"A ROOKIE? ME A ROOKIE? No one at that place better call me a rookie or else they are gunna die," thought Flash. Once there he bumps into X and without realizing who he was, tells him to watch where he was going and then asks where the person in charge was. X silently forgives the rookie's attitude and points to Signas who was conversing with Zero.
"I wouldn't bother Signas right now though, he's just about to tell off Zero for destroying another hover bike on our last mission. That and the huge maverick army approaching HQ has really gotten him angry. You guys better be careful around him right now otherwise he might go maverick on you," X chuckled and shot a glance over to Signas and Zero. No sooner did he say this then Signas exploded and the room when quiet. "YOU DID WHAT? NOT ANOTHER ONE ZERO, CAN'T YOU RETURN ONE BIKE IN ONE PIECE!
Zero muttered something under his breath. "I don't care!" Signas went on, "this one's comming out of your salary, seriously, jumping a bridge while riding the bike like a skateboard at top speed fighting 5 mavericks? You're lucky not to have been killed!" Signas suddenly realised that the whole room was listening in. "YOU GUYS GET BACK TO WORK!" he yelled, and turning to the hunters, "and you guys get out there and defend the base!"

Jet left Flash with X, trusting that he would take care of him. He headed to the armory and grabed his new subtanks. He didn't want a new weapon as he was satisfied with his 2 sabers but he decided to switch the power core to something more powerful. Then he waited for Signas to explain the problem in more depth.

Signas stood at the front of the room as the hunters filed in. X stood nervously by Signas' left side, Zero on the right and a few of the other top level commanders behind them. As they settled in, Signas began his speach:
"Hunters, as you can see on the map the maverick forces have mobilised. We need 3 teams to cut them down and reconverge at the main base to concentrate our firepower. The first cut off point is the city bridge, if you can force some to divert off or stop them from crossing it will give us more time. The second cut off point is the factory district just to the south east of the bridge, intelligence says that they'll be headed there to pick up more weapons and some robot rides. Distrupt them and we won't have to worry about as much heavy artillery. The third cut off point is just before the base, it's an old sewerage processing plant that's no longer in use. The water is shut off, so they're going to use it to enter the sewers and attack HQ from below. Find a way to cut some of them off so we'll have less to deal with. Hunters, HQ depends on this and so do the lives of countless civilians. We cannot afford to fail."
As Signas finished he turned to X and Zero and whispered to them, "X, Zero, hurry to their base, they'd never expect you to show up there. At this point they'd be most vulnerable, Axl will meet you there for backup. Do some scouting and take out any mavericks you encounter. If you find their leader try and take him out as well." With that, X and Zero warped away.
Signas eyed the new hunter Flash. He walked over and asked for identification. After recieving satisfactory answers he said:
"All is in order, we are deperately in need of hunters at this point. We need you on field work asap, you'll be instated as a regular hunter like the rest. You will of course have to complete rookie training but Zero will guide you through that later. As for now get going on the mission with everyone else, I'm sure Jet will escort you around for now."
"Yes sir," replied Jet.

"Alright, it sounds like we are to do as much as we can at each point and once it gets overrun, warp to the next and do what we can there," Jet said speaking to some of the newer rookies. Even though he was still only a rookie himself, he was much more battle hardened and the newer rookies looked up to him. He motioned to the troops and filed over to the teleporter which was ready to take them to the bridge.
Once there he set to work directing the erection of a barricade near the center of the bridge. As a final precaution he ordered a bomb be placed. The hunters could fall back and detonate it if they were in danger of losing the bridge.

The mavericks began advancing across the bridge and the hunters hurried to their positions. Jet scrambled behind the barricade and held his cannon over the top to blast the mavericks back. All of a sudden one of the mavericks threw a grenade over the barricade. Jet barely had time to kick it away. The mavericks were taking heavy casualties but there were far too many of them and they kept advancing. Jet took to the sky and rained Inundation down on them, washing them into the river below. Suddenly an energy blast hit Jet and he saw that he wasn't alone in the sky. The mavericks had brought flying warships to transport mavericks across the river. And they were not defenseless, circling around them were aerial mavericks. Jet hoped the hunters on the ground could hold the mavericks...

Reaver stood on one of the warships looking down upon Jet. Flare stood behind him.
"You're not going to attack?" Flare asked.
"Bah, he's not my target, I only care for a certain individual..."
"And who might that be?"
"Signas..."
Flare stood speecheless...
"He should be the one who issued the order to destroy our makers..." Reaver continued.
"You ARE kidding, right? You can't possibly oppose such a high ranking hunter..."
"Even so, I can't let this one slide by... HE WILL PAY!"
Activating his scythe, he began running to the front of the ship. "But I fear I have to shred through many hunters before I can get to him..." he thought as he jumped off. Flare was left behind with a concerned look on his face...

Jet began dodging fire from the airborne mavericks when they exploded suddenly. He saw Flash's gun raised and although he was angry for being protected, he was thankful for the help. Then he wondered how the ground defenses were doing. He dove down, taking out an airborne maverick along the way and was plesently surprised to see Sub and a few other mercenaries had come to aid the hunters. The mavericks were still advancing but with the new troops the hunters were holding the line. Jet soared back up to the clouds and crossed swords with more aerial mavericks. After blowing through them Jet turns his cannon on a the warships. He blows up 3 but the sky fills with them and he cannot prevent all of them from reaching the other side of the river...

Ignoring the warships, Jet lands on the bridge. Things weren't doing as well on the ground as before. With the support of the aerial mavericks, some were starting to break through the hunter's baricade. Their numbers seemed limitless. Even with the extra manpower the merc's provided it wasn't enough. Jet fired his arm cannon in desperation. He would have no choice but to order a retreat soon...

Reaver soared through the sky. As he came close to the ground he activated his burn thrusters downward, slowing him down and scorching an unlucky hunter who stood underneath him. The hunters on the other side immedeatly attacked Reaver. He activated his scythe and started reaping through the hunters. In search for his goal...
Seeing the fighting on the other side, Flash leaves the bridge and runs back to help. He charges at Reaver who quickly teleported behind Flash blasting him away with a telekenesis. When Flash looked up, Reaver had disappeared...

Jet turned and caught a glimpse of what looked like Reaver fighting with Flash. He blasted Flash back and took off. BOOM! The defensive baricade was breached in a loud explosion. Cursing himself for getting distracted, Jet ordered the hunters to fall back to the factory. He then triggered the bomb destroying the bridge. Many mavericks were consumed in the blast, many others fell from the crumbling bridge into the river below. Jet quickly dashed to the other side. The warships were still flying overhead, many mavericks were still being transported to the other end of the city. After a quick conference with Sub it was agreed that the mercenaries would fight a guerilla war on the mavericks throughout the town and that the hunters should regroup and prepare a defense at the second target of the mavericks: the ride armor factory.

On the way to the factory Jet finds Flash's body and orders him taken back to MHHQ immediatly. Then he heads over to the factory and begins fortifying that area. Hours later he noticed Flash watching him out the med bay window and he called back to him that if he's healed he can come back out here, they could use an extra man. "If not," he continued, "I'm counting on you to handle things inside if they break through us and our sewer defenses and make it inside." With that, he continued fortifying the factory, he placed auto machine guns on the outside as well as a few mounted guns in the windows. He also ordered a few hunters into the sewers to build defenses there and to plant another bomb which would flood the sewers if the mavericks were to break through. Then he strolled inside the factory and came across a particualrly sweet looking ride armor and hopped in. "This ought to give the mavericks some trouble," he thought.

Jet marched out of the base with his new mech ride armor. Flash was cleared from the medbay and offered to run and grab Jet a buster upgrade which he accepted. Then he waited. And waited. After what seemed like forever he could see maverick forces marching up the street. Jet got an idea, a reckless and suicidal idea but it was an idea. Abandoning his position in front of the factory Jet marched his mech down a nearby alley and waited for the mavericks to get closer. He saw the first wave of mavericks run down the alley. The second. The third. And then just as the forth line of mavericks were running past Jet dashed out of the alley, the spiked fist of his ride armor completely annialating the mavericks. The maverick wave ahead of him turned around. They got a spiked fist to their face. Now Jet was surrounded but the hunters at the factory took advantage of the maverick confusion and hesitation and began mowing down mavericks on the turrets. Then more ride armors joined the fray and helped Jet beat down the mavericks. It was utter chaos... and yet... they were winning.

Large explosions lit up the sky. The heavily armed aircraft were in attacking positions and firing away shooting indiscrimintly. Some of the more unfortunate mavericks were blasted away, further reducing the maverick army. But the lumbering presence of the massive air ships more than made up for the casualties.
A missile hit the sewer plant and destroyed it, the hunters watched in awe as their plan fell apart. They suddenly realized the mavericks never intended to go covertly, this was to be a massacre and the hunters had played directly into it.
The armored transports flew in and deployed their maverick troops. The hunters struggled to keep up with the expanding maverick army.

Signas stood atop HQ and called out to the hunters via comm:
"All active hunters on front lines, retreat to HQ." As he said this he pressed a button on his arm. Unknownst to him, Alia came up behind him. Signas shook his head, "For the good of the hunters I have to do this," he said as he pressed the button.
Suddenly the sky started to light up, huge lightning bolts arced through the sky.
Alia rushed to Signas. "Signas, what have you done?"
A small tear made it's way down Signas' face. "I have doomed us Alia, it was the only way. I used the pulse matter -anti matter destroyer cannon mounted on the space platform Helios."
Gasping at what she heard, Alia quickly raced down the steps back into hunter hq.
Signas looked down at the devastation, then back to the lightning charged sky. The beam was set to impact soon.

Jet recieved the buster upgrade from Flash and although it was hard to drive 1 handed, it did help to punch and shoot the mavericks. Before long they were slaughtering the mavericks, one of the mercs named Lunchbox was even sniping out a nearby window. The hunters seemed unbeatable.
Then out of the sky the warships came destroying everything in range of their guns. The factory and many of the hunters defending it were destroyed and Lunchbox's building disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Jet's ride armor flipped over falling on top of him. As it turned out, this saved his life. The guns pounded the armor mercelessly and it was ground to pieces. Then the dropships of mavericks came down delivering even more of the enemy. And Jet caught a glimpse of Signas on to of MHHQ. Suddenly lightning bolts flew. There was something unnatural about them... "What is happening?" he thought frantically.

Reaver dashed through the battling hunters and mavericks. He was about to rip another hunter apart when a lightning bolt struck his unfortunate foe, sending Reaver back-wards and slamming him into the ground.
"Ow... what the?" Reaver looked around amazed. "Where on earth did that come from?"
"Dear god! Did they lose their mind?" the voice of Flare was heard behind him.
"WHOA? Where did you come from?" Reaver asked
"No time for that! We have to get out of here! Someone has activated the destroyer cannon!"
"The... what now?"
"Reaver, be serious! EVERYONE will die! Friend and foe! They have activated a kamikaze attempt!"
"What? You're kidding me!"
"I kid you not, everyone is in danger. Command already radioed to every maverick in the area, everyone who can escape is allowed to do so! Reaver, forget Signas and your silly thought of avenging our makers, just save it for another time."
Reaver turned around, unsure of what to say. "But... we can't let them just die!" Reaver started.
"Who?"
"Jet, and all those other rookies..."
"Never mind them, they already forgot about you anyway!"
Reaver looked away and spotted Signas on top of the HQ. "THERE HE IS!"
"Reaver, stop your idiotic idea of revenge! We have to leave now!"
Not listening to Flare, he ripped a jet-pack of a corpse, and started it up.
"And do me one favor, at least TRY to find the rookies for me and convince them to escape."
With those words, Reaver flew off toward his goal.
Flare stared after him in shock. "Fine then, just make sure you make it back alive..."

Flash noticed something in the sky. It was the black maverick that he had fought earlier! And he was flying towards Signas! He quickly climbed the side of HQ. As Reaver activated his scythe and stepped toward Signas, Flash jumped onto the roof. "Hold it right there! We've got a score to settle."

The remaining hunters began running for cover. In the middle of the chaos there was an energy charge. A ride armor laying in the middle of the street blew up in an enormous explosion. Jet stood there panting with a face so angry even the hunters were afraid. He took to the sky and fired a huge beam at a maverick warship. After the smoke cleared he saw transport ships of fleeing mavericks. He flew at one and destroyed it with his blades then whirled around and demolished another with the beam from his cannon. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck him, he crashed into the ground in a smoldering crater.

As the storm raged on Jet clung to life. Then his chip began to work, auto repair kicked in and using the subtanks Jet took earlier, restored his energy. Jet's eyes fly open. He shot straight out of the crater, blew threw the sky and blasted every maverick on the ground that was in sight. Then his gaze turned to the MHHQ where Signas was still standing. With him were Flash and Reaver. Jet shot over and landed beside the group.
"Reaver," he began "I don't know what you want but I'm going to let you walk away. I'm giving you the chance to leave now, I don't want to kill you... But you're not hurting anyone here. I'm assuming you've come for Signas. I'm afraid you can't have him, we need him to stop whatever weapon he set off."
When Reaver made no immediate reply Jet turned to Signas. "What the hell is this? You need to stop whatever you've caused immediatly!"
"Wait, you caused all this?" Flash yelled at Signas. He moved out of the way to let Reaver pass. "I'll be inside HQ till this is over, Jet you can sort this out."

Jet looked between Reaver and Signas. Reaver's eyes burned hatred while Signas could only sob softly.
Suddenly the cannon finished charging and with a resounding crash it let loose a massive beam onto the area. It hit the corner of maverick hunter HQ, vaporising Signas instantly. A blue flash of light fortold of X's arrival, and upon seeing the descending beam, he absorbed all the electricity and energy he could muster in the short time and leapt underneath it launching a counter blast. The 2 beams met, X appeared to be holding it off, allowing the others time to retreat. Even the maverick forces ran. X turned his head towards Jet and Reaver giving them a brave, sad smile. The cannon's power was much greater and longer lasting than X's. The beam slowly but surely wore him down, the strain upon X's face was intense. After a few seconds more X could no longer support his beam and disappeared in a flash of light. His scream and explosion could be heard for miles. Without X's power the beam crashed into the Earth, demolishing the hunter HQ and a large portion of the city. Many mavericks and seasoned hunters never made it out.

After the beam disappeared, Zero appeared across the street. "X, even now you protect everyone. I'm sorry friend. I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner to help..." said Zero quietly as he knelt down and covered his head with his hands. The mavericks slowly returned and were poised to defeat the hunters.

END OF CHAPTER 9