It's Like Being Born Again. Pt 16
Author chick's notes: Things are getting tense! Disclaimers are in Pt 1.
It's Like Having Born Again. Pt 16
Three months had passed since the raid on the Pit. In his outrage, Cobra Commander had ordered the former Joe headquarters destroyed. In the bunker, the Joes watched as their former home was razed to the ground. "That son of a bitch is gonna pay." Stalker said as they watched the dust settle.
The recall efforts had begun in earnest, within a month of the raid the group had swelled from just over a dozen to almost the full Joe team. Some of them were unreachable, some listed as casualties. The October Guard had been reformed almost in its entirety as well. Colonel Brekhov agreed with the Joe senior officers to take joint command of the force and meld his Guard with the rest of the Joes. The only Guard member they couldn't track down was Horror Show. He was added to the list of possibles that had been whipped up in case someone did come across the huge Russian later.
Duke was leaning over Breaker's shoulder as he pulled up the final roster. Both men winced at the list marked 'casualty-KIA'.
Armbruster, Bradley J
Ace
Kelly, Gabriel A
Barbeque
Gorky, Mikhail P
Lt. Gorky (October Guard, Naval)
Abernathy, Clayton M
Hawk (General)
Metzger, Wendell A
Leatherneck
Delgado, Hector X
Shipwreck
Iron-knife Charlie
Spirit
The names all rang hard as Duke and Breaker read them. Memories of each man flooded him to the point of tears as Breaker wiped his eyes and scrolled down to clear the list from the screen. Duke's jaw was clenched as he too felt each name carve itself into his memory. "They'll be avenged." Duke choked out as he went down the list of active Joes now hiding out at the bunker.
"Hell yeah they will." Breaker vowed. With the exception of Ace, the rest had died in various skirmishes as resistance fighters.
"If this is our fallen comrades you speak of, then yes…COBRA blood will spill for their loss." Colonel Brekhov vowed to the men as he stepped over to join them. Duke acknowledged Brekhov as Breaker showed him the most complete duty roster to date. "If this is our force, I am impressed." The Colonel mumbled as he read the names and each person's qualifications.
"We'll get even if it kills us." Duke said, his face set in stone as he turned a monitor on that showed training exercises going on out in the nearby forest. Duke and Brekhov watched as their united teams worked as a solid cohesive force. They had agreed that military protocol would be cut back to allow each soldier his or her Resistance attained skills to shine through.
"Hey Duke?" Dialtone piped up from the communications consol he was working. "Flash called, says they're ready to test fire the proto type they have." He said as he punched up a feed from a remote firing range.
The shot was somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. There was an abandoned building and some of the scraped COBRA vehicals, the Baroness had scrounged up set up. A lone figure, dressed head to toe in black and silver stood in the center of the screen. Duke and Brekhov watched as Sci-Fi took aim at the set up with the proto type. "Is he hesitating?" Brekhov asked, when he saw no movement come from the man. "Why doesn't…he…shoot?" Brekhov stammered when he saw the air in front of Sci-Fi begin to waver, the building begun to crumble, and the vehicals fall apart at the seams.
Duke got on the line to Flash. "Is Sci-Fi alright?" He asked, nervous after having seen what had happened to the COBRA's who had test-fired Destro's version of the weapon.
He let out a sigh of relief when Sci-Fi answered him instead. "Yeah, I'm fine." The sound of Tripwire thanking the gods was heard over the net as Sci-Fi continued. "There's a problem though."
Flash could be heard speaking up. "What's that?"
"This thing fried itself completely when I pulled the trigger."
"Damn! Musta been something in the wiring then?" Short Fuze cursed over the line.
"Maybe dude, but at …oh wait a minute?" Sci-Fi said as the camera followed him over towards the settling ruins of the set up. "Hey? Tell Doc I'm gonna bring something in. I found a friggin squirrel moving around in here." He said, holding up the dazed animal for the camera to see.
"Fine, but no you can't keep it." Duke laughed over the line. Brekhov laughed when he heard Sci-Fi retort 'aw can I huh?'. "Alright, get back here and see what you can do about the weapon." Duke added as he recalled the group back.
Later in the lab, Short Fuze was hunched over the microscope swearing as he examined pieces of the dismantled sonic gun. "I figured this thing to nth degree and STILL nadda…shit!" Short Fuze looked up from the microscope and over to Tripwire who was examining the body of the gun. "It's good for one shot only. No matter what we do to make this thing stable. Any weaker and it's useless." He added in frustration.
"The frame can only tolerate one shot I think." Tripwire said as he removed his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "There's hairline fractures all over this thing." He said. "How did it go?" He asked as Sci-Fi walked into the lab holding the squirrel he'd found at the test site.
"I'm fine Babe, not a single thing wrong with me." Sci-Fi answered.
"To bad, and here I was thinking it might have re-scrambled the brains back into gear." Short Fuze teased.
"I won't even honor that comment with a snide remark dude." Sci-Fi said, giving Short Fuze the finger while he was at it. "I'm cool, but Diz here has one hell of a case of vertigo." Sci-Fi added referring to the squirrel laying limp in his gloved hand. "That thing completely scrambled his brains. Doc figures it'll do the same to anyone within range of the thing"
"Diz?" Tripwire asked, pointing to the squirrel.
"Hell yeah, he can't stand straight for more then a few seconds, and watching him walk is a scream." Sci-Fi explained, scratching the creature's head.
"You named it Diz?" Tripwire confirmed.
"Babe I'm keeping the little guy…provided he doesn't drop dead or anything." Sci-Fi said. Tripwire rolled his eyes and went back to examining the gun frame. Occasionally he'd mutter under his breath about not needing children, seeing as he already had one he slept with.
Short Fuze meanwhile explained what they had discovered while Sci-Fi was getting the once over from Doc. "Well, we have one shot then." Sci-Fi said looking at the remaining proto-type sitting on the workbench.
"Yeah but how are we gonna take as many snakes as possible with one shot?" Short Fuze asked. Leila entered then with the answer.
"The Baroness just informed me of the Emperor's plans for World COBRA day." She said, referring to the anniversary of the take over. "The Emperor himself will hold a formal gathering of his troops at the palace, followed by the usual fare." She added.
Tripwire, Flash, and Sci-Fi all looked at Short Fuze as a grin bloomed on his face. They watched, as he would look at the map of the capitol, then turn his gaze to the remaining prototype, then back to the map. Occasionally his gaze would shift to Sci-Fi as he plotted in his head, the angles needed and the range of the weapon. "Well?" Flash asked after a few minutes.
"If we can get Sci-Fi to the top of the Capitol building, he'll have a clean shot as they come marching down Pennsylvania Ave." Short Fuze said, as he made sure his calculations were right. "Yep, if they do what they usually do and parade the troops down the road, you'll have a clean shot and probably take out the bulk of their army in the process." Short Fuze surmised.
Sci-Fi was also calculating the trajectory in his head and figuring in the range he would have. "Now, that'll work if he does indeed plan on marching the troops, like he usually does." He turned to Leila. Before even being asked, she grinned and nodded that yes the annual celebration would go off as it had the last four times since COBRA had taken over. "Kewl. Bang goes the cavalry." Sci-Fi grinned.
"How long do we have before that happens then?" Duke asked as he walked in, he'd heard most of their discussion and was already formulating plans together.
"A week from this Friday." Leila answered. "Or ten days if you wish to be more precise." She smiled.
"Right then. We've got work to do." Duke said as he turned back out to leave.
Later that afternoon, Leila was in the Baroness' office at her mansion in the capitol. She had just finished informing her mistress of the Joes plans and how it would all come about on the day of the celebration. "Perfect. I have the timetables and everything they need to execute this." The Baroness grinned as she handed over a disc to Leila. Leila sat opposite her with her head in her hand. "Are you alright?" She asked in concern for her faithful servant.
"Just tired." Leila answered as she raised her head up to accept the disc.
"Rest then. We have some time and you have been working yourself ragged keeping everyone informed." She dismissed Leila.
Leila curtsied as she left the office and went back to the bunker. Grunt found her later that night fast asleep in bed. He tucked the covers that she had kicked off, back around her after he too slipped into bed. He'd heard from the Baroness that she had been ordered to rest and he didn't disturb her when he woke the next morning to begin another grueling round of training.
He returned later that morning to find her just waking up as he showered off the latest 'session in the dirt' as he had begun calling the drills. She was in the kitchen fixing herself something to eat when he got out of the bathroom. Stepping over to his dresser, he reached under some clothing and fingered the velvet box hidden there. Remembering what he promised himself he pulled out a clean set of cloths and closed the drawer. He'd vowed to present the ring to her, after he had survived the attack on COBRA the following week.
To Be Continued…
