“Really, that one isn’t even holding the gun right!”
They peeked over the edge of their fox hole, looking at the wall of poor folk that Babylonia clearly forced into being fodder for their defenses. So much for helping out the villages around here.
“Like I said, he’s a coward. He couldn’t fight me one on one, threw a pissy fit and took one of your own fortresses after storming off. This lines up perfectly for the golden haired prick.”
“Yeah, I mean, who even does that? Why don’t they fight back?”
“Fear.”
Mirage slumped in his fox hole, his face scrunching up at the thought. He supposed she was right, that guy was stepping on everyone on his way up to try to be on top, and nobody was brave enough to move aside and tell him no. Well, today, that was going to change.
“Well, it’s no rescue, but I think we can do something about it. Spice it up with a little Mirage here and there and we can definitely pull this off.”
“We’re outnumbered. But I think you’re right.”
“Wraith, you ready for this? You know I am.”
“Let’s do it. Snipers! In position!” Wraith threw up her good hand and gave some signals, trying to organize her troops.
“Cover me for a second, I want to try something.”
“Mirage, what are you-”
The trickster had leaped up, hands in the air. No fires shot out yet, the villagers simply looking out in fear, waiting for their command.
“Ladies,” the legend gave a wink and what some might assume was an attempt at a sexy growl. “ And gentlefolk, I know that somebody probably took you from your homes and gave you a gun, and now you’re here. We aren’t here to fight you, actually, we were wanting to save you.” The legend continued to pose in a heroic stance. “Those guys back there, behind you, they were with us, and then they betrayed us. They betrayed you. So if you fight, why don’t you fight with us, and-”
“You think that this will be that easy, ah-huh.” A mighty squeak came from behind the line of villagers. A mouse looking guy with golden armor piped up and laughed. “They don’t have a choice! Fire! Aha!”
Mirage dove back into his fox hole as bullets rained on both him and the spot he was just standing in, spouting out dust, adrenaline rushing through his body as he fumbled around in the dirt below.
“Snipers! Counter-fire! Counter-fire!”
The battle had begun.
Mirage took a moment to recover, popping a shield cell for the few bullets that managed to snag him on the dive, charging his body armor back to full. He took a deep breath before pulling out his wingman and adjusting the flamethrower on his back.
“Now that your performance is over, are you ready to really get started?” Wraith spoke with a smirk.
“Yeah, sure, no time like now, am I right?”
“Infantry! Move up!” Wraith turned to her partner. “You got it from here, and don’t die out there, alright?”
“I was just about to ask you the same thing!” With that, the trickster jumped up, along with at least a hundred other soldiers and began their march on the tower. The mess that was the villagers shot in every direction, some taking heed to mirage to try to turn and take out their captors, only to be shredded in the crossfire in between. There was nothing else they could do for them now, Gilgamesh had already sealed their fate when he put them in the front lines.
“Alright everyone, stay spread out, we can’t let them take us out with the big guns! Try to zigzag or something!” A decoy shot out to the right as Mirage attempted to dodge the fire from the gun emplacements shooting out the tower windows. As a line of shots tore through a few soldiers, snipers returned fire to suppress them, hopefully giving them enough time to move further.
The villagers, at least those who weren’t dead or deserted, didn’t put up much of a fight, and many soldiers held enough skill to simply shoot their arms or hands to disarm them, causing even more to flee and their spot to fill in with official infantry. They had already taken some losses, but at least the innocents in this battle were out of the way.
“Get to our back lines to our medics if you are with the good guys!” Mirage called out as his decoy was downed by gunfire which continued to sweep toward him. The wobble in his knees forced him to tumble and scramble to the nearest cover, which happened to be a pile of bodies from the poor villagers. Bullets and plasma fire shredded his eyesore of a makeshift cover, neatly tearing through them and leaving a few cracks in his shield.
“That was close. Definitely dodged that on purpose.” Just gotta pop a shield cell and-
CRACK
The shattering of his body shield gave way as a bayonet drove into his shoulder. Mirage grunted in pain as a nearby Helldiver met the assailant with a chainblade.
“Walk it off General! RIP AND TEAR!”
Mirage nodded and managed to pull off a full shield battery recharge, getting his defenses back up. Bodies littered the battleground already, and though there were already plenty of dented green battlesuits among the dead, it was clear that there was a bit of a turn to the tide. Golden armor was more prevalent as they came closer to the tower. If they could reach it, they would have a good chance to fully tackle this battle. General Mirage stood up and marched forward, calling out.
“Get more cover to the front here, we can’t take out those gunners from the outside! I need some guys with me in form-from- in a group like a triangle!”
The nearest soldiers grouped up and charged forward, drawing the attention of the crowd and fire from the tower, gunners and snipers alike. The Helldivers, living up to their name, gave no quarter, their will strong till the last soldier.
“RIP. AND. TEAR!”
Another wave of bullets tore through the small group of soldiers in the chaos, Mirage seemingly falling with them as blood and gore erupted from their bodies, finally falling upon the fallen golden suits beside them.
“Bamboozled!”
The real General Mirage, who had waited behind the body pile for the right moment, had taken more soldiers for a flank, pushing into the formation from a new angle, and with enough men to break up the golden rump of a squad that was holding at the base of the tower. More squads began to form with those that survived the onslaught, tearing their way through whoever they could in order to complete their orders.
“Our troops are gonna beat up your troops!”
The trickster continued to shout out with the soldiers at his side, backing off to pop shields while they gave him cover as needed. Though they were outnumbered and outgunned, they sure as hell weren’t gonna let that stop them from taking down these backstabbing jackoffs, and each golden member cut down to size proved that they were more than Babylonia could hope to handle.
