This is the second chapter of the War of 2201 short story series. This is my personal favorite just because of the general hilarity that ensues.
April 11, 2210
Lyn pointed out something that I had overlooked while we were arguing on how best to get back the money that we had lost. We had an arsenal just begging to be used in my cargo hold. We spent the rest of the evening going through the weapons that we’d use to raid the Ithian base and get the money back. After we had done that, we went to bed. Well, actually, Lyn just disappeared and I reasoned that either she had went to find a place to sleep or was plotting my death. Either way, I couldn't really stop her, so I went to my bridge and locked the door and went to sleep as well. The next morning, we woke up and landed back on the river bed to see where the army had gone.
As it turns out, Lyn was a tracker for the Galactic Alliance and she used all of her expertise from there to say that the tracks led to a nearby Ithian military base. I could have done that in half the time by just following the tracks and I wasted no time in pointing that out.
“You don’t understand,” she said calmly, “the amount of tracks left here shows the size of the force that attacked us. If they could throw so much at us, two people, then imagine how much is at the base. Must be a good portion of the entire Ithian army.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It isn’t. We won’t be able to sneak in without coming out dead. I guess that approach is out.”
“I never thought that was a possibility.” I said and turned to head back to Eden.
“What do you propose then?” Lyn asked while following me.
“I was waiting for that question.” I said and went into the cargo hold. Lyn held back for a moment, and then followed.
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“This won’t work.”
“Oh, it will.”
“We’ll never make it.”
“Just remember the money.”
“Why am I doing this?!
“Get ready, Lyn. I’m opening the door.” I pressed the button on the cargo bay doors and went back to Lyn. I motioned for her to pick up her rocket launcher and I picked up mine. I had landed in the middle of the Ithian base and waited a few minutes to let them gather around us. The doors opened and we finally got a glimpse of the sea of soldiers in their light and dark blue uniforms. Their eyes widened when they saw us. We fired our rockets into the group and dropped the launchers. We jumped into the chaos without fear and proceeded to take out an army’s worth of enemies while making our way to the money.
At least, that was the plan.
Everything was going fine until we actually started to shoot. Lyn and I fired the rockets at the stunned troops, but we weren’t ready for the kickback. We flew back and landed hard on our asses while our rockets soared over the troops’ heads. Lyn’s hit a water tower knocking it over onto a group of fighter jets in an explosion of water. Mine flew into a large explosive (gas? I really wasn’t sure at the time) container and took out an entire building. I’m pretty sure I saw the words ‘Family Apartments’ printed on it, but I like to repress that part of my memory in favor of it saying ‘Gas Chambers’ instead. Less traumatic for me.
The group of soldiers looked away from us and we took the chance. Lyn threw a grenade into the group taking out a bunch of them at once. I dropped the launcher and grabbed a rifle and ran into the crowd shooting. In the end, the mistake turned into a victory and a good chunk of the soldiers were taken out before they could really react.
“Tank!” Lyn yelled and I looked over to a part in the sea of soldiers letting two tanks through. One targeted me and I dropped onto the ground just as it fired. The shell tore a hole in another building and I bolted towards it without a second thought. Lyn led the other tank to a radio tower and nimbly dodged its shell making it hit the tower instead toppling it. She narrowly missed the rubble getting only a small cut on her arm, but the tank was hit directly with the tower and was destroyed. The soldiers charged her. The pushed her hair back and got started to fire into them.
I, meanwhile, made it to the building with the new hole in it. I jumped through the still smoking hole just missing another shell from the tank which tore another hole in the building and landed face down in the dirt. I slowly got up and dusted myself off. I looked up and saw a large group of soldiers pointing their guns at me. Behind me, I heard the tank reload.
“Duck!” I yelled and dove to the ground again. My action stunned the soldiers long enough for the tank to fire. I felt the heat from the shell on my back as it flew over me and into the soldiers sending the flying in all directions. I jumped up and ran into the cloud of dust, tripping over the dead and dying soldiers and jumped through the fresh hole in the building. I ran blindly through the dense grey-brown cloud until a finally broke free in another room with a lone soldier holding the briefcase that held the money in one hand and a sword in another.
“So,” he said, “you’re the intruder? Where’s your weapon?” I was confused momentarily until I realized that I wasn’t holding my rifle. I must have dropped it while I was running from the tank. All I had was my big ass pistol, but it was too far away for me to get in time and he was too close. By the time I drew and aimed, he would have killed me. I had to buy time. I looked at him. He looked much like the other soldiers in his light and dark blue uniform, and had stunning grey-green eyes and sandy blond hair that was cut short, and styled with way too much gel.
“Well,” I said, “I didn’t need one for your pathetic army.” Immediately I wanted to slap myself. It’s like I have a condition where I know what I need to say, but my mouth has a mind of its own and it’s set on auto-insult. I hoped that at least my poor choice of words would stun him. It didn’t. In fact, he looked more pissed off than he did before.
“Idiot,” he said sharply and rose his sword up. A rapier, I remembered at the wrong time. Who cared what type of sword it was? It was about to kill me, “Die with honour!” He finished, and then I heard a click behind me.
“What now?” I said. I was expecting a gun behind me.
“Put down the sword and give us the briefcase.” A woman’s voice. Lyn! The man held up the briefcase.
“This briefcase?”
“Yes! What the fuck did you think she meant?” I yelled. See what I mean about the bad choice of words? Before I could say anything else to piss the guy off, the wall blew out behind him knocking him over. He dropped the sword, but held onto the briefcase. The dust settled to reveal the damn tank on the other side readying another shot.
“Shit! You mean to tell me you didn’t take it out?” Lyn yelled.
“What the hell did you expect!?” I snapped back, “It’s a fucking tank!” Lyn sighed and motioned me to stay where I was and jumped over the man and onto the tank. A shot whizzed by me hitting the back wall. The shock wave threw me forward onto the recovering man. He dropped the briefcase and I tried to jump for it, but he tackled me down as another shot whizzed by us.
The building couldn’t take much more, we both knew it but the money was more important than life. Looking back, I really don’t know why, though. Either way, before the tank was able to get off another shot, Lyn was able to pry open the hatch at the top and drop a grenade inside taking out the operators. The man punched me back to the ground and grabbed the briefcase and his sword and bolted out only to be tackled by Lyn sending the briefcase flying into the battlefield.
I jumped out of the building as it collapsed behind me – though to be truthful, I didn’t notice. I wanted the money – and bolted for the briefcase. I grabbed it but promptly had it knocked out of my hands by a bullet piercing the middle.
“It’s just a hole,” I muttered, “It’s still spendable.” I started for it, but froze when a large group of soldiers appeared in front of me. Out in front of them was a stunningly beautiful blond with glowing green eyes. She stood out because of how out of place she was. She was unarmed and wore a green tank top that showed off her – features – and torn blue jeans. Around her neck, she wore a small prism that seemed to be glowing in a stunning white aura.
“Vick!” Lyn yelled, “We need to go! Forget the money!”
“Never!!!” I yelled and glanced back at her. She was off of the soldier and running towards me. The woman in front of the soldiers held up her hand. I quickly ran and grabbed the briefcase. I looked up in time to see a fireball appear in the palm of her hand, “What the…” I began, but was cut off when Lyn tackled me to the ground. As she did that, the woman released the fireball that travelled over us and blew up another building.
“Don’t you know who that is?!” Lyn yelled.
“No! What the fuck!?”
“That’s Io’s right hand!”
“Io!?”
“The Great Ithy!” Lyn pulled me up as the woman released another fireball. I had the briefcase in front of me and it hit that a force that sent me flying backwards. I landed – hard – in front of Eden, all the way across the base from where we were. I struggled up still holding the smoldering briefcase and limped onto my ship. Lyn was still trying to outrun the soldiers. The woman had disappeared.
Another tank appeared from beside Lyn. I grabbed a rocket launcher and loaded a rocket. I aimed and quickly fired – preparing for the kickback – the rocket at the tank. It met its mark as the tank fired sending its shell careening into another water tower which collapsed taking out a good portion of the soldiers in another explosion of water. I went for another rocket. I had it loaded just as Lyn made it in and I fired again taking out another building.
“Go!” Lyn yelled, “I’ll handle this!” I nodded and ran up to my bridge. I had it started and taking off as another large group of soldiers made it up to us. As I was taking off, one of the soldiers was just able to jump on and swing his sword at Lyn.
It was the same man as before.
Lyn easily dodged it and punched his hand making him drop his sword and disarmed him. She then punched him across his face and he fell down and was beaten. Just that easy. Why did I have so much trouble then? I set a course for – well – anywhere that was away from Earth, grabbed the still smoldering briefcase and went down to meet them.
“What should we do with him?” I asked as I got down. The man was unconscious and tied to a chair that Lyn had got from my kitchen.
“We can figure that out later. Open the briefcase.”
“I got hit by that fire woman.” I said as I opened it. I looked into it and froze.
“So…” Lyn said also looking into it, “What do we do now?”
“Kill her.” I said simply.
The case we worked so hard to get. The one that made us take on an entire Ithian military base. The one that was shot and burnt was filled with…
Burnt and unusable money.
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