Chapter 12: David and Goliath

September 15th 3235 0712 h

En Route to Capitol City, Huron, Pelican Sigma 128

Captain Chris Vennettilli Log

/Begin Log/

Yawn Morning. I feel better today. The only one that seemed to be doing any work was Sally. Damn she's a good pilot. Sonic really was attached to that chain gun he even got a lawn chair. where the heck did that come from? He got one, bolted it to the floor, and slept right there. We're coming up on a city called Huron. Well, believe it or not, Huron is the capitol city of Alpha Centauri II. Boasting a population of three million and twenty seven people, it's the biggest city on this planet. I never noticed this before but Tails picked up a weird looking gun from Fort New Hampshire. He said it was what a Ghost had on him. I'm gonna give her a spin right after I get out.

/End Log/

"OK, gentlemen, we are five minutes to touchdown." Sally said lowering the yoke and dropping the throttle. A flash of light, plus a supersonic boom caused the Mobian to lurch the Pelican down forward. "What in God's name was that?" Sonic yelled, gripping the chain gun due to their sudden descent. "Anti-Air batteries." Ryan said, taking co-pilot control. "It seems that they've detected us." Chris climbed into the cockpit. "Put us down in those trees, Princess!" Sally nodded. "Sure thing, Chris." The Pelican hovered feet above the ground. The pilot dropped the landing gear. The wheels thumped on the ground, supporting the heavy craft. "OK we're good. Hey, just before we leave, Sally, can you turn up the heat one lat time?" Ryan asked. "No, it can't go up any higher." Ryan wasn't discouraged. "Try it again." Sally sighed and cranked the heating lever. It popped out of its place. "You broke it." Ryan said. "Shut up, and let's go." She said. The unit stamped in the permafrost. The evergreens would serve to cover the dropship for the time being. "It's so cold; I'm shivering through my fur." Tails said, stamping his feet to gets his blood flowing. "Tell me about it." Knuckles said, also shivering; only he was rubbing his gloves together. "The sooner we move, the sooner we'll be warm." Chris told them, adjusting his armor temperature to keep him from freezing. "Amen to that." Johnson growled, lighting a cigarette. "Stow that gun. We might need it later." Tails nodded, slipping the Terran rifle on his back.

The walk took 20 minutes. A kilometer from the borders, the temperature started to rise.

"Ah that's more like it." Sonic sighed. "Don't get to comfy. The enemy might be inside the city too." Chris said, scanning the intersection. The traffic light was stuck on red. A Ford Focus XLS was sitting idle on a curb, its door open. The radio playing the sector news. "Wow, nobody's there." Carl said, looking at the idle car. "Well, two possibilities. Nobody's alive to close it, or nobody's free to close it." Before anyone could answer, a gauss shot rang out. The unit ducked behind an empty semi truck. A body of a Terran fell down. The armor clanged on the pavement. A hole blown through his torso by a gauss round. His faceplate broken. Blank blue eyes stared up. "What the hell?" Carl wondered out loud looking at the body. "Wow. that was unexpected." Chris said, amazed "Theories?" Sonic said, looking at the human. "Well, he is a Terran, no doubt. He was shot by a gauss round. Terrans carry those guns and he still seems to have his weapons. So my guess is that he was rebelling or isn't on their side." Sally said, "Isn't on their side? What does that mean?" Tails spoke up. "He means that that was a friendly Terran." He said, averting his eyes from the hole. "A friendly Terran? This is all so sudden to me." Knuckles said acting surprised. "Cut the sarcasm. If there was one, there's bound to be others. Tails, still got those IFFs?" Tails checked. "I have 10 signals left." Sonic's mouth dropped. "40 kills in half an hour? Boy, we're dead." Chris was looking up the avenue. "I wonder what got them." Suddenly, figures appeared. Chris raised his rifle. The figures stopped. "Don't shoot!" the leader said. "Identify yourselves." Chris barked. "Staff Sergeant Charlie Tiggs, Gamma Company." Chris lowered his rifle. His implants confirmed it. "Alright Sarge come on with us." Tiggs backed away suddenly. "No! We have to scatter! The Mech is coming!" Chris raised an eyebrow. "Mechs?" Tiggs was about to respond when machine guns roared out. Red marks appeared on the front of Tiggs's vest. He fell to his knees, looked forward and collapsed. "RUN!!" The marines under the late sergeant's command squealed. A bipedal machine lumbered forward. "Uh Chris, remember the Goliath I warned you about?" Tails said. "Oh." Chris said, wincing.

"Sudan 1 this is Goliath 23, I have targets in site." The Goliath pilot said to his dropship. "Goliath 23, chop 'em down." The Goliath pilot flipped on the firing controls "Roger that."

The machine guns on the Goliath cut into the Semi's cargo wall. "Oh man, we're gonna die in here." Lance said. "That's what they said at the Alamo." Carl said. The bullet holes came closer. "Don't worry, if there's one thing I know about guns, its this:" Ryan said. "They always run out of ammo sometime." Then the guns stopped.

"Oh no." The Goliath pilot said.

"HAH!!" Sonic yelled. He had time to laugh on top of the truck at the Goliath when a missile streaked his way. The hedgehog yelped as he dived for cover. "Whoa, they have missiles!" Carl said. "Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Sonic said, veins showing in his temple. "Oh, don't you worry; I won't be using these missiles on you." A filtered voice told them. Chris poked his head over the engine. "These are Anti Air missiles. The only reason I shot at the rat," "Will people stop calling me that?!" Sonic yelled. "He was high enough to be judges as an anti air target." Chris sighed. "Oh, well, that's good." There was laughter. "Are you kidding? I will stomp you into the ground." The Goliath accelerated. "Oh boy." Johnson said. "Beat it!" Chaz yelled. The unit sprinted up the street. The Goliath nipping at their heels. A left, a right, a right and another left. A dead end. "Oh this is it!" Carl said eying the approaching 'Mech. "I never had a girlfriend in my life!" Chaz looked at him. "I thought Katie Rawston had a thing for you in 10th grade." Carl stared. "Get out, she did?" Sonic yelled. "Not the time, boys!" Johnson thought of something. "The gun!" Chris looked at the sergeant. "Good God, that's it!" Chris said. "Tails! Shoot him!" Tails unhooked the gun. He aimed it, but his hands trembled. "I can't do it!" "Tails! Shoot him!" "Chris, I cant!" "Tails!" "Chris!" "Tails!" "Chris!" "Shoot it!" "No!" "We're about to die!" Chris screamed pointing at the 'Mech. "Alright, I'll do it!" Tails yelled. He aimed the gun, and fired. A blue flash appeared and the Goliath stopped. Didn't slow down, it stopped. It hung with one foot in the air. Without the other foot, the behemoth crashed down and burst into flames. "What did you do to it?" Chris asked, awed. "I don't know. It just stopped in its tracks. I did it, I killed someone." He sunk to his knees. "Tails. It's alright." Sally said, "we would've been killed if you hadn't done what you did." "But I killed him!" Tails said, looking at her. A deep look of pity in his eyes. Chris sighed. "Johnson, relieve him of his weapon." Sarge nodded. "OK, son, give me the gun." Tails complied, throwing him the weapon as if it had a plague on it. "Lets keep moving. Still have an IFF on those Marines?" Chris asked. "No sir. After Tiggs went down, the IFFs went dead. We lost them." Tails said shivering as a chill went down his spine." "That means we're next." Sonic said. "We have to get out of here." Chris said. "Everyone's dead and we might be going with them if we don't hurry."

"USCA selected, commander" a pilot responded. "Greetings, pilot." The commander responded. "We have our fugitives on the loose. Would you do the pleasure of tracking them down and exterminating them?" "Acknowledged, HQ, NavCom locked." The Goliath lumbered. Two Vulture hovercycles brought up the rear.

Sonic served as the Recon trooper. He sped ahead and looked around intersections that might be suitable choke points. "All clear!" He yelled after inspecting the last one with two side turned trucks. "Bring it up, Marines!" Chris said, motioning them forward. OK, this is it." The unit sprinted toward the outer reaches of the city. Two minutes later, the Florida heat wore off, leaving them flash cooled. "Shake it off." The captain called.

"OK, our priority is to take down those anti air defenses. With those down, we can get transport to the Dedalus. Tails radio a Blackhawk to pick us up." The fox gave him a thumb up. "On it, sir." And he went to work on his laptop. "Blackhawk 8 this is Specialist Miles Prower from Alpha Company." The Blackhawk pilot replied, "Roger that, Prower. We are on station in the Dedalus. I'm Sergeant Dhans." "OK, Sir, my team requests a pickup at our position." Dhans was silent, and then said. "Prower, this area is creeping with anti air turrets, it'll take a crazy man jumped up on stims to go in there." "I agree, Sergeant, but can you do a dust-off after we neutralize the turrets in the area?"

Dahns replied. "Sure thing, we can lift you off only if those turrets are down." Tails nodded, roger that, Sergeant, Miles Prower out." He turned to Chris, "We need to take out those air defenses to let the helicopters pick us up." Chris nodded. "OK, we need to act fast. Who has the explosives? Chaz?" Chaz laughed and lifted his hand, a fee C12 plastic explosives were nestled in their vacuum sealed packages. Then, the team set off for the turrets.

The hike from the city didn't take too long. The team reached the first anti air battery within an hour. "OK" Chris said gesturing to his team. We want to find the main power plant. Lets wait a minute while the princess gets a signal. Sally took out a small hand held computer. "Hey, Sal." Ryan said. "Yeah?" she asked brushing hair away from her eyes. "That computer…" the computer then spoke: "My name is Nicole!" Ryan and Chris jumped. "It speaks!" Carl said with wide eyes. "What were you expecting? Stand-up comedy?" Sally asked sarcastically. "Yeah," Ryan said. "So where'd you get it?" Sally considered. "It was a gift." Ryan was suspicious. "From who?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "It was a gift from myself." Chris shook his head. "What the hell does that mean?" Sally looked up. "You wouldn't understand." Chris put his free hand on his hip. "Any more than I do now?" Sally scoffed. "Shut up." She said shaking her head. Sally was the only humanoid lower in rank that said shut up to Chris. Older sergeants with 20 years of Military training tried it with him. Chris's "special weapon" only witnessed by Knuckles set in. Chris may be young and small, but he could sure clean that sergeant's clock. With the penalty of a months worth KP. "OK, I have something." Nicole droned. "Show me." Sally said into the build in microphone. A 3D map shot up a few feet, showing a 100-mile area, a blue dot signified the current position. The red dot showed their objective. "Sal, I have contacts moving to our position." Sally selected an orange blob; it was a group of Vulture Hoverbikes and a Goliath Walker. "Let's move!" she urged.

A huge building appeared, the suns were well behind the mountain and cast a cold, ghostly shadow on the power plant. "God in heaven, it's freezing!" Sonic whined. "Shut it." Chris warned. "Frostbite won't be your only enemy if you don't keep quiet." Sonic mumbled something under his breath that contained three bad words. "OK, let's breach the building!" Chris ordered. The soldiers lined up along the wall. Tails traced Thermite along the door's outer edge. "Burn it!" Chris yelled. Tails lit a flare and set the line ablaze, the door fell forward and gunfire whizzed by. Tails flew out of the way when bullets pierced the spot where he had been. Chris tossed a FlashBang into the room. There was a flash and yells of pain. The Terrans shielded their eyes with giant hands. Ryan fired bursts of fire into the room at the blinded men. Bullets pierced the armor. The armor clanked as it hit the floor. Sally punched a Terran in the face, the fist went through his helmet, Sally shoved a smoke grenade through the hole. The bang went off, and poisonous fumes leaked out of the hole. The Terran, unable to do anything, breathed in the gasses and passed out. "Good work, guys." Chris said. "Sonic, you have demo duty." He said, handing Sonic a few vacuum packages of C12 High Explosive. Sonic was gone in a jiffy. "Zip," he said, attaching an explosive to a generator. "Zap," he said as the second package sent on a computer console. And "Zop!" he finished, sticking the last of the C12 on a quartet of Propane tanks. "We have 10 seconds!" Sally yelled, eyeballing the countdown timer. "Book it!" Carl yelled. The unit vanished as quick as the words came. Five. They passed the doors. Four. They were racing. Three. Only a few more feet left. Two. "TAKE COVER!" Johnson yelled. One. They had just started to go prone when, KABOOOOOMMM!!! The C12 ignited. The trio explosions mixed with the propane, electricity and all consumables, created an explosion large enough to knock everyone off their feet for five yards. Even at this length the heat was enough to roast marshmallows. The snow was slushy. "Wow, what a blast!" Sally said "No pun intended, thank you very much." Sonic looked like he saw a ghost. "I think I wet myself." He said blushing. "Really?" Knuckles asked. Tails scoffed nearby. "No, of course I didn't." Sonic said, his eyes darting from side to side. "Lets get to the Daedalus, guys. The Terrans are going to be sending a welcoming committee, my guess is that they aren't going to be so friendly after we took out their AA guns."