Under Unfriendly Fire
That night, Chance was slowly drifting off to sleep as he watched Cody doze. Jake was asleep in the next room, having decided that keeping twenty-four/seven Cody Watch was pointless. The quiet of the junkyard occupied the building, except for the distant rumbling from the expressway traffic, which was typical every night. Chance had nearly got to sleep when he heard an unusual sound that jolted him from his sleep. He wondered over to the window to investigate, still in a slightly sleepy state. He squinted out the window, and was slightly surprised to see a squadron of Enforcer choppers approaching across the junkyard from the City across the river. As they got closer and their rotor noise got louder, Chance began to pick up on the unusual flight arrangement of the approaching choppers. It seemed familiar, and he racked is brains to recall what the pattern was. It infuriated him when such flying knowledge slipped his mind. As they got closer, Chance watched with interest as they began to fly in closer formation. It was then that it hit him; it was a Delta Attack pattern. He briefly had a moment to wonder why they were preparing to attack, but wondering had no place when the choppers entered firing range and loosed a barrage of gunfire on the house.
"What the fuck!" Chance yelled as he dived away from the window, which shattered under the hail of cannon fire.
Cody let out a startled shriek of terror as the window imploded. Chance jumped up, and threw himself down over Cody as another wave of fire rained down upon the building.
As they picked themselves up, Jake crashed through the door. "Chance they're shooting at us, we've got to get out of here" he yelled.
"Oh yeah, that's a good idea" Chance replied sarcastically, seizing up Cody and following Jake out onto the landing.
As they began to descend the stairs, one of the overflying choppers fired a missile, which sailed in a graceful rising arc into the side of the building. The resulting explosion tore through the structure, ripping the stair supports from their mounts. Chance, Jake and Cody collapsed with the stairs to the ground level. Dust and rubble engulfed them for a moment, before another chopper strafed the building with a further barrage of cannon fire causing Jake and Chance to return to their senses.
Chance hauled Cody to his feet, and they ran through a side door into the garage. The roof had partially collapsed, crushing much of the equipment, but the tow truck was still sitting unharmed next to a squashed workbench.
They climbed over the rubble into the truck, which started easily, given that they were both mechanics. Chance slammed the truck into gear, and it all but leaped from the garage, skilfully guided by Chance through the piles of garbage out towards the street. As they lurched out of the gate and turned to head for the expressway, Chance spotted an attack force of five Enforcer tanks approaching down the road. He swerved the truck around, its tail demolishing a bus stop that stood opposite the entrance to the junkyard. But no sooner as he had turned around he spotted several Enforcer patrol cars bearing down on him from the other direction. He wavered, trying to find a way out. Taking advantage of the pause, a chopper fired two missiles, which slammed into the road in front of, and behind, the truck, blocking its escape.
"Give us the boy, right now!" came Steele's voice from a chopper loudhailer overhead.
"No, over my dead body Steele" Chance shouted up at the chopper, as they climbed out of their truck.
Steele issued a hollow laugh through the loudhailer, as Enforcer markskats took aim from an armoured truck behind the tanks.
Chance made to grab Cody and pull him away, but one of the sharp shooters had found his mark, firing a hypodermic dart into Chance's neck. He collapsed to the ground instantly. Cody gasped, and ran to Chance's side, kneeling down next to him and trying to shake him awake.
"Why is that boy so important?" Jake shouted at Steele's chopper overhead.
"No need for you to know that. Come now little one..." was Steele's cold response.
Cody tried to hide behind Jake, but he too was promptly hit with another dart, which knocked him clean out, leaving Cody standing alone in the middle of the street.
"Take those two mechanics into custody. As for the boy, take him to the lab. Alive" Steele shouted over the radio at the ground units, who swept in to follow their orders.
