And The Struggle Continues.
Author Chick's Notes: Can't have a story without a bad guy. ^^ Disclaimers in Chapter 1.
And The Struggle Continues.
Zartan looked up at his captor. The man was a former aide to Cobra Commander and after the fall of the COBRA Empire, had taken it upon himself to rebuild the world in his fallen leader's image. The Dredknocks had gone into the infiltrating business after the overthrow of the COBRA regime. Acting as COBRA supporters they had managed to get their way into smaller cells of resistance before exposing them and turning them over to the clean up forces. They had never been able to find the main centre of the COBRA forces until now, and this time it looked like they wouldn't be able to pass on what they'd found.
Torch lay bleeding to death near the Dredknock leader and as for the other two. Ripper and Monkey Wrench were in similar shape. Zartan felt his hair being yanked from behind as he was forced to look into the eyes of the man standing over him. "You pathetic little dog." The man purred. "As soon as things change you turn tail and side with the resistance."
"I'm a mercenary first, Edgewood." Zartan spit back.
"Yes, you are." Edgewood agreed. "A dead one." With that he turned from the fallen Dredknocks and snapped his fingers. Zartan felt two of the bullets as they bit into his back. He never felt the third one that ripped his skull apart.
The soldiers poured ammunition into the quartet for a full two minutes before finally ceasing fire. Edgewood turned to the macabre scene before frowning. "Clean it up." He ordered in distaste before retreating to his quarters.
The recording stopped there and Zandar faced the assembled masses in the auditorium. "I got out while they were disposing of the bodies. My job was to remain hidden 'just in case', as Zartan had put it. It seems my brother's instincts were correct."
The Baroness stepped forward to add to the presentation. "I know of this man, Edgewood. He was the Commander's aide, it seems he was paying attention to what went on with his master." She began. "I have learned since this information was brought back however that not only did he run errands, it would seem Edgewood was the brains behind the operation, if you will."
"The friggin secretary was running the show?" A voice piped up from the crowd.
"He was running Cobra Commander's part of it." Zarana spoke up. The petite woman stepped forward to add what she knew of their new quarry. "Edgewood is anything but a 'secretary'. He's a madman who is not the slightest bit afraid to commit whatever needs to be done to meet his ends. He'd make the Marquis De Sade shiver in his boots if they'd ever met. Edgewood's a sadistic bastard if there was ever one."
Zandar took the podium again. "We found them at a camp in the Cape York region of Australia. I think they might have a main headquarters somewhere in the region. Either that or somewhere else in the country."
"Oh brilliant." Short Fuse spoke up. "Cape York is only one sixth of the fucking country! It'd take days to search the whole region. It'd be like searching all of Washington, Oregon and Idaho!"
Skymate smirked from his seat. "Actually mate, try months to search it entirely. Unlike the Pacific Northwest, Cape York's relatively untouched by man."
"Great."
"That is IF you don't know the territory." Skymate added. "I from there and I know it and the natives pretty good. If they are lurking about in the bush, I reckon I could find them a hell of a lot faster then you lot."
"You have a plan then?" The Baroness asked.
"I might." Skymate replied. "Give me two weeks and the guppy." He requested, jerking his head at Torpedo. "A) A large force would slow me down. B) Any one of you Yanks would stand out like a sore thumb." Before anyone could bring up the fact that Torpedo was a 'Yank', Skymate continued. "He can be palmed off as a Maori. There are enough Kiwis living in Aussie for it to work. And lastly, the territory is more his speed, at least this time of year."
"There's one slight hiccup though." Short Fuse contended. "If I'm not mistaken, a Maori would sound like a New Zealander, not a local boy from Hawaii."
Torpedo smirked before adding to the discussion. "Its not that hard an accent to pull off." He spoke in a perfect imitation of a New Zealand accent.
"How…?"
"My Ma's Maori. I know da accent and da language." Torpedo replied in his usual voice.
The Baroness hid a smile behind her hand as the discussion went on. After Skymate was done, she asked if there were any objections to his idea. No one could think of any. "It's settled then. When can you leave?" She asked.
"How fast can you pack?" Skymate asked Torpedo.
"Ten minutes, if dat."
"Tonight's good." Skymate said.
"Very well then. I'll get a plane ready to go immediately." The Baroness purred.
"Make it a smaller one for landing in Cairns." Skymate spoke up. "Anything bigger and we'd end up in Brisbane and that's a long bloody haul up north."
It was just after dusk when the plane took off for the southern hemisphere. The pilot warned them that they'd be in for a bumpy ride too. "Sleeping might be difficult. There's a huge cyclone tearing up the South Pacific between Samoa and New Caledonia." The pilot explained.
"Reckon ya can get above it?" Skymate asked.
The pilot sighed. "We'll see when I get to it." She explained. She did manage to avoid the storm for the most part and their trip was relatively turbulence free. It wasn't until they were two hours from their destination that they got any real bad bumps caused by the seething tempest below.
Torpedo was slammed against the headrest by one of the more violent jolts and he awoke with a start. "Damn what she doing? Flying through da thing?"
"Nah. We're at the edge of the cyclone." Skymate explained. Torpedo stared at him slack jawed but said nothing.
A few hours later they landed in the predawn hours in Cairns. What had once been a booming tourism town had been reduced to little more then a few scattered outposts. "Wow. Dey didn't leave any room for resistance here, did dey?" Torpedo asked when he got a good look around.
"This is nothing. At least Cairns is still standing. They wiped Townsville off the map." Skymate growled.
Torpedo bit his lip. He knew what it felt like to loose one's home. Skymate led them to a small shantytown a few miles from the airstrip. At one of the last shacks in the cluster, he knocked on the door and then entered. An ancient Aboriginal man looked up from his table and smiled. "Danny. Good to see ya boy." He greeted.
"G'day Gary." Skymate smiled back. In the dim light, Torpedo could barely make out the outline of the man. "This is me mate Koa. Guppy, this is Gary. One of the tribal elders in the area." Skymate introduced the two. Torpedo nodded towards the elder in a show of respect for his title.
"Maori boy?" Gary asked.
"Half." Torpedo replied. Gary chuckled in the dark room before inviting his guests to sit down.
Skymate went to the little camp stove and poured Torpedo and Gary a cup of coffee. After handing the cups over he poured himself one then made himself comfortable on the floor. "So what brings you out from the desert?" Gary asked.
"Actually, I've been in the States for the last couple of months." Skymate explained. "I'd met Koa while I was with the SAS. He's a former Navy SEAL."
"You're a Yank then?" Gary asked Torpedo.
"Hawai'i born and raised."
"Hnn." Gary noted the fact and then turned back to Skymate. "So what brings you here?"
Skymate explained his mission and that he and Torpedo were going to scout for a possible residual cell of COBRA forces further north. "I reckon we can find some of the brothers and see what they know." He added.
Gary nodded his head as he thought about what he'd just heard. "Maybe Wombat can drive you up to Geralia Rock. It'll save you a few days walk about." He suggested. "He'll be coming over soon anyway for coffee and a natter."
"Ya reckon?" Skymate asked. Gary laughed and said that Wombat showed up almost like clockwork everyday. "Beauty then."
A little while a younger Aborigine showed up and was introduced to Torpedo as Wombat. Gary told Wombat about the duo's mission and he readily agreed to take them to Geralia Rock. After an hour of talking, Wombat left with Skymate and Torpedo in tow. They followed him to a beat up old jeep, Torpedo raised an eyebrow when he saw it, but shrugged and tossed his bedroll into the back and hoped in. "It looks like a piece a shit, but it gets ya where ya need to go." Wombat winked as he got into the driver's seat.
The drive to Geralia Rock took most of the day on switchback roads. Wombat avoided the main road that ran north south on the peninsula out of habit. There was about two hours of sunlight left when Torpedo and Skymate parted ways with Wombat. They both thanked him for the lift and started heading into the dense brush.
As they got a little further into the bush, Skymate dumped his swag and dug around for something in it. Pulling out a piece of wood attached to a string, he climbed up onto the top of a huge green rock and began swinging it around a few times. "I've seen dis movie, Cuz." Torpedo joked to himself as he leaned against a tree. The SEAL's senses kicked in suddenly but to late.
Someone was holding a blade to his throat, another was held dangerously close to his heart. Glancing down the shaft of the spear, Torpedo saw a dark skinned hand. He couldn't see the rest of whomever was threatening his life because they had chosen to stand just beyond his range of sight. Remaining perfectly still, Torpedo tried to spot Skymate through the thick branches of the trees surrounding the rock. No such luck, he could hear the whirling sound of the 'talking stick' as Skymate had called it, but he couldn't see the source of the sound. He suddenly heard someone yelling something he couldn't understand and the two spear points disappeared.
A tall Aborigine stepped into Torpedo's view, grinning. "G'day mate, sorry to scare ya." A shorter man stepped out from Torpedo's other side and moved towards the rock to stand guard. Torpedo still leaned against the tree with his arms folded across his chest as he sized the two men up. Skymate called out from above and Torpedo shook his head and chuckled.
"No worries Guppy! These are mates of mine, the ones I was looking for." Skymate bellowed.
The taller of the two Torpedo saw, held his hand out in greeting. "G'day Guppy, name's Shane."
"I'm gonna strangle dat hoale." Torpedo laughed. "Aloha, my name's Koa. Your 'mate' up dere calls me guppy out of spite." He snorted as he returned the handshake.
Shane laughed. "Nah. No worries Koa. Danny's never been good at keeping names straight. "
"I heard that ya bloody lying bastard!" Skymate laughed as he came down from the rock. There were two more Aborigines with him as he made his way over to Shane and Torpedo. "This is Shane, Wally, Dingo, and Diesel." Skymate introduced the men to Torpedo. "This is Koa, a mate of mine from the States."
"We were looking for tucker when we saw your mate." Diesel spoke up. "Then we heard you and the talking stick so we checked things out."
"We're settled at a billabong nearby." Wally added.
Shane, Wally and Diesel said they'd be back in a while as Dingo led Skymate and Torpedo to his group's camp. Torpedo's eyes lit up when he saw the large water hole. After setting up his bedroll he made his way towards the water when a thought occurred to him. "Hey? No get any of those walking sets of luggage wit' teeth in dere do dey?" He asked, pointing to the water.
"Nah mate. It's to isolated for them to get too." Dingo explained.
Satisfied he wouldn't become dinner for any large reptiles, Torpedo took his shirt and shoes off and dived in. The water was blessedly cool and Torpedo spent almost an hour swimming around in the large spring before the others returned. Dingo watched him disappear beneath the water and stay submerged for several minutes at a time. "Cor, no wonder ya call him Guppy."
"I swear that bloke's got gills hidden in there somewhere." Skymate laughed as the others returned from foraging. Torpedo saw them and got out of the water. Shane dumped the contents of his sack near the campfire and began cutting some fruit up into smaller pieces. Diesel went to work skinning a couple of rabbits they'd caught and getting them ready to cook.
It was nightfall when dinner was ready and they ate heartily as they sat around and talked. Skymate explained about the mission Zandar had been the only one to survive and asked if the group knew of any larger or permanent encampments of COBRA cells.
"They come poking around here every once in a while, but they're easy to avoid." Wally said.
"Yeah, ya can hear em coming from a mile off." Shane laughed. "They're not based this far south though. There are stories that they're further north, near Weipa." He added.
"Makes sense." Skymate muttered. He saw Torpedo raise an eyebrow and explained. "Weipa has several huge bauxite mines in the area. Massive natural source of aluminium."
"So we going prospecting den?" Torpedo joked.
"Yeah. Prospecting for snakes."
Shane thought for a moment before mentioning something that might be of help. "Some of the other brothers keep transport nearby. They could get you north?"
Torpedo frowned. "Maybe not just yet. If we can find one of da smaller groups, maybe we can find out something from dem before heading into the main nest."
Dingo pointed westwards. "Half a day's walk that way. There's a small supply outpost."
"Supply outpost?" Torpedo asked.
"Yeah. Out here you need outposts every couple hundred miles. The country's so vast you'd get stranded in no time." Skymate explained. "What's the guard like?" He asked the others.
"Twenty odd at most." Wally drawled. "Pack of wankers too, according to some of the Ningaloo tribe we ran across a couple days back."
Skymate eyed Torpedo. "What do you reckon, Guppy?"
"No sweat hoale." With that, Torpedo pulled out a sub machine gun from his bedroll and checked it. "Ten minutes tops." He purred.
"Five, if you don't mind company." Diesel grinned.
The soldiers welcomed the offer and Dingo took off into the night. "There's backup nearby." Shane smirked. Dingo returned the following morning with several other tribesmen and they set out for the outpost later that afternoon.
Being the only Caucasian of the group, Skymate covered himself in a dark pigment one of the Aborigines mixed together. As the night grew on they attacked. The few guards on watch were taken without any resistance at all. After scouting around for anyone else who might trip an alarm, Torpedo crept into the small bunker where the bulk of the outpost's occupants were asleep. "To easy." He whispered into the dark and opened fire on the dozen sleeping men. One of them managed to escape Torpedo's attack and ran head on into Shane and Skymate. He quickly fell to the ground dead. An arrow and spear piercing his vital organs.
After making sure the area was secure, Skymate and Torpedo set about looking for anything that might tip them off to locations of other forces in the area. "Right o then, what have we got here?" Skymate muttered as he rifled around the communications set up.
TBC…