Chapter 14 – Return to the Sand

Flight to Algerian Sahara...

The URZU trio - each had a role after the initial strike. Melissa was to take out as many of the enemy ASes as possible and provide cover – then destroy the facility. Kurz would retrieve the FWS (Forced Whispered State) and destroy any evidence of it. Sousuke was to take out their communications and retrieve the Whispereds with any data extracted from them. When completed, a C-17 would land and wait for the group to return.

Each of the pilots had just climbed in their ASes – they were nearing their destination, ready to parachute in. Dawn had not yet arrived in the Sahara, but the clouds provided a small amount of cover. Sousuke sat waiting in the Arbalest, fighting jittery nerves setting in. His body twitching with anticipation. "Al, I didn't think I'd be your pilot again. Are you ready?"

"Affirmative. No other pilots have been accepted. Please issue command," the hollow voice responded. Sousuke shook his head at the irony – he was stuck with Al, like it or not. Or was it the other way around?

The green light was given and the three ASes plunged out of the plane. Once in the air, parachutes popped out and made the ASes sway like children's swings. One hundred feet until touch down - Sousuke concentrated on relaxing before impact. WHAM!

The feet of the Arbalest hit the ground hard, leaving small craters and jarring Sousuke's skull, before the machine's knees bent and rocked forward to stifle the effects of the impact. Even though the ASes had an incredible shock system, landings were the rough part.

"Not a problem," Sousuke told himself as the AS righted itself. He pulled the picture of Kaname out of his glove and hung it up with velcro on the back. Why they didn't make pockets in AS suits was beyond him.

"This one's for you," he promised to Kaname's early teen picture, then his eyes narrowed. Growing anger for what they did to Kaname welled up - familiar like the revenge he used to fight with when he was a child in the guerrillas. Switching mental gears Sousuke gave the command, "Al, initiate Lambda Driver."

"Affirmative, starting Lambda Driver diagnostics" Al's computerized voice confirmed and the cabin went red. "System, ok. Executing main system boot up wizard...20 seconds to release." The lambda driver cams locked in place, Al's fins extended, and the vents opened in the back of the Arbalest kicking up a small sandstorm. Sousuke could hear the hiss from the vents even from inside. "Lambda Driver initialization complete."

"URZU-7 to URZU-2 and URZU-6, do you copy?" Sousuke radioed for his companions.

"Loud and clear URZU-7," Melissa confirmed.

"Damn! Don't you just hate those landings? My brain feels like Jell-O." Kurz whined.

"Stuff it URZU-2. Until attack, maintain communications silence. We've got quite a hike over these dunes," Melissa grunted.

...

Wind howled over the tops of the steep dunes, spraying sand like water, as they neared their target. The Sahara looked more like a Martian landscape than Sousuke had remembered, but he could almost feel the turban cloth wrapped over his face again and the hot wind forcing sand into every nook and cranny. Small tufts of vegetation appeared atop the smaller crests as the cloaked ASes waded. Blowing, shifting sand was erasing land rover and camel tracks in the flattening landscape. The walled adobe compound with its multiple domes blended into the landscape. One dome on the side peeped out from the wall – it housed the satellite-communications dish. Only shadows differentiated the building from its surroundings. This compound was unusually tall for buildings of this area – AS units must be stored inside.

"Ready boys?" Melissa verified. Sousuke pulled the Boxer 57mm scattershot from the back of the Arbalest as Kurz and Melissa readied their ASG96-B 57mm smooth bore guns. "Now!" Melissa ordered. The cloaked figures could be heard running, but one could only see the footprints and the small sand clouds that were kicked up.

Kurz uncloaked and opened a hole in the wall at the center with a Javelin missile. The small plume was spotted too late by a century at the southwest corner who yelled "Get the Whispereds underground!" and sounded the alarm. One shot from Kurz knocked him out of his turret. What was left of the body fell to the ground with a few soft thuds, leaving the bloodied turban cloth fluttering in the wind. Kurz and Melissa rushed through the opening.

Wanting to catch the Whispereds before they were hurried underground, Sousuke rushed the wall and used the Arbalest's left hand to help him clear the hurdle in one bound. Al's feet crashed into the satellite dish's adobe dome and Sousuke ripped the dish from the pedestal – hurling it at his oncoming attackers. Several foot soldiers were taken out and most of the rest fled into the nearby building. Only a few remained to fire at him with their machine guns. Sousuke noted that these turbaned soldiers didn't have the dark hair and tanned Algerian skin. So, they were cowards trying to blame another culture. It added to his rage.

"Main communication and Whispered attack system out. Now the Whispereds..." he check-listed the completed item out loud for the others' benefit over the radio.

...

Meanwhile Kurz and Melissa fought their way to the communications building, which housed the FWS. One soldier with a grenade launcher was particularly annoying. Melissa was getting tired of dodging those pesky grenades. After a roll forward and uncloaking, she sprang to a kneel on one knee and aimed, striking the attacker.

Taking the cue, Kurz ran and flipped his GRAW-2 into his AS's hand and stabbed the launcher like a cockroach. Holding the knife above his head he offered, "Sis – want me to Bar-B-Q this little morsel for you tonight? You Chinese eat a lot of weird things."

"Idiot! Get going!" she barked and searched for the ASes that intelligence had reported.

"I just love to see you pissed off – you're more aggressive!" he retorted as he ran into the building. Shots started flying at Kurz from every direction and Abrahms tanks rolled into view firing directly at him. Kurz jumped to dodge the deadliest part of the swarm, but one shell seemed to track him. The outside casing was discarded in mid-flight and it lodged into his AS's right leg. Coolant trickled down. "Aw, Shit! I've been hit." Kurz sent a missile in the tank's direction and watched the explosion intently.

"Warning, hull breached," the M9 complained. Kurz's eyes bulged as he noticed the "shell" had a lot of legs and was cutting into his AS. He took a swipe at the six-legged intruder with his monolecular cutter, but the insect moved quickly and began its work farther up near the M9's hip. A little shaken, Kurz kept swinging and dodging as he radioed, "Umm – URZU-6. I was hit with some sort of AI bug – it's breaking into my M-9 – probably hoping to disable me. Damned fast little bastard. Watch out for the things!"

...

Fighting had died down near where the Whispered hostages were kept. "Not good. They must have them underground by now," Sousuke reasoned out loud. Entering the Northeast building, he spotted a scrawny teenager with short sandy brown hair, standing in front of a large hole in the floor, holding his hand out as if asking Sousuke to stop right there. A number of dead turbaned soldiers lay in front of the boy. Robot spiders were just crawling off their victims. Rack after rack of computer equipment was against the far wall. To the side stood a Whispered pod – being disassembled by another group of bugs.

"I know you're there, you might as well uncloak and save your energy. You must be here to rescue us. So, I'll be retrieving my twin brother. The rest of the bugs are under his direction. If you have comrades with you – tell them the ASes are in the building next to us," the young man with a Swiss accent apprised, with his hand on his hip.

Sousuke was unsure whether to believe him, but concurred, "Understood. URZU–6, I've found one of the Whispereds. He says that the ASes are one building over."

"Roger, thanks for the info. Heading to help URZU-2 then will head there," Mao gratefully responded.

"I'm Hagen. Don't suppose you could give me a hand down into the tunnels? They should be large enough for your AS and I may need your help," he asked as he stepped forward past the bodies, expectantly.

Kneeling, the Arbalest held an open palm out for the boy to climb into. "Hang on," Sousuke ordered as he jumped down into the tunnel. Cushioning the land in a kneel, the Arbalest rocked forward onto one hand.

"You ok?" Sousuke questioned the boy who clung onto the Arbalest's thumb.

He nodded and his bright green eyes gleamed as if he had just made a new friend. "What's your name?" Hagen asked curiously, trying to make conversation along the way. The bugs followed them close behind.

"You can call me URZU-7 for now," Sousuke relented only a little as they walked briskly down the corridor.

"Uh – ok. People don't generally trust us when they find out what we are."

Sousuke thought about this. He trusted Kaname and Tessa - Kaname implicitly. What would make people not trust Whispereds? Well, there was Leonard... "Negative. The Whispereds I know well – I trust."

Hagen turned his head surprised. Uncomprehending he defied, "Well, we suddenly start blurting out this super technology info and we understand things most people don't. We're different. People just usually want to use us for our talents and not get to know us. It makes people nervous to be around us most times."

"I do understand," Sousuke reflectively replied and picked up the pace.

"Do you? How could you?" Hagen was a little annoyed.

"I've never fit in either," Sousuke gloomily confessed.

"Oh...I see...Well, my brother probably went this way..."

The pair continued, with only a few directions from Hagen, in a mutual understanding.

Listening to Creed helped get me in the mood to write this scene. It was fun to go back and watch the 2 main AS fights just to see how these things moved. :D

P.S. After I came up with the attack bugs – my hubby NOT so kindly informed me that one of his fave games Red Alert 2 – had them. ARGH! He offered to let me see them in his game – I declined hoping to make these bugs my own some how – but I'll have to check the others out after the story.