In the aftermath of both the coup, and Dock Town, Danin was still incredibly paranoid. Even though Winter had set in, he was still scared.

"Lake Town is our only naval facility left! We HAVE to defend it at all costs!"

"And we will Sir, when the time comes. In the meantime, Lake Town will be running at full capacity to repair our navy, as well as get the rest of the supplies ready for our first campaign in the Spring."

Danin listened to his adviser, but yet at the same time, he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was, but he knew that it was something not good.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the empire in Pennbrook, Winter was still hitting us hard. We knew that our next campaign was going to be soon, but we just didn't know when. In the PCC, Don was in a meeting with Jim and Shining. They were pouring over the maps, trying to figure out where would be the best place to attack next.

"Any ideas here guys?" Don asked.

Shining pointed to the map. "Well, we've so far managed to destroy Dock Town, but I think that our next target should be right here." He pointed to a spot about 100 miles away down the coast.

"And what's that?"

"It's Lake Town. The sister town, as well as sister naval facility, to Dock Town. It was to there that all of the remaining ships and personnel who survived Dock Town went. According to the reports, attacking it, would be just like attacking Dock Town. There's a lot of ammunition and fuel lying about, so all we would have to do would be to attack, and then let the enemy do the rest."

Don looked at the maps. "Yeah, I think that you're right Shining, however, we will not be able to risk the train being seen. It'll have to be all on ground forces, at least until there's enough chaos to where it at least looks like an accident."

Shining nodded, but it was then that Don noticed something else about the map. "Hey guys, I just noticed something. Outside of Lake Town is the city of Rendon. From Rendon, there only seems to be one mainline track that leads to Donneth. We have to have a mainline track, as our Big Boy and the rest of the Battleship Express are too heavy for anything else."

"Yes, you're right Don. However, I've heard about this track. It runs through here." He pointed to a series of mountains. "These are the Highland Mountains. They are the highest mountains in the Caribou Empire, and some of the tallest mountains in all of Equus, outside of the Crystal Mountains. The train tracks through them are a treacherous route indeed. The tracks run close to cliffs and through tunnels before reaching this!" He pointed to a large trestle bridge. "This is the Highlands Trestle Bridge; the bridge that holds the tracks that are really the only way to Donneth. According to the reports, the bridge is rigged to blow in case of any unauthorized rail traffic. Assuming that you made it past all of that though, in this mountain valley here, is Donneth, the capital city of the Caribou."

Don now really had to think about that. He tried to find another route, but for whatever reason, the only mainline tracks to Donneth lay through the Highland Mountains. "Well, the way I see it, our best bet would be to move 100 miles to the South, and wipe out Lake Town. Then, as quickly as we could, we attack Rendon, and before any alarms can be raised, we quickly take the tracks through the Highland Mountains."

Shining was unsure what to think about that. He was maybe about to reply, but then something out the window caught his eye. He turned to look, and to his shock, standing out in the middle of the snowstorm that was going on outside of the train, Shining saw a figure!

"What in Celestia's name....???" The figure was wearing a red cape, and was standing with his back to the train maybe 50 feet away.

Don and Jim turned to look. Don then grabbed his binoculars. "SWEET CELESTIA, THAT'S LEOPARD!!!!"

"WHAT!?!?!"

Shining and Jim looked, and sure enough, it was me! It was snowing, as well as being 0 degrees on the thermometer.

"WHAT ON EARTH IS HE DOING OUT THERE?!?!?!"

Don raced for the door. "I don't know, but we have to get him before he freezes to death!"

Shining and Jim quickly followed him. Then, after pulling on all of their cold weather gear, they decided to brave the storm, and they stepped out of the train.

"LEOPARD!!!!" Don yelled over the storm, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?!?!?!"

I didn't answer. When the trio reached me, Don saw that I was just blankly staring off into space. Don also noticed that aside from my red cape, I was completely naked!

Before Don could scream though, I suddenly put a hand up to my face. "W...what???" Then, the full extent of the cold hit me. "OH GOSH!!! SWEET CELESTIA, IT'S COLD AS BALLS!!! WHERE AM I?!?!?!"

"Grab him, and let's get back to the train!"

I was then grabbed by the trio, and dragged back to the train. Once I was back inside, they placed me in front of one of the train's heaters.

Don was very upset. "Now then, before I throw you back into the cold, WHAT IN THE HELL WERE YOU DOING OUT THERE?!?!?"

I shrugged. "Honestly Don, I can't remember. I....don't know how I even got out there. One minute, I was getting dressed in my room, and the next, you were shouting at me, and I was outside in the snow."

"Wait, so you mean that you DON'T remember how you got out there?"

I shook my head. "No! But, I don't think....." Then I froze. "He did it again." I muttered.

Now Don was confused, "Wait, who did what? Who did this to you?"

I looked up at him. "Who else could have done this? Who else but me lives inside of my body? Who else would have the ability to do this?"

None of the other 3 needed to be told who I was referring to.

"Well, this is pretty bad. If Sombra was able to do this to you, then he's getting out of control! He just made you walk out into a snowstorm! Just think of what he could do next time!"

I sighed. "There won't be a 'next time'! I don't plan on EVER letting this happen again!" I then began to walk back to my room.

"Yeah, but it could! Sombra needs to be KILLED!!!!"

"Sombra will NEVER be able to control me again. Not without his Magic, which he cannot use because he lost his horn. As long as he doesn't have that, then he's safe enough. Luckily, horns really can't be reattached, so I think that we're ok, at least for now. Now then, I need to go put on something more appropriately warm, before my dick falls off!" I then walked back down the hallway.

The trio looked after me as I walked away. They were all starting to get concerned that I was beginning to get a little bit TOO comfortable with having Sombra around. They weren't sure what to do, but what they did know was that they were going to have to do something soon, before Sombra could act again.

After I was dressed in something MUCH warmer, I went to the meeting with Don and the others. Once I took a seat at the digital map in the PCC, Don laid out everything that they had been talking about before they had to save me from myself.

"So, the plan is to first attack Lake Town, then move on to Rendon, before finally heading through the Highland Mountains to Donneth?"

Don nodded. "Eh, something like that. Because the enemy STILL doesn't know that we're here, we need to take full advantage of that. Plus, from what our research indicates, Lake Town is another Dock Town just waiting to happen. There are ships full of ammunition, as well as lots of fuel, and more warehouses full of both. If we can get in, and cause an 'accident' then most likely what'll happen will be forces from Rendon coming to investigate, and then we can kill two birds with one stone. Most of them blow up in Lake Town, and then we move on to take Rendon."

"But what about the Highland Mountains tracks, and especially the Highlands Trestle Bridge?"

Don sighed. "Well, we'll send scouts that way before we take the train through there, just in case."

"And when will the operations begin?"

"At around Midnight tonight. We'll get as close to Lake Town as we possibly can, before sending in soldiers. My plan is for you guys to wreak havoc, and then, in the midst of the chaos, we'll fire our weapons to destroy their ships. If we can sink enough ships close to the entrance of the harbor, then we block their only escape route!"

"And are you sure that that'll work there Don?"

Don was confused. That voice sounded like mine, but it sounded weird. Don then saw me sitting in a corner of the PCC, in an area that was covered in shadow. Suddenly, Don saw a creature with gray fur, as well as red eyes, staring back at him!

"Huh? Are you ok Don?" I was still sitting in front of the digital map next to him.

"What?" Don then saw me, and he then looked back at the corner, but nothing was there. "Hmm, must just be stress", He muttered. "Anyway, as I was going to say, yes, I feel very confident that the mission will succeed."

We all then talked over the plan for a while longer, before the meeting was adjourned for the time being. As I walked away from the PCC, I thought briefly about something. Ever since we'd been given the Bat-Pony treatment, the most common questions that we'd been asked were about just how much Bat-Pony we really had in us.

In truth, we had quite a lot. Aside from the obvious physical appearances, we also loved fruit, some of us slept hanging upside down, while others slept with their wings wrapped around themselves. (I slept with my wings wrapped around myself.) Some of us also bit a little bit, and yes, we all could *scree* as well. In fact, we all could sort-of speak the language of the Bat-Ponies, which was all squeaks, squeals, and screes. We didn't speak in it very often, but when we did, many said that it sounded very unusual!

Meanwhile, In Lake Town, everyone was hard at work. There were supplies to load and unload, as well as ammunition to store, fuel to load, and various other supplies that needed to be moved places. And yes, just like Dock Town, Lake Town was also an extreme liability lawsuit just waiting to happen. The entire place was nothing more than a massive tinderbox.

There were tanks full of fuel for welding torches, as well as other tools lying about, ammunition was stacked on the dock-fronts fully exposed to the elements, while other ammunition was stored in warehouses protected by nothing more than the wooden crates that it came in! Heck, there were even Caribou SMOKING while transporting fuel, ammunition, and other flammable supplies! Some Caribou saw the extreme danger, and tried to warn Vice Admiral Conan, as he was the Caribou in charge of Lake Town.

"Sir, this entire place is just a disaster waiting to happen! I have NEVER seen such blatant disregard for safety in my entire life! The coup may be over, but the danger is not! There is fuel and ammunition lying about, as well as multiple improper handling techniques. And don't even get me started on the harbor! It's all clogged up with WAY too may ships! There's only one way in or out, and if that gets clogged up, then it's OVER!!!"

Conan sighed. "Commander Burns, you are just way too paranoid. Nothing bad is going to happen. We're all as safe as can be here. Plus, we've got more soldiers stationed here, plus more Caribou are trained with firefighting techniques. What more can you want?" Burns was about to answer, but Conan cut him off. "Nothing, that's what!"

Burns could see that arguing his point further was useless, as Conan wasn't going to listen. He sighed, and then began to leave. Just before he could though, Conan stopped him.

"Oh, and before you leave, I have one more job for you Burns."

"And what is that?"

"Tonight, at around Midnight, ammunition, fuel, and other vital supplies need to be loaded onto the naval supply ship Krakatoa. The ship needs to transport supplies that will be needed for our first campaign come Spring."

Burns winced. He hated supply duty more than anything else. Even though he was the officer in charge of safety, nobody ever listened to him. And ammunition ships were the worst. They were completely unsafe, and were just as bad, if not worse, that those who loaded ammunition onto them.

He sighed. "Sure, whatever you say Vice Admiral. I'll do it." Burns then left to get other things done before nightfall.

Back in Pennbrook, the time had come once again to move out. There was a break in the winter weather that we needed to take full advantage of. There were clear skies, and the temperature was 45 degrees on the thermometer. A lot of snow was melting, and it was the perfect day for an invasion. After packing up the shelter that had been protecting our train from the elements so that we could use it again if we had to, we all loaded up onto the train at nightfall for the trip to Lake Town.

On and on we went, getting closer and closer to Lake Town. It was one of the scariest trips that we'd ever made. The enemy didn't know that we were there, but that didn't mean that they couldn't find out that we were there. Occasionally, off in the distance, we would see lights. we assumed that these were city lights, but we never found out what they were.

Eventually, we reached our destination. Outside of Lake Town, we hid the train from detection behind a hill known as Teapot Hill, as the hill resembled a teapot with a short spout. Once we were hidden, we all began to get ready for the mission ahead. It was decided that both Shining and I would lead a group, and that Aurora would come along as well. Just before we left though, Don briefed us one last time.

"Well boys, this is it. After tonight, the Caribou will no longer have a navy. Just remember, your job is to get down there, and cause an 'accident'. Once you've done that, then get back here, and then we'll take care of the rest of the Caribou Navy. Do you think that you can handle it?"

"Sir, yes Sir!" We all quietly cheered.

"Excellent! Good luck boys!" Don then stepped back onto the train, and closed up the doors.

Once we were all ready, we climbed to the top of Teapot Hill.

"I'm so glad that I could come with you on this trip Master."

"So am I Aurora. It's about time that you fought with us in battle again." I then began to study the surrounding area with my binoculars.

"So, what are we going to attack?"

I pointed to the docks. "Do you see those docks down there Aurora?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, it looks like the Caribou are taking advantage of the warm weather, and loading up a ship. All around that ship are ammunition, explosives, fuel, and other such devices. Just perfect for causing an 'accident'!"

Aurora smirked. "Heh, this is going to be fun!"

I nodded, and then, at the signal from me and Shining, we all moved forwards, and snuck down the front side of the hill. Once we were at the bottom, we kept to the shadows, and aimed for the grove of bushes to the left of the city. Unlike what we were expecting, Lake Town, just like Dock Town, was actually pretty poorly defended. Instead of high walls, the city was protected by metal gates, and lots of fencing. We got as close as we could to the fence by the hedges, and thanks to some of the unicorns using their Magic, we were able to cut through the fence, and slip inside of Lake Town. Then, after sneaking past a few patrols, we all split up into smaller groups, and took cover in various places.

"Ok, so what's the plan now?" Shining asked.

"Well", I answered slowly, "We need to get to the docks. That's where the fire needs to start. Plus, their loading of supplies seems to be extremely unsafe, so it should actually be very easy."

We all agreed to this, and then we all slowly began to creep towards the docks.

It was a bit of slow going. The city was bustling a bit with activity, and we did have to kill a few Caribou who spotted us. The worst bit though, was when a few of us were trying to sneak across a street.

"Ok, here we go. We need to cross this street here."

"Sir, I'm not feeling so good."

I turned to the soldier. "You'll be fine. Just hold on a little bit longer." I then crossed the street.

The others began to follow, but when the one soldier began to cross, he suddenly stopped, and to the shock and horror of the rest of us, he projectile vomited all over the street!

"SHIT!!!"

We all then got to the other side of the street, where the soldier, Sgt. Len, an Equestrian, vomited again, only this time right through an open window!

"GOSH-DAMMIT!!!!"

"Sorry," Len muttered.

"Sorry, my ass!" I whispered harshly, "You're gonna get us all killed!!!"

He shook his head. "Again, sorry, and let's get out of here before anypony sees us!"

"Yeah, I couldn't agree more!"

We all then fled the scene before anyone spotted us.

Eventually, we all reached our target destination. Also along the way to the docks, we also sabotaged a number of fire hoses, and other extinguishers. Some hoses were just outright tore holes into, while others we attached to fuel tanks. Now whoever used them would make a huge flamethrower!

From our positions of cover behind a series of crates, I laid out the plans to the others.

"Ok, here's the deal, we need to fan out, and see what kind of trouble we can cause. These docks are littered with things that'll go boom, so let's make this count!"

We all then fanned out. I decided to try my luck with a nearby crane. It was a tall dock crane, located on another dock attached to the main dock-front. Stealthily, I climbed up the ladder to the top.

Once I was up there, I found that the crane was unoccupied. I then sat down in the operator's chair, and looked out of the crane's front windshield. Down below, I could see the Caribou loading up a large ship. The ship was surrounded by smaller barges, and it seemed to be an ammunition ship.

I grabbed my radio. "Hey Shining, I've got eyes on an ammunition ship. It's surrounded by a ton of smaller barges."

"Yeah, I can see it too. Where are you right now?"

"You see that black crane towards the left of the ship? I'm up in the cab."

"Wait, why are you up there?"

"I needed a good vantage point. This seemed like it would make a good sniper nest, so I climbed on up. Finding the crane to be unoccupied, I sat down in the operator's chair, and as soon as I saw the ammunition ship, I decided to radio you."

"Well, at any rate, even though you're really not supposed to be up there, it is nice to have eyes in the sky. Down here, we've managed to set up what will be a few fires here before long. Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong with the ammunition loading. I'd HATE to be the one who set off this tinderbox!"

I nodded. "Yeah, that would be really bad, wouldn't it? Anyway, just get all set up down there, and I'll keep you posted from up here. Leopard out."

I then continued to watch, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Meanwhile, down below, all was not well. With Commander Burns supervising, munitions, explosives, oil, and fuel, were being loaded on board the Krakatoa. There were a series of barges located all along the ship's starboard side, from which the supplies were being picked up by cranes, and then brought up to the deck of the ship before being loaded into the hold. Even I myself was helping out a bit. Using the crane's controls, I helped bring the explosives from the barges to the Krakatoa. Nobody paid any attention to me though, and Burns was too busy shouting orders.

"Careful with those crates!" Burns warned. "They're unsafe! One wrong move, and you'll blow us all into the Afterlife!"

Unfortunately though, his warnings were not being heeded. Although unheeded warnings were about to be the least of Burn's problems. As he was standing on the deck of an empty barge where he was given orders from, a steam tug pulling a barge full of fuel tanks came barging in close by.

"Hey you lot, get out of my way! I need to get this fuel unloaded!"

"Get away from here!" Burns shouted. "These barges are unsafe! We're trying to unload ammunition onto the Krakatoa!"

The tug's captain however wasn't listening. "No, the schedule says that I'M to be unloaded right now! You all drop those crates of ammo, and get my barge unloaded!"

None of the dock workers paid him any mind.

"I SAID, get this fuel unloaded!"

Still no response.

"Not until we're fully done here with the Krakatoa! Wait your turn!" Somebody finally said.

Now the tug's captain lost his temper. "Ok, now that's done it. Get out of my way, I'm coming through!" He then throttled up the tug's engine, and began to push towards the barges that were still full of explosive material.

"NO, STAY BACK!!!!" Burns yelled, "THOSE BARGES ARE UNSTABLE!!!!"

"Don't tell me what to do you furry twat!"

Unfortunately, the tug got too close to the barges, and just as my crane was picking up a crate of ammo from one, the tug hit the barge, and the crate broke loose! It fell back onto the barge, and started a fire!

"Gah, now look what you've done, you clumsy fool!" He shouted up at the crane operator, who he didn't see was me.

"OH GODS, NOOO!!!!!" Burns yelled. "YOU F@#KING IDIOT!!!!!"

"All of you, help me put out this fire!"

"No way!" One of the dockworkers yelled, "I know what's on that barge, and I'm not going to be here when Dock Town 2 happens! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! THIS WHOLE PLACE IS GONNA BLOW!!!!" Most of the workers then began to run away.

Burns then jumped off of his barge, and began to swim away. "GET BACK, GET BACK, SAVE YOURSELVES!!!!" He screamed.

For some reason, I then picked up the controls for the crane's loudspeaker. "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY!!!!! CLEAR THE AREA IMMEDIATELY!!!" Alarms also began to blare all over Lake Town.

Moments after I yelled this, the first explosion happened. It blew flaming debris high up into the air, and unfortunately, those debris landed first onto the other barges, and then onto the Krakatoa herself! Soon, the fires on the ship's deck were threatening to spread to the hold.

As soon as the Caribou's heard my warning, as well as all of the alarms, they all looked up, and to their horror, they saw what was going on at the docks, and they knew that they had to help! As quickly as they could, many of them grabbed fire hoses and extinguishers, and ran to the docks. Unknown to them though, the devices had been sabotaged.

"GET THESE FIRES PUT OUT NOW!!!!" Someone yelled.

"We're trying Sir, but the hoses aren't working!"

"WHAT?!?!?!"

And indeed, they weren't. Well, at least some weren't. Others were the hoses that we'd attached to those fuel tanks. Now thanks to that, those fires were REALLY spreading! From the Krakatoa, the fires spread first to the dockside, and then to the buildings close by, almost all of which contained either ammunition, or fuel.

From where the other teams were, they watched what had happened, and were still in shock.

"So, we didn't even have to cause an accident", Shining muttered, "The enemy's already taken care of that for us!"

"General Shining, I think that we need to fall back! These fires are really starting to spread, and I don't want to be here when it gets REALLY bad!"

Shining nodded. "Yeah, you're right! Let's go!"

They all began to scatter, but then Aurora stopped. "Wait a minute, where's my Master?"

The group froze. Then they remembered that I'd climbed up into that crane, so that I would have a better vantage point for sniping.

"He's probably still up in that crane!" Shining then grabbed his radio. "Leopard, Leopard?! Can you hear me?!"

"Yeah, I can here you! Look at these explosions!"

"Where are you right now?!"

"I'm still up in the crane. However, I'm starting to get the feeling that I should probably evacuate due to fire!"

"Yes, you should! And hurry! The fires from the Krakatoa are getting REALLY close to your crane!"

I looked down. Sure enough, the flames were getting dangerously close to the dock that my crane was sitting on. "Yeah, no kidding! Hold on, I'm coming! In the meantime though," I then flipped over to the crane's loudspeakers again. "KEEP GOING EVERYONE, KEEP GOING!!!!!! THIS WHOLE DOCK IS ON FIRE, AND IT COULD BLOW AT ANY SECOND!!!!!"

I then got up from the operator's chair, and once I was on the outside of the crane, I grabbed the ladder, and quickly started down. Unfortunately though, I only got halfway before there was trouble. While the alarms continued to blare, the barge closest to the crane's dock suddenly blew, and the dock beneath the crane caught fire!

Explosions continued to blast close by. "Man", I muttered, "Can't I ever catch any breaks?!"

Down below, Aurora was terrified. "Did he get out of there yet?!"

"Um....." Shining quickly looked through his binoculars. He watched as explosions began to shoot up the crane's tower.

"OH CELESTIA!!!!! THE CRANE'S DOCK IS GOING UP!!!!" Then, to his horror, he spotted me about halfway down. "AND HE'S TRAPPED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!!!!"

"WHAT!?!?!?!"

Then, to their further horror, they saw the crane's ladder below me suddenly snap loose and fall down into the water! Then, they suddenly saw me climb back up into the crane's cab.

"Wait, what in Celestia's name is he doing?!" Shining grabbed his radio again. "LEOPARD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF THERE NOW!!!!!"

"Yeah, I know! But this whole crane's going to collapse! And when it does, it's gonna fall right on top of the Krakatoa! If that happens, then this whole dock is gonna be GONE!!!!! I HAVE TO STOP THAT FROM HAPPENING!!!!!!" Just then, another explosion happened, and the crane suddenly lurched forwards a bit. I accidentally dropped my radio, and it skidded on the floor close to the crane's door.

"WE'RE LEAVING WITHOUT YOU LEOPARD!!! WE CAN'T STAY HERE ANY LONGER!!!!!" My radio then fell out of the crane.

"DAMMIT!!!" I then grabbed the crane's megaphone controls. "NO, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!!" I yelled to them, "I'LL TIP THE CRANE CLEAR!!!!" I then began to move the crane's levers, and turn the crane away from the Krakatoa.

"Let's just hope that Master gets this right, otherwise we all die!"

Suddenly, the crane's dock collapsed, and the crane began to fall over.

"AAAHHHH!!!!" I yelled.

"LEOPARD!!!!!!!!!" the soldiers screamed.

"MASTER!!!!!" Aurora screamed.

The crane then fell forwards, and landed on the dock next to the ship.

"Oh he's bloody done it!" Shining muttered, "The bastard's knocked the crane over sideways!"

The crane then stayed still for about 6 seconds, before toppling the rest of the way into the harbor. In those 6 seconds, I quickly got out of the cab, and flew to safety. I then landed on the dock-front, and just about had a heart attack. I could not believe that I had just saved us all from a massive explosion. Even though I was an idiot, I was still technically a hero.

It was like this that I was found less than a minute later. "GRAB HIM, AND LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!!" Shining yelled.

"NO NEED!!!" I yelled, jumping to my feet, "I'M GOOD!!!" I then scooped up Aurora, and then with the fires raging all around us, as well as a lot of explosions, we all ran for our freaking lives!

"Don, Don! Can you hear me?!"

"I'm here Leopard, and I must say, you guys have done a fine job as always! How hard was it this time?"

I then explained what had happened.

"Wow, so some Caribou got impatient, and decided to play chicken with an ammo barge? Well, it serves them right, you play with fire, you get burned! I'm glad that all of you made it out of there safely!"

"Well, some of us did get a little bit cooked, but overall, we're ok. Anyway, the place is all yours, so blast those ships! Remember, if you manage to sink at least a few close to the mouth of the harbor, then their escape will be completely blocked!"

"Roger that!" Don then turned to Jim. "The time has come Jim, We need to hit those ships with our weapons!"

"Right away Don!" He then flipped frequencies. "All missiles and rockets online now! Target a ship, and show them what we're made of!"

"Yes Sir!"

They all then targeted, and fired.

Just like back at Dock Town, once those missiles were fired, they all ended up finding their targets. This time though, there were many more targets to chose from. The first ships to be hit were merchant vessels. They were quickly blown in half, and sunk.

Next came a few naval ships. When they sank though, debris from them blocked the mouth of the harbor! A few smaller ships, including several tug boats, 2 merchant ships, 4 corvettes, and one frigate were able to slip by, but for the rest of the ships, as well as most of their crews, that harbor would be their tomb.

From then on, it was a slaughter-fest. Ships were blown up one after the other. They all quickly sank into the harbor, usually taking most of their crews with them. A few salvage crews, risking life and limb, were able to use explosives to clear the log-jam of debris, and even though they were killed in the process, 3 cruisers, a few more merchant ships, 4 supply ships, and even 1 capital ship, the Redeemer, managed to escape. Just after the Redeemer escaped though, a missile strike sunk a battleship in the mouth of the harbor, and this time, there wasn't anyone to remove it.

The rest of the ships were completely destroyed. Lake Town was also little more than a flaming ruin. Unlike Dock Town, it didn't completely explode, although it did all but burn to the ground. Everything inside was lost. Vice Admiral Conan shot himself to avoid punishment, and since he made it out on a naval tugboat, Commander Burns was the highest ranking officer to survive Lake Town. He was also pretty much the ONLY officer to survive!

Because of how quickly the fires spread, no warnings were able to be sent to other areas, or even calls for help. The closest city, Rendon, was still unaware that anything was wrong. Although a series of explosions were seen way off in the distance, they believed that it was either just fireworks, or gunnery tests. The all-clear signal was still on, and there were no transmissions for help, so they just assumed that nothing was wrong. They shouldn't have.

By the time that someone did investigate, it was already far too late. Lake Town was gone, and with it, 95% of the remaining Caribou Navy, as well as all of the supplies, and facilities needed to keep it going. The few ships that did survive now didn't have a base to call their own. They arrived at the harbor in Bindleton, which was the southernmost port in the Caribou Empire, where they awaited their fate. Nobody really dared to tell Danin what had happened. They knew that they would have to eventually, but for the time being, they would leave THAT to General Rodin, and focus on cleaning up.

The overall cost of the battle was extreme. The entire city and naval yard were completely destroyed. An estimated 3.5 million+ Caribou were dead, with a further 3 million injured. 2 million were also missing. 35 ships were sunk, or blown to pieces.

For us, we lost 33 men, 137 wounded, and 43 missing. Most of the victims died of burns or smoke inhalation as we ran for our lives.

Once we were all back on the train, Don looked at us. "Well done boys, well done! That's Lake Town neutralized, now we move on to Rendon!"

"And then on to the Highland Mountains," I said quietly.

"Yes", Don agreed, "Then on to the Highland Mountains, and into whatever lays beyond."

From our temporary base behind Teapot Hill, we all made the final preparations before moving out again. This time though, the battle was NOT going to be pretty for us! What lay ahead, would change the war forevermore!

Author's Note

Ok, here it is, Chapter 20. Sorry for this one being late, but I wrote maybe 2/3rds of it, but then my computer crashed, BEFORE I could save anything! I had to start over FROM SCRATCH!!!! So if some of this seems to be a little bit wonky, that's the reason. Nevertheless though, here it is, and I hope that you all enjoyed it!

So now that Lake Town is gone as well, does the enemy know that we're here yet? How will the Caribou explain this loss to Danin? How will the battle for Rendon go? And what about the inevitable trip through the Highland Mountains on our way to Donneth? Will we make it? Well, you know the drill, stay tuned, and I'll tell you!

Meanwhile, as always, Comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story, are always appreciated, and I'll see you all in Chapter 21!

ScarFox out for now!