Testing with a repeat post of "Bunnies of War"
During the Great Parody War, the forces of Earth launched thier first major offensive by attacking the conceptual plane that the Parody Master used to marshall his forces. While they were successful in smashing one of the sources of his great power, the Infinity Forge, the tide of the battle turned as the plane itself began to break apart and the element of surprise faded. With the major objective accomplished and the dreaded Sigularity Riders and the countless Avawarrior Troops decending upon them, the forces of Earth desperately tried to make their escape...
"The lines won't hold" Contessa Natalia noted gravely. "Not against the Singularity Riders. We're done."
"We need to get them support..." Beth argued. "We have to buy them more time to fall back through the gates."
"There aren't any more reinforcements to commit" the superspy countered. "Our forces are being decimated on all sides. There's no one left."
"No" Asil replied, looking earnestly to Sir Mumphrey. "That's not quite true." There was one force left to deploy. She, Visionary and Yo had called in a favor.
______________
Private Anthony Liddle huddled within a crater in the churned mud of the battlefield, clutching his rifle and rocking back and forth. He could hear the Sgt. of his platoon screaming over the chaos that they needed to hold the line to secure the retreat, but all sense of order had left the Earth forces. The carnage was unfathomable as the Avawarriors pressed their advantage, chewing through humanity's lines with a vicious efficiency. Overhead, the screeching of the Singularity Riders upon their nightmare steeds wrung the hearts of even the most seasoned soldier, sapping the will to fight back. Despair and panic spread like electricity among the troops, and in that moment Private Liddle knew he was going to die wretchedly, horribly... and then all of the Earth would follow after him.
He lay there so consumed by his fears that his mind didn't even register what he was seeing at first, and even then the sheer incongruity of the sight was lost on his numb psyche. Picking its way down through the debris of the crater was a small fuzzy ball... a rabbit with plain brown fur and large dark eyes. It flinched as an Apache helicopter, engulfed in flames, scorched the air overhead... but it did not flee. Instead it merely came to huddle at the private's feet and share his makeshift foxhole with a solemn but expectant gaze upon him.
As he stared into the eyes of the rabbit he, ridiculously, thought of his daughter Jessica. He had promised to get her a pet bunny, he remembered... That was the week before he had been called up for duty in the wake of the Parody Master's invasion. His mind turned to thoughts of how pretty she looked in her blue dress when she and her mother Susan came to Parodiopolis to see him, the day before the big deployment. He thought of the night he had spent with Susan, and the letters she had given him from his and her parents... from all of their family and friends. Letters telling of their pride in him. Letters from the people counting on him... from the people that loved him.
The fear that gripped his heart slipped away, and the crushing chill lifted from his soul.
"Cover the retreat" he said, first to himself, and then louder and louder until he was screaming across the battlefield. "Cover the retreat! Hold the line!" He turned and faced the hordes of the Parody Master, determination glowing in his eyes. "Push these bastards back!" He was not alone.
The rallying cry grew and spread from platoon to platoon. The front line of the forces of Earth stiffened and, impossibly, held. With order restored, the massacre abated and the chance for escape was restored. From their view of the battlefield above, the Singularity Riders shrieked in rage as more and more of the tiny, furry animals spread out across the plain, breaking the grip of despair that had seized at humanity and restoring their will to defy the evil that advanced upon them.
The Bunnies of the Happy Place had come to war, and hope followed with them.
|
