Something to Prove
Chapter 3
Hawke winced as a sharp needle of pain lanced through his shoulder as he began to dab the surgical alcohol into the small ragged wound. His escape hadn't gone quite as he'd expected. They'd seen him escape and followed him back to his camp. The bushes were raked with sub-machine gun fire. If he had left the cover of the bushes, then the guards might have recognised him and held their fire. Stealth, however, was key to his plan. He was lucky to get away with only one direct hit. The alcohol stung but it was better than an infection. He put down the blood soaked pad and focused. He emptied his mind of thoughts, of the pain, of everything. His higher brain functions finally gave way and he could hear the thrumming, see the swirling, and feel the life of everything around him. His consciousness drifted out of his body and into the world around him. The ground crumbled as trees fell and disintegrated, grass withered and died. Closer now, he could almost taste it. It was all his. Hawke opened his eyes and sensory information poured back into his head. He checked his shoulder. The wound had completely healed. There wasn't even a scar. Hawke wasn't sure where he'd acquired the power of the Black Wave but it was definitely the reason he was still alive. He looked around mournfully at the devastation he had just caused. Once again the Earth had restored his body, sacrificing itself in the process. He gave silent thanks and moved towards his next objective.
Traversing the mountainside was much easier now that his shoulder had healed and he swept over the uneven ground with ease. He finally reached his vantage point and dropped to into a patch of scrub, drawing his field glasses in one fluid motion. Now came the hardest part; waiting.
The mood was dark in the main HQ building. The recon squads had to be reprimanded for letting the intruder slip. Rachel had taken on that duty with what Colin thought was a little too much enthusiasm. Ever since the trouble in the West barracks she had been ready to burst. Colin was waiting in the War Room, ready to present his thoughts to Rachel. Whether or not they'd fall on deaf ears remained to be seen. The War Room was a voluminous, domed room with a centre-piece of an enormous, circular wooden table covered mostly with a map of Omega Land. Within ten minutes, the Orange Star CO arrived, apparently having cooled off.
"Any sign of Lash yet" She huffed wearily. Colin shook his head. He hadn't seen the girl since the barracks incident. It was better to leave her alone anyway.
"Hey losers! Did I miss anything?" chirped a voice from behind them. Lash stepped up to a chair and slumped into it under a sharp gaze from the Orange Star side of the table. Colin just smiled.
"Evening Lash." said Rachel sternly. To Colin's surprise, her expression suddenly warmed, "Feeling better?"
"Yep! So what happens now?" Colin found it hard to believe, judging by their earlier behaviour, that the two girls were friends. They were both strong women and despite her earlier moment of weakness, Lash was now back to her confident and carefree self.
"Commander Colin!" Rachel barked, bringing his daydream to a sharp close, "Stop smirking and give the lady your status report!"
"Yes ma'am! Well, hazmat have ch-checked the note for b-biological and chemical agents and …heh…well, we've got nothing to worry about there. It's these coordinates I'm worried about. Th-they could well be a trap, but we still have no other idea w-what the enemy is up to. I-it might be worth sending out the scouts." Rachel, in overall command of the base, mulled over the idea.
"Very well," she conceded, "but I want them to pull out at the first sign of trouble. We simply can't afford to lose them, and with no comms to call for backup…"
"It's decided then! We'll mobilise the recon units!" finished Lash, slamming her fist on the varnished pine table. "Tee hee hee! Time to go hunting!"
Factories were such dirty places, Adder thought, and noisy too. However, the gain in fire power could preserve his way of life, the Black Hole way of life. But still, he thought, flicking a wad of axel grease off his hand and searching for a tissue, it could do with a clean. He checked his watch, fourteen hundred hours. Time to see the boss. General Sturm was having fun with Kindle. Adder almost felt sorry for the woman…almost. She hadn't done anything that could really put him in danger; she was just a victim of her own stupidity. Within minutes he reached Sturm's hastily constructed throne room. The room itself was quite small and judging by the dents and red stains in the walls, Flak and Sturm had just played another game of "human tennis" with their prisoners. Indeed, as he looked around, he saw Kindle slumped on the floor; her scarlet hair was now lank. She was a shell, a shadow of her former self.
"Commander Adder," The booming voice always caught him off guard. "You're just in time. I was thinking of giving these rats one more chance." He sniggered, gesturing towards the prisoners. "What say you?" Adder really wasn't in any position to argue but this was definitely not like Sturm. Keeping them alive? What was he thinking?
"What did you have in mind Sir? The thin man replied tentatively. Sturm turned away from Adder to address the prisoners. Kindle had dragged herself upright. Her face, although almost utterly destroyed, still managed to display her arrogant rage. Jugger was in several parts. His central core, which contained his few remaining biological parts, had been severed from his self-defence systems and armour. Koal was still, by and large, intact. He was separated from his beloved tanto but had escaped the worst part of his captors' attention. Sturm's gaze flicked between each of them.
"Renounce the ideology of von Bolt," he began, "Throw yourselves at my feet and you may join us. If not, we'll have our fun with you and then you will die. Simple decision, what's it to be?"
"Never!" screeched Kindle, her throat parched and hoarse.
"Probability of this unit accepting negotiation terms….0." Jugger whirred. "Recommended course of action….shove your deal up your big, fat…." Adder flicked the switch on the EMP generator that was now permanently attached to the cyborg.
All eyes were on Koal.
"I…I renounce von Bolt and humbly submit my service the great leader of Black Hole. All hail Sturm!" He blurted, dropping to his knees. Kindle's jaw dropped and Adder and Sturm looked at each other with raised eyebrows, all as shocked as each other.
"Hah!" Sturm bellowed. He turned to a sentry. "Soldier! Get this man a uniform and…" He was cut off by the wail of sirens. "Report!"
"Someone has set off the alarms." A very nervous looking comms officer piped up. Sturm scowled at him murderously.
"Adder! Which units are ready for battle?"
"The factory hasn't finished preparations yet. Production of a complete armour division won't be finished for another few hours. However, we do have the existing prototypes and I think I have just the thing for this situation."
Lieutenant Redmond lowered his field glasses and lowered himself back into the passenger seat of the recon hummer as the scout squad thundered across the snowy plane towards the heading they were given. He lowered the advanced-polymer visor of his Black Hole issue combat suit. The lieutenant had fought against the allies in the second war. Ever since Lash and Hawke's troops had been integrated with the allied nations, they removed the grotesque gas masks that they wore but kept the visored body armour. It was Redmond's platoon that had been responsible for guarding the West barracks. He had failed Commander Lash once, they wouldn't fail her again.
"We've reached the coordinates sir!" The driver told him. The driver was an Orange Star private, another result of the integration. He was good though and that's what mattered
"Halt here!" The scout car stopped and the other four hummers fell in behind it. Redmond radioed the other cars. "Anyone see anything?" The answers came back, all negative.
"Sorry LT. We've got nothing!" The final reply came from his second-in-command, a keen eyed NCO from Green Earth. Oh great, he thought. "Wait!"
"What is it sergeant?"
"Half a klick to the North, where the forest starts." The lieutenant scooped up his field glasses again. He turned to face the pine forest. Still nothing. "There!" The sergeant and his superior both exclaimed. Nothing definite, just movement. Redmond managed to resolve the shape and adjusted the focus on the glasses…then it started to accelerate.
The shape bounded out of the shadows on four powerful legs which supported a body which was spherical save for an unidentified oblong structure attached to the back, a seven-barrelled Gatling gun and the main cannon on the front, 140mm by Redmond's guess. It was like a neotank's big brother.
"Retreat! All units retreat!" He ordered calmly, but quickly, into the radio. They couldn't fight the thing but they could outrun it! The Gatling tore into the ground where the lieutenant's hummer was sitting half a second ago, throwing up a spray of rapidly melting snow. The gunners on the back of the scout cars opened fire with their machine guns. They wouldn't do any damage but could possibly distract the aim of whoever was piloting that thing. A couple of stray Gatling shells hit car five, killing the gunner and shredding the left-rear tyre. The driver nearly had the hummer stabilised when the striding machine's cannon spoke. The car was torn apart, leaving nothing but smouldering parts. Their sacrifice, though, had allowed the remaining four cars to gain valuable ground on the walking tank as it concentrated on targeting. The cars shot into the cover of the wooded area to the south and a cheer went up when their pursuer suddenly halted. They didn't hear the shrieking.
Car two disintegrated as the missile penetrated the engine block and detonated.
Adder flicked a switch on the control panel and the missile rack cycled. He selected all of the missile tubes and fired a salvo into the woods. A raging plume of fire rose, throwing the forest into stark relief. The command-pattern neotank was magnificent, combing armour, firepower and range. The Gatling also gave it an anti-infantry and anti-air edge. The intruders were gone, but their masters wouldn't take long to notice that they hadn't returned. They had been found. It was time for a show of force.
Hawke sighed. The place had to be found and losses were expected. Yet he still watched the inferno with a sense of grief. Good men had died down there. It couldn't have been avoided though. It was war, plain and simple. The second phase of his plan was complete with what he told himself were minimal casualties. More waiting now. He hated it, but one thing about faking your own death is that it takes a lot longer to get things done. He put away his binoculars and busied himself with catching dinner.
Colin was puzzled, slightly disgusted and yet somehow entertained. Lash hadn't been taught to eat with a knife and fork forher entire life under Black Hole. Watching her trying to tackle her evening meal was always amusing in a cruel way. Despite Commander Jess's best attempts, she was still having trouble with "the whole posh eating thing" as Lash called it. Just one more vulnerability that lay under her devil-may-care exterior. Colin didn't mind. If anything, they made him like her more.
She was trying to hack into a chicken "Kiev". She looked to see who was watching and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, bringing forth a chuckle from the Blue Moon end of the table.
" 'at 'ou 'aughing at?" She said, spraying crumbs from her full mouth.
"N-nothing." He replied a little too quickly. Lash finished chewing and swallowed hard. She wiped her face in her sleeve.
"You'd better not be laughing at me!" She hissed, contorting her feline features into a frightening scowl. Colin turned white. A veil of uncomfortable silence fell on the room for a very long ten seconds. "Tee hee! Got ya!" She giggled suddenly. The Blue Moon CO blushed and let his head fall into his hands but eventually allowed himself to join in with Lash's riotous fit of laughter. "Aww! Poor Colin!" The girl cooed. "I can't help it; you look so cute when you're embarrassed!" Colin went from red to purple. "Hee hee! Just like that!" The door slammed, causing them both to look around. Rachel walked in, the grave look on her face putting the mirth on hold. The two COs saluted her and she returned it slowly.
"The recon squad's back. What's left of it, that is." She sighed.
"What? How many…" Colin began.
"80 casualties. All vehicles were destroyed. Lieutenant Redmond, his gunner and the driver survived. Barely. He's pretty battered but ready to report."
"I'll see to him." Lash decided "He's one of my boys." She stood up and turned to leave. Colin, smiling in admiration, watched her as she walked out.
"What are you grinning at?" Rachel asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"N-nothing at all ma'am!" Colin lied, blatantly.
