BLUE GENDER
"Children of the Blue"
6. Pursuit
"Yep, they're moving right at you. It's like they can smell the village, the bastards," Captain Junker's voice came over the radio. "They're coming around the ridge now; a whole mess of 'em. 'Bout thirty I'd say, give or take. I see only tank beetles and choppers. Nothing in the sky."
Junker had taken a foot patrol to one of the mountain faces to spy the Blue's approach. His transmission was filled with static and interference—if he hadn't been on such high ground Marlene wouldn't be able to hear him at all.
"If they're on the ridge," Moss observed, "then they're an hour away."
Marlene faced Chief Fuentes. They were standing on the northern perimeter of the village. Dawn had come less than an hour before bringing with it thunder clouds that threatened a morning storm.
"What do you want to do?" She asked their leader.
He told her, almost scornfully, "This is new to my people. You know the ways of this more than I. Our village is in your hands."
Marlene signed. She had to remind herself that the Chief had just held his dying son in his arms a few days prior.
"Boss?" Moss prompted.
"Okay, here's what we do," she spoke to them both. "Chief, gather all the families together and make for the caves to the southwest. Take Gunther and his armor shrike with you.
"Moss, get everyone who can fire a weapon and is willing to fight. With the armor shrikes…well maybe we've got a chance."
Moss didn't believe her but he carried out her orders nonetheless.
The Chief gave Marlene another one of his long, condemning looks as if she were personally responsible for all that had happened.
Maybe he was right.
Then he, too, went to carry out his assignment.
Marlene transmitted to Junker: "Listen, Cap, move it back here double time. You should be able to get here before they do."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world."
***
Marlene, dressed in full armor, stood next to the Double Edge and placed a hand on its cool metal surface. She could feel the vibration from the power core. She wondered if Yuji could.
"Just be happy he's still alive," Dr. Gamble said as he surprised her approaching from behind.
He continued: "I don't know if this is going to cure him but I can tell you I didn't think he was going to make it this long. Something must be working."
Maybe some good luck, for a change, Marlene thought to herself.
She told him: "Get to the caves. The people will need you there."
He protested: "The battle is going to be here. There will be wounded."
"No there won't," she rebutted. "The Blue know how to finish the job."
Gamble walked away. She returned her hand to the surface of the machine. Yuji was unconscious and silent dressed in a Double Edge battle suit.
"I love you," she whispered.
***
The five armor shrikes waited at the ridge of the village.
Around them were another two dozen villagers, some with barely working pistols others with more modern heavy assault rifles (most who had the latter were second earther infantry who had come to the valley with Yuji's team—they wore their old body armor and helmets).
The Blue's approach was unmistakable—they could hear the jungle trees being trampled and smashed; could feel the ground tremble as if a moving earthquake was bearing down on them.
Two of the villagers with older weapons had a change of heart and broke and ran.
As a flash of lightening zapped across the gray sky the first wave came crashing through.
Choppers—shaped like giant cockroaches with deadly scythe-like pincers—led the charge.
Marlene and the others let loose with everything they had. She was relieved to see that the cores of these Blue were not shielded.
The core is the Blue's Achilles' heel. But several variants of Blue had evolved over time to cover their core with protective plating or flesh.
However, with the cores being exposed things were at least the slightest bit easier—yet Marlene understood that the odds were still far against them.
"Yeeeeehaaaaaw…!" Came Pistol Jones' cry as he felled one.
Marlene knew that his bravado was just a mask for the terror he felt.
"Christ, Marlene, tankers at nine o'clock," Junker radioed from his shrike on their left flank.
As the line of choppers moved in a second front opened. A horde of tank beetles appeared on the defender's left: More proof to Marlene that the Blue didn't simply swarm but had coordinated attacks, as if they had a command structure and communication.
Tank beetles were big, hard shelled monstrosities that were almost dinosaur-like in appearance. Their front third was covered with heavy armor plating and was impenetrable with anything short of a heavy gun. Their rear two thirds were more vulnerable but as with all Blue, tank beetles could take a massive amount of damage to their bodies and keep fighting as long as their core was intact. Fortunately this batch also had exposed cores.
The first few tankers stomped several villagers and infantry as they came rumbling into the village underneath the cover of crashing thunder.
"Keep up your fire but fall back to the center of the village!" Marlene ordered.
The people on foot took it the worst. More of the villagers ran; some were caught as they tried to do so. Their antiquated weapons were no match for the Blue.
The second earth infantry faired only slightly better. Some of the soldiers dispatched Blue using their heavy weapons, but not enough to slow the tide. The tank beetles simply ran over several of the foot soldiers, crushing them beneath their iron-clad bodies.
More Blue fell…only to be replaced by still more. Marlene shredded two choppers within seconds of one another but she might as well be throwing pebbles at a tsunami. The Blue paid no mind to their dead, they just moved forward relentlessly like the force of nature they were.
"Infantry, get the hell out of here and make for the caves—make a last stand there," Marlene commanded and the handful of troopers remaining tried to disengage. Some did, some were cut down.
The rain began to fall.
Marlene counted at least a dozen dead Blue but nearly twice that number was still moving in on the defenders as they retreated.
"Here," she said as they reached the center of the village. "We stand here and maybe they won't find the people in the caves."
Marlene's order was mumbled but all understood: no more retreating. If they were going to lose this battle then lose it here; don't lead the Blue to the children, the families.
Her gun ran hot as it unloaded round after round. She could hear Pistol Jones whooping up a storm and yelling obscenities at their attackers. She could hear the sobbing of Denise Karr as that fighter began to realize that her first real battle with the Blue was certain to be her last.
But she did not break.
A pair of tank beetles pushed between the line of shrikes. One sent a shoulder into Moss' unit which then staggered sideways.
The defender's position was being overrun. Marlene knew this meant the fight was now going to deteriorate from an organized—albeit futile—defensive formation to individual shrikes battling to survive.
Marlene Angle cut down a chopper but as it fell another of the giant bugs spring boarded off of the corpse and leapt at her shrike. Her entire mecha staggered from its weight—the stabilizers raced to compensate but failed due in no small part to the slick mud gathering underfoot in the heavy rain.
Marlene's machine fell onto its back—the worst possible position.
She struggled with the site of the monster leering into the open cockpit.
Her armor shrike's main gun was useless at close range. Marlene tried to grab her side arm. Before she could do so, the Blue's core erupted splattering red gore all over her protective faceplate.
Marlene tossed the lifeless hulk off of her machine and stood. She swiveled and saw Chief Fuentes standing some fifty yards away in the rain storm with a bolt action scope-equipped rifle.
She tried to wave a 'thank you' to the grandfather-like chief but she was distracted: another chopper was charging right at Chief Fuentes.
Marlene raised her mech's main gun to fire but before she could pull the trigger the approaching chopper exploded into a ball of guts and shattered shell.
Everything froze for a long moment: the shrikes and the blue (which were now all engaged in close range combat) seemed to take note of this sudden change.
Standing there over the still-trembling remains of the pulverized chopper was a site that sent a shiver along Marlene's spine.
It was the Double Edge. It was Yuji.
The two blades of the devilish machine had eviscerated the chopper. It stood there, between the pieces of its first victim, like an unholy statue.
"This is all…so…familiar to me…" came Yuji's voice on the communicator.
Then the Double Edge raced forward with its main gun blasting and its twin razor-sharp blades slicing and dicing.
Yuji's appearance not only took the pressure off the other armor shrikes; it also filled those pilots with confidence.
The battle turned.
Yuji killed a dozen of the enemies, rolling between them, jumping over them using the machine's boosters, cutting and shooting and destroying. The rest of the fighters scored kills as well—including Denise Karr who found new confidence.
"Go git 'em Yuji! Woohooo!" Pistol Jones laughed with a slight hint of insanity.
The tank beetles were the hardest, but Yuji and the Double Edge moved too fast and struck with too much deadly precision to be stopped.
What had been a defeat turned into total victory in a matter of minutes.
When it was done, the other pilots stood in awe of the sleeper and his ability. They had all heard the stories, but they could not truly understand until they had seen it for themselves.
Marlene stepped from her shrike. She ignored the pain of her injuries and exhaustion; she ignored the rain that fell in sheets. She raced across the village center, weaving between carcasses of their slain foes. She raced to meet Yuji as he exited the Double Edge.
They grabbed on to one another and embraced with a passion born from their love as well as the adrenaline of battle. She kissed him deeply then looked into his eyes.
"Oh, thank God, Yuji. I thought I had lost you."
"I'm losing count of how many times you keep saving me," he answered.
She hugged him tight once more.
"They have Takashi. The bastards that poisoned you also have Takashi. We have to go save our son."
"I know," he told her. "But one thing we have to do first."
***
The storm clouds had moved off beyond the valley's protective mountain walls, leaving behind over flowing streams, rock slides on the cliffs, and gobs of mud.
The air ship, with Marlene at the controls, raced northwest retracing the approach the Blue had taken.
"It has to be out here somewhere," Marlene said.
"What's that?" Yuji seemed distracted. He was sitting in his seat wringing his hands.
"I said there has to be a nest out here somewhere. Where else could the Blue come from?"
"Don't know 'bout that," Junker, the only one else on board, commented. "We'd have found a nest long before now. Or they'd have found us, I 'spect."
Marlene couldn't take her eyes off of Yuji. She could see him wrestling with the impulse to be in the Double Edge again. It was an addiction to him.
He had saved the day. But Marlene was certain there was going to be a huge price tag to pay.
"Now looky here…" Junker was staring out one of the side windows.
Marlene followed his gaze.
"Those can't be…those can't be where the Blue came from…" she trailed off in disbelief.
***
Dr. Gamble walked through the community. He watched as the villagers—some happy to be alive, others sobbing at the loss of loved ones—began moving the massive corpses of their attackers.
He gazed closely at the smashed tankers and shredded choppers.
Dr. Gamble smiled
"Perfect. Absolutely perfect."
***
Marlene, Yuji and Junker were on foot armed with machine guns. They walked up to the gigantic containers that lay strewn about the field. Outside of the containers were tracks—Blue tracks.
"Gotta be two dozen of these things," Junker noted the number of them scattered around the fields.
"Look, Yuji, over here," Marlene was kneeling on the ground pointing at something.
Yuji ignored her. He was staring at one of the now-empty containers.
Junker walked over and looked at what she had spotted.
He nodded and noted: "Landing gear marks."
She stood and they looked at one another in disbelief.
Yuji spoke aloud but more to himself then them: "These aren't just cargo containers…they're sleeper units. Giant sleeper units. Like I was in."
"Sleeper units?" Junker was shocked but he peered closer and, yes, the containers were lined with various sensors, vents, and assorted technology.
"Based on how far we came," Marlene calculated. "I'd say these containers got here the morning of the day we got hit by the mercs."
She thought, then added: "The day they took Takashi."
Junker summarized: "So someone got a bunch of Blue to take a nap, piled 'em into these containers like flapjacks in a freezer, flew 'em here, then woke em' up?"
The two of them turned and watched Yuji. He was staring at the empty container and wringing his hands.
Junker asked her, quietly: "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes. Yuji will be okay. I won't let anything happen to him," she answered but she couldn't even convince herself of that.
Junker beamed his eyes at her.
She spoke again: "But…but it seems to be happening quicker this time."
"Marlene, he's cured of the poison. Maybe we keep him out of the Double Edge now."
"No," she said flatly. "Whoever took my son had the power to fly three dozen Blue here, hit our village, and fly away up to North America. I need Yuji in the Double Edge to fight them, whoever they are."
Junker was surprised, almost mad.
"What if it kills him? What if it drives him over the edge?"
She told the Captain, "I don't care."
"What?"
"If I have to die, I'll die. If I have to sacrifice Yuji—as much as I love him—I will. Understand that I will do anything to get my son back. Anything."
***
The air ship was loaded and ready to go as a new day dawned over the village.
On board were the armor shrikes including the Double Edge. All of the volunteers—including Denise Karr—were on board as well. Pistol James was nursing a broken wrist and Moss had lacerations across much of his face and neck, but they weren't going to leave the job unfinished.
Gunther, meanwhile, was annoyed that he had missed the battle so he was more than eager to get in the thick of things.
Dr. Gamble also joined the group. He convinced them to take him along because they had no clue what condition Takashi would be in when they found him (he had emphasized the 'when' and never used the word 'if').
Marlene was the last one to board. She walked toward the open cargo hatch when a voice called to her.
"Marlene Angel," it was Chief Fuentes.
She turned and waited for him to speak.
"When you find Takashi, make sure you come back here," he told her, then finished: "Make sure you come back home."
She locked eyes with him for a moment then nodded.
A few minutes later the transport's engines lifted the bird off of the ground. It banked hard to the north and sped away.
Marlene, from the cockpit, watched as the village grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared in the thick of the South American forest.
Goodbye, Paradise.
NEXT FACTOR:
7. Enemies
Marlene: "How could one armor shrike defeat both me and Yuji at the same time? Who could possibly be that good of a pilot? Oh no…no it can't be…not you!"