As for those Hunters, half of them were pretty hurt themselves. However, they were all sticking in there. After some treatment from X1, Death Star had pretty much recovered. Those two bickered over so many random things over the past twenty-four hours, that it gave Zero a headache trying to piece together what they were discussing.
Death Star glared angrily at X1. "Stay...away...from...me!"
X1 looked offended. "Listen here, Deathy, you're getting your rabies shot."
"I am not an animal!"
"You sure as hell look like one to me," X1 told him.
Death Star reached, as if to strangle X1, when Zero cleared his throat. Lowering his hands, Death Star turned his back to X1. X1 grinned devishly and pulled back to give the shot in Death Star's ass when a look from Zero made him back off.
"Alright, everyone, here's our current situation," Zero began, gathering everyone's attention in the conference room. "X has managed to defeat three of Sigma's mavericks leaders. This will put a huge dent in his ability to launch any plans of his into action. Plus, The Fin has been destroyed." Everyone cheered. "Now, as for our current state, Vile's attacks have been draining our resources quickly. Each time he assaults Mega City, we lose more forces and more supplies. The fact is, we can't last much longer against these attacks." Everyone sobered up. "Howeeeever, I think we have just enough strength to punch a counter attack on one of his bases. My spies have gathered information that a base near Mega City is where the main forces are coming from. If we can destroy it, Vile will have to regroup before he can attack the city again and that should give us enough time to come up with some plan to put Sigma himself out of action. I have Wildfire out searching for Sigma's fortress as we speak. Hopefully he can find it." Everyone nodded in agreement. "I'm splitting us up into two groups, however. Group A will remain here to defend the base. Group B shall go with me to attack the base. Those on Group B will be you five," Zero continued, pointing at five random Hunters, "and Delta, North Star, and Death Star."
Everyone nodded and smiled at each other. "Yes, sir!"
Zero smirked. "Okay, you eight, lets go. Our transport is waiting outside Hanger B."
Death Star glanced at him. "I see we have Cain's full support..." he said bitterly, nodding upward at the drunken man who was giving everyone a thumbs up before passing out.
North Star laughed. "I think this war has made a drunk out of him."
Brian frowned. "Poor guy...this must be hitting him hard. Since he is the cause of all this."
Zero shook his head. "Give him a break. Cain'll shape up again...I hope. At least that was X1's medical opinion."
X1 looked at him. "I deny that."
Death Star sighed. "Oh, so we're going on his medical opinions now? Oy..."
"Sir, yes sir!"
Cran nodded and looked back at a view of his advisors. "I think this is a good move, for us." The men all looked puzzled. "You see, they weaken Vile's forces. But at the same time, they'll be weakened. I doubt half their task force shall survive the assault.
"Now..." he continued, pointing at a HoloVid on the table, "this will leave Hunter HQ wide open for attack. If we leak some information to the Mavericks about this, they'll be sure to jump all over it. We'll stop the Mavericks and come off heroes."
One of his advisors looked skeptic. "Shouldn't we let them destroy the Hunters first?" he asked.
Cran waved his finger in a no motion. "We let them take out the HQ, then destroy the Maverick task force, we'll look like bad guys. Because the public will think we purposely let our 'comrades' die without aiding them. We wouldn't come off looking good."
The man nodded. "Excellent idea, sir."
Cran smirked and turned back to the younger officer. "I want you to send a few of your men to go out and leak the word to the Mavericks about the Hunters' current state. But be quick about it, we don't have that much time left. I say the Hunters' attack on that Maverick base shall commence at the end of the day."
"Sir, yes sir!" the officer said, saluting. He turned around and briskly walked off.
Dr. Light must have had some purpose for him other than this. His AI capsule had even told him that he had wished the world would have let him take a different path. But his strong sense of justice is what propelled X to fight. He would do anything to ensure the fighting would end, one way or another. And right now, that meant killing those he would consider his brothers ... the reploids gone Maverick.
Clenching his fist, his eyes had a spark of anger dancing around in them. This base ran off of Chill Penguin's power source in the North Pole. Ever since X had shut down the base up there, this base was having problems with freezing over. Strange, for a place that produced heat and fire to power the machines there.
Right now, this was the weakest link in the remaining bases to hit. Even X could see that, not even being skilled in tactics. That's where this made it hard. All X could really do was directly assault a base, since had no tactic skills to sneak in and avoid detection. Plus he had no sources or information on this place. For all he knew, a huge army of Mavericks could be waiting for him to step out. This was, in fact, a place they constructed those Maverick drones to attack the city. He shivered, remembering the Mavericks in the city that attacked him. They weren't even reploids, but a hybrid of some machine that followed the reploids orders. That always made it easier to kill them .... mentally.
X teleported and appeared inside the base, glad no shield were up to prevent his teleporting. That made things easier. He landed on the floor and noted it was iced over. So, the base was still weakened from the loss of Chill Penguin's operations. Excellent.
Running along the floor, X dived over and landed on an assembly line. A maverick part came flying down from the ceiling and almost crushed him. Jumping on top of it, X leaped off, hopping from line to line, working his way across the facility. The defenses in the place were incredibly weak, considering this was just a place to build Mavericks.
Working his way across, X dropped down the stairs into the lower levels and entered the furnace part of the base. His luck was with him, as it was completely iced over. Smirking, X glanced up and saw the roof had abstained some damage. Patting his helmet, he leaped up and smashed in the roof with his head. Climbing up the wall and breaking the roof in with Dr. Light's helmet upgrade, he arrived in a small room.
Glancing back, X noted that this was purposely designed to catch his attention. Turning back around, he saw Dr. Light's capsule there. Someone definitely wanted him to find this, in the middle of a Maverick base. But who was running around setting these up for him to find? Who could possibly be aiding X in this quest and have such a close tie to Dr. Light himself? Who?
Pushing his questions aside, X walked up to the capsule. It opened up and Dr. Light appeared. "Welcome, X...your power is increasing greatly. As I had predicted, you are becoming stronger than anything this planet has seen. Step into this capsule and increase the strength of your blaster." Dr. Light faded away and X stepped onto the capsule. It hummed to life, just like the others, however this time a searing wave of pain hit X as his arm felt like it was being disassembled. Choking on his own scream, X threw back his head and rode on the waves of pain until they finally stopped. Slumping to his knees, X panted and glanced over at his blaster. It was a different color now and looked larger.
Standing up, X dived back down the hole he had made earlier and landed back in the furnace chamber. With renewed energy, X worked his way into the center of the room, climbing the platforms and dispersing of the light waves of Mavericks there. His level 2 shot seemed stronger, but other than that, X didn't notice anything different...perhaps he hadn't become stronger like Dr. Light had said he would. But that didn't matter.
Leaping across the room and aiming for a wall to grab onto and work his way down some to reach the next chamber, X slammed completely through it. Rolling along the ground with a grunt of pain, he stood up and saw an energy tank. Grabbing it, X leaped out and landed in the next hallway. Running down it, he opened the door into Flame Mammoth's room.
Opening the second door, X stepped out...realizing he was standing on air. Falling down and landing on a huge assembly line, he looked around and spotted a furnace in the background. Suddenly Flame Mammoth leaped out, landing on the assembly line and throwing X back from the sheer impact of his weight.
"So, X, we finally meet! You've done quite a number on my friends!" Flame roared at him.
"Surrender and we won't have to do go through the same thing!" X shouted back.
"I think not, X. I must avenge my brothers in war!" Flame said and fired off a glob of sticky acid. X rolled under it and fired a level 2 blast into the huge elephant reploid. It merely dented his armor and caused no further damage. Cursing himself, X stepped back and switched over to Spark Mandrill's attack, firing off an electric blast. Flame grinned and slapped the blast, sending it flying off into the wall where it exploded. "I think not."
X dashed under the huge elephant as he jumped. Once the Maverick landed on the assembly line again, it threw X from the impact. Struggling to his feet, X flipped over to Storm Eagle's weapon and raised his blaster, firing off the whirl wind. It caught the surprised Mammoth in the head and sent him flying backwards, impacting once more on the assembly line. Regaining his balance, X fired off two more rapid shots that completely eradicated the Maverick.
As the pieces cooled off from the explosion that had ensured, X felt a new power enter him. Standing back defiantly, X fired off an ice blast into the heart of the furnace, icing off the central core. He teleported away as the entire base exploded in a brilliant light...leaving just the memory of it behind.
"Damn you, Zero...damn you!" he cursed into the air. "You were suppose to join our side, just like your creator intended for you to! Why didn't you, Zero!?" he yelled again, but then relaxed.
"Even with you and the others destroying my bases, you cannot stop my plans. In just forty eight hours I shall be ready to strike, from this fortress. You cannot stop me, Zero...even if you come here and battle me one on one, I am more powerful than you." Sigma looked down at the ocean that the fortress was flying over.
"I look forward to our fight, Zero...and I'll look forward to your destruction."
Brian cleaned his rifle, holding it up, looking through the scope to make sure it was on target. Placing it down beside him, he reached under the seat and pulled out some energy clips to operation the gun's plasma blasts. Popping it into the underside of the gun, he checked the energy levels and gave it a satisfied nod.
Next to Death Star sat North Star, opening and closing his fist. He kept his face down, as not to let on he was excited as hell, like a little kid in a candy shop who was just told he could buy anything he wanted, just because they were about to go on a mission against the mavericks. He literally was getting a vibe off of the war. Not the deaths or the dying or the horrors of it, but the fighting and the action of it. One good soldier fighting another, which he had yet to fine as all his opponets had fallen. He almost wanted to take Vile on one on one.
A bump sent the transporter jarring and Death Star let his eyes flutter open. He glanced around at everyone then looked to his left at a purple reploid sitting down next to him, looking extremely nervous. He recognized him as being a rookie of sorts, but who had an excellent kill score. Holding out his hand toward the purple reploid, Death Star watched him jerk back in surprise, not expecting it, then smile and shake the hand. "Hi, the name's Death Star."
"I'm Mac."
"Glad to have you on board, Mac. You ready for the battle?" he asked.
Mac shrugged slowly and seemed to be thinking his words over. "I'm not really sure. I mean, I know I can fight when it comes to the right moment and that I can strike a blow where needed, but every time before a battle, my stomach just begins to eat at me."
Death Star gave him a sympathic smile. "I know the feeling. Most soldiers feel that before entering a battle. You just have to realize most of your comrades feel just like you do, but when the time comes to stand up to the fight, they'll turn their fear into energy and take down their opponet. So, don't feel bad you're afraid, use it against the enemy. Strike that fear into them."
Mac smiled. "Thanks, Death Star."
Death Star returned the smile and laid his head back again, closing his eyes, when he heard North Star whisper under his breath to him. "Seems like you're becoming quite the little leader now."
"Aww, shut up."
The eight Hunters rode in silence in the back of the transport, trying to pass the time in their own creative ways. Soon the rhythmic roar of the transporter began to become the only thing any of them heard and when it suddenly stopped, many were jarred in surprise, not expecting the sudden loss of the soothing sound they had been listening to.
The backdoor of the transporter opened with a bang and Zero dusted his hands out. "Okay you guys, pile out and get into formation. Delta, you check to make sure all our supplies are there." Brian nodded and hung back, checking to make sure they had enough medical supplies and energy tanks for all the Hunters.
After the check, the nine Hunters began to work their way forward, Zero leading the way now. As they reached the top of the dusty hill, he knelt down and waved everyone else to follow his example. The team gazed down at the army of Mavericks marching in and out of a base built into the mountains. Someone whistled in amazement at the sheer number of Mavericks.
Zero pressed himself against the side of the hill and looked at the eight Hunters. "Well, there seems to be more here than we originally thought..."
"I'll say," someone spoke up.
"...however, we can still handle them. All we have to do is pool our resources together. I'm going to comm. our driver and have him bring up a beam cannon to fire down at the left wing of troops while the rest of us strike from the right." He pointed to a hill positioned on the other side of the Maverick army, slightly off to their right. "Gather there and don't get caught. Okay, dispatch out, now!"
The eight Hunters, ducking down close to the ground so the Mavericks below wouldn't see them, ran along the hills. As they worked their way toward their destination, Zero hung back and pulled out his comm. After a short disagreement to the driver, about him actually getting involved with the fighting instead of just driving, Zero won out and had his beam cannon brought up. The cannon was seven feet in length and stood 5 feet off the ground. It was the type you would see on the side of a ship used for it's defense, but Zero had found this one just gathering dust in the corner of the weapons' room.
Positioning the cannon precisely on the side of the hill so it wouldn't fall off from the backlash of firing it, Zero clicked the button to begin to charge it up. Typing on the control panel that was on the side of the cannon, designed by Hunter Techs just for this type of use, he entered the code to automatically fire when the cannon had reached it's 100% max.
Glancing back at the driver, he gave him a thumbs up, the sign for the driver to get as far from the battle as he could, while still being close enough to come in to aid wounded Hunters. Dashing away from the cannon, Zero very rapidly ran across the hills, not caring if he was spotted, to the location of the others. Just as he was within fifty feet of his team, a loud thundercrack was heard. Stopping, he glanced down at the Mavericks and saw a huge cloud rising into the air and tons of Maverick bodies were scattered about. The remaining Mavericks in the general area began to run around angrily like ants when you smashed in their anthill. It seemed as if the beam cannon had done it's job. Turning back to the Hunters on the hill, Zero motioned down at the right flank of Mavericks. "Attack!"
The Mavericks, already in chaos over the explosion, weren't up to defending themselves against the incoming onslaught of the Maverick Hunters. The Hunters easily began to cut into the confused ranks of Mavericks and worked their way toward the base entrance. The resistance put up by the Mavericks was laughable and hardly anything at all. As the Hunters began to push them back, however, a new platoon of Mavericks left the base and began to fight.
Thus the real battle had begun. The Mavericks were no longer confused and the advantage the Hunters were loss in a eight to one ratio. The nine Hunters were quickly being pushed back by the dozens upon dozens upon dozens of Maverick hordes, a new a dozen always seem to be launching from the base. That was when Zero realized just had bad he had miscalculated. With just eight other soldiers with him, he knew that they would never...ever hold off all these Mavericks. Basically, Zero had just sentenced the nine of them all to die. And very soon.
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" he shouted into the air and smashed his foot against the sand. "You have GOT to be kidding me...I'll have to run across the ocean!?" As if to mock him, a wave splashed against him. Standing there, water dripping off of him, X scowled angerily. "Ha ha ha, God."
Sighing, he began to run along the beach into the water. Being so heavy, he was able to run along the ground without floating. Working his way along the sand, he spotted a Maverick sitting on a sandbar, firing missiles at him. Rolling, X fired off a charged 2 blast straight into the Maverick, then followed it by a rapid firing of level 1 blasts that destroyed it. Leaping onto his sandbar, X continued to war towards the base at sea. By this time, the warships began to notice him and head for him.
Leaping off the sandbar, X suck into the water and noticed an army of Maverick fish heading for him. One opened his mouth up and the sucking motion sent X flying straight into it's gut, where he stood, feeling it draining his energy. The Mavericks are really...REALLY starting to get weird now... He charged his blaster, ignoring the fish trying to drain his energy, and fired it straight into the fish's unprotected inner parts, blowing it completely up and he sank back onto the bottom of the ocean.
The other Maverick fish noticed him and began to swim towards him. X flipped away and began to run along the bottom, dodging some spikes nicely placed by the decorators. As he worked his way along the button, the ships above began to bomb the ocean floor, hoping to nail him. And they almost succeed when X zag when he should have zigged, almost running straight into a dropping bomb. The explosion sent him flying through the water and landing on a sandbar. Leaping up, he exploded out of the ocean and landed on the sandbar. He then jumped off and landed on one of the warships and began to fire straight into it's engine core. Not prepared to defend against such an attack, the war ship had no way to defend itself expect by poorly guided missiles. X quickly breached the hull and blew it up, sending it to it's watery grave below.
Grabbing a pole to the the base, X pulled himself up and looked around. He saw this wasn't really a base like he had thought, but just a small shipping port. So, that meant, where the hell was Launch Octopus at?! Angrily diving back into the water, X landed on the bottom and began his trek through the Maverick fishes, spikes, and other sweet toys the Mavericks left behind, finally reaching an area where .... there was no Mavericks.
Stopping and looking around, X knew immediately something was up. And he was, of course, right when a huge electric eel reploid bot slammed it's spiked tail into his back, sending him spiraling through the water at a high speed and straight into the nearest sandbar. Getting lodged in there, X struggled to push himself out while the reploid bot came in close behind him. Finally dislodging his head from the sand, X turned around and fired a charged level 2 blast straight into the eel's head, causing it to explode. The body of the eel went flying by and straight into the sandbar where X had previously been stuck. Laughing at the irony, X jumped over the sandbar and worked his way down hill toward the familiar Maverick doors that signified that a Maverick commander was behind them.
Running through the doors, X fell a few feet onto he landed on the ground. He realized the entire room was filled with water. Definitely Launch's haunt. Walking around, X heard a whirlwind and glanced behind, seeing the water spiral around and Launch down it. The two looked at each other, neither of them deciding to chat under water, and went straight to battle.
X leaped up into the air and brought down a level 2 charged blast at Launch while the Maverick responded with a whirlwind. Both of them went slamming into opposite walls of the room, both glaring at the other, both pissed. X dashed through the water and let loose a charged blasted, spun around and amazingly followed it up with another one right off the bat. Launch swam forward, firing off a trail of fish at X. The first blast hit the fish, blowing them up, while the second blast hit Launch in the shoulder, causing his arm to spark.
Both landed on the ground and began to prepare for their next attack. X leaped into the air and glided forward, firing off a level 2 blast at Launch's arm while Launch began to activate a whirlwind to catch X. X's attack scored, blew up Launch's arm, and effectively ending his whirlwind attack since he needed all his arms.
X then landed directly in front of Launch and slammed his blaster against the Maverick's stomach, firing a level 2 blast into it, causing the insides to explode. As the water rushed into the hole, the Maverick became imbalanced and fell over, which allowed X to switch over to his spark mandrill attack and fire it straight into the open wound, blowing Launch completely up.
Falling back, X panted. Another down...just four left.
Forcing himself to move over to the rest of the unit, Death Star brought his back against some rock that had been thrown next to the Maverick base they were trying to get in. Beside him was North Star who looked to be in slightly better shape. During this war, it was a good thing to have someone close to you. Lieutenant Death Star knew he could count on North Star for almost anything. Especially today. The Maverick, Terran, inside had always been a Maverick, not unlike the eight Mavericks X was currently hunting, who were was once Hunters. Bitterly, Death Star wondered how he was fairing right now. Probably a hell of a lot better.
Glancing to where Zero was, Death Star saw him standing there, firing his blaster at the incoming Maverick attacks, looking like some type of god on the battlefield. Staring at few moments, that was when Death Star realized he looked up to Zero a lot, even if at first he considered himself to be better than his leader. He realized he was sorely mistaken now.
"You okay?" asked North Star as he blasted a Maverick to bits nearby. He had always been the best fighter of the two, the most aggressive. Always was the strongest. Death Star suddenly felt jealous of him, after all this time. Strange, this battle was bringing out a lot of emotions in him.
"'Jiffy," was all Death Star could manage, which succeeded in spitting battery fluid everywhere. They didn't have time to have anymore conversations as another explosion jarred the rock he, North Star, and Mac were hiding behind, causing them to crash to the ground. "Ow!" Zero glanced over at the three's peril and dashed over, helping Death Star up.
"Listen, me and the rest of what's left of the 17th unit have the Maverick's main force tied up. I've looked it over and that situation there is probably more dangerous than taking on Terran's forces inside the base. I'm going to stay out here and lead the attack on the main force while you three go inside and take out Terran. I'm counting on you," Zero told them, resting his hand on Death Star's shoulder for a moment, before continuing on into the battle.
"Well, you heard him, lets go," Mac muttered, trying to sound confident.
Death Star smirked and wiped the battery fluid from his chin. "Hey, it's better than being out here with these Maverick goons."
North Star grinned. "Hey, at least we get some action with a Maverick Commander."
The three began to run across the battle field, working their way past the explosions and the dead bodies. Death Star stopped once they reached at the entrance, glancing back at Zero, standing there, leading the remaining 3 Hunters into battle. "Good luck guys..." he said slowly, eyeing a tired Brian Carter, still standing tall. And with that, he ran into the base.
The hallways were dimmly lit, the lights built into the rock which made up the sides of the hallway. It was basically like they had decided just to dig into the mountain side and build a nice floor to walk on. However, Death Star was quite sure they had put some type of traps into the walls. Mac walked along cautiously, his purple armor flashing off the lights in the hallway, almost blindingly. He looked through his visor with a scowl.
As the trio worked their way down the hallway, Death Star could sense something wrong with the entire situation. They had run into no Maverick resistance yet and there had to be more in here, unless the entire platoon was outside fighting the remainder of the Hunters, which he doubted very seriously. Terran would hold back some forces, wouldn't he?
Entering a dark room, Death Star stopped in his tracks. "This looks like an arena of some sort..." he muttered and glanced at North Star. "I don't think we should enter it. Trap."
North Star grinned. "Why not? Best way to stop a trap is to leap head into it, right?!" He ran forward.
Death Star reached out to stop him, but was to slow. "North Star...no!"
Mac stepped up behind him. "I think we should go help him." He ran after North Star. Sighing, Death Star muttered a few curses at the two of them and ran behind them, noticing they were heading into the center of this arena type setting. What a brilliant move...
Suddenly a spotlight turned on, blinding the three. They stopped, shielding their eyes as a dark shadow dropped before the spotlight and stood there. Suddenly a whoosh was heard and Mac cried out in pain. Death Star and North Star both turned at the same time, looking in horror at their comrade. He stood there, quivering, with a huge tail completely through his gut. Mac spit out a huge puddle of battery fluid and looked down in shock, withering more from the damage done to his nervous system than that of the pain. Seconds later, his head slumped over and he died. Death Star roared in anguish. Before them was a Maverick scorpion.
"I am Terran, the Maverick Commander of this base. You are both fools to think you could challenge me. Now, prepare to be destroyed!" Terran told them, drawing his saber. It hummed to life and he twirled it, pointing it at Death Star menacingly. Death Star didn't back down from the offer to fight, snatched out his saber, and swung. Terran parried the blow and stepped back, placing more distance between himself and Death Star. Not noticing, he swung at Terran again, only to come up short from the back step. Swinging through the air, he was thrown off balance and began to dwindle there for a moment. Terran slashed forward, only to be hit by a blast from North Star. Regaining his balance again, Death Star went into a fighting stance once more.
North Star circled Terran, staying out of the way of his saber, firing blasts at him. The Maverick skillfully parried the blasts or dodged them, but was constantly harassed by Death Star, who kept swinging at him. With the combined effort of the two, Terran was slowly being forced backward. Death Star swung at Terran, causing him to parry again, only to be hit in the back by North Star. Hissing in pain, Terran thrust at Death Star, who swung his saber down into Terran's, forcing them both to drop toward the floor. Struggling to put all his energy at keeping Terran's weapon pinned, Death Star heard the furious blasts from North Star at Terran. Terran reeled back in pain and pulled his saber free.
Terran leaped back behind Death Star and thrust again. Ducking the mid level thrust, Death Star slashed into Terran's gut, forcing him back. Bleeding, Terran sneered, slashing again, catching Death Star across the chest. Stepping back, he tried to blink out the pain. Pain he could live with, death he could not. Going for a charging swing, Death Star began to run at Terran. However, he slipped in some of Mac's battery fluid that had been gathering on the floor since his death, crashing to the ground. Terran smirked victoriously and raised up his tail again. He swung it at Death Star's head/chest with amazing speed and accuracy. Closing his eyes, Death Star waited for the blow.
"AAAAARGGHHHHH!" Death Star was thrown and landed on the ground.
Opening his eyes, Death Star blinked in horror as North Star stood before him, the tail completely through his shoulder and partially in the central nervous system, just like Mac had been killed. North Star had just shoved him out of the way and taken the blow for himself. Falling to his knees, North Star spit out some battery fluid, his eyes rolling up into his head, then slumped to the floor. He let one defiant roar then was completely quiet. Death Star got to his feet, hunched over in pain. Holding his saber at an angle, he leaped into the air and slashed off Terran's tail, watching with great pleasure as the Reploid screamed. "Now you....you die, Terran." He reeled back, twirled his saber in air serveral times to pick up speed, and swung it down into Terran's head, splitting it open. Leaping back, he watched the Maverick explode.
Swaying as he walked, Death Star grabbed Terran's saber and placed it with his own. Then, bending down, he picked up North Star, holding him up into the air. "Brother..." he whispered. He ran toward the exit, hoping no one else was dead.
"Alright, there has to be something important in this stupid mine that they're digging for, no doubt. I'll just blow the entire area up after I run over the armadillo. Have to be cautious. Besides, I don't want Zero to chew me out for not blowing every little thing up," X told himself. "Yeah, good idea..." Oh, jeeze, now he was answering himself...
Running down the tunnel, bats hung on the roof, glaring down at him. Trying to ignore them, X jumped onto a mining car. It instantly started up and began to fly down the tunnel. "WHOAAAAAAA!" he tried to shut, but ended up just trying to hold on for dear life. As the mine cart went flying down the tunnel, the bats, disturbed by the loud sound, began to flap around, trying to attack him. Shooting at the bats, attempting to keep them off of him, X maintained his balance as best he could. Which, was to say, landed him flat on his ass on the track in a few minutes, the mine car riding off without him.
Standing back up, X dusted himself off and leaped over some spokes, grabbing an upper railing. Pulling himself up, X ran down this tunnel, firing at the bats as he went along. After repeating this process for a few minutes, he decided he didn't really like bats that much after all.
Working his way through the tunnels, X arrived at a drop off point. Bouncing down, he found himself in a slightly lower tunnel. Working his way through it, he fired at the incoming bats. But each bat he killed, there seemed to be a few more to replace it. In an attempt to escape them, X ran over the edge and began to drop into a sub level, right behind a huge Maverick that took off, smashing in the mine tunnels ahead. Grabbing an energy tank cleverly hidden to the left, h went off running behind him, using the mighty Maverick crusher as a shield, until it crashed into a pile of spikes and blew up. Leaping over the spikes, X grabbed onto the tunnel ledge above them and pulled himself up.
Hopping onto another mine cart, he rode it down the tunnel, firing at birds that began to attack them. Letting lose a few charged blasts, he cleared the way, only to see that the tunnel ended ahead. "....oh...shit!" was all he could manage as the cart exploded out of the mine and went sailing through the air. He had to admit, the view below was quite beautiful. Trees...waterfalls...Of course, seeing as that would be the last thing he'd ever seen, he wouldn't mind it having a few more things, like rainbows, pretty colors, etc. But all these thoughts ended when the mine cart smashed into a mountain wall and threw him off onto a ledge. Groaning in pain, X stood up and saw the Maverick door there. Armored Armadillo was on the other side! Stepping through the door, X worked his way through the small hallway and opened the next door, stepping into a mining room that was extremely wide, ending with a tunnel that led outside on one end. However, there was no sign of his goal here. Looking around, X crossed his arms. "Pfft, he's not even in his own command room. Coward." That was when the room began to shake and Armored Armadillo exploded through the roof, landing on the ground.
"Ah, X, you have come. However, this won't be an easy task for you. I am much stronger than my fellow brethren. Prepare to be defeated!" Armadillo said, posing briefly before he began to spin rapidly. Firing off two rapid shots at the Maverick, X watched them bounce off without harming him in the slightest. Stepping back, X cursed and switched over to Spark Mandrill's weapon and fired a charged blast, that hit the Maverick hit on, shocking him out of his spin. The dazed Maverick landed on the ground, pieces of his armor falling off. X fired off three more shots into the Maverick, knocking him back against the wall. The Maverick stood up, dazed by he onslaught of attacks, but was met by one more hit from the Mandrill weapon, exploding.
X felt himself gaining the new weapon from Armadillo as the blinding light faded. Standing there, X ran off down the length of the room toward the spot the controls that would activate the self-destruct sequence. A few minutes later, the entire mine exploded and collapsed on itself.
"I'll not give up! Not now! We just have to hold them off a little longer so Death Star and the others can take out Terran. Once they learn their commander is dead, they'll be broken up into confusion!" Zero snarled and charged his blaster to a level three, firing it into the center of yet another swarm, causing them all to explode on each other. It was quickly replaced by a new surge of Mavericks.
Brian flipped over a blast and fired three shots at a maverick bee, blowing out it's engines. The huge bee fluttered briefly than crashed down upon it's friends, smashing them to death. Landing on his feet, Brian was caught in the chest by a kick that sent him flying backwards. Catching himself, he pushed off the ground with his hand as he was falling, throwing himself up into the air and allowing himself to land on his feet. Drawing his saber, he slashed his attackers' head off and spun around in a circle, taking out three other Mavericks closing in.
Zero rammed into the nearest Maverick drone, blasting at three more approaching him. Three hits took him in the chest, throwing him back some. Recovering, he glanced down and some smoke rising from his armor. He knew they couldn't handle much more of this. Charging his blaster, he fired at a Maverick lieutenant that was rallying his men, blowing him away. That sent the small group into chaos, just like he hoped the death of Terran sent the entire group into fits.
Brian was blasted in the head, sending him crashing at Zero's feet. He blinked his eyes, trying to clear out the blood that was beginning to leak into his vision. Zero glanced down at him, then surveyed the area, seeing only four other Hunters were fighting, the rest dead. One of the four finally collapsed into a pool of it's own blood. The other three jumped back to stand next to Zero, swaying from the damage they had attained. "Dammit...it's over. We can't hold them off any longer," Zero muttered.
Brian felt the blackness creeping up on him and he closed his eyes, about to accept it when he heard a loud explosion. Opening his eyes, he blinked out some more blood and glanced at the entrance to the base where one figure stood, holding something in the air. Squinting his eyes, he saw it was Death Star, standing on an overturned hover car, raising a saber into the air. All the Mavericks just stopped and stared in awe. "I HAVE KILLED YOUR LEADER! THIS IS HIS SABER! NOW WHO WANTS TO JOIN HIM!?" Death Star shouted fiercely at the crowd of Mavericks.
No one stirred briefly. The Mavericks all seemed to be confused, looking around, wondering who would stand up to this crazed Hunter. Death Star, Brian could see, was breathing heavily and did seem to be literally out of his mind. Death Star pulled out another saber and twirled the two together in the air and leaped off the hover car, roaring, diving into the crowd of Mavericks, hacking away. The maverick crowd began to surge back, more out of surprise than fear, still in shock at the news of the death. Brian stood up, wiping the blood out of his eyes, and leapt at the nearest Maverick, slashing.
Zero and the other three Hunters looked at one another. Grinning, Zero charged his blaster and fired into the Mavericks, the other three Hunters following after him. The Mavericks were confused and began to retreat, not knowing what to do without a leader. The groups quickly began to break up, allowing for the Hunters to begin to hack away at them. Finally the Mavericks organized enough to escape, running off. The renewed Hunters were about to chase after them when Zero held up his hand. "We won. It's enough..."
In the aftermath of the battle, Brian saw that there were bodies everywhere. The amount dead was incredible. He wandered around and spotted Death Star sitting next to a bandaged North Star, who was motionless. He walked over to the Hunter and smiled. "Hey, Death Star, we did it."
Death Star looked up, his eyes lifeless almost, and stared up at Brian with no recognizition. Finally he blinked and looked down. "Oh...Carter."
Brian sat down next to him. "It's okay, Death Star. North Star will be fine and Zero said Mac's memory chipped was recovered successfully. In a few months or so when the technology is better, they can rebuild his body, perhaps."
Death Star nodded. "Yeah."
Brian stood up, sensing Death Star needed to be alone. "It's far from over, Death Star. Give them hell, for North Star." He walked away.
Death Star tightened his grip on the Terran saber. "...it's far from over, alright...I'll bring an end to this war, somehow...I'm a solider now. And a solider's path I choose..."