Operation "Dust Bowl"  part 8

Operation Dust Bowl Part VIII
12 hours later, arrival of dev forces in the capital of devils domain
Twelve hours later, the arrival of dev forces in the capital of devils domain had commenced. Captain Asmodeus steered his battle mech as part of the avant-garde towards the top of the last hill blocking his sight from the capital. He was on his last mission for the day, scouting the path for the returning Dev troops. „Asmo“ was happy about the mission. Not that there was any real danger, but it kept him occupied. Also Dev command just wanted to be sure that there were no surviving clanners or mines in the way of the combined dev forces as they approached the capital. He knew that once he had reached the top of the hill a wonderful view on the outstanding architecture of the city awaited him. Nevertheless, he forced himself to turn his mech around every so often to watch out for the dev troops. The first visible sign of the combined Dev forces was the arrival of a huge dust cloud that moved towards the capital city. It looked like, from bird's perspective, as if a long worm slowly crept towards the city. Then, an hour later, the worm became complex shapes, then the first black spots from mechs, gliders, movable HQ's, support trucks, med hover crafts and so on appeared. And then, the ground was shaken and the air filled with the sound of giant foot steps touching the ground – the Battlemechs had arrived.
Captain Asmodeus knew that it would be better not to examine the troops too closely. Nevertheless he was fixed to his visual display...  he was yet again shocked. What had happened to the masses of the once so proud-looking dev troops? The remaining Battlemechs were walking rubbish, littered with deep battle scars that enemy weapons had burned into their armour. Asmodeus knew that his mech didn't look much different, nevertheless he was more shocked than he liked to admit to himself. He saw only a few of the giant humanoid shapes that could walk upright and correct. Most others had damaged leg aculators, thus limping like a crippled human. Other mechs had only one arm left or even were missing both, and the rest of the convoy wasn't looking any better!! All vehicles had a paint like coverage from dust and were littered with bullet holes, giving them a filthy and not properly maintained appearance. Captain Asmodeus activated his zoom and studied the faces of the hard battle scared warriors sitting in and on the partially open vehicles or marching alongside the convoy. He saw into deadly tired faces, no longer looking like proud victorious warriors but a defeated band of deprived. The expressions on the faces varied from thoughtful to serious, from troubled to guilty. But all had a dulled, exhausted expression on their face in common. "Killing is not easy and should never become it", Asmodeus thought while he was troubled by the same feelings, but for some reason, he felt he had finally found his place in life after the years as Comguard. He suddenly knew - he was more sure than he had ever been before - that he belonged to this group of tired soldiers down there. He was one of them. A warm feeling hit his breast filling him with life.
He turned his mech around again and headed for the top of the hill....and was, although he had expected it, stunned by the skyline of the city. In the middle of the city he saw the round, red painted D_R_M_B Warriors Hall and at the other side of the city, he saw its highest building, the mighty Buff-Tower. He remembered the gossip saying that Captain BuffoutBoy had a love nest in its penthouse. Asmodeus smiled when he remembered the rest of the gossip: Unfortunately –the story went on- it was so cold up there that the Captain never could use the garden or the pool and had, cause of the clouds, a clear sight out of the huge windows only at a few days a year. He noticed next the inner city buildings of Darkelf's Donalds –a huge gourmet restaurant specialised on ancient terranian food- , Rot's Rumble –a giant sport arena-, Mainman's Mall –a vast shopping centre- and Buff's Boutique –a big shop selling clothes of questionable taste to the upper class. As he activated his zoom again and watched the suburbs of the city, then he saw a real surprise that made his mech abruptly stop, as it suddenly got no more signals over the neurohelmet:
An excited crowd had lined up at the sides of the streets heading towards the barracks of dev. Masses of people, from young to old, from poor to rich, had assembled to pay their tribute to the victorious dev troops. In front of Asmodeus eyes unfolded bustling activity. He saw people with welcome banners, others had wooden signs with red crosses on a black background, young women carried flowers, men passed around spirits, many waved to him (or at least it looked like through his zoom), market tenders had already built up their stands handing out food and drinks for free. Asmodeus turned up the volume of the his audio-amplifier and he heard music chapels and bands play joyful music, varying from old military marches of Wagner or Radetzky to non-military music. The air carried the noises made by thousands of voices. A cheerful atmosphere hung over the whole city as its citizens just waited for the biggest public festival in the history of the planet to start.
From the perspective of the crowd, the dust cloud created by the Dev became bigger and bigger the closer the troops came ....and then finally arrived at the city. First the damaged mechs marched in, making the buildings look small, then the whole Stormtrooper brigade followed – they had left the gliders- and in the end came the biggest part of the dev forces, the deprived pilots without mechs and the wounded soldiers, carried in open medic-hover crafts.
Frenetic applause branded through the city. The citizens didn't care that the pilots looked not like great warriors in their dusty black uniforms with the red cross on the left breast. The only thing that counted for them was that they had defended the planet and their way of live against evil crusaders. The citizens greeted the Dev as warriors from their own blood that went out and even ‘died to stop the barbarians in front of the gates of Rome', as the ancient writer Cato put it. The Dev soldiers on the other side hadn't expected such a welcome, hadn't foreseen their march back to the barracks would become a parade. They got infected immediately with the victory drunken atmosphere of the crowd and forgot their exhaustion. "One cannot blame
them when they forget the suffering and pain, the fear and the death, the flames and their lost friends for some hours. Here they see why it has been worth all their sacrifices; reason and reward at the same time." Captain Asmodeus thought as he watched the welcome turmoil below and in front of him. Young Women with flowers ran full of enthusiasm into the middle of the Dev, hugging and kissing all dev that dared to stand in their way. And a lot dared to do that, Asmodeus observed with a grin. Asmodeus saw Rot5 just standing in the middle of the party chaos, having his mouth open, looking sheepish. One second later, Amsodeus saw the reason for it: a beautiful woman with dark hair and red strains smiled at him and tried to start a conversation.
Some pilots even left their cockpits -thus blocking the streets to the barracks- to participate in the party below. "What the hell! This is why I became a mech pilot!" Asmodeus told himself and climbed out of his cockpit smiling. A group of women ganged up on the dev command lance and took them as 'prisoners' in their middle. A rain of date offers went down on the heads of the dev soldiers, every men's dream became true. At some point, the Dev soldiers had to flee from the woman like holo-vid stars. From distance, Saint George watched Captain BuffoutBoy laughing while he carried a baby on his arms. 'He is really a handsome guy', she thought in admiration 'and so brave....'.... and felt the sting of jealousy when she saw him joking with the pretty young mother of the baby. But seconds later her view to the scene was blocked by the omnipresent turmoil and she found herself in the middle of another group too and enjoyed the attention.


..............to be continued

                                                                                                ~author Buffoutboy

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