Oh what do you know three chapters, But why? you may be wondering...Well in one week this story got way above 1000 views! 6486 last I check and it is now at 7704. I know its suppose to be four chapters but this way you'll have another two chapters for next week before the epilogue.

SOME of you if not all of you might hate me for what happens later in this chapter...Just know it had to be done.

Ch. 29

Battle for New York

The Helicopters started to land and were immediately attacked by plasma rounds. One such round pierced the face of the Marine sitting next to Josh, red mist sprayed on his face and he watched the Marine lean over and fall onto the floor.

"Everybody get out!" The co-pilot shouted and was hit by Plasma; the round went straight through the co-pilot's body and nearly hit Josh in the face. Josh quickly turned to the sliding door and opened it. He saw they were about fifteen feet in the air; He held his rifle tight and jumped out. He hit the ground hard and rolled over onto his back.

"Agh, damn it!" He shouted and slowly started to stand up, the sound of guns and blasters going off filled the whole area. Josh noticed a Gorton taking aim. Josh quickly dropped to the ground and the red plasma round flew past him. Josh held his rifle and switched it to single shot. He carefully aimed it and fired one single round at the Gorton which resulted in a blue mist forming behind its head, and it's body dropping to the ground.

Josh looked around and noticed a few more Gortons surrounding the area firing their blasters, Josh held the butt of the gun tightly against his shoulder and got down on one knee, he took a deep breath and fired another single shot. The bullet hit the alien and it's blood sprayed out of its throat like a fountain. He moved his sight further to the left and aimed at two Gortons. He squeezed the trigger and the bullet hit one of them square in the chest, the second Gorton watched his friend drop to the ground, Josh fired again hitting the alien in the back, it dropped and Josh looked around some more.

Most of the Gortons in the area were retreating as more Marines came in by helicopter. Josh stood and made his way over to his company. He made his way over to the squad leader.

"Alright here's the plan, L.Z. is 10 clicks into the city." He paused and one of the squad members pulled out a map of the city. "The alien ship is hovering in the middle of the city waiting for its main gun to fire…We have less than an hour and forty minutes to make it there and paint it with the laser for our guys and our furry friends to take it out with the tactical nukes." The squad leader pointed the map with his finger.

"We'll take this street here and follow it three clicks and then it's a straight run the rest of the way…Lets move out." He said and started to make his way into the city. Josh held his rifle close and followed his squad.

He stuck close to his squad and kept an eye out for any Gortons, but everything seemed quiet, almost too quiet. They continued to walk down the street that was littered with debris and fire, Josh looked up at the greyish sky, he could see black smoke spread all throughout the sky. The squad kept moving. Josh could feel his heart in his throat, they were too exposed out in the open like this, and everything being too quite didn't help his nerves.

'Where the hell are they?' He thought and kept on moving just barely catching the plasma grenade rolling at their feet.

"Grenade!" He shouted.

One of the human Jet fighters caught on fire and spun out of control; Fox took aim and fired at the Gortons responsible. Their ship exploded in red fire and fell out of the sky.

"God there everywhere!" A human pilot shouted, suddenly his radio went silent. Fox felt his ship shake as it was hit by Plasma rounds. Fox looked at the rearview screen and saw one enemy ship; he barrel rolled out of the way and slowed his Arwing's speed until the enemy ship flew past him. He picked his speed up and fired a plasma missile at his foe. Blue and red fire surrounded its ship as it fell out of the sky.

"Josh how are you guys doing down there?" Fox asked, there was no reply. "Come in Josh this is Fox, are you there?" He asked still no reply.

'Damn it' He thought and noticed another enemy air craft flying straight towards him, Fox quickly jerked the steering stick to the left to miss the head on collision. The enemy ship fired it's plasma rounds into Fox's ship and then crashed into him. Fox was forced all the way forward, his seatbelt tightly and painfully keeping him in place as inside the cockpit burst into flames. He felt his ship spinning out of control.

"Fox! Get out of there!" Falco shouted. Fox reached his hands in front of his seat toward the floor and felt a ring style handle, Fox could feel the heat from behind him. Fox grabbed the ring handle and pulled. The canopy exploded off its hinges and Fox and his seat was shot out of the falling ship.

The force of him being yanked out caused him to let out all the breath he had in his lungs, the parachute activated and slowed his falling. He watched as his ship spun out of control and fell to the ground later exploding.

"Fox are you alright!" Peppy asked.

"I'm fine, I'm going to try to meet up with Josh and his squad, good luck guys." He said and slowly floated to the city. When his seat touched the asphalt road Fox unstrapped his belt and stood up, he pulled out his Scout Marshal blaster and turned the safety off. Fox looked around the destroyed city; he placed his finger in his ear and pressed the earpiece.

"Josh? Josh can you hear me?" He said and removed his finger, after a few seconds he heard the sound of groaning and coughing.

"Is that you Fox?" Josh called out.

"Yeah, I was shot down and am in the city, where are you?" He asked and started to walk down the street, with his eyes peeled open for the slightest movement.

"We just got out of a fire fight, bastards tossed a grenade and came in to pick the rest of us off." He said.

"Are you hurt?" Fox asked and came to a four way street, he looked to his left and right and started to walk to the right.

"Just a few cuts and burns, our squad leader was killed." He said.

"What about the laser?" Fox asked and preyed the laser was fine.

"Yeah the laser is fine, we are about six clicks from the LZ, coming in from the west. Look up and tell me if you can see a tall building with blue windows with smoke coming only from the top." Josh Said. Fox looked up but couldn't see any building.

"No, I'm going to need to get to higher ground, hold on." He said and holstered his blaster, he made his way to a street light and leapt high in the air and grabbed on to the street light, he climbed up onto it and leapt onto the building close to him, he used the ledge of the windows to climb up.

When Fox made it about five stories up he looked around and noticed the building josh mentioned. Fox placed his finger in his ear.

"I see it." He said.

"That's where we are…We are about to move so hurry up." He replied.

"Gotcha." Fox said and started to climb down.

Josh quickly checked his riffle ammo; His ammo counter told him he had five bullets left. Josh pressed a button on the side of the riffle and the magazine fell out, He reached behind himself and opened the pouch attached to his lower back. His hand brushed against an extra magazine. He grabbed it and locked it into place in the riffle. He then looked over at the rest of his squad being only three others.

One of them had a bandage wrapped around his head with blood seeping through the fabric. Another was quickly reloading his weapons, and the last was cleaning off the laser. Josh made his way to a window and checked outside for enemy forces, the streets were as empty as they were before.

Josh checked his watch and saw the timer was now at '00:45:23' He sighed, they still had a ways to go, not only that. They would need to get on top of one of the buildings to aim the laser at the weapons opening. Josh placed his finger in his ear.

"You there Fox?" He asked he removed his finger and looked back at his squad; they seemed much younger than he was.

"Yeah, I'm close by." He said. Josh placed his finger back in his ear.

"We're heading out, we still have a ways to go and not much time left." He said.

"Roger that, I'll meet you guys at the LZ, Fox out." Josh took one last look outside and walked to the squad.

"Let's go guys; we don't have much time left to sit around." He said, the men got up and made their way to the door. Josh was the first to leave the building, he carefully looked around and when the coast was clear gave the all okay sign. The other three quickly ran out of the building and down the road.

The last of the Gorton star fighters were shot down and crashed to the ground. Peppy took a good look and was able to point out maybe four of the fighter-jets that survived. He looked over to the time which told him they had less than twenty minutes to paint the laser.

"Fox do you read me?" Peppy called out. There was static for a few seconds before.

"Loud and clear." Fox answered.

"Have you made it to Josh and his squad yet?" He asked.

"Not yet no, but I'm close…Has any other squad called in to say how close they were?" Fox asked.

"One did yes, they said they were underneath the war ship when they were surrounded by enemies, they must not have made it." He said and started to fly close to the Gorton War ship, suddenly he was being shot at from bellow. Peppy looked down to find some Gortons on top of buildings firing there blasters. "Josh are you there?" Peppy called out.

"Yeah, we are a click from the LZ." He said.

"Be advice hostel forces are all over the place."

"Roger that, thanks Peppy."

"I'll see what I can do from up here, Peppy out." He said and started to fire his Gatling guns at some of the buildings with Gortons. "You better hurry Fox." He called out

Josh fired his riffle at a Gorton standing in the street firing its blaster at Peppy' Arwing, the bullets tore through the alien's chest and it fell to the ground warning all the other Gortons close by. They turned their attention to the humans and started to fire.

Josh quickly made his way behind a half burnt car for cover. Whenever plasma rounds hit the car, Josh could feel it shake. One of the Marines jumped from cover and started to fire.

"Go I'll cover you!" He shouted Josh nodded and ran away from the burnt car; He made his way further down the street and could see the opening for the War ships weapon. He quickly went for cover behind some building debris; round after round of plasma hit the stone building chunks causing dust to form. Josh quickly got on his stomach and leaned away from his cover and aimed his riffle, when a Gorton's head was in sight he fired and the bullet spilt its head in half. He quickly stood and started to fire his gun. The Gortons started to look for cover; the other three Marines made their way to Josh and started to take cover.

Ashtark had fired his plasma rifle at one of the enemy humans that were attacking, as he aimed his gun one of the humans came into sight, suddenly Ashtark heart stopped beating, the human who's head was in his sights was none other than the bastard that killed his cousin and left his own chest scared. Ashtark growled and tossed his gun down; he wasn't going to need it. He would tear the human's arms off and beat him to death with them.

"I got this covered go!" Josh ordered, the marines nodded and made their way inside a building. Josh quickly noticed his ammo was nearly depleted. He got back to his cover spot and reloaded his riffle. Suddenly a red hand grabbed his face and started to squeeze. He then felt his feet lift into the air. Suddenly he was thrown across the street, his back hit a building wall hard and he fell to the ground. He started to groan at the pain and then quickly looked up. Ashtark slowly made his way to the human that killed his eldest cousin and blew a hole in his chest. The alien snarled and quickened his speed.

Josh quickly reached for his pistol; he pulled it out and started to fire. Bullet after bullet pierced Ashtark's body, but did nothing to slow the beast down. Josh fired the last three bullets and by then Ashtark had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him in the air. He started to squeeze the human's neck until he was blue in the face. Josh felt his body slowly go numb, his eye sight was dimming as his need for air increase, he reached down and grabbed his combat knife pulling it out of its sheath, he lifted it in the air and brought the blade down on Ashtark's forearm. Ashtark snarled at the wound and kept squeezing.

As his vision started to fade Josh got a look at the raw looking wound on the Gorton's chest and recognized as the alien he shot with Krystal's staff. In one last attempt to survive Josh lifted his right leg up placing his foot in the raw flesh wound in the alien's chest; he then started to push with his foot. Ashtark nearly shouted at the pain as Josh's boot started to sink inside the wound. Having enough of the pain Ashtark tossed Josh to the side and grabbed his chest growling in pain. Josh landed hard and started coughing painfully as he started to breath; Ashtark yanked the knife out of his forearm and used his foot to roll Josh over on his back. He held the blue blood covered knife above Josh's chest. At that moment a single blaster was heard going off. The red plasma bolt found its way into Ashtark's neck, blue blood and red flesh flew freely as its neck exploded.

Ashtark slowly fell to the ground feeling all of his blood pour out of his body, soon he was too weak to move at all. He watched as the War ship slowly faded into darkness. With his final breath he closed his orange eyes and died. Josh looked over and saw Fox aiming his Scout Marshal blaster.

"Fox." He called out in a raspy voice and slowly stood. Suddenly both of them heard static in their ear pieces.

"Josh this is Peppy, only ten minutes left until the gun is ready to fire. Where is the laser?" He asked.

"My squad should be on the roof painting it." Josh said.

"I have no signal from the laser."

"Damn it, something must have happened to them." Josh said and grabbed his fallen riffle and made his way to the building, ignoring the remaining Gortons that were retreating from the area.

Josh and Fox quickly made their way to the stair way and started to run up them, on the fifth flight of stairs they saw red blood smeared on the walls, the kept walking up fearing that the men were dead. Then they saw one of the Marines lying on his side with blood pouring out the back of his head. Josh and Fox ignored the sight and continued to run up the stairs noticing the second Marine with wounds in his chest. Finally at the last flight they saw the last Marine dead holding the laser. Josh gritted his teeth together and held his hand tightly in a fist. Three dead Soldiers who barely looked like they were eighteen. He took a deep breath and approached the dead body. He took hold of the laser and walked past the Marine. As they made their way to the roof, Josh quickly looked at his watch '00:01:12'

"Shit!" He said and quickly rushed to the edge of the building, "Cover me!" He shouted and started to turn the laser on. Fox held his blaster at the ready and was looking around for any enemy movement. Suddenly they heard the sound of the Ships weapon starting. The two looked up at the ship as the weapon's barrel slowly started to glow red.

"Got it!" Josh shouted as the laser turned on, he quickly aimed it at the weapon and held it still. Peppy suddenly got a reading on the laser.

"Alright, I'm on my way." He said and pushed the thruster lever forward, his Arwing launched forth to the War ship. Josh looked up at the sky and saw Peppy's Arwing coming closer and closer. The ear pieces started make a static sound.

"Firing in three, two, one." He said, suddenly a plasma round hit the laser box and it exploded in front of Josh. Josh fell over on his back; Fox quickly looked over across the building and saw a Gorton cheering. Fox aimed his blaster and fired it, the plasma round hit the alien killing it. Josh looked at the laser box that was now in pieces.

"What happened?" Peppy called out, "I lost signal!" He asked, he looked over and saw the weapon glowing red getting brighter and brighter.

"God Damn it!" Josh shouted and slammed his fist into the ground; Fox gulped and quickly pressed his finger to the ear piece.

"Peppy, Slippy, Falco…Get out of here, it's too late, it's over." Fox said and watched as the whole area was shining a bright red. "You be sure to pay these bastards back tenfold."

"Fox no!" Falco called out. Peppy could barely see anything everything was so bright. He looked over in his Arwing and saw a picture of his daughter Lucy. He looked back at the Gorton ship.

"It's not over yet Fox." Peppy called out and made his way closer to the ship; Fox watched and quickly pressed the ear piece.

"Peppy get out of here or you be killed too! That's an order!" Fox shouted.

"You were always like a son to me Fox." Peppy said, "Next time you see Lucy…Tell her that her old man is proud to have been her father." Suddenly the radio went silent. Fox looked up as Peppy rammed his Arwing into the weapons barrel.

"PEPPY!" Fox shouted and a large explosion shook the ground. Fox lost his balance and fell on his back, he hit his head hard and his vision started to blur. He watched as the War ship slowly started to fall out of the sky, fire engulfed the front part of the ship. Josh watched as it crashed into the ground a few miles out of the city. Josh quickly stood and made his way over to fox.

"Hurry take my hand." He said, it took Fox a few seconds to move his body, he had just lost a dear friend, and his heart was broken. Fox reached up and grabbed Josh's hand, he helped Fox to his feet and the two made their way down the building. They made their way to the streets and saw many marines making their way there, they started cheering and clapping. But Josh knew it wouldn't be over until the Gorton King was dead, Fox knew this as well, as the two men started to make their way to the fallen ship.

They approached the crashed War ship; some parts were still on fire. They looked up at where the command room was and could see a giant hole in the wall. They figured no one could survive, but they had to be sure, that's when they noticed a tall figure appear next to the large hole. The two men looked at each other and nodded. Josh reloaded his riffle and the two walked into the ship through a hole.

In the inside everything was torn down and on fire, cables that were connected to the walls were laying on the ground, sparks flying out. They made their way down a hallway, Josh followed Fox as he used his wrist-com to pull up a holo map of the War ship. They noticed a few dead Gortons lying across the ground. Most of their limbs were bent and crooked in unnatural ways.

The pare made their way to what looked like an elevator shaft, the elevator it's self wouldn't work, but they could still climb up the shaft to the command room. It was a long and tiring climb up the thousand foot shaft. Once they made it to the top floor they had to pause and rest for a few seconds. A head they saw a large door, Fox looked at the holo map which confirmed that the command room was up ahead.

They sat there for a few more seconds trying to catch their breath, not one of them spoke in the quick break, once they felt ready to move on they stood up and gave each other a reassuring nod.

I hope you guys are not too upset about that.

As always review and let me know what you think...I can already see the hate reviews coming now. Anyways I hope you enjoyed and hopefully see you next Monday.