NBA Dramatique: Friendships

The General felt that his men were not ready. War was breaking out all around him, and he had not been encouraged with the performance of his men during the previous month's training exercises. What he did not want, though, was to watch his troops pounded into dust in their own headquarters for their first battle. He wanted to motivate them. He wanted to give them confidence. He wanted them to have a sense of hope, false though it may be. He had learned of the loss at the Bastion that King James had endured to start the war, and made the decision to attack the King on his turf.

The One Who Would Be King and the General had met several years ago. The General had been tasked with leading a special forces unit that drew from multiple armies, with the goal of suppressing outworld forces that might one day set sights upon the Prize. Though the Prize often changed hands through the course of war, it had never been removed from its home continent, and all of the armies wanted to make sure it stayed that way. A very young King James had been selected for that elite squad, but the General was not convinced of his claim to the throne. They disagreed with one another throughout that campaign, and it was ultimately deemed a failure. The Prize still remained anchored to its land of origin, but the decimation of foreign threats was left incomplete. King James was certain that the General had been the primary cause of the failure, and the General knew this. There was no love lost between them.

*****

Without warning, the German's fears began to play out. The Sky Fortress had moved a little closer each night to the Ranch, and now Deputy Bass could see that men were leaping from its bay with parachutes. Bass ran from his watch post to wake up the others.

As the Deputies ran out into the open, the paratroopers were already on the ground, freeing themselves from the entanglements of their 'chutes. A brilliant firefight erupted immediately, with the Deputies firing the first shot and then Major Artest himself igniting the counter-attack. It was a testament to the resolve of the Deputies that they would give no ground, as they fired lead from revolvers and rifles while their opponents attacked with futuristic lasers and toxins. Advanced weaponry had allowed them to make short work of the Bear Tribe just the day before, and Yao was optimistic that they could knock over these damn cowboys just as easily. As bullets and beams sliced through the air, he smiled, and ran into the thick of it.

*****

When Gibson the archer called down from the parapet that soldiers were approaching, King James tensed and quickly began making his way toward the young watchman. When he reached Gibson's side and looked out upon his land, he needed just a moment to recognize the approaching force. Once he did, he nearly doubled over with laughter.

"You know who that is?" he asked his sharp-shooting friend. "That's the old General! I thought that man had hung it up already."

"This is a friend of yours?" asked Gibson.

"I can't stand him. Fire at will."

*****

The battle at the Ranch had gone back and forth with both sides swapping possession of the upper hand. Though the Deputies were on familiar ground, they had been only observers of the fighting up to that point. The Sky Fortress had already worked out the kinks against the local savages, and her fighters had come warmed-up and eager for a fight. Each squad was slowly advancing toward one another as men would run from cover to cover, and the conflict was becoming increasingly dangerous. Major Artest had been carefully dueling with Deputy Howard for most of the battle and, while reloading, watched him run across an open expanse. The Major expected Howard to find new cover where he would begin again exchanging shots, but instead he watched with surprise as Yao came from out of nowhere to meet Howard. The Deputy and the tall munitions manufacturer jostled for a moment and both men began to reach for melee weapons that they carried. Major Artest sprinted to the two men as guns fired all around him. He reached Yao's side and began to pull him away to safety, though Howard believed he was under attack by both men. A group of Deputies were quickly beside Howard to assist, but the Major and Yao managed to hastily remove themselves from the area. Yao recognized that Artest had risked his own safety to help him, and some of his initial skepticism about the Major subsided.

*****

The Followers of the Sun returned to their hideout carrying spare Machine parts like trophies. Their achievement had put terrifying smiles on most of their ghoulish faces. Their celebration was cut quite short though by a clever ambush.

CP3 had decided that the HORNETS would earn a few more kills after tracking and assaulting the nomadic Warriors by blasting away at the already dead. He made certain that Squad Chief Scott procured some unusual supplies before dispatching them on this mission, such as garlic, silver bullets, holy water, and flame-throwers. He had not been able to find an entrance to the Hideout, but brought bait with him to lure the undead. Horry - the bait - was a crippled old man who had served some of the best armies in many wars. His final years of combat had been spent within the Machine, and the toll of the cybernetic conversion and subsequent purge was apparent in his hobbled gait. He had touched the Prize more times than many felt he deserved, especially the Followers. They despised the torturous cyborg they had known as H0RY-5, and seeing him now would whip them into a murderous frenzy, no matter that he was retired, broken, and free from the directives of the Machine. Horry had been bound and gagged by CP3 and DX (themselves feeling no kindness for the cyborg that they too had faced). They tied him to a post in the middle of a clearing near the spot the HORNETS believed the Hideout to be. Now, night-vision goggles activated, they waited for the hungry to come home.

*****

King James had grown bored with the trouncing of the General's army, and left the fighting in the capable hands of his knights for long stretches of time. He would knock a man unconcious, walk calmly back within his castle walls, perhaps grab a leg of lamb or squeeze the rear of a young maiden, drink from a goblet, then walk back out onto the battlefield and calmly kick a man in the gut. The old General was far too aged for King James to fight, so he simply looked at the old man and tightly grinned as he and his knights made a mockery of the unskilled lot the General had delivered. When enough time had passed and before the casualties became severe, the General ordered his men to retreat, and they obeyed the order with haste. The General had many years of experience, and did not feel the sadness of defeat as he marched his men away. He had accomplished several things. He got his men fighting. He had a real battle on which to evaluate them. They had done some things well, and he would commend them for it, boosting their confidence. Most importantly, he had inflated the confidence of an enemy. Confidence was something he could always exploit.

*****

The Major had gotten his hands on a rather impressive mortar cannon, and watched excitedly as the shell he fired arced high in the air and came down among the Deputies. The shell exploded, and gravity was defied for a moment by the bodies of self-righteous cowboys. It was at that point that the battle was effectively ended. Yao designed weapons that liked to be fired, and those who wielded those weapons obliged for a few more minutes. As each force accepted the outcome, and began collecting whatever pieces they needed to move on, Major Artest again caught sight of Deputy Howard. There was no weapon in either man's possession at this point. Artest approached Howard slowly.

"Deputy" he shouted. Howard turned and was at first angered at the Major. But he relaxed upon seeing Artest's open hands. He did not answer, but looked at the Major's face and waited for him to continue.

"I just want to tell you that you're doing your job well. You should be proud of yourself. I look forward to facing you again."

Deputy Howard watched the Major turn and join his withdrawing comrades. Howard wiped dirt from his own face and looked around at the wounded men and damaged Ranch. He realized that he would look forward to another meeting as well.

*****

Horry made muffled screams of terror as he saw the advancing undead race towards him. They were a terrible enough encounter when he had the benefit of seeing them through electronic vision filters and their odor was removed with the aid of particle-separating breathing aparatus. With human senses they were nearly enough to stop his heart. Horry closed his eyes and braced for a painful death, when he felt a tremendous surge in the temperature, and heard a chorus of dirt-clogged screams split the air. He opened his eyes and saw that his zombified attackers had been hit with the blasts of flame-throwers, and were rolling on the ground and slapping at themselves to extinguish the flames. HORNETS burst into the clearing at that point, lobbing vials of holy water and cluster-bombs of garlic at the Followers.

The chaos of war was all around, and Horry was struggling to free himself from the ropes. Suddenly, he had unexpected help. The Big Ressurrection, parts of his decaying flesh burning still, was loosening the knots that bound Horry. He was at first concerned that he was simply being unwrapped prior to eating, but the Big Ressurrection spoke.

"I still remember. We were friends. You should run."

Horry ran as fast as he could away from the center of the clearing. He looked back only once as he neared the safety of the trees. The Big Ressurrection stood still, arms at his sides, watching Horry run. HORNETS blasted his huge body with jets of fire. Horry turned back to the trees and ran as fast and as far as his wobbly old legs could go.

*****