Chapter 6: Once More Unto the Breach
Sasuke took a deep breath; looking up at the hill where he knew the aliens were waiting for them. He turned back to the group of shinobi behind him, who were gathering around Shikamaru.
"Okay, so, here's the plan," Shikamaru said in a low voice, "Half of us are going to rush up into the alien's base first, so we know what their defenses look like. Once we're up that hill, Sasuke, you and Kakashi-sensei take out those big crystals. Do you know how you're going to do that?"
"We're going to use Fireball jutsus," Kakashi nodded.
"Okay, that's good. Once the crystals are down, the other half of the attack force will bypass the hill completely, and simply jump up those cliffs to the side. While we're keeping the primary defensive force occupied, broadside them and just do as much damage as possible. Remember, if things start to go badly, retreat, and Naruto will use his shadow clones to cover our retreat. Everybody got it?"
The 40 shinobi all nodded. Naruto was already in Sage Mode, eager for some payback. Shikamaru put up 3 fingers. Silently he counted down, and the moment he reached zero, the first attack group began to charge up the hill with a fierce battle cry. Halfway up the hill, the floating gold orbs turned and focused in on the charging shinobi and began to fire big blue spheres of light at them. One struck a shinobi right in the chest, and the projectile burned a large hole straight through his flak jacket. He fell back down the hill with an agonized shout.
As they all rushed to the top of the hill, 3 of the Protoss sentry robots used their barrier jutsus, cutting the attack force by 7. The golden orbs, which were clearly cannons of some sort, were firing indiscriminately at them all.
"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, now!" Shikamaru ordered.
Kakashi and Sasuke made their hand seals as fast as possible. Simultaneously, 2 massive fireballs struck the giant crystals that were floating behind the cannons. Blue shields flared up around the crystals before failing, and the 2 crystals shattered. Immediately, the cannons stopped firing and ceased to float upon their platforms; they had lost all power. There was little time to celebrate however, as no less than a dozen Protoss zealots came charging towards them to avenge the blow to their defenses. As jutsus and kunai were launched into the zealot's ranks, Shikamaru gave the signal for Naruto and the second half of the attack force to begin their part of the raid.
With their own war cries, Naruto and the other shinobi leapt up and over the cliff, going completely around the defenses guarding the hill. They were met by a group of zealots, who looked completely shocked at their arrival. However, they quickly got over that shock, and activated their psionic blades, preparing for a charge. All except one that is. One of them stayed behind, directing the aliens. This one was much more heavily armored, with more ornate looking gold plates, and while he had the signature arm bracers of a zealot, he also had large extensions on top, that looked like some time of ranged weapon; probably a cannon of some sort.
The shinobi stopped running forward, and threw kunai, explosives, and jutsus into the ranks of the charging zealots. Several were felled, and disappeared in blue flames before they had even closed half the distance. Those that survived the onslaught quickly rushed in, and engaged the shinobi. The area quickly became a fierce battleground, as shinobi and zealots fought and died.
On the hill, Shikamaru directed his part of the battle with calm and skill only a veteran general could. He saw where the zealots were, and sent his own warriors to engage them appropriately. There weren't enough of them however, and slowly the zealots were pushing Shikamaru and his forces back. Even with Sasuke and Kakashi at his side, the aliens were still strong enough to hold back their offensive.
Through the battle, Shikamaru saw one of the zealots charging straight for him. He quickly crouched down, and caught the alien with his shadow stitching. Sasuke ran past, stabbing the zealot through the back, and he vanished in the blue flames. Shikamaru looked around; they were doing well enough thanks to the split, but the zealots were starting to form a semi-circle around him and his forces.
Praetor Xelios was surveying the battle intensely; the shinobi were smart. Using their superior agility and splitting their attack forces to keep his zealots in manageable groups was a very intelligent move. And the fact that they had completely analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of his forces using only the one battle as reference. Impressive.
"Great One!" one of his zealots looked at him, "The terrans are using their superior range to neutralize us before we have a chance to reach them. Our zealots cannot close in fast enough to do any significant damage."
"I see that. Fall back, and use the shield batteries to recharge. Draw them in, then have the stalkers blink behind them; choke off their escape route."
The zealot nodded, and gave the order to his brethren fighting nearby.
Sasuke fought hard against the aliens. Shikamaru's plan seemed to be working; the Protoss were retreating. The shinobi began to push into the Protoss base, well past the defensive perimeter.
Naruto and his forces were pushing into the base as well. They pushed the zealots past large golden arch-like buildings. They had odd blackish looking orbs hovering over the buildings, the arms of the buildings looked like they were holding the orbs up. Every now and then they'd glow with some type of energy for a second or two, before going silent again. The zealots continued to charge towards them, despite the fact that very few of them actually reached their targets.
Shikamaru started to grow suspicious; why were the zealots suddenly retreating so much? They were losing sure, but something didn't seem right. What were they up to?
"We should slow down our attack," he advised, "something doesn't seem right."
Kakashi and Sasuke nodded, and the shinobi began to move in more slowly, cautiously. They began to hear the click of metal on ground and stone. It sounded like something with metal limbs was heading towards them. As they looked around to see where the noise was coming from, but they couldn't see anything.
Xelios watched the shinobi as they moved through his now silent base. They knew something was up. Too late however, as he wordlessly gave the signal for his zealots to charge once more.
Shikamaru looked to see the aliens running through the buildings towards them yet again. They were on both sides; it was a pincer attack! He and his remaining shinobi turned to face their opponents again, but this time they were a bit too slow, and the zealots closed in on them before they had a chance to take them out. He quickly used his shadow stitching to immobilize 3 of the charging aliens, allowing Kakashi and Sasuke to kill them.
"Pull back!" Shikamaru ordered.
They started to do just that, but they were met with a very scary sight behind them. While they had been preoccupied, 7 metal ….. things had closed in behind them. They walked on 4 slender metal limbs, and had medium sized metal bodies. On their right side (left from the shinobi's point of view) was a medium-sized metal shield. The machine looked very agile, albeit, a little delicate. However the creepiest part of the machine: there was the head of a Protoss sticking out of the front, everything but its eyes covered by a shroud, and it had two smaller metallic limbs, one on either side of its head, not unlike the front limbs of a spider.
"For the reckoning!" one of them said.
Their voices sounded like a whisper spoken loudly; it was with the tone of a whisper, just as loud as normal speech.
They started to move forward towards the shinobi, shockingly faster than what they looked capable of. They paused a few paces away and began to fire blue bolts of light from a blue orb above its head. One struck a shinobi in the shoulder, and he stumbled back with a cry; a good-sized hole was burned through his flak jacket and into the flesh of his arm. Shikamaru tried to use the immobilize then destroy combo as he had on the zealots, but they were fast enough to avoid the shadow stitching.
Naruto saw his friends in combat on 3 sides. He had to get over there before they all got overrun. With a shout, he rallied his shinobi and rushed the zealots on Shikamaru's right side from behind. The zealots turned with shock before the jutsus tore through them all. In quick succession they all vanished with surprised cries of pain. Naruto found his friends, and his shinobi joined the rest of the attack force against the Protoss that flanked them.
Xelios saw the shinobi rejoining with their brethren. Together they made a formidable force that even his warriors had trouble containing. If his forces couldn't contain them, these shinobi were likely to wreak havoc across his base. He looked backwards, looking at the high templar and the rest of his forces that stood at his back. They all nodded their readiness at him. He nodded back, and they all prepared for a charge of their own.
Kakashi looked around at the battle; the Protoss were attacking them from 2 different angles. However, they were still doing pretty well; his fire-breath technique was found to be very effective against the Protoss zealots. However, suddenly there were these new machine warriors, which were proving very difficult to attack. Every time he tried to get close enough to do damage, the things danced out of range, firing their blue bolts as they did so. Not to mention their appearance was rather off putting – and here he thought the Ten-Tails was creepy looking. He turned at another yell. Another large group of Protoss zealots and their creepy machines were charging from the front, boxing them in in a 3-pronged attack! Leading them was the heavily armored zealot that looked like he had cannons on his arms.
Shikamaru saw the new wave of enemy reinforcements bearing down upon them, but they had nowhere to go. They were stuck inside the Protoss base, being attacked on 3 sides.
"Naruto!" Shikamaru yelled at his friend, "We need to retreat; we're badly outmatched."
Naruto nodded, throwing 2 of his famous Rasenshurikens. One struck a zealot in the chest, sending him flying backwards into one of the buildings. The other struck one of the metal machines blocking their retreat. The machine was blown apart into pieces. As some sort of energy dissipated into the air, they heard a faint 'finally.' from it. The other machines with heads however, did not appreciate that at all, and were now fighting even more aggressively.
Shikamaru finally managed to catch one of the metal machines with his shadow stitching, struggling to hold it in place. He yelled for Sasuke to destroy it, but just as Sasuke was about to, it just disappeared. Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock. He turned around to see that same machine towering over him. He realized these things could teleport as he dodged the blue bolts it shot at him.
Kakashi found himself at the edge of the battle, fighting 2 of the metal machines. He had broken the energy shield of one, and physically damaged the other, without being hurt himself. However, whenever he went to finish one of the 2 off, they vanished and reappeared several feet away, dodging any sort of finishing blow he threw at them.
Naruto saw through the battle, his teacher battling 2 of the machines. He tried to rush over there to assist his teacher, but a zealot and one of those machine things blocked his way. He had to get past them to assist Kakashi.
Sasuke saw two more Protoss coming towards the battle. These two were floating, and they had almost no armor. Sasuke wondered what these two could possible do; they didn't even have the arm bracers for the energy blades. Two of his shinobi charged them before he had a chance to stop them. The two Protoss observed the shinobi coming towards them, and simply raised their hands in response. Their palms glowed with power, and the two shinobi hit the ground. The pair of them had been drained of all their chakra, and they were killed by an explosion of their own energy.
Shikamaru saw this as well; he didn't want to see what other abilities these 2 new Protoss could use. He ordered a full retreat, and the shinobi began to pull back to the hill. They threw everything they had at the 2 machines that blocked their path, and the 2 of them were torn to shreds in seconds. The surviving shinobi started to go down the hill, but right at the bottom, suddenly there was a web of crackling lighting blocking the way. Naruto and Sasuke found themselves running through this web, dodging the lightning bolts that pummeled the ground all around them. Somehow, by some miracle of fate, they made it through unscathed, but 3 of the shinobi that followed were not so lucky. All three were struck by the bolts of lightning, and all three times it was fatal. When everyone passed through, they could see just how much damage the lightning web did; out the 29 shinobi that survived long enough to retreat, only 16 remained.
They all rushed back towards Konoha, but before they had gone more than 40 paces, the Protoss's golden transport machines sped right in front of them. A single zealot blocked their path. It was the heavily armored leader; his eyes clearly issued a challenge. Naruto's Sage Mode had ended, but he started forward, only to be stopped by his sensei.
"I'll handle this," Kakashi said without taking his eyes of the zealot, "You just make sure you get everyone home."
"You're not going to take him on all by yourself all by yourself are you?" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Kakashi assured them, "Now hurry up and get out of here."
The shinobi paused for a second, not wanting to abandon one of the village's greatest heroes. Kakashi glared at them all, and hesitantly, they all left. The Protoss that were pursuing them backed away and returned to their base, leaving the armored zealot and Kakashi to fight without interference.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, and prepared for yet another fight. The zealot raised his armored bracer, pointing the cannon at him. Kakashi dodged to the side as a sphere of light just like those that the golden orbs back at the Protoss shot sailed past him. He threw several kunai with explosive tags to batter down the zealot's shields, but it didn't work. He hadn't expected it to; if the alien was so important that he had such heavy armor and armament, it was only to be expected that his shields would be heavier too.
He dodged as the zealot fired shot after shot at him. The missed shots blasted holes in the surrounding trees and ground. Kakashi knew that if a single shot hit him he was dead; he had to close the distance, keep his opponent from using the cannons at all costs. He rushed in, and attacked the alien with everything he had. Sword clashed against energy shield as the alien backed up against Kakashi's attacks. Kakashi was kicked in the chest, giving the zealot time to activate his psionic blades. However, he had two on each arm instead of one, and they looked not unlike claws.
Kakashi clashed with the zealot again and again, often damaging each other, but unable to truly cause harm. The zealot swiped at him twice, forcing him to back up, before shooting the cannon at his arm at him. Unable to move through the air fast enough, Kakashi avoided the shot by hiding underground.
Xelios looked around wildly; where did he go? Somehow, this shinobi had the ability to burrow, similar to the Zerg's burrowing abilities. He shot at the spot where the masked shinobi had disappeared underground, but he wasn't there; he had moved while underground. Xelios spun around in circles, trying to find the hiding shinobi. Too late, he heard the human emerge from the ground behind him, and suddenly there was a sword going through his chest.
"An impressive display," Xelios told his foe, "But I am a telepath. I know a mind-trick when I see one. Though, your, what do you call it? Genjutsu? It is skillfully executed."
"Thank you," Kakashi said calmly.
The genjutsu ended, and the 2 of them found themselves facing each other as they had started once more. Xelios activated his psionic blades again, and raised them for yet another clash. The 2 rushed each other, fighting with blinding speed. Xelios was impressed; he had never fought a terran so fast before. They disengaged quickly, and paused for a second's rest.
Kakashi studied his foe carefully; he was incredibly strong and fast despite his size. He had to bring down the alien's shields before he could actually defeat him, so how was he supposed to do that? He didn't want to reveal his best weapons just yet, but he needed to use some sort of heavy attacks to crack the Protoss zealot's defenses.
Xelios watched the shinobi as he backed up, out of range of his attacks, before starting to make stunningly fast, complicated hand signs. Before he had a chance to wonder what they were for, a huge burst of water emerged from nowhere around the masked shinobi. The water made the form of what looked like the creature known as a shark from the Terran homeworld. The hydro creature rushed at him, its mouth gaping wide. The thing's teeth were only made of water, but he didn't want to touch it anyways. He dodged to the side, only to be met by a massive funnel of flames that struck him head on. His shields flared drastically before failing, but it gave him enough time to get out of the funnel before it caused severe damage.
Kakashi rushed in, in an attempt to finish the zealot off with his personal tantō. The zealot quickly side-stepped the oncoming attack, and slashed him across the back, before stabbing him through the heart with his twin psi blades. Kakashi stopped, and burst into a puff of smoke. While the zealot was still in slight shock, the real Kakashi burst from the ground and managed to stab a tantō into the back of the zealot's shoulder.
Xelios grunted in surprise (and a little bit of pain) and twisted around to try and reach the shinobi behind him. The human was too agile though, and he easily slipped out of his reach. However, he wasn't fast enough to avoid the photon cannon shot he launched at him from point blank range immediately afterwards.
Kakashi quickly used his chakra to erect a shield around himself, just in time to deflect the burning sphere. The sphere broke the shield on impact, but he suffered no damage from it. He looked up though, to see the zealot's fist heading straight for his head. The blow caught in the side of the head, and he reeled to the side from the force of the impact. Another blow caught him in the back, and he saw 2 psi blades going through his stomach. Kakashi landed on his feet, and slumped forward from the wound.
Xelios relaxed, believing the duel to be over. After all, this human was a great fighter, a very skilled warrior, but even he couldn't withstand such a devastating wound, could he? Wrong. The shinobi had been playing him, as he realized when they wheeled around with a handful of some type of electrical attack. He jumped back, but not fast enough, as the attack pierced through even his heavy armor, and struck a few inches into his abdomen. He stumbled back, as the human straightened back up. The shinobi jumped up, flipping straight over his head. Xelios turned to face him, but the hand-held psionic storm hit him in the chest, creating a horizontal rend in his armor. Xelios quickly used the momentum of his body turning from the blow to fuel his own attack, and his psi blades caught Kakashi across his chest in return. The masked human hit the ground, finally defeated by the wounds he had sustained.
Xelios approached Kakashi slowly, preparing to finish off his opponent for good. But, no. Such a worthy opponent, such a skilled warrior did not deserve to die over such a petty misunderstanding as this. No, he deserved better than that. He signaled a warp prism to pick the both of them up, and return them to the Gantrithor.