Hello everyone, thank you for waiting patiently. This chapter was long, and unfortunately, my computer has been damaged, I may need a new hard drive. Bear with me, once that's fixed things will be fine, and I do intend to see the story through. Hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter 24: Asunder
The air was thick with bullets and projectiles; the sounds of gunfire and the screeches of aliens were everywhere. Naruto watched as a chakra bullets punched straight through a hydralisk, killing it instantly. Tenten's new pulse rifle was certainly effective! The zerg on the ground were being torn apart. Giant shadows loomed above as the protoss void rays flew above them. Huge swarms of zerglings charged Naruto's position, but huge beams of light burned them as they ran, ensuring none of them ever reached their intended target. Naruto directed his troops towards the center of the hive, pushing further into enemy territory.
A brigade of tanks rolled past spewing fire and launching huge metal projectiles. They burned a path straight through the zerg, followed quickly by the rest of the shinobi and protoss. Nearby, a spore crawler began firing on a corsair that had flown too close to it. The corsair's shields held firm against the crawler's attack though and the ship made a hairpin turn back out of range. It made a U-turn the second it was, and a web of energy suddenly covered the spore crawler, making it unable to fire as the corsair flew overhead once again.
"Spore crawler is vulnerable," Naruto reported, "Hit it hard now."
One of Mohandar's void rays flew closer and opened fire. The prismatic beam burned a hole straight through the zerg crawler, and it collapsed in a smoldering heap.
"Target neutralized. Void rays, begin your assault," Mohandar ordered.
Huge swarms of airborne zerg flew straight for the protoss ships. Large squadrons of phoenixes, corsairs, scouts, and ravens flew in to intercept them, turning the sky into a huge hornet's nest of flying objects. On the Gantrithor's bridge, Shikamaru, Ino, and Selendis observed the battle's progression.
"Phase One is complete," Ino reported, "Air hostiles are occupied, ground resistance is collapsing. Void rays are pushing deeper into the hive."
"Good. Commence phase 2," Selendis ordered.
On the ground, Naruto and his forces were meeting weaker and weaker resistance. Iruka and Baki came up behind a group of tanks, looking for him.
"Careful," Naruto warned them, "You're team's almost up. I don't want anything taking you out before you reach your destination."
"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. How close are we to the target?"
"A few hundred meters. We're meeting some pretty stiff resistance though. It's the only place they seem desperate to defend."
"Don't worry, we'll take care of it. Just get us in there," Baki assured him.
Naruto nodded. An explosion rocked the ground up ahead; one of tanks had been destroyed. Naruto swore; the forms of three Tengu, bigger and more monstrous looking than ever before had overwhelmed the tank's defensive jutsu and ripped it apart with ease. The three shinobi swore simultaneously.
"One of each of us! Come on!" Baki already had his wind blades out,
With a yell, the three of them charged the Tengu, and with savage screams, the Tengu charged them as well. They clashed in the middle, right in between a few of the tanks rolling forward. Naruto slammed a Rasengan into the stomach of his opponent, but instead of throwing it backwards it simply sent it a few dozen paces away, and the alien stayed on its feet. Shocked, Naruto tried to advance again, but suddenly the alien was right in front of him again. The alien seized him by the shoulders and slammed him into the ruined tank next to them before throwing him into another tank that was still rolling. Naruto hit the ground hard, seeing stars all around. He got up with a groan as the Tengu stomped towards him again. The Tengu rushed the last few dozen feet, a handful of lightning aimed right at his head, but as it reached him, Naruto was no longer there. As the alien turned, Naruto's wind needles stabbed through its legs right through the knee, and then another pair through the throat.
"Surprise," he muttered grimly. His shoulder twinged badly as he moved. The force of being slammed into the tank had been harder than he thought. Checking on the others, he saw that they too had won, though fared similarly to him. Nodding to them, they continued on their way. The tanks luckily kept the way clear, making their journey far less perilous. Overhead, a corrupter flew after a raven; Naruto recognized it as one of Sai's Talons. Thinking quickly, the pilot veered closer to a nearby void ray, and the corrupter was blasted apart by the ship's smaller side guns. So far, the battle was going well; according to plan.
Up on the bridge, Shikamaru was getting suspicious.
"Ground resistance is crumbling quickly… too quickly. Something doesn't feel right," he told Ino.
"I don't like it either. There are two dozen hatcheries in the back, behind the main hive, yet they're completely dormant. They should be flooded with activity of some kind at least, but scans aren't picking up anything inside them at all."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Wait, something just pinged on the scanners."
"What? What are you talking about? I don't see anything."
"It was there, just now! It was huge!"
"What are you talking about? Wait, there's two large pings bearing down on the right flank. Is that what you were talking about?"
"No, it was way bigger. But those things are bigger than ultralisks."
"Crap, they're brutalisks!" Shikamaru's eyes widened as he scrambled for the radio.
Down on the ground, Shikamaru's panicked voice came over the radio, "Intel to ground command, you've got two incoming brutalisks on the right flank. There are no tanks there; they'll rip right through our lines unchecked if they're not countered."
"Mohandar to ground. My void rays are all either already occupied or are out of range. You'll have to find a way to counter them on your own."
Naruto swore quietly. There was only one way they could deal with that.
"Iruka, Baki, continue to the objective without me. I'll deal with the brutalisks."
"Will do. Be careful," Iruka nodded at him.
Naruto sped off, as fast as he could across the battlefield.
"You heard the Hokage," Baki told their team, "We press forward. Stop for nothing!"
Back at Antioch, Sasuke paced restlessly. Reports were good, and few ravens were flying in with wounded, but he still had a bad feeling.
"Would you please stop pacing like that? You're making me lose concentration!" Tenten told him, "I need to make sure my measurements are accurate; half a centimeter and the whole apparatus could be completely useless."
"What of the weapon I showed you? Were you able to find a way to use it?" Sasuke asked her.
"So far, it's looking promising. Considering we're still working on the base weapon's design, so far things are going surprisingly well and fast. Though, we'll need to find a way to scale down or contain the ammunition it requires. It's not easy making something that uses something of that type you know."
"What about your other projects?"
"Going as well as I could have hoped. A few are done, but the building process is taking a while. The rest just aren't anywhere near done yet."
Sasuke nodded, "I'm going to join the fighting."
"Were you cleared?"
Tenten received no answer, only the sound of the door shutting behind him. She shook her head; the fool was going to get himself killed one day, and when that day comes she'll have no idea whether to laugh or be sad about it.
On the frontlines, Gaara and Mei were fighting side by side. Gaara's sand protecting them, and Mei's lava shooting through the gaps in response to attacks. The ground shook hard, and a roar shook the air around them. A powerful blow struck the top of the sand shield, causing it to crack and dent. A second blow broke the top of the shield. Thinking quickly, Mei shot a bolt of lava up through the breach, and a huge shriek let them know it connected. The dust cleared, and a huge thing, larger than even an ultralisks towered above them. A third blow shattered the shell entirely.
The thing looked like a huge cross of hydralisk and lobster. The lower body of a lobster, but the upper body was very close to that of the hydralisk. Gaara sent up sand binds to bind its arms, but the thing flailed and broke them before long. Gritting his teeth, Gaara used as much power as he could, grabbing each of the brutalisk's limbs and bound them in place.
"Kill it! I can't hold it forever!" Gaara ordered, but as soldiers rushed forward to attack, a huge claw swiped them into the air. A second alien towered above them, slashing at the shinobi and protoss beneath it. Mei was about to switch targets to the newcomer when a huge orange streak slammed into it and carried it far away from them.
"It's Kurama! Naruto must have changed!"
Gaara's head snapped back towards his captive as it nearly broke through its bindings.
Far away, Kurama flung the brutalisk away and sent it crashing to the ground on its side. The alien got up, roaring a defiant challenge. Kurama bared his teeth in response, growling. The two huge titans barreled towards each other, claws and fangs meeting blades. Kurama attacked as savagely as possible, but too often his claws skated off the huge alien's armor. The brutalisk managed to wrap its arms around the giant fox, and flung him away. Kurama was far more nimble than this hulking thing though, and he easily landed on his feet. Both demon and alien stared each other down, preparing to clash again.
Iruka and Baki cautiously inched forward, "Command, we've reached the hive. We're going in."
The hive was eerily silent, almost like the sounds of battle outside simply stopped at the door. The team moved in slowly, wary of any kind of attack. But there was no attack. As if the whole place had been abandoned.
"You don't think they just up and left, do you?" one of the shinobi whispered.
"Impossible. They'd never abandon a hive like this. And if they had, why die in droves attempting to protect it?"
The team kept moving forward until they reached the hive's central chamber…. Only there was no central chamber. There was a huge hole in the ground, leading down into the depths far beneath the structure. Staring down into the blackness, they couldn't even see where the tunnel ended.
"I can't see a thing. Where do you suppose this goes?" another shinobi whispered.
"Only one way to find out," Iruka shrugged and started down the incline. The rest followed behind him down.
Back on the surface, Gaara and Mei had been joined by Kakashi and a small contingent of Lee's tanks. The brutalisk somehow was still standing, but the combined assault was overtaking it. Finally, Mei's lava cut through the armor at the neck, and burned a giant hole all the way through it. They all jumped back as the beast's corpse crashed to the ground.
"I remember brutalisks being tough, but not that tough," a zealot remarked, "The Zerg have upgraded themselves greatly at the expense of your planet."
"Quit standing around; we'll celebrate later," Gaara snapped, "Push forward."
On the bridge, Selendis stared at the holomap projecting the battle for a second.
"Your leaders just restrained and killed a brutalisk without a single casualty," she remarked, "An impressive feat."
"Did they? Nice work," Shikamaru said distractedly.
"What is it? There is something bothering you."
"I saw something on the scanners. Something huge. But it just disappeared, and I can't trace it."
"I can't find anything about it either. If it exists, it quit the field somehow without anyone seeing it," Ino added.
Selendis leaned back in her chair again, "Keep me posted. Helmsman, report."
"Shields holding steady at 93%. Zerg hostile air are being engaged by interceptors and fighters, ground is too focused on the battle below to be a threat."
"Very good. Hold position here; ship's weapons cannot be fired without risk of collateral damage, so focus power on light defense guns. The rest is up to our fighters."
Kurama and the brutalisk had been fighting for a while now. Kurama's superior speed and agility had allowed him to land several blows, tearing open the brutalisk's hide in several places. But somehow, the thing remained standing and was still attacking.
"We can't let this drag on much longer Kurama. We need to return to the main battle quickly," Naruto told the fox.
"Ideas?"
"Just one."
Naruto quickly explained the plan to the fox. Kurama nodded his agreement. Running towards the alien, the fox jumped over the swinging claws, landing square on the thing's back. Strong as the alien was, it was not strong enough to hold up the giant fox, and it was driven into the ground. The loud cracks were a clear indication that multiple bones had just splintered and broken. Kurama jumped off, and the brutalisk attempted to stand back up. It never got the chance though, as Kurama clamped his jaws around its neck and hit it in the head as hard as possible. The head moved, but the neck was unable to follow, and the brutalisk crumpled onto the ground.
"Nice idea."
"I have my moments."
Iruka looked around; the cavern they were in was huge – big enough to fit one of those alien void ray ships inside. There were tons of these orange-green pods on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling even. Leaning in for a closer look at one of the pods, he could see something stirring inside. It was vaguely humanoid… with a tail. Iruka stumbled back a step when he realized what it was.
"Tengu. Each one of these things is a Tengu incubation chamber!" he told them all, reaching for the radio, "Command, this is Iruka, we're inside a giant Tengu incubation chamber beneath the central hive!"
"An incubation chamber? How many are in there?" Shikamaru asked him.
"Thousands. Maybe more. We can't allow them to hatch; they'll overrun our forces with ease if they do!"
"Okay, scans show a series of support columns inside the cavern. Destroy four or five of those, and the chamber's support system will collapse. There's enough rock above them to crush anything that survives the explosion."
"Suggestions as to which ones to plant charges?"
"Looks like these 5 will be your best bet," Ino sent them a small map.
"Rodger that. We're on it!"
Baki ran over to the nearest pillar, sticking a charge right at the base it. Just as he was priming it though he heard a heavy thud behind him. He spun around with a wind blade in his hand, but the Tengu kicked him straight into the pillar. Stunned, he looked up at the advancing alien just as a green blade of energy sprouted through its chest. A Lenassa Dark Templar shoved the dead body off to the side, and held out a hand to help him up. Even at this point, the shrouded face of the Templar made it look like there was a face underneath, but there was nothing except the eyes there.
"Are you alright?" the Templar asked him.
"Yeah," Baki nodded. A sound made him turn his head; several of the incubation chambers were cracking across the surface, "Damn, we're too late, they're already hatching!"
"Hurry, we will cover you as you work."
Iruka ran up, throwing him something small, "Come on, set the charge on that pillar across the room. I'll set the timer, and we leave with plenty of time before this place goes up."
Baki nodded, and headed off across the room flanked by about half the team. Cracking sounds started as they went, and several Tengu dropped from the cavern roof, and out of eggs on both sides. The team waved him on, as they immediately attacked the aliens before they had a chance to do so first. Baki started running forward again as three more of the aliens emerged ahead. Ducked under the first one, wind blade stab and sidestep the second, but by then the third was ready for him. He ducked the claw, backed up out of range of the uppercut, but didn't see the tail swing up from the side until it was too late. Baki felt something crack as he landed on his side, but didn't pay attention as he was rolling away from his attacker. Three shots rang out just as he scrambled back onto his feet, and the alien dropped dead. He gave a small sigh of relief before reaching his destination.
But it was not to last. Iruka and the others were fighting even more Tengu that had just hatched, and they were hatching with increased frequency.
"All charges are in place. Do you have the detonator?" Iruka asked him.
Baki wordlessly held up the shattered remnants of the bomb's trigger, "The Tengu shattered it when it hit me with its tail. I'm sorry."
Iruka shook his head, "Don't worry, that's what the timer is for. We'll just have to rely on that then," he walked over to the bomb on the central pillar, "I've set the timer for 3 minutes; should give us plenty of time to get out of here before it goes off."
Just then, another bunch of aliens hatched, all across the chamber.
"We need to go, now!"
Iruka started the timer, and they started to rush for the door. But before they got too far, hatching Tengu began to block their only way out.
Something struck the side of the Gantrithor, making the whole ship shake violently.
"Report!" Selendis commanded.
"Corruptor suicide attack. Tried to fly right through our hangar bay. Hit an interceptor on its way out, both were destroyed in the explosion."
"Damage assessment?"
"Outer plating sustained minor cracking, outer half of the hangar was damaged by the explosion, repair facilities are intact, but the hangar's graviton catapults are offline."
"Wonderful. Estimated time for you to get them back online?"
"Estimated 15 minutes Executor. Working on it now."
"Helmsman, pull us back behind the army; recharge all guns and shields while the damage is repaired."
"Yes Executor."
Mei and Naruto watched as the massive ship began to pull away from the battle.
"What happened? Why is the Gantrithor pulling back?" Naruto asked.
Gaara strode over, "Just got off the radio with Shikamaru. One of the Gantrithor's hangars has been damaged pretty badly, and the plasma shields are getting dangerously depleted. They're moving back to safer territory while the ship is repaired and recharges."
"Crap! We need that ship for air cover! Entire portions of the army have almost no air cover now!"
"Iruka to command, come in!" Iruka's voice came over the radio suddenly.
"This is Gaara. Go ahead."
"We've planted the charges, set for three minutes. We're on our way back up now; recommend you all pull back so you're not dragged down into the collapse."
"Good work, should we send in a team for back-up?"
"No, that shouldn't be nece-." There was a burst of radio static suddenly.
"Demolition Team, status?"
"Huge numbers of Tengu are beginning to hatch! We're double-timing it out of here!"
"Make it snappy guys!"
Naruto was just putting away the radio when Sasuke jumped from a low-flying raven.
"Sasuke? What are you- I told you to take it easy!"
"I did. Most comfortable, relaxed ride I've ever had. What's the situation?"
"If you came for the battle, you're a little late. We're pulling back out of range of the explosion for the hive. After that, it's just time for clean-up," Gaara told him.
"Damn! Well, better late than never I suppose," Sasuke sighed. He joined the others as they began their steady retreat.
Down below, things were far less calm. Iruka, Baki, and the remaining members of their squad were ducking jutsus and other projectiles as they began to flee back towards the entrance to the cavern. The surprise attack had cost the lives of three of the team, and if they didn't leave, it would claim the rest. Another shinobi went down, unable to dodge a lightning bolt in time.
"Come on! Move it!" Iruka waved them past, shooting at their pursuers. He was about to turn and leave when one of the Tengu stopped. The alien looked down at the timer counting down next to it, then looked back at the fleeing shinobi and protoss. Almost as if in slow motion, Iruka saw the Tengu's arm being encased in lightning as it turned towards the bomb's timer.
"No!" Iruka threw his last kunai at the alien, pinning its arm to the column, but was helpless when its other arm, also encased in lightning, passed right through the timer and control box. In a panicked rage, the team turned around, and hacked their way back to the ruined controls.
"Damn it!" Baki punched the column in anger, "The timer is completely destroyed, and we have no remote trigger. What do we do now?"
"Only one thing we can do," Iruka stood up and got on the radio, "Naruto, Tengu just destroyed the timer; there's no way we can detonate it remotely now. I need you to tell me when you're all out of the blast radius, then I'm going to have to detonate it manually."
"What?!" Naruto was horrified at what he was hearing, "No! There's got to be some other way."
"There isn't," Iruka told him flatly, "Tell me the minute you're clear."
"No! Just retreat, we'll handle it with the entire army."
"There isn't time! There's well over five thousand Tengu in here and they're already hatching. You'll be overwhelmed and slaughtered! They have to be destroyed now, before they get a chance to hatch! Tell me when."
"I… I," Naruto hesitated.
"We don't have time for this, we're being overrun!" Baki yelled at the radio.
"We… we're already clear," Naruto was fighting hard to choke out the words.
"Good. I'll see you around kiddo."
Iruka looked over at Baki and the others fighting desperately against the waves of aliens.
"You know, I never really liked the idea of growing old much anyways," Baki made a brave stab at a joke, "I mean, body wasting away, young ones running circles around you? No thank you! I always hoped for a beautiful blaze of glory instead."
"Well…. You got your wish," Iruka replied as he activated the charges across the chamber, "Literally."
The ground heaved and shook, knocking a few people in the army off their feet. Fire burst through the skin of the hive, and the ground began to break and fall into a giant pit. It wasn't long before the hive collapsed and sank from view. No one from Konoha was capable of talking… not after that. Naruto jerkily walked forward a step or two, trying his hardest to keep his composure – he was not succeeding. That was, until a huge shadow fell over the entire area.
"New contact! New contact!" A voice from one of the void rays sounded.
Two of the void rays that had been hovering above the battle turned around and were heading back towards the rest of the fleet. Just as they began their decent, a huge tendril, as large as one of the ships, plummeted through the clouds, smashing into one of them. There was no explosion – the ship simply shattered on impact.
"We just lost the Clairvoyant Thought!"
The huge creature descended through the clouds, shooting green projectiles at the other ship.
"Leviathan!" one of the protoss warriors called out, naming the gargantuan monster.
A giant beam from the Burning Shadow struck the tendril that had destroyed the other void ray, leaving an angry burn line across it. A huge swarm of projectiles flew towards the capital ship, which teleported out of the way at the last second.
"Naruto! We can stop it together!" Sasuke looked over at his friend, shaking him out of his dazed state.
"Amaterasu!" – "Rasenshuriken!"
The huge wave of black flames sailed upwards, catching the leviathan on one of its main tendrils. The air reverberated as the thing bellowed in pain and rage. The massive alien attempted to swat out the flames with its other tendrils, but it only served to spread the flames further. Still shrieking the leviathan wheeled back up through the clouds and out of sight.
Before people could begin cheering, Shikamaru's voice came over the radio, "Naruto look out! You've got a ton of movement from the two dozen hatcheries near the back!"
Naruto looked up to see all 24 hatcheries explode, and huge worm-like creatures rocketed into the sky from them.
"Swarm Guardians!"
The huge guardians twisted around and upright, staring straight at the army in front of them. Huge hails of giant spines began raining down on them, slamming into the ground at earth cracking speed. Giant globs of acid were being spit at the ships from the guardians further away. There were yells to retreat, and the army began to fall back in a blind panic.
Selendis had gotten up from her chair to see what was happening more clearly.
"Is this ship's connection to the psionic matrix fully repaired," she asked urgently.
"Yes, ma'am. All functions are fully operational."
"Fly us directly over the army," casting her thoughts to broadcast to everyone around and below the carrier, "All forces, converge around and beneath the Gantrithor! Now!"
The army hastened to obey as the flying worms pursued them.
"Everyone is accounted for. Engage mass recall!" she ordered.
In the second before they all disappeared, everyone saw the leviathan descend back through the clouds; heavily burned and scarred, and more enraged than anything they'd ever seen.