Chapter 35: Of Cowardice and Valor

Date: November 25, 3007
Time: 11:30
Location: Navasota Island

A shell careened through the air, hailed by a deadly whistle. As it landed on the ground, it bounced up, scraping dirt into the air. The golden cylindrical object filled with explosives landed with an abrupt halt right by a tree, the tallest one still remaining. In a brilliant flash of light, the wood disintegrated into miniscule fragments blown out in all directions. Mikhail Shale activated his shield just in time as the intense heat reached him, charring everything around him to ashened crisps.

As the raging fireball swirled around him like a tornado, Mikhail reloaded his FF-20 Fair Frozen Heavy Duty Machine Gun. He tossed the empty barrel round to the ground beside him and inserted a new drum. Straightening himself up, he sauntered forwards, his shield protecting his body from the raging inferno. Yelps of fright reached his ears as he stepped out of the flames, brandishing his heavy machine gun menacingly. With a smirk, he opened fire.

The chattering of his weapon was music to his ears. With each bullet piercing into the body of a soldier of the Dominion, Mikhail’s sneer grew wider. Metal met cloth, flesh, then bone. The one thousand round magazine shot out of six revolving barrels unleashed a hell unlike anything ever seen by the Dominion’s army. As the bullets whizzed through the air, the Nexon Army stumbled back, trying to get out of the way.

Then, Mikhail felt something rumble up from behind the Nexon Dominion’s lines. As he emptied the rest of his bullets into the chests of his foes, a long steel barrel emerged from behind the hills, crashing through the shelled-out trees. He cursed under his breath as the tanks aimed their barrels directly at him.

Deactivating his shield for mobility, he dove to the side, his muscles straining to hold on to his weapon. Mikhail heard a burst of fire and then the hair-raising screech of a tank shell whizzing past him at full speed. As he rolled over behind a tree, the shell split through a tall bush behind him and cut an Oak tree entirely in half. With a tremendous crash, the severed tree fell to the floor. Looking behind, Mikhail saw two of his men dive to another tree, still firing their weapons into the line of Dominion soldiers.

Chuckling to himself at his well-trained men, he ejected the drum and clicked another one in. Locking and loading, he stepped out of the cover and sprayed the line of advancing soldiers with hundreds of white hot bullets. Each scream was muffled by the next as the bodies hit the floor.

Another tank fired; Mikhail jumped to the side just in time as the shell sheered through his tree, leaving a giant hole through the middle before exploding behind him in a fiery blast of flame and shrapnel. To his left, Mikhail noticed a group of his men advancing, their rifles drawn and firing madly.

Suddenly, an explosion blocked the group of men from view. Dirt and smoke engulfed Mikhail; the force of the blast threw him a few feet back into a tree. Quickly, he sprang back up to his feet and ran through the black smoke towards his men. But they weren’t there anymore. The only remains of his group of loyal fighters were their scattered body parts. The first casualties of war.

Letting out a fearsome roar of rage, he threw his head back and shouted into the sickly hot air, “EDEN, PUSH FORWARD!” With a deafening hoot of acknowledgement, Mikhail’s warriors sidestepped from their trees simultaneously and rushed forwards, their guns ablaze. The ground shook from the sudden stampede, bringing about a mini-earthquake that brought the Dominion temporarily down to its knees. Through it all, Mikhail was at the front, his shield reflecting the incoming bullets, his machine gun screaming as loud as he was.

A whistle filled Mikhail’s ears, but he realized that instead of coming from the tanks, it was due from behind him. As he ran towards the line of tanks and infantry, he saw a single rocket streak through the air directly into the lead tank. The explosion ripped the metal outer shell apart, shooting fire and steel hundreds of feet into the air. Shrapnel rained down upon the earth, slashing through the leaves of the trees and imbedding themselves with a thud on the ground.

Taking a quick glance behind him, he saw Duck load another rocket into his M-2 and fire once more, bringing down another tank in the same fashion as the first. Another fireball twisted and turned into the air, singeing the surrounding leaves. Jagged fragments of metal tore through the air at supersonic speeds, but Mikhail’s reinforced shield deflected them. There was now a straight path from him to the front lines.

The Dominion ran for it. Like dogs in pursuit of an escaped convict, Eden followed, closing in for the kill. Mikhail broke out of the jungle. The sea stretched out before him like a smooth blue blanket. But this blanket would be stained red before the day was over.

“They look parched,” One of the Eden remarked with a sarcastic tone. Mikhail snickered and replied, “Then let’s give them something to drink, boys!” He advanced forwards, his shield activated and his gun locked and loaded. The remaining platoon of the Dominion’s soldiers backed up, their ammo spent, their weapons overheated. Then, with an earsplitting yell, Mikhail unleashed a volley of bullets. The first bodies to fall toppled over upon their comrades, pushing them down to the ground. But there was no ground anymore, only the open arms of the ocean. They fell in clusters down into the pounding waves on the jagged rocks until only the dead remained.

“Congratulations boys,” Mikhail said, still looking with satisfaction at the broken bodies strewn in the shallows and the jagged rocks below, “Victory is ours!” A massive cheer erupted behind him. Mikhail felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his body. It had been so long since he had tasted the blood of battle, and now, it had never been better.

But then, a cold wind swept into Mikhail’s heart. Despite the merciless sun beating down upon his back, a chill ran down his spine. There were black objects out there in the sea, black mechanical objects. As he squinted, Mikhail suddenly realized they were the Dominion’s entire Navy. The hundreds of destroyers and battleships had the island circled and lined up in their sights. Their cannons were loaded with ridiculously large shells, ready to pummel the island back into the sea from whence it came.

And then it came, first as flashes of light and puffs of smoke. But these illusionary effects soon became distorted out of shape as the sky darkened with raining artillery shells.

“EDEN, SHIELDS AND TREES!” Mikhail immediately activated his own personal shield and pushed his men back into the jungle just as the first shells hit the cliff. The patch of land he was just standing on was blown apart, leaving a giant crater that crumbled down into the ocean. They were running through the trees now; shells exploded left and right, bringing smoke, fire, and metal down upon the innocent island. The remaining trees left in the battlefield were instantly flattened by the sheer firepower of the Dominion’s heavy reinforcements.

“Dominion cowards…” Mikhail grunted as he leapt over an impact crater just as a shell hit to his left. To his right, he saw Duck pull Deirdre along by the hand, both running in the opposite direction. Suddenly, he realized they didn’t have shields like him. Mikhail diverted his direction and sprinted to the two from Michael’s platoon. Just as he jumped forwards onto their backs, a shell hit Mikhail with full force. He felt himself being forced down into the ground as a fiery explosion enveloped him. Praying that his shield would retain its integrity and that Deirdre and Duck had made it out, he struggled back up and dashed out of the flames.

Mikhail’s eyes darted back and forth in search of Michael’s men. They were the most vulnerable from the shelling, but no matter where he looked, Mikhail could not find them.

Without warning, another shell impacted nearby, instantly burning up a tree. The flames licked at Mikhail’s heels, forcing him to get back up again. Running through the trees, he felt more and more shells crash through the foliage and explode upon contact with the ground. The sheer number of warships the Dominion possessed was insane.

Looking to his left, Mikhail saw a shell land directly next to one of his running men. The explosion took off the man’s leg, sending him hurling sideways into a tree. His body hit the trunk with a sickening thud and snapped in half like a rag doll. Mikhail swore under his breath, but continued to run, making a note to himself to personally see to it that General Fenris was to suffer an excruciatingly painful death.

Then, the air exploded and the world was gone. A single shell had landed directly in front of Mikhail’s path. Caught off guard, he was blown back a few meters, along with a few of his men. The wind was knocked out of Mikhail’s chest. He couldn’t move, as if an invisible force was holding his arms and legs down.

As the dust cleared, the moans of the men who got hit reached Mikhail’s ears. He groaned and got up into a kneeling position. Holding himself up with his arms, he tilted his head to the side to the nearest of his men. The man’s legs had been blown off; all that remained were two bloody stumps, steadily staining the blackened ground a deep crimson. He winced in pain and looked into Mikhail’s eyes, knowing it to be the end, “It’s an honor, dieing by your side, sir.”

Mikhail took the man’s hand. The continuing bombing of the island seemed irrelevant now. Shells blew apart the land all around them, but that did not matter at the moment. Feeling the man’s hand to be cold and pale, he responded with a nod, “It was an honor serving by yours.” The man collapsed, never to stir again.

Valor was what Mikhail had always respected, and it tore at his heart when one of his own had given all he had for him. Giving his fallen brother in arms a last bow of respect, Mikhail sprang up, his energy curiously renewed. But then, he suddenly realized the forest had become eerily quiet. No more explosions reached his ears. Not even the wind blew. It was quiet, dead quiet.

“EDEN, REGROUP!” Mikhail’s deep voice reverberated through the air. Immediately, his loyal soldiers dashed up to his side, prepared to die for him. But even with his supporters by his side, Mikhail could not shake the feeling that something had gone wrong. What the hell…

And then he saw them, perched on the tallest trees still remaining. The two of them had their hands outstretched into the sky, as if blocking something from falling. But his years dealing with the world’s top fighting force had trained him to know exactly what the Shadows were doing, for when Mikhail tilted his head up to the sky, he could see tiny dots that resembled shells immobilized by Nova and Rena’s minds.

But even the greatest of minds had their weaknesses, and Mikhail knew the two Shadows would not last another minute or two. “SQUAD-SIGMA!” Squad-Sigma was Eden’s elite sniper division. Mikhail had searched for and wide for the best snipers in all of MapleStory, trained them, and armed them with a sniper rifle and a license to kill. The twenty men and women gathered around, eager for combat. “You know what to do.”

They scattered into the forests. After a brief moment of complete silence, gunshots rang out from between the trees. A fraction of a second after each bang, an explosion rocked the air above Navasota Island as a bullet split through the airborne shell. Black ash rained down like the evil side of a blizzard, blanketing the green trees in a layer of silt.

Mikhail grinned as the snipers returned to his side, covered from head to toe in ash. Two Shadows jumped down from their high perch and strode towards Mikhail. The remains of the forest became dreadfully quiet. Looking around, Mikhail suddenly realized the extent to which the Dominion had destroyed his island. The once green and lush trees and grass were flattened into the ground, replaced by burning stumps and ash-covered dirt. Chunks of rock and stone were blown away from the faces of the mountains in the distance, leaving scars along the once smooth brownish snow-capped earth. The suns rays could not heal the damage down to nature’s works of art.

The first wave was over at noon. The initial attack was a failure in Mikhail’s jeering eyes as he returned to the cliffs a few hours later. Chunks of rock hung awkwardly off of the rocky point down towards the sea. Off in the distance, Mikhail could see the Dominion’s defeated warships moping around the horizon. The cowards… he thought as he sat down on the rocks overlooking the blue ocean. The sun was just about to set over the horizon.

A cool breeze ruffled Mikhail’s silver and grey hair. An odd feeling of serenity crept into his body, calming him. He knew Eden and Michael’s squad were safe for the night. Even the Dominion did not have the firepower to shell an island for twenty-four hours. Laying his head down on his hands, he looked up at the orange sky. Every evening, no matter if it was clear or storming, every evening on the island was beautiful. He would have loved it if he was not waging a war against the tyrants of the world, but then, another emotion surged up inside of him.

Mikhail thought back to previously that day when one of his soldiers proclaimed it to be an honor dieing by his side. No, Mikhail did not wish for peace. He was a soldier, born and bred, and he was determined to give the Nexon Dominion its gun back, one bullet at a time.