Hi guys, I'm back!
Chapter 23 is FINALLY UP! Sorry it took
sooooooo long. I had it written a
good while back but I've had alternate endings knocking about so it's
been
changed about 10+ times. I kept going back to it saying 'Hey, I could
make that better...' and 'D'ya know what would be cool...' etc.
If you have any complaints about the lack of an update, please blame:
Battlefield 2, Exams, Halo 2, Conflict: Global Storm, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, More exams, Burnout 3: Takedown, And last but probably most, school
For occupying more time that I had.
Now thats out of the way, on with the chapter!
Chapter 22 – Moving Out
"Good one!" Gatomon complimented.
"Thanks," Patrick took the clip out of the M8 and examined it, "This new hardware is really accurate but burns its ammo away too quickly."
He threw the Assault Rifle onto the ground behind him, "I'll leave it there for a while...see how robust it is."
"So what are we planning to do with all this stuff?" Gatomon looked at Patrick's large array of weaponry, "Start another World War?"
"Something like that," Patrick picked up an rather beefed up looking M16, "I've been waiting to try this baby out for hours."
He raised the weapon up proudly, "This is a custom job on an M16A2 Assault Rifle. Personally, I sorta dislike the original, but this beast is an exception."
Sliding his hand down the gripped barrel, he peered down the enlarged scope, "Looks like someone wanted the ultimate weapon. Elongated barrel, x15 scope, larger stock, he's even changed the chamber mechanisms to use 7.72mm rounds instead of standard 5.52mm NATO rounds," He smiled as he slammed a magazine into it, "Lets see if they succeeded, shall we?"
Kari woke to the sound of bullets firing somewhere outside the cave. Gatomon and Blackagumon were also gone.
She quickly scrambled to her feet and ran to the entrance. Looking in the direction of the noise, she could see Patrick and the two digimon standing about fifty metres down the cliff face. Noticing what Patrick was firing at, she relaxed.
It was only a target crudely drawn on the a wooden box, with holes shot out all over it (though the majority were in near the centre)
Gatomon saw Kari and ran over to her, "Heya, how'd you sleep?"
"Not too bad. How are the others?" She asked as she continued towards the two boys.
The cat jumped into her arms, "Patrick stayed up all night fixing that rocket thingy but Blackagumon slept okay."
"All…night? Isn't he the least bit exhausted?"
"That's the strange thing – he's not tired at all."
When they finally reached the makeshift firing range, Blackagumon was sitting watching his partner test a sand-covered M8 carbine. After a quick succession of 'clicks' from the gun, he ejected the magazine and threw it at the target.
"Pepper Breath!"
The attack destroyed what was left of the gun.
"I take back anything good I said about them M8 pieces of crap. Future technology may be cool but it's in no way robust. I just left it in the sand for a few minutes and it's completely clogged up. Probably take hours to repair. If an AK-47 went through that same treatment it would still fire like a charm. Guess the Americans just can't build guns like Europeans."
When he calmed down he smiled and turned to Kari, "Morning. Hope I didnt wake you."
"Don't worry. What were you talking about there..." Kari started, only to be interrupted by Blackagumon.
"Please, don't get him started on the whole 'M16 vs. AK' argument or we could be here for hours."
"Well…does the rocket launcher work?" Kari asked.
"Two things: One – Yes, of course it works. I tweaked it all last night."
"The second thing?"
"It's a TOW missile - not a rocket - launcher. And just so you know, TOW stands for Tube Operated Wire-guided."
"Aren't they the same thing?"
Blackagumon rolled his eyes, "Here we go…"
"Missiles are guided. Rockets aren't. The TOW is a missile that is controlled by me through a long cable. Rockets just fire in the general direction they're launched and hit whatever's unlucky enough to be in front of them. Therefore it's only good for slow moving or stationary targets like tan…"
Kari put her hand up to stop him, "Thanks but...I get the idea."
"Good move," Blackagumon muttered.
"Anyway, up for breakfast? I got some military rations. Sorry if they taste like shit, they're all we really got – unless you want marshmallows for breakfast?"
"They can't be that bad, can they?" Kari said as Patrick picked up his stuff and headed back towards the cave.
They were that bad.
We don't have much time!" Penguinmon said, If that bomber gonna do what I think it's gonna do, then we better get out within the next minute!"
"Why do I always get a bad feeling when someone says that?" Tai asked.
"Because the last time Patrick told us go get out we got missile striked!" TK answered.
"In that case, if I just transfer the schematics, I can try and duplicate it on a smaller scale," Izzy explained, "Say through the digiport?"
"Do whatever you want, as long as it works!" Tai said.
High above the school, the B52 opened it's huge bombing bay doors. Inside was housed a very very very big bomb.
Elsewhere inside the plane, a button was pressed, and the bomb was released.
It was 30 feet long, and 40 inches wide.
It contained 27,700lb of High Explosives.
It is the largest class of conventional warhead bomb ever invented.
It was a GBU-43/B MOAB - A Massive Ordinance Air Blast, also known as the Mother of All Bombs.
And it was coming straight for the Digidestined.
"How much longer Izzy?"
"Gimme...30 seconds"
"WE DON'T HAVE 30 SECONDS!"
"Look guys, you're not helping, get to the digiport and get ready to leave, okay?"
"OK then, lets go."
Kari spat on the ground and took a drink of water. That was easily the worst breakfast she'd ever had!
Patrick started packing his rucksack, chuckling to himself.
"So can you tell me what happened back at that place?" Kari asked.
"Nothing much, just a 20 Kiloton Tactical Nuke buried under the base and rigged to blow whenever they're compromised," Patrick smiled when he saw Kari's look of shock, "I'm very direct, aren't I?"
"Yes…so then that made us crash?"
"Not directly," Blackagumon said, "The EMP did."
"Was that what that was?" Gatomon asked.
"Why?" Kari looked down at the digimon in her arms.
"Because just before we started going down I got this terrible headache, like something was…"
"Drilling into your skull?" Blackagumon finished.
"Well…yes, did you get it too?"
"It's on of the effects of light doses of Electromagnetic radiation on a digimon – migraines," Patrick said, flinging the packed rucksack over his shoulder, "Larger doses can cause…unpredictable side effects."
"Like…"
"Anything really – deletion, corruption, usually a random burst of evolution though…" He turned to his partner, "Hey, remember that time I caused an Elecmon to digivolve to Wargreymon just because you were close by?"
"Don't remind me…that was scary having to deal with him…" Blackagumon started towards the entrance to the cave.
"Yeah…I guess it was…" Kari's mind wandered with thoughts of Gatomon digivolving to Metalgreymon.
Once they were outside, Patrick stopped, "By the way, EMPs have another…interesting effect," he took out an empty cartridge and threw it away from the cliff. A few metres away, it suddenly met a strong electrical force field, and was thrown back.
"It's a sorta firewall, created by a digital world subsystem designed to contain radiation and fallout."
Gatomon's ears perked up, "Something's coming!"
Everyone froze.
"Where? Who…" Patrick spun around, G36C up and ready, searching for the source.
"Over there," the digimon pointed out a small dust cloud on the horizon. It seemed to be getting larger.
Patrick took out a scope and peered into the distance, "Holy shit…it's a convoy!"
"Of what?" Kari asked, already slowly backing towards the cave.
Patrick just jogged back to the cave, "Tanks...and I want one!"
TRANSFER COMPLETE
Izzy sharply disconnected his laptop from the console and ran back towards the library.
'Hope I'm not too late...' he thought.
"What's taking him so long?" said Yolei impatiently.
"Give him time..."
"Oh my...I can see it coming!" Penguinmon shrieked as he backed away from the window.
The others scrambled to the window to see what exactly was coming.
"Only one bomb? That hardly seems deadly," Matt said.
"Trust me, with the way today's been going - it probably is that deadly," Tai moaned.
Izzy burst into the room, "Right! Let's get out of here!"
"Ok, Digiport open!"
A few seconds later the MOAB's altitude sensor triggered, detonating the bomb over the East Wing.
The explosion ripped through the building, shattering every pane of glass, demolishing every wall - nothing survived the blast.
It's destruction is only matched by that of a small nuclear bomb.
"THAT'S IT!" Yolei yelled, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF TODAY! I've hardly had a moment to rest without getting ATTACKED!"
"Calm down Yolei…" Tai tried to calm her down, but failed.
"How can I calm down? Everywhere I turn there's someone with a gun pointed at us…or is dropping bombs on us or something?"
"Just general battlefield paranoia?" Penguinmon questioned.
"YES...I mean…what?" Yolei seemed to settle a bit.
"Battlefield Paranoia is similar to shellshock, except it's when you're constantly on edge, always afraid of being fired at. It was common in the Vietnamese war. Because the Vietcong used guerilla tactics and ambushes, GI's became paranoid about any traps that could be in place, or when they might come under fire from camouflaged troops somewhere nearby. Some veterans became so mentally scared that they never set foot in another wooded area again."
"Wow…I never knew that…" Yolei muttered.
"I guess Patrick must have some form of it then…" TK joked.
"Naaa…he's just generally paranoid…he was born that way."
"By the way, don't you think we should try and…you know…FIND A WAY TO GET THEM BACK HOME?" Matt shouted at the crowd.
"Gee Matt, cool it…I've got everything I need." Izzy said.
"Then may I lend a hand?" A voice came from the hall.
The team swung around to see who the intruder was.
And all they could do was smile.
An M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT), followed closely by a typical, canvas-covered supply truck, headed the convoy. Behind them was a single file convoy mainly consisting of one other Abrams, a supply truck and a Bradley APC (Armored Personnel Carrier). However, the thing that really stood out was in between.
It was a large Cargo truck towing a flatbed trailer. The bulky contents of that trailer were covered by a large sheet, which was strongly fastened to the sides.
The convoy had been heading to make a very special delivery to PCX-14, which had recently been assaulted by rebel forces. Unfortunately, a freak accident at Motomiya Airbase had caused the base to detonate it's last line of defense prematurely. It had taken the Dark Master's second in command, Lieutenant General Ichijouji, and third in command, Major General Motomiya, with it, but that didn't bother them at the moment.
What did bother them however, was the EM-Firewall, which had been erected around the site automatically by a digital world subsystem, and was right in their path.
Now they had to take a detour round the firewall, past this large cliff face, almost doubling the ETA.
Suddenly, the lead Abrams noticed a small digimon in the middle of the road. The Tank Commander opened the hatch above his head and took a look.
It was a Gatomon, just lying right in their way. It looked badly injured.
It wasn't long before the driver came over the radio, "Sir, we got roadkill. Please advise."
The Commander was the sort of person who would tell the driver to accelerate, make sure they got it under the threads, then reverse over it to make sure it's dead, but he had a deadline to meet.
And no champion digimon was getting in their way.
"Ignore it. Continue on."
Meanwhile, after the dust had settled, a large team of SAS made there way into the ruins of the school.
What was left was secured soon after, and the mission was regarded a success. The MOAB from the B52 had killed all the terrorists, all of which had been in the gym. The threat they posed was eliminated (Even though some started to wonder if they ever posed a threat at all).
The bodies of the entire student population were recovered, apart from those that were absent that fateful day, and two others.
Patrick O'Reilly, and his brother, Declan.
Also, the remains of Commando team Delta Two-Niner were recovered, and were buried as heroes, killed in action by some lunatic with a samurai sword. It was an eventuality that they were never trained for, so the blame was not placed on them.
In a few days, the bodies of some 'terrorists' were identified through DNA testing.
And the investigators were completely and utterly dumbstruck by the results.
Their investigation stalled, never to recover.
Patrick looked at the situation through the scope on the custom M16 he got from the Blackhawk wreakage (Which he now called the 'M16C'. 'C' being for custom). Him, Blackagumon and Kari were lying ontop of the cliff, right above Gatomon.
"Go! Hit it!" Patrick said urgently, and nodded to Kari.
"Gatomon digivolve to..."
She stopped.
"I can't...something's not right!" The digimon yelled.
Kari started to scream, "Oh my God, they aren't stopping! She's gonna get squished!"
"Go to Plan B then!" He replied, and Gatomon scrambled back into the cave.
The Abrams was now mere meters away from turning the cat to a splatter. He reached into his rucksack and took out the TOW he had fixed last night.He lined up the tank in his sights and adjusted for the speed of the tank.
"Hey! Bastards! Knock knock!" He shouted, just before he fired.
And all Hell broke loose.
Chapter 24 could be out any time between now and Christmas, since thats really the next time I'll get a break from school...and exams...
PS.
A recent 14
hour marathon on Halo 2 Live caused my left eye to go short-sighted
quite
badly. And I don't think playing Battlefield 2 to one in the morning
helped much either...ok so I'm an addict...sue me...if you dare