Man, does anyone still care about this story? Ah well, your loss...
Don't worry, I have a perfectly good excuse for being half a year late...I didn't want to upload this chapter until I'd finished the next two. In fact this chapter was finished in January!
Why? Well...it's complicated. Anyway exams are around the corner (Two weeks!) and I want this finished before the summer holidays, so considering I've already finished Chapter 24 expect it...tomorrow? Maybe I'll actually upload it on time...that'll be a first...
Now where were we...oh yeah, that there convoy:
Chapter 23 – Return to the Castle
"AMBUSH!"
"Locate for targets! Call'em when you see'em!"
"Captain Miller is down! Repeat Captain Miller is down!"
"Then who the hell's in charge here?"
"Who cares? Just kill anyone not in uniform!"
The six escorts jumped from the cargo truck. They weren't your standard riflemen though – they were professionals.
They were members of the US Army Rangers, armed with conventional M16A2 Assault Rifles, and lead by Staff Sergeant Ryan Grey.
Patrick fired the second rocket at the other Abrams, damaging it beyond repair.
"Hoo-rah!" He said, as the first tank burst into flames.
Then out of the corner of his eye, he noticed infantry working their way up the convoy.
Dumping the TOW to the ground, he grabbed his M16C and peered through the scope, "Hello?"
'They aren't riflemen' he thought, peering over his scope, 'They move...differently...'
Rather than taking them out immediately, he observed them for a few seconds, trying desperately to remember where he'd seen that uniform before.
"You're hesitating," Kari asked, "And thats nearly always a bad sign."
Then it hit home.
"Of course...that's where I saw them!" He stuttered.
Kari seemed more confused than afraid, "Patrick, why do I always get a bad feeling when you look so startled?"
"Because it's usually bad," Blackagumon crouched beside his partner.
"Ever seen the movie Black Hawk Down? Because those guys down there are Rangers!"
The sudden silence was only broken by the wind.
"If I were you, I'd shoot them," The digimon whispered, "Now!"
Patrick quickly shivered to calm his muscles, and then took aim.
The USS Firewall is the latest Aircraft Carrier in the United States Navy. At 400m long and 80m wide, it's got plenty of room. But there is something special about this carrier. It doesn't actually exist.
This Nimitz-class 'Super Carrier' can hold a maximum of 85 aircraft in its huge hanger under the flight deck, but can defend itself with 21 Sea Sparrow SS (Sea-to-Sea) Missiles and 5 Phalanx AA guns.
In short, the Firewall is just a much larger version of the CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan. However, it was constructed in less than an hour.
Accompanied with a Battle Group, it's a force to be reckoned with.
But it wasn't in a Battle Group.
Maybe that's why it got attacked.
"Man down! Crawley's been hit!"
"SNIPER!"
"Forde! White! Get'im into cover! I'm gonna get the APC! Rest of you, lay down covering fire!"
Ryan started to sprint back to the Bradley APC, at the rear of the convoy.
Since they were low on manpower back at their base, they had programmed the convoy to follow the vehicle infront of it, with the two Abrams at the front.
Patrick knew the autopilot wasn't programmed to fight.
He never expected someone to override it.
Patrick withdrew from the edge of the cliff as bullets whizzed past his head.
"Son of a Bitch!"
"Need some help?" Blackagumon asked.
"Yeah, show'em what we can do!"
"Blackagumon Warp Digivolve to…"
Patrick didn't even bother taking his eye off the scope. He could sense that Blackagumon hadn't digivolved.
"I see what Gatomon means."
Patrick stood up and fired, "Any ideas why?", then fired again.
The digimon thought for a second, and then nodded, "Must be that containment shield. It's sapping our energy."
"Fair enough," He ducked back down again and reloaded the rifle, "The plan just changed."
The noise upon the USS Firewall's flight deck was bad enough, without the downdraft of a CH-60 Sea Hawk Helicopter battering the crew. As soon as the chopper landed, a man in naval officer uniform stepped out, and was greeted by a flight attendant.
"Good to see you sir! The Captain will meet you on the Bridge," He yelled over the immense noise coming from the chopper.
"Very good," The man waved a hand at the island, "Lead on."
"Ready?" Patrick whispered.
"More than I'll ever be," Kari replied.
"Then in three…two…one!"
Patrick jumped up and fired his TOW at the truck the Rangers were behind. His plan relied on them all being wherever they were last time.
And they were…mostly.
He flipped the empty tube of the launcher and Kari handed a new one from his pack.
"Now that obstacle's out of the way, lets…"
"BEHIND YOU!" Gatomon's voice rang out.
The two of them spun around to see the entire squad behind them, M16's pointed straight at them.
"How the fuck..." Patrick was amazed.
"Drop your weapons and raise you hands," One demanded.
Patrick dropped the loaded missile launcher and the three of them raised their arms.
"ALL of them," he shouted at Patrick.
The teenager sighed and slung his M16C off his shoulder, and dropped it on the ground.
A bullet whizzed past his head.
"I'M NOT JOKING AROUND," The centre one yelled, "Your sidearms."
Patrick took out a pair of USPs, 9mms and some Frag Grenades.
Kari stared at him.
"What?" he replied in defence.
"You are surrounded. Try to escapeand you WILLdie."
"Surrounded?" Blackagumon looked behind him and down the cliff.
"Is it the Bradley?" Patrick asked, not turning to look.
"Yep."
"What way's it looking?"
"At us. I'm not liking the look of our life expectancy here."
Patrick growled as the Rangers approached.
"Nice of you to join us Admiral," The captain shook the uniformed man's hand.
"Good to be here. Is everything good to go?"
"Yes sir. The Prototype is fuelled and ready for a full test flight," The captain announced, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.
"I trust it shall be successful?"
"You won't be disappointed, sir."
"Good. I hope you don't mind if I have some inspectors look at it before the test flight?"
The captain looked vaguely surprised, "Do you…not trust my safety crew?"
"I mean no offence, Captain," The admiral held up his hands in defence, "I just wish for an independent officer to have a run over it before take off. We wouldn't want human error to be a factor if it doesn't work?"
"Ver…very well. I shall authorise their landing personally," the captain was slightly shaken, "Would you like to…errr…see the prototype, sir?"
"If you please. Lead on."
They made their way down to the hanger.
Patrick and Kari were pushed roughly towards the APC. Their hands were tied behind their backs.
"In you go," One of the Rangers said.
They sat down opposite each other, but before the Ranger closed the door behind them, Patrick unclipped his digivice and threw it through outside. Even Kari didn't notice.
"So where you lads heading?" Patrick asked unusually cheerfully, taking them by surprise.
"I think you know where," The driver answered coldly.
"What's on the truck?"
"Does it matter?"
"Wowa, loosen up," he leaned back, "I'm just curious."
The Bradley started moving, followed by the truck.
The hanger of the USS Firewall covers a large portion of the area directly beneath the main deck. It was filled with Sea Hawks, F/A-18 Hornets, F22 Raptors, F14 Tomcats and many others.
The main attraction was near the back, in a sealed hanger.
Outside its doors stood the ship's Captain, the Admiral, and a handful of engineers and crew members.
"What you are about to see sir," The captain announced, "Is the product of years of development and months of construction. Now it is ready for it's first test run."
He signalled to an engineer to open the hanger doors, which he did.
The huge foot-thick steel door slide to the side, allowing a full view of the chopper inside.
The Captain had a broad grin right across his face.
"Amazing…Fantastic," The Admiral's face suddenly went sour, "It looks no different from the last report."
"Errr…that's…because…errr…"
'Crap' His brain stalled.
"All the changes are internal sir!" And engineer announced.
"Exactly, Corporal!"
"Actually, sir..." He cut off when he realised he's just got promoted.
"Internal eh?" The Admiral scratched his chin, "Well in that case let my inspectors have a look at it."
"Certainly…" The truth was they had done very little since the last time, almost a month ago. Their last test had exploded on take-off due to a faulty part.
A new pilot was suiting up, ready to finish what was started.
He would never set foot in the aircraft.
Almost half a day later, Kari and Patrick found themselves in a cell in PCX-14. Kari had flashbacks of her last trip, with Declan. Now she was in the exact same position, except with his older brother and digimon partner.
"Well I guess this is it," Kari groaned, "The end of the road."
"Come on Kari, don't give up!" Blackagumon tried to cheer her up.
"What chance do we have?" She counted a list with her fingers, "We're trapped alone in the future. We have no friends. No rescue team. They took our digivices. We're probably just gonna be executed for assassinating two of their officers and worst of all Gatomon is lost out there somewhere!"
"Wow, now that you put it that way…" Blackagumon fell backwards.
"No, you're wrong," Patrick got up from the bed, "In fact only three of those were correct."
"Huh?"
"Well put it this way – The third one was wrong and Gatomon is anything but lost."
Kari looked at him puzzled, "How do you know that?"
A grey object appeared out of nowhere and Patrick grabbed it.
"Because she was right outside."
Kari spun around to the window to see the figure of Gatomon sitting outside the barred window.
She was just about to shout with joy when the cell door flung open and three of the Rangers entered, pointing their USPs right at Patrick.
"You're coming with us."
The USS Firewall soon found another Sea Hawk landing on its deck, but this time with a different cargo.
A very different cargo.
In fact more different than anyone on the ship could ever imagine.
One of the deck crew ducked over to the chopper and slid the hatch open. He knew these were supposed to the Admiral's inspectors, so he was expecting scientist-looking people in white coats.
Instead he saw 9 heavily armed men.
And it was the last thing he ever saw.
Somewhere in the real world, a real lab-coated scientist leafed through his clipboard. He was in a small, concrete room, which was only illuminated by the portable Halogen lamp he had brought in.
At one end sat a computer console and a Blast Door.
The scientist checked his watch, smiled, and looked over at the empty end of the room.
As if on cue, a whisp of light materialised out of nowhere, before suddenly expanding and contracting. It was gone as fast as it came.
But in its place was a large digimon.
"Is everything going to plan?" The mega had a gruff, almost hoarse voice.
The scientist checked his clipboard, "Yes, everything so far has been predicted."
"They came through here?" He motioned at the used flare on the ground near the console.
"They arrived here sometime yesterday. The group proceeded to take the Digiport to the designated spot, where they met up with Cody. Foxtrot team moved in at first light, and attempted to secure the camp."
"I guess it wasn't successful?"
"Errrr…no, the alarm was raised prematurely and they were forced to execute their backup plan."
"The LASM strike from the Siloh."
The scientist nodded, "The missiles hit their target and the camp was neutralised. However, like cockroaches they survived, and assaulted the main facility."
"Did they rescue the girl?"
He bowed his head, "Unfortunately, our forces there could not hold them for very long. We lost the Siloh and most of their team escaped," he smiled, "Everyone except Patrick and the girl."
"Excellent. They are alone and afraid. We must find them at once."
"No need for that sir. Less than an hour ago I was informed that a team of Rangers found and captured the two. They were attempting to jack the convoy."
The man looked interested now, "Did they know about the cargo?"
"Apparently not. They are currently being held in PCX-14 as we speak, and are scheduled to be executed by firing squad," he checked his watch, "About now."
Patrick, Kari and Blackagumon were led out into the courtyard of the castle. Rubble still littered the area and one of the walls was collapsed. Patrick could remember the fight with the army of riflemen while the others escaped. He wondered if they got home ok.
He wondered about Emma.
His train of thought was cut off as he was shoved into one of the still standing walls. Standing in front of them were four riflemen, all with loaded M16s. The rest of the surviving ranger team were watching from behind the firing squad.
"Patrick O'Reilly,"SSgt Greysaid, "You are to executed for genocide, destruction of military property and attempting to free an inmate."
'Attempt?'Patrick thought, 'Last time I checked we escaped...just not far enough….'
"Kari Kamiya," He continued, "You to are to be executed for collaborating with a known terrorist and escape from prison."
'Oh so I'm a terrorist now?' Patrick smirked, 'Didn't he just say we attempted and therefore didn't escape from here?'
"Any last words?" He finished.
Patrick looked at the ranger and said, "Screw you."
Ryanjust shook his head, "Goodbye."
Time ground to a halt.
'This really is it,' Kari thought, 'There's no way out this time.'
She closed her eyes, waiting for the end.
Even Patrick knew he was done for.
There was no plan.
No fancy moves.
Just them and four Assault Rifles.
He closed his eyes and felt the wind rush through his hair, and listened to it whistle over the courtyard.
He was the only person in the courtyard listening close enough to hear it.
That distinct sound.
The muffled roar of rotor blades.