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~Vivace-Fortissimo~
* * * Aurelia sneezed. Macbeth's prickly night air was hard on her sinuses, and the landscape on this part of the planet was pure allergen. Every member of the thirty teams present had their alarms set to 2:00 a.m., when they would man their aircraft and set off for the base. The two squadrons, Starlight and Vulpine, were each composed of fifteen individual teams with anywhere from three to six members each. For this mission, Aurelia was in charge of them all. Eddie was second-in-command, of course, as the highest-ranking officer present other than Aurelia herself and also the usual commander of the Vulpine Squadron. It was a lot of people to keep track of, but she was prepared to do the job. The atmosphere of the small tent city was apprehensive but excited. The chemistry between the different teams was a new experience for many of them; whole squadrons did not usually attack. Most often one or two teams could handle whatever problems arose. Aurelia finished taking inventory, sneezed again, and disappeared into her tent. It was going to be a long night. * * * *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* Aurelia woke up in a cold sweat. She'd just been having a nightmare, but all traces of it except for the keen sense of terror were fading quickly. She scratched her nose and forced herself to get out of her sleeping bag. It's a good thing I'm a morning person, Aurelia told herself as she vigorously rubbed her ears to wake herself up more. For speed's sake, everyone had slept in their flight suits. Aurelia struggled nervously with her boots and finally clomped out into the chilly air, gathering her green jacket about her. Her COMM link lay abandoned in her jet, and she hopped inside and pulled it on, watching a host of other creatures doing the same all across the field. Two minutes was all it took for every single soldier to get ready. Aurelia opened a COMM channel to everybody. "All right, this is your commander, Major Aurelia Javensen! Let's go in there and hit 'em hard!" The pilots raised a cheer, and the small, sleek jets lifted off one by one and set out for the base in formation, each team flying in formation with their leaders at the front; and in front of them all was Aurelia herself in all her glory. These were the moments she lived for. Ten minutes and the box-like base loomed into view. Its shape and clumsy build betrayed its hasty construction, but an enormous black dome curved over a large chunk of it. I wonder what they're hiding? Aurelia wondered, icy dread creeping up her stomach. She put these thoughts out of her mind and concentrated on the task at hand. "All right, Vulpine Squadron around the left and Starlight on the right! Cloud Collectors, Fire Strike, Sky Pulse, you're in the middle with Eddie and me! Starlight Squadron READY! Fire Nova bombs at the base! Vulpine, you get ready to do the same!" The night was lit up by the chaotic blasts of fifty or more nova bombs exploding at once on the side of the base. When the smoke cleared, the icy starlight illuminated not a gaping hole but a smoldering dent. Aurelia shut her eyes and wiped her forehead, trying not to be discouraged. "Vulpine! Where are your nova bombs? Help them out!" Another wall of detonating bombs seemed to spew from the side of the base, and again a dent. "In the middle! Eddie, Sky Pulse, Fire Strike, Cloud Collectors, bombs away!" Aurelia released one of her five nova bombs along with the appointed teams. Another dent, and at least it was something. "We're doing damage! Keep it up! Starlight, get ready for round two! Load up! FIRE!" The base was obscured in black smoke now, and out of the poisonous cloud came sharp, cold aircraft shining piercing blue light from their pointed noises. Aurelia's mouth dropped. How did they get ready for us so quickly?? Her eyes instinctively turned to the black dome and widened until they were perfectly round. The canopy was slowly retreating into the ground, and out of it a monstrous shape hidden by the night and smoke was emerging. "Don't be discouraged! Keep it coming! Don't be scared! Give 'em heck!" her encouraging words belied the sense of panic that her tone of voice was conveying, and she tried with all her might to calm herself down. It was dark, and now fog was rising from the ground and rendering the landscape invisible. One of the sharp blue lights became visible directly in front of her, and a few seconds later the jet itself slid through the mists and alongside her, then disappeared behind. Aurelia tried to follow it, but it was no use. "Come in....come in...major...come in..." her COMM link buzzed. A terrified face appeared on the screen. "Are you there...?" "What is it??" "It's....it's..." the young badger's voice cracked. "It's too much....I mean there are too many...it's no use....we can't..." "Yes we can!" Aurelia practically screamed, her pulse leaping out of her neck. "DON'T GIVE UP!" The frenzied battle continued with zero visibility, and Aurelia found herself shooting madly whenever she spied one of the cold blue lights that meant an enemy fighter. She took down four in one round and sped after another as her wits returned, but she knew there were too many for them. And across the plain, the hulking shape from the black dome was floating ominously upwards. She gasped as a ship exploded less than two meters next to her. She hadn't seen the kamikaze jet as it had flown straight for her--someone had shot it just before it reached her. Aurelia said a silent thank you to whoever may have been listening to her prayers and fired a steady stream of laser at the enemy jet in front of her. It exploded in a ball of white flame, and she flinched. Although the army kept telling her it was okay to kill Venomians because they wanted to kill her, a part of her died along with every creature she shot down. All at once, the fog whispered away into frightening clarity, revealing the silver monolith that had come completely away from the black dome. A tiny pinpoint of red light opened in its centre and widened until it occupied her entire field of vision. Nothing else could be seen anymore, just red. Then it was dark. Then it was suddenly pure, acrid, blinding white, a cold white filled with agony, pain, and death. And then it was dark. There was nothing, she could see nothing. Her entire existence had been wiped away and replaced with a nightmare. She could feel a ripping, burning sensation, and she felt herself rising up and up, and then going down and down, spiraling madly. It was normal temperature, then it was hot, then it cooled back down and got colder and colder. She could hear chimes, wind chimes like the kind she had had in front of her house when she was a child. They were ringing, and now she could hear thin voices singing with them, the same voices she had heard in the alley. All at once she felt a powerful blow to her entire being. Aurelia knew no more. * * *
It's the good world, yes, the good
world * * * A bright light filled her jet. Aurelia tried to move and instantly regretted it. As she lay still and attempted to get her bearings, she became aware that she was hunched over her jet's control panel. The jet had crashed firmly into a hill, and half of the window was covered in the grass and soil. She couldn't see anything else from her point of view. She tried to move again, painfully easing herself off the control panel and back into the seat. The panel had several blood stains on it. She felt for the button that would take her jet's canopy down and pressed it, but as a result of the jet being stuck into the side of a hill, it jammed and wouldn't move. Aurelia sighed and wriggled in her seat, then tested each of her joints for sprains or breaks. Every time she felt at something, she winced, but fortunately nothing was broken. Bruised all over, she leaned back in her seat and attempted to shake the pain out of her arms. It took a good ten minutes of solid pain, but finally she could move without considerable discomfort. She fired the reverse engines and the jet popped out of the hill, flying through the air and skidding into a tree on the other side. She braced herself for the impact and gasped as the jet gave a shudder and shut itself off. The canopy creaked painfully open and Aurelia crawled out of the jet. She walked slowly around the field, looking for other people. There were a few aircraft scattered haphazardly about, and she looked into each one. The first was empty. The second contained Lindsey Frawley, who was snoring softly and appeared unhurt. The third contained Eddie. He was not snoring softly. He was not breathing. Eddie was dead. Aurelia crumpled to the ground, letting misery engulf her. She had known Eddie for years. They had always done things together, even though they were just little things. And I guess that when I look back on it, she thought sadly, the little things really were big things now that they're gone forever. She stared blankly upwards when her tears had dried up. Across the field she could see another creature hunched over a blackened aircraft from which arose a languid column of smoke. As the commander of all of these, it's my duty to comfort the troops, she told herself, forcing her legs to move her across the grass. As she timidly reached out her paw, the figure whirled around. Aurelia gaped. This was not one of her troops. The lizard wore Venomian colours and stared at Aurelia with eyes full of smoldering agony. "This was my base," the Venomian said. Her voice was surprisingly flat and emotionless. "My troops were supposed to have the force shields up. They didn't. They weren't ready. Now they're dead. It was my fault they died." Aurelia felt as if she was going mad. She had no idea what to say to this, her sworn enemy, a group of people she'd always fancied to be evil and unfeeling. "It was my fault," the lizard repeated. "All of this was my fault. It went too soon. I set it off too soon. My soldiers are dead because I killed them," she spoke, her voice cracking slightly. "They shouldn't be dead. I should be." "The Cornerians were all my troops," Aurelia said pointlessly, finally finding her voice. "I killed them, too," the lizard hissed. "Don't you understand, stoat? I killed my troops and yours. I deserve a thousand deaths. Our troops deserved none. All this death was my fault. I am death." "The troops aren't all dead," Aurelia contradicted quietly. It was the most coherent thing she could think of to say at that moment. "I'm alive, and one of my troops is alive, so there are probably more. You're alive." "I KNOW I'm alive!" the Venomian practically screamed. "I HATE being alive! I don't want to be alive with this death, this blood on my hands, haunting me, mocking me, sentencing me to a fate worse than death! Because of this, I will be forced to live a full, long life on the outside, stoat," the lizard said, eyes flashing. "But I will always be dead on the inside. "Always." * * *
Life is a gift from the heavens
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