Front Mission Final (FanFic)
Lumbering giants of steel crash through the undergrowth of an evergreen forest; whirring servos and the hiss of pneumatics add to the symphony of crunching vegetation. Jagged lightning lances through the coal gray clouds overhead, briefly revealing the trio of 30 ton machines of war with camouflage of olive drab green, bark brown, leaf green, and matte black spotted and striped across their hulls. They ceased their movements; lightning revealing them briefly again after a rumbling thunder cascaded through the stormy heavens. Their skeletal arms hung stiffly beside them, cannons aimed towards the earth with rain water dribbling down their barrels and dripping into the crushed earth below.
Ahead of them, on an earthen road, a convoy of sable gray freight trucks trundled along in the muddy slush. Earth splatter distorting their matte metal skin, their headlights illuminated their position in the night. Trailing behind the trucks slightly, machines similar to those waiting in the forest thumped along in a thin column formation. Thinner in terms of bulk, they whirred and stomped through the mud to keep up with the trucks, their bird-like feet leaving impressions in the earth that resembled long dead raptors.
In the forest, the mechanized giants lurked, their upper bodies slowly turning as the convoy passed by them a truck at a time. Before the last truck reached them, their cannons lifted and aimed forward. The crashing feet of the convoy's escorts never changed, indicating the trios were undetected. Lightning flashed and the trio of hidden cannons roared as the thunder rumbled overhead. Two of the trucks were struck, erupting into pillars of flame and melting metal skyward. A fountain of earth and water lifted high into the air in front of the lead mechanized walker, splattering its front and causing it to catch itself in mid-step and tumble backwards.
The cannons roared again, accompanied by the chattering thumps of heavy machine guns tied co-axially to the assaulting weapons. Tracers and explosions perforated and shredded the trucks with gouts of flame and burning wreckage to signify any existence. The convoy escorts, desperate to protect what couple of trucks were left, pivoted at the waist and fired at the flashes of the assaulting weapons. Trees cracked and fell under the withering firepower, only to be late as the assaulting trio disappeared further into the forest.
Who attacked the convoy and why? What was their goal? The convoy held food and medicine for a neighboring city stricken with a plague that affected their crops and populace. Who would willingly attack a humanitarian mission? Questions passed back and forth between the pilots of the escorts who formed a defensive perimeter around their fallen comrade and the pair of remaining trucks. As the fires burned hope and generosity away into the night, a third party smiled in the night at the successful act of terror. The war was just beginning, and it would be like a mouse in the night while everyone slept.