Chapter 2 First contact
There was an unwritten rule in Academy city, do not hurt Mikotos friends or you would face the Railgun, this was a simple rule as she didn't have many. People saw her as the Railgun and not Mikoto, but this would-be-robber just kicked one of her friends in the face. The coin left her hand at mach 3 between two electric rails made out of thin air and impacted the passenger side of the car flipping it up into the air as it tumble end over end. It continued on until an armor piercing round hit the rear half at mach 1.5 splitting the car in two.
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Tank poliiicce!
Feel the power that we got!
Tank poliiicce!
We'll give it our best shot!
Tank poliiicce!
Feel the power that we got!
Tank poliiicce!
We'll give it our best shot!
Brenten was in a bad mood that not even his favorite song could get him out of, tanks were meant to be driven not put on the back of a lorry, they where thoroughbred horses they needed to get a good run and who gave a damn about the roads. The driver had offered to let the commander of 3rd division ride in the drivers cab but this was his tank and he was not leaving him, last time he did that Leona had used the remains to build Bonaparte.
To compound his frustration was that the entrance to Academy city was too small for the tank transports and tanks to get through, so each tank had to get unloaded and drive through then loaded back on the transports before they could continue the 5 miles to their temporary HQ.
"all Anti-skill units, we have a 10-60 at the NatWest branch at the Fureai plaza in the 7th districted, suspects are believed to be level 2 advice caution" blurted the radio in his tank. 10-60 was a bank robbery in progress and was just what the commander of the tank police needed right now.
"Four-eyes get me a map of the city and a route to that NatWest branch" Brenten barked. He had been inching to shoot something all day and now he could. It didn't matter to him that the ammo was in a holler further back in the convoy this was what the tank police did.
"Sir this is Leona, we're rolling out," came his most trigger-happy tank commander as her squad from third platoon roared past the other transports. One of the tankette still had the chains used to hold it down during transport attached along with a bracket that should have been mounted on the transport.
Brenten looked around for other tanks he could throw into the battle but four-eyes had just finished loading the last of the new tanks destined for this ANTI-SKILL onto the trailer and was still scrambling back to his own tank. all of first platoons drivers were hastily running back to their own tanks on this side of the barrier, it would be 10 minutes before they could roll out at this rate.
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Leona loaded an AP round into her Bonaparte's main gun, it would be useless against a criminal on foot, but from experience she knew that getaway cars were armored and armed to take on light vehicles such as APCs, so she needed to get the first shot in and kill it before it scratched her Bonaparte. This was an instinct that had kept the Tank Police at the top of the food chain in Newport city even when the criminal scum packed RPGs and .50 cal machine guns as small arms, it however was wholly inappropriate for Academy cities normal criminal scum. As for why she had an AP round in her tank when it was considered illegal never mind that all tanks were supposed to be unloaded for transport, was a question best not asked.
"Got a visual on a suspect, man in brown jacket, holding a bag and dragging a kid, probably a hostage," reported Habana her second-in-command. His Tank was on the far right side of the formation and was no doubt packing as much ammunition as Bonaparte.
"I got two more overhear on the ground, looks like local law enforcement has got them," reported Asada on the far left of the formation, her tank was no doubt empty unless AnnaPuma had hidden a HESH round in her bra again.
"Anyone got a shot on the runner?" Asked Leona, only to be given negative responses from all tanks.
"Negative I have a busload of tourists and at least three on foot between me and the target... Ah crap one of the bystanders have spotted the suspect, she's trying to wrestle the kid out of the man's arms, ouch that's got to hurt, hostage freed but suspect is fleeing to a getaway vehicle. White BMW is just pulling out now, does anyone have a shot?" Reported Habana.
"Dammit, can't get a shot some stupid kid just stepped out onto the middle of the road," said Leona making her irritation clearly heard in her voice.
"Sorry I tried to swing through the park to get a shot but now that tourist bus is in my way," said Habana. The bus load of tourist was not stopping Habana's gunner Shinozaki from firing, but rather its IR signature was blotting out that of the targets so shooting through it was just going to waste a round when none of the tanks had any to spare. Needless to say normal procedure would be to empty the 10 rounds each tank carried into the area to disperse the civilians and then ram the getaway vehicle, then fire all 1000 rounds in the mini gun at the target until they surrendered.
"Hay yawl who switched on the ECM?" called UniPuma in alarm.
"We are in the same situation as you squad leader, kid blocking our shot," reported Asada.
A moment after everyone reported in the girl in front of them tossed a coin into the air as it fell back down to earth she flicked it accelerating it to mach three in the blink of an eye. The now molten coin slammed into the getaway car flipping it end over end, Leona didn't hesitate she aimed the 120 mm snub-nosed Canon and fired. The armored piercing round hit the soft skin vehicle over penetrating the car and continued on its trajectory landing about a mile away, destroying a vending machine that a certain spikier haired boy had just put ¥2000 into much to his "misfortune!"
"Habana, with me, Asada secure the hostage, UniPuma keep the other two cover," ordered Leona as she selected another round from her personal supply, this time canister. "Al let's finish off that bastard who ran away."
"Rodger that," replied Al as he headed straight for the remains of the car.
The criminal scum had just crawled out of his car when Bonaparte ran over it reducing what had once been a very expensive car into a thin sheet of aluminium and steel with a license plate. As if the goddess of mercy was making silly faces at him a second tank leapt a row of cars and landed next to him gouging about 2 meters worth of tarmac out of the road. By this point the criminal scum did not think his day could get any worse, that was when Leona popped the Hatch of her tank and pointed a gun at him.
"Keep your hands were I can see them," ordered Leona to which the criminal scum gladly complied, facing the Railgun was enough to turn the man into a blubbering wreck who would do the Macarena if judgment ordered him to, facing the tank police was just overkill.
"You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to call a lawyer, if you can't afford a lawyer then one will be provided for you, do you understand?" Leona continued.
"Yes! Yes I do!" screen the criminal scum, he didn't understand anything she said, all he understood was that there were two tanks with very large guns in his face and the railgun was walking over.
"What do you think you're doing?" Demanded the girl that had been standing in the middle of the road.
Leona looked down at the girl," this is tank police business I don't expect a little girl to understand," she said as she clambered down from Bonaparte and strap a pair of handcuffs on the criminal scum then hosted him onto the front of the tank.
"Little girl?" Asked the girl as electricity started to spark from her body, discharging to anything metal, such as Bonaparte. Normally this would have resulted in no damage to the tank as electricity would follow the path of least resistance down to the ground. However the canister shell currently loaded had been procured off the record and had not received the same level of maintenance as the rest of the tank police ammunition. This resulted in its trigger mechanism activating launching 1,150 tungsten balls each 10mm in diameter into AnnaPuma's face.
"Hay what you go do that for?" Demanded AnnaPuma
"I think if she does that again we should use that little old tank of hers as a litter box," supplied UniPuma. This sent Leona into a fit of rage at the two sisters, and made her completely forget about the Brown haired electromaster who had just electrocuted her tank.
"I suppose I will be cleaning that off in the hangar," sighed a male voice from within the tank as the smell of something unpleasant reached Mikoto.
Turning back round to face the tank, Mikoto noticed a Hatch open in the side of the tank with a head poking out of it belonging to a blond haired man who inspected her inquisitively. "So you're the Railgun huh, nice shooting back there, straight through the engine block and out under the passenger seat," he said as he finished securing the criminal to the front of the tank.
"um, who are you?" asked Mikoto, ashamed that she let her anger get away from her, again.
"I am Al, we are with the Tank police," said Al hanging out of a tank with the words police written on it in big bold letters in case she missed it.
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"What's the situation Leona?" asked Brenten from his tanks cupola several minutes later after everything had cam down much to his dismay.
"Sir, three criminals arrested and their getaway car disabled," she said indicating three men on the ground being watched over by a tank and a girl in a school uniform with a green armband, then a flat plate of metal with tank tread marks on it.
"Very well Leona," Brenten hated what he was about to say next but it was orders from the chief, "hand them over to ANTI-SKILL, the chief would like a word with you."
"But sir, we captured them," pleaded Leona, the tank police didn't like giving up there prisoners to other units as they never had the balls to get any information out of them.
The girl with the green arm band snorted "oh so that's how it is, you come in here shoot up our city after we," she pointed to three other girls "catch all the bank robbers and claim you saved the day then hand over all the responsibilities to someone else."
"What?" Bellowed Brenten half falling out of his tank's cupola. Normally he would not believe some little girl playing cop had along with three other little girls cot the bad guys before the tank police, but there were a line of needles around two of the men on the ground identical to the one in the girls hand. that and there was a hole in the road that looked suspiciously like a hole left by a Sabot round.
"Well sir, by the time we got here two of the bank robbers had already been taken out," said Al stepping in before his commander/love interest stepped on it again.
"And the third?" Pressed Brenten.
"He took a hostage sir," replied Habana from his tanks side hatch.
"Did you rescue the hostage?"
"No, Saten did," said the girl with the green armband pointing at another girl with an ice pack held to her face.
Brenten glowered at the eight tank police in front of him, "did you do anything?"
"We shot up the getaway vehicle and arrested the third man," supplied Al.
"Only after Onee-sama stopped it," shot back the girl with the green armband.
"That was only because she was standing in the middle of the road and blocking our shot" snapped Leona.
"Let me get this straight Leona, a bunch of little girls with superpowers made a fool out of the tank police, freed a hostage and cot the bad guys, DID I MISS ANYTHING?" Bellowed Brenten at is eight subordinates. This was a complete disaster the tank police were supposed to be the best, untouchable, and standing against them was suicide. Yet four teenage girls had just beaten them to the punch and unless he did something quickly every criminal scum within the city would be attempting to kill one of his tanks.
Destroying a tank barring incompetent driving was damn near impossible without the latest in military hardware however even an RPG duct taped together could damage or immobilise a tank. Last month him and some of his officers had trained with the Scots dragoons and had seen a Challenger Mk II that had been disabled by RPGs and anti-tank fire in Iraq. The crew had told them that after they were disabled every enemy in the area had attempted the swarm the tank and claim the prize of destroying the most heavily armoured tank ever built. Brenten knew that logistically he could lose a tank and still be able to fight crime but morale would suffer and once one tank went then the tank police deterrent would lose its effectiveness and they would lose even more tanks.
"But Sir one of those girls is the Railgun," said Al as he held back Leona.
Brenten blinked, and looked at the four girls in front of him, none of them looked like a piece of naval artillery, but it didn't matter Al had given him the perfect excuse. Four tanks with no ammunition had met a level 5 and had not lost a single tank and the criminals have been captured. "Very well Leona your off the hook. Hand the criminals over to ANTI-SKILL and move out."
"Sir any idea when ANTI-SKILL will be here?" Asked Habana.
Brenten did a double take, where were the local law enforcement? He could now see why the tank police had been called in, the alarm had gone off 15 min ago and yet the first response team was still not on seen.
"May the Lord have mercy on my fellow officers soul for tardiness will cost the innocent there's," prayed Brenten's gunner Chaplain, who was thinking along the same lines as his commander.
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Aleister Crowley watched the monitor with interest, so this was how the tank police dealt with criminals? Still it was not as if they'd gone up against anyone with any real ability and even then they arrived too late on the scene to do anything. Maybe something would have happened to test their ability if the Railgun hadn't been there, but no matter there was always another time, and if the criminals did not show up he could arrange for something to happen.
A/N and here we have it, tank police in Academy city, things can only get worse from now on, so who's got popcorn? Oh Index has eaten it already oh well what about a can of coke...Such Misfortune! Yes Touma will be dodging a lot of indirect fire from the tank police, for now anyway.