Full Metal Panic: The Mission

by Ender06

Story is loosely based off of the anime, is set post TSR. So far Chapter 1 through 8 is up, I'm not sure how long this is going to be.

Note to the reader: this story is loosely based on the anime series full metal panic. The technology, is mostly accurate, however I have added certain technologies along with other characters. This DOES NOT follow the story line of the anime.

Chapter 1

"How are you doing captain?" Asked the lieutenant commander, a six foot five inch tall, sixty-ish looking man with long gray hair, which he kept, tied in a pony tail. He had quite a deep voice.

"Oh not bad, is she ready yet?" The captain responded, a five foot tall seventeen year old female of all things. She had hair down to about the middle of her back which was loosely braded, unnaturally white, almost metallic, which framed her grey eyes quite well. She sat at the large desk made of mahogany which was toward the back of the room. The room was about twenty feet by fifteen feet, with a dark green carpet through out. There were also five full sized file cabinets along one wall. On the opposite wall there were four plasma TVs which were custom built to be one giant screen. The captain usually had it be an illusion of a window overlooking a beach displayed on it, considering the room was underground.

"One more day. Most of the preparations have already been done. However maintenance still has to check the condition of the hull. We also must load munitions and the M9s." Said the lt. commander while standing stiffly in the door way.

"At ease." The captain said. "Alright… Oh is the Arbalest going to be onboard as well?" She added, while filling out paperwork for several cases of cling peaches which were to be loaded on the submarine but somehow had disappeared.

The lieutenant relaxed, and spread his feet shoulder width apart, while at the same time holding his hands behind his back. "Yes it will be on board, per your request."

Once done with the paperwork she looked up and saw that the lieutenant commander was wearing his usual green army fatigues. She herself was wearing a gold/yellow "commander's suit" which she had never liked very much. It consisted of a long-sleeved jacket, brown piping, and a knee-length skirt in the same style.

"Is that it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Dismissed then."

"Yes ma'am."

She sat back in her chair, which had a high back and was clad in soft leather. She got up and steadied herself on the desk. She disliked wearing high heels, but anything to give her a height advantage against the five to six foot plus tall men on base. She walked slowly out of the room and turned to her left. She needed something to drink. As she made her way down to the cafeteria her crew would pass by and salute sharply. She would follow suit and return the gesture.

Remembering back the base was still the same in dimensions as the first time she had came here, but it had been remodeled and repainted many times over. The base was quite large, yet very easy to navigate. There were signs everywhere pointing to different locations, like the cafeteria, restrooms, armory, etc.. The halls were also quite wide. The floor was made of concrete, painted over with a sealer which kept out stains and lessened the clop of the combat boots. The walls consisted of dry wall for the most part, near the vital control rooms they would be made of metal. The covered fluorescent tubes that provided light for the base, while conservative, always made her feel slightly depressed. It seems that most artificial light managed to have an adverse effect on her.

She rounded the next corner and came up on the cafeteria, on a normal day when the submarine was gone, there would be around 300 or so personnel at the base, however when the sub was docked and the crew was on base the number would only rise to just above 400. Not large for a naval base yes. But Mithril is a small organization, at least at the naval base. They had several major land bases, however they liked to keep their assets mobile. And their submarine was no different. At over eight billion dollars it has been the most expensive submarine ever built. However there is good reason for such a high price. Several technologies on the submarine have never been seen anywhere else, on the planet.

She entered the crowded cafeteria, it was a very large place, about the size of a large gymnasium, and had a food serving line, and a cashier to the left of the entrance. The floor was carpeted, and had a stain guard of sorts. Along the far wall there was a bar, and spread throughout the room were tables seating eight people. She looked around, to her left was the serving line, and her right were some vending machines. As she made her way over to the vending machines, most of the crew members would salute, some would just say "ma'am" and others would just wave. All of them however would respond in one way or another. After making it to the vending machines, she stared at a can of lemonade for a good thirty seconds, before she selected it. The machine made a humming noise and the can popped out of the row it was in, and plopped into the chute. Where she picked up the can and bent the tab. A pop, then a slight hiss came from the can, as it gave up its vacuum.

After taking a drink from it, she winced, a little too sweet for her taste. She then made her way out of the crowded cafeteria again and deciding that she needed air, she made her way to the elevators. She didn't dare climb the stairs while she was wearing high heels. After waiting for a minute for the elevator and taking another sip of the canned drink, she stepped onto the elevator, there were already four other people in there. It could fit thirty comfortably, so it wasn't a problem. She recognized two of them, one being an F-35 pilot, and the other from engineering. Everyone in the elevator saluted, she returned the gesture. She looked at the control panel, the touch screen displayed that the ground floor was already pressed. The two other people she didn't know went back to talking and joking with each other.

Once the elevator had stopped. And the door opened she stepped out into the ground level facility. It wasn't anything special either. The elevator opened up into the middle of a room with a large corridor on the opposite side leading to the outside, in between the room and the outside were several offices. Making her way outside into the sunlight. It was a very clear day, the crystal blue sky was dotted only by a few small puffy cotton balls. She felt much happier and sat down on a bench overlooking the base.

The island was the shape of a croissant, about ten kilometers long and about eight kilometers wide, six kilometers wide at the islands widest point at the middle of the "C". The above ground facility was located on a hill overlooking the rest of the naval base, which wasn't something to behold as a lot of the structures were underground, except for the armory, hangers, and some reserve barracks, which were used when the submarine was in dock. There were several hangers which housed multiple attack jets and helicopters, which were underground. The runway paralleled the main base, running about a mile and a half along the eastern side of the island running from north to south.

There were the enlisted personnel barracks which were located about a hundred yards down hill from the above ground facility. A few of the men were playing basket ball on an improvised hoop hung from an M9. About 200 yards away were two heavy armored concrete bunkers. They were armories, which supplied the base with munitions. Located behind those armories were four hangers, two of them had M9s and another had 4 main battle tanks, and the last one had various smaller vehicles like jeeps and ATVs. The tanks could be airlifted by helicopter or cargo plane and dropped onto a target.

On the west side of the island was the underwater opening to the submarine pen. Which could be flooded or pumped dry as needed. And every kilometer or so along the perimeter of the island there was be a metal hatch, about twelve feet square. Those were the point defense missile system, which could reach sixty nautical miles out to the ocean, each missile platform had two smaller three foot square hatches on each side of it. Those were the high powered narrow angle tracking radars. Or nater's as the personnel nicknamed them, which triangulated the position of incoming missiles with the bases main radar. If the bases main radar were to be disabled, it could relay between other missile platforms. Though scanning for and acquiring targets would be noticeably slowed.

And if the incoming missiles had managed to get by the PDMS, the last resort was gatling guns, six of them. Four located on the main part of the island located on the highest points, and the other two on each point of the "C". The gating guns have their own independent radar systems, and could fire at an astounding 5000 rounds per minute. Laying down a stream of lead which could not be penetrated.

After finishing her lemonade she decided to go down to the guys playing basketball. Never the one for sports, she just wanted to go and take a walk around the base. It was only 1 o'clock and it was very sunny, and warm out, the clouds lethargically floated across the sky. She slowly began to walk down the hill, when she remembered she was wearing high heels. Not the best for a stroll, she turned around and walked back into the facility. She made her way back to the elevator, and pushed the button. After ten seconds of waiting the elevator made a soft "ding" and the door opened, two mechanics came out both were laughing to each other, they saw the captain and immediately saluted. She just gave them a smile and stepped in the elevator, and pressed the button labeled B6. In the underground facility there are eight levels, the bottom most level was ventilation and power generation, second up was where the munitions for the PDMS and gatling guns, which were transported via high speed rail through the island in a series of tunnels. The sixth level housed the officers quarters. The fifth and fourth floors were various training simulators, third floor had a small armory, and housed the cafeteria and offices, and the second floor was completely devoted to crew quarters. She waited for the high speed elevator to get to the sixth floor. Fifteen seconds later the elevator chimed in "Now on sixth floor" a second later the elevator door opened, and she stepped out. Turning to the left and making her way down the hall, she read each name tag on the door, "Maj. Arnold, Capt. Stevens, Maj. Lin … and other various officer's ranks and last names. She finally made it back to her room and went inside. Closing the door she turned around and looked in the mirror. Since she was off duty as of noon, she changed from her commander's suit, into kakis, and put on her captains jacket, resembling a pilot's flight jacket, over a white t-shirt. She slipped off her shoes and changed into sneakers. Standing up she felt somewhat awkward, as she had gotten used to wearing the high heels.

After making her way back outside she walked down to the lot where some of the guys were playing ball. "Hey." She chimed in.

"Ma'am" said a couple of the people. Others just nodded. Most said hey. Since she was off duty they didn't need to salute, and she always had a lax approach to these sort of things anyways.

She scanned the players. "Have any of you seen Sousuke?"

"Nope." Said one of the enlisted men, while shooting the ball into the basket.

"I think I saw him hanging around the M9s about twenty minutes ago." Said another, while pausing in between gulps of water.

"Thanks!" She chirped and spun towards the hanger where the M9s were.

"Ma'am!" yelled one of the ball players.

"Yes?" she spun back around, almost falling over.

The guy was talking to another person, who kept jabbing him in the ribs. Finally he gave up and said "You in love with Sousuke?" and punched his friend.

She blushed. "Of course not!" She shouted. And stomped off.

In the background she could hear chuckling and some "shut up"s from them. She

made her way to the hanger, still not able to get her mind off of why they would say that. But soon she was able to shove it into the back of her mind, opening the door to the hanger she looked around and found Sousuke sitting next to the feet of one of the M9s reading a magazine. She walked over and as soon as Sousuke saw her, he immediately stood up and saluted, and went into the attention stance. "Ma'am" he said crisply.

She giggled, "There's no need for you to do that, I'm not on duty, besides look at what I'm wearing, you don't have to salute an officer not in uniform."

"Um. Right." He said awkwardly. Still remaining at attention. He was only seventeen years old, same as her. He also was a bit awkward in the social department, considering he has been a mercenary since he was nine. As he stood at attention, she noticed the scar on the left side of his face. It had lessened since she saw him for the first time however it was still quite prominent.

"You can go back to reading your magazine if you wish. I don't mean to be a bother, just wanted to see what you were up to, that's all."

"Just reading Jane's monthly." Said Sousuke, while grabbing the magazine, it had a large picture of the latest M7 which the US forces use. He was about a foot taller than she was, his brown hair was somewhat scruffy. He also had dark grey eyes. He was wearing the normal green army fatigues.

"Oh is that the new M7s that the US military is using?" she asked while pointing towards the magazine.

"Affirmative, the US currently has around 400. The featured article talks about how the M7 will be deployed, and its specs." Sousuke said while showing her the magazine.

"Oooo, really" she took the magazine. While flipping through it she added. "I hope we don't have to face anything like them."

"We may, there have been rumors that Iran and the USSR have bought some off the black market. However the M9s we have outperform the M7s in almost every single aspect."

Reading further into the magazine Sousuke came to a page involving the new M9s.

"Wow, I didn't know they had the information for M9's in here."

"These are quite new… I'm not sure why they're in there either, they're not exactly top secrete though."

Sagara kept reading. "Take a look at this, they seem to be pretty far along.." He pointed to the page.

"The M9 Gernsback is the most advanced Arm-Slave currently in development. It is still in testing stages and is not expected to be deployed until year 2020. As the production teams have had trouble designing a power plant with a large enough power output to run the M9.

The control systems and cockpit are all state-of-the-art, and have been retooled since the M7. Jane's has been able to get some of the details on the new cockpit design:

"When piloting in the new M9, the pilot stands/leans back in the chest cavity. The legs go through a harness which has pressure sensing inflatable pads. Also the feet control two, closed toe, eight way pedals. Sliding the pedal forward or back, slides the AS's foot in the same manner, lifting or pushing down on the pedal raises and lowers the feet, and sliding side to side does the same to the mech. The pedals can also be tilted down or up to make the AS stand on its toes or heels. And forcefully pushing down with both feet causes it [the arm slave to jump. The pilot's chest then is secured to the rest of the structure by harness which looks slightly like a flak vest but is made out of metal. It also has a pressure sensing lining, so when the pilot presses their backs or chest in a certain area it will twist the AS's torso accordingly. The front of the harness separates from the back, allowing ease of entry and exit.

The arms go through basically the same type of harness as the legs do. However the harness for the upper body has a larger range of motion. But because of the cramped space in the cockpit, the harness could not be used in the full range of motion as a human being. Thus a bi lateral angle had to be used, which is basically a multiplying factor. So if the pilot wants to move the machines arm ninety degrees, and the bi lateral angle is three, the pilot would move their arm thirty degrees in the same direction, the larger the angle the more skilled the pilot. From around 1.5 which is training, to 2.5 which is normal, to 3.5 which is expert. The hands of the arm slave are controlled by joysticks, oriented sideways, like throttle controls on a plane. There are four buttons on the leading edge of the joystick for the four fingers, along with one button on the side for the thumb, each is pressure sensitive so the harder you squeeze the tighter the hand gets. Then a small keypad to the side of each joystick allows the pilot to execute more commands on the computer. The whole joystick can be rotated when the pilot requires the mech's hands to be in a different position. The pilot also wears a special motion capture helmet, which allows the pilot to control the mech's head, even if the pilot is not wearing the helmet the computer can still track the movement but it is not nearly as accurate. The helmet is also a closed ear, open head design, where the protective foam wraps around the forehead level, and closes around the ears.

In front of the user there are multiple LCD screens, seven total, arranged in a cross, three vertically, and five horizontally. The center screen which is 17" square, displays what the mech's eyes see. The top screen which is 17" wide by 12" tall, gives information on what the computer is doing, along with a list of known friendly units. The three middle screens displays what the mech sees as well as sensor information and map data, the two outer horizontal screens are bent at a seventy degree angle towards the pilot, making an arch in front of the pilot. When the pilot turns their head the displays change accordingly keeping what the mech sees in front. The bottom screen is the "soft" screen which will readily change what it is displaying based on what is happening. The bottom screen if not in combat will display system information, like the power output of the power plant, servo motor status, computer status, and overall condition of the mech. If the mech is damaged the screen will change to a full schematic of the mech allowing the pilot to see what has been damaged and how badly. Or if a communications uplink is established with the main base of operations, the base can send maps, coordinates, instructions, or other data and display it. All changes in the bottom screen are controlled by the pilot through voice commands." Excerpts taken from various project managers.

One of the main problems seen by the M9 so far is the design of a small enough power plant to supply power to the machine.

"Yeah currently we just don't have the technology do it, physically it's possible, but we can't find a good stable power source for it. Nuclear fission is just too unstable, and we can't design a small enough fusion power plant for it." Nick Vasquez, Lead engineer.

"Wow, well seems we already have that figured out." Said Tessa while patting the M9's foot that they were sitting on.

"Affirmative, the cold fusion reactor is a very stable power source even for the amount of physical damage it takes."

"The M9 is quite an advanced vehicle surpassing the M7 in every category. Most noticeably the drive systems for the M9 are completely comprised of muscle packs, as compared to the M7 which is comprised primarily of hydraulics for the drive system and muscle packs for fine motor control.

Because of this, the M9 can sustain much more damage while still maintaining the same operational capability of the current M7. While having extremely high maneuverability, several fold over the M7.

"Right now the field tests we've been doing have been in a hanger with a gigantic cable for power coming out of its back. But the maneuverability of it is just astonishing."

Richard Howard. Head of Testing Division.

The M9 however has its limitations, currently the computers used in the testing M9's are extremely fast, approximately two terahertz. Current clock speeds are only estimated, as Jane's Monthly does not have access to them. The tech division here at Jane's suspects that they are using prototypes of IBM's latest processors to reach such speeds. However even with the enormous speeds there is still not enough power to run the M9 smoothly.

"We've only been doing tests on the maneuverability of the M9 so far, we've only delved a little bit into the rest of the programming. Were probably only about twenty percent done with the main operating system. But for the main operating system and AI[artificial intelligence to work smoothly we need speeds in excess of two hundred [teraflops minimum to four hundred terahertz for it to run smoothly, scary isn't it?

Currently we can't reach such speeds just for the fact that it's four hundred terahertz, and we just don't have the room to do so. Not to mention the amount of heat put out by the computer is ridiculous. Currently the onboard computer right now will overheat after a couple hours of operation. Though that's just a design flaw in the actual M9 it should be fixed with the next revision." David Paynes, Lead Computer Engineer.

Jane's was informed on what type of armaments that the M9 would be able to carry. Currently the list of the M9 armaments is limited to only a few weapons, however the M9 has the capability (if computer speeds are upgraded) to crack the security locks on any armaments currently carried by the M7 or RK-49. The current list that Jane's has obtained (all ranges, muzzle velocities, and ROFs are currently classified)

Name Type (size)

AR55R Assault Rifle, Rifled (57 mm)

HS59S "Boxer" Shot cannon, Smoothbore (57mm)

AS42R Sub Machine Gun, Rifled 40mm)

PS42R Pistol, Rifled (40mm)

SE55R Sniper Rifle, Rifled (modified 57mm round)

SA11G Extend Range Sniper Rifle, smoothbore (120 mm rocket assisted Sabot round, guided)

MV15S Vulcan Cannon(2x mounted in head), Rifled (.50 caliber)"

XM50K Mechanized knife (N/A)"

"Well we also seem to have fixed the computer problem, if only they had Black Technology." Said Tessa while flipping the page.

"True, if they had Black Technology, they may have solved those problems, however that may not always be the case. Hmmm… we seem to use the same armaments as what they have listed."

"Yes we do, currently we use the same manufacturer for our armaments."

"Is that a good idea?" Sousuke asked.

"It's fine, we do have the means to produce our own armaments, but currently they give us a better deal than we can make them for ourselves. However we use different ammunition so we have a longer range than theirs. We can use any ammo out there though, from what I've seen they can't."

"Hmm, that's good."

"Wow, look they even have specs on the packs."

"Jane's has also acquired a list detailing a couple of the packs that the M9 can use.

Name Type Other info

PS88C Parachute pack. Able to take shocks in excess of 2,500 metric tons.

RA91A Rocket pack Power plant: Two solid state A-455 rocket motors, producing 75,000 pounds of thrust. 10 minute burn. Primarily used for fast extraction.

JA88D Jet pack Power plant: F-135 Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan engine, 43,000(wet[afterburner) 28,000(dry) pounds of thrust. 45 minute duration(dry). Mid air refueling possible.

Currently these are the only packs available for use with the M9. The design team has promised more versatile packs in the future."

"This seems quite thorough. We use the same packs, although we do have the SLBM canister." Commented Sousuke while browsing the rest of the page.

"I guess they haven't figured that out yet. The SLBM canister is really a lifesaver, they have a longer range than the jet pack, and travel a bit faster."

"Yes they are. However one of the drawbacks is that it can be shot down in flight relatively easily."

"That is true but we usually don't launch them into hostile airspace." Said Tessa. Reading the rest of the page she added, "You know I really would like to pilot one of these M9's."

"Well, sure, but, I don't know if you really are up for it…" Replied Sousuke.

"What do you mean?"

"Well piloting an M9 requires high levels of coordination and physical agility…" answered Sousuke, hesitantly.

"And are you saying I don't have that?" Tessa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not at all ma'am, I'm just saying-" Sousuke was cut short.

"Alright then you will teach me sometime." Tessa said smiling.

"… Yes, ma'am."

They made more chitchat about the "new" M9s that was being developed. Then she left to go back to her quarters to read. She walked back outside, the sun helped her brooding mood a bit. She made her way back to the compound, meandering her way around the base first, stopping at the motor pool, hangers, quarters, and then finally the airfield. A good commander has to know what is going on in their base. She went back into the compound and found the elevator again, stepping inside she was about to press the button labeled "B6" which were where the officer quarters were, however she pressed the button "B4" instead, which was where some of the training simulators were housed. But she was going there for a different reason, the entrance to the submarine pen was there, and she wanted to see how her ship was doing.

Chapter 2

The elevator slowed, and stopped with a soft ding, and an announcement came from the speaker in the elevator: "Now on fourth floor." Tessa stepped out and looked around. There were a few people in the hallway, most were going to certain training simulators, from her memory she knew there were two simulators which taught personnel how to fly transport jets, four MBT simulators, four jet simulators, a couple of helicopter simulators, and six M9 simulators. She looked around and got her bearings, turning left she walked towards one of the M9 simulators. Popping her head in, she saw the control room, it was rectangular fifteen feet by eight feet with two doors, on opposite sides of the room, one she was in already, the second one led into a small hallway and into the room that the cockpit was in. In the control room there was a huge panel full of display panels, keyboards and other various displays, on the wall above the control panels were four wide screen 28" LCD display screens one displayed vital signs, another the condition of the virtual arm slave, another displayed the inside of the cockpit, and the last a virtual simulation of the battle field. Opposite of the control panel was the simulator's computer, which took up the entire wall. By regulation there always should be another person in the control room monitoring the simulation but it was empty. She stepped in, and glanced at the LCD screen which showed who was in the cockpit.

She recognized the pilot in the simulator as Sgt. Locke, standing at around 5' 2", short brown hair, and 18 years old, she wasn't much older than her, or much taller, but two of her best M9 pilots were eighteen. She could see her flexing and moving in the harness, though it didn't look like much, but on the virtual battlefield the mech was moving with grace and precision. "I wish I could do that." She thought to herself. She glanced at the other screens on the wall. She was doing well, heart rate and blood pressure with in normal limits. The mech had sustained a bit of damage, part to the left arm servo motor, as she could see, the sergeant had a hard time moving the left arm. And there were still four more M7's left.

She decided to play a little joke on the pilot, and tapped the keyboard, immediately three more M7s appeared in front of the M9. She tapped the keyboard again, and shut down the cold fusion reactor in the M9. Warning lights lit up like a Christmas tree in the cockpit. Tessa watched the screen as the sergeant looked in confusion at the lights flashing on the screens in front of her. "Hello?" she spoke, towards the camera, while pausing the simulation at the same time.

"Hello sergeant." Replied Tessa.

"Oh Capitan." The sergeant sounded surprised. "- I'm sorry for not having someone in the control room."

"No need for "sorry"."

"Should I quit?"

"No" she paused, "actually please continue."

"But there are two additional enemies, and the fusion reactor is gone."

"I know" she paused again, "I want to see how well the M9 can perform, as well as you."

"Roger." Locke said as she un-paused the simulator and started fighting again.

Tessa tapped the control keyboard again, and brought up the reserve battery timer. It read: 44:55. "Lets see how well the reserve battery lasts" she thought to herself. She hit a few more keys again, bringing up the power consumption schematic for the M9. She watched power consumption bars for each servo move as they were used. That left arm was giving her trouble again, she watched the ammo counter, the sergeant assault rifle was almost out of bullets and she only had one reserve magazine. Then she would have to switch to the knife. Looking over at the sergeant through the screen she could see her reload the weapon.

Looking back up at the clock she saw the time had gone down to 38:23, almost out of ammo. Flipping to the power usage screen she saw that the legs of the mech were starting to use energy faster than before. Apparently having one of the arms out of commission, put more stress on the lower portion of the mech, to keep it stabilized, wearing out the drive systems that much quicker.

25: 23 "Huh" Tessa though to herself, looking down at her watch, she saw that only two minutes had passed. The damage was really taking its toll. I'll have to have the engineers fix the clock. Looking back at the pilots screen, she saw the sergeant struggling to keep the mech balanced while in hand to hand fighting. "Warning. Class B damage sustained on right shoulder stabilizer." Said the computer in a neutral tone. Tessa glanced at the mech status screen, the top of the shoulder was highlighted, and next to it was a window which read:

CLASS B DAMAGE

RIGHT SHOULDER STABLIZER

DECREASED OVERALL STABILITY

ESTIMATED RESERVE POWER: 12 minutes 30 seconds REMAINING.

"Shit." Heard the Captain from the control room, Tessa looked back at the screen which had the video feed of the sergeant. She was definitely in a bind, as she had just taken down another mech with four to go, the sergeant was moving as fast as possible with her legs and arms, her head was turning side to side at incredible speed looking for the next threat. Out of the corner of her eye, the sergeant saw a M7 firing its assault rifle, Locke pulled up on the pedals, tucked the mech's arms in, and pushed down on one of the pedals. On the virtual battlefield screen, the mech rolled. The sergeant came up behind a building, pushing out with both arms and raising herself up, it took slightly longer than usual to get up. Laura then got into a crouching position behind the building, she saw on the lower screen that the mech was just about to round the corner. As soon as the mech rounded the corner, she bum rushed and tacked the other mech. Gripping the joystick and thrusting with both legs, she shoved into the other mech, and at the same time stabbed the chest cavity of the other mech as they went down. As soon as the mech had been taken down the warning sound happened again. "Warning. Class A damage sustained on front and lateral optical sensors." Announced the computer. "Warning Class B damage sustained on head drive motor, decreased mobility of the head unit." Tessa glanced over at the other screen, the same schematic was shown, and now the head was highlighted.

CLASS A DAMAGE

FRONT AND LATERIAL OPTICAL SENSORS

DECREASED OVERALL SIGHT

CLASS B DAMAGE

HEAD DRIVE MOTOR

DECREASED MOBILITY OF HEAD UNIT

"Fuck!" yelled Locke.

She really shouldn't have rushed the other mech like that, thought Tessa, though there really wasn't much of a choice. She tapped the keyboard, and changed one of the screens to display what the sergeant saw. "Wow the damage is bad." Tessa thought. She watched the screen, as it went blurry and fuzzy, and blinking on and off, motion detection was literally gone. She still had radar which told her where the other mechs were, but fighting them without actually seeing them doesn't do much good.

"Activate backup optical sensors, front only." Said the sergeant, in a calmed voice.

"Affirmative, Frontal backup optical sensor activated." The computer said, immediately the screen center screen cleared. "Estimated reserve power, 8 minutes 30 seconds."

"And three more to go, just great…" hissed Locke.

Tessa watched intently, as Locke glanced down frequently at the radar, because her peripheral vision was all but gone. That and because of the drive motor damage, she couldn't move the head as fast as she would have liked. A little while later she was able to find one of the other mechs, and ambush it. Moving her mech's arm in a round house stab she tore through the other mech's armor, exposing the cockpit. There was no pilot inside, as it was computer controlled. However even though there was no enemy pilot the mech was officially "dead".

She pulled the rifle off of the enemy mech as it fell, and checked the magazine. The bottom "soft" screen displayed the weapon's information. The computer also read what was on the screen. "A4XTR M7 Assault Rifle, 28 rounds remaining." Tessa saw the sergeant take the rifle and an extra magazine from the fallen M7, and run. She watched as the sergeant pushed the pedals in sequence causing the mech to run and then in unison, and jump. Flying into the air she used the rifle as a club, and completely took off the head on one of the remaining M7s. The enemy AS dropped, she then took one hand and grabbed her knife, stabbing it into the chest cavity. The M7 went still after that. The sergeant quickly looked at her radar screen and saw that the last M7 knew where she was and was moving to intercept.

"Start decryption process, brute force method." Said Laura.

The sergeant already on the climb up a hill was being shot at by the last mech. She jumped and landed behind a building, and kept running.

"Reserve power status." Issued the sergeant.

"5 minutes and 48 seconds remaining." Replied the computer.

She ran and found a relatively secure hiding spot, she jumped into a dry drainage canal, about 100 feet wide, and 30 feet deep, tucking in under an overpass, she asked, "Time till decryption?"

"4 minutes 20 seconds." Spoke the computer.

"Oh fucking great. One minute for the mech." Pushing a small button with her right hand on the joystick, which allowed her to issue core commands to the computer she spoke, "Devote 95 percent computing power to decryption."

"Warning, all sub systems will suffer extreme performance loss. Do you wish to continue?"

"Yes damn it."

"Affirmative, 95 percent computer power is now dedicated towards decryption process. Time till decryption 2 minutes 10 seconds." That wasn't exactly the smartest move considering when not in battle mode, the Gernsback needed 40 percent of the computer power to operate, and when in battle mode, it needed an average of 75 percent to operate efficiently. And 5 percent was the absolute minimum to maintain core system functionality. Doing this essentially froze the arm slave, completely shutting down its sub systems. The pilot could disengage the master – slave system, engaging one to one motion, but because of the cramped space in the cockpit that would be basically useless.

Pushing the same button. "Radar, main screen."

A few seconds later the radar was shown on the main screen. She could see the other arm slave slowly closing in on her last known position, which was only 200 yards away. The radar updated rather slowly as most of the computers power was tied up in breaking the lock which prevented Locke from firing the weapon.

"Time left till decryption." Said Locke.

"One minute." Replied the AI, rather slowly.

"Show decryption process lower screen."

The 17" by 12" screen below the main screen flickered, and a progress bar, and a schematic of the rifle was shown. The schematic showed what locks had been broken. All that remained was the firing pin release lock. She glanced at the progress bar. Ten seconds remaining. 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

"Redistribute computing power to battle mode levels."

"Warning. Do you wish to redistribute computing power to battle mode presets?"

"Do it!"

"Affirmative, redistributing computing power… Completed, performing subsystems check… completed. "

"Main screen, display optical sensors, lower screen, radar"

Both screens changed, displaying the road, and the radar on the bottom screen. The sergeant got up, and emerged from hiding, she saw the other arm slave rounding the corner of a building, the enemy M7 saw her and fired a burst while retreating behind the corner. The bullets slammed into the pavement in front of her. She ran in the canal towards the M7, finding that it was still backpedaling, she shouldered the rifle and sprayed the enemy machine. Only two rounds hit, crippling it but not killing it. It rounded the corner and disappeared. Climbing out of the canal, she went into a full sprint after it, and reloaded the rifle, rounding the corner she shouldered the rifle and fired a burst. Nothing was there. "What the hell…" She stopped. The 40mm rounds from the enemy arm slave began drilling into the pavement all around her.

"Shit!" yelled the sergeant, while rolling her M9 on to its back, immediately the enemy M7 came into view, which was perched atop the roof of an office building. The sergeant fired the rest of her ammo towards the enemy machine, not having time to properly aim. The enemy arm slave ducked behind the edge of the building and she missed. The enemy arm slave pounced from roof top and shot at the sergeant. The cockpit went dark.

SIMULATION OVER Announced the speaker in the control room.

Holding the button down to speak to the sergeant, Tessa spoke. "Nice try. I'm sure you'll do better next time".

"Thanks." Said Locke.. She tapped the controls, and the cockpit separated, allowing her to climb out. She jumped the small distance down to the floor and walked out of the simulation room into the small hallway, and came out through the control room. The captain was waiting outside.

"Ma'am," Laura said, only two inches taller than the captain. "I'm extremely sorry for not having someone watch over the control room." She didn't try to explain herself.

"Oh, no worries, your skilled enough you don't really need anyone in the control room."

"Thank you ma'am." Laura replied. "If I may ask, what were you doing down here anyways?"

"Oh, just curious as to what was going on, I was also going to head to the submarine, I got to check up on her."

"Ah, I was going to head back to my quarters to change, but I am planning on stopping by to get a couple things squared away on board." Replied Laura, tugging on her suit. The suit most closely resembled a mix between a wetsuit, and a flight suit, it was form fitting like a wetsuit, and black, but was made out of heavier material, and had more padding. Each person would have a different color piping, around the shoulders and collar, depending on their designation. The sergeant herself was grey, the grey stood for close combat specialist. Red was assault specialist, green was explosives specialist, black was team leader, blue was sniper specialist, and yellow was heavy weapons specialist. There were a couple other colors but those were the main ones.

"Oh well I'll wait for you, I usually don't like to walk around in this place alone."

"Well, I don't mean to be a bother…"

"Don't worry your not, I just like the company."

"Alright."

Both began walking down the hallway towards the elevator in relative silence. Finding their way to the elevator, Laura hit the button with the up arrow. And a few seconds later the elevator door slid open. There were 4 others in the elevator, two mechanics, which Tessa recognized as ones who were stationed on the base at all times, and two SRT personnel. The SRT stood for special response team. It was Mithril's mercenary unit, well not exactly, as all of the personnel Mithril employs, are technically mercenaries. But the SRT was composed of handpicked people from all around the globe, each was highly skilled in fighting, with all types of weapons.

As soon as the door opened the four men immediately stood at attention and saluted. Tessa saluted back, and said "Don't mind us."

The four men looked back at each other, and then back to the commander, as she stepped in the original occupants of the elevator began their normal conversation. Tessa looked at the panel of buttons, and found the button for the second floor, and pressed it, it glowed a deep blue as she released the button. Five seconds later the elevator chimed in "now on second floor". The elevator door quietly slid open, revealing several doors, opposite to the elevator. The sergeant and captain both stepped out, and Laura turned to the left and began walking towards her quarters. They could hear sounds of construction resonating through the hallways. The construction was nearing the end, and was meant to eliminate the need for above ground enlisted quarters. Tessa had ordered construction of large underground hangers, and extra crew quarters, so all above ground buildings could be demolished, but engineers had run into some exceptionally hard granite and construction was slowed, the job was running about 6 months behind schedule. But the crew quarters were almost ready.

Amidst the banging, and drilling, they got to the sergeants quarters. She palmed the door lock, and a green light blinked. Turning the door knob, Laura opened the door and let the captain in first. After closing the door, the sounds of construction were virtually gone, and Tessa sat down on a couch. "I'll just be a minute." Said the sergeant, while walking to the bedroom.

"No worries, take your time." Responded Tessa.

The quarters, at least sergeant and up were single person quarters, almost like a small apartment, they had a small kitchen, which had two burners, a small sink, a couple cabinets and a small fridge. A dining/living room with a small nook which had a computer, and a couple bookshelves. And a bedroom, onto which the bathroom was attached. The whole place was about 600 square feet. Nothing huge, but compared to the private's, and corporals quarters, they were quite luxurious. But the officers had even larger quarters, about 1000 square feet. If you hire mercenaries you should at least keep them happy.

As the sergeant closed the door behind her, the captain began looking around, and found herself looking at the bookshelves, the bookshelves were as tall as the room was which was around 8 feet or so. And on the top most shelve there were various pictures, one had what Tessa presumed to be Laura, and her parents when she was younger.

She was picked to be in Mithril because of what had happened back in high school. An incident had occurred in her hometown when she was 16 where she had watched her family die in a military takeover. During that time she had disguised herself as one of the personnel of the army that had came into her town. And eventually escaped and made her way to the US army, where she was trained in close quarter combat, all at the age of 17.

A few inches away, was the last picture on the bookcase. The frame was of a much higher quality than the others which was strange. You could buy picture frames on base or anything else for that matter which is where Tessa had recognized the other frames coming from. But this one was much more ornate, and was made out of sterling silver. Inside was a picture of Laura, and another person, but she couldn't make them out. Tessa stood up and walked over to the bookcase. The carpet softened her footsteps as she went. Looking closer, it was a picture that was taken somewhere on a battlefield, as the background was of a military base. The picture looked quite weathered as it had a very two very deep creases running vertically and horizontally. The unknown soldier's uniform had a nametag on it. "Sevaton."

She began looking through the books on the bookshelves, as Laura came out of the bedroom. She had changed into green army fatigues. "Ok, I'm ready. Like anything you see?" She said while motioning to the bookcase.

"Oh just being nosy, you got some classics in there." Tessa replied, while stepping back from the collection of books.

"Thanks, sometimes it can get a bit boring here so I read a lot." The sergeant spoke, while moving to the small kitchenette. She got a glass from the cabinet and filled up the glass with water from the sink. The sound of the water entering the glass changed pitch as it was filled. She took the glass, and brought it to her lips, taking a long gulp, she then set the glass back down. "So what business do you have to attend to with her?"

"What? Oh, I have to check to make sure the F-35's and Arm slaves are aboard and in the correct order. As well as confirm and lock in the ICBMs. You?"

"Oh, well I just have to get my stuff squared away in my quarters, nothing that fancy. I also got to run some diagnostics on the M9's. Sousuke also needs too, hell he's probably already up in the hanger working on the Arbalest."

"But wait, aren't the hangers above ground?"

"Yep."

"So why do you need to go to the sub?"

"Oh, as I said to get stuff ready in my quarters, the M9s shouldn't be loaded until later tonight, so that will give us some time to make sure they're ready. Sometimes I have run-on thoughts. Heh."

"Oh, okay, well you ready to go yet?"

"Huh? Oh, okay." Taking a last swig from the glass, Laura set it in the sink and made her way to the door. Opening the door, the two were assaulted by construction noises coming from 200 yards or so down the corridor. The whole floor plan of the floor was in the shape of literally a gigantic "H" the construction would extend the legs of the "H" as well as add another two legs onto the original floor plan. So instead it would have 6 legs, and a central corridor connecting all of them. The engineers were also building an extra set of elevators, and would be ready by the time the crew quarters were finished.

Stepping outside behind Tessa, Laura pulled the door shut. The two made their way to the elevators, and pressed the "down" button. While their wait eight other crew members gathered around the elevators as well. They pressed the "up" button, and saluted at the captain and the sergeant. Both Tessa and Laura reacted in suit, and returned the gesture.

Chapter 3

"Alright let's run that simulation again, scenario 4 Alpha."

"Affirmative, running scenario four Alpha."

Sousuke sat back in his chair watching the laptop screen, as it displayed a green triangle and 4 red triangles. He was running automated battle sequences. Sometimes the arm slave has to be left unpiloted, and if that is the case the mech can go into automated defense, where if it sees any hostile forces it will engage and attempt to destroy it.

He was sitting in front of the kneeled Arbalest, with a small foldable table and chair setup. There were several multicolored cables running from the back of the mechs head to two small converter boxes which translated the commands of the computer into commands the mech's computer could understand. The computers on the mechs we're quite sophisticated, as current computers could not do what was required of the Arm slaves. Using "black technology" small super computers were developed using quantum mechanics. And the project engineers found that it was easier to code around the new system than it was to build a system around a current code. And the super computers are twenty times faster than current computers and only a tenth the size.

"Simulation over. Minor victory."

"Damage report."

"Class A damage sustained to life support system. Class A damage sustained to right knee joint. Class B damage sustained to right heel. Class B damage sustained to left shoulder joint. Class B damage sustained to radar system. Class C damage sustained to left elbow joint. Class C damage sustained to left leg muscle pack. Class C damage sustained to palladium reactor. Class C damage sustained to computer. Class C damage sustained to optical sensors."

"Hmmm. Replay the scenario twice the speed."

"Affirmative."

Sousuke watched the whole virtual battle unfold, from when the ARX-7 acquired targets to when the last enemy was destroyed. He analyzed the battle and began to give instructions to the computer.

"Adjust threat parameters overall. Engage only if targeted mech detects you. Give highest priority to threat with projectile weapons, further prioritize enemy with greatest muzzle velocity weapon. Adjust evasive parameters for evasive scenarios. Use threat vectors to find primary and secondary defensive points. If no secondary defensive point is found, use primary, and search for secondary, if secondary still cannot be found destroy target. Once destroyed find new defensive point. Adjust assault parameters. Increase shot spacing if using assault rifle of any type, to a minimum of point zero five and maximum of one second apart. If using sniper rifle of any type, increase shot spacing to a minimum of one second apart to ten seconds apart, aim for the chest. If using sub machine gun of any type, decrease shot spacing from a minimum of continuous to a maximum of one second."

"Roger, changing parameters."

"Rerun simulation again."

"Roger re-running scenario four Alpha."

"Run at twice normal speed."

"Affirmative."

Sousuke watched the scenario unfold again. At the end, the computer spoke: "Simulation over, Clear victory."

"Damage report."

"Class B damage sustained to right knee joint, Class B damage sustained to left ankle joint. Class B damage sustained to head drive motor unit. Class C damage sustained to right arm muscle pack. Class C damage sustained to computer. Class C damage sustained to palladium reactor."

"Much better. Alright, that will do for now. Begin a full systems check."

"Affirmative, beginning full systems check. Time to completion: fifteen minutes twenty seconds."

"Show full report at end of check."

"Affirmative."

As Sousuke sat back in his chair, he sipped his coffee. He knew having coffee this early in the day isn't the best thing to do. However he hasn't been getting much sleep recently, as strange dreams had been keeping him up. As he put down his cup of coffee he heard footsteps behind one of the M9s.

"Hello?" Called out Sagara.

"Hey." He heard from behind the M9, he recognized it as sergeant Melissa Mao, part of the SRT, which he was also apart of. She was his superior. She was about Sousuke's height, with short black hair, some people thought her hair was dyed because it seemed to give a purplish sheen. She was around 29 years old, and was a M9 test pilot during the R&D stage of the M9's development in Mithril.

"What are you doing back there?"

"Just checking on my AS, making sure it's nice and clean. Gonna run a systems check soon. You?"

"Just running through some simulations, and running a systems check as well." Sousuke replied while taking another sip of his coffee.

"Huh you don't look to be much of a coffee drinker."

"Well I have not been getting enough sleep lately."

"Oh, what's been keeping ya up?" Mao said while walking over to Sousuke.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Oh com'on." She said while taking a folding chair and setting against the side of Sagara's table.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Ok, ok." She said while moving the rest of the diagnostic equipment onto the table.

"There isn't much room left on the table."

"I know I'm getting another table. Keep your panties on."

Sousuke watched as she walked over to a supply room attached to the hanger, and took out a folding card table. Carrying it with her right hand she was slightly tilted to the left. She walked back over, her combat boots making a "clunk" sound with each step. She set the table down and proceeded to unfold the legs. Giving each a tap with the palm of her hand to lock it in place, then flipped it over and set it down. Leaving about a foot gap between the two tables Mao began to place her equipment on the table, her laptop, two converter boxes, cables, and various other things. Glancing back at the laptop, the screen showed that the Arbalest was fourteen percent done with its scan.

"Wow yours takes quite a bit longer than the regular M9's do." Commented Mao, while eyeing the sergeant's computer screen.

"Correct, because of the complexity of the AI in the Arbalest it does take quite a large amount of time to complete the diagnostics."

"Figured that. What else are you going to do?"

"In regards to the Arbalest? Well probably field test it before loading onto the sub."

Raising an eyebrow, "Hmm want to have a skirmish?"

"I wouldn't mind." Answered Sousuke, while taking another sip of the black substance that passed for coffee in his mug.

"Alright well how bout 18:00 hours, at the twin peaks."

"That sounds fine. Paint bullets?"

"Yep, any gun you like."

"Alright, I look forward to it."

Mao flipped up the laptop screen and pressed the power button. A soft beep came from the machine as it started up. She also began setting up the converter boxes linking several cables and a ribbon cable from one to the other. She waited a minute as the laptop came to the login screen. Typing in her password she let the computer load, she stood up and took a spooled up cable from the table. Plugging in the 3 individual plugs she unrolled the cable while walking backwards. Getting to the M9 she stopped unrolled the rest of the cable and grabbing the other end by her teeth.

"Ther has tu be a easier wey." She commented while climbing up the hand and arm of the M9. She got to the cockpit and got in. Finding the 3 ports on the right side of the lower screen, she plugged in each of them making sure they clicked into place. Giving each a tug, to confirm they were indeed secure, she started the computer.

"Initializing voice print check, your name, rank and id number." Said a female voice, from the computer.

"Melissa Mao, sergeant, alpha, two, three, eight, one." Replied Mao.

"Confirmed sergeant Melissa Mao. Booting up computer 20 seconds remaining."

Waiting until the machine's computer had finished starting up. She spoke "Enter diagnostics mode. External"

"Affirmative, entering diagnostics mode, external."

All of the screens displayed: "DIAGNOSTICS - EXTERNAL MODE" the Arm Slave can run in both external and internal diagnostics modes, but in internal, it is quite a bit slower, as well as not being as in depth as the external mode. Melissa climbed out of the cockpit and slid down the arm of the M9. Reaching her laptop she plugged two cables into her laptop and powered up the two converter modules. She pulled up the diagnostics program from the desktop and clicked "Connect" in the program. The program showed the connection was good and a new screen came up.

She spoke to the computer. "Begin full systems diagnostics. Show report at end of check."

"Affirmative. Beginning full systems check. Time to completion 10 minutes, 10 seconds. Show systems report at end of check, affirmative."

Watching the computer Mao tapped her arm. She then remembered and pulled out a manila envelope containing various reports. She began filling them out and handed Sousuke a pile. "Here, fill these out. They're for the diagnostics check."

He stared at the pile of papers. "Roger."

Both sat in silence for a few minutes as they filled out general information on the forms such as, date, time, rank, serial number, and a host of other stuff. Then Sagara got to the bottom of the pile and found a different set of papers. "What are these for? They're not part of the diagnostics paperwork."

"Damn you caught me. I thought I'd sneak em in."

"If you need help sergeant I'll do them."

"No need, besides you don't even know what to fill out on them anyways."

Sagara looked at the form and indeed found himself lost. Handing them back he pulled out a text book and a notebook. Opened each and began reading: The History of Feudal Japan.

"Homework I see. How are your classes going?"

"Alright, I have a leave of absence for this tour but I will have to take the test on the sub. It will be monitored though."

"Wow they're really cutting corners for you. I'm happy I don't have to do that though."

"I want at least some education, as I really didn't have much of one while I was a mercenary."

"Technically you still are one." Spoke Mao, while filling out a series of boxes on a form dealing with the battle readiness of the M9s.

"True."

Sousuke's computer spoke "Main systems diagnostic completed, beginning Lambda driver diagnostics. Estimated time remaining 5 minutes 39 seconds."

Taking another sip of his coffee he began filling out more of the paperwork required for the report of the diagnostics of a M9, which was about 10 pages worth of forms, half of which didn't really matter. Watching his computer he saw each sub system of the Lambda driver being checked and rechecked. Glancing at Mao's computer he saw she had about 5 minutes left. Indeed it was faster, but not by much. As the ARX-7 had to check its Lambda driver, and a normal M9 didn't. He saw on her screen, each system and sub subsystem being checked, Palladium reactor, reactor controls, reactor monitors… ECS, ECS control computer, ECS emitters, ECS servos… Drive systems, optical sensors, tactile sonar, and a slew of other systems.

Finishing her paperwork Melissa opened up the automated interaction program, and began typing commands into the computer.

"What are you doing?" Inquired Sousuke, between his readings.

"Oh you know that little snafu with the M9s and the tango."

"Yes I believe you got docked a couple paychecks because if it."

"… Yeah. Well I think I figured out what was wrong and I'm going back and fixing the errors. I'll test it later today before the skirmish."

"I wouldn't advise that. Considering you might damage one of the M9's and we would be short one."

"Ha I doubt it. I'm quite sure I nailed the problem down. Besides we have a couple extra on base."

"True but they're not configured yet."

"Yeah, guess your right. I guess it can wait. I'll just have to run simulations for now. Psh, what a drag."

Mao went back to typing. The computer spoke, "Full systems check completed. Displaying full systems report."

Mao minimized the program she was working on, and opened up the diagnostics program. On the screen the full systems report was displayed, each system and subsystem was shown in a column while the status and subsequent problem was displayed. She clicked the tab for the drive systems and scrolled through them.

"Hmm those damn muscle packs deteriorate too fast, even when they're not in use." Commented Mao, while writing down the affected muscle packs in the report. She also jotted down a couple joints which needed to be checked. Clicking on the computer systems tab, she saw everything was in good order, looking through the rest there were a couple things that needed to be looked at. But other than those her Arm Slave was in good working order.

"Full systems check completed. Displaying full systems report." Sousuke's computer said in a monotone voice.

Looking through the list, he saw the Lambda driver needed some repairs on its cooling fins, and a couple other minimal fixes. He wrote them down in his report as well.

"Looks like yours is in pretty good working order. They got to replace some of these damn muscle packs. They keep degrading while the M9 is in storage." Spoke Mao while leaning over to her right to read his screen.

"Roger, mine also need some replacing. The Research section seems to have come up with a new muscle pack that doesn't degrade as much as these current ones."

"Thad be nice."

Filling out the rest of his paper work Sousuke plugged in a thumb drive into his computer, and saved a copy of the report. Unplugging it, he put it all into a manila envelope. "I'm going to go give these to maintenance do you want me to run yours over there too?"

"Yeah sure. Give me a second." Said Mao while going through the same motions. She handed the envelope off to Sousuke.

She watched him walk off and resumed typing the commands into the automated interaction program for the Tango.

He rounded the corner and went outside. The sun pierced his eyes until they adjusted to the light. It was warm, he did enjoy the sun, especially when he found time to go fishing. Walking across the base he made his way to above ground facility, and went to the maintenance office.

"Hello." Spoke the secretary a soldier in his early 30s.

"Hello, I'm here to submit the maintenance reports." Replied Sousuke, handing the secretary the two folders. "One is for the ARX-7 the other is for Sergeant Mao's M9."

"Alright, thanks."

"Your welcome. Oh, when do you expect to be able to repair the Arm slaves?"

"Well the whole maintenance department is currently working on the F-35s so they can be loaded on to the sub. When do you need it done by?"

Looking at his watch Sousuke replied: "Sergeant Mao and myself were going to have a skirmish at 18:00. So 16:30 if possible."

"Well currently its 14:00." Replied the secretary while looking at the clock. "I can probably get a team to fix em up by then. I'll call you and Sergeant Mao when they start work and get done."

"That will work, thank you. I'll pass on the information to the sergeant."

"No problem, and good luck out there too."

"Thanks." Sousuke said while turning around. He walked out the door and proceeded to return to the hanger. "Sergeant."

"Ya, whadya want?" Inquired Mao, not looking away from her computer screen.

"I got done talking with the maintenance department. Currently all their teams are working on the F-35s and getting them ready for loading. They say they can have the Arm slaves done by 16:30, they'll call both of us when they start and finish the work."

"Cool." She responded. Looking up from the computer screen. "You think they'll have to do anything to them after our skirmish?"

"Except for cleaning off the paint? I don't think so. They won't be loaded until midnight tonight anyways. They should have time to get any additional repairs done by then."

"Eh I guess your right." She tapped the keyboard closed the laptop. Turning off the converter boxes, she unplugged the cables. "So what you going to do till then?"
"Well, I have to go to the submarine and get things transferred from my quarters to the submarine, you?" Replied Sousuke while folding up his chair and putting away his laptop.

"Somewhat the same. I gotta grab something to eat first, I haven't eaten today yet, wanna join."

"I guess so. I ate breakfast, but I didn't eat too much."

"Alright then, meet me at my quarters in thirty minutes."

"Alright."

Chapter 4

"Ma'am." Said the chief engineer, a portly 5 foot 7 inch tall man, vaguely resembling Santa Clause in a grey jumpsuit. "The loading check for the F-35s are complete. One had a bad fuel gauge the other needed navigation lights replaced, but other than that the other six are fine."

"Very good." Replied Tessa, turning to Laura who she had walked in to the submarine pen with. "Hey, you go on, I got some business to take care of here."

"Alright, see you later." Responded Laura, as she moved off towards the entrance ramp to the submarine.

Turning back to face the plump man in the jump suit. "Begin the loading of the fighters into the hanger. Has the hull been fully checked yet?"

"Understood, and no ma'am, we're about seventy percent done with it. So far we haven't found any cracks."

"Mmm that's good news I'm sure she'll be just fine." Chirped Tessa while looking at the submarine. At 218 meters it was a huge, over three times longer than a normal Los Angeles class submarine. But it didn't look like a normal submarine, as it was wider than it was tall, looking more like a flattened bullet. Towards the rear of the vessel there were two large lateral fins extending down at an angle from the left and right of the boat, which were hydro fins to make the boat rise or sink. The stern of the vessel widened to accommodate the abnormal propulsion system that was used, which was a near silent propulsion system, in addition to normal screws. Also on the top of the vessel there was a large hump which housed the bridge of the sub.

Its upper hull also separates to reveal a small flight deck for launching the F-35, helicopters, and M9s from.

"Have the VLT tubes been loaded yet?" Added Tessa while signing a clipboard full of papers.

"Yes, currently tubes one through six are loaded with tomahawks, seven and eight have harpoons, and tubes nine and ten are currently loaded with ASROCs."

"Good. How about the two SLBM tubes?"

"Both are currently loaded with M9 canisters."

"I guess that works. Load two Trident missiles into storage."

"Understood."

"And the torpedo tubes?" Inquired the captain while still signing the same stack of papers.

"Tubes one through four are loaded with Mark 48s the other two are loaded with Mark 50s"

"Stores?"

"Ten Mark 48s, ditto on the Mark 48 ADCAPs and five Mark 50s."

"Good."

"What about the rail gun?" Said Tessa while moving towards the loading plank. The dock was about 500 yards wide by 800 yards long by two stories high, with two large cranes suspended on the ceiling of the gigantic room.

"We have successfully installed the rail gun, and have a chance to test fire it. However because of the amount of power it draws we can't to use the ECM masts while the rail gun is in use. We basically have to shut down the rest of the sub except for vital systems to get the rail gun to reach its full range."

"Hmm, even if we push both reactors over one hundred percent?"

"Yes ma'am, we tried it already, we were able to force both reactors to one hundred and fifteen percent, and we were only able to get about a quarter of maximum range on the rail gun with the ECM masts raised. We can wait for the capacitor banks to charge, however that would take several minutes to fire one round."

"That doesn't help, if we need to give rapid fire support we won't be able to stay hidden from radar." Said Tessa, giving a worried look at the submarine.

"I agree. But right now there's nothing that we can do about it. We have drawn up plans to install another reactor but that would take a lot of time, and even then it would only push the range to about three quarters of maximum with masts raised." Responded the portly grey haired man, while tapping his pen on the side of his leg. A second later his cell phone went off. "Excuse me, I have to take this."

"Oh, certainly, actually I must be going, can you get the plans of adding the third reactor on my desk before we launch?"

Holding his hand over the cell phone, the maintenance chief responded. "Oh, not a problem."

"Thanks." Said Tessa as she walked off.

"I was talking to the captain, what you want?" Spoke the chief into his phone.

"Oh, sorry for interrupting, but I had a request to get some R&M done on a couple Arm Slaves." Responded the voice on the other end of the line, he recognized it as the secretary of his department.

"Christ don't they know we have enough things to do right now. What they want done?"

"Um… Well it looks like they need some muscle packs replaced, and on the Arbalest needs its Lambda driver's cooling fins replaced, specifically fins two and four."

"Huh the muscle packs don't seem to be all that much of a problem, well I guess I can pull a couple teams off." Said the maintenance chief, while scanning the sub pen. "You can go ahead and call them. The teams should be over within twenty minutes."

"Yes sir." Said the secretary, followed by a click.

"Jeez." Sighed the chief. He spoke into his two way radio. "Anyone done with their assigned tasks yet?"

"Team two's about a minute from done." Squawked the small black object he was holding. "Team eight is done."

Holding the radio next to his mouth he spoke. "Alright well I want both teams to go to the hanger five once you're done. A couple ASes need to have their muscle packs replaced, as well as the Lambda driver's cooling fins on the Arbalest need replacing too. I'll send down the replacement fins, they should be there when you arrive. You'll get details on your PDA's"

"Understood. Yes sir" Replied the small radio.

He slid the radio back onto his belt and pulled out his cell phone. Pressed a couple buttons and waited. "Yes sir?" responded the secretary.

"I got teams two and eight on it. Send them the info onto their PDA's. Also send over the cooling fins from storage to hanger five as well."

"Understood. Anything else?"

"Nope."

"Alright"

"Okay. Later." And hung up the phone.

He walked to the loading ramp and made his way onto the flight deck of the submarine. And made his way to the elevator then pressed the button to move to the hanger below the flight deck. As he stepped out he could see the whole hanger deck was a buzz. Several of the fighter jets were being lowered from the lift, positioned and tied down. A large amount of storage crates were also being lowered from above decks.

The hanger of the submarine was quite large, as it could store twelve F-35s with their wings folded up, and six Arm Slaves with room to spare. He walked slowly towards one of the doors leading out of the hanger deck, when his phone went off. "Hello?"

"Drake, this is lieutenant commander Kalinin."

"Yes sir?" He responded while still walking.

"I need you and one of your teams to take a look at reactor two. Dana shows there is a problem with it."

"Understood. Anything else?"

"That will be all." Said Kalinin.

"Alright, I'll get on that."

"Be sure you do." Replied the phone, a click could be heard from the other side.

Un clipping his radio from his belt he spoke into it. "I need team ten over at engineering at the sub right now. Dana says there's a problem with reactor two."

Shortly after he released the button. "Roger that, we'll be there in five minutes."

"Alright see you there then." He clipped the radio back onto his belt and walked down the corridor, glancing at signs posted on the walls he made his way to the reactor room where team ten was already waiting with their equipment.

"Sir. We have the repair equipment, we need your access codes to open the reactor."

"Right, right." He said while palming the palm scanner.

"Please issue a command." Spoke the scanner in a female voice.

"Perform systems check. State all problems"

"Performing systems check." Responded the palm scanner, thirty seconds later the computer spoke again. "Systems check complete, problem in primary coolant pump loop, reactor two."

"Hmm." He spoke in a neutral tone, "Release pressure locks on reactor two."

"Warning: reactor two pressure locks will be released do you wish to continue?" Inquired the voice behind the palm scanner.

Slightly irritated the chief replied. "Yes"

"Please state name rank and id number." Spoke the computer.

"Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two"

"Confirmed as Drake Logans, pressure locks being released on reactor two.

Reactor shutting down, shut down sequence in process. Removing palladium rod cathodes, cathodes removed. Draining water, ten seconds until drain complete. Shutting down pumps, pumps shut down. Drain complete, decompression commencing, two minutes thirty seconds until decompression." A short while later, "decompression complete, shut down sequence complete."

"Release core section Alpha nine Yankee"

"Confirm release core section Alpha nine Yankee. Please state name rank and id number."

Letting out a sigh Drake said. "Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two."

"Confirmed, releasing core section Alpha nine Yankee. Releasing locks one through ten on core section… locks disengaged. Core section free."

"Alright lets see what's wrong here."

"Yes sir." Replied the lead mechanic for group ten, a tall dark haired sergeant. As he directed the rest of the people. They stuck a camera in and began examining the inside of the reactor. A minute later the technician monitoring the camera spoke. "Sir I think I've found the problem. If you look here, it seems that one of the rods had hit the primary coolant inlet and is restricting the flow."

"How in the hell did that happen?" asked Drake while looking at the monitor. "shit must have been when we pushed the reactors to one fifteen."

"Probably sir. So far that's the only thing I've found, just incase I think we should check the rods."

"Agreed." Said the chief, he then added "Dana, release locks on the cathode rods."

"Confirm release cathode rod locks. State name rank and id number"

"Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two."

"Confirmed, releasing cathode rod locks." Faint clicking noises could be heard from above the reactor. "Cathode rod locks released, releasing rod cabinet locks." Two distinct clicks could be heard. "Rod cabinet locks released."

"Anders, take a look at the rods inspect each carefully. Computer, release core section Delta eight Kilo."

"Confirm release core section Delta eight Kilo. Please state name rank and id number."

"Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two." Stated Drake, getting slightly pissed for having to repeat the same information every five seconds.

"Alright get that inlet replaced. Anders you found anything yet?" Asked Logans.

"Yeah I found the rod that hit the inlet, there's quite a large dent in the side."

"Alright get that replaced. Were there any other rods that were damaged?"

"Nope." Replied Anders while setting the rod down, and getting a replacement from the cart that they had brought in. They reinstalled the rod and double checked the twenty five others. The chief asked the other group of people fixing the inlet if they had finished or not.

"Almost done here." Replied one of the technicians.

"Hurry up."

A minute later they finished replacing the inlet and put the core piece back in. Anders closed the rod cabinet and the last core section was put back in place.

"Lock core section Alpha nine Yankee and Delta eight Kilo" said Drake while leaning against the wall.

"Confirm lock of core section Alpha nine Yankee and Delta eight Kilo. Please state name rank and id number."

"Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two."

"Confirmed locking core section Alpha nine Yankee and Delta eight Kilo. Engaging locks one through ten on core section Alpha nine Yankee." Faint clicking noises could be heard. "Section locked, locking core section Delta eight Kilo, section locked."

"Alright, lock and seal rod cabinet."

"Locking and sealing cabinet. Done."

"Lock cathode rods." Said Drake while watching the rest of the team cleanup.

"Locking cathode rods. Done."

"Alright engage pressure lock and refill core."

"Confirmed engaging pressure lock and refilling core. Refilling core with heavy water, thirty seconds remaining… core filled. Engaging pressure lock, pressure lock engaged. Pressurizing core, five minutes remaining." Spoke the computer.

"You guys go on. I got to stay here until this thing gets done."

"Alright, well see ya later sir."

"Yep." Said Drake while moving to a control panel to watch the pressurization process.

A few minutes later the computer spoke. "Pressurization complete, performing systems check. Systems check complete. Performing sub systems check. Sub systems check complete. Restarting. Please state name rank and id number to complete core pressurization."

"Drake Logans, lieutenant, delta eight four nine two." Spoke Drake, letting out a sigh, he mumbled, "damn it, why don't they just make key cards or something."

Chapter 5

An "umph" could be heard from Locke as she set down the duffel bag in her quarters on the submarine. She unzipped the bag and put her clothes away, into the drawers under the bed, and the closet at the foot of the bed. The crew quarters on the submarine were pretty large for a sub. It was about eight feet wide, by twelve feet long, and had two beds lofted one on top of another, with two drawers beneath the lower bed, and two closets, at the foot of the beds. There was also a small area opposite of the beds, which had two small desks, with electrical and networking outlets. The sub did actually have internet, usually by satellite when operating around 300 feet or shallower. After that, the only data transfer was via a VLF or ULF wire. The wire couldn't carry much information, so thus there was no internet to be had once the sub was under 300 feet. Laura removed her laptop from the bag and set it down on one of the desks. After hooking it up, she put away the rest of her clothes, and her shampoo, toothbrush, and the like away. She heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." She replied to the knock.

"Hey ya." Spoke Sergeant Kurtz Webber, about 5' 10" with blond hair and blue eyes, he was another M9 pilot.

"Hi. How's it going?"

"Oh pretty good, getting moved in I see. You want to get some grub at the cafeteria?"

"I just finished unpacking actually. And I am sort of hungry now that you mention it." Locke replied while shoving the duffle bag into an unused drawer.

"Alright well let me drop some stuff off at my quarters, I'll meet ya at the main entrance to the pen."

"Sure."

The cafeteria was fairly quiet as the lunch rush had gone back to work. Sagara and Mao were seated at one of the octagon tables in the far end of the room. Mao had parmesan chicken, with some veggies; Sagara had some sort of baked fish, with the same side dish. "So," said Mao while taking a bite out of her chicken. "How goes the reading?" Motioning to the book he had in front of him.

"Fine, I've been studying for my history test." Replied Sousuke while cutting the fish with his fork.

"So what's the deal with Chidori?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's still at school right?"

"Yes, back in Tokyo." Responded Sagara while turning a page in his text book.

"Does she care at all that you're still over here?"

"Well she doesn't exactly prefer it if that's what you mean."

"Figures. Are you two going out?" Melissa asked while stabbing some broccoli with her fork.

"Um, what exactly do you mean?"

"Well, what I mean is, are you two dating, you know, movies dinners, stuff like that."

"Not exactly, as I have not had much time to spend in Tokyo. After this tour however the captain said that I would be able to go back indefinitely, I may be called back for an operation from time to time." Sagara responded, and took a bite of his fish.

"That seems pretty reasonable, I guess."

"Considering I am the only one that can operate the Arbalest."

"True, and we are going up against other Arm Slaves which have a Lambda drive."

"Affirmative."

As Sousuke took a sip of his coffee Sergeant Webber sat down next to him.

"Yo. How's it going?" Kurtz said as he grabbed a roll and took a bite of it.

"Alright, I guess." Sagara responded, having Kurtz sit down next to him without him noticing unnerved him a bit.

"Yeah, we're going to have a skirmish at 18:00." Mao said while gesturing to Sousuke with her fork.

"Oooh, that aught to be fun, can I watch?" Kurtz said with a mouth full of bread.

"I don't see why not, if a stray paint bullet hits you though…"

"I'll be in my M9. I gotta give it a stretch before storing it anyways."

"Ok. Just don't get in my way."

"I won't." Kurtz responded.

"Hey." The voice came from behind Kurtz

"Hey Laura, how's it going?" Mao said while looking up from her food.

"Alright, I just finished unpacking on the sub. How bout you?"

"I finished this morning. Been working on the maintenance on the M9s most of the morning."

"Fun. I did mine a couple days before. Hey Kurtz you wanna have a skirmish?" Said Locke while poking at the food on the tray, she didn't seem too enthusiastic about eating it.

"Sure… I'll probably get you from a couple miles away, so I doubt it would be very exciting."

"Oh I'll make it exciting."

"Uh huh…."

"Yup."

Sousuke's phone buzzed as he shifted his weight. He grabbed the phone from his pant's pocket, and flipped it open. "Looks like they've started repairing the Arm Slaves." He said while reading the small text displayed on the screen.

"That's good. Hey, Laura I forgot to ask earlier, how is the painting going."

Taking a bite of the toast she got "Pretty good, though it is kind of hard to get oil paints here on base. And I've run out of a couple colors."

"Well hopefully after this mission we'll get some R&R."

"Yeah."

"I must be going, as I need to move on board." Said Sousuke while getting up from his chair.

"Alright, see you at 18:00, don't be late."

"Affirmative."

Chapter 6

"Please state name, rank, ID number."

"Sagara Sousuke, sergeant, delta one five two eight."

"Id confirmed, state bi-lateral angle."

"3.5, close hatch."

"Bi-lateral angle confirmed, closing hatch." Replied the computer.

Sousuke's ears popped as the hatch was sealed and pressurized. He tested the harness he was in, snug. Good.

"Diagnostics main screen."

"Roger." The main screen showed progress bars, as each system was tested and brought on line. Radar, leg drive systems, optics, arm drive systems, thermal sensors, encryption locks…

"Begin cold fusion power-up."

"Roger. Begninning cold fusion reactor start sequence. Starting reactor one, five minutes until full power." Announced the computer.

He watched as the lower screen displayed the progress of the reactor start up. Fifteen percent.

"Unlock joints."

"Joints unlocked, master-slave system engaged, bi-lateral angle 3.5"

He looked at the clock 17:54. Glancing at the bottom screen, thirty percent.

"Engage optics, main screen."

"Confirmed, optics activated." The main screen switched to the switch to what the Arblest saw, the start up sequence was pushed into the right window.

45, 17:55.

He pushed the pedals down and stood up inside the cockpit. He felt the Armslave move him as it stood up. He brought the right pedal up forward and down, then the same with the left, as he began walking toward the training field.

55, 17:57.

"Warning, reactor not at full power, system functions will be severely limited."

"I know, shut it."

70, 17:58.

"Main system startup complete."

He turned his right joystick around and moved his arm out and down. A click could be heard as the weapons clip on the back the Armslave released the boxer gun. He squeezed down on the joystick and caught the gun. Bringing his arm back around, he chambered a round into the cannon.

90, 17:59.

"Optics full range. Radar standy, thermal sensors warm-up." He looked around, too quiet…

100, 18:00.

He instinctively pushed down on both pedals. Hard.

As he launched into the air the ground underneath him was turned bright pink. He saw the trajectory and turned. "Thermal on." The screen immediately turned shades of blue and green, a red blob could be seen within the trees. He raised the joystick and squeezed the trigger. A 40 mm paint bullet left the barrel and raced towards the red blob. The red blob moved. He realized he was coming down from his high jump, as the Arbalest's right leg touched the ground, he made it kick off sending it into a roll.

He came out of the roll and ducked into the forest. Scanning with his eyes, he couldn't find the red blob again. "Radar on."

He took the chance to chamber a new round into the gun. Seven rounds left.

"Warning, threat eight o'clock 600 meters and closing, designated as Sierra one ." The lower screen turned to a virtual display of the battle field, The threat was shown as a red box with a threat circle, while the Arbalest was shown as a white box with a threat circle.

"Identify threat Sierra one." He said instinctively, though he already knew who it was.

"Identifying... identified Sierra one as a M-9 Gernsback." The red box displayed a "M-9" next to it as it moved around the screen.

He spun the Arbalest around, bringing his boxer shot cannon to bear on the target, but it was gone.

"What the hell…" He looked down at the radar screen, it was gone from there too. He began running. Paint bullets began ripping through the trees breaking branches around him. Damn it she must be using her jamming pod.

"Increase radar power to 110 percent, scan for jamming frequency."

"Acknowledged. Scanning for jamming frequency."

He jumped, sending him above the trees. There. The red blob, he fired another round, pumped in a new round, and fired again. Five rounds. He dropped back into the trees, and kept running.

"Jamming frequency found, 588 megahertz, rotating at five hertz per second." Announced the computer.

"Good, set radar to 588 megahertz. Increase frequency by twenty five hertz every five seconds." He knew the jamming pod could rotate frequency much faster than the radar could, but he could try and keep up.

"Acknowledged. Threat found Sierra one, at 5 o'clock 1000 yards." Stated the computer in a neutral tone.

He knew that the radar contact would be intermittent as after 3 seconds the frequency would be far enough off to interfere with the radar. He couldn't let on that he was able to see through the jammer. He changed direction only slightly.

Hmmm where is he… it's 17:59 he's never late. Thought Mao, as she crouched behind a dense clump of trees, she had equipped two pistols with reserve magazines. She liked to be mobile, and knew what Sousuke would carry. 18:00.

"There he is. Warm up the jammer." She said while pushing a small button on the right joystick.

"Affirmative, jammer warming up." Responded the computer.

She raised both joysticks bringing them up to chest level of the Arbalest and fired. The Arbalest jumped right as the first bullets left the muzzles. The paint hit the ground where it was standing.

"Shit he's got wits." She saw the Arbalest go air borne and saw it bring it's boxer shot cannon to bear on her. Shit. It fired. She immediately fled and ducked into the forest. It doesn't have its radar activated yet, he must be using thermal.

"Sierra one's radar has been activated." Reported the computer.

Time to turn on the music. She thought. "Activate jamming pod, rotate at five hertz per second." She said while tracking him, he was about 800 yards in front of her.

"Negative, jamming pod not warmed up. Five seconds until activation."

"Damn it." She crouched low, behind a dirt mound waiting for the stupid pod to power up.

"Jamming pod activated, at 588 megahertz five hertz per second rotation."

"Finally…" She began moving up through the trees. He began running. She pushed harder on the pedals, trying to close the distance, and fired several rounds hoping for them to hit. She saw him go air borne and rotate to face her, two shots came out of the shotgun. Shit! She ran and skirted beneath a large rock formation as the paint splattered behind her.

She shifted positions creeping over the rocks. Did he break the jamming?

"Al begin ECM power up, increase reactor to 125 percent. Set reactor temperature alarm at 2500 Kelvins." He checked the radar, she hasn't moved, it's been three seconds. Radar's probably too far out of phase…

"Acknowledged. Beginning ECM power up, Warning: must be stationary for ECM to activate. Increasing reactor output to 125 percent. Setting temperature alarm for reactor one to 2500 Kelvins." Confirmed the computer.

In the corner of the lower screen a "recalibrating" flashed as the frequency was changed. Melissa's position was updated, she was chasing him, about 800 yards back. He was nearing the southern tip of the island, maybe another ten seconds…

"ECM ready." Announced the computer.

He ducked under a dry creek bed. "Activate ECM." A humming could be heard as the ECM emitters were deployed. A buzzing then replaced the humming as the emitters were powered up.

"ECM activated."

"Deactivate radar." With the ECM he was completely cloaked against radar unless the radar was less than fifty yards from him. He glanced at the top screen, and tabbed to the power consumption screen, he was drawing on reserve battery, as the ECM emitters used a tremendous amount of energy. The reactor temperature was nearing critical, at 1800 Kelvin and rising. As he was too low to see above the creek bed he lifted his head above the creek bed and waited, he wasn't worried about giving his location away as the heat generating portion was below the horizon and the ECM cloaked the whole Armslave.

"Boost thermal gain." The screen immediately switched to a black and white thermal picture of the surroundings. However the surroundings were almost indefinable being blacks and dark grays a faint light grey spot could be seen, he moved the cursor over the light spot.

"Distance."

"200 yards." Reported the computer.

"Normal thermal gain." He moved down the creek bed, slowly as not to kick up dust, putting distance between him and Mao. As she came over the ridge he rolled up and over the edge of the creek bed and crept into the forest as quiet as a ten ton Armslave could. 2000 degrees Kelvin.

She ran towards the last place that the radar tracked Sousuke to. She knew that he ducked behind a dry river bed so the radar wasn't able to pick him up. She held both pistols ahead of her as she walked, sweeping her vision from right to left. She crept closer. "Thermal on." Maybe he activated the ECM… The screen flipped to a color representation of color, the trees were shades of blue, and green. While the ground was a green/yellow color. The thermal only sensed surface temperature not air temperature, so if something were to be hiding behind it could go undetected.

She pushed off with both feet and hurtled into the air clearing the creek bed by about four stories. She looked down, nothing. To the right, then left. Nothing. What the….. I swear he didn't go far, he couldn't have gone far. She landed on the other side and turned around. Then she saw the orange streak running along the opposite wall of the creek. It was a good 100 degrees hotter than the surrounding dirt. That has to be his exhaust, but that's way to hot, unless he's pushing the reactor. Normally the exhaust from the M9's is practically undetectable. The orange was fading to shades of yellow and green as the ground cooled, she quickly followed the fading orange blaze on her screen.

"Warning Sierra one detected 20 yards 2 o'clock."

"Holy shit!" She yelled, as she shifted her weight to her back leg, skidded to a stop and brought up her pistols.

2200 degrees Kelvin.

He watched the lower screen as she bounded across the creek and turned around. It looked as if she was staring at a point on the creek wall. Shit! The exhaust! The reactor was way above normal operating temperatures, and though it was designed to take such high temperatures, the exhaust system couldn't keep up with it. If he was seen by the thermal sensors it would be like looking at the sun. She began jogging along following the heat trail.

"Al, on my mark drop ECM to fifty percent electromagnetic spectrum only. And drop reactor output to ninety percent." He said as he backed up against a cluster of trees.

"Confirmed, drop ECM to fifty percent, electromagnetic spectrum only, drop reactor output to ninety percent on you mark."

He reasoned the ECM would protect him from Mao's radar, but dropping the visual spectrum, the AI would immediately pick him up, at least that's what he hoped. He watched as Mao jogged along the creek. 150 yards… 100 yards, 50 yards.

"Mark."

"Confirmed."

She dropped one of her pistols as she steadied her balance. There was a bright white blob in the middle of her screen, she fired. Once, twice, three, four. The white that was hit immediately turned to splotches of blue. Sagara wasn't there. She hit some pine trees.

"Shit!" She realized the pistol she was holding was empty. She released the spent magazine. It crashed to the ground. She released another magazine from the Armslave. She inserted the magazine. Pressed the slide release. A new round was chambered into the barrel.

As the Armslave came out of partial cloak, he jumped over Mao into the other trees on the other side of the bank, and turned to face her. He had the oversized SPAZ-12 trained on her.

"Drop ECM."

"Confirmed."

"Warning Sierra 1 fifty yards 6 o'clock."

"Damn. Turn on radio, skirmish frequency."

"Confirmed, Open."

"Why didn't you shoot?"

"It was not necessary." A slight bit of interference could be heard over the radio.

"Oh?" She said. Putting the pistol she had back into the weapons clip on her back. She picked up the one she dropped, and did the same.

"Yes, I could have killed you in several different ways. I just chose this one. If you want I can shoot you."

"No, that's all right, there is no need to dirty up the Armslaves anymore than needed." She pressed a small button on the joystick. "Status: Normal."

"Confirmed, resetting to normal operation level." Confirmed the computer

"Alright. We should return to base." Sousuke sounded slightly winded.

"Agreed, but let's see how the other two fared."

"Alright."

They walked over to the other skirmish ground. There were four different skirmish grounds on the island. Larger scale skirmishes could be held by combining all the fields.

"Amplify audio." Spoke Sagara as they neared the skirmish ground. The sounds of the island could be heard. He stopped, Mao stopped beside him. He listened for the sounds of the other Armslaves. A faint "thud, thud, thud" could be heard along with crunching of trees.

"Sounds like they're still going at it." Said Mao.

"Affirmative, I think we should wait by the staging area."

"Mmmm, hold on." She spoke, then pressed the button to issue commands to the computer. "Computer, Radio on, skirmish frequency four."

"Confirmed… Access denied, frequency has been locked."

"Hmm. Override lock."

"State name rank and ID number."

"Melissa Mao, sergeant, alpha, two, three, eight, one."

"Confirmed, connected."

"Relay radio to sergeant Sagara."

"Confirmed."

"Transmit to skirmish frequency two only."

"Confirmed."

"You getting it Sousuke?"

"Yes."

"Good. Let's go."

"Alright.'

They slowly walked towards the staging area. Listening to the near silent radio. As they made it to the staging area, they "parked" their Armslaves into a kneeled position and waited.

"I'm going to get out of this thing." Commented Mao. "It's getting kind of stuffy in here."

"Alright. However I would have to disagree, fresh air is circulated through the cockpit continuo-"

"Shut it. I just want to get out." She said, she then pressed the button to issue commands to the computer. "Release hatch."

"Confirmed." Replied the computer.

Her ears popped as the cockpit lost its slight compression, a hissing could be heard as the air escaped from the cockpit. She waited as the chest plate retracted. She withdrew her arms from the harness and grabbed at a handhold above her head and pulled up, pulling her legs out of the lower harness. After climbing over the rest of the harness she sat down on the shoulder of the sitting Arm slave. "Computer, audio on."

"Confirmed." Could be heard from the speakers within the cockpit. The radio frequency that she had tapped into could be heard.

She reached up and pulled the helm off of her head. Her purple/black hair rose and fell as she removed the helm. She sat with her legs tucked up in front of her, and sat the helm between her butt and feet. She tugged slightly at her suit trying to release some of the tightness on it. She looked out to the right and could see the ocean, the sun was setting, shades of orange and red could be seen near the horizon. Hues of green, blue, and purple extended from the sun to the other edge of the horizon. A slight breeze picked up. That feels good. She ran her fingers through her hair trying to cool herself.

She heard the hiss of Sousuke's cockpit decompressing, and saw him climb out of the inside of the Armslave. "I thought you said that the cockpit continuously got fresh air. Hmm?" She said, slightly sarcastically.

"I was starting to get a cramp in my leg." He responded, sitting down on the edge of the chest plate of the Armslave.

"Right… It is quite nice out you gotta admit."

"Affirmative, the weather is very favorable for outside activities."

They both could hear the radio frequency coming from Mao's Armslave. They heard Laura's voice over the radio. "Haha, I got ya!"

"Yeah yeah… You got lucky. I should of had you so bad." Said Webber, panting.

"Yeah, you did pretty well far off, but once we got close. You got dead." Said Locke as she chuckled.

"Psh. I gotta admit, you're quick."

"Thanks, you're a pretty good shot I guess, I had several close calls."

Mao got back in her Armslave, Sosuke followed suit. "Finally done eh?" Spoke Mao as she waited for the chest plate to extend.

"Oh hey Mao, yeah I guess we are. Didn't I lock this channel?" Responded Kurtz, the sounds of him walking could be heard through the radio.

"Yeah, but I overrode the lock. You should know that. Besides what do you have to hide? You two doing the lovey lovey?"

"Haha, don't give him THAT much credit." Interjected Locke. "He just didn't want the sounds of his ass getting handed to him to be publicly heard.

"Haha. Nice one Laura, though both of you are wrong. I just didn't want the enemy to pick up on my secrete moves." Spoke Kurtz.

"Bwahaha that is the most BS I've ever heard from you Webber!" Mao exclaimed.

"Whatever babe, it's the truth." Chuckled Kurtz.

"Yeah whatever, just get your ass back to the staging area."

"Yes ma'am…"

As Sousuke and Mao waited for the other two skirmishers to return, Mao watched the sun set over the porcelain blue ocean, it reminded her of home. She could still smell the ocean and palm trees, as she sat on the wooden bench off of the board walk. She could still remember the hotdog vender off in the distance, the people rollerblading and walking behind her…

"Ready?" Sousuke's voice came over the radio.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Chapter 7

It was early evening as Mao and Sagara sat on a bench overlooking the ocean. The sun was just peaking over the horizon as it set. Earlier that day they were working on the paperwork needed to place the Armslaves onboard the submarine. They needed a rest.

"Sheesh I thought today was going to be a bit less boring." Sighed Mao.

"I'd have to agree, it was quite the annoyance." Sousuke said while bringing up the iced tea he had brought up to his lips. He took a sip and returned it to his lap. "I wish I could go fishing right now." He added.

"You should of gone earlier today."

"The fish aren't as lively as they are in the evenings."

"I guess that makes sense, but we always launch at night."

"Affirmative."

He took another sip of his iced tea. Mao's PDA vibrated. He looked over as she took it out and read the text message on it. "Looks like we hafta go. They're getting ready to launch." Said Mao, grunting slightly as she got up.

Sagara got up without a word. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, leaving a fading orange flame as the midnight blue of the evening extinguished it.

The whole crew of the sub lined up in front of the submarine near the loading plank. "ATTENTION! Captain on deck!" Said the Lieutenant Colonel.

All 150 crew members became ridged and saluted as the Captain walked onto the loading dock. The click of her high heels resonated through the submarine pen as she walked in of her crew. The pen was quiet except for the humming of the lights and electrical systems feeding the submarine.

"Begin roll call." Commanded Tessa.

"Yes Ma'am." Responded Richard Mardukas the Executive Officer.

Mardukas began reading off the list of crew members, as each name was called the person would step forward and say "Here." And step back into formation. Fifteen minutes later the roll call was finished, the Capitan stepped forward and addressed the crew.

"This tour will be approximately one month long. We will be traveling to the southeast coast of China. Intelligence has been observing them and has reason to believe that within the next month northern china will mount an offensive against the south. We will be on station during that period as backup, we will have friendlies operating within the area, we will be the only Mithril presence in the operational area."

She stepped back into the ranking officer's line.

"Dismissed." Said the XO. The crew began filing onboard the submarine.

"Have the pre-launch checks been made?" Tessa asked the XO.

"Yes ma'am, we can begin launching procedures within 20 minutes."

"Good." She began walking toward the loading ramp.

"Begin pre-launch sequence." Said Tessa, almost as if from memory.

"Begin pre-launch sequence aye ma'am." Responded the XO. "Start reactors one and two."

The bridge of the submarine consisted of nine stations, making a horse shoe shape around the commanders chair. The space above had five huge displays, which displayed anything from weapons systems, to engineering systems, to situational maps and communication channels.

"Starting reactors one and two ten minutes until maximum power, five minutes until submarine is self sufficient." Replied the engineering crew chief.

"Fast charge MBT." Added Tessa.

"Fast charge the main ballast tanks, aye." Repeated Mardukas.

"Five minutes until 80 charge, ten minutes until 100 charge." Stated the operations chief.

"Have all sections ready for dive."

"Have all sections ready for dive, aye."

"Begin all seal checks."

"Check all seals, aye."

Three minutes later: "Comm, Ops, all sections report ready for dive." Announced the Operations chief while looking at the array of consoles in front of him. "Dana reports all seals are water tight."

"Dana, power status main screen." Said Tessa.

"Acknowledged." Replied Dana, the submarines AI. The middle screen changed from a situational map to three diagrams, one of each reactor and one of the external power. Both reactors were at 40, power drain was at three megawatts.

"Time until full MBT charge?" Inquired Tessa.

"Comm, Ops, six minutes until full MBT charge, one minute thirty seconds until 80 charge."

"Acknowledged, Weapons report full systems check."

"Weapons aye." Responded the weapons chief. "Full systems check in progress. ICBM-OK, SLBM tubes – OK, VLT – OK, Torpedo tubes – OK, Firing systems – OK Safety locks – OK, Rail gun systems – OK. " The same information including more subsystems were displayed in the screen above his station.

"Captain, Dana reports we can now run under our own power."

"Confirmed." Replied Tessa while looking at the weapons screen. "Disconnect from external source."

"Disconnect from external power source, aye." Repeated the XO. "Signal to dock to remove power coupling."

The lights dimmed then returned as the power was switched to the internal reactors. A click and pop could be heard as the main power coupling was disconnected.

"Dock confirms power coupling removal, the boat is free." Confirmed Operations.

"Begin EMFC system warmup." Said the Capitan.

"Begin EMFC system warmup, aye." Repeated the XO.

"Conn, Ops, three minutes until EMFC systems is available, cooling superconductive matrix."

"Man launches are boring." Commented Webber as he spun a pencil around his thumb.

"Oh shut your trap." Said Mao. "You could be stuck on base all the time."

"Hmm, I guess that would be a worse fate."

Melissa, Kurtz, and Sagara were hanging out in Mao's room. As AS pilots didn't really do much except for paper work on the submarine.

"Hey call up Locke, it's gettin' boring in here." Announced Kurtz.

"Christ, you're annoying." Said Mao while typing on her laptop.

Sousuke pulled out his PDA and tapped the numbers to call Locke. "Hey, Webber is bored, want to come down to Mao's room?"

Both looked at Sagara with a slight stunned look. Sousuke mouthed "What?" in response. They both just stared.

"Ok, I'll ask." He spoke into the device. Raising his hand over the microphone. "She'd like to come down, but she wants to bring a couple new people down too, she assumes that it would be a little tight in your quarters, so she recommends meeting at the dining hall. Is that Ok?"

"Um, sure." Said the other two occupants in the room.

Uncovering the microphone Sousuke spoke. "Alright, see you there… Bye. What's with the look?" Sousuke asked.

"Just that I've never thought that you would do that." Said Mao

"What it's just a phone call."

"I just never thought of you as the spontaneous one."

"Eh."

The three of them left the room and walked down the corridor towards the stairs. They were on the second level and needed to go to the fourth level. On the way they saw a few other crew members, the submarine didn't have more than 150 in crew, as the AI of the submarine was able to keep most of the systems automated. They walked into the mess hall, it was pretty empty as most of the crew was sleeping, them, on the other hand were night owls. They found Locke, with three other people.

"Hey, I'm Melissa, he's Sousuke, and that over there is called Kurtz."

"Hey now…" Said a dejected Kurtz.

The three at the table laughed.

Two of the three sitting at the table looked quite similar, the third one didn't look like he was related to the other two.

"Hi, my name's Miranda." Spoke one of the three. She had short dark brown hair. About the same length as Mao's and Locke's.

"I'm Nicole." The other girl of the new trio spoke, she had slightly longer than shoulder length black/blond hair. The bottom portion was dyed black while the top was dyed blond.

"I'm Ben." Came the last of the trio. He looked Asian. All three were wearing Mithril fatigues.

"Are you two sisters or something?" Webber asked pointing to Miranda and Nicole, they both looked quite similar.

"Yeah, we're actually twins." Spoke Nicole.

"Ooooh." Replied Webber, interested.

"Don't even think it." Commented Mao while smacking him across the back of the head.

"Hey now! I wasn't even thinking of such a thing!" Said Webber .

"I've known you for far too long to believe that."

"I swear!"

"Yeah O.K."

"Anyhoo, which branch you guys from?" Said Mao while sitting down at the table.

"We're all from the U.S.A.F." Said Ben.

"Cool, what do you fly?" Said Webber.

"Helos." Said Nicole.

"Fighters." Said Miranda.

"Fighters." Said Ben.

"The new F-35s?"

"Yeah, we were trained in the F-35s before Mithril hired us. Before the F-35s I flew the F-22." Said Ben.

"I went from the 16 to Harrier to the 35. I'm better at VTOL than he is." Said Miranda while taking a drink from her glass of milk.

"Meh 22's faster." Said Ben, while sticking his tongue out at her.

"Haha. How about you, Nicole, was it?"

"Yeah, I flew the Blackhawk for awhile, then moved up to the Supercobra, and Apache, and was a test pilot for the Comanche before the program got axed."

"Oh cool, you know that we have the Comanche here, we bought out the program after the air force dropped it, it's currently operational." Said Mao.

"Wow really! I can't wait to get back in the pit of one of those. They're a dream to fly, and insanely fast."

"Yeah. I've seen them dodge fire, sometimes I can't believe they're helos."

"We're probably going to be using them this tour, based on what the North has been doing in the past we've almost always had to pull out all stops to keep them from advancing." Said Webber.

"He's right. Last tour we were on station, we had to call in reinforcements from one of our land bases, we usually don't even use half of our armaments." Said Locke.

"Wow." Spoke the twins in unison. Ben just looked at Locke.

They felt the submarine move slightly.

"Well looks like they turned on the EMFC. We should be out of the pen in a few minutes."

"EMFC is activated. Dana reports both reactors at 100 power. Thirty seconds until MBT is fully charged." Said the Operations Manager.

"Good." Tessa watched the screen as the main ballast tank finished pressurizing. "Signal dive. 100 feet."

"Aye Capitan. Dive, Dive, Dive. Navigation, Vertical dive 100 feet."

"Con, Navigation, Aye, Vertical dive 100 feet. Commencing, EMFC field operational, descending at ten feet per second."

"Very well. Watch our sides, the EMFC likes to drift." Tessa warned the Navigation officer.

"Aye ma'am."

"Passing forty feet, fifty feet, sixty feet…"

"Hold at 100 feet."

"Aye ma'am."

"Eighty feet, ninety feet, one hundred feet. Submerged at 100 feet and holding."

"Very well. Engage conventional propulsion."

"Aye ma'am. Engage conventional propulsion."

"Con, Nav, Engaging turbines."

"Make turns for five knots." Said Tessa, while spinning a lock of hair around her finger.

"Con, Nav, make turns for five knots aye." Repeated the navigation officer.

Tessa could feel the submarine accelerate slightly as she was pressed into her chair briefly. "Time until clear?"

"Thirty seconds." Said the XO.

"Oh, looks like we've started going forward, we'll probably be clear in about 20 seconds or so." Said Mao, slightly excited.

"How did you know we we're moving forward? I thought we we're sliding to the side." Asked Ben as he took a drink from his glass.

"Once you've been on this sub long enough you know which way is forward, that and we accelerated pretty fast, if we were using the EMFC we would hardly feel it, we're probably using the magnetic drives." Explained Mao.

"I would have to disagree, I think we are currently under conventional power." Commented Sagara.

"Eh, either way it's not the EFMC."

"Affirmative."

Kurtz came back with a mug of coffee.

"We are clear of the underwater opening." Reported the XO.

"Acknowledged, engage the MHD."

"Engage the Magnetohydrodynamic Drive, Aye."

"Con, Nav, engaging hydrodynamic drive systems. Cooling pumps active… Superconductive magnets are now under critical temperature, increasing current."

"Make turns for fifty five knots."

"Make turns for fifty five knots aye." Repeated the XO.

Tessa was immediately pushed back into her chair, the XO shifted his weight and held on to a handhold, as the submarine accelerated from five knots to fifty five knots in under ten seconds.

"Christ." Said Miranda, as she caught her cup before it slid off the table.

"And there's the magnetic drive…" Said Kurtz.

"No crap, I've never felt a boat accelerate that fast." Said Nicole.

"I've felt a cruiser go pretty damn quick, but those things were made to go fast… subs… aren't." Commented Ben.

"Well there's the magnetic drive for ya." Said Mao, she slid her cup back in front of her. "We're probably around fifty knots."

"Fifty knots! You gotta be bullshitting, I've been on subs before, even the Los Angeles class can only go forty five, and that's at over 1000 feet so they don't cavitate."

"The top speed of this boat is fifty five knots, sixty if we really push it, that's using the magnetic drives and conventional propulsion, we don't get cavitation even at 200 feet because of the EFMC system, isn't black technology great." Said Mao with a smirk.

"Yeah, I mean damn, you could outrun torpedoes."

"We do on occasion."

"Begin dive to 1000 feet."

"Begin dive to 1000 feet, aye." Repeated the XO. "Five degrees down bubble, make my depth 1000 feet."

The navigation officer repeated the orders. A second later the room tilted slightly as the submarine began to dive. Slight popping noises could be heard as the sub was squeezed by the growing pressure.

"Dana, tactical map, main screen." Said Tessa while twirling her silver hair around her right pointer finger.

"Acknowledged." Confirmed Dana, the main screen changed to a tactical awareness view, it showed them on time to waypoint two of five. A couple targets were detected by Dana and already classified, one being a surface ship, the other being a school of fish. "Passing 500 feet."

"Time until station?" Asked the Capitan.

"Thirty six hours and twenty five minutes at current speed and heading." Answered Dana in a calm computer controlled voice. "Passing 600 feet."

Chapter 8

The briefing room was quite cramped. Mao and Kurtz have never seen so many people on the same operation before. Given that the North finally made their move on the South and they were throwing in almost all of their army into it required Mithril to respond en force.

"Currently satellite imagery shows at least seven tank divisions alone. They have crossed the Chang Jiang and have begun their move through the DMZ. Intel estimates that they will reach the first friendly city in less than ten hours." Explained Kalinin the Lieutenant Commander.

He zoomed in on the map of China. "We will be deploying all of our battle elements along this front, one hundred miles east of Wuhan." He drew a line on the touch pad and a red line appeared on the map. "Because of the size the invasion force, command has allowed us to call in reinforcements, which we will undoubtedly need. Everything east of our line will be controlled by a joint force of the South China army, and Command, everything west of our line will be controlled by NATO, mostly through air power."

The room murmured slightly in agreement. Mao leaned over and whispered to Ben, Miranda and Nicole. "He's right, we can only handle one division alone. Two if we're given enough time to recoup, but this would be suicide."

Ben nodded.

"The south has five divisions of infantry and two tank divisions in reserve, however the north still has twelve more infantry divisions and three air brigades in reserve, along with four more tank divisions which once they know of our presence they will deploy." Commented Kalinin. "Two Armslave assault teams under the command of Uruz 1 and Uruz 2 will deployed to theses two passes. Because of the mountainous region, your air cover will be limited, and little to no ground support can come in." Shifting the view of the combat area further south he spoke again. "Your fall back area is here, as the mountains subside enough to allow the south china army enough room to deploy."

"Don't they have RK-49's that can go into the mountains to help?" Asked Kurtz while tapping his pad of paper with his pencil.

"Yes, however their Armslaves are not maneuverable enough to be effective in the mountains, they would cause more casualties than help." Replied the lieutenant commander.

"Ok."

"If there are no other question I will continue." Kalinin waited, no one spoke, he continued. "Our air power will be deployed over this area." He zoomed out and a blue oval appeared over the map, covering the four major mountain passes. "Your primary focus will be to hinder the movement of the enemy through the two passes which are unguarded. Jetpacks will be used as insertion, helicopters will be used only as a last resort for extraction, normal extraction will be via the South's army. Once landing is complete, the Armslaves will ingress to their stations. Comanche's will leave about twenty minutes before the Armslaves depart, the F-35s will leave 20 minutes after the Armslaves leave. There will be a mobile helo pad near the fall back point when refueling and reloading is needed. There will also be a tanker to the south of the fall back point for our aircraft, the South has given us use of two of their airbases for our aircraft plus any additional aircraft we may be using. Once all assets are launched, the submarine will dive to a depth of 100 feet and hold. When reloading or refueling is required we will surface to retrieve you and submerse again to avoid detection. Use these ingress and egress routes to return to the Danaan. The rail gun will be used only as a last resort as we must surface and drop our ECM in order to fire.

All data relevant to your missions have been loaded onto your PDAs please meet with your teams to form your plans. Dismissed."

Everyone started to leave. Nicole spoke to Melissa. "Hey, doesn't command give us our mission plan?"

"No, we can make our own, our system will sync it to the best we can, from there we adjust our plans to match. It's actually much more effective than the way the US does it. We know what we can and can't do, that and we've worked together so much that it's hard to do it any other way."

"Alright, since were team Alpha, we got this pass." Said Mao while clicking on the projection display, changing the view to a 3D representation of the area, she continued, "based on this, our best chance to hold them is right here, it's tight enough in that it will keep them bottle necked, and after destroying a few tanks we can stop them completely."

"Yup. We may have to worry about air later in the operation, as Kalanin said, they will send everything once they spot us." Said Kurtz.

"True, but we have our air force for that, I'd assume after they've blown the hell out of the two passes they have control of, that they would switch to CAP missions." Said Mao.

"Let's confirm that." Said Sagara.

"Alright." Mao pressed the air wing's call button on the touch screen.

"Hello, Miranda here." She spoke into the speaker phone sitting on the small table.

"Yeah it's Mao with Alpha group, we are wondering how many people you're going to do CAP missions throughout the operation." Mao asked through the phone.

"The first mission, we're splitting up with two air and two ground, once we pound them enough to stop them, we're going to switch to three air and one ground."

"Seems well enough, send us your flight plan once you're done so we can sync it up." Replied the small box on the table.

"Right." Miranda pressed the disconnect button and continued talking. "Alright we'll split up into two seat flights, one for ground and one for air obviously."

"Sounds good, I'll fly cap throughout." Replied Ben.

"Same here I guess." Said Stephens. He was hired through the royal air force.

"I'll go ground." Said Kasto. The third of the four pilots, he had a scar running from his cheek to his neck, he looked Italian.

"Alright then, I'll fly ground with Kasto here, once we finish bombing runs I'll refuel and load air munitions. We've been given four flight names to choose from, Eagle, Fox, Gamma, and India. How about you and Stephens take Eagle, and Kasto and I will take Fox."

"No argument here." Said Ben, while typing it into his laptop.

"Sounds good." Said Kasto.

"Alright, we'll both fly low until we reach feet dry here," Miranda put a waypoint on the map, "Once feet dry Eagle, climb to angels fifty and hold until you reach the combat area. From there just cycle through these three waypoints until you run out of munitions or fuel, then hit the reserve airfields for refueling and munitions."

The three others in the room nodded.

Miranda continued. "Alright Katso we'll fly along with them until we're feet dry, once we're feet dry we'll go along the mountains, the computer has figured out the best route for us, but because most of the mountain ridges run north-south, we will have to pop up and down a bit. But since it's the F-35s we shouldn't have much of a problem with radar unless they have a lot of radar sites hidden in the mountains, but I doubt that as you would get coverage of about a ten degree swath of the sky. Pick out your munitions and we'll get loaded up, we got an hour till launch. I'll send this to the other elements."

"Will we have any air backup whatsoever?' Commented Kurtz while moving the 3D map around.

"Not from the high fliers, but choppers probably, they'll probably back us up along with keeping the infantry down in the other two passes."

"Right. I'll call em up."

"Hello?"

"Yes, this is Sergeant Hruska."

"Yes this is Sergeant Mao. We're wondering who you're backing up here in the mountains."

Shifting her weight Nicole spoke. "We are supposed to help the jets in ground suppression, but we can help you guys if you need it.'

"Alright." Replied Mao.

"We're done with our flight plans, we'll sync them up with everyone's here."

"Sounds good. See you out there."

"Roger." She hung up the speaker phone and turned around to the seven others in the room. "Get suited up we got thirty minutes till launch."

Everyone nodded.

Once the hatch clicked closed and her gunner was secure Nicole spoke to her flight. "One in the pit."

"Two in the pit." It was Beadux.

"Three in the pit." Devins.

"Four in the pit." Langu.

Nicole switched channels to speak to operations. "One through four in the pit, ready for lift."

"Roger, lift commencing. Good luck." Came the voice over her headset.

The deck jerked slightly as it began its movement up to the flight deck, she looked out the side as she watched the walls disappear beneath the floor. She looked back into the cockpit and began the last preflight checks. Once the floor came to a stop she looked back up, she could see prep crews running around the flight deck. The roof was open, and she could see the stars. "Goggles on guys, crash lights too." She spoke to her flight, she lowered her night vision goggles, everything went green.

"Two. Three. Four." Replied the speaker as the other three helicopters confirmed her order, she saw the strobes on the other helicopters flash as they turned on their anti collision lights.

Two light sticks could be seen waving fifty feet in front of her. She signaled by moving her hand in a forward and back motion. The sticks stopped straight in the air. An ATV drove up in front of the Comanche and the driver got out, hooked a tow line to the nose wheel of the aircraft and re mounted the vehicle. She disengaged the wheel brake and the ATV towed her to the launch pad. Three other ATVs followed suit. Once everyone was in position the light sticks re-appeared. They waved back and forth. She gave a thumbs up, and the sticks responded by making a circular motion in the air.

"Spin em up." She spoke to everyone.

"Two. Three. Four." Each responded within a second.

She disengaged the rotor brake and started the turbines. She watched her left panel as the turbines spun up to idle speed. She threw the switch to switch off the starter motor and engaged the rotor. The woosh woosh woosh began to get faster and faster until it melded into a chorus of propeller noises. She kept the throttle at idle until everyone signaled.

"Alright everyone up and hold." She pushed down on the throttle stick the turbines whined as they spun faster. The wheels of the helicopter left the ground, she rose a few more feet off the ground. There wasn't much wind so she didn't have a problem hovering. She retracted the nose gear waited for them to lock into place. "Gear up."

"Two up. Three up. Four up." Replied the rest of the flight.

"Hit it." She pushed the throttle all the way down and tilted the chopper forward, sending the aircraft across the ink black ocean. The other three followed suit, and pulled in a tight formation behind her. "Lights out."

"Notify the Armslaves have twenty minutes till launch." Said Tessa.

"Aye ma'am." Spoke the XO. He picked up the mic from the panel and pushed the button to broadcast to the entire submarine. "Arm Slave pilots, twenty minutes until launch, please finish all preparations."

"Looks like we're up." Spoke Kurtz while sitting on a crate in the hanger deck. He got up.

"Affirmative." Sousuke responded while moving towards his Armslave. He climbed up the open palm of the armslave and up it's arm into the cockpit. He entered and lowered himself into the harness.

"Name rank and ID number."

"Sousuke Sagara, Sergeant, echo eight four nine two. "

"Confirmed, How are you today?"

"Fine, let's skip the small talk. Close the hatch."

"Affirmative." The hatch to the cockpit closed, and the chest plate closed in, securing him into the harness.

"Start up the reactor." Said Sousuke, while going through the diagnostics screens.

"Affirmative, starting reactor, two minutes until full power, all systems nominal."

"Power on optical sensors."

"Affirmative." The screens in front of him turned on, revealing the hanger deck and the armslave's kneeled legs.

"Thanks, begin joint unlock."

"Acknowledged, unlocking joints." Replied the computer, the lower screen displayed the joints as they were unlocked from the parked position. "Joints are free."

He stood up, the arm slave was only a couple feet from scraping the head against the ceiling.

The radio crackled, "Hey, want to help me with my pack?" It was Webber.

"Ok." He picked up his jet pack and moved toward Webber's armslave. He set down his jet pack gently as not to dent the floor. Webber stood up and turned around. Sousuke grabbed the jetpack next to Webber's foot and turned it to the correct position. Placed it onto his back, the jetpack latched onto the armslave and locked. Sagara let go and turned around, and Webber did the same thing with the other jetpack.

"Alright Urzu 6 and 7 are ready. Heading to elevator."

"Hurry up, I'm waiting on deck." Came Mao's voice over the radio.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch." Joked Webber.

"Bravo group is already up here, they're waiting on you." Replied Mao.

"Alright alright…" Webber and Sagara reached the elevator. Changing the radio to the operations channel. "Uruz 6 and 7 on lift and ready."

"Confirmed." Replied the operations controller.

The floor jerked and moved, as hydraulic pistons pushed the nine ton armslaves skywards. Once they reached the deck they saw four other armslaves on deck, Mao was waiting near one of the launching rails, while Bravo group was waiting at the back of the flight deck. "Finally." Sighed Mao.

"Oh sush." Said Webber while walking towards the launch rail, Sousuke walked towards the rear and joined Bravo group, the three armslaves nodded toward him, he acknowledged and stepped into line.

Webber stepped onto the launch rail boots which clamped down into the feet of the armslave, and gripped the handle bars on either side of the launch rail. Mao followed suit and crouched slightly. "I'm good to go." Reported Webber.

"Operations, this is Uzru two and six ready for launch, you have control."

"Confirmed, we have control. Launch in twenty seconds." Confirmed operations.

"Alright Webber, countdown started." Mao tested her harness. It was snug.

"Let's rock!" Webber Exclaimed.

The operations voice came over the radio: "Blast wall up, twenty seconds until launch, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen..." Kurtz tested his harness. It was sufficiently tight, he gripped the handholds tighter. "Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, launch rails charged, six… five… four… rockets ignited, two… one… Launch." Kurtz was slammed back into his seat from the combined forces of the rocket pack and launch rails. The screens in front of him blurred as his eyes were pushed back into his sockets. The armslave took off from the launch rail, clearing the edge of the submarine by a mere foot. "Holy shit! That was insane!" Webber was trying to regain his breath as the armslave rose into the air. "Catch up Sousuke!'

"Affirmative." Responded Sagara.

Uruz one's voice came over the radio. "Operations, uruz one and seven ready for launch, you have control."

"Alright, everyone code in the bullseye. Crash lights only, seat one and three will take rails, two and four will do vertical takeoff."

"Roger two. Three. Four." Came over Miranda's earpiece as they confirmed her orders.

Neon orange sticks glowed bright green twenty feet in front of her aircraft. She pumped her fist up and down, and signaled 'one' and 'three'. The two glowsticks began to move, one pointing to her aircraft, the other was spinning in a circle. A tow vehicle came and attached to the front nose gear and towed her to one of the launch rails. The glow sticks then pointed to Ben's aircraft and the same happened.

Miranda checked the rest of her controls, she waited until she was locked into the launch rail. "Alright guys, spin'em up."

"Two spinning up."

"Three spinning up."

"Four spinning up."

She toggled the switch to the emergency power unit, and started the starter turbine. She heard the faint whine of the turbine as it spun up the engine. Once the rpm hit thirty percent, she flipped a switch on her left which started the flow of fuel into the engine. The jet engine immediately roared, and she shut off the EPU, and pushed the throttle up to full. She waited for the engine to hit seventy percent, and backed the throttle back down, the whine of the jet could be heard through her headset.

She reached down and flipped the safety switch to start the lift turbine and turned the knob to STO or short take off. She heard the turbofan doors open and felt the seat rumble slightly as the lift fan which was located about a foot behind her started up, the center display showed that the fan was indeed spinning and the main nozzle was pointed down slightly.

"One ready." Spoke Miranda while tapping the other two displays changing them to a map and an armorment stores configuration. She set the bombs to be self guided.

"Two ready for sto. Three ready for vto, four vto ready."

"Alright, four, you will take off first."

"Roger." A slight pause. "Eagle one-four requesting permission for vto."

"Eagle one-four, operations, permission granted."

"Roger. Over and out."

She heard Stephens aircraft spin up as it went into after burner. She looked over her shoulder and saw the jet exhaust from the engine lick the flight deck. She could see the low pressure air vapor as it was sucked into the lift fan and blasted out the bottom. His aircraft began to rise, slightly shaky as the flight deck was moving from being on the seas. The aircraft rose higher into the air, ten feet, fifteen, twenty, thirty, it hovered at thirty five feet above the fight deck. She watched as the nozzle of engine turned from pointing completely down to a forty five degree angle. The fighter began moving forward, as it picked up speed, the nozzle slowly leveled out.

"Your turn Ben."

"Roger." A pause. "Eagle one-three requesting permission for sto."

"Eagle one-three, permission granted. Prepare for launch. Charging rail two."

"Eagle one three, roger, over and out."

Ben readied his harness and put one hand on the handhold above his head. The other he held on the throttle waiting for the indicator lights to flash. He watched as the five LED takeoff lights began cycling. One light. Two lights lit. Three. At four he jammed the throttle as far as it would go, the engine whined as the turbines turned ever faster, he heard the roar of the afterburner as raw jet fuel was dumped into the exhaust at an alarming rate. The aircraft body groaned as it fought with the catapult which wasn't moving yet. Five. The catapult sling shotted him forward pressing him into his seat, along with the combined jet power and lift fan he rose quite quickly above the water. He released the hand hold and flipped the knob back to level flight. He kept the afterburner on for a minute to catch up to Stephens. They both backed down to eighty percent power and cruised waiting for Fox group to catch up.