Chapter 91: The battle of the Checkpoint
Before chapter 91 I would like to thank PhillipTheHawk for being my latest follower and favouriter of this fanfic.
Note: Readers please listen to Samurai Warriors 2 Sekigahara while reading this:
While the troops get into their positions to begin the attack on the checkpoint, I join our snipers in taking out the grunts in the distance who are already attacking our allies. I decide to go for the ones who are the most dangerous to our allies: the snipers who already have taken out a good portion of the allies there. I just hope that while they're busy fighting that they won't notice us, though due to the increased amount of gunfire I highly doubt it.
I then order the snipers to do what I'm doing and one by one we get rid of the dozen strong snipers, though the thing is I am convinced that there are plenty more snipers from where that came from. Worse still is that just as I feared we have alerted the enemy, and so they've managed to send in about a hundred grunts to deal with us. Though we have a good number of troops to deal with the enemy, they are meant to reinforce our allies and so they'll be forced to deal with the grunts coming from the camp itself, and I just know that they'll be way too many casualties from our side.
I therefore have no choice but to order half of the snipers in my command to provide covering fire against the enemy from the camp, while the rest of them wipe out the gunners. It's not looking good as one by one, our allies are falling and I'm not sure how much longer they can hold out against the enemy forces. Although the enemy gunners get taken care off, it takes longer than it was for the snipers to die and by this time the grunts have hidden amongst the trees so it's more difficult to be killed, while they're still able to engage our allies there.
Because of this situation, only I can shoot them effectively yet there are about one to two hundred of them in there, and they outnumber our allies by quite a bit. There are even a couple of bosses there making it a real nightmare. I just wish my allied unit who's led by White can actually reinforce the allies in the forest, but they're already engaging the enemy in the camp who have come to intercept White's forces. The battle there is going alright but while my snipers have helped reduced their numbers; another hundred Team Rocket grunts have provided assistance to the battle against a smaller force in the forest who already are losing numbers.
As if this isn't bad enough, they're assisted by more snipers and gunners though this time they're aiming at my relief unit. I guess there's nothing for it but to order my snipers to take out the enemy snipers and gunners, as well as for there to be more of my army to attack the Team Rocket troops rather than covering our flank.
At least the enemy gunners and snipers fall fairly quickly and we manage to defeat the couple of hundred grunts trying to intercept our relief unit, but our relief unit is now half of the size it once was, and they're already under attack by some of the grunts in the forest who have cover. They do their best in fighting them as well as in trying to get into the forest away from the camp, but because of the enemies superior numbers and their use of cover, the allies who have already been wounded fall in battle.
Even though I have successfully shot a dozen or so of them in the forest, and even though the grunts there are starting to suffer quite a few casualties, I fear that the allies fighting there including White may be as good as dead as right now we ourselves are pinned, as we cannot afford to break from cover with the amount of enemies that are still in the camp.
I then notice how yet another hundred troops attempt to rush out of the camp along with snipers and gunners, though they all get picked off at least. I can only guess that they were intending to reinforce the grunts in the forest judging from where they were going. It wouldn't have made much difference now anyway as only White herself, a couple of enemy bosses and a few enemy dozen troops remain battling it out.
Although I'm sure she'll survive against that lot, there's sure to be reinforcements coming her way to finish her off for good, and it saddens me to say that we cannot send any more troops to assist her. I just hope that she can return back to us considering that we need all the help we can get, and it is sad to know that we have failed to rescue the allies in the forest.
As if this is not bad enough, I then see about a thousand grunts heading out of the camp towards our location. 1000 troops against 100 of us? This does not look good and I can only hope that we can pick them off before they get to our position, as I don't think we'll survive against them. It's too bad we've already lost a good chunk of our forces while they've lost a mere small fraction.
I can only hope that the tide of this battle can be turned because it will be a shame if not. It's too bad that we're all that's left; I would have thought that they'd be more allied troops here, though I guess they might be on their way. I hope so because I really could do with more troops right now, especially those that can ambush the enemy.
Still even if we can wipe out that 1000, there's still a few thousand more and this does not include the bosses who will take some serious fire power to bring down. As the enemy troops rush out as fast as they can to get away from our gun fire, a fair amount of them get mowed down but sadly only a portion of them fall, and so all we can do is hide and hope that they can be ambushed and be wiped out before they can even kill any of us, though I fear I may be merely postponing the inevitable. I just hope that White can assist or an allied unit can come to help.
We then see the enemy army approach us after leaving the camp, and although we do our best to shoot as many as we can, we only manage to kill about a few hundred of them including a couple of powerful bosses escorting them, before they then hide amongst the trees and attempt to fire from cover, making it even more difficult for us to fight them. Although I'm sure we'll survive against these guys in this fight, I know that there's more to this than just them and even if it was just against them, we won't survive without suffering a fair amount of casualties.
I get the feeling that their force is a diversion to keep us distracted, while a much bigger enemy army heads towards our direction. As a matter of fact my concerns are confirmed when I hear gunfire from behind me. I then look back to see with my vision that the enemy wasn't firing at us, but that an allied force of 30 soldiers including an allied boss has arrived to help us in our capture of the camp, who while hiding amongst the trees are currently firing at the 2000 strong enemy troops there who include a few tough bosses.
I appreciate their arrival and their attack has brought the attention of the enemy main force to our attention, but I know that the allied group will just get slaughtered while barely putting a dent into the enemies' relatively massive army. This concerns me quite a lot.
This situation is just as I feared, as not only are we fighting a gunfight where the enemy numbers are too massive, it is on two fronts. I would like to at least try to bleed their numbers as best as we can, but we have no chance of doing so effectively. I soon realise that it is best to retreat and then to regroup, hopefully we won't be surrounded and perhaps then we will be able to bleed their troops before they can put all of their numbers into play.
It is the best strategy we have and so I mind talk to White to just get out and join us, even though she's under heavy fire from the enemy as the lot of us including our allies retreat as best as we can, even though the allied reinforcement unit has taken a lot of casualties already. I can only hope that at the very least we are diverting the majority of the garrison away from the camp, and that the Leanbox invasion will be over soon and that reinforcements can be provided at the camp, so it can still be taken and the mission can still be completed. But still this is a long shot and I'm unsure if it can be done.
Then as we rush through the trees while trying to evade the enemy fire which unfortunately a few of us have failed to do, I can't help but think whether they will continue to pursue us, or whether they'll just retreat back to camp, in which case I begin to wonder whether I could harass the enemy by hitting and running them, bleeding them so that the camp can then be captured.
At least I have a fair amount of snipers in my army so I can use their long range to my advantage, and at least we have the perk a colas so that we can out run them. Hopefully I can put that to good use and come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy.
After finally gaining significant distance between us and them, I order everyone except for those armed with sub machine guns and machine guns to climb a tree so that we can ambush them from there, with the snipers in front so that we have the most range for when they come. As for those armed with automatic weapons, I order them to position themselves to the side of us, overlooking the trees we're at so that they too can ambush them.
The thing is will this be enough though? I soon begin to wonder how many enemies can we kill before they manage to kill us back, especially with how I know that we're outnumbered by about just under 20 to 1. The very thought that we have to fire 20 bullets at them, making each shot count without getting shot at first, this will be quite the challenge, perhaps one that's too difficult to pull off.
Thanks to my visions, I can see the lot of them rushing through the trees as well as White herself, who is a good distance away from her pursuers of about half a thousand strong, though sadly the main force has spotted her and they're trying to shoot her down. I do my best to snipe the enemies down with my visions as they try and pursue her, while White herself hides at a nearby tree after gaining a fair amount of distance from the massive enemy army.
White then tries to shoot as many enemies as she can from her position, but soon afterwards she is forced to reload her gun, allowing the enemy to close in on her position. I myself do my best to kill the enemies that attempt to surround her, even managing to kill multiple enemies with one shot, but they still reach her position forcing her to shoot as many enemies as she can before running away. If only my snipers are able to see the enemy through the trees and help. I guess all I can do is to tell them to shoot any grunts that they do manage to see through the trees, though there isn't many enemies that they can shoot.
"White just head for our gunner nests, we'll cover you to the best of our ability then." I say to her via mind talk only for her to then respond.
The grunts then continue to chase her and I continue to shoot as many of them down as possible, but then I see them come after her without my vision, and that is then the sniper team of ours is able to mow them down while White takes cover with our gunners. Upon getting shot by us, the enemy then tries to take cover amongst the trees and engage our snipers, but a lot of them struggle to find us or even see us, and so we manage to wipe out dozens of enemies before they even find us.
Eventually however they resort to a change in tactic, and so they charge towards us so that they're no longer being sniped by us, but as they rush towards our snipers they then get mowed down including the bosses themselves. Unfortunately due to the immense number of enemies that charge towards us, our own troops are forced to reload and despite being able to reload as fast as they can, our own gunners get killed including White herself, who just had far too many enemies to deal with. This saddens me as although we have such high health, when the enemy grunts have such high numbers their attacks combined can do a serious amount of damage.
I would have hoped that White would be able to get away or that at least they wouldn't come all at once, but alas it is not to be and we've only managed to defeat a small fraction of their forces that are chasing us. I just hope that she can be revived soon and we can get reinforcements, but it is a great pity that I have not heard a response from Uni yet, as we have now lost our gunners and White and I'm concerned that we may not win this fight.
As the gunners were getting slaughtered, our rifle men did their best in providing covering fire, though right now they are rushing through in an attempt to find our positions so that they can wipe us out and take us down. The thing is while the enemy rushes through in hopes of surrounding us as well as in taking us down; we do manage to wipe out a fair amount of them as they try to surround us.
Unfortunately however when they do get to the other side of our box formation if you will, it is then that they slowly but surely take us out one by one, even when we hide as best as we can amongst the trees. I can see that their numbers are dwindling slowly but surely as we continue to fight and take them out, but even if we're hiding up amongst the trees and it's hard for them to shoot at us, there's still more of them to go and even as we fight, I do realise that we're not at the checkpoint itself meaning that the supplies could have passed that location already by now.
As a matter of fact they're already half way through the first line of our defences, so I hate to think how much longer it will be before all of our lines fall, and I know that the more defences that they breach, the easier it will be for them to breach the next ones. If we can just hold it together maybe we can do it as even if they outnumber us, as a percentage while they have lost over a third of their forces, we've merely lost just under a quarter of our forces. It's just a matter of killing them constantly before they can kill enough of our troops, though I know this to be easier said than done.
But I then realise that when it's just me and Oichi left, we might as well just stay and fight and keep killing as many of them as we can while we still live. Who knows maybe Noire and Uni can provide reinforcements as well as supplies, and be able to revive us again so that we can fight once more. If we're lucky perhaps then we can take the checkpoint, though by then it will probably be too late unless of course due to the constant attacks they postpone the delivery of the supplies. Still all we can do is our best for Lastation, Lowee and for Gameindustri and our best we have certainly done.
We shoot more and more at the enemies then reload and then shoot some more, but I know it will be a matter of moments before the first lines of defence get taken down. At least we have plenty of bullets but I do worry about whether we will have enough ammunition to hold the enemy off, as we lose more and more troops and with them the first line of defence. I guess it's just 3 more lines now, 3 more lines against just under 40% of their massive force, but how long can we keep this up?
Suddenly, I notice the enemy starting to lose morale as they see a lot of their comrades dying around them, as they try so hard to find us in the trees and shoot us down, but still they carry on as do we, even if we're all that's left of us. It's a battle of attrition and it makes me wonder who will crack first, me or them? At least there are no more enemy bosses left because if it weren't for us being able to kill them earlier in this gunfight, they probably would have wiped our defence lines out much quicker, as they have far too much health to be taken down easily.
We're nearly there in terms of wiping out the rest of them, perhaps we might have a chance in capturing the enemy camp as well after all, but I quickly realise that we have under 100 troops including about under a dozen snipers, and there's probably a thousand more troops and a dozen more bosses in the camp itself. Although I'm becoming more convinced we can survive this gun fight, I start to wonder with how many allied troops surviving it, as I notice that now the 2nd line has been breached? Oh dear just 2 more lines and then that's it.
No, we still have a chance. We will keep fighting and I keep saying this to myself as we shoot at grunt after grunt who exposes him or herself to us. The thing is, is that just as I figured the 3rd line is deteriorating more rapidly now, but at least there's not much more of the enemy left, as our troops continue to fight despite us losing much of our troops now and at a faster pace.
It doesn't feel like a second has passed and then it's just the final line of defence, and then in the blink of an eye it turns out that only me and Oichi remains, though at least there's only a few dozen enemy grunts left. After fighting them we manage to wipe out the lot of them, but unfortunately even though we manage to wipe them out at a fairly fast pace, we are both wounded by a fair amount.
Myself and Oichi are both relieved to see that we've won against those pursuers, but it is so sad to see that we've lost all of our forces including White against them. I don't think we can take the checkpoint now, not with just the two of us against a dozen enemy bosses as well as between one to two thousand troops, not including those in the trucks. I just hope that Uni can provide us with reinforcements soon if we are to stand a fighting chance.
We both agree to continue fighting them and not to give up as well as to pick up extra ammunition from our allies before we both rush back to the camp, hoping that there's no enemy reinforcements there, hoping that the supplies will not have passed the checkpoint just yet.
As we rush as quickly as possible, I try to contact Uni via mind talk but still there's no answer. If only she's finished fighting off the Leanbox invasion because then she can revive our forces, resupply them, and then I might have enough troops plus reinforcements to capture the checkpoint, and take the supplies as well as eventually defending the area against Team Rocket attacks. I guess even if this does concern me, I realise that all I can do is at least rush to the checkpoint to see if the supplies have passed, and if there are no allied reinforcements, then I'll have to think of a plan to capture the checkpoint or at least find the best way of killing as many of the enemy as possible.
After much running we finally reach the checkpoint, though sadly there is no way of knowing whether the supplies have made it through or not. It really bothers me a lot to think that it might have done, and we have failed to prevent it from happening, but I need to think to myself that we have done the best we can, and we must continue with the mission whatever happens and whatever the cost may be.
I look with my visions to see how many enemies there are, only to be relieved that there are only a dozen bosses as well as between one thousand to two thousand grunts, including about four dozen snipers and gunners, this suggests to me that they have not received reinforcements after our attack. My ideal strategy would be to eliminate the snipers first then the gunners, then the grunts and finally the bosses, but I know that to take them on would be a very bad idea to say the least, as to do so will result in them sending their troops against us, and we'll surely die and even hitting and running them won't be practical.
Noticing that next to me is a dead Team Rocket grunt, I decide to use the clothing he wore as a disguise. At least that way I can enter the place and find out if the supplies have passed through this checkpoint. If they haven't then I can at least attempt to capture the supplies and find a way to destroy them.
With myself changed at a spot some distance away from Oichi, I come back to tell her to use my sniping rifle and to help provide cover, when I give the appropriate signal. After which I then head off to the camp itself, in hopes that I'm not too late and that I can pass off as one of them. I wish Oichi could come with me, but I'm sure that she will arouse suspicion and so I head to the command hut alone, so that I can learn of what's going on.
As I walk there as casually as I possibly can, various thoughts rush through my head as to what I can say to them to convince them that I'm genuine. I wonder whether they'd be suspicious if I was to ask of the whereabouts of the supplies? With luck it hasn't yet passed this place, and I'll be stationed next to the checkpoint itself, though I highly doubt it and I guess I'll have to improvise.
I then reach the command hut and already I see the bosses as well as one of them, who I can only imagine to be the leader of this checkpoint perhaps of Viridian Forest notice my presence.
I notice the leader to be a female and she looks to have as much health as I do, but not only this but she wears exactly the same outfit as White did when she was disguised as a member of Team Rocket, with the black t shirt with a pink R, white mini skirt, white thigh boots, white arm length gloves and a white hat, all with a stripe of pink around the edge. The thing is her hair is different as she has pink hair which is tied in two braids, just like that no good rotten idiotic vile CPU Neptune.
Despite her presence trying to intimidate me especially with how she has two whips and two pistols holstered in her belt, I'm not scared though I will admit it won't be easy taking on this lot and the garrison at once.
"What do you want grunt it's not like I'm happy to see you or anything?" She barks at me in an aggressive manner like a tsundere sounding very unpleasant. I can tell from her body language that she is ever so disgusted to see me.
Oh I should have known that there would be a leader who is a tsundere, oh they disgust me so much with being rather unpleasant and arrogant, and I find it to be such a joke with how the series gave my Noire such a stupid personality trait. Oh I really hate the tsundere trait where it makes them sound so unpleasant, horrible, nasty, arrogant and a joke, and how dare that series give that pathetic excuse of a trait to the CPU representing Lastation, my landmass.
As if it's not bad enough her hair reminds me of Neptune, or at least her hair when she's in her HDD form. Just seeing her reminds me of how much I hate Neptune, how I yearn to punish her in such a way that she deserves it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had done something really sinister towards Arfoire, in fact I know that she's the real villain despite what my brainwashing tried to tell me with regards the Arfoire incident. Who knows maybe the person I see before me might have answers to my brain washing, though I'm unsure if she has any, and I doubt that I'll be able to get such answers from her considering the circumstances.
While I would love to reply back in a similar tone to her, and do my best to take her down along with everyone else in this place, I realise that it's not practical to do so and all I can do is to just restrain myself, remain calm, and to respond appropriately as to what she has to say.
"I would like to report to you some news, the news being that we have successfully repelled the enemy attack on this place and we've driven them off as well as wipe the lot of them out. Unfortunately I am the only survivor of that battle." I say to her knowing full well that she'll probably bite my head off.
As I thought she then frowns at me, almost looking like she wants to hit me really hard, I can then sense the anger from her body language.
"You're lucky that friendly fire is impossible or I would have you shot for your incompetency. I've ordered about 3000 troops to deal with that attack and only you survive, it just shows how pathetic all of these troops are. You can join that lot to guard the checkpoint, and pray to the all mighty goddess that you don't get shot down by those Loweean pests. As a matter of fact for your sake you'd better hope that that shipment comes past our way soon before the enemy does, because unless you and those guards make up for that disaster for earlier, you'll be in deep trouble because if they don't get you, I will. NOW GET OUT!" She speaks to me with much anger, frustration and aggression, almost as if she's ready to explode.
I'm surprised she cares regarding my sake, then again she probably doesn't though. She clearly has no appreciation for how tough we were and how we managed to defeat so many. Eh, what does it matter? She'll find out soon enough and will realise how on earth they all fell to their deaths. At least she told me that the shipment is still on its way, which is just as well as I don't think I'll find out by asking her or trying to take her down.
I then just walk out casually with my rifle in hand, thinking of the best strategy to capture the truck as I position myself at the checkpoint itself so I can capture it with minimum difficulty, hoping that doing so won't be a problem, hoping that the truck can protect me as I drive the supplies away from the enemy, and out of sight so that eventually the supplies can be stolen by air.
Oddly enough as I head towards the checkpoint, I do in fact see the supply truck coming towards this area though it's not just one, it's five and with my visions I see that it's guarded by people on top with guns, along with troops patrolling at the side of it to ensure that it reaches safely. To the side of them is a column of jeeps, armed with mounted machine guns which are each operated by a grunt.
I can't help but notice how the trucks themselves are massive with 3 people in the cab itself. I also notice how the cargo consists of various large parts for the targeting system, the war head, the flight system, the engine, the casing, and lots of fuel inside resulting in the containers being massive, as it's quite high, quite wide but extremely long as it appears to be supported by a large number of wheels.
Although I expected to see the trucks to be heavily guarded, I didn't expect there to be dozens of jeeps and a few extra trailers as well. It makes me wonder how I can prevent all the big trucks from reaching Viridian City? I'm not sure I can and so I wonder whether successfully capturing just one will do the trick in stopping them in their tracks, as long as we can prevent future deliveries?
I guess all I can do is just try as the window of opportunity has arrived. I charge towards the trailer in front, knowing full well that I will arouse suspicion. I hope I get to the truck first, and I hope that Oichi starts firing at them with her sniper rifle and manages to assist me in capturing it, and I hope that eventually allied reinforcements can arrive to help me to take this checkpoint and with it the supplies. The thing is all I can do right now is to do my best in taking the trailer at the front before I then attempt to prevent the trailers from getting through, as well as to eliminate all of the hostiles in the area. There are thousands of them and only two of us, but all I can do is just try my best like I always do.
I just hope it's enough because if not then I hate to think what will happen if I fail, as there is simply far too much riding on this, and to say that the mission and circumstances is difficult is putting it mildly.