Sorry for the long wait guys! Been really busy for me lately. The fact that I have school the WHOLE day on Monday has really taken a toll on me -_-
This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I have decided that it would be better if I split it into two.
For whatever this chapter had been especially difficult for me to write, probably the hardest one to write so far.
I'd also like to thank all of those have reviewed, favorited, followed, and to all who have continued to read my story
Kind of a short chapter I know, but I promise it'll all be worth it!
Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Inspiration
...Connection Re-Established...
"Unidentified aircraft approaching 12 o'clock!" One of the radar personal shouted to the admiral.
Chester immediately ran over to the radar station to see what the operative was talking about. As he walked nearer, there was indeed an unidentified blimp on the radar screen.
"How the hell did they know we were coming? If they managed to detect us they should've been flying all over us by now, why such a late response?" The admiral thought to himself.
"Not sure admiral, but the unidentified aircraft seems to be a helicopter of some sort." The operative replied, gesturing the communications sector of the carrier's command post to send a message out to the rest of the small fleet.
The admiral assessed the situation.
"Dispatch some fighters to take it out, we can't risk them radioing in our position."
"Yes sir… wait… the object seems to have disappeared from radar." The radar operator frantically searched the screen and found that the signal the helicopter was giving off seemed to have vanished.
Numbuh 1942 took note and was initially puzzled before he came up with his own conclusion.
"Strange… call off the fighters, must've been a bird or glitch or something."
Chester relaxed, and sat back down on his seat that overlooked the entire command post of the ship. Just as he thought the rest of the operation would proceed as planned, a sudden disturbance entered the room.
"Admiral, urgent!" a messenger came on the carrier's bridge, bringing in a folder.
"What is it Numbuh 351?" the admiral questioned, quickly grabbing the folder.
"Unsure, these images just came in from our scout drones a few minutes ago." The messenger replied, before he exited the bridge.
"What could it possibly be this time…" the admiral then opened the folder and was perplexed by the information it contained.
"What the? That's impossible!" shouted the admiral scratching his head.
Meanwhile just below them, a mysterious craft was emitting jamming frequencies and silently flew just above the tree lines.
The helicopter flew into the horizon, heading to a northern location, its final destination, unknown.
"Kids Next Door rule!" Rachel shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Kids Next Door rule!" the crowd shouted back.
The amphitheater was packed, every seat was filled in by someone, forcing some operatives to sit on the ground and even stand near the exits and entrances. Since the amphitheater lacked the proper space adequate to fill in every member of the Kids Next Door, large screens were placed throughout the Moon Base, in space ports, and even on the ships orbiting the Moon. The Supreme Leader was about to address every single operative of the Kids Next Door, and what she had to say was of the utmost importance.
Rachel took a deep breath, and stepped up to her podium that was implanted on the stage. Behind her was Fanny, Patton, as well as Global command. Nigel was with his Sector, sitting in front row seats given to them by Rachel. Before the gathering, Rachel had asked if Nigel would like to be seated up on the stage behind her with the other high ranking officials, but he kindly refused, insisting he stay with his friends.
She began the talking, and the chatter in the large amphitheater ceased.
"I'm sure many of you by now are tired of this war and the constant fighting and suffering it brings."
The operatives nodded in agreement, causing a stir of movement in the crowd.
"In the past month, we have seen our military crippled, our fleets burning in the skies, our tanks tossed around like a bunch of cheap toys, our friends dying in our arms, and our confidence shattered right before our own eyes. Since the outbreak of this war, it is now that I regret to tell you that over 350,000 of our operatives have been lost." She paused for a minute, skimming the faces that littered the amphitheater, fear and sadness lighting up their eyes.
Nigel was right, they did need a leader, and the Kids Next Door looked to her for guidance.
She quickly continued, noticing the silence of the room that had quickly developed the moment she spoke.
"We have come to believe that we are invincible, that our military superiority could not be surpassed. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are not. However, that does not mean we are weak, fragile, or vulnerable like our enemy believes us to be." The Commander-in-Chief of the Kids Next Door looked around once more, this time her eyes focused on Nigel.
"Since this conflict began, I have witnessed the strength and courage of many of my fellow colleagues in the heat of battle. Many times we have found ourselves in a desperate struggle, facing the likely occurrence of imminent defeat. Within that sense of urgency, we have found hope, which has allowed us to rise to the occasion, to live on to fight another day. It is operatives like you that feed my willingness to lead and constantly remind me that even the darkest of days are followed by a better tomorrow."
Nigel smiled at Rachel, sensing that this segment of her speech was directed at him.
"Over the past couple of weeks, our forces have steadily rebuilt, allowing our fleet to increase by nearly tenfold. Our war factories have also pumped out thousands of new vehicles and ammunition, and our air force is now ready to take to the skies. Despite facing almost total annihilation, the Kids Next Door, that includes all of you, has risen to the challenge."
She paused, what she was about to announce was critical. Rachel entered a state of mind, a state of epiphany and began to rally and raise the spirits of all allied forces.
"Tomorrow at 0800 hours, you will embark about on the great crusade, which many of you have worked towards for these many weeks now. The hopes and prayers of children everywhere rest upon you. You will bring about the destruction of Father's war machine, the liberty of the oppressed children of Earth, and security for not just children but humanity in a free world. Your mission will be a daunting one, Father's armies are well-conditioned, well-supplied, and battle proven. However, I hold total confidence in your skills on the battlefield. We will beat them in the skies, in the oceans, and on land. The tides will finally turn, and we will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender and absolute victory. I wish you all the best of luck and God's speed."
Thunderous applause could be heard from all around the stadium as Rachel walked off the podium.
As she walked down behind the stage, Nigel was already waiting for Rachel.
"Tomorrows going to be a tough day huh?"
She cheerfully smiled back
"Yeah, but nothing we can't handle."
"Who could've done this…?"
The admiral landed with a small assault force near the ruins of one of Father's facility's.
He looked around, apparently someone had did his job for him, but he sensed something much more than that.
"This is impossible, I gave no one the order to attack ahead of us, did you guys authorize a strike on this place without my knowledge?" Chester faced several of his commanding officers, all whom shook their heads.
"How the hell is this even happening …? I want a full cleanup of this facility and as well as a full report on any unusual findings. Also send a message to the Supreme Commander, tell her we're ahead of schedule."
"Yes Sir." The officers saluted and reported back to the ship to send a transmission to the Moon Base.
"Looks like someone did our job for us… but the question is... who and why?"
Numbuh 1942 was perplexed, there had to be more going on behind the scenes.
"Someone destroyed the energy cannons?!" Father shouted at all of his commanders who were standing before him trembling in fear.
One of the commanders began to stutter, trying to explain the whole situation. "Yes… well um… the cannons, they…"
Father shot a fire ball right in front of the commander, causing him to quickly jump out of the way.
"You shut up, now can someone who can actually speak the English language explain how the hell this happened?"
A seasoned commander, probably the only one who was unafraid of Father's temper tantrum stood out of the row. He took off his hat and looked around, thinking about his answer carefully.
"An unknown force, probably about the size of a small squad infiltrated the factory at about 2300 hours and managed to take out most of the security detail as well as destroy all of your energy weaponry through the use of C4 explosives."
"So you're telling me, a small group of brats, single handedly fought off a whole battalion while destroying all of my advanced weaponry!?" Father responded.
"In essence, yes."
Now he was really angered, those cannons were probably the only things that brought him a victory against the Kids Next Door, who otherwise would've managed to launch a full scale counter attack that would've quickly overpowered any of his armies.
He thought about who could've committed this act of treachery against him, he figured maybe it was the Kids Next Door, or maybe some resistance fighters, but Father wanted to be sure.
Father resumed questioning, and now stood up, staring at all the commanders in the room. "And who the hell is responsible for this heinous act?"
"Surviving soldiers describe the men as highly trained, wearing a black uniform and gas masks, they also spotted armbands that had a strange insignia with the…"
Before the commander could finish, Father pounded his fist on his chair and ignited his whole body in flames.
"Enough! I know what to do now, you are all dismissed."
All the commanders quickly withdrew from the room, still trembling from Father's lecture.
"Those damn Hasayans… think they can do whatever they'll want. I'll show them… they'll see." Father muttered to himself.
Rachel was busy in her office ordering around commanders to make final preparations for the invasion. Earlier, she had left Nigel to gear up with his team and get some well-deserved rest. As she was sending out messages and answering e-mails, a paper from her computer's printer suddenly emerged. It contained a short message from Numbuh 1942.
She quickly grabbed it and read it to herself.
"Energy Cannons destroyed before arrival of fleet. Unknown forces responsible. Wreckage suggests special forces of mysterious origin. Plans ahead of schedule, invasion still to proceed at 0800 hours."
"Unknown forces responsible…?" Rachel murmured to herself. What did he mean by Unknown forces responsible? It didn't add up.
She thought about possible interpretations of that for a minute. Could it be the S.R.S.S.T? No, she never authorized a strike on that particular facility and she would've been informed about it otherwise. Maybe it was resistance fighters? It couldn't be, there was no way a bunch of rag tagged kids or underequipped operatives could've executed an operation of this magnitude so perfectly. The way Chester reported it seemed to suggest it was a well-trained and elite force.
She finally came up with a final conclusion. But it didn't make much sense, at all.
Rachel guessed maybe it was the Hasayan's that she had recently been informed about, but weren't they working with Father? Why cripple your own ally? She thought she had figured out everything during Serena's questioning.
In her head, Father was working jointly with Leader or whoever he was for total world domination. But now, that didn't seem to be the case. If what she had just theorized was correct, then that means the Hasayan's and Leader were on neither side, and were working towards their own agenda. None of the puzzles seemed to be fitting together and the hypothesis she had put together about the two quickly fell apart.
She stressed out over the matter for several hours, until she glanced at the clock.
"It's 3 am already… guess I'd better get some sleep?" She said to herself, took one last look at some of the paper work on her desk before jumping on a makeshift bed that she kept in her office.
In just a few short hours, the liberation of Earth would begin.
Nigel and his Sector reported to the carrier named "The Hokagi", one of the three carriers that survived the initial outbreak of the war.
Around them soldiers were frantically boarding shuttles that took them to their designated ships. In less than an hour, the invasion force would begin heading toward Earth's orbit.
Rachel suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surprised Sector V. She wanted to make sure that Nigel would be with her at all times, with our without his sector. The latest intel suggested that Father's anti-aircraft batteries and air force were already waiting for them. The first wave of the invasion was expected to have the most amounts of casualties, and unfortunately Nigel was to be a part of it.
"Rachel what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on the ship's bridge already?"
"Yeah… but I'm here to tell you about the recent developments."
Nigel was curious to what she had to say and turned away from his sector.
"The energy cannons have been destroyed, but not by us." She continued.
"What the?" Impossible, are you sure your intel isn't sketchy? I'm sure it was Numbuh 1942 and his task force, or maybe it was resistance fighters." he added.
"No, the admiral informed me that the facility was destroyed before he even got there, and I contacted resistance leaders and they said there was no raid in that area."
"So who could've possibly done this?" Nigel was confused; the only logical explanation he could think of just had been thrown right out the window.
"I'm not sure, but I suspect it's the Hasayans." Rachel whispered into his hair, making sure it wasn't in hearing range for any other operatives around them.
"What? That doesn't make any sense? I thought they were working with Father." He answered back.
"That's what I thought too, now I'm not sure what to believe."
"Well, shouldn't we do something about this then?" Nigel wanted to act, and now. If the Hasayans now turned against Father, then there must be something working behind the scenes beyond their understanding.
Rachel nodded in agreement, but then responded with some disappointing news "Yeah., but unfortunately we don't know the location of this secret base and Serena can't remember either, so until then, we're in the dark."
"Ugh, so much going on… anyway anything else you wanted to tell me?"
Rachel looked around a bit then continued to talk.
"Um… Yeah, I request your assistance on the… err ship's bridge, I think you're a very valuable person who we can't risk sending on the front lines."
Nigel looked a bit confused, and a little angered at the same time.
"Are you playing favoritism with me…? And what about my sector?"
Rachel paused for a minute, she wasn't exactly sure how to tell him. Him being a VIP was partly truthful, but she wanted to explain to him in a way that wouldn't reveal her other intentions.
"No, I need your help directing the invasion force, and your sector will stay on this ship and command several squads until stated otherwise, understood?"
Nigel nodded.
"Yeah sure, whatever you say Rachel."
He sensed other ulterior motives, but he had no choice but to follow her orders.
After their brief conversation, the two boarded the ship, and entered the carrier's command post.
"Status report on Chester's fleet." She ordered a communications officer.
"In position and awaiting further orders." The officer responded.
"Excellent, signal all ships to prepare to enter into Earth's atmosphere."
"Yes Numbuh 362 Sir." The communications director began directing all forces to commence the hyper-jump.
"Hey where's Serena anyway?" Nigel questioned.
Rachel answered quickly. "Oh I allowed her to go back into S.R.S.S.T operations for now, she'll be back soon though."
Several hours earlier Serena had just woken up from her induced coma. After recovering from her ordeal, she insisted that she report back to her team to help out with the war effort. Rachel approved her request, but informed the girl that she would require her assistance soon.
As the ship began warming up it's engines, Numbuh 2 made a random comment.
"I really wish these ships were equipped with orbital cannons or something, would make our job a heck of a lot easier."
All of the personal on the main bridge agreed, and Hoagie's comment seemed to ease down tensions just a little bit.
Rachel turned to Nigel, her eyes filled with both confidence and doubt.
The fleet zoomed towards Earth, to face Father's forces head on.
...TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED...