No. 5 of my Fanfic, how is it? Please E-mail me with your thoughts.
Don’t mind the chapter name, my inspiration comes from everywhere…
forceflow@fantasysquare.com
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First and Last Pt.V

Chapter 8: ‘Operation Meteor’ 

Chu-Chu sat in the front of the special briefing room in the Yggdrasil IV,
Marguerite’s pet in actual fact, she was the only Chu-Chu known to be able to grow to huge proportions. 
A holographic computer showed the former Lahan.
The Weapons had torched the village after they first appeared in the mountains.
Fei had been withdrawn after he heard the news.
Citan had been also been affected by the incident.
Anyone could see the fire in Fei’s eyes,
filled with the burning need for revenge.
Citan had been calm and composed,
but everyone knew that it was his 
iron will that kept him in check.
Now they were being tested again.
The combined gear forces were prepared to storm the village.
It was all to safeguard the world,
but to destroy their former home 
was almost too much for them to bear.

The Omnigears swooped down from the sky and headed for the village.
Standard gears divisions moved in from the front.
Specific positions were given for each gear,
the mission commanders were not cutting any slack for the mission.
The fusion bomb was planted and all gears retreated. 
A mission cloud mushroomed above the village.
Bart, the person who thought up the battle
plan to engage Deus’ battle platform 
stepped forward and off the display.
“Simple, in theory” he smiled uncheerfully.
“Hopefully this will be easy.”
“We’ve gotten this far” Rico slammed his fist down, “We must succeed.”
The other nodded their agreement.
Emeralda raised a hand, “Who’s going to plant that bomb?”
“You will, Emeralda” Bart watched as she sucked in her breath.
“Your gear is the fastest, you’ll make it.
Besides Rico and Billy will be with you.”
Both of them nodded their agreement.
“Fei, Elly and Citan will lead Maria and Chu-Chu from the top.”
“I’ll be leading the ground troops after the initial drop.”
Everyone else agreed. Bart could handle the gear divisions on the ground. 
Fei took centre stage, “Right, I hope everyone knows what he’s doing down there.”
“Good luck everyone.”

Elly twisted and turned in her bed.
She finally got up and ran her hand through her disheveled hair.
She always had strong Ether powers but this was different.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad would happen.
Fei stirred beside her, “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Yeah.”
“Worried about tomorrow right?”
“Exactly.” 
Fei sat up, “Well, tell me about it.
Better to get it off your chest than hang on to it by yourself.”
Elly sighed, how could she even hide things from her lover…
“She poured out the entire story to Fei.
He listened quietly as her premonition poured out.
When she was finished he thought quietly for a while.
“Maybe you should be more optimistic Elly, everything will be alright.”
“Maybe…”
“You should get some sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
With that Fei plopped back down and went back to sleep.
Elly sighed. She looked out of the cabin window,
the twin moons shining down onto a blue sea, a scene of tranquility…
She hoped everything would be all right…

It had been tough to fight their way to the village.
The thrice damned Weapons had been tough opponents.
Resistance had been extremely heavy in this area,
new types of these giant Weapons had also appeared to fight the gears,
therefor it was with great pleasure that the Gear Division Commanders 
reported to General Ramsus that they had secured the surrounding areas.
It was now time for the final strike…

Sheevat reached the upper atmosphere,
high enough for the Omnigears to become virtual meteors.
The pilots wished each other luck and climbed into their gears.
The hanger bay was cleared of personal and the hanger doors opened.
One by one, their gears flew out and started for the ringed world below…
Down on the ground, the gear divisions received their final briefings,
as one, the gears moved forward to engage the enemy… 

The Omnigears approached the village.
“10,000 feet,
8,000 feet,
5,000 feet,
4,000 feet,
3,000 feet…
2,000 feet! Engage foot thrusters!”
As one the gears and Chu-Chu’s pod began the procedure to slow down.

Elly watched as the ground loomed closer,
she still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong…
Really wrong...

Billy and Maria opened up with their missile pods and 
guns as soon as they reached the 500 feet mark.
The sentry Weapons were blown away as the missiles
and gattling rounds found their marks.
All the Gears landed without incident.
Chu-Chu’s pod landed safely and split open to let her out.
The standard Gears charged…
The battle for the world had begun.

When the Weapons took over the village,
they had established a group of caverns underground. 
Emeralda, Billy and Rico charged down the entrance with guns blazing.
The first few where caught off guard and went down,
but yet more came at them, determined to destroy them.

Renmazuo dropped to its knees as it nearly fell to a Weapon’s neck chop.
Billy wiped blood from the corner of his mouth as he looked up…
into the face of a Weapon with no compassion or mercy.
So this is the end, he thought, good by guys, take care of Primera for me, I’ll miss you.
The Weapon raised its claw and brought it down on the cockpit,
Darkness… 

“Billy!” Rico could only watch, without any way to help him,
“Reeeaggggghhhh!” he tore free of the Weapons’ claws and charged at Billy’s murderer…
Stier spun and struck the Weapon,
a thin line appeared on the Weapon.
The top half slid completely off the bottom half.
The Weapon dropped lifelessly to the floor.
The razor attachment hissed and shut down as it overheated.
Rico turned round to look at the remaining Weapons.
“You Bastards!” he charged.
As one, the Weapons charged…

Up on ground level the situation wasn’t much better.
“General! The 3rd and 7th Gear divisions have been completely wiped out!”
“1st Division Commander Konnair requesting backup in Sector Lambda 4!”
“Bring the 12th and 15th reserve Divisions to Red-Alert status.
Send in the 13th and 14th Divisions to Sector Lambda 4 and 6 respectively.”
“Yes Sir!”
Ramus watched the tactical displays as both 
allies and enemies disappeared from the screen.
Miang, are you watching…
His onetime enemies were already 
battling in the thickest of the fighting,
it sickened him to be in this command post 
while the rank and file fought it out on the frontlines. 
Especially when these enemies were worse than the angels.
“I will be going to the frontlines,”
he raised his hand to stop the sudden chorus of objections,
“I trust that you will handle the situation to the best of your abilities.”
“Yes-s Sir!”
“Good.”
He turned to his retinue of the former elements,
Dominia, the leader of element Earth,
Kelvena, of element Water,
Seraphita, of element Fire
and Tolon, of element Wind.
The four of them had followed him after Solaris had been destroyed,
had saved him from Deus’ Battle Platform,
had helped him recover after the great battle with Deus
and now were still here with him in this battlefield. 
“Are you ready?”
“As always sir,” the Elements replied.
“Very well, move out.”
The five gears, Vendetta, Bladegash, 
Marinebasher, Grandgrowl and Skyghene
blasted out of the command post. 

All over the battlefield gears and minor Weapons 
fought each other in close combat.
Different combats got mixed up with each other,
gears and Weapons struck friend instead of foe,
lost sight of their foe only to find an enemy behind them,
the air was filled with the buzz gunfire, the roar of missile launchers,
the screech of tortured metal and the battle cries of the Weapons.
The com net was full of comments and the screams of dying soldiers.
Elly struggled to keep the voices out of her head,
she was unconsciously seeing the way how the soldiers died.
She struggled against the visions keeping them out of her mind,
barely concentrating on the battle.
Wham!
She was thrown against her console panel 
as the Weapon struck a blow to Vierge.
She looked up at the Weapon.
This particular one had a large hammer-like attachment.
It swung its arm back…
And was promptly knocked down by Xenogears.
Fei stopped his punishment to the Weapon’s face,
“Elly! Are you all right?”
Vierge slowly got up to its feet. 
“Y-Yeah, I’ll be all right.”
“What were you doing? You weren’t concentrating.”
 “Sorry Fei, I…I…! Fei! Look out!”
Obeying Fei’s commands, Xenogears spun around
to see three Weapon’s pounce down on him.
Reflexively he brought Xenogear’s arm to shield himself.

That move shielded the cockpit from the blast which followed.
He looked up to see the giant G Elements, the result of the
combining of Bladegash, Marinebasher, Grandgrowl and Skyghene.
Without a word the giant gear flew into the battle, 
dispatching three Weapons with one swing of its sword.
Vendetta landed beside Xenogears,
“The battle has gone underground, hurry up.”
Then he was gone.

Bart was leading the combined gear forces down into the deep caverns. 
Behind him were several of his former pirate band who had survived 
the anti-Weapon campaigns until now.
They followed him like a retinue, attacking any Weapon which 
appeared to be gaining a upper hand against Bart or tried to attack him from behind.
Bart was grateful for their help but their services had a heavy price.
Of the former twenty who had followed him down, only five remained.
He lashed out at another Weapon, striking a furrow five metres deep in the Weapon.
Another strike and the Weapon collapsed at his feet.

Out of nowhere a Weapon came flying towards the opposite wall, impaling itself on a protruding rock.
He peered around the corner and saw Stier fighting off hordes of Weapons.
“Rico! Hold on!”
Bart and his retinue charged at the Weapons assaulting Rico.
Three went down due to concentrated fire. Another one had its arm blasted off.
The rest came and counter-attacked. 
Bart’s whip snaked out and found a Weapon’s leg.
A strong tug and the Weapon went down, tripping two other.
The five pirate gears went forward and finished the last two.
Stier went down to its knees, shutting down as steam spurted from its vents.
“Bart, the bastards got Billy. Emeralda went ahead, go after her.”
Andvari spun around at Bart’s command.
“Cort! You’re in charge of the group, hold out until the rest of the group comes!
Then get Rico back to the surface.”
“Yes, Young Master. Take care of yourself.”
“Don’t I always?”
Bart turned and ran after Emeralda.

Emeralda hid as three Weapons ran pass her position.
The distant sound of gunfire was coming closer,
she had to hurry or the troops would not be able to escape the blast.
She ran forward towards the central area of the tunnel complex.
The near silent movement of Cresens echoed through the corridors.
She stopped short as she emerged into the room.
“What in the world is this?”

The room was a giant cavern filled with an orange hue, 
contrasting greatly with the dark, gloomy brown of the corridor.
But it was nothing compared with the object that stood in front of her.
A giant cylinder with an orange liquid stood in front of her.
With the machinery on top and below the tube, 
it looked like a healing tank of the Beta-4 design.
As much as wanted to believe it she knew the idea was wrong.
Emeralda knew it in her gut instinct that it was containment field for the thing floating in it.
She rechecked her scanners.
“A Platinum orb?”
“Emeralda!”
She spun around at the sound of her name.
Bart was running towards her…
with three Class-A Weapons after him.
“Hurry set the bomb!”
“Wait! The thing is a containment cylinder!
Who knows what will happen if we destroy it!”
“Emeralda, behind you!”
The orb began to pulse, the cylinder cracked.
The glass shattered into a million pieces,
The containment machine exploded…

To Be Continued…