Colin was feeling a bit left out as he watched the battle going on over the airport from the viewscreens in the J-Knight Branch office.
On the screens, he saw Henry on the roof and Rita on the ground floor. Already, they were taking heavy losses from long-range and air bombardments, but they were dealing more damage than they took, by Colin's reckoning.
Against them, Colin saw Sora and Destride, along with numerous others he didn't recognize, all in blue coats. Farther back, a safe distance away, there was General Kenneth along with a few other people in red coats with red or purple badges, all sitting around a café and drinking tea.
{Hey… isn't that Lucy Ernst with them?}
"What are they doing?" Colin asked. "They can see the battle going on right in front of them!"
"They're watching." Sandy told him. She was monitoring the battle from here. She touched her watch, currently on hot-link to Henry and Rita. "Henry, there's a formation of heavy Cara-Storks coming from the south."
"What?!" Henry gasped.
"Rita, three more Rhinotles on the way up the main road. I'm counting twenty smaller ones behind them."
"I see them!"
Henry's groan came through. "Sandy, can't you spare just one Comrade to help us out?!"
"Sorry, Henry. My orders are clear. I have to guard the city." Sandy said, quite sincerely. "General Kenneth's right here, and he's got quite a force with him."
"We're doomed!" Henry moaned.
{He's right.} Colin winced. {That's sort of the point.}
"What about Colin?" Rita asked.
Sandy paused. "Are you {trying} to destroy this continent?"
Rita sighed. "Sorry. I forgot."
A big flash of light and falling walls brought Colin's attention back to the screens. "There goes the main control tower."
"Where's my brother?!" Henry yelled.
"He was away on negotiations! He'll be back soon!" Sandy told him.
{Would he? Would he really?}
Colin had to wonder. Satrox might be sipping tea with General Kenneth for all he knew.
Sora was really on the warpath now. His Typhoon Eagles were making powerful dive attacks on Henry's poor Lynxmice. The Lynxmice were running, and the roof was getting heavily blasted in, but the eagles didn't let up.
"Pull back!" Sandy told Henry. "Take cover!"
Henry and his Comrades scrambled down from the roof and took up positions at the windows.
{All part of the plan…} Colin watched as the airport got wrecked. Then, he saw something else on the screens. He nudged Sandy and pointed.
"Kenneth's moving." Sandy stared. "This could get messy. I thought he was going to wait for the Republic's attack to finish one way or the other."
"What are you going to do?" Colin asked.
"What {can} I do?" Sandy growled. "Colin, you'll have to take over. Just tell Henry and Rita when you see an attack incoming. You see the big picture, so it's fine."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to confront Kenneth, ask him what he's up to." Sandy said. "I'll probably be killed trying to stop him and his forces by myself. Whatever happens, don't interfere."
Sandy took off running, leaving Colin at the monitors.
The Rhinotles were charging at Rita's lines now. Colin saw plants entangling the road, trying to trip them, but they were too big, too fast. They rammed on through and crashed into Rita's plant-type Comrades, then broke through them and started trampling her ground-based bug-type.
"Rita, get back! You'll be slaughtered if you stay out there! Pull back!" Colin said.
Rita withdrew into the airport itself but she wasn't quick enough. One of the Rhinotles got in, and went on a rampage inside the airport itself. "Oh, scrap!"
"Leave it for now!" Colin said, hoping he was making the right call. "Wait for it to slow down! Build your defense lines first! I'm seeing what looks like a giant three-headed snake coming up to road!"
"A {hydra}?!" Rita yelped. "How in the world am I supposed to stop a hydra?! Who am I, Hercules?"
"Just do what you can! Hold out as long as possible!" Colin said. {Hold out long enough and the whole airport will be destroyed in the fighting. That's the plan, isn't it?}
The Rhinotle already inside was going berserk, crashing into escalators and pillars, causing the whole structure to shake. {That one fellow alone might do the job...}
Sora's eagles hammered down on the roof, attacking Henry's forces from above rather than trading shots with the windows. They had the advantage of angles, and were smashing aside Henry's cover very quickly.
"Henry, I think you better get down." Colin said. "Move to the next floor. You've got no chance where you are now."
"Blast it…" Henry barked commands at his Comrades and they scrambled down a floor.
Rita's forces, meanwhile, had lost the wall. "Rita! Go up one floor! You can't hold the ground floor any more! The outer walls and four of the entrances are about to be breached!"
"Everyone, run!" Rita yelped.
The Rhinotles outside crashed their way in. The Rhinotle inside crashed its way around. Streams of smaller Comrades from all directions started scrambling into the main buildings as Rita started defending the escalators and stairs instead.
Then the main building itself started to tilt to one side.
"Henry, get lower! The whole building…"
"I know!"
Sora's eagles rained down sonic attacks and smashed through the top floor. Long-range fire from outside hammered through the windows and outer walls. The Rhinotles below crashed into pillars, and the Hydra started breathing fire through windows of the lower three floors.
{Satrox needn't have worried. The airport is destroyed for sure…}
But then Colin saw him. "What's he doing?"
"What? Who?" Henry asked. "Is it… him?!"
"Yeah." Colin said, scratching his head. "It's him. Satrox just arrived."
Henry and Rita whooped as Chimeras started attack runs on the Republic armies outside. Noble thundered overhead, Satrox on his back, as Dynast blasted away at Sora's eagles.
Sora's birds dodged, and Dynast's attacks hit the runway instead.
{Oh. That's right. The runway's still usable.}
Sora turned his attention to Satrox. Satrox went straight for Sora. Feathers and 'stray' shots started raining from the sky as their Comrades met in battle. They twisted and dodged around each other, attacking furiously. Dodged attacks slammed into the runway, the hangars, empty maintenance vehicles and buildings Colin didn't even know the names of.
Noble, Satrox's Pegasus, fired off a lively spark that danced as it sped on its merry way towards Sora on his giant eagle. Sora dodged, and the spark hit the center of the main runway with a big explosion. Colin shut his eyes when it went off, and when the dust started clearing, he found a big hole where it landed.
{Okay, now the runway's messed up. Badly messed up.}
And then one particulary powerful beam appeared from where Dynast and the golden eagles were fighting. It lanced downwards and hit something rather important down near two dome-shaped buildings.
The explosion took out five of Colin's monitors. They went really bright and then the screens started smoking and dripping sparks. Nothing showed up on those screens any more. Whatever happened had been so bright, even the monitors couldn't cope with it.
"The fuel supply line!" Henry gasped.
"Colin, what's the best way out of here?" Rita asked suddenly.
"Huh?" Colin blinked. "Why?"
"We're getting out!" Rita announced. "There's no point defending this place any more. There's nothing {left} to defend! This place is ruined!"
As if to make her point, the main building tilted over some more, and kept tilting.
"Colin!" Rita yelped. "Which way?!"
Colin looked. "There's a Hydra on the south, Rhinotles west and north. But east means going out to the runway…"
Henry called it. "East! Let's just get out the building first!"
They scrambled. Henry and his Lynxmice dashed down the escalators, only to trip over a rampaging Rhinotle. They had a short fight and five Lynxmice vanished before Henry and the rest got past. Rita didn't bother with escalators; she sent her plant-type Comrades straight down, then jumped right off the first floor, landing in a waiting patch of vines.
Henry burst through the doors with nine Lynxmice as Rita covered his exit with a squad of plant-types and two squads of bug-types. They both started running east as the building tilted and tilted…
{Oh, scrap! The whole BUILDING's tilting east!}
"Henry, Rita, RUN! The building's going to fall on you!"
"WE KNOW!" They both shouted together.
Republic forces started scrambling out too, but most of them headed out west, north, or south. Only a few chased Rita and Henry, and those were mostly flying types.
{Run, guys, RUN!!}
They ran. They scrambled as fast as they could. Rita's Comrades were helping each other make a break for it and Rita herself was pulling along a particularly tired Arachnid as the building shivered, tilted some more, and finally broke loose from whatever held it straight.
The whole thing fell at a shocking rate, mere seconds before it slammed straight down on top of half Rita's Comrades. Rita went flying, her tired Arachnid shielding her from pieces of broken duracrete flying past, but Henry, farther ahead, got hit with a rather large burning piece of airport building and disappeared with all his Comrades.
{Henry just died…}
Coughing sounded behind Colin. There was Henry, with his last nine Lynxmice, in the second office from the right opposite the monitor station. Those who died before he did were back at his Home Base, wherever that was. Those who survived until he died ended up with him in his Starting Location.
"Colin! Which way?" Rita asked, coughing in the dust. The Arachnid who had taken the damage for her had vanished also, along with most of her remaining Comrades. Left with a small Mantis and a Venuspot, Rita was in trouble.
"North! Stay away from that Hydra!" Colin told her.
"Sounds good to me!" Rita agreed.
Satrox and Sora, meanwhile continued their mad duel, wiping out everything around them. Satrox had lost both owls and the black Lynxmouse, Wraith. Sora was down by three eagles and a four-winged gull.
{Satrox kinda looks like he's winning, but Sora had been fighting Henry before that, so his Comrades weren't fresh.}
Even so, watching Noble charge through a formation of eagles and seeing Sora's birds plummet made Colin wonder if Satrox would have won anyway.
One of Satrox's chimeras vanished from the scene; Colin couldn't tell which one it was. Sora's eagles and Satrox's falcons got into a clawing match and the eagles won. Dynast swooped through the winners and struck out in all directions. Those eagles vanished also.
Satrox and Sora pulled back from each other a while. Noble, Dynast and one Chimera was all Satrox was left with. Sora had a half dozen eagles remaining, including the giant one he rode on.
{Satrox did more damage, but Sora had more Comrades to start with. Are they going to fight it out to the end?}
In the background, the burning remains of the main airport building crackled.
"There's nothing left to fight for." Colin observed. "Even the runway's been blasted to uselessness."
"Oh, scrap!" Rita voiced, and Colin glanced at her in time to see her clash with a Republic mercenary in a blue coat. He had about ten Comrades. She had two.
The Comrades started attacking and Rita disappeared before Colin could figure out a way to save her.
"Hi, Rita." Henry greeted her weakly behind Colin.
"Hi." Rita coughed. She had appeared in the third office from the right opposite the monitor room.
"Sorry." Colin winced. Those two were going through respawn-sickness now, and really looked sickly. They were also very much tired out. "Anything I can do for you?"
"We'll be fine." Rita said, slowly. "In an hour."
"Right…" Colin said, turning back to the monitors.
Satrox and Sora had decided to resume their fight and the already wrecked airport was getting even more badly battered. They didn't look like they were about to stop any time soon.
Sandy and General Kenneth watched the fight, saw the burning ruins and shook their heads. Kenneth and his Protectorate forces turned around and walked away.
The fighting was still going on, but the battle was over.
The airport was destroyed.