Rage of Walpurgis

The underbellies of Suntory Whiskey Squad’s Hoshigas’ reflected the sea of sparkling laz gun bayonets, and barrels of Anti Mobile Trooper guns.

Lawrence jerked to his right in the cockpit. He witnessed just in the nick of time the fiery ball of destruction consume thousands of laz riflemen from the munitions he dropped. Charlotte and Boris both finished their vulcan cannon runs on both his flanks, creating a misty soup of flesh and leather chunks.

“We got the drop on them, let’s hightail out of this crater,” Lawrence said. He pulled down on the joystick, and with his other hand grabbed the lever and pulled it down to accelerate. He wasn’t exceeding fast g-forces, but it did allow for his Hoshiga to get to relative safety. “There doesn’t seem to be much Sarissa or Tacomas around.”

“We might’ve caught the tail-end of this deployment tunnel,” Charlotte said, through comms. “We need to let Utah know of this offense.”

“You said it Suntory Two,” Lawrence said. He drew heavy breaths, lifting his visor to wipe away the fresh coating of sweat flaking his eyes. His eyes were slightly burning. “It’s a little concerning they’re not even trying to chase after us.”

“No luck with Luke?” Boris’s rumbling voice piped in.

“Yeah, really, where is that kid? Why, when I get my hands on that kid...” Lawrence tried to flick away fresh build-up of perspiration.

“You don’t suppose he returned to the Yilan already?” Charlotte asked.

“Stay low.” As Lawrence commanded, the other two shadowed Lawrence as he raised the lever to decrease the Hoshiga speed. They were a few leagues away from their daring raid and had arrived at a new, larger crater, carved deep like a spiral. Above them, Shinra teams disembarked from forward assault ships and were descending in the area.

“Let’s give this area a sweep,” Boris said, “I’m not about to sit around and let them get slaughtered by guerrillas.”

“Good idea,” Lawrence said. “I’ll probe the left, you two go the other way.”

Lawrence was the first to accelerate out of cover. He signaled to the reinforcing fleet with a flashing light he’s with his squadron here to secure the parameter. Once there was confirmation, Lawrence gazed over his cockpit, then to his radar dome. There was nothing, no pings.

He looked to his ammunition bar. Six missiles, and two half canisters of vulcan rounds left. But he could rely on his laz guns for a while. He maneuvered the Hoshiga so that he hovered down the spiral-like layout of the crater. He had turned on heat-seeking and night-vision layers for extra precaution.

By now the allied force had established the foundations for a beach-head. But Lawrence couldn’t make heads or tails of it being an extension of Utah or not. He quickly patched through to the commander of the Star Monitor overhead the orator.

“This is Suntory Leader of Suntory Whiskey Squadron,” Lawrence said.

“HQ, go ahead.”

“A few leagues East of here we came across a corps-sized infantry with AMT capabilities. We believe they may be part of the force heading for Utah.”

“Understood, over.”

“We’re done here so we’re heading to Utah. Can you send me the coordinates for it? Over and out.”

He received the coordinates and was about to contact the rest of Suntory Whiskey Squad when the crater rumbled. “What the devil?” Lawrence said. His Hoshiga creaked and groaned. To say he had a real bad feeling about this would be a understatement.

Just then, he saw the flashing of the man of the hour: Luke Starruna.

Lawrence reached for his cockpit’s wired handset and pinned it to his cheeks. A single Hoshiga sped across the horizon. “Luke! Boy, do you got some explaining to do.” He couldn’t suppress a grin in relief the boy was still alive.

The connection was spotty, and Lawrence was alarmed by the abrupt Tominosky jamming. “What was that? Luke, do you copy?” He leaned in despite the protests of his seat belts.

Threads of laz gun fire ripped through space. There was a blur among the Star Monitors—one of them abruptly exploded. Another blur! Lawrence couldn’t get visual on the target. Another Star Monitor down! “I don’t like the looks of this,” Lawrence said. Contact was lost with Luke.

“Did you see that?” Boris said, his rumbling question deep with concern.

“It was like a comet...” Charlotte said. From a sub-window, Lawrence saw her wipe sweat off her visor. They were all at their limits after what’s now their fifth sortie.

His headpiece was flooded with messages from other units in shock of whatever it was decimating the Star Monitors in this sector. Whatever it was groped Lawrence with an uneasy swelling of fear. Charlotte and Boris appeared at his wings.

Just then, over the horizon was a line of glittering laz gun bayonets. The banner, depicting the Black-Red dragon emblem of House von Churchill, was hoisted among their ranks. Tacomas stood like titans among the rank-and-file foot soldiers. Just beyond the compass of what Lawrence could see, barrages of helix-shaped laz guns dominated the air space. The Star Monitors overhead were ambushed by Tacoma and Sarissa as the solar waves gave way to the ever imposing black-beaked underbellies of looming Star Dreadnoughts.

“We need to pull back, now!” Lawrence screamed. “It’s too dangerous to rearm at this Star Monitor—Utah may be lost.”

Then, like a thunderbolt cast from Zeus himself, the Star Monitor overhead was struck down with such immediate aftershock it swept everyone away. Lawrence struggled to maintain control of his Hoshiga. Just nearly did he avoid a catastrophic and uneventful end by bringing his Hoshiga back to bearing.

Lawrence looked around but didn’t see his wingmen. “Suntory Two, Three: Status report?”

“That was a close one, I thought I was a goner,” Charlotte said. “Boris’s here with me.”

“Just what the devils was that?” Boris said, bewildered as any.

“It’s good to hear to your voices,” Lawrence said. “Anyone got visual of the situation?” It was too cloudy. There was zaps of laz threads occasionally but it seemed to have died down after whatever happened with the Star Monitor, having crashed-landed into the crater.

Zeta rumbled all around them. The three were hovering low enough to minimalize their Hoshiga profiles. Explosions ripped through the billowing smoke, forcing Lawrence and the others to leap from cover and outrun the immense shock waves.

Lawrence was the first to peak from cover. He leaned forward—held back by the straps, trying to get good visual. Hot, pink plasma shots pierced the mist around the Star Monitor and attacked it—and it was then Lawrence trembled like never before. The Gods themselves in this instant assaulted him with spells of fear. A black bi-pedal silhouette stood atop the Star Monitor. It was clam-shaped, with arms and multiple sub-arms.

“It can’t be,” Boris’s voice rumbled in one ear and through the other.

“Mobile Gear Walpurgis?!” Lawrence uttered.

“I-I thought we took it down at Ben Nevis?” Charlotte said, gripped by horror.

“We did—I can attest to that myself. I don’t believe it... another Walpurgis,” Lawrence lifted his visor to clasp a hand over his mouth. He was shaking. The Gods’ curse on him was making him falter.

Fresh rain of laz gun and neutron bombs were thrown at the Walpurgis, but it accomplished nothing. It remained there, its pilot—no doubt the Black Prince himself—relishing in the glory of pure Imperium engineering.

And yet still, Lawrence felt choked by a looming, cloud of despair. Something unusual and uninviting was massaging his mind—and no matter how much he jerked around, he couldn’t shake it off.

“Lawrence, what’s the matter?” Charlotte asked. She exchanged glances with Boris on their overlays; “he’s losing it.”

Boris spoke:“We gotta get outta here, I’ll see what I can—“

“Suntory Squad, this is Suntory Four!” Luke’s voice broke the spell over Lawrence. He readjusted his headset mouthpiece.

“Where are you?” Lawrence demanded.

“Right above you, we’re taking the bastard out!”

Lawrence rushed out of the small cavern opening they were in. Just as Luke had said, swarms of allied Shinra were descending, coming down in total force upon the Walpurgis. Lawrence gained enough momentum to out-pace the point-defense systems of the Walpurgis as he led the way for Suntory Whiskey Squad. “We’ll just do what worked last time. Let’s hit those legs hard!” Lawrence pressed the side button on his joystick, unleashing a single volley of missiles aimed at the Walpurgis feet. He jerked it left, barreling his way through its massive pillar-like legs as explosion shock waves made him lurch violently. He made his way around its massive pillar-like legs. He glanced back, “did we get him?”

“Visual—no hit, over,” Charlotte said.

“Confirmed no hit, over,” Boris confirmed.

“Leave it to me, I got him!” Luke said, “just give me a little more time... a little... more...”

Lawrence zeroed in on Luke through a sub-monitor. He was too focused on the targeting system again! Luke’s cockpit rocked violently. “Luke, abort your dive, we can’t—I can’t swing around to cover you like this! You’re too open! Ensign.. Starruna!” He banged his dashboard, “Suntory Two, Three: Bank off to my right, and deliver some presents for Churchill’s boys on your way out. Head for Utah.” Lawrence yanked down on the accelerator lever and thrusted the joystick forward.

Lawrence broke off from the others as planned, and unleashed a fresh salvo of missiles. One of them managed to knock out a sub-arm. Lawrence’s trigger button the laz gun was squeezed down with all his rage. The laz gaz painted, and pelted the thicket, abosrant armor of the Walpurgis. And yet, the Walpurgis raged on. Zeta quaked as the Mobile Gear of destruction unleashed strobling laz threads, ripping the manhood of many Hoshiga and Shinra pilots and hurtling them so abruptly down to abyss, to the House of the Dead.

Lawrenece and the others were some of all that remained of the assault. And Luke? They searched for him frantically through the gusts of debris and solar gust. Tominoskly particles made it near impossible to spot anything past the naked eye.

And yet still Lawrence remained shocked as Luke avoided impossible odds and continued his incredible dive towards the Black Prince. “Almost there... I-I’m almost—there!” Luke fired his missile. It slammed straight into the Walpurgis. The massive mobile gear stumbled back, half consumed by the ensuring explosion. “Not yet!” Luke screamed. The Walpurgis only stumbled atop the Star Monitor, it was bound to counter attack any moment now.

“Yippee ki yay” Luke said. He fired off another missile, and with the dual firing of his laz and vulcan guns had caused enough damage to knock it hurtling off the edge of the Star Monitor. It fell, chased by the burning flames as it made impact and exploded. Luke accomplished the dive and was pulling away. Behind him, the Walpurgis was consumed in an enormous, but brief explosion. Lawrence, speechless, escaped the shock waves as he made his way up the spiral crater.

“I told you I got it!,” Luke laughed. He laughed uncontrollably. Lawrence and the others broke out in tears of laughter. “You just had to believe in me.”

“You stupid fool,” Charlotte said, tearing up. She met eyes with Lawrence over the menus but quickly looked away out of embarrassment.”

Lawrence slumped in his seat. Dumbfounded. “Luke—I, Suntory Four. You really did it.” Tears dabbled in his eyes. Did they do it? Did they finally take down the Black Prince, the Jonathan von Churchill? The monster responsible for escalating this war to involving innocent civilians; his hideous gassing of a space colony and dropping it on a population center? On Ben Nevis?

Lawrence cleared his throat. He looked over where thee Black Prince had fallen. It’s well and truly over. Nothing could’ve survived that. “Listen kid—“ Lawrence cleared his throat: “Suntory Four, you can forget about the letter of apology. You’re cleared of your disordly misconduct. You know, I’ll even get on my knees and beg the Commander you get recommended for a promotion.”

“You mean it?” Luke found himself biting down on his lip.

“Yeah, you know what, I’m not pushing my luck. Let’s head back to the Yilan, I don’t like how urgent the Commander is patching through to me.”

“I’m nearly spent over here,” Boris said.

“Suntory Four, you lead the way,” Lawrence said. He couldn’t conceal his grin.

“Right away, Suntory Two and Three, on me—“

“Yes sir—“ Charlotte said.

A single plasma round ripped through the air. It was drawn to the hard left of Lawrence—if he hadn’t drifted more to the right, he would’ve been a goner. It wasn’t a long thread.

“That was a close one,” Lawrence said. His attention alerted by the wreckage. But a coughing fit from his monitor spurred his attention back to his wing members. The realization was too unimaginable at first. Lawrence could only watch in horror as Luke jerked around in his seat, blood splashed the camera.

“Luke!” Everyone shouted.

“He’s... still... not had enough?” Luke said, he sputtered blood. Tears armed Lawrence’s eyes.

Luke sharply turned his Hoshiga to confront the Walpurgis once more. He far exceeded what was necessary for even a improvised bombing run like this.

“Suntory Four!” Lawrence said, tearfully, “don’t do it, Luke! Don’t be a hero!”

“I’ll just drag your ass to the gates of Valhalla myself!” Luke screamed. He fired off everything he had until his guns ran dry. Lawrence couldn’t reach him in time—not it didn’t matter in the end. When the moment came to be—for Lawrence to force Luke to divert course—Lawrence swerved early. He saw the same forlorn hope of determination in his eyes and knew immediately the idea of forcing Luke to slow down for him was impossible.

The Walpurgis was busy dealing with another threat and had thrown its leg up in an attempt to them out with solar gusts of wind, but it only left him more exposed to Luke’s stunning charge. Luke masterfully dodged the arms and the plasma swords wielded by sub-arms.

“Luke! No!” Lawrence screamed. Luke’s screams drowned out all others until it abruptly cut to static as he slammed into the rear of the Walpurgis. Both he and the Walpurgis were consumed in an enormous explosion. Zeta rocked and groaned violently from the astounding shock waves.

“Suntory Leader to Suntory Four, come in,” Lawrence said, bleakly. He repeated it—then again. Charlotte and Boris’s wails and frustrations flooded comms. It was all to no avail. Lawrence and the surviving members circled around the solar gust of discarded destruction. Before anyone could react, the Walpurgis burst through the smoke with laz laser threads dancing, and made several bellowed dashes up the canyons. Several Star Monitors were sliced through, creating in his wake the domain of the House of the Dead. The Walpurgis blasted off over the horizon, a mere twinkle among the stars.

The fighting had died down in this sector, the flashpoint rumbling away to Utah, no doubt about it. But for Lawrence, now, he slumped in his tears, opening his visor to wipe away the tears offered for Luke. He remained silent for a long time, no concern for the calls of either wing mate. His world was muted. Furious at himself for not reeling in Luke. Anger at the Gods for their lack of intervention. Why did Luke have to die? Why didn’t Churchill, disgusting dog he is, survive?

Lawrence was too tired to go on. He didn’t want to fight anymore. He no longer found it in his heart to fire any more shots in anger. He took deep breaths. He may have lost one youngster, but he won’t lose the other.

The question lingered on his mind. Does he head back for supplies now, or does he chance it and look for Victoria and Luke?

For now, he brushed aside the thoughts to answer his interface ringing.

“Commander Buttermilch is demanding for us to pull back,” Charlotte said. She forcibly wiped away tears.

“No other choice, then,” Lawrence said, leaving the others puzzled by what he meant. “Let’s get a move on.”

Before they could, though, they were hailed by friendlies. One of them was Frank. Frank stopped his Shinra and opened his hatch as Lawrence came to a stop next to it. He unstrapped himself and burst out from his cockpit.

“Luke! Boy am I glad to see you,” Lawrence flipped open his visor, blissfully unaware of the dangers exposing himself to the vacuums of space.

Frank slammed it shut. He turned wordlessly, to face his squad mates. Once they informed Frank of Luke’s death, Frank remained silent. Just as Lawrence remained catatonic for the duration.

“Hey, let’s get a move on—Suntory Four,” Lawrence said. “No use waiting around.”

“Captain Mengde,” Frank said.

Lawrence straightened up, he looked around. “What?” Lawrence asked. That’s right, Lawrence was beginning to re-grasp his bearings. Lawrence’s gaze locked with Frank.

Frank reaffirmed his posture. “What are you going to do now?” Frank said.

A long silence froliceked. Then, Charlotte spoke on the headset: “Captain...” she said, “we need to settle this with von Churchill.”

“I wanna give that shit sonuvabitch a piece of my mind,” Boris said. His rumbling voice quaked with fury. “Let us go, captain! I may be running low, but I still have a arsenal of democracy for him to taste.”

Lawrence raised one of his hands and his hand trembled. He looked up to see the youthful determination burning in Frank’s eyes. He saw those eyes before, and he did not want to see them extingunished again.

“I...” It was all Lawrence could stammer. Before he could say any further, they found themselves blown away by an intense solar shock wave, Lawrence threw himself to the rocky surface, hoping not to be blown off the chunk he was on, but he found himself hurdling at a high velocity.

There was a flashing light—then nothing. Dozens of Star Monitors and Star Dreadnoughts, the hundreds of Mobile Troopers and Star Fighters engaging in the only tools of the trade they excel at—all gone, in the blink of an eye, erased.

Lawrence was shielded by the palm of a Shinra. He was safely stopped. Finding himself sobered up, Lawrence punched one of the giant Shinra fingers in frustration. “Those bastards... they really did it!”

The realization dawned on them all. “They fired the Farragaig colony laser... how could they!?” Charlotte said.

“Is this why the Ninth Star Fleet moved away?” Boris said, “No... that can’t be right. The Yilan and the rest of the fleet are moving further away... but why?”

“And now we’re withdrawing from Zeta...” Lawrence said, he gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to abandon Victoria—Friederika or Frank, either. No one should be left behind, so then, why indeed...?

“Who knows if they’ll fire that blasted thing again,” Boris said.

“Say, where’d the boy go?” Charlotte asked.

Lawrence got up, the Shinra had presented his Hoshiga in its other hand. Lawrence dived for it and strapped in his seat. The Shinra skied off to join presumably Frank and the others. Frank... he was gone again, doing adventurous things to save the damsel once more—but Lawrence remained too concerned by Frank being the damsel, however.

Exhaustion assaulted him. Lawrence reached for his handset and dialed it in to his team: Suntory Whiskey Squad: We’re returning to mother base.”

They grunted and murmured their distress, but the truth is they were all spent. All he could do now as he lead the way back to the Yilan was look on in despair as his comrades were cut down by the onslaught of the Walpurgis, the Nightmare of Zeta himself. He saw Frank down there... somewhere. But getting off Zeta is going to be difficult enough as-is. It’s better now than run out on fumes later. His Hoshiga and even himself, physically, were depleted. It was up to Victoria, Friederika, Frank... wherever any of them may be. But for now, Lawrence only looks forward to returning home and basking in Suntory whiskey to a fledging’s early demise. So cursed was the role of Suntory Four, Lawrence wondered, if he should simply retire it.

Next chapter

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