Total War

[Emperor Penguin Rikkar]

7:35 Central Krakkian Time

 

The Plaza of Heroes was in shambles. Rubble and refuse littered what once was concrete and cobblestone. The towering Icon of the Nest laid toppled across the street, entwined with the enemy jet that smashed it down. Bodies littered the street, both Fowl and not.

Finleader Leddie stumbled across the plaza, his breath rasping as he pushed himself onward. His uniform was torn, bloody, and his officer's cap was long gone. 

Hearing the low whine of enemy aircraft, Leddie ducked under what was once the beak of the Icon. As the squadron of fighters screamed overhead, Leddie squeezed his fin tighter over the tape canister. Breathing hard through the nares in his beak in an attempt to catch his breath, Leddie unholstered his service pistol and waited for his opening.

With as much energy as he could muster, the King penguin slid free of his cover, and sped towards the Nest bunker on the other side of the plaza. The great steel doors were blown ajar, and as he sped through he heard the guttural cry of the enemy from across the plaza.

They had found him, he had to hurry.

And they had brought dogs.

Reaching the control room, Leddie forced the door shut behind him. Stepping over dead technicians, Leddie pushed aside a dead chinstrap from the launch panel. Lifting the solution coverplate, Leddie tore the top of the tape canister free and began feeding the firing solution into the computer.

Footfalls louder than any penguin sounded from the corridor, and Leddie cursed the ponderous machine. As he heard the door grate open, the panel weapon gauge flickered from safe to armed.

As the ignition panel unlocked and opened, Leddie saw the hound leap into the control room.

Easily the size of an Emperor-Penguin, the beast bounded towards Leddie's hiding place. Leddie fired his service pistol, the weapon's roar deafening in the enclosed space. As the beast dropped, another rushed in.

Slamming his fin down on the control panel's ignition button, Leddie heard the silo within the bunker grind to life. As he raised his service weapon to fire at the second hound, the beast hit him full in the chest, tackling him to the ground and seizing his arm in its jaws.

Squawking in rage, the King penguin leveled the pistol at the beasts temple, the resulting shot coating Leddie in gore and pinning him underneath the dog.

Something small and metal bounced off the control panel, and landed beside Leddie's head. 

As Leddie's ears registered the weapon boosters ignite within the nuclear silo, his eyes also registered that the item beside his head was a live grenade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBEY. WADDLE. PROSPER. 

 

 

Please stand by, for a word from our Bird-Emperor:

 

 

Waddlers, loyal Fowl of this Nestingland:

 

In the early hours of this morning, our great empire fell under attack by a combined assault of our inferior foes. Striking hard and without warning, our sub-fowl foes hoped to overwhelm our air defenses and raze the very heartland of our Nestingland. 

In this effort, they have failed.

With speed and vengeance known only to our great species, we have rebuffed our enemies, struck down their armies, and annihilated their air power.

As our cities weathered a pitiful and unsuccessful assault, we replied with thunder and lightning; we brought to bear the power of the sun itself and unleashed it upon our foes.

For the first time in Penguin history, we have unleashed the power of the atom, and rendered our enemies into ash and dust. 

Waddlers, loyal Fowl of the Nestingland:

Our time has come! I call upon you, each and every able-bodied citizen of the Nest, to report to your stations! 

Through total war and conquest, we will grind these inferior beasts into dust, to be left on the ash heap of history!

Today, we see a new dawn. Not one of man. Not one of beasts. 

Today, we see a dawn of Fowl.

One Fowl.

One Nest.

ONE EMPEROR-PENGUIN!

FIIIN!

HAIL!

FIIIIIIN!

HAIL!

FIIIIIIN!

 

HAIL.

 

 

Failure to Respond to State Orders is a Terminable Offense!

 

Failure to Respond to State Salutes is a Terminable Offense!

 

Failure to Wear Party Finbands is a Terminable Offense!