Chapter 11: The Plan[]
“The shot was a success, sir.” A SAWAT dressed in dark blue clothing, equipped with many pockets for various things, with a lightened blue paratrooper hat on, said in an American tone. “Yes, Corporal, I understand that,” the Major said, “Lotterick is gone, the forces from there are not going to trouble our advance,” after saying this, the Corporals radio buzzed, he picked it up, then held the ‘receive’ button on it. The voice on the other end said, “hello Corporal, please report to your Assault Captain, he will assign you ten pets and then you will be given your brief.” The corporal apologised to the Major, then left to walk at a quickened pace towards his Assault Captain’s tent. Hundreds of pets were doing the same, heading towards their assigned captains tents. It was almost impossible to make it through the crowds.
Arriving at his Assault Captain’s large quarters, big enough to fit fifty pets (with a squeeze). The corporal was addressed with some hearty hello’s from the lower ranks. “Hey, how’s it going Corp. Gochief?” A pet with ridiculously long hair said. “Morning, Chief” a blonde guy with aviator sunglasses, who was sharpening his knife, murmured. Then finally another small-ish pet said “Sup,” Gochief did not reply to any of them. His eyes were too focused on his Assault Captain. “Whats the plan, sir.” This caused twenty-or-so other heads to turn and look towards the Captain. In the middle of the large tent, lay a table with a map on it. It was a map of Reefwater and its surrounding area. “So...” The Captain said. “The plan is, pretty good actually...” “Go on... we don’t have all day” a guy in the back of the room said. Chief turned to scowl at him. The Captain stared at the map, in a sort of trance, after around five minutes of this. He began to explain the plan.
“Ok, the main force will come in from the east, there will be around two-thousand infantry and two-hundred tanks. We will deploy our air-force when it is called upon. This will probably be an hour or so into the battle. They will most likely know of our approach. This won’t matter, the estimated number of Soldiers stationed at Reefwater is from eight-hundred to one-thousand. Reinforcements will arrive, but we have destroyed the road leading through Lotterick which is the only road leading directly to Reefwater. This will slow them down. The reinforcements will either cross-country or take another route, we have stationary units placed down all possible routes, that will either destroy reinforcements or slow them down further.” “Sir, how many pets are at each stationary unit and how much reinforcements are we expecting?” the pet with long hair asked. “At each stationary unit their are between one-hundred to one-hundred and fifty pets. We are expecting up to one-thousand pets to come to the aid of Reefwater, but... they will come in small pockets, because they are spread over the country. This means our soldiers will likely take them down.” “Ok sir.” “Now, this is where we come in... the DA will have an advantage, they will have cover and barricades and elevated positions, we however, are the ones who will eliminate this advantage, with an advantage of our own. The advantage, of surprise.
The Major, has requested that he lead a surprise attack with eight-hundred men from behind Reefwater, we will all mount our shiny, newly developed assault water-craft. They can carry one tank and twenty pets each. We will approach the beach. Then deploy the tanks and pets onto the battlefield, from behind. There is a bridge that connects the southern road to the lighthouse area. We will come up from underneath this bridge, eliminate any DA soldiers in sight, we will then place demilitions on the Lighthouse and Bridge, bringing down the main elevated position for Reefwater. We must make sure we don’t blow it up so it falls on buildings, we must take Reefwater with minimal damage if it is to be of any use.” “Sir, why do we take out the bridge, then?” A pet who Chief did not recognise asked. Chief answered this one, “Its so nothing can hit our flanks,” The Captain looked at Corporal. Gochief, “very good, corporal, now... the final part to the plan, involves pushing forward and doing a sweep on the village and lighthouse areas. When all DA resistance is defeated, The Major will meet with The General from the eastern attack and together they will raise the SAWAT flag in place of the DA.” The thirty-two pets in the tent all nodded and murmured to their comrades. “When does the attack start?” Corporal Gochief asked. “Well, it will take us roughly eight hours to mobilize all our troops, then six hours to arrive, it is six minutes past four now, that places our main force on the enemies doorstep at around six in the evening. We might as well wait for a night attack, to give the water assault a higher-chance of not being spotted. So I’d say... the attack will commence at nine P.M.” “Understood Captain!” The pets shouted.
“Haha! Your going to lose, man!” A pet dressed in elites sped down the road. In his large four-by-four. Two other similar cars sped with him. They were bulky, their engine’s roared through the area, their headlight’s stretching out into the dark and early, misty morning. Zachary was leading the other two, Zeroed and Lowa. They were all fighting for first place, each vehicle appeared to be a blur of color. Zeroed levelled his car with Zach’s. “When I beat you to Lotterick... you owe me twenty BEERS!!!” “Oh, hell no!” Zach shouted. Speeding up and pulling away. Lowa pulled beside Zeroed. “Hey man, you know what to do... I’ll take his left, you take his right.” Zeroed nodded. They both sped up to ninety-miles an hour. Gained on Zach, then started to shunt him on both sides. Zeroed began to slowly shove his car to the right, only to be stopped by Lowa’s roadster, which was on the left, both pets pushing in opposite directions, Zach’s car was taking damage. “Hey guys!” Zach shouted, laughing. “Guys, quit it!” “C’mon!!!” Zach heard a crunching sound. “Seriously, guys, stop!” He said in a matter-of-fact tone. Sensing the seriousness in his voice, the other two drivers pulled off then began to slow down their cars with him.
They exited the vehicles a few meters ahead of Zach. “If you guys have broken my baby, I’m going ta’ kill you.” Zach stated as he jumped out of his car. He went straight over to the bonnet of it. Flicked it up, it was smoking. Zeroed ran over laughing and stating “how much did you buy it for? Lowa followed this with a “Cheap old thing.” Zach ignored them and looked for the problem. He thought he saw a disconnected wire. Then a piece of metal jammed in between something that looked important, and something else that looked equally important. Zeroed arrived just as Zach began to reconnect the wire. “Zeroed, do me favor and jump in the car, when I say go, see if it will start.” He said. “Anything you need me to do, Zach?” Lowa questioned while peering over Zach’s shoulder. “Yeah, hold this.” Zach handed him the chunk of metal. Then gave Zeroed a thumbs up sign. Zeroed revved the engine while looking down at the steering wheel. Lowa and Zach both looked into the bonnet, “I think its fixed” Lowa said, “Yeah.” Zach replied, fast. They both looked up. Then Zeroed and Lowa started walking to return to their jeep. “It’s getting less misty.” Zeroed stated, almost to himself. “I think it’s moving away.” Lowa stopped and looked into the air. It was definitely clearing very quickly. All of a sudden. They could see it, at first it was just a silhouette through the mists. Then over a period of thirty seconds. It came into full view. Lotterick, was burning, no house was without fire. The area around Lotterick was blackened. Then for a mile around, the ground was just dry, cracked dirt and mud. No vegetation whatsoever. “...What... what... happened?” Zeroed fell to his knees. Lowa went to pick him back up. “Our Families...” Zeroed managed to say. “They were... all... they were all in... l...Loterrick.” Zeroed began to cry, and Zach who had ran over to him, joined him. Lowa, seized hold of the situation. “Guys!” He shouted, encouragingly. “Get it together, we must look for survivors! Only death awaits those who do not try!” His words growing in intensity as he spoke. Zeroed stood up and Zach stood by his side. Together they stared at Lotterick. “Your right.” They both said in unison, then entered their cars and rode towards Lotterick, over the desolate and barren ground.
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD* *THUD* THUD*
The sound of two-thousand pets, taking five steps in perfect timing. It could be heard anywhere on the country. At the DA H.Q. however, were the ones who actually knew what that probably was. “How much intel on this assault do we have?” a pet with grey hair and sideburns said. “A little sir... not enough.” A pet who sat at a typewriter said, like everyone else in the room, dressed in standard DA military clothing. “Damn!” the grey haired pet hit a desk full force with his fist. “I want scouts sent out. Get me some intel!” He said, taking a sip out of his coffee.
Two hours later
Zeroed, Zach and Lowa revved their engines up, having accepted that there were absolutely no survivors from the explosion. They cried. But they knew they had to leave. They sped up towards the bridge in Lotterick. It was gone, they didn’t care though, there was a stump where the old bridge was and it provided a ramp which shot them speeding over the river. Usually this would have been exhilarating but, not today. Not on their families day of death. There expressions were the same from when they started the jump, to when they finished, sad, bewildered and helpless. Almost two miles down the road, Zeroed spotted something lying in the middle of the road. He slowed his car down, then looked out to the darkened, burnt fields. Zach and Lowa stopped with him. They all exited their cars. There turned out to be around nine pets lying around the site of where a large truck had been thrown over. Most of them were still alive. One pet, had a piece of metal through his heart. Coming in from the back and going out through the front. Another pet's legs had been crushed by another piece of large, twisted metal. But he was still alive. They managed to get everyone into their cars. The pet under the metal was the most difficult, requiring Zach and Lowa to push the metal thing back, which was EXTREMELY heavy. As it slowly slid back, Zeroed grabbed the pet's wrists and yanked him out. Wincing when he saw the pet's legs. The bones had broken through the skin in several places,” They were all on the vehicles. When Zeroed, Zach and Lowa, started their engines and began to speed down the road. Once more.
Eagle remembered this feeling, the feeling of not seeing properly, everything being blurry, sound being distant. He blinked, and the blurriness got slightly better, “Where am I” he tried to pronounce. It came out weird, so he didn’t try again. “I think I got a live one!” He heard someone shout, but it sounded a little distant.” “Me too!” Someone shouted, seeming closer. Eagle heard a screeching of tires on a distant road. Then a pet walked around to Eagle. “Hello, sunshine.” He said. Lightly slapping Eagle on the face. Eagle's sight and hearing came quickly back from its distant state. Eagle remembered what had happened and was sick over the edge of the vehicle he was lying in. “Lovely, just great.” The pet said, who was dressed in elites. “W...where am I?” Eagle managed to stammer. “You, are in the back of my car, and that car is headed for the coast, where it will be loaded onto a ship, along with me, then escorted back to our homeland.” Zeroed said, in a mildly sarcastic tone. “Well...” Eagle began, then more realisation flooded over him “NO! We’ve got to get to Reefwater, join the fight against SAWAT!” “Relax,” Lowa said... walking over to Zeroed and Eagle, “he’s just kidding himself, we’re going to fight those SAWAT scum whether they like it or not.” He stated bluntly. Zeroed laughed, “Hell yeah, they killed lots of my friends and family when they destroyed Lotterick, they are going down.” “Good...” Eagle sighed. “Wait...” He abruptly continued... “Are they ok? Delta Squad, my friends?” “Most of them...” Zach said... looking up from the passenger seats in his car, he was checking everyone’s pulses. “This one,” he continued, “He’s not made it.” He pointed to Tank. To Roth. Eagle was shocked, “They call him Tank, ‘cause he can take a beating.” he said. “Well... I’m sorry, but this one he couldn’t take.” Eagle felt tears run down his face, he didn’t know Roth personally but... still... Roth was... just a guy trying to stop a terror. Those pets do not deserve to die. “And... this one’s legs are badly mauled,” Eagle looked at Vulcan, “Will he be ok?” he said. “Don’t know.” “We’ll get to a hospital, then continue to the battle.” Zachary said. “Well... ok” Eagle said, “But... you might want to wake that guy up,” Eagle pointed to his Commander, Matrix. “Why?” Zeroed looked at the guy. “Don’t really want to, he doesn’t look like ‘my type’ really...” Zeroed seriously joked. “Just trust me, he’s gonna be pretty helpful.” Eagle smiled.
END OF CHAPTER 11: THE PLAN