented. "Grunt can't travel that way and if I simply shield our moving troops, I won't have enough power myself to launch an attack at their headquarters."
"But.."
"No buts." Light said, cutting Momo off. "This is a war! We're protecting as many as we can, but there are some things that even I am not capable of. This is one of those things. I'm sorry but everyone has been given orders! Grunt are you ready?"
"I'm firing away capt'n." Grunt replied, already firing his rocket launcher. Soon after Light launched into a headlong dash toward Mt. Pyre, leaving friend and foe in the dust.
Since Grunt was laying down suppressing fire, the enemy didn't pay much attention to Light. Only occasionally would one to try to confront him, only to be left in the dust soon afterwards. It wasn't until Light was well within the enemy's perimeter that he noticed something on the surface of the water coming for him.
Am I seeing things or is that a Knight gliding across the water towards me? Light thought to himself. Once the Knight began to launch energy blasts at him, Light's suspicions were confirmed. Taking evasive action, Light dove straight toward the water's surface until he was face to face with his attacker.
"OK. Who are you and what is the thing you're piloting?"
"You were able to dodge my attacks, very impressive but I would expect nothing less from the Leader of the New Age Alliance."
"You're dodging my question. Who are you?"
"If you're so eager to know, I am the commander of the Mt. Pyre installation: 24."
"I know I'm not one to talk but that's a pretty strange name you got there." Light replied, trying to get more information out of his combatant.
"I am named 24 because I am the 24th and first successful attempt to create a pilot capable of piloting this next generation of Knights, the Frueds"
"So you were.."
"Yes I was created for the sole purpose of piloting this machine. So there is no way I'm going to lose to the like of you!"
A small slit of metal then began to fold out of the arm of 24's Knight, forming a baton as he began to charge at Light.
"Fine. If you want to play that way, we can let our fists do the talking. Night Slash!"
With both combatants charging at high speeds, the sound of their initial collision resonated with a loud BOOM across the battlefield, after which both combatants began to strike at each other with their respective attacks.
Crap. I'm too worn out for a prolonged battle like this. Light thought to himself. Coming to the realization that his enemy had the upper hand, Light decided to break away from 24's assault and gained altitude. Once at a sufficient height, he began launching Shadow Balls in order to scout the true potential of the Freudian model Knight.
Meanwhile
"Move Move MOVE! We've got to outrun those.. GAHHH!"
Just as Momo had predicted, the retreating forces in the west were sitting ducks for the human's cannons without someone to shield them. Already in tatters, they were sustaining even further casualties.
"The last of the refugees have been sent out." Proclaimed a Golem pushing a boat off into the ocean. "What do we do now?"
Nearby, watching the battle with an intent gaze was an Eevee. Even though her fur was covered with mud, any onlooker could tell this Eevee was what the humans referred to as a 'shiny' silver Eevee.
"They've been under heavy fire for a while now." She stated turning to Golem. "I won't allow this needless sacrifice of life! Begin the mobilization of the troops!"
"OK, Commander!"
With her forces mobilizing behind her, Silver dashed to the front line and launched a high power Protect attack, blocking a large barrage of oncoming cannon fire.
The disorganized NAA forces soon regained their composure and looked to their savior with questioning eyes.
"Who are you?" One asked, eager to know the name of the one who had saved him.
"My name is Silver and if you follow my lead, you can all get out of this alive!"
AN: The Battle for Mt. Pyre has begun and we now have the introduction of Silver into the actual storyline! Thanks again to PsychicEevee0103 for submitting her! I know this chapter has a lot of unanswered questions but I plan to address nearly all of these with the conclusion of the battle next chapter. If you do have a question about something that happened, fell free to leave a review and I'll do my best to explain my reasoning(without giving spoilers). See you all next time!
PS: Character submissions are still ongoing! It may be too late to submit for Mt. Pyre but there are plenty of spots still available. Check out Chapter 18 for details. If I don't receive submissions, like this chapter, I will create a character to insert for the sake of story progression.