The Last and Only Romance
Michael Collins
Part III: Entering the Fortress
We stocked up on supplies and headed out.
I was surprised at Mei-Ling's courage. She barely hesitated when she decided to come with us. It seemed to me like she'd been waiting for something to do with her life, much as I had when I'd watched T-260G fight in the arena at Junk.
Caballero's factory was to the north of town and covered most of Scrap. It was guarded by well-armed robots and fierce soldiers. It wouldn't be easy, but I knew battle tactics. I advised the group that sneaking in and taking them out one by one would be the safest way. It wouldn't be glorious, wouldn't be clean. But we were serious. We were going to end Caballero's reign of terror, and we were going to get revenge for Thyme's kidnapping.
Riki was more than nervous at the concept. As Mei-Ling had said, he was nothing more than a child. Witless and confused, he nevertheless didn't falter when we entered the facility. I admired his tenacity, but I had to worry about myself. I was no fool; I knew that I could easily die. I'd never really worried about my own life that much. I wasn't doing the world much good anyway, and I wasn't all that happy. However, now I was depended on. Although he was a Mec, T-260G had become a strange sort of friend. Riki was nearly defenseless, and was too innocent to leave alone. Mei-Ling, I had known for only a day, but I could see a potential for something. Something with me, something better than what I had now. She looked perfect for me, I could find nothing wrong with her; And her personality was, so far, the same. There was a fundamental distrust about her, but that I could understand. I was much the same.
Thus I made a promise to myself. Stay alive as long as the others escaped from the facility. Protect them at any cost, and maybe I would have done something good, for once.
When we reached the facility, I motioned for the others to wait. I drew my sword, a KukriBlade, and jumped behind a pile of junk metal. A robot guard was standing silently on the other side, lights on its head blinking and small sensors rotating. Quietly, I rounded the pile of parts and plunged my sword into the back of the Mec, then drew it out, tearing the vital circuitry than ran from the head to the energy source. I grabbed the Mec before it could fall to the ground and clatter, and dragged it out of sight.
The way was clear. I motioned to the others to go forward. We'd go through the small supply room to the east of the factory, then find our way to the door.
We progressed. T-260G and I put down any guards and Mecs that chanced upon us. Luckily, the path we had chosen did not cross among too many of them. We wanted to make as little disruption as possible, and we also didn't want to kill anyone unnecessarily. We were after Caballero, not anyone else.
We arrived at the entrance. We waited a moment to get ready. There would be many of Caballero's cohorts inside those two huge metal doors. I looked at Mei-Ling and Riki enquiringly, and they nodded.
We ran forward and busted through the doors.
It was chaos.