Thirty Seasons Later: Book One: The War Torn Tundra

Chapter Six: The Storms Break: Part Two: Heroics at the Front

"I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."- Ulysses S. Grant

After parting ways with the two assassin platoons, Terraff and Rakio immediately made for the front gates, racing through the streets with a total disregard for subtlety. There's was not a mission of stealth, but one of explosive force and surprise. .

"So I assume that your platoon will be taking the gates and we will be taking the gatehouse so we can raise the portcullis?" Terraff's Beta, a cutlass bearing ferret named Carthen, asked Rakio.

"Yes,"Rakio answered shortly. "My platoon is best suited to holding the area around the gates, and getting them open." It was true. Rakio's platoon was made up purely of shock troops. Regardless of species, every last one was built like an oak, armored from head to toe, and armed with weapons made for inflicting a lot of damage. In ranks, they were a single, impenetrable stone wall and battering ram in one.

Terraff nodded. "Then my group will take the gatehouse, lower the drawbridge, and raise the portcullis." Out of the four platoons, Terraff's was the only one that was not specialized in anyway, it was the same mix of general infantry, archers, and medics typical to any normal platoon. As they neared the perimeter of the burning section of the city, the two captains assembled their troops into an arrowhead formation, with Rakio's shock troops forming the outsides and front and Terraff's general infantry forming the core of the formation. In the chaos of the burning city, the two platoons found little trouble in smashing through to the gate, and taking control of the immediate area around it. Once they had their position secure, however, they found themselves in a bind. They were surrounded, boxed in by over two thousand enemy troops who were trying their best to kill them all.

"Alright! I've cleared you to the gatehouse stairs, Terraff! We'll hold them here. You're going to have to take the gatehouse, and hold it from the forces on the battlements on your own!" Rakio said as she beheaded a wolverine with her battleaxe.

Terraff opened her jaws to say something, lashing out at the enemy with her twin sabers, but was jerked back by her Beta Carthen. "No time Captain! They'll take care of it!" His words were proven by Harko knocking a wolverine's legs out from under him. The beast was put down a moment later by the weasel standing beside the dark grey wolf with two blows to the neck with his flanged mace

Out of all of Terraffs troops, the mouse Watson was the first to draw blood, he was also the first to die on the wall. For after sinking his machete into a wolverine's exposed hamstring, the next sensation the the sixteen seasons old mouse felt was his victim's gauntlet across his face, the feeling of his vertebra snap like a wet branch and the all-consuming numbness that followed as the wolverine backpawed him off of the battlements. The young mouse was dead before his corpse hit the cobblestones below. The next thing Watson's killer saw and felt was the axe wielded by the ferret Minke and his ice blue eyes as he leapt off of the knelt down figure of his brother and lodged the weapon in the beast's throat.

Then Minke too was killed, a look of enraged shock stamped upon his face as the archer in front of him fired an arrow point blank through his chainmail and into his heart. In fact the archer was so close to minke that after passing completely through Minke, the arrow also mortally wounded his brother Paul who had leapt back up to support his twin.

The sacrifice of those three warriors was not in vain, however, for the precious minute they bought with their lives gave their brothers and sisters in arms just enough time for five warriors to slip inside the gatehouse door and butcher everyone inside to gain it for their teammates. The last two to enter were Terraff and Carthen , who felled many with their flashing blades before they were yanked inside by the rest of the platoon. Including Watson, Minke, and Paul, a total of five warriors had died in the scramble to take the gatehouse, the fourth was the warrior who avenged the ferret twins, who was felled by that archer's last arrow, the fifth was a pine marten named Thiam, the only one who died inside the gatehouse, slain by a desperate stoat in the immediate slaughter that took place when Terraff's forces flooded the gatehouse.

"Good work everyone, now let's get that drawbridge lowered and the portcullis raised." Terraff called as she further barricaded the door before moving to assist the group that was struggling to raise the heavy iron portcullis.

Carthen stuck his head out the window. "We're in!" He called down to Rakio, giving her a brief thumbs up before swiftly ducking back into the gatehouse to avoid a few arrows.

Below, Rakio sunk her battleaxe into a wolverine and yanked it free. She then turned to flash Carthen a thumbs up in return to acknowledge that she had heard. Taking advantage of her apparent distraction, a fox hacked at her back with a machete. A heavy-set squirrel wiped him out with a single swing of her ball-headed club. The machete didn't even connect with Rakio's plate armor.

Blocking a sword stroke with his claymore, a weasel next to the squirrel commented, "You know what I'd really like right now? One of those big bronze shields that Chieftain Dorian and those other wildcats carry. The round ones that cover most of your body and like, half of the guy besides you. That would make this so much fuckin' easier."

"True," the squirrel responded as she knocked an opponent to the ground ",but then you would have had to haul the damn thing all the way over here."

Jabbing out with his maul, Harko added in "Also, you would have had to pay for that yourself. That shit's expensive and the government already shells out enough to suit you and everyone else in this platoon up in custom fitted plate armor and chainmail."

The weasel rolled his eyes and, seizing an opportunity, lashed out with his claymore and split a rat in two. "Spoilsports."

"You guys in the back! Have you managed to get that gate unbarred?" Rakio yelled to the knot of her warriors struggling to get the massive iron-bound, oak beam out of the four brackets (two on each door) that kept the gate locked from the inside. As she said her piece, the beam tumbled out of it's brackets as two wolves made their way from the wall of fighters holding the wolverines at bay and threw their strength into lifting the beam the last little bit. All twelve beasts crashed to the ground under the immense weight that normally took five wolverines to quickly put up and take down. The beasts nearest the downed team rushed to drag their comrades out from under the beam. After getting them out, they hurried to pull the doors inward. Under the pulling of the beasts inside and the pushing of the beasts outside, the double doors practically flew open and a flood of their armed allies came rushing in to overwhelm and crush the enemy force that Rakio's platoon had been holding back for the past thirty minutes.

When Terraff noticed that their allies were in and no one would be able to push them out, she walked outside the gatehouse and she and Carthen fought their way to retrieve the mace dropped by the wolverine that had killed Watson. They then made their way back into the gatehouse, where Terraff sheathed her twin sabers and took up the mace, destroying the drawbridge and portcullis controls and locking them both there, she lead her troops out and lead the assault to take control of the battlements.

When the main force flooded through the gates and smashed through the enemy lines, they created a wild turmoil, and in that turmoil, Rakio was separated from her platoon in the chaos and cornered into a nearby alley, furiously swiping away the attacks of two foxes, a wolverine, and two enemy wildcats bearing spears and large, circular bronze shields with the crest of a beating heart pierced by a spear stamped upon their centers.

As stalwart a warrior as she was, even Rakio could only hold for so long. Decapitating one of the foxes, a wolverine cut off one of her ears, while the wildcats jabbed at her legs , hounding her on all sides. The she-wolf took a couple blows to the chest, trusting in her armor to protect her as she swiped away a slash from the other fox's machete and followed through with the swipe to cut off the wolverine's footpaw at the top of the ankle. A wildcat speared her footpaw through the boot in return. Rakio snarled as she lashed out, lodging the axe into the offending feline's side and mortally wounding it. She had just enough time to finish off the wolverine before she had to devote her energy to fending off her last two opponents, a machete bearing fox and the last of the two wildcats. The fox rushed forward to strike at her knees and was put down by a lightning quick executioner-style blow to the head.

The wildcat's spear came out of nowhere to the exhausted wolf, ramming through one side of the she-wolf's neck and out the other. Blood erupted from Rakio's neck like a geyser as she collapsed to the ground when the wildcat tore loose his spear, her paws wrapped around her neck in a vain attempt to stop the horrendous bleeding. Her breathing a collection of gurgled gasps for air she could never collect.

The wildcat smirked as he looked down and watched Rakio gurgle her life away, reveling in her suffering. Growing bored, he gripped the spear in both paws, the great shield slung across his back, and raised it high and thrust down with all his might, lodging the spear point in the back of the she-wolf's head. The light had finally left Captain Rakio Stormfur of the Evergreen Pack.

The wildcat did not have long to gloat over his fallen foe as Rakio's platoon had broken through the resistance that had originally separated the lupine captain from her allies. Harko was pissed. The feline freed his spear and turned to face to enraged wolf. Maul met shield with a sound like thunder. The impact forced the cat to his knees. Jabbing out with his spear and forcing the wolf back, the wildcat combatant scrambled back to his paws, and danced just slightly back and side to side before lunging back into the fray. The wildcat's spear jabbed at the wolf. Harko was having none of it. Dodging the spearpoint, he grabbed the spear shaft just below the point and brought his maul down on the weapon, turning the ashwood shaft of the spear into splinters.

The wolf knocked aside the shield with a backpaw stroke of his weapon and his next smashed the cat into the ground. With a boot on the feline's chest, Harko kept his enemy pinned as he raised his maul.

The cat chuckled. "Good fight."

The unforgiving weapon connected with the side of the cat's head with a sound akin to an iron bar smashing an apple to slush. Harko turned away and knelt by the body of his captain. "I'll have to grieve for you later mother. I have a job to do, I'm sure that's what you'd want." He whispered, placing a paw on her shoulder. He placed his maul beside her body and took up his mother's battleaxe, which he used for the rest of the battle.

Captain Terraff found herself fighting side by side with General Stormrudder, whose rapier flickered out rapidly, taking a life with every beast it touched. After The Main force had stormed through the gates, two divisions, mostly otters and wildcats, assended the stairs and began the task of clearing the battlements of the enemy. It wasn't taking long, after the wolves, the otter and wildcat clans were some of the best troops in the alliance, and they gave nor received any quarter in the battle for the walltops. Heavy resistance slowly gave way to isolated pockets of fighters over the next hour and a half as the enemy relented and fled into the city to wage a slow war of attrition and guerilla warfare as allied forces were driven to clearing houses and buildings and streets one by one, and warfare reduced down to squad on squad combat amid the burning and destroyed buildings.

Terraff cleared so many buildings that she eventually lost count, but she eventually saw Jethro enter a building, by the time she arrived to his aide, a fox with a mace was bludgeoning him over and over again. Sneaking up behind the fox, she ran the fox through with both of her swords, the blades exited the front of his ribcage with a wet crunch. "Enjoy Hell." She whispered in the beast's ear before withdrawing her weapons and letting her victim fall to the floor, gasping through torn lungs.

The she-wolf ignored his gasps, and immediately crouched over the injured leopard, who was cradling his forearm against his chest. "What's injured and how bad?" She snapped, turning the leopard over onto his back.

"Agh, broken forearm, both bones, and a broken rib, no internal bleeding, I've had that before, and this isn't it. OW, careful dammit!" Jethro exclaimed as Terraff felt his arm. "Just get the shaft of something, I have a medkit with a bunch of bandages in one of my leg pockets."

Terraff nodded and yanked the wooden handle off of an axe belonging to a beast that Jethro had killed before she arrived. She then used the axe handle and the shirts from the dead soldiers to splint his arm and a pair of pants to create a makeshift sling. His rib would have to wait for treatment until they got him to the medics.

"Alright, thanks, if you see Aroth around, tell him where I am, will you?" Jethro asked, heaving himself back to his feet and retrieving his sword.

"If you think I'm leaving you to walk back alone, you're an idiot Jethro. I'll walk you as far as the gates." Terraff answered indignantly. "They can do without me until then. Is the enemy king dead?"

"No, we left him strung up by his pawthumbs and Generals Safway and Erature have taken control of the palace. We've won."

"Not yet, first we have to kill every one of the wolverines that are left, the enemy wildcat clans are very unlikely to surrender either."

Jethro nodded, "If it wasn't for my rib, I'd stay and help, but I can't risk internal bleeding. Sorry I can't stay in the front." The leopard stated apologetically.

Terraff shrugged. "You've done enough anyway. It's fine, we know what you'd rather be doing."

When they reached the front gate, Jethro bid Terraff good luck before passing through the gates and making his way across the two mile wide no beast's land in search of a medic who could put a half decent cast on his arm and wrap his side to keep the broken rib from causing problems.

Aroth kicked in the door and axed down the soldier just inside with two swift movements. Now facing two opponents, a weasel and a pine marten, he charged, sweeping aside the weasel's spear with his tomahawk and slitting his throat before whirling to the side and burying the war hatchet in the marten's skull.

The fox looked around the four rooms in the single story house. In the second bedroom he found an enemy male ferret with a bloodied machete, another male ferret that looked like it was halfway into it's armor lying dead with a slim hole in the back of his head, and a jill with a slit throat. Aroth looked around cautiously, this did not look like a standard engagement. If anything, it looked like a domestic dispute turned fatal, "Well, maybe not everyone died." The fox thought as he noticed a trail of bloody pawprints leading into a closet away from the body of the halfway dressed male ferret.

Putting his tomahawk in the loop on his belt, he kept his dagger at a low ready position so that if this beast became dangerous, he was ready to defend himself. Placing his right paw on the door handle lightly, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Aroth jerked the door open with lightning speed, and stared deep into the defiant blue eyes of a thirteen seasons old ferret clutching a bloody warhawk, a three foot wooden pole with a spike driven sideways through the pole an inch or so from the top. The spike was bloody. Aroth realized exactly who murdered the half dressed ferret. "You killed that half-dressed ferret, son?" Aroth asked slowly.

The ferret nodded. "My father told that other ferret to kill mom and me so we couldn't slow them when they escaped. I killed him when he was killing mom. Then I killed dad. Now you are going to kill me, aren't you?" The kit said as calmly as he could, the only giveaway of his fear was the ever-so-slight shaking in his voice and the wideness of his eyes..

Aroth shook his head. "I don't kill kids, and they sound like they deserved it. Come with me, I'll take you somewhere you can be safe until it's over." He replied slowly. "Just lower the weapon, you don't have to put it down." The fox slid his long dagger into the sheath across his chest and fastened it in. "See, I ain't gonna hurt you." Aroth backed out away from the closet. "Just come out nice and easy."

The ferret gave him a long look and thrust the warhawk through his belt. Keeping eye contact, the kit stepped out of the closet and took a dagger from one of the bodies. "Where are you going to take me? The entire city is fighting right now."

"We're gonna go outside the walls to the encampment. I have a very nice otter medic who's going to want to meet you. Her name is Swiftstream."

Author's Notes Time!

I am so very sorry for taking this long. Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to review! Also, don't forget that the characters of Thirty Seasons Later are open for questions, and so am I! Seriously, ask away I love answering them, and I want more to answer. Any Character that has made an appearance and is not dead is open for questions.