The Neverending War (modern war)

"Nope..." Andre grunted as he stood up. He shook his body, then stood upright, his body casting a commanding shadow over Anaa. He looked around observing where they were. "Fuck, jumped the wrong direction." He said as he slapped the metallic forehead of his helm.

Anaa raised an eyebrow, "and that's a big deal.....why?"

Andre pointed to the top of the large ledge behind them. "Because the lift stops up there, which leads to another lift to take us inside a series of tunnels that lead to the cities." He groaned at his own stupidity.

"cities?" Anaa muttered to herself, one eyebrow raised, then shook her head and looked up at the ledge with a frown. "why dont we just climb back up?"

"This ship contains three cities. And the reason we don't just climb back up is because that's roughly a two-hundred-yard climb. I'll have to have the captain blast us a hole so we can get where we need to be."

Anaa looked up at him, head cocked, frowning, "How deep does the hole need to be?"

"It doesn't matter how big it needs to be, it's a matter of how big it's going to be." He chuckled a bit. "Those are some massive guns so it won't be a small hole. But it will allow us to get where we need to go."

"guns will not be necessary, whether they be big or small," Anaa announced diging in the little bag around her waist again. She stepped up to the wall he had motioned toward, drew a pinch of something from the bag and looked over her sholder with a nasty little smile. "you might want to stand back, Lieutenant." Anaa threw a dark red, glittering powder at the wall, barking a few incoharent words. The powder exploded, nocking them both sliding backwards some odd feet and leaveing a big enough hole in the wall for them plus the rest of the soldiers to have come with them to pass through comfortably. Anaa looked at the Lieutenant with an amazingly wolfish grin and asked, "big enough hole for you?"

Andre nearly scoffed as he watched the little magician perform her magic. "Magic... I would despise it if I were not a user of it myself." He commented as he got up and shook his armor. He stared eye level at the hole in the wall. "It's still a bit short for me but that's why spines are flexible I suppose." And with that he headed through the hole and into the halls beyond, motioning for the little magician to follow.

behind him Anaa rolled her eyes with a disgusted expression. "ehnehnehne," she mocked so quietly the lieutenant couldnt hear and stuck her tongue out at him.
Anaa followed him throung the whole and glanced around. "now what?" she asked, waving a paw before her to clear the air of dust.

"We go down this corridor," Andre said, pointing down the corridor, which was large enough to fit at least two tanks through, side by side, "I kill anything that tries to stop us, and we just keep making our way to the reactors. I'm actually rather surprised that there aren't many defenses at this part of the ship."

"don't say that you might jinx our good luck," Anaa joked.

Anna followed the lieutenant silently for several minutes down the hall. her ears twitched, if there was one thing she hated more then bugs it was silence. "so tell me lieutenant, howd you become a soldier?"

"You remember how the war started?" He asked rhetorically, casting a quick glance down at Anna before looking ahead of them again as they made their way down the corridor. The only sounds that accompanied their footsteps were the dull thuds that echoed through the hull of the home ship. "The first planet they destroyed was my home. I was on one of the few ships that made it out of orbit before it blew. After that I nagged the first soldier I came across to help me join the military. That soldier happened to be General Zevian. My enthusiasm piqued his interests, so he couldn't turn me down. He stuck me in the super soldier program, and from there I became the soldier that you are walking beside right now."

Anna cocked her head and blinked sympathetically. She let the silence drag for a few moments. "I had no choice but to be a healer," she said. "I never knew my father and mom was taking me to see him. We were travaling with a caravan when we were attacked. I was the only one to survive. Mentor found me woundering the forest two weeks later and ive been her apprentice ever since."

"They sent an apprentice healer with me? Oh, that's just lovely, would've been nice to know that during the briefing." He teased as he looked down at the small girl. She couldn't see it through his dark visor, but he was grinning. He quickly looked back up, though, as a flurry of blips came to life on his motion tracker. He quickly reached up with his hand and touched a small part on his helm to activate his thermal visor as he looked immediately to the direction of the blips. "Hide." He said with haste, "There are a swarm of drones in the ducts coming at us." He grabbed her fore arm gently and drug her off to the side where they hid in the shadow of one of the many pillars that lined the massive hallway along the walls.
Andre severely disliked drones most of all out of the entire enemy roster. They were small, and easy to kill. Their bodies so frail one could break it in half with a single strike of their weapon, but they came in numbers. Numbers by the hundreds, sometimes thousands, and they were armed. Due to their size, they could not hold extra ammunition, nor larger weapons as firing one would easily kill them, but the smaller weapons like pistols were perfect for them, especially in such large numbers.

Anna glared at the lieutenant sideways and squeaked as he dragged her behind the pillar. She watched with narrowed eyes as the little creatures the lieutenant had called drones swept past. Her lips curled as their scent washed through her sensative nose, she wouldnt be forgeting that smell anytime soon.

As the swarm disapeared Anna turned a sarcastic look on the lieutenant. "I may only be an apprentice but I know more about the healing herbs then all the other apprentices combined. And Im the first healer to gain warrior status in over a hundred years. Besides, I wont be an apprentice for much longer."

"Well that's a bit more comforting I suppose." he continued to tease as he watched his HUD to make 100% sure that the swarm had passed. When all seemed clear, he whipped out from behind the pillar, his rifle drawn up to his shoulder as he sweeped the area for any stragglers. When he saw the coast was clear, he motioned her forward.

Anna rolled her eyes muttering, "Males," again to herself as she padded around the pillar. "Any idea how far we are from our destination?" she questioned.

"Shouldnt be too much farther." He lied. "There's supposed to be one more elevator at the end of this corridor. Uuuunfortunately, this elevator is used to transport enemy troops and armor to the carriers." He glanced over at her. "A lot of troops, and a lot of armor."

Anna got an uneasy feeling, "Meaning its big and most likely full?" she asked, hand falling to the hilt of her sword.

"Most likely." He said bluntly. "The elevator is definately full. And unforunately, the only way to get to the city from the outer walls is down that elevator and a nice long ride on the equally massive ferry. Then we go from there through the base at the end, then its hopefully a cakewalk to the reactors." He grimaced behind his helmet. He was looking forward to the fight, but he had no idea how he was going to pull this off by himself.

Anna sighed dramaticly. "Wouderfull. Well as long as we dont jump off this elevator," she said with a slight laugh. She shook herself mentally. Fates she hated hights and their little free fall from the last elevator was not something she wanted to experience again.

"This one is sealed so we wouldn't be able to jump even if we wanted to." He said with a nervous chuckle. "Ohhhh fuck my life..."

Anna froze, sword half drawn, ears twitching to pick up the slightest sound. "What is it?" she whispered just loud enough for the lieutenant to hear.

Andre shook his head. "Its nothing... Yet." He looked down at her for a short second. "I just looked at my motion tracker. The elevator is in fact full. I was really hoping that all the troops may have been already loaded onto the carrier. But they are in defence formations, which means they wont be loadong onto the carrier, and we have to go through them in order to get any further." With a hefty sigh, he reached behind his head and pushed a small buttom disguised as a plate of armor. His helm unfolded and retracted back into the small mask that it starts out as. He pulled it from his face and raised his other hand up to brush back his long black hair and the nervous sweat on his brow.

Anna rolled her head and shoulders to loosen up and stuck one hand in the little pouch at her waist fingering a little packet. "Sounds like fun," she said flatly. She glanced over as the lieutenant removed his helm. This was the first time she saw his face and she was curious. A red fox, interesting. She had only met one other red fox when she had been very young. The vixen had been slick and not to pleasent. "How meny are there, can you tell?"

His eyes were a lovely glossy black, but you could not tell because they were both hazed over. He was blind. His hair, now unhindered by his helmet, fell damn near to his rump, and was a glossy black as well. Over his left eye was a black crescent moon. At first glance it looked as if it might have been war paint, or a tattoo of some sort, but at a closer glance one could see that it was his real fur, a natural coloration. His canines were just long enough to be visible before all his other teeth when he spoke.
Andre stared sternly ahead for a while as his mind roamed. He had heard her question, but his mind was too far elsewhere at the moment to answer her immediately. "Since I only have a motion tracker, I can't get an exact number. It only detects what moves, so the units that are staying still don't show up. But, from what I can see..." He paused for a moment as he looked at his folded helm in his hands. He attempted to count, but they were moving about so much it made it impossible, so he simply held it down to her so she could see for herself. "Just take a look, I can't count them all." He said. There were at least fifty moving dots on the small circular radar down at the bottom left hand corner of his visor. "And those are only the units patrolling, or tending to orders." He said with a grimace.

Anna looked to the tracker and grimaced. "Well this is where having a healer along, apprentice or other wise comes in handy," she said grimmly. She took the little baggie from her puch and shook it lightly be fore her eyes. Inside was a very fine nasy looking neon green powder. "If i do this correctly, and with a bit of luck, half of them will be wiped out in seconds."

Andre glanced over at the bag with a curious quirk of his eyebrow. "Yes, well... Whatever it is, I doubt it will do us much good against a couple dozen tanks. It's been a long time since I've been up against an army. Hopefully this armor 'upgrade'" He said with disdain, pointing out he was not too big of a fan of his new armor, "is as good as the armor I had before. Granted, they packed a lot more tech into this little baby, but that only leaves all the more that can go wrong." He hefted a sigh as he fit his helmet back onto his face. He reached back and twirled his hair into a neat bun that he tucked at the nape of his neck before he tapped a button on his forehead. The helmet wrapped around his head again, and this time two thick wires emerged from the back of his armor and connected with the back of his helmet. He stopped about ten feet from the massive door that led to the considerably more massive elevator.
The door consisted of five layers. Two outer layers that leafed over one another to shield from any potential explosions, and then a middle layer that consisted of many intricately interlocked metal plates that served as the locking mechanism. In the middle of the door was a hologram control panel that controlled the door. Andre turned to face Anna. "Now, I want you to listen to me. No matter what happens when we go through this door, if I go down, you run. I don't want you to risk your hide to try and heal me if you can't. It's going to be a fucking madhouse the second I open this door. Stay behind cover, and don't get shot. Pretty common sense, but some people just don't have it. Not saying that you're one of those people, but still.. Anyways." He cleared his throat awkwardly then faced the door. "Never been much of one for a pep talk or briefing. So how bout we go kick some ass and try not to die, eh?" He cast a glance down at her once more, waiting for her to show him she was ready.

Anna looked at him intently an angry fire burning in her violet eyes. "You're right this wont do much good on tanks baut itll make a real mess of those on foot. If I draw a line of this before the door and activate it anywho step over it will incinerate on the spot only problem is that includes you so i will not use it if you dont think you can watch your step." She turned so her back was to the elevator, "I'm not just trained at the sword. I will climb one of the pillars and use my bow from above," she gave a nasty grin. "They wont know what hit them." She pulled another bagie from her pouch this one filled with little pelts a horrid yellow-green color. "I can put these on the ends of my arrows, they will cause a nice little bang when they come in contact with the tanks armor but again in this confined space that might not be a good idea. Your the soldier here ill leave it up to you. As for the running if you go down." She looked direktly at him finding his eyes even through his helmet. "I took an oath lieutenant. Unless you are dead or are far from helping I will not leave you. No matter what you say. Now what are your thoughts on using the powder and pellets?"

"I can watch my step well enough. The pellets will do just fine. I'll likely cause some nice bangs myself. Use what you need to, I'll need all the help I can get. Just... Just make sure that you let me know where that powder of yours is if you put it somewhere." There was a bit of nervousness in his voice. His tail whipped about eagerly, then he took a nice deep breath. He put his rifle behind him, and it snapped to the magnetic spot on his back that was to hold his weapons, and he lightly tapped a plate on his right thigh. The armor opened to reveal a pistol that had to be a rather large calibur because it was rather large. He clenched his other hand into a fist and a short blade of plasma burst to life from under a plate of armor atop his fist. "You ready? He asked her. As he did he took one final look at the units he could see moving on his tracker. He picked out his first victims, took a guess where some of the tanks might be, then steeled himself for the task ahead.

Anna nodded jerkily. She stepped forward and placed the powder an inch or so infront of the door connecting the line with walls on either side. She took a strand of her hair and pulled it, laying the strand upon the powder she spoke rapidly. The line flared throwing hellish green fire to the ceiling. As soon as the fires sprung up they vanished leaving a glossy line melded with the metal so the line of fire would not be broken. "Make sure you dont step over or on that line, I will disengage it after we are done." Without another word she spun on her heals and ran to one of the pilars she climbed like she would a tree. Once she reached the top she held on with her legs, pulled her bow and quiver from the pouch and strung the bow nocking an arrow with a little yellow-green ball set on its tip. "Ready when you are lieutenant!" she called taking aim.

Andre nodded to her, then he stepped up to the holo-panel. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked over everything once again, then he put his paw on the spot that opened the door. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Time seemed to slow as he listened to the plates inside the doors move about quickly as it unlocked. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the massive doors retracted into the walls. Andre's eyes were met with a far larger force than he had estimated. Thirty tanks sat on raised platforms, each one just high enough above the one before it so that tanks behind could fire over the ones in front safely. In between each tank was a machine gun nest nestled snugly. Five hundreds soldiers, an entire battalion, stood in formation before the tanks. 'Son of a bitch...' He thought to himself, then he charged forward. He could see the commander standing before the battalion. That was his first target. He raised his pistol, aimed for a short second, then fired. With a lovely splatter, the commander's head vanished, and the decapitated body fell to the ground. At that same moment, every gun in the room lit up in his direction. He darted to the left, firing behind him at a the soldiers patrolling nearest him. With each shot, one or two fell. Bullets ricocheted off his state of the art armor, not even leaving so much as a scratch. He skid to a halt in the middle of a small squad that he had also detected patrolling before he came through the doors. He rammed his plasma blade through the chest of the nearest soldier, delivered a powerful kick to the next that shattered his ribs, and shot the final one, square between the eyes. Before the bodies even hit the ground, Andre took off again, leaving only the missing shots of the tanks in his wake.

Anna gasped a sharp intake of breath at the size of the forces behind the door. Her eyes narrowed glanced at the lieutenant to make sure he was a safe distance and fired her first arrow. It landed strait onto one of the machine guns which exploded with a birst of sickly yellow light. There was no sound to the blast but the shock wave was enough to nock the two closest tanks on their sides while pieces of the gun flew in every direction catching meany unlucky creatures in the eyes, necks and extremities. A dozen our so of the front line made a charge for the Lieutenant but the moment they touched the line their skin glowed with green fire, bones outlined in the terrible light, and they fell to dust. Anna took aim and fired again, the little pellet took out machine gun after machine gun.

She hated the loss of life, she was a healer! A saviour of that spark of light that marked all life. But it was either them our her, her people, and her planet. She thought back to that day in the woods. The caravan her mother and she had been traveling with. The wounderful people who sang and juggled, danced and acted. Who would pick her up, set them in their lap, and tell her fantastic stories of far off places that most likely didnt exsist. Her lip pulled up showing her teeth, her ears lay flat as she hissed with anger. Gone! They were all gone! Renal the sweet Dalmation who was the best backer of pies. Jenero who could juggle 30 cantalopes. Misnelar who had the most beautiful singing voice Anna had ever heard. Niara who was training to be a silk dancer like her mother and sisters. And Wiser, the old story teller whom she had loved, had treated her like a granddaughter. Her mother. Gone because of these creatchers. She hissed again and began rapid firing, forgeting everything but her anger at the loss of so much life.....of so meny good people.

Andre fired like a maniac as he charged forward, but every shot made it's mark. The ones he did not pick off with his pistol he caught in the chest with his plasma blade as he darted past them. But suddenly Andre felt the wind completely leave him as a tank shell slammed dead on right to his chest. He flew backward a few yards, landed on his back, rolled to his feet, and he quickly darted for cover, gasping for breath. The shot also took a nice chunk away from the energy his shields had. "F-Fuck..." he coughed a few times, gasped once or twice, then let out a deep breath. He deactivated his plasma blade and rerouted the power to his shields, then he was off again. He flew out from behind his cover, firing at the battalion of troops now. The patrolling squads at the front of the defensive line were cleared out, so now all that remained were the tanks, and that massive freaking battalion. With each flash of his pistol a soldier dropped.
Then he dashed behind a massive pile of supply crates to dodge a few tanks blasts. He shielded himself from the debris before quickly climbing to the top of the pile. From there he made a powerful leap that caused him to grunt a bit. He soared through the air straight toward one of the tanks in the far back row of the line. He drew back a fist, and when he was close enough, he activated both blades, and slammed his fists straight through the entrance hatch at the top. He ripped it off, jumped inside, dispatched the driver, tossed his corpse out, and the tank was his. "Anna." He spoke into their encripted comm channel, the first time they'd had to since they'd gotten in. "I know your a smart girl, but I'm pointing this out anyways. The tank in the last row, far left side. I just took it, so try not to hit me." He told her before he quickly whipped the barrel of the tank to the side. BLAM! He blows a nice hole in the tank next to him, then he punches the throttle and flies off the raised platform to land on and completely crush the tank in front of him. Blam! Another shot, another tank with a nice sized hole.

The voice of the lieutenant over the comm snapped Anna back to full awarness, literaly. She gasped, eyes rolling, head snapping back on her neck. She nearly fell from her precarious perch high up on the pillar. Looking to the tank she saw it swing around and cripple the one next to it. "I can see that," she gasped through the comm still trying to regain a stable breathing pattern. "And I'll try my best lieutenant," she joked. Anna took aim one tank over from where he was and fired at the machine gun nocking the two tanks on either side over. "Close enough for yeh?" she grinned widely, taking aim once more. Another dozen or so form the battalion itself tried to cross the line but like their kin they incinerated on spot. "Huh," she said calmly, "I do believe they finally figured out that im up here."

"More than fine." He responded with a smile. Andre whipped his tank's turret over and aimed it at the tanks that Anna had tipped over. With a thunk and a bang, he blasted a nice hole straight through the first. He waited the split second it took for the tank to reload, then he fired another shot through the hole he just blasted in the other. He now had a decent barrier around him, enough so that he could work on cutting down the numbers of the foot soldiers. He turned the turret on them, and he opened up with the heavy machinegun mounted just under the cannon. Troops dropped by the dozens until the hmg overheated, at which point the fired the cannon. Bodies flew in all directions, most of which weren't entirely intact at all.

Anna shook her head to throw off the last of her anger, a few strands of hair escaped its knot and fell around her face. They had finally pin pointed her location but luckily her position didnt allow them to have very good aim. Anna continued firing her exploding arrows. An idea suddenly hit her. "Lieutenant? For how long can you hold your breath?"

"This suit is designed for everything from underwater to space combat. Whatever you have planned, I should be fine." He told her as he quickly aimed and fired at a group of soldiers that were making their way to flank her.

"All right lieutenant hold on its about to get very foggy," Anna said. she pulled another, slightly larger, baggie from her bag, this one filled with course gray sand, and stuck it on the end of her next arrow. She took carefull aim and fired it into the very center of the enemy. Slowly a thick gray fog spread over the ranks. A horrible gagging rose to her ears as those below breathed the fog in and their lungs died strangling them. It was a horrible way to die but these were not pleasent circumstances and Anna was getting tired of not having her feet on solid ground. "Im not sure how far it will spread," she said. "But it should fill the entirety and take out at least all those on foot. Youre on your own till the gases disperse Im afraid. I cant fire blindly into it, I might hit you."

"Reminds me of home." He responded with a smirk. He hopped from his tank, not before dropping a small explosive charge in it. Once he exited, he sprinted along the line of the remaining tanks, quickly slapping charges onto each one where the ammunition inside was stored. Once that was done, he made sure he was a good distance away from them. He sprinted toward the middle of the fog that Anna had just conjured. The tanks fired blindly into it. They couldn't see, but they knew the general area of where he was. Unfortunately for Andre, their aim was better than he could have hoped. One shell struck at his feet, flinging him into the air. He landed with no grace whatsoever straight on his back, knocking the wind out of him, and his shields down below ten percent. Another shell slammed straight down on him. That blasted away the remainder of his energy shields, and removed quite a bit of the plate armor on him, completely exposing his chest. Andre gasped for air as he writhed for a moment on the ground. His helmet was still intact, as were the small oxygen generators just below his nostrils. With a stubborn grown he reach one arm to his other, pressing a small glowing button on his wrist. As he did, he rolled over onto his stomach and covered his head. One after another, with less than a half second between each one, the charges on the tanks went off, completely obliterating them. Each charge sent incredible shockwaves that could clearly be seen, especially in the fog. Debris flew in every possible direction, showering every bit of the elevator with chunks of tank, elevator, and burning mass that was likely the bodies of the tank crews.

Annas ears pricked as the tanks exploded, the shock waves creating quite a show in the sufocating gases. "Lieutenant? You alright?" she asked with some concern.

For a while, the comm remained silent. All that could be heard was the clanking of chunks of metal landing here and there. Finally a cough, and a grunt sounded. "Y-yeah. For the most part." He groaned, then looked down at his chest. "Shit.. You might need to come check this out..." His voice changed from his usual confidence to a nervous whine almost. He chuckled a bit as well, but the tone of his chuckles confirmed his nerves. He rolled to his back and wrapped his hand around a nice piece of shrapnel lodged between his ribs.

"I cant come to you the smoke will kill me," she said, now truly worried by the town of his voice. "If you just exploded the last of them then i can settle the gases and disengage the line. If your injured dont move." she slid down the pillar landing with a little thump and walking quikly to the doors.

"Don't worry, I couldn't move even with I wanted to.." He gasped. He felt a sharp pain in his leg as well. He didn't dare look. He knew that the pain only got worse if you saw what the injury was. "I know you got spells to disperse, but could you kinda speed things up a bit?" He asked with an ornery tone.

Anna frowned. She knelt before the glowing green line, plucked a hair and droped it onto the line speaking rapidly. The line flaired and disapeared. Next she tuned her attention to the gray bank of gases rolling omnioulsly before her. She raised her hand high and brought it swinging down. The gases shrank quikly, rushing back to the center of their origination. She whistled as she saw the destruction. "Wow," she said. "Alright lieutenant im going to need a little help finding you in this mess."

"Yeah, hang on." He groaned as he reached behind him to grab his rifle. He held it up in the air and fired off three rounds.

Anna raced off toward the shots, wincing at the blood that squeltched under her paws and the bits of metal that cut the pads. She hopped over a barley reconizable hunk of tank and skidded to a hault beside him. Knealing down her eyes raked quickly over the metal lodged in his ribbs and his leg. "Your going to need to take this off," she said tapping a finger on the armor covering his shoulder. She took the bag from her waist and pulled a case from inside. The box was like a large jewlery box but instead of jewlery it contained countless jars, and baggies and rolls of bandages. She spread the wings, lifted the folding and removed the shelf to reveal syringes, needles, and spools of thread.

"I don't like the looks of those." He grunted as he tapped a series of buttons on his wrist. There was a hissing noise, and then the armor on his entire torso just fell away from his body. A few of the plates over his thigh did the same thing, but a few stayed in place as the piece of metal kept them firmly in place.