Chapter 74: Semper Fi Part 1
Before Chapter 74 I wish to say that this chapter contains some bad language and some gore. I also would like to thank those that have favourited and followed my fanfic recently, as well as HaterofNone who has reviewed my latest chapter. I really appreciate the support that you guys have given me and I'm also pleased with the number of fans and views that I have. I really hope that you enjoy this chapter.
Note: Readers please listen to Cod WAW Semper Fi mission soundtrack while reading this:
There is no sun at all in the sky, but no clouds either in this place full of endless trees. Though there is something in this part of the woods, there is civilization here if it could be called that. This consists of various huts which could be made from the very materials that this forest provides.
In one of the huts which has a pointed roof, there is such uncivilized activity which goes on there. There are two females dressed as officers of Team Rocket, while there are two more females who are their prisoners. Outside there are two more guards of the same attire, attacking two prisoners who are tied up on sticks with their arms held out wide.
The prisoners look rough as they are covered in bruises and cuts, and their clothes are ripped quite badly. While one of them inside is dressed as one of their captors, the others are dressed as the natives of this place. With regards their hair it's of varying lengths and colours and styles from prisoner to prisoner, though all of the guards have black pigtails of differing lengths. Both prisoners inside the hut are on their knees with their hands tied to their backs. One of them is being beaten constantly in the face with a truncheon, causing her to scream in pain every time the guard smacks her really hard in the head. The other guard deals with the other prisoner, she does so by intimidating her victim with her own personal bat.
"You think because you say nothing and you are an officer, you are strong?" She says with an intimidating voice.
The prisoner says nothing only for the guard to speak.
"Where are your friends and who exactly are you?" She asks quite menacingly though she asks in a distinctive different language.
"Don't tell them a fucking thing." The beaten prisoner speaks as bravely as she could.
"Get ready to feast on her Zubat. Should she give us the incorrect response to us." The guard asks in the same tone and language.
The beaten prisoner with all her courage and defiance spits in the guard's face. The guard then wipes the spit off her cheek and looks at the prisoner in disgust, only for her to smile. She smiles as she has something sinister in store for the prisoner.
She grabs the head of her victim really hard squeezing the victim's hair, before she orders the bat to attack the prisoner. It quickly bites the prisoner in the face really hard, more precisely her own vision. She screams in agonising pain as it gets to work.
After which the guard gets out her Poké ball and summons the bat inside it. She then walks out to see to the other prisoners.
"Execute the bitches when ready, remember the traitor is an officer so she'll need a lot more cuts." She says in the foreign language as she walks out.
Her assistant bows in obedience before walking to the prisoner, before she then holds the one eyed prisoner at the back of the head with a firm painful grip. There is more defiance as the prisoner tells her captor to go to hell. But this is to be her last words as the captor with a slash of her knife opens the victim's neck, and spills her blood which splashes on the walls. The prisoner then falls on her back as she struggles to breathe as she's on the final seconds of her life, she dies before she's kicked hard on the chest where she falls to the ground with her neck completely soaked in her blood.
The other prisoner tries to move back as fast as she can, but the guard just quickly approaches her before grabbing her by the back of the head squeezing her hair really tight.
"It's time to die like a traitor." She says menacingly while holding the blade close to her face.
The captive's heart is pumping loudly but then she sees me rushing behind her captor. I manage to slit her throat with my knife causing her to fall to the ground. While it's a shame that I couldn't save her friend or any of their allies that were tied to the posts, at least I am able to save her and my own troops have been able to kill the captors quietly. In any case they're really brutal and horrific, how can they do this to their own prisoners? How can they be so content in trying to wipe out the Pokémon and the native Loweeans to this land? We have to end this brutality and put an end to their tyrannical rule as soon as we can.
"White… you're alright, thank goddess. We're gonna make them pay for what they've done." I say while cutting White's ropes.
"Fuckers." One of my troops say, who we call Sully.
After freeing her I give her my spare Loweean uniform before allowing her to get changed. While she does so I walk out and regroup with my troops who are all crouched with their guns held tightly, ready to charge on my command. After which I then pick up an Arisaka from one of the guards we have slain to give to White.
It's not long before I hear footsteps coming from the hut I just been in ,and there I see White in a standard Loweean officer's uniform. This consists of a white t shirt, white cardigan, white shorts and white shoes and socks. I then give her one of my Mauser C96s and the Arisaka I've picked up.
Before giving the order I look ahead to see the camp, so I can get an understanding of what exactly we are dealing with. The camp consists of numerous huts scattered throughout this area along with fences made of wood, and surrounding this large area is the forest of seemingly countless trees. They clearly don't suspect us and I'm surprised that from here I don't see any of them, but I know for sure that there must be plenty of enemy troops here.
"Let's trash this friggin dump. OK everyone let's go." I order and rally though trying not to sound too loud, to keep the element of surprise.
It wouldn't surprise me if it were to end though considering the lack of suppressors we have for our guns. We move as quietly as we can moving to the nearest cover we can find, because we all know the fire fight is imminent.
But it is then we see a few patrols, we spot each other so we're forced to take them out. Upon shooting them I then hear the sounds of Team Rocket troops who are confused and not soon afterwards alerted to our presence, they try and do a call to arms to defend their camp. I guess this is it, we are to fight our way through the camp and into the forest. Still we've got White back so now for the rest of our mission, and our glorious campaign has been resumed.
I hope I can keep my squad alive this time and not have to resort to reviving them, and having to wait for supplies to come. I'm pleased that my troops are able to find some cover as do I, but I need to be giving orders to my squad.
"Buck you're with me you two take the left." I yell.
As I lean from my cover I am surprised to find that despite the enemy being alerted, I don't see any of them for me to shoot. All I see are some more huts as well as a few lampposts surprisingly enough. Ahh now I see a few of them charging from a nearby hut. I quickly shoot them with my Type 4 before hearing the distinctive ping sound and reloading my rifle.
With them dealt with me and my troops advance further to find more hiding places and more enemies to deal with, though they're taking cover in various places as well.
"They're getting close!" Buck yells at the top of his lungs, his voice sounding distinctly familiar.
While more enemy reinforcements keep coming I am able to take any out any that I see with my Type 4, but due to the semi-automatic fire and 5 bullet clips I do find that I'm having to reload fairly often. I also find it's eating my ammunition fairly quickly, but at least the reloads are nice and quick.
"Don't leave so much as one of these bastards standing!" Sully yells again. Like his buddy I do find his voice to sound distinctly familiar.
I must say I can't blame their attitude towards them as some of them are actual Loweeans, and they must have some idea at least with what Team Rocket is doing to their own homeland. I do admit I share the same hatred considering what I've seen them do and what they're doing to Lowee. I can only hope that we can be successful in our campaigns to retake Lowee, as well as to avenge the deaths of the Loweeans in the cave.
As the fire fight goes on I hear yelling from both sides, particularly with Buck and Sully who are trying to keep the troops focused. They're constantly informing us of enemy movement as well as announcing having to reload etc. which I appreciate very much.
We're able to advance after dealing with the first wave of enemy troops, which didn't take long as their weapons consisted of Arisakas with the bayonet attachment. We then charge forward to find more cover and when I find another hiding place which consists of a group of barrels, I find myself with White, Sully and Buck.
I see a few more of them by a hut to the distance which I manage to kill with one clip of my rifle, as I slowly but surely take them out accurately safely from my hiding place before reloading. Once they're clear I rush towards the hut with my troops.
Upon getting there I see an outpost full of what appears to be enemy snipers. I try to engage them but I get shot quite a few times, though it's no issue as I'm disguised as an officer and officers have plenty of health. I manage to kill them but there are at least a few more of them in the outpost, as well as groups of them in the surrounding areas. I couldn't help but notice that this is quite close to the trees, and I do wonder whether they have reinforcements in the forest.
"Watch our flank don't let the enemy surround us!" I yell to my troops.
With those group of enemies dealt with, I then head further into the building hugging the wall as best as I could, where about a dozen or so enemy troops come charging in with their bayonets. I decide to switch to my Type 100 and with the help of my allies, I mow them down with my entire clip.
I see a block of huts just up ahead of my position just opposite the trees, I use my magnetic vision to find that there are about a few troops inside as well as an officer with about half a dozen Zubats. No doubt they intend to ambush our troops that head past. I keep my SMG equipped as I hope it will prove to be effective against the bats.
"Be careful guys, advance slowly more of them may pounce on us!" I yell to my troops.
We move slowly to the entrance of the hut with our guns held tightly, ready to shoot the moment we see an enemy. Though I see the enemies in the hut with my magnetic vision, it does surprise me to find that there aren't any more enemies coming out to attack us. They must be planning to ambush us considering we haven't lost any of our own troops yet and I have no intention of starting now.
It's not long before we reach the entrance to the hut only to find the enemy bursting open and the dreaded Zubats come in.
"Ahhh get them off me." One of my troops who's called Ryan screams as he ends up being attacked by the Zubats, while struggling to fight back.
"Help Ryan! Save him!" Buck yells.
Me and White quickly shoot the Zubats off, but it's not long afterwards until the few troops and the officer manages to gun poor Ryan down. It's a shame I was unable to save our private Ryan, at a convenient time we'll have to revive him then give him the perk a colas again.
We attempt to move back a bit from the hut, only to find that there are about a dozen enemy troops with Arisakas led by another enemy officer. They too fire a volley at us and while me, White, Buck and Sully survive, a couple of our troops that are with us do not.
The enemy who just shot us must have come from the next hut and attacked us while dealing with those bats. We manage to return fire and kill the enemy troops before they could either cock their rifles or charge, but the officer is a different story and his weapon of choice is a Type 4 just like mine. Still he should be no match for us but we could still do with taking him out quickly, before we end up becoming over whelmed. Speaking of which it does concern me as to how many more enemies are in this camp, and whether we'll be able to make it through without the use of the perk a colas.
He then fires all 5 rounds at Buck, though fortunately due to his status as an officer it does little damage. We then attempt to return fire against him, but he's soon joined by the other boss and his trio of troops only for one of the soldiers to retreat. No doubt he intends to call for reinforcements but we weren't able to prevent to this.
The other boss fires his Type 100 at us but with little damage. After which it becomes a matter of constantly shooting at each other and having to reload as appropriate. This is because of their status as while their soldiers died in a couple of rounds, the officers are able to take more shots and even now it's just them two against us four.
I know they'll die eventually due to being out numbered and having less health over all, but we could do with finishing them off quicker to prevent them overwhelming us. It is then I order for my troops to move forward to take out the bosses together, as opposed to my earlier strategy which was to advance but to snipe at a distance so that they can stay safe.
It's not long before they come and their volley of fire from their rifles means that both bosses die, after shooting at each other for quite a bit. But when these two troublesome foes are down, it is then we see that there are a dozen Team Rocket riflemen that fire a volley of bullets at us, before doing a banzai charge at us with their bayonets.
Much of their bullets hit me, Buck, Sully and White, but there are a couple that die from the enemy volley. Their banzai charge proves to be ineffective as we're able to shoot them down thanks to our superior numbers and somewhat superior weapons (as there are some of us who have Type 4s and Type 100s as opposed to Arisakas).
When their charge has been dealt with I find that it's not over yet, as I look ahead to find a hut which is completely surrounded by a fence. It is that very fence where a good number of them show themselves to shoot a volley at us. They manage to catch us off guard as we lose a few of our troops, but again most of their bullets hit us. No doubt they're trained to aim for the officers to reduce morale in their armies, but it won't work on us.
"Go prone, crawl towards the fence everybody. Engage any enemy you see!" I yell to my troops as I lie on my front myself as well.
We try to move forward as fast as we can while we're on the floor, but it's not long before they individually try and take pot shots at us. This proves to be a pain as while we manage to shoot them in the head, it's only occasionally and they do manage to harass our forces effectively keeping us pinned down without any cover, and even managing to kill one of our troops a few times.
This is no good and I could do with being at that fence sooner so that I can wipe out the enemy. It does frustrates me a bit when we get pinned down like this.
"Come with me Paula." I order White.
We both then stand up and rush towards the fence despite the riflemen shooting at us quite a few times. But despite the amount of hits and it does a fair bit of damage, it's nothing to concern me yet and soon afterwards we are both by the fence. We use it as our own hiding place and with my sub machine gun and White's pistol, we eventually wipe out the enemies stationed at the fence. They didn't stand a chance as they tried to deal with us and our troops that were behind us lying down.
After which I then order my troops to regroup to the fence, but not to advance further before I look inside the hut to see if there are any more enemies inside. Indeed as I look inside the fence with my magnetic vision, I find that there is yet another boss and I can tell as he carries a Type 99 light machine gun. He's also accompanied by a couple of troops armed with Arisakas, another couple armed with pistols and about half a dozen of them armed with throwing knifes and long swords of the era. I also notice how one of them is a female with long pig tails, she's dressed similarly to White when she was disguised as Team Rocket. My gut tells me she's a boss herself.
Hmmm how to take this guys out quickly. Before I can think I then see the couple armed with pistols come out, hoping to assist their now fallen allies but we take them down pretty quickly.
"Me and Paula are going to secure the hut, the rest of you stay here and secure this position." I order them.
As we head to the hut the two riflemen come out, but before they have a chance to fire White shoots the both of them.
Eventually we reach the entrance of the hut, but we don't barge in. Instead we try and lean out perhaps killing one or two of their troops. We do this in an attempt to bleed their numbers, lure them out or at least force them to fire their weapons so they have to reload so we can get them then.
While we do in fact kill 2 of their knife throwers with our technique, when we hide at the entrance we find that the knife throwers run out of knives so they switch to their sword and they charge towards us. We manage to reload in time to deal with the regular enemies, but we know that the female being a boss will mean that she won't go down with a single clip of our guns. We have to retreat back at the fence where I can get my troops to concentrate their fire on her. That should be enough to take her down.
But trying to put my plan in motion isn't as easy considering she's pretty agile, as she repeatedly strikes her sword at me. After being shot a few times earlier my health is starting to fall a bit with each blow I receive from her blade, perhaps my health is about 50% now. The fact that each strike of her sword hurts quite a bit doesn't help, but if I can make it to my allies I should be able to recover in a couple of hours. I must admit this isn't ideal as I need to be leading the troops, and yet I'm not exactly in the best shape to do so with the damage I am having to sustain.
Fortunately I reach my allies where I order them to open fire against this insane swords girl. And after my troops firing an entire clip from their guns she eventually falls to the floor dead with plenty of blood oozing out, as not even her high health can take the amount of damage our ammunition have inflicted on her, or the pain that her body language showed.
The thing is while we were busy dealing with the female boss, the male counterpart has arrived with his Type 99, just when she died he fires his gun at us. He manages to kill a few of our troops in the head, before we are forced to duck and wait for our window of opportunity. Another thing I realise is that after dealing with the female boss we needed to reload our guns, though it shouldn't take long.
Thanks to our perk a colas and our weapons not taking as long to reload, we're able to return fire on him again before he finishes reloading his machine gun. It does worry me if he'd have a chance to reload his gun again, as I know he'd be able to bleed some more of my troops. And while it wouldn't be that many it all adds up and I need my troops alive, if we're to fight our way through this camp. I said earlier in this chapter it's starting to concern me.
Fortunately though the constant shooting of him forces him to flinch making it hard for him to reload his gun, until eventually the shots prove too much for him as after his body becomes a sieve with blood leaking out on all sides, he collapses on the ground. He's dead, completely covered in his own blood.
At least that hut is clear but after looking at how I have lost about half a dozen troops already and I have about 30 left including officers, I'm getting even more concerned not to mention I am wounded from the shots and stabs inflicted against me. I'm also getting increasingly concerned about what we'll be dealing with in the remainder of this camp, let alone the outskirts of it considering what we've had to deal with here. I would like to have stolen some of their supplies so we have a bit more give to the Loweeans, but unfortunately I haven't found any. With that said at least we have some supplies on us and Uni should be able to ship some when we're able to meet up with the Loweeans, and ensure their positions are secure.
Despite the casualties (though I'm pleased none of our troops are wounded what so ever) it's not practical for me to recover my health or to revive our dead, so we have to press on as while we're making progress I'm starting to find the enemy to be quite difficult to deal with. None the less while White picks up the machine gun, I give the order for our troops to head forward past the hut to see what we're up against.
We advance past the hut only to find a section that is better defended than what we've dealt with before. The area has quite a few mounted machine guns that are facing us, as well as a good number of troops who act as their crew. There are also about four people who carry a portable machine gun, as well as a fifth one who's gun appears to have a larger magazine as well as a bayonet on it. They must be bosses and the fifth one perhaps an even stronger boss, it wouldn't surprise me if he's in charge of the camp or even if he's the one who brought White here. The place also has about half a hundred rifle men with bayonets. It is my belief that this must be the final section of the camp, and the reason for all of the security is to protect the camp from anyone from Lowee in the forest as there's a path past this section. They must have moved the mounted machine guns to deal with us.
They quickly spot us and open fire forcing us to take cover, though unfortunately our forces are quite scattered throughout this area and no doubt they'll be easy pickings for the bosses. Hmmmm… How to deal with them effectively? At least my men are engaging them as best they can and while they're able to take out a fair number of the enemy rifle men, the rest of the enemies prove to be quite difficult. At least there are no bats this time, though it wouldn't surprise if there were some more here.
"Take out those MGs now!" Sully yells.
"I can't get a clear shot!" One of the Loweeans reply.
"Then shoot through the damn wood!" Sully yells in response.
Eventually after much fire-fighting we manage to take out a couple of the gunners though this proves to be a challenge, as I find that the enemy bosses move quite slowly with their machine guns advancing to our position, forcing us to retreat so that we're exposed and at the mercy of enemy gun fire.
"Don't let em get another crew on it!" Sully yells after seeing the gunners being killed.
If we can just take out their crews then it'll just be the riflemen we'll have to deal with, who are already falling thanks to the fact that they stand next to the bosses or the gunners and don't take cover like us. After which it'll be a matter of isolating the bosses and trying to take them out one by one.
While more fire-fighting goes on and do I my bit killing any enemies I see though it's mostly the crews and rifle men, I notice that our numbers are falling at quite a pace especially at the hands of the gunners. I notice especially that the higher boss has already wiped out a group of our troops at one hiding place, while they're dealing the enemy riflemen and now he's heading for the next group. Although that very group spot him and attempt to shoot him, I don't think they will last very long without my help. White notices this as well, so both she and myself then go to assist them.
Already our group tries to fire every bullet in their magazines at this boss, but it appears to be of no effect. He then returns fire and despite the fairly high health of our own troops, he's able to kill two of them with one magazine of his gun. Although he takes quite some time to reload his gun, it makes no difference as while our 3 remaining troops in the group return fire, there's still no effect.
They then resort to doing a banzai charge hoping that by the constant stabbing he'll be unable to return fire, and with enough stabs he'll die. But while they get to stab him, the boss is able to stab back and with two stabs of his bayonet to each solider another one of this group dies.
"Retreat guys, help your comrades. We'll deal with him." I order my few remaining troops who are dealing with this boss.
They immediately run towards the other troops to help reinforce their position. And with his attention now focused on us, it's just a matter of killing him now. I hope that the groups will have significantly wounded him, but it does worry me as to how they'll manage against the other 4 bosses, who while they're weaker than him they do pose a threat to our troops.
With our machine guns we open fire on him before he has a chance to reload his weapon. The constant stream of bullets causes him to flinch so much that he is unable to reload his weapon. But while we're not able to shoot at him for very long due to rate of fire and our small magazine size, it does enough damage to cause him to clutch his own stomach in pain as he's starting to ache and bleed quite badly. He's forced to drop his machine gun and he grabs his pistol desperately trying to shoot us, but he knows that his fate has been sealed.
We both choose to switch to our Mauser C96s and use those guns to finish him off. Eventually after firing a good number of bullets at him, he falls to the ground as like the bosses before him the intense amount of damage and bullets prove too much for him. As he fell he yelled and screamed while blood oozed out from him from all the bullet holes, I reckon he died before he hit the floor as he's lying there with more blood coming out, soaking a bit of the area next to him with his own blood.
I look ahead with White to see who's left in this major fire fight, only to find that it's quite bleak. While all the gunners are dead along with all but a few riflemen, the four bosses are still alive although they appear to be wounded judging from their appearances and posture. In contrast for our forces all of our own troops are dead, it's just Sully and Buck left now.
We rush to help them but as we head to their position so we can assist, we see these guys shooting at each other. It's good to see both Buck and Sully concentrating their fire on just one of the bosses, and after plenty of shooting and quite a few reloads he dies. Unfortunately though at the same time the enemies have been using the exact same tactic against Sully, and it's not long after one of theirs die that Sully suffers the same fate which is to fall onto the ground full of bullet wounds and blood oozing out.
The sight of his friend dying enrages Buck and so he attempts to fire back at them. Eventually afterwards we're within range to engage them and although we try and assist by shooting the same target as Buck, Buck ends up falling too as his health is not enough to sustain the intensity of the damage that he receives from the enemy.
I guess it's just us two now but at least it doesn't take very long before we manage to kill our target, but not without receiving some damage from the other 2. After which it's just us two against those two now with the remaining rifle men to assist them.
We decide to split up and retreat to find a hiding place, and luckily for us the two bosses split themselves up to engage us individually. Although retreating and finding a hiding place isn't difficult, I am concerned about whether I have enough bullets to kill him. I have about 20/90 bullets left for my sub machine gun, and upon switching to my rifle I have about 5/60 I think it should be enough. Yeah I'll have to see if it's practical for Uni to provide us with more supplies, perk a colas and ammunition for us as well as to revive our troops. I don't think it would be ideal if it's just us two left and having to rely on our weapons. I don't feel great that we've lost much of our group and we haven't even finished with this first camp to be honest, but I can't be upset by it now considering we've done our best and we are fighting right now.
As soon as he gets in range I open fire with my sub machine gun, aiming with its sights and doing my best to ensure every bullet hits him. Unfortunately I am not able to hit him without him hitting me, and I do take a bit of damage. This stresses me because of how it all adds up, but I can't give in. I quickly reload and fire again, at least he's reloading now so hopefully I can finish him off before he's able to fire again. As luck would have it, it just takes 2 and a half of my clips to take him down.
When the few riflemen notice their superior falling to the ground from all the bullets hitting him, they become enraged when they see him lying dead covered in his own blood. They try and do a banzai charge towards me, but it proves to be no good as I am able to kill them before they're anywhere near me.
With my group of enemies dealt with I rush to find White, but I just see her standing with her machine gun looking at all the dead including our own with a depressed expression on her face.
"This doesn't bode well, it's just us two and I think our ammo is a bit low. Plus which who knows who many more enemies there are in this forest." White speaks sounding quite demoralised, even though we have done well to defeat the entire garrison of this camp.
"I'll have to see if I can get some help." I reply to her.
It is then I try and speak to Uni via mind talk.
"Hello Uni. White is rescued and we have taken down the entire enemy camp, but unfortunately it's just us two and we're quite low on health and ammo. Do you know if it's possible to revive my dead troops, and to provide supplies, perk a colas, health packs and ammunition for our guns?" I ask her hoping she'll be able to reply.
I can't help but begin to wonder whether I've left the easy times as now like in a video game, I'm at situations that are more difficult to overcome, though this time the consequences and effects are very real.
While I also look ahead to see that beyond this place is just a path surrounded by trees, I wait for Uni to reply to me. I hope she is able to perform my request, I'm not sure if we'd be able to survive if we're to engage the enemy while trying to find our nearest allies, considering the lack of troops and lack of health. It would be a shame if that were to happen again as even though we have more troops available, we also need the strategy if we're to capture all of Viridian Forest and ensure that no enemies will be able to get through. Yes unless we get our request fulfilled or we manage to meet up with a group of our own forces, I have plenty of concerns and worries that our battle of Viridian Forest will be a repeat of our invasion of Pallet Town. But such it is with this war, Lastation needs all the resources and troops it can get to defend their nation, as it is the only nation that is free from the chaos of this world right now, free from corruption, free from poverty, free from tyranny, free from brain washing. I just know they'll be attacked again, I just know it and I hope that this campaign of our liberation of Lowee doesn't end before it begins, because of the constant setbacks and eventual defeats.