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