Chapter Twenty-Three: Hammerhead City, Part One
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Thunderbolts raced on towards the base.

"Exactly how do we get in, John?" asked Tommy. "I don't see a docking bay!"

"…There! That vent in the rock surface. It's big enough for a VF to fly through. How many missiles do you have?"

"Just two, not counting the packs."

John chuckled. "That'll do. I'm same. We use them on the vent cover, then slip in using Soldier Mode."

"Got it." They both locked onto the cover, and fired their missiles. The four deadly projectiles found their target and blew the cover into shards. The Thunderbolts transformed into their humanoid configurations, and came to a hover over the now-open vent.

"I'll go in first," said John.

"No, I think I should. Kina's my girlfriend, after all."

"Point taken. Go ahead." Tommy's VF-11 descended into the vent, followed by John's.

"We'll have to move quickly once we break into the main facility," said John. "Unless we get REAL lucky, we'll have to cause an atmosphere breach to get in, and they'll be able to detect the vacuum forming."

"Okay. Let's just hope we can FIND a way into the main facility from here." They approached the bottom of the vent. Tommy's fighter landed, and walked forward, allowing room for John's. The vent had widened here, enough for both machines to walk side-by-side. They headed forward for several hundred yards, eventually coming to a T-junction.

Tommy groaned. "Damn it! I was worried about this!"

"Relax. Let's just pick directions and go with them."

"And suppose we end up going in circles?"

John sighed. "Maybe if we never pick the same direction twice in a row, that won't happen."

"Works for me. Let's go!"

They turned left at the first junction, then right at the second. Another left, and they came to a dead end.

"John…!"

"I didn't know! How could I have known?!" John's VF-11 walked right up to the wall and kicked it. The impact tore away a chunk of the wall, revealing several wires and circuits.

"Hey, way to go, John!"

"Oh, will you give me a break?!"

"No, I meant it. Maybe we can use those wires for something."

John sweatdropped. "Oh…well, in that case…" John's Thunderbolt positioned its arm near the exposed circuitry. A panel opened, and several small manipulators emerged. John pressed a button on his instrument panel, and a viewing window appeared on the HUD canopy.

"I'm checking it out. If we're lucky, maybe this will turn out to be a door or something."

The manipulators reached into the hole made by the kick and the camera feeds showed John a perfect view of the wiring.

"What's the verdict, John?" asked Tommy.

"…It's an airlock…sort of. I can tell from the wiring. The other side of this wall has got to be inside the main building. If I open it up…we'll be able to get in, but they'll know about it because of the sudden pressure loss."

"Couldn't you disable the alarms?"

John took another careful look, then sighed. "Nope. Not possible. It's all related to the airlock in here. Sorry, but it looks like we'll have to run it. Maybe there's a way to minimize it."

"Meaning…?"

John rolled his eyes. "Meaning we both will be long gone by the time anybody comes to check it out. Get ready." The manipulators opened to reveal a pair of mini-shears. They hovered over the wires in an almost tentative fashion. "Let's see…which is the sweet one…?"

"Please, God, don't let him cut the wrong one…!" thought Tommy.

The manipulators stopped at a yellow wire. John pressed a button on his control stick, and the shears cut the wire. Immediately, the wall lifted away, and air began blowing forcefully into the corridor.

"It's open!" cried John. "Go! Go now!" Tommy's VF-11 immediately leapt through the open airlock. John's quickly withdrew its manipulators and followed. They both landed in a dark hallway.

"Let's get down the hall!" The two aircraft rushed through the hallway, John leading this time.

A very short while later…

"Sir? Sir?!"

Var looked up from his computer screen. "What is it?"

"A report from Operations. They've detected an atmosphere leak in Section B-10."

Var blinked. "Atmosphere leak? From what, an attack by those fighters that showed up?"

"No…according to the operations officers, it was an airlock from the vents."

Var sighed. "Did you send in the security?"

"Yes, sir. They didn't see anything, but are guarding the workers sent in to re-seal the breach…"

Meanwhile, somewhere inside the base…

"Hey, did you hear about the open airlock?"

"Yeah. They're still figuring out what happened. We'd better keep on our toes in any case."

"Right. Well, my shift's up. I'm going to head down that way."

"Okay. Remember, watch yourself…"

The young male Zentraedi turned the corner and walked down the hallway. As he did, he was unaware of the storage room door opening behind him. Thus, it came as quite a surprise when the butt of a gun pod made contact with the back of his head.

John's Thunderbolt dragged the stunned Zentraedi Hammerhead into the room, shutting the door behind it.

"Okay, Tommy. Get him in a good hold, and keep your hand over his pie-hole."

"Right." Tommy's VF-11 held the Zentraedi from behind, with its left hand over his mouth. John bumped him in the face with his gun pod.

"All right, you jacketed piece of filth, wake up!"

The Zentraedi opened his eyes. Upon seeing John's Thunderbolt, he instinctively tried to call out, but that plan was thwarted by the large metal hand on his mouth.

"Mmm! Mmm!"

John scowled. "Don't try anything funny, understand? You speak in anything above a whisper, and you WILL regret it!" The Zentraedi nodded. "Good. Now, we want to know where the detention area is. Remember, quietly…!"

Tommy's Thunderbolt removed its hand. The Zentraedi took a breath, and then spilled. "It's two levels down. But…you'll never make it down there! Our leader keeps that section guarded almost as tightly as his own office and personal quarters!"

John chuckled. "Wanna bet? Thanks for the info. Now, this is going to hurt a little bit." He hit the Zentraedi over the head again, this time knocking him completely out. Tommy slowly lowered him to the floor.

"This is going to be harder than we thought," said Tommy dejectedly. "How do we get down through the levels without getting spotted?"

"I'm not sure…the only thing I can think of is that we leave the 'Bolts here and sneak in on foot."

Tommy sweatdropped. "That's crazy! Too many of the guards and men are Zentraedi. We'd have to really pull off a sneak job to survive!" Tommy sighed, then brightened. "Wait…this place has to have vents going between rooms as well as to the outside, right?"

"Yeah, for heating. But would they be big enough to fit a VF? And, for that matter, could they hold the weight?"

Tommy grinned. "Only one way to find out." He looked around the storage room, and found a large heating duct running along the joint where the wall met the ceiling. "Jackpot!" His Thunderbolt went over to it and, hovering up on thrusters, removed the covering on the duct. Tommy then carefully maneuvered himself into the vent. He noticed that it was unusually tall; the VF-11 only had to duck down slightly to avoid tearing a gash in the top of the vent. Very fortunately, the bottom didn't collapse under the more than nine thousand kilograms put upon it by the fighter.

"I'm right behind you, Tommy. Let's just hope they don't have one set of ducts per level." They carefully moved through the ducts. Eventually, they reached a vertical drop. They descended slowly, trying not to make more noise than was impossible to avoid. The drop seemed to go on forever. They didn't reach another horizontal corridor until it had seemed they should have passed about ten levels.

"This is ridiculous," said Tommy. "I can't stand this…!"

"Tommy, we've got more problems than just that. It's really grainy because of all the metal and such surrounding us, but I've been getting some ominous stuff from the regulation band. Tune in and listen."

Tommy changed radio frequencies.

"…Final confirmation…for UNSS California…one point five hours…" The message was suddenly squelched entirely. Tommy's eyes were huge as he switched back to the frequency he was using previously.

"Dear, God…anything but THAT ship!" thought Tommy. He took a deep breath before speaking. "John, they're going to sic the California on this base!"

John nodded. "I caught that name, too. The only New Macross-class battle section in these parts right now. Nothing's going to survive once it gets here…!"

"We've got an hour and a half, according to the transmission. We've got to get Kina out of here!!"

"Calm down, man! We'll make it," said John in an easy tone. "Just keep your mind focused."

"Right, right." As Tommy said this, they finally reached the prison level. They went through the horizontal corridor, and eventually found themselves looking out a grate into a room. It looked like some kind of control room. Oddly enough, there was only one guard on duty.

"I thought that guy said this level was heavily guarded," said John.

"Think he could've been lying?"

"Dunno, but we'd better do something quick, 'cause that guy's coming this way!" Sure enough, the single guard was moving under the vent. He stayed there for a couple of seconds, then returned to where he was before, muttering something about swearing he heard something under his breath. Tommy swore under his breath.

"That was a little too close. How do we surprise the guy?"

John thought for a second, then looked down the corridor. He noticed another grate, this one set in the bottom. He grinned devilishly. "I know. Hold on." He started moving towards the grate.

"John, what are you doing?! You're going to blow our cover!!"

"Just watch, and you'll get it." John went up close to where the grate was, and gave the wall several light raps with his Thunderbolt's hand. The guard immediately got up, rifle readied, and rushed over to investigate. As he did, Tommy knew what his role was. He carefully but quickly pulled out the side grate and hovered out into the room.

"Who's in there?!" demanded the guard. He was completely distracted by the rapping and did not notice Tommy, who quickly took the initiative and knocked the guard silly with the pod stock. John's fighter then exited the vent and entered the room.

"Well, that was different. Now, let's see where we are…" The room was full of computers and monitors.

Tommy's eyebrows lifted. "I think this is supposed to be the security monitor room. Which means that someone else may come in any second. If we're to do something here, we should do it PDQ and get out!"

"Look for any monitors that show the cells. We'll be able to find Kina." It didn't take them long to find the right computer screen. It showed a grid-like area, with a single block colored pink and all the others blacked out. A short ways off from the pink block was a large rectangle filled in with a teal and a gold star in the center…an obvious "You are Here" sign.

"That's got to be it, John. It's not far. Let's go!"

"Wait! It can't be THIS easy! Check the hallways first."

Tommy's VF opened the door a crack and peered outside with its optics. To Tommy's horror, there were about five guards in the hallway! There weren't any windows into the monitor room, so they had not been spotted yet.

"Oh, hell…there's no way we can get out of here without getting caught!" cried Tommy.

"Oh, yes there is…!" chuckled John. "Check THIS out…" He pressed a button on one of the control panels. Immediately, the lights went red, and an alarm started buzzing like crazy.

"What did you do?"

"Fire alarm! They'll be clearing out in droves now!"

Tommy laughed. "Nice one, John!" He again opened the door a crack, and found the hallway deserted. "It's clear! C'mon!"

They left the security room and headed over to the cells. It didn't take them long to make it to where Kina was held. The cell had an electronic lock on it.

"It's sealed tight…I'll just smash it," said Tommy as his Thunderbolt raised its gun pod. John's stopped him.

"Now, now, that's not necessary. Watch and learn, my friend." John activated the manipulators again. This time, he had one with a data probe on it. He inserted it into a hole on the side of the locking mechanism. It came to life and began sifting through the combinations.

"Come on, baby…give daddy the code…c'mon…got it!" The lock beeped, and a click could be heard.

"Way to go, man!" They opened the door. Immediately, Kina saw them and cried out.

"AAH! Leave me alone!"

Tommy quickly turned up the volume on his loudspeaker. He wanted no mistake. "Kina, it's me!"

"…Tommy?" She focused her eyes a little. Sure enough, the fighters before her had U.N. markings. "It's really you!" She immediately rushed forward, startling Tommy slightly. She put her hands on the shoulders of the Thunderbolt.

"Kina…"

She held up a finger. "Shh. You don't have to say anything. I knew I'd be rescued, and I knew it was going to be you."

Tommy smiled. "I'm so glad you're okay…"

Kina opened her mouth to say more, but John interrupted her. "Excuse me, guys. I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion, but it won't mean anything if we don't get out in about an hour."

Kina blinked. "What does he mean?"

Tommy didn't want to say, but he didn't have much of a choice. "The U.N. Spacy is going to bring in one of its ships, the California. It's a New Macross battle section."

Kina looked at him quizzically for a second. "New Macross…?" She brightened. "Oh! Aren't those the battleships that tow colonies, and have that really big gun?" The color then drained from her face. "Tommy, please don't tell me that…!"

"Yeah…they're gonna lay waste to this base with the California's Macross Cannon…"

Kina gulped. "Oh, my God…!"

"The only way to survive is to get the hell out of here," said John. "Let's hurry!"