CHAPTER 14

1500 Feet above Maverick Caverns; Syria

22:01 March 11th, 2151

The caverns were located in the western section of Syria, which had grown to be quite lush and forested close the Mediterranean, and the cavern entrance was very close to the sea. In fact, one of the towns that was frequently raided by the Mavericks was a fishing village. Locals had been suffering for close to half a year now, but the Hunters hadn't given a damn; they were too busy focusing on the larger picture. But with an army now at his disposal, Chance looked like a major threat in their eyes.

In Taggs' eyes, however, at such a high altitude the situation didn't seem to hit him very much. All he could think about was how it was a long, long way down...

The bay door of the dropship groaned open, and air whipped around the seven Reploids in the staging area. Six of them weren't used to the high-speed winds, but the tactical leader for the mission, Calibur, was unaffected by it. "Okay, once more," the silver-and-blue Hunter commander shouted over the whistling gales, "The Eternals will jump first, use their boosters to slow their descent, and secure a landing zone. The Lockes will jump next: Midnight and Shandor, you know how to use your parachutes, right? Good! And Lafteroth, you have wings right? Excellent! From the LZ, you will move forward and infiltrate the base; I don't know how you're going to get into the base, but once you find Chance and incapacitate him, Shandor will activate the beacon and we'll drop in and secure you all. Understood?"

There was a chorus of nods, none of them knowing if their voices could be heard over the wind and instead opting to say nothing. Calibur gave them a signal, and immediately the Eternals jumped backwards and began free-falling towards the ground below. In mid-air, they had a brief burst-transmission conversation:

Coal: So we all know the plan, right? Taggs and I will storm and Tome will sneak.

Tome: Yeah, about that: why do I have to go sneaking through the base? I should be running through the defenses!

Taggs: No you shouldn't. Out of the three of us, you're the quietest, and we can't trust Lafteroth to finish her mission alone.

Tome: I dunno, Taggs, you seem capable of trusting her quite a lot.

Coal: ...wait, what?

Taggs: Don't let the ground knock the wind out of you, sneeze-boy.

With that last sentence, Taggs powered up to 250 and hit his dash thrusters, slowing his descent dramatically. Coal and Tome did the same, breaking their falls with ease. They turned off their thrusters, let themselves fall further at a quicker rate, then re-engaged them, once again slowing down. Continuing this pattern, they neared the ground and hit the ground for a perfect landing. Busters up, they scanned the surrounding areas: a lot of shrubs and a few tall trees, but nothing that could severely hinder movement. After scanning the horizon for hostiles, they knew it was clear; a moment later, the Lockes touched down three feet behind them.

"Ugh, these things pinch," Shandor whined, slicing the harness of his parachute with one of his beam sais and watching as the material floated to the ground. "I don't ever want to do that again."

"You complain too much," Midnight said monotonously, easily undoing the clasps and pulling the harness off without damaging it. "Though I could've just used my psychic waves to slow my descent... no need for this infernal contraption."

"You're both whiners," said Lafteroth, alighting silently on the ground. She had large black wings that suddenly seemed to melt back into her emerald-colored armor. It was smooth as glass, and Taggs had marveled at the technology when she demonstrated how it actually slid out of her gauntlets and covered her entire body. When Coal had asked how it worked, she simply shrugged and said "Nanites" as if that explained everything.

At the moment, however, Coal couldn't care less. "Shut up, all of you," the grey-armored Reploid growled. "We have a mission to do, and as much as I'd like to not do it, if we don't the Hunters will kill our brother." The Locke siblings quieted down (though Lafteroth stuck her tongue out at the Eternal) and the entire group proceeded to advance silently through the underbrush towards their objective.

After about five minutes of crawling, the six of them finally reached the gaping cavern entrance. A large metal blast door had been slammed down over the large cave and welded into place, a smaller doorway having been cut out of it and a door installed in it. There were two sentries in heavy combat armor, and Midnight could sense a couple of Ride Armors plus pilots concealed in the surrounding bushes and quickly informed the others of his discoveries.

"Heavy armor," Tome whispered, "Think he expects us?"

"He obviously only expects average Hunters," Taggs said, "If he knew that we would be here, there would be a more powerful force waiting for us. Shandor, Coal, take those two Ride Armors. Do it silently; don't alert the sentries. Tome, as soon as the heaviest armors are out of the picture, I want you to take out the guards."

No one said anything, but immediately they moved into action. Shandor and Coal disappeared into the bushes, Tome moved up to the front of the group, and they waited. It took a few seconds, but finally a glowing red gem could be seen where a Ride Armor had been stationed, and a single orange sai where the other was supposed to be. Recognizing it as the sign, Tome rushed forward, becoming only a blur as he raced towards the sentries. With two well-aimed punches, the Mavericks were on the ground unconscious and with blood pouring from their faces before anybody knew what happened. The remaining three infiltrators emerged from the bushes and approached the large slab of metal that covered the natural entrance.

"That's some nice handiwork, Tome," Taggs said with true admiration.

"Thanks," the red-and-blue armored Reploid replied before starting to fiddle with the door controls. Suddenly, two gargantuan shapes came thumping out of the bushes and stepped into the faint moonlight: Coal and Shandor operated two Ride Armors and brought them to a halt on either side of the four Reploids. It had the standard round upper body and boxish leg module, but protruding from the back was a stabilizing fin that housed a jump-jet array. Instead of two fists, it had extremely bulky arm units with four round spikes sticking out and pointing straight ahead.

Shandor, from his high chair, huffed haughtily. "Can you believe this? They were going to try and take us out with Kangaroo models."

"Don't be so quick to judge," Coal and Midnight said in unison. After a moment to get over how strange that was, Coal continued: "According to the onboard schematics, there's a gatling mode. I'm assuming that it fires a steady stream of spikes at the enemy. They could have caught us off guard easily if your brother hadn't seen them."

"Sensed," Midnight corrected, tapping his forehead, "But yes, your assumption is correct. I'm assuming the extra bulk in the arms is where the extra ammunition is housed." The two would have continued conversing like this, except they were interrupted by a frustrated snarl from Tome.

"Damn you, door!" He cried out, formed his buster, and immediately began to shoot the titanium obstruction to no avail. Finally Taggs reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back.

"Knock it off, idiot!" the black-and-gold armored Eternal hissed. "What do you want to do, alert the whole damn complex to our presence?"

"Allow me," Midnight interjected, extending a hand. It glowed a dim purple, and suddenly the door's hinges were on fire. After having its primary support melted right off its surface, the door teetered and fell outwards, towards the group. Midnight took a step back, and the end of the titanium slab hit the ground just an inch from his toes.

Shandor climbed out of his armor and strode through the entryway as Coal motioned to his slightly-older brother. "Taggs, get in Shandor's armor. We can use it for our rampage." The black-and-gold armored Reploid gave an evil grin and hopped in, gunning the ignition and waiting for the rest of the group to get a little ahead of them. After Lafteroth, the last of the group to enter, disappeared from sight, the pair waited an additional two minutes.

"Well, let's get started then," Taggs said, and both stormed into the complex, taking a good chunk of the protective metal covering with them.

Maverick Underground Citadel - Vent System; Syria

22:11 March 11th 2151

Tome Eternal and Lafteroth Locke were pressed on their stomachs, crawling through the ventilation system with their hands and knees. The plan was simple: there were three routes through the base. One direct one through heavy defenses and security measures that would lead right to Chance; this was the route Coal and Taggs were going to take, what with being the best fighters. The second route didn't lead to the Maverick Eternal at all, instead heading to a mainframe where the Hunters wanted some information extracted; Midnight and Shandor took that route, since it only had medium security measures. The final route was also a direct path to the Maverick leader, but involved the much-cliché activity of crawling through vents in order to reach him. This was much stealthier, thus Tome and Lafteroth had been assigned to it.

Of course, the mission planner (Taggs) had failed to observe that Tome was not stealthy. Instead, the red-and-blue armored Eternal was merely so fast that he could hardly be seen. Now, cramped up in a tight space and forced to crawl forward with only his hands and ankles behind a mercenary who had, last night, succeeded in incapacitating them and bringing them into Hunter custody. He was truly loathing having to shoulder his way through a cramped space with his unwieldy armor... though he had to admit, being behind had a nice view...

"One word about my crotch and I'll kick your teeth in through your helmet," Lafteroth growled, venom dripping from her voice and her foot twitching to prove that she did not make idle threats. Tome paused for a moment, wondering if perhaps she was psychic, before continuing the pace.

Continuing through the vents, Tome stopped once or twice after hearing something. He couldn't be sure what it was or where it was coming from, but he knew it was there. Every time he stopped to listen, though, it immediately vanished from his consciousness. "Do you hear that?" He finally asked his partner.

"Hear what?" she asked, pausing as her heart skipped a beat. She couldn't allow the plan to fall apart, not this far along.

"It's... it's like the sound of someone who's not making any sound," Tome said, then realized how silly that sounded. "Perhaps it's nothing."

"Stay alert anyway," Lafteroth replied. "We can't afford to be discovered yet."

Tome nodded as they continued to inch forward, drawing ever nearer to their goal.

Maverick Underground Citadel - Grand Hallway, Syria;

22:14 March 11th, 2151

At first, the sounds of an engagement were very far off. The guards were, of course, concerned: another Hunter fire team meant more trouble. Every time one tried to break into the base, Lord Chance himself would come out and fight them, and would leave a very large mess for the guards to clean up. One of them sighed in frustration; he had literally just finished scraping Hunter brains off the ceiling yesterday...

Suddenly, the battle was right on top of them... rather, it was a slaughter. Two Kangaroo Ride Armors came skating down the hallway on dash jets. The ceiling arced sharply upward, giving clearance for one of the armors to leap into the air and come crashing down on one guard, smashing him into a fine paste. Which one did. The other sped forward, brought its spiked arm back, and lunged forward. The spikes easily slammed the second guard up against the wall, impaling him and killing him slowly while the armor's second arm fired a volley of rocket-spikes into a third guard, tearing through the synthetic flesh with frightening ease.

With all three guards dead, that section of hallway was clear, and the armors continued to skate forward. Loud sirens began to blare and red lights flashed. Taggs stole a glance at Coal. "You think one of them finally reported the disturbance?" He asked.

"That, or we tripped a sensor," Coal shrugged. "We are doing this so they notice us and not the other teams. And hey, if we get lucky, maybe they'll send some other Ride Armors after us. That'd be much more of a challenge!" Taggs nodded, his eyes seemed to be drawn to Coal's right "fist". He immediately chuckled and pointed. The grey-armored Eternal followed his gaze and noticed the body of one of the guards was still stuck to the spikes. With an "ew" and a wave of the massive gauntlet the corpse was dislodged and sent flying through the air.

The alarms continued to blare, the lights continued to flash, and infantry troops began to pour into the hallway. The Eternals in the armors continued to decimate them, often just dashing forward and using the armors' mass to crush anybody in their way. Finally some of the Mavericks began to bring anti-armor weapons; an anti-matter blast was fired and neatly took the left arm off Taggs' armor. The Eternal responded by promptly firing a single spike, nailing the Maverick to the wall and allowing the weapon to clatter to the ground. Countless casualties later, the infantry was in full scale retreat with their own Ride Armors coming to engage the enemy.

Coal let out a low, uncharacteristic whistle. "Look at that! Five Hawks, two Raidens, and a Goliath! Brother's been busy," he commented with a smirk underneath his helmet. His brother just nodded, obviously focused on the Goliath. It was massively armed and armored, with missile pods and fully-charged energy weapons, not to mention melee spikes much like those on the Kangaroos. Two-inch thick Titanium plating protected the pilot, who also wore a heavy helmet and probably heavy combat armor in addition to the armor's defenses. The black-and-gold armored Eternal knew that he should be the first target, but was unable to act upon this as the Hawks immediately opened up with their rocket launchers. Still having enough height clearance, the Kangaroos leaped over the initial volley and fired their spikes downward. While the sharpened projectiles filleted the Chimera armors instantly, the Hawk armors were reinforced with extra plating; the spikes merely bounced off harmlessly. As the Kangaroos fell back to the ground, the Hawks adapted the tactics of their enemy. Using their flight engines, the five armors lifted off the ground and hovered in the air, firing a second volley of devastating explosives. The Kangaroos reacted immediately, though one didn't react fast enough; Taggs' armor was struck by several rockets and the Reploid inside barely jumped out before his vehicle combusted. He hit the ground hard but quickly leapt to his feet. His core boosted itself up to 341 and he engaged his dash thrusters, launching himself into the air at one of the Hawks. Gripping its arm, the Eternal brought up his beam saber and slashed high, slicing off the pilot's head. His body remaining in the armor with its foot on the appropriate pedal, the armor stayed in the air.

Taggs immediately took action. The other armor pilots hadn't noticed what he had just done, so he quickly jumped on top and slammed the joystick with his foot, realigning the armor to face the other four. He then toed the fire command, launching armor-piercing rockets that embedded themselves in the other armors and exploded, knocking them out of the sky. The very last armor, however, managed to squeeze off a rocket at Taggs' armor. It exploded underneath the Eternal, sending him tumbling to the ground far below. Landing face-first, he let out a pained groan and rolled over onto his back, his limited self-repair system righting all the circuits that had been wronged when he struck the ground.

The black-and-gold Reploid felt the footsteps more than heard them as Coal walked his armor over to his brother so he could look down at him. "You alright?" came the grey armored Reploid's query. It was well disguised as merely a curious question, but his brother sensed a twinge of concern that could not be concealed.

"Peachy," was Taggs' reply. "I was thinking I might just lie here for a while, enjoy the stunning view of the... ceiling..." Suddenly, his sarcasm was interrupted by a crackling sound, followed by a voice that both he and Coal immediately recognized:

"My brothers, do not continue to destroy my base," boomed the indisputable voice of Chance. "If you cease your rampant swath of chaos, I have something in my chambers that I think you would enjoy..." As his voice trailed off, the two Eternals in the hallway heard a cry in the background, and immediately Taggs tensed up. He recognized that voice anywhere.

Chance had Lafteroth.