Church's Crusade #15: Sez You
Church stood and fired from behind the quickly erected barricade at the troops rushing towards the base, then ducked behind steel wall as a hail of bullets rattled down on the place he had just been. As he prepared to stand again he heard the tell tale sounds of snipers, as Sister and Anna gave support from the top of the base. He smiled at that as he turned and stood again, but the smile vanished quickly as he saw the troops beginning to swarm over the tank.
He leapt the barrier and rushed at them screaming, "You FUCKERS! That's my tank!"
He fired as he ran ad saw some of the troops turn just as one of Paul's rope inventions flew into the group. The detonation threw solders in all directions. Church ran into the aftermath of the explosion, firing madly. He felt a shot to his left arm and swung about to bash his attacker with the butt of his rifle. He then continued to march towards the tank, shooting anyone who approached the cockpit. One of the soldiers managed to hurl a phosphorus grenade before a sniper shot from the base hurled him off his feet. The grenade landed on Church's visor and stuck there. Church tore at his helmet trying to remove before the explosive could detonate. After what seemed like an age, he finally managed to remove the helmet and hurled it at a group of enemy soldiers. The deadly missile burst into flame just as it passed over the soldiers' heads, setting their uniforms alight and causing them to run in terror. With a grim smile of satisfaction, Church turned back to the task at hand…
Back at the base Anna, Rourke and Stevens watched the looks of open mouthed astonishment on the faces of Grif and the Blues with no small measure of satisfaction. Finally Tucker looked up at Anna, "Your sure that's the same Church?" he asked.
Anna shrugged, "That depends what you mean."
"I'm sorry?"
"Well if you mean in the physical sense then yes, it is the pretty much the same Church. We basically used the old body and just did some…renovations."
"And in the other sense?"
"Well, emotionally, I'd say that he the Church you see before you is to the old Church what a rotweiler is to a mouse." She paused long enough to shoot one trooper who had almost made it into the driver's seat of the tank, "And a very cynical mouse at that."
Tucker looked at her for a moment before replying, "Sez you…"
As Church drew near to the tank he began to use his rifle more like a club than the range weapon it was intended to be. He spun through the battle, laying about him with the rifle and firing whenever possible.
At one point a trooper ran at him with a knife. It was only man's yell of rage that alerted him to his danger. He spun on his heel grabbing the man's jacket, snatching his knife and hurling him into another group of enemies before he knew what was happening. As he watched the man try to rise, Church felt something break through the back of his metal skull and spun about to find a stunned soldier looking at his hand which had until recently held a knife. Church did not hesitate, driving the other soldier's knife into the man's chest. He then turned and finally climbed into the driver's seat of the tank. He settled in and then began to aim the tank's cannon…
The group at the base watched as Church drove the tank into the opposing forces, methodically eliminating every enemy within range. Then they watched as he pulled the tank up to the base and stepped up. He nudged the prone form of the former prisoner, who appeared to have taken a shot to his left temple early in the fight. "So much for that idea," he muttered then looked at Anna.
"You. You have some explaining to do."
Anna looked surprised, "Me?"
"Yes you,' Church reached to the back of his head and removed the knife that was still lodged there, 'Someone left that with me. So I want to know what you did with my memory core, because it is obviously not in my head."
"Oh that,' said Anna dismissively, 'We just figured that, you know, the head is such an obvious target for a sniper. So we moved it to your chest and then gave you an extra triple thickness of armour plating on your torso. Incidentally, you'll sink if you try to swim now."
Church stared at her, "And you didn't think it was important enough to tell me?"
"It didn't seem important at the time."
There was a long silence. Then finally Church shrugged and turned to Grif, "So as I was saying you really should have a look at what we are building on top of the base…
The characters Church, Caboose, Tucker, Simmons, Sarge, Grif, Sister, Donut and Doc are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions.