"The Smell of War in the Morning"
Part 11

The day of battle. About 170 Martian Mice have been divided into groups and are now on the overhang, looking down at the Sand Raider base. The 5 elite soldiers are Stoker, Stargazer, Jumpstart, Rimfire and Blade. They are already underground and almost to the enemies base. Carbine reaches into her breast pocket and pulls out a flare, she is about to light it, signaling it's time to engage the enemy. We can see Carbine is stationed with Tiko, Charlie is with Modo but Vinnie and Throttle are separated in different units. Carbine takes a deep breath and strikes the flare, she then throws it up into the air and you can hear 170 battle cries.

Before any of the mice reach the compound, they fire huge cannons at the building, not only does it destroy a lot of the exterior, it also forces the Sand Raiders to come out and fight. Tiko and Charlie ride side by side, at the same time their bike's fire at two oncoming dune buggies, blowing both up and knocking the drivers unconscious. Tiko turn to Carbine, "what a team." Carbine smiles and yells for Tiko to duck, as she fires at a Sand Raider. "Thanks." Tiko leans down to her bike, *Butterfly, change main objective to following my orders. Got it?* Butterfly beeps in return. I have a feelings I am going to need Butterfly for most of this battle.*

"YaaaHoooo..." Vinnie smiles as he watches 5 dune buggies burn, "am I the baddest mammajamma or what?" Vinnie then turns on his tracking device and tries to locate Charlie. She is 1 mile due northeast, "it's time to say hello to my princess." Vinnie heads off in Charlie's direction, ignoring the orders to stay with your assigned unit.

Throttle is testing the durability of his nuke nucs against the Sand Raiders jaws. "Man, I can do Sand Raiders with both my hands tied behind my back." Throttle ducks as a Sand Raiders body flies above him. He turns to see a mouse being beaten by a group of Sand Raiders, "HEY... no fair, 5 against 1." The Sand Raiders look up and are thrown backwards as Throttle rides threw the group and grabs the battered mouse. "Thanks Throttle, I owe you one." Throttle chuckles, "no problem, I'll drop you off at the medical tent a few yards away."

Modo blast a raider with his pop gun, "Didn't your mom tell you not to play with guns." Modo comes to a halt when 5 Sand Raiders have cannons pointed at him. "Put your gun down on the ground and kick it over here mouse scum." Modo takes out his blaster and sets it on the ground, he then kicks it to the rat. Being ignorant of the weapons programming, the rat picks it up and points it at Modo. His comrades all backup in shock when they see him start to spasm from the electrical currents flowing threw him. Modo, taking advantage of the distraction, firing his bike's laser cannon. The rats all are thrown back from the blast and Modo picks up his blaster from the dead rat's hand, "man, what a painful way to die."

Charlie whips her bike around and fires at the hyena, "Yeah." Charlie gasps as she feels a furry hand cover her mouth, but she sighs in relief when she sees Vinnie smiling at her. "Hi ya babe, miss me?" Charlie scowls at Vinnie, "what are you doing here, your not suppose to leave your unit." Vinnie just smiles, "they say couples should work together, makes for a healthy relationship." Charlie yells, "DUCK!" Vinnie ducks and Charlie blasts a hyena that was going to shoot Vinnie in the back. "Yup, couples should work together." Vinnie smiles and he jumps on his bike, "Let's do it Charlie-girl." The two ride off, side by side.

In the compound. Stargazer, Stoker, Blade, Jumpstart and Rimfire are making their ways threw the ventilation tunnels. "Man, is it cramped in here are what? Whose idea was this?" Stoker chuckles, "Jumpstart, you're the smallest of us all, how do you think we feel?" They all chuckle as Jumpstart makes a funny face. They approach the end of the ventilation system, "O.K. troops, cloaking devices on." The mice all activate their cloaking devices and they sneak into the compound hallways, undetected. "We need to proceed to the core as quietly as possible so do not engage in the enemy unless it is necessary. Jumpstart and Stargazer go left, Blade and Rimfire go right, I'm going straight, will meet at the core. If you arrive there first, check the teams vitals, if you and your partner are the only ones left, blow up the core. If not, wait for the rest of the team, everyone understand?" Everyone nods and they go their separate ways. Stoker looks down his hallway, I hope this works.

Carbine and Tiko have managed to disable the enemy without any damage to themselves. But as they find themselves being chased by 2 tanks, 10 Sand Raiders in 5 dune buggies, the odds look a little bleak. "Tiko, we need to think of something fast, they're closing in." Tiko nods, *Butterfly, fire reverse missiles.* Butterfly fires at the tanks and takes one of them out, causing mild confusion. Carbine throws a grenade behind her and takes out a buggy, but at the same time they fire and blow her bike out from under her. "Shit." Tiko spins her bike around and races toward Carbine who is wrestling with a Sand Raider. *Butterfly, destroy that tank.* Butterfly heads for the tank and Tiko jumps off her bike, heading towards Carbine.

Throttle looks down at his bike screen and activates his tracking device. "What the hell?" He sees Tiko's bike, but it's about a fourth of a mile away from Tiko. "Shit." Throttle rides towards Tiko's direction, fear showing on his face.

Tiko throws her short blade at a rat, which collapses to the ground. A hyena stops kicking Carbine and pulls out his blaster, "you stupid human." Tiko growls and pulls out her sword, slicing his hand off. He yells in pain and grabs his wrist. Tiko smiles at him, "What's the matter, cat got your hand?" Tiko thrusts her sword forward and stabs him threw the mouth, she then throws three darts behind her and takes out the rats that were trying to sneak up on her. Tiko bends down to Carbine, "can you get up?" Carbine holds her stomach and coughs. Just then Throttle rides up, "are you guys all right?" Tiko nods and helps Carbine up. "Take her to a medic, check for internal bleeding. They kicked her up pretty bad." Throttle nods and puts Carbine in the front of him on his bike. "Will you be all right?" Tiko gets on Butterfly and smiles, "like you need to ask." Throttle smiles and rides of, he yells behind him, "be careful." Tiko nods and rides towards Charlie's unit.

Modo fires his jets and leaps over the oncoming Sand Raiders, he then fires his rear missiles and blows up their buggies. "Ha ha... way to go little harse." Modo gets thrown off his bike when a blast causes a pothole infront of his tire. Modo gets flung forward and lands on his back. He shakes his head and tries to sit up, but someone is standing on his chest. "Prepare to die mousey." Modo blinks and can see a hairy blur pointing a blaster at him, he blinks again and can see a slim figure standing over him. "Modo are you all right?" Modo sits up, "Charlie?" Charlie smiles, "that was a close one, can you stand?" Modo nods and walk over to his bike. "Hey bro, what a landing." Modo groans as he chuckles at Vinnie's remark. "What are you guys doing together, and over here?" Both of them shrug, "just checking up on the gang." Just then Tiko rides up, *Charlie, your safe.* Charlie nods and gets on her bike. They all turn to ride north but a huge explosion behind them makes them all turn around. "Oh my god... that's near the..." But before Charlie can finish Tiko rides off calling Throttle's and Carbine's name. "Let's go, we can't let Tiko go by herself." They all take off towards the medical facility. "Why didn't they cloak the medical bunker?" Vinnie frowns, "because sweetheart, they didn't want any Sand Raiders crashing into it.' Charlie groans, "a lot of good that did." When they arrive they all gasp, the entire building is on fire and they see Tiko standing infront of it. "Tiko, did you find them?" Tiko shakes her head, "they must of left a while ago, Butterflies tracking device says their east about a mile. There are no survivors, I went inside and everything was destroyed. I don't know how many were killed." Modo's eye flashes red and he screams, "I'm going to rip them apart. They were all defenseless." Modo rides off and Vinnie goes after him. "Tiko, we had better get going." Tiko nods at Charlie and gets on her bike. "I'm going to find Throttle and Carbine. From the looks of things the battle is coming to a end, and if the guys inside haven't run into any problems, the base should blow up in a few minutes. Charlie and Tiko ride towards Throttle and Carbine, while Vinnie chases after Modo.

"Jumpstart, how close is everyone else to the core?" Jumpstart turns to Stargazer and looks at her radio, "about 100 meters away. We should all reach the center in a few minutes." The two turn the next corner, but dive for the wall when two rats run past them. Jumpstart sighs, but grimaces as she hears Stargazer knock over a cart that was in the hallway. The two rats turn around and walk back towards the two mice. They glare at the cart and slowly walk towards it. Stargazer looks at Jumpstart who is waving for him to move towards her.

Stargazer sneaks towards his sister and they slowly creep down the hallway. They chuckle as they see the rats scratching their heads at the cart. They see an open door and walk threw it, "that's the core." They both gasp as they hear someone behind them, "it's about time you guys showed up. Are you ready?" Both smile as they see the rest of the gang, "Let's do it." They all take small little devices out of their packs and place them around the core. "Don't forget to cloak them, we don't want anyone finding them before they blow." As they put everything into place, none notice a group of rats walking in. "O.K. let's go." They turn around to see 10 rats with blasters pointed in their direction. The mice look confused. Jumpstart whispers to Stoker, "can they see us?" Stoker shakes his head, "their eyes aren't focused on us. They can probably smell and hear us." Stoker signals his group to leave slowly. They all tip-toe out but Rimfire accidentally stumbles and falls on his face. The rats turn and look questionably at the sound of the direction. "Did you hear that?" All the rats nod and they start to head toward Rimfire. Stoker curses and yells, "ATTACK!" The rats backup surprised, not knowing where the sound has come from.