Here Without You, Baby

Chapter Twelve: Code Name: M2

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

"We cannot let Molotov use that weapon on anyone. EVER." Crass said, disturbed by what he saw.

"That wasn't from any kind of charged particle cannon I've ever seen." Joanna noted. "Heck, I've never seen that. Usually, Terran weaponry has a really fast firing rate that has a small area of affect. But this weapon is slow with an extremely large area of affect."

"Whatever it is, we're taking it down," Crass said, going into the driver's seat of his Hummer. The Rogues followed and they all headed back to their base. They all went into the X and finally approached their target site.

"All the other teams are in position," Joanna reported. "We'll all attack at 0000 hours."

"Good. Mark, set us down near the front of their base."

"Aye, aye commander," Mark said. The X touched down and everyone went into the lounge to wait the half an hour remaining. Marlene went to the door and beckoned Crass.

"What's up?" he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"We're gonna get lucky today," she said, beaming a smile. Scales covered her face.

"What the hell?!" Crass said, stepping back, taken by surprise. Marlene was in the HES's space mode and had her primary gun pointed at the Rogues.

"That's our mission Crass. To take out the Rogues by any means necessary."

"Marlene! What are you doing?!" Crass said, trying to get in her way.

"It was brilliant of you to pretend that you were their commander, letting them think you were actually on their side," she said. "But I think we've pretended enough. Its time to do our job," she said. The sound of her MPPC charging made everyone panic.

"So that was it? This was all a charade?" Amy suddenly burst out. "You come out of nowhere, expecting us to take you back in, and this was all just a farce?!"

"No, I really meant to go after Molotov," Crass said, pleading to Amy for reasons he did not understand; he turned to Marlene. "Marlene, stop this foolishness. You'll get someone hurt!"

"So that's how it is? Well, either you're with the Admiral Molotov and I," she said. "Or with this filth and your girlfriend!" she said, her face suddenly distorted with hate.

"Marlene, what are you talking about?!" Crass said, desperate to get his love to clam down.

"I've heard Crass, oh I've heard. You and that beast over there used to be lovey-dovey before. Don't think I haven't seen those passes you've made on each other."

"Marlene, you're not making sense! Just calm down first."

"You think I'll just stay mute while you to frolic behind my back!" she said, her MPPC completely charged. "Well you're mistaken. I'm being a good Terran and taking all of you Rogues out," she said, spitting out the word Rogues like venom.

"Marlene!" Crass said. She fired.

"How're its readings?"

"Blood pressure, salinity, blood sugar and metabolism are normal. Bio-signature inaccuracy is below 0.0001%. Alpha and beta brainwaves are within normal range. Radiation is a bit higher then normal, but its contained."

"What about energy readings?"

"Energy dropped by 50% after the attack, but was recovered nearly instantly. I think that it will be able to independently recharge without the umbilical chord."

"You're just waiting to let it loose, aren't you?"

"Permission to speak freely, Admiral Molotov?"

"Permission granted."

"I had thought it was ready when we first tested it on the alleged Rogue's meteor."

"Well, with this signature, I certify it ready for field testing. Launch it in its first mission within next week."

"Sir!" the scientist said, and left the Admiral. The Admiral sent the document to the bureaucracy to handle the rest of the paperwork.

"I'll finally have you, Mr. Crass Fisheye!" the Admiral thought angrily to himself. Who would have ever thought that the rebel leader was under his direct command? And for two years. Admiralty was sure to demote him, so this new M2 weapon had to eliminate them to redeem his reputation.

He went back into his mountain of folders containing Intelligence flukes to see what else he had overlooked about the Rogues.

The X was eerily quiet. It seemed as if there was no one there.

"Marlene…" Crass sobbed. He had quickly activated his HES's space mode and stopped Marlene from killing everyone. The only damage that happened was there was a momentous concussion that raked the ship and its contents.

"Why Crass? Why'd you save them?" she pleaded, her HES deactiveted, followed by Crass.

"I couldn't let you just kill them…"

"So you're really one of them, eh?"

"Yeah," he sobbed, seeing the obvious hurt in her eyes.

"Then you'll understand when I do this," she said softly and wrapped his arms around him. "Crass?"

"Yes?" he asked tenderly, moving a stray hair away from her face. He stared at her eyes, wishing this moment would never end.

"I hate you!" she said acidly, and stabbed him in his gut with a knife that she had in her sleeve.

"Marlene…" Crass said in disbelief, eyes bulging with the sudden onslaught of pain.

"No!" Amy and Mark said. They ran up to the two and separated them. Mark grabbed Marlene and wrestled the knife from her. Amy put Crass on the ground.

"Don't you die on me!" she said.

"Amy?" Crass questioned.

"Don't you leave me alone!"

"But why? I've been gone for two years and been with someone else," he said confused. "Why would you care about me?"

"Because when I married you, I said I would never leave your side…" she sobbed.

"But…" he started. His eyes closed and he stopped breathing. The last thing he remembered seeing was that chapel that he had dreamed about so long ago.

I love you…

"Crass!" Amy said, crying uncontrollably. Renee finally got her nerves back and realized what had happened.

"Come on Amy, he's not done for yet!" she said, rolling Crass to the side and opening the med-pack James had scurried to retrieve.

"But…"

"You said so yourself before, 'he's been through a hell of a lot worse.'" She paused for a few seconds, thinking back to two years ago, when she had shot down Crass.

"Right," she said and did her best to assist her.

"Have you no shame?" Mark said to Marlene, who was wriggling to get free.

"Shut up!" she snapped.

"And you were his lover, too!"

"He was an enemy, just like you!" she said, and stepped on his foot. James was on top of her instantly and pinned her to the wall. Seymour came up to her with a battery and short-circuited her CORE module once again.

"There, now she wont be any more trouble."

"What do we do now, Joanna?" Mark asked.

"We have to go on with the mission."

"But what about Crass?"

"If we don't take down this thing now, we're finished. Remember, all of us have to hit that satellite at the same time or it will all have been for nothing and Crass wont be the only thing we have to worry about."

"I agree," Amy said. "The Crass I know wouldn't have us stop just for him."

"Then that settles it. We'll go with the original plan, but we'll just have one unit for the ground team."

"Right," everyone said.

"Renee will stay here and work on Crass."

"What about her?" Mark said, referring to the sedated Marlene.

"Just drop her somewhere. She's caused enough pain," said Joanna, clearly taking back command.

"Alright," he said. The X lifted off and left Marlene on the ground. The ATT was deployed at its starting point and the mechanized unit at its own. The attack started at exactly midnight.

"That's it, we got it," the ground team reported in.

"We're done too," the Zoid and HEV unit replied. It was pathetic how quickly they had taken the base over. But then, this wasn't an area that the Terrans put much defense on anyway. Almost everything was automated and the devastating blast of a Gauss slug into a nearby generator took all the defenses out. The ground team met nearly no resistance; the only people they encountered were in the control room.

"Hahahaa… just look at them squirm," Seymour said, making faces at the tied up Terrans.

"Quit that" Joanna said. "We attack in 0130 hours, so keep a lookout," she said. Seymour went to the control panel and locked onto the target.

"Whoah…" he said. The targeting computer got a visual on it, and what he saw was nothing like what he expected. "Its so big…"

It was no station. That was a research complex. It had solar arrays at least 500 feet long. It was probably as large as the old ZBC satellite (without including the station's solar arrays).

"Joanna, the Blitz team, Harry's and Naomi's team, and the Desert Foxes have said that they've captured their stations," Molly reported. "The Hell's Hounds had to retreat."

"That's okay, they had the hardest station to capture anyway." Time flew as the moment they had been waiting for had almost arrived.

"Tell them it is time to synchronize." Joanna ordered. The message was given and they all converted to a standard clock to determine when to fire. "T-minus 30" it counted down.

"Why would it need those solar panels?" Seymour suddenly blurted out.

"Yeah… they do have that really big generator, right?"

Admiral Molotov went into the lab. He had never seen the experiment himself, but he knew what it was capable of doing. The only thing he didn't like was that it used the violet wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Admiral Molotov. M2 is ready to see you," the scientist said excitedly.

"Is he, eh?"

The scientist led him to a room with heavy locks. Door by door, he could see the defenses getting more and more powerful. It must be really strong if they need all this. Not even the treasury has a safe this strong.

The last door had a picture on it. It was a cute little cat-like thing floating in the air. It was an artist's composite of what M2's ancestor looked like.

"Admiral Molotov," the scientist eagerly said, referring to the dark shape in front of him. "It would like you to meet Mew Two." Lights illuminated the creature and revealed a light-purple humanoid-like shape. It was covered with equipment that seemed to look like armor.

"We needed all that power to keep these things working?"

"Yes, sir. The spionic repressors need a lot of power to repress all the spionic energy that Mew Two has. Otherwise, he could do some serious damage. Remember, the test fire was just Mew Two's weakest spionic attack."

"Well, Mew Two. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The pleasure is all mine, Admiral Molotov, something said in his head.

"Who was that?" Molotov said, scared.

"That was Mew Two. He also has the Xi'an's ability to telekinetically communicate."

"I see." A Terran invader had discovered what seemed to be the remains of the ancestor of the Xi'an's in one of their Home Worlds. It was determined that the ancestors were much more powerful than the Xi'an, but were more submissive. After many failed attempts to clone the creature with some of its RNA, they tried fusing it with human DNA, which seemed to react. The Terran government, afraid that it might become uncontrollable, ordered that it be carried out in the most remote sector of Terran space possible.

Alarms started going off.

"3… 2… 1," the clock chimed. "Now," Joanna said and Seymour fired. On screen, five other aquamarine orbital defense lasers struck the station with their own. The areas hit by the lasers became white-hot and the station exploded.

Yay… Molotov is finally perished. I didn't really like that mangy little mutt. Did you?