The Battle of Waco

First posted to alt.devilbunnies 19-20 April, 1998. The entire telling of the battle takes place on 19 April, 1998 in the alt.devilbunnies timeline. The actual Battle of Waco took place on 19 April, 1993 and until now was just background material for Major Steve Blake.

© 1998 by Scott Bernier
First HTML-ized 23 April, 1998 by Scott Bernier

"Attention!!!!"

The Fudds at the Maine Fudd base stood at attention as Major Blake hopped forward to address the gathered crowd.

"At one time, this day was one of celebration in rememberance of the beginning of the American Revolution when American patriots fought the British at Concord and Lexington, MA. It has become a solemn day for America no thanks to terrorists in Oklahoma three years ago. While those unknowing of the devilbunnies will stand for a moment of silence for the bombing in Oklahoma City, we shall join them to remember those senseless deaths.

"But also we do so to remember our fallen comrades who gave their lives five years ago this very day at the Battle of Waco. While the world watched the inferno at the Branch Davidian Complex, Fudd and bun battled axe and claw for control of portions of the nearby city of Waco. It was a Fudd victory, but a shallow one as we had lost too many numbers to hold the ground we won that day. Remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice that day so that others need not know the Awful Truth™."

Blake moved back and the crowd stood in silence for a full minute. Three volleys of rifle and shotgun were fired. Taps played as the flags were lowered to half-staff. Eugene then dismissed the crowd who went-about their duties. Eugene approached Blake. Making sure no one was looking at him, he knelt-down and placed a hand on the bun's shoulder. The bun quivered under his touch.

"I know this day is extremely hard on you, Steve."

Steve's eyes met that of his friend. "You have no true comprehension of that, Gene." He saw the hurt his statement made in Gene's expression. "I'm sorry. Come. I promised Carol, I'd spend the day with the family. Maybe it's time I tell them and you what really happened that day five years ago."

As they headed for the circa 1800 farmhouse that served as the Blake residence, Steve filled Eugene in on some background. "About a month before the battle, Colonel Oullette called me into his office at the Fudd Base, west of Lubbock at what use to be Reese Air Force..."

"Enter."

A well built soldier in his late 20's entered the office. Five-foot, eleven, Steven Alan Blake saluted his commanding officer.

"At ease, Corporal. Have a seat."

"Thank you, sir."

Blake sat down in the chair opposite the desk of Colonel Jean-Paul Oullette, commander of Reese Air Force Base, and the Lubbock Fudds. Oullette finished some paperwork quickly and gave full attention to the Fudd sitting in front of him.

"How are the wife and kids, Steve?"

Steve relaxed realizing this was going to be an informal meeting with Jean-Paul. "In her last letter, Carol told me things were going well back on the farm. There was a minor incident when George Stickney paid his goddaughter a visit last month..."

Jean-Paul tensed slightly. "What sort of incident?"

Steve chuckled. "He had a run-in with a skunk that awoke from hibernation early due to the unusual mild, mid-February thaw they had up there. Matt and Julie now call him 'Unca Stinky'."

Jean-Paul laughed at the nickname also. "I'll have to bring that up with George the next time he's on base. Steve, how would you like a 14 day pass to see you wife and kids?" Jean-Paul beamed with pride. "It's the least I can do for my newest Sergeant..."

Steve's jaw dropped. He wasn't expecting this at all. He hadn't seen his family since Thanksgiving. Then the rest of Jean-Paul's statement sank in.

"Sergeant?"

"Congratulations, Steve. I just got the confirmation from command. Besides, I'm sure your family could use the raise...." Jean-Paul trailed-off a moment. He continued in a more somber tone. "And I don't know when I'll be able to grant leave time again."

"Sir?"

Jean-Paul slid a folder across to Steve and Steve thumbed through it. "Intelligence has reported that the buns are preparing to make a move against Baylor University. Probably to coincide with whenever the Feds attempt to end that stand-off at Mount Carmel. I'm going to need my best soldiers down there to stop them and that includes you. It could wind-up as a siege for all we know.

"We don't know exactly when they will strike, but we're almost certain, they'll wait until the Feds make their move against the Branch Davidians. What better time to strike then when everyone's attention is focused elsewhere."

Steve looked-up from the report. "Will the bunicide Texas Tech's Ag department is working on be ready by then?"

"I doubt it, Steve. They won't even start preliminary testing for a couple more weeks. They plan on spraying down the half square mile triangular field bordered by Brownfield, 19th, and Indiana around April 6th. But even if it's successful against common jackrabbits, who knows if it will work against devilbunnies."

Steve nodded and handed the report back to Oullette.

"If you get moving, you can catch the evening flight and be up to Caswell Plantation by morning. Say hi to Carol and the kids for me."

"I will sir and thank you." Steve took his leave.

"And bring me back some maple syrup..." he called-out to Steve.

By this time Eugene was seated in the Blake living room, sipping coffee with the Blakes.

"So the following day I arrived back home and greeted Carol and the kids. If I had known it would be the last time that I would see them as a human...and the last time I'd see them in years...." Blake trailed-off and wiped a couple tears from his muzzle.

Carol quickly scooped her husband up and comforted him. "You need to stop blaming yourself, dear," she cooed into his ear while stroking his head, hugging him close.

"But I..."

"We've been through all that. You did what you thought was best for us. You did it to protect us. We've forgiven you, it's time you did likewise to yourself..."

Blake whimpered. Eugene was distressed. He had never seen Steve breakdown like this. He knew Blake cared deeply for his family, but nothing like this. He knew Steve was probably ashamed to be seen like this.

"Perhaps I should leave..." Eugene started to get-up, but stopped as Steve turned around and stared icily at Gene, through his tear-smeared eyes.

"Don't you dare leave, Gene.. I may never talk about this again. I want you to hear this." He added afterwards as he composed himself, "I'm sorry for my breakdown."

"I'm sorry, Steve, I didn't mean to offend..." Eugene sat back down.

Steve pulled himself together and sat in his wife's lap. As she ruffled his back to calm him down somewhat, Steve continued his tale.

"I'll never forget those 14 days at home. But they went by rapidly and before I knew it, I was back in Lubbock..."

"Welcome back, Sergeant."

"Thank you, sir. The maple syrup you asked for."

Jean-Paul accepted the gift with a chuckle. "I meant it in half-jest, Steve, you didn't really have to. Have a seat."

Steve sat-down and accepted another file folder and started to glance over it.

"That's the latest information we've got. It appears the buns are building-up a force of nearly 500 buns, they may strike as soon as Easter, rather then wait for the Feds to make their move at Mount Carmel."

"That would be too predictable. And if they did so, why there?"

"Why not? They know that we know by now to expect an attack on a Fudd facility on Easter. Maybe they're counting on that. Why would we make our base volunerable, by sending forces way down there?" (chuckle) "That is if they knew exactly where we were." Jean-Paul prided himself on how well the Fudd base was blended into the Air Force operations at Reese. As far as they knew, no bun knew there is a Fudd base at Reese. If the buns knew, they had never attempted to make it known that they knew.

"I'm sending down a force of 250 Fudds. Even then, you will be outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 and I wish I could send more. Major Walden will be command. You will be his second."

"Sir?"

"You heard me. It's time, Sergeant, for you to get your feet wet in a position of command. You leave tommorrow. Good luck."

Understanding the meeting was concluded, Steve stood-up, saluted and left.

"That was about April 2nd, Palm Sunday weekend. We had an easy 9 hour drive down to Waco. Probably too easy. No one gave us trouble as we set-up camp on the edge of town. They assumed we were Feds and our camp was a staging area for the ATF and their operations towards Mount Carmel.

"Things were too quiet. Then everyone got tense on Easter (the 11th) as the reports came in from elsewhere of bunny attacks. Everyone was afraid the buns had figured-out there were Fudds in Lubbock and we'd hear a call for help from homebase next. We all expected the Waco buns to make their move also, but they didn't. There was one skirmish north of town that told us and them that we were both there somewhere, but there was no further contact.

"Moral started to drop as we continued to wait. Our orders were not to attack first, partially for we didn't know exactly where the buns were held-up. We moved closer to Baylor University on Sunday the 18th when word came the ATF was going to make their strike the following day...we never thought the buns would strike in daylight on a weekday when there could be hundreds of witnesses around..."

"Major Walden, Sir!" The private saluted. "The ATF is striking against the Davidians..." He turned-on the television in the command trailer for the Major. On screen the complex burst into flames as the first tank approached it.

Walden shook his head at the sight and motioned the set to be shut-off. "Get messages to all team leaders. This is it. If the buns are going to attack it'll be now."

"Yes, sir!"

The private only made it three steps out of the trailer before he was enveloped in a fluffy wall of death. Walden didn't have a chance to even raise his sidearm before he also fell.

(STOMP!) "That was too easy, Carrot! I want your brigade to hit the northside of campus. My group will to hit from the east. Parsnip will circle-round from the south."

"And what about us, sir?" Cprl Turnip inquired.

The large brown, jagged-toothed buck (fangygrin). "You will wait for panic stragglers who try to escape to the west and finish them off." (STOMP!) "MOVE!"

The buns moved to obey their leader. The buck detained one private as the others departed.

(nervousmeakfluff) "Yyyeesssss."

"Private, I've got a special assignment for you. I want you to search through the Fudd files here carefully. I want you to try and find-out where these monkeys came from."

"Yyyyeeesss sssiirr!"

Buckly was a good private. He did what he was told and well. But this, (poof) this was so...so uncute. Buckly had a terrible time pawing through the Fudd filing system. He hadn't found anything yet to indicate where the Fudds were from. He was concentrating on his search so hard, he never heard the cock of the shotgun in the doorway until it was too late.

Cprl Bennington recocked the gun as the bun was now just a smear on the wall and cautiously crept into the command trailer expecting other buns to jump him. None came. He signaled behind for the others to enter. He had found the partially eaten remains of Private Jordan outside ten minutes earlier and had waited for backup before entering the trailer. Inside, the six Fudds spread-out.

"Walden's dead!"

"At least he died quickly."

"They got the shortwave outback, too."

"Damn!"

"What do we do, Corporal?" The others, all privates, turned to Bennington. Bennington didn't expect to be thrust into a position of command like this.

"We try to alert the others, especially Sergeant Blake. He's in charge now. Break radio silence. Use your head sets and pass the word along as quickly as possible. Split-up into groups of two and make your way back to our positions."

"Yes, Sir!" They echoed and split-up with one of the privates going with Bennington.

"You see anything Corporal?" Sergeant Blake hand signaled up to the Fudd on the dorm roof.

Corporal Nickale looked-about from his vantage point on top of one of the college buildings. He personally knew one of the campus security guards who let them up on to the roof.

"All's clear, sir," he signalled back, then hesitated as something caught his eye. He grabbed his radio and called back. "Sweat Elmer...Sergeant, it's like a wall of fluff and it's coming fast."

"From where?!"

"The north through east! No...North through east through south. There must be hundreds of them."

"Try to get through to Walden. I'll try to alert the others."

Of course neither of them knew that Walden and many others were already dead.

"I can't get through, sir!"

"Then get through to anyone you can and tell them to fall back! We'll regroup and counter-attack at the campus chapel. Get down from there as quickly as you can and join us, Corporal."

"Yes, sir!"

Baylor isn't that big a university, being a private Baptist institute. It didn't take long for the Fudds to reassemble in front of the chapel, nor did it take long for the buns to fall in and surround them on three sides with the chapel to their backs.

"Form-up into lines, just like in the drills. I want shotguns to the front, HVE ballooners and supersoakers immediately behind the guns and axes immediately behind them. MOVE IT!"

"Sir?"

"Yes, Corporal."

"Why haven't they already moved in for the kill? They outnumber us at least 2-to-1. But they've stopped just outside of firing range."

This perplexed Steve Blake and he hadn't notice it for he was too busy preparing his men for what possibly could be their last fight. The buns had somehow gotten the jump on them. Bennington and a couple of the others who had been with him had made it to them and reported Walden's death. A quick head count estimate showed that nearly a quarter of the Fudds were unaccounted for. He looked-out towards the devilbunny lines. There must have been three hundred, easily.

"I don't believe it..." Steve mumbled as a white flag bearing bunny hopped in front of the center of the line and approached half-way between the two forces.

"It must be a trap, sir."

"Obviously, Corporal. Never trust a devilbunny. They're probably hoping to get their egos stroked. But if we talk to them, it'll buy us some time."

Steve started forward, but Nickale held him back.

"And if it's a trap, then they'll kill you. We can't afford to loose you, sir. I'll go."

Before Steve could stop him, Nickale was out in front of the spokesbun.

"What do you want, fluffer?!"

"Are you the leader of these monkeys?"

"No! You?"

(negativefluff)

(smirk) "Then it seems both our commanding officers have some sense in their heads, no?" Nickale smiled, patting a supersoaker strapped to his side.

"We demand your immediate unconditional surrender." (STOMP!)

Nickale laughed which angered the bun. "You want us to surrender?!" Nickale laughed some more. "And if we refuse?"

The bun lept, but Nickale was ready, snatching it out of the air. He held it by the scruff of its neck and stared into its eyes.

"Here's our answer to your offer, fluffer. Be sure your leader understands this is what we're going to do to the lot of you!"

Nickale drop-kicked the devilbunny by its backside. It sailed back beyond the bun frontlines. Nickale turned towards his own and ran with the buns leaping and snarling behind him.

"The buns had been overconfident and few had armor, so many of them fell in the initial charge. With the chapel to our backs, they couldn't surround and overwhelm us. But we had no where to fall-back to either. Three times they charged us and three times we repelled their attack, but the cost on both sides was high. We were running low on ammo and they still outnumbered us..."

"We're almost out of ammo, we'll have to fight purely axe to paw." Steve brandished his fire axe. "They've charged-us three times, each time we've stood our ground. Let's not give them time to regroup. If we're lucky we can punch a hole in them and put some distance between us.

"Everyone, switch to your fire axes! Those of you who's axes are broken, pull-out your bowie knives!"

"Axes!" was yelled up and down Blake's thinning ranks.

"DEATH TO THE EVIL THAT FLUFFS™!!!" The Fudds charged.

Blake was correct, the buns didn't expect the counter-attack and many buns fell to axe and knife blades. But so did many Fudds to tooth and claw. Seeing a hole in the bunny lines, Blake drove in and fought-off buns on both sides while waving his men to move through the weakened point in the bun lines.

"Circle-round and regroup to the west, men!"

Steve and four others covered the retreat of the diminishing Fudd forces, sometimes having to fend-off four rabbits each at once. Soon the five Fudds became four then three. The other two fell simultaneously as the now regrouped buns persude the retreating Fudds. One got a lucky hit in on Blake, gashing his right arm open. Blood flowed freely from the wound as Blake continued to defend himself single-handedly wielding the axe. Another bun leapt, tearing the axe out of his grip and he went down, wipping-out and throwing his knife into another bun.

"Carol...I love you..." Steve gasped as he blacked-out.

Another bun lept on his chest and reached his paw back, preparing to rip the Fudd's throat-out.

"STOP!" (STOMP!)

The bun on Steve's chest obeyed the authoritarian voice and turned to see the commanding bun. "He is strong. He'll make a good soldier for us." (fangygrin) "Leave him and catch-up with the others. Make sure they drive the monkeys into our waiting friends to the west."

The bun on Steve's chest (salutefluff) and did as he was told after having a quick snack on two of Steve's toes. The commander feasted on the remaining three toes on that foot and packed the others on ice. He then pulled-out a small syringe from a kit in his knapsack.

"The Mentat wanted this stuff field tested," (amusefluff) he commented to himself. "Well, this looks as good a place as any.." He injected the syringe's contents into Blakes arm, sat back to observe.

"After I blacked-out everything else I know about the battle is second hand. To this day I don't know if I was bitten or injected with the bunnyvirus that changed me. I did learn later on that I had lost all ten toes."

"My remaining force retreated westward into what the buns had thought was a trap. Thank Elmer that about 50 Fudds had disobeyed orders. As I said, moral was getting low during the wait. They had snuck-out, headed towards Mount Carmel in groups of three and four early that morning to see if they could get a good vantage point to watch the Feds try and oust the Branch-Davidians. They, of course, were turned back by the roadblocks. Before long, they had all gathered into one large group and headed back. They happened upon and surprised the buns west of Waco waiting to trap my retreating forces, annilating the fluffers. When the rest of the buns from Baylor got there, those buns fled in route. They were chased back across the Baylor campus and were picked-off in two's and three's. It was estimated that ten...maybe twenty escaped.

"Then the grizzly task of clean-up began. The Baylor Regents vowed to keep our secret for fear the 'Rabbits of Satin' would return if word got out of the attack. They provided the aid of their grounds keepers and campus security to help our forces in the task. That's when they came upon me.

"I was still unconcious and showing the first signs of conversion, growing fur all over my body. This was a shock to the other Fudds for they knew I had kept up to date on my Antibunny (tm) boosters. They immediately evacuated me from the scene, recruiting a local helicopter to fly me back to Lubbock. Even with the speed of a helicopter, my body had complete changed before or soon after we landed in Lubbock. It was estimated that I had converted in less then six hours. It's a wonder I survived.

"News of my fate really shook-up the few surviving Fudds, who numbered maybe 60 by then out of a force of about 250. They decided that they would not be able to hold-out so far from base if the buns should attack again with reinforcements we suspected they may have had nearby. Colonel Oullette agreed and ordered them to evacuate back to Lubbock. Though it was a Fudd victory, we didn't have the strength to keep the ground we won that day. We never did hear whether or not Baylor fell to fluffy influence after that. Perhaps 'Elmer', God, or whatever is up there is watching over them, protects them as long as they keep their end of the bargain--keep secret about that day the 'Rabbits of Satin' overran their campus and they shall remain safe. You know the rest of the story from there."

Steve fell silent.

"I'm sorry, Steve, I never realized how bad it had been..."

"No worse then some of the scrapes we've been in since."

Gene nodded, got-up and excused himself so Steve could be alone with his wife.

[Five years ago, a few miles east of Waco, a few hours after the battle]

(STOMP!) "YOU WHAT?!"

The bun that had commanded in the battle cringed under the eyes of the Mentat. "I ordered retreat. What few buns I had left were already in panic flight. There was no way for me to stop them and turn them around against the Fudd monkeys."

The Mentat leapt at the other bun, rolled and slammed him into the wall of his office. "Where's my Bunnyvirus™ serum?"

"I used it, sir."

(perkupfluff) The Mentat loosened his grip on the other slightly. "So where's our new bunny?" he asked in a no nonsense tone.

(shudderfluff) "We had to leave him behind."

(SNICK!) "WHAT?! You used the serum and then left the test subject behind??!!" (STOMP!)

(pleadfluff) "Like I said, my few remaining forces were in panic flight. I couldn't even slow any of them long enough to help me carry the partially converted Fudd. I had all I could do to escape myself. Even I can't take on a whole platoon alone....I did get you some toes." The bun pointed with an eartip towards the cooler sitting on the floor.

The Mentat let go of the other bun and moved towards the cooler and inspected the iced toes. Selecting one, he munched while in contemplation for a moment.

Encouraged that he might get out of this with his hide, the commander bun spoke a little more. "Knowing the Fudds, they'll kill their converting comrade, 'To save his soul', as they have done in past battles."

The Mentat whipped around, quickly vivisecting the former commander. The commander bun dropped with a surprised look on his muzzle, staring at nothing.

"We don't know that fool. Guards!"

Two other buns entered, saluted, looked down, and cringed.

"Get that out of here and nail its hide to the warren entrance. I want everybun to see what happens to those who fail me!" (STOMP!)

The guardbuns saluted and dragged the carcass out. Another bun came in shortly and mopped-up the mess.

End