ooooook, hey everybody! oh holy crap a new chapter. I rewrote this hundreds of times, although it's not as long as I would like it I'm pretty satisfied with it. I hope no one gets confused but I wrote it in a new point of view instead of 3rd person it's in Shadow's pov. teh POV will change from chapter to chapter from now on because I found it easier to write in first person. anyway hope you enjoy please leave a review
Chapter 12: one last attack
"We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there's still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. Without mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse. All war depends upon it." Lt. Ronald C. Speirs, 101st Airborne Regiment, 1944
I haven't been this paranoid in a while, actually I have never been this paranoid. Why the hell am I so paranoid? Oh wait I know why, because the god damn enemy won't come out of their little trenches, well I'm one to talk. I haven't left this spot for hours.
I look back through the scope of my rifle and all I see is small little black dots on the horizon, I sigh, lift my rifle, and sit with my back to the wall of the trench. I hear loud snoring next to me.
I see my blue haired friend who was snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I stare at him menacingly, how do people keep confusing me for him. We look nothing a like, ok maybe a few qualities like height and nose size but my hair's black (And my name is Shadow there should be a connection there.) my eye's are crimson and I wear black.
I decided to stand back up and kick his helmet out from under his head. His head smacks onto the rock that his helmet was resting on, but before he could give me any of his smart ass remarks, I slam my rifle into his gut. He groans and sits up.
"what was that for?" He asks rubbing the back of his head. I ignore him and he pulls himself to his feet. He bent down and grabbed his helmet. "if your going to sleep go back to the ship and sleep in the hanger." I say, I crouch down, looking at a small tin pot filled with some sort of chili over a small propane stove.
"The food is ready." I say. "finally." Sonic said and sat on the opposite of me, next to his pack. He reached into it and pulled out a tin pot the same size as the one on the stove. I dumped half the chili into Sonic's pot and take off my helmet, but before I can eat any of the chili the PDA under my wrist beeps several times.
Oh hell, now what? I look at my wrist and Silvers face pops up on it. He did not look happy. "what?" I say rudely. He scowls. "We've got a situation." he says
"when do we not have a situation?" He ignores me. "Tails' crew is almost done with repairs, the Shooting Star should be in flying condition in a couple of hours."
"And the problem is?" Sonic said, his mouth full of chili. "we're surrounded by enemy AA guns." I give him an annoyed look.
"but last time I checked; Sonic and the SAINTs destroyed most of them?" I ask. Silver shook his head. "that was artillery, Shadow. Unfortunately we can't spare any troops for an attack, so you two are on your own. We can, however, spare at least one UAV and a Raven stealth drop ship. Report to the hanger." he ordered and his face disappeared.
I gave Sonic an annoying glance. He returned the same glance and he groaned while standing up. He pulls his helmet over his head and climbs out of the trench and I followed behind him.
"So uh...how are you?" He asks. "Don't attempt at small talk." I scowl under my helmet as we climb into the back of a jeep. "although to answer your question I'm fine." I say, watching 'the most boring front lines I've ever been to' vanish as we drive by the Hull of the Shooting Star. We finally came up to the hanger which had a ramp connecting it to the ground.
We drove up the ramp and into the hanger, which was still crowded with casualties. Silver is sitting there waiting for us. "new plan." He says. He was holding a flight helmet and staring at me.
"Moments after I contacted you, our sensors picked up something huge on the other side of those mountains. The enemy is building their forces and we need to move, fast." Sonic jumps out of the jeep, I follow him and Silver hands me the helmet.
"Shadow, since your the best pilot we have, you'll be leading the air forces. Sonic, you'll be leading the ground forces. Shadow get your flight gear, Sonic get any soldier, that can hold a gun, ready to fight." Silver said. "why are we fighting? Why not run?" Silver gives Sonic a glare.
"Because we have wounded AND we have a crippled ship, we could probably two feet away from that attack force and then, boom, they're on us like bee's to a hive." I stare at him. He's afraid, of what I don't know. There's something he's not telling us.
"What was the other thing that the sensors picked up?" I say. He gives me an odd look. "What are you talking about?" liar...
"You have a horrible poker face and you can't lie worth shit, so tell me what's bothering you." he curses to him self and looks me straight in the eye. "we also picked up something to the west of the attack force. some earthquake, sensors show massive energy readings though, I'm concerned about it." Sonic puts his hand on Silver's shoulder. "don't worry about it." He smiles. "we're the Sand Rats we can get outta worse situations." Silver tenses up, and sighs. "Sonic, I don't think it could get any worse than this." Silver says, Sonic's smile just grows bigger. "Trust me, it could get worse, we could get attacked by mutant zombies while fighting the EFR." I glare at Sonic, if those events really happen, (I doubt it but with our luck...they might.), I'm going to beat Sonic to a bloody, blue haired pulp.
"I would like to know my objectives, Silver." I say. "your objective is to attack the enemy with full force, use anything and everything necessary. My plan is to rise confusion in the enemy attack force so that the star can get away. It's risky but it might work." I raise an eye brow. "and if it doesn't work?" he frowns. "we'll fight till our last breath."
I nod, this could be a problem, for one: we still don't know how many enemy units are we're, and two: we have low moral, and three: we don't have many soldiers to spare. I have my orders, guess there's nothing else to do besides follow them.
I salute (which makes me feel stupid considering the fact that I'm a higher rank than Silver) and walk towards the armory.
I walk out of the armory fully clothed in the right flight equipment with my helmet under my arm. I see that the hanger has been completely transformed in the short fifteen minutes it took for me to change.
I walk up to a large group of pilots surrounding Silver. "You have your orders, your dismissed. We attack in thirty minutes." the group scatters and Silver motions me to walk with him. "what?" I say once I'm next to him. "I need guidance right now." I shake my head.
"I'm not exactly the best person to ask about guidance, talk to Sonic or Knuckles." I frown, he's asking me for advice on something whither it be experimenting in the bedroom or thoughts concerning our troops, I still can't give any good advice to anything.
He ignores my attempts to get him to ask someone else. "I'm going to battle with Sonic." He says flatly. I stare at him, going to battle? Does he mean fighting? I mean, sure he's a great strategist and I think the only thing I've seen him fight is Sonic on poker night but going to war. I don't think I've seen him hold a gun.
"your going to die." I say, making sure there's no emotion in my voice. His expression morphs from concerned to just plain sad. Maybe I should be more considerate of other people's feelings...nah. "You think I don't know that? I'm going to get killed out there and Blaze will be a widow before she's even married!" He says, I resist the urge to hit him. "look, how long have you been with the GAM?" I say.
he shrugs, "about seven years, why does it matter?" I point at him. "your a Lieutenant Colonel right? Now to become an officer of any kind you got to start from the bottom. Where did you start?" he thought about it for a minute. "I was a SAINT, Master Sergeant." I stifle a laugh, he was a SAINT? "see thats good now that I know you could kick some ass (no matter how weak you look) you'll survive out there. Me and Sonic do it almost every day. Now go get your gear on we're headed out in twenty-five minutes." He salutes me, I return the salute and we both walk off in different directions.
I wonder around the hanger until I found my Warhawk. (even though MY Warhawk was destroyed in that little crash landing before I met Mina, I just decided to take one of the extras and outfit it with my usual stuff.)
I put my hand on the sleek black steel and I hear Blaze's voice boom through out the hanger. "Ground forces have engaged the enemy, all fighters prepare for attack." Well, here goes nothing. I climb onto the wing of the Warhawk, the canopy opened and I was about to jump in when someone called my name behind me.
"Colonel Shadow Hedgehog, SAINT number 1727342?" A soldier who knows my last name and SAINT number, impressive. "what is it trooper?" I ask and turn to see an EFR soldier standing there, an EFR soldier, with GAM symbols on his armor.
"I herd rumors of an Effer soldier joining our ranks, apparently there true." I say. "what do you need?" I hear him climb on the wing. He must weigh a ton, I almost lose my balance when the Warhawk is suddenly leaning against it's right wing. "Sir, I was ordered by Brigadier General Sonic to accompany you in this attack." He said.
"Accompany me? Ordered? Brigadier General?" I say, he nods, "Affirmative, I am your copilot, sir." I resist the urge to growl, Sonic has no say on who my copilot is and I don't need one for that matter. If the enemy troops don't kill him, I will. I look over the trooper in front of me. He wore heavy, faded red armor with small scratches all over it, he is pretty tall, like somewhere between seven and eight feet. He wore no helmet and his hair was as red as his armor, with little splotches of gold in it. He was holding a back pack in his hand
"What's your name?" I ask. "E-123 Omega, sir." An android? Interesting. "and why do you have a pack?" he lifts over his head and slings it on his back. "its your SAINT armor, sir, in case we get shot down." I look over him him one more time, tell on how my Warhawk is tilting by him just standing on the wing, we're not going to be flying above two feet.
"denied." I say. "pardon?" he said, "I said denied, your not flying with me your two heavy." I turn to get into the cockpit when the Warhawk suddenly turned upright and I hear a loud bang. I turn around, again, to see Omega had dropped the pack on the ground and that it made a huge dent into the metal floor of the hanger, I know my armor doesn't weigh that much, must be some sort of power source or ammo.
"fine, get into the copilots seat." He nods and climbs into the cockpit. I put my helmet on and climb in after him. I connect the breathe mask to my helmet and flip the visor over my eyes. I flip several switches and the engine of the Warhawk roars to life. I turn on the com and look up at the octagon shaped observe lab in the center of the ceiling of the hanger.
"Dark knight to tower requesting permission to take off." I say, taking hold of the flight stick. "tower to Dark knight, permission granted, once you clear the hanger stand by at selected sector for the entire attack force." I pull back on the throttle and I feel the fighter start to lift into the air, I press several buttons and immediately thrust the throttle forward.
I almost sink into my seat as I feel the force of gravity double. I see the hanger suddenly disappear into a gray sky. I push the flight stick right and the fighter barrels right and I immediately pull back once the horizon is vertical. Now the only thing I need to do is meet up with the rest of the attack force. I just hope we can pull this off
that wasn't that bad, was it? If you don't like Love and War in first person send me a review and I'll change it. anyway I'm off to start chapter 13. ta-ta!