10 days after the events of the previous chapter
"Lieutenant on deck!" Gadbois shouts.
"At ease, at ease," Lieutenant Weitzler responds after giving a crisp military salute.
"Private Gadbois, what is the daily briefing?" Weitzler continues as he sits down to a breakfast of croissants and cheese.
"Intelligence shows no indication of any new threat against Paris," Gadbois responds.
"Great. I'm starting to get bored," Weitzler responds with a slight touch of sarcasm.
"Hiroki, quit messing around on that Gameboy. We're going to be late for school!" Yumi shouts at her brother.
"I'm coming! What's the rush, do you have a date with Ulrich?" He shouts back.
"NO! I AM NOT DATING ULRICH!" Yumi screams at him.
And with that they leave the house and start walking towards Kadic Academy.
As they reach the main road Hiroki blurts out "Look at those cool robots,"
"Oh no," Yumi responds as she sees an army of 300, 6 foot tall grey robots, with 2 antennas coming out of their heads, and a green eye of XANA boldly embossed on their left breast marching down the road to Kadic.
"Hiroki, go home!" Yumi shouts at him as she starts running down the backroads to the school.
"But Yumi, they look so cool!" Hiroki replies.
"DO IT!" she screams back in a manner that shuts down any hope of rebellion.
After a few minutes of running, she arrives at the school.
"Yumi you look out of breath is something wrong?" Ulrich asks.
"There's an army of XANA's robots on their way here!" She shouts in a panic.
"Quick, to the factory," Jeremie shouts.
"It's too late!" Odd says as the first of the grey battle robots begin to march into the school yard.
"Everyone into the science building! Now! Jeremie, Odd, Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, don't even think about sneaking off!" Jim shouts as he runs toward them.
"We'll have to figure something out," Ulrich says as they start towards the science building.
Once inside they help to barricade the doors and move to the top floor- still without a plan.
"Sir, the Paris Police have received numerous reports of a 'droid army' marching through Boulogne-Billancourt," Private Gadbois states.
"How many calls?" Lieutenant Weitzler asks.
"At last check 40," Private Gadbois states
"Any idea where they're going?" Weitzler responds
"Yes sir, a small force appears to be staking out an abandoned factory, while a larger group is moving towards Kadic Academy," Gadbois states.
"Summon Paris Squad 2 at once. We are going to Kadic to check it out," Weitzler responds.
"Yes sir," Gadbois states as he quickly runs off to assemble his squadmates.
"Squad 1, guard the base and await further instructions," Weitzler continues
In a few minutes, all 9 of them are assembled and beginning the servo assisted run to the nearby school.
"Update sir, the genardame report that the robots are trying to break into the school's science building, and they have the front totally sealed off," Gadbois says without any trace of strain from their fast paced run.
"We'll circle around the back- there is a small forest there that we can use as cover. Gadbois, how do you feel about serving as bait to draw the robots toward us," Weitzler orders.
"It will be my pleasure," Gadbois shouts back.
As they near the school they reach a police blockade blocking the road. As they reach it they bend their knees and give a massive servo powered leap that sends them 15 feet in the air, clearing the blockade. Without breaking pace they smoothly land and continue their run to the school.
Once at the school, the entire squad minus Gadbois swiftly climbs into the trees. Due to their green camouflage uniform, they blend in perfectly and cannot be seen. Using their optical enhancers the squad surveys the scene. They find the combat robots clustered around every entrance to the science building, firing spheres of blue laser energy into the barricades the students have erected, trying to find a way in.
"Is everyone ready," Weitzler whispers, so quietly that the only way the other Defenders can hear it is with their audio enhancers.
"Yes sir," they all reply just as quietly.
"Gadbois, you may begin," Weitzen whispers.
And with that Gadbois begins sprinting towards the science building. When he gets there he brakes to a hard stop and screams "Hey tin cans, bet you can't catch me," as he mimes a chicken and wildly shoots his cutting lasers in the air.
250 of the robots immediately turn and start marching after Gadbois as he zigzags towards the trees where his comrades are waiting.
Once he gets there he whispers "They're 100 feet behind,"
Once he finishes whispering that he makes a servo assisted jump into a high branch in one of the trees.
"Enemy is 50 feet out. Ready your anti-armor laser and wait for my signal before firing," Weitzler whispers.
As the first robots reach the edge of the trees holding the Defenders, Weitzler whispers "Now,".
With that the trees erupt with a storm of bright blue lasers as the Defenders open up with quick bursts of their anti-armor laser which drop the robots. In a split second the robots point their left arms up into the tree and begin to fire their blue laser spheres.
"My anti-armor laser is overheating," Trant whispers.
"There taking out my tree. What should I do," L'hopital whispers.
"L'hopital jump to another tree. Trant, switch to your cutting lasers," Weitzler whispers as he also feels his anti-armor laser heating up.
Immediately L'hopital places a target lock on a neighboring tree and jumps into it, while he rains deadly bolts of blue laser down onto the attacking robots. Trant also switches to her smaller, but equally deadly cutting lasers.
"Shaw, Rundell, on my mark direct your sonics at the robots. Let's see if we can confuse their targeting computers," Weitzler whispers.
"Yes sir," they whisper back
"Mark," Weitzler replies
At that moment they both activate their sonic disruptors at max power as they direct them towards the oncoming robots. The robots in the middle rows immediately shift their left arms- the arm carrying their potent laser- into the robots directly in front of them. Slowly they start firing, easily wiping out half the remaining robots.
"Everyone but Shaw and Rundell, on my mark, drop down from your tree and neutralize the rest of the robots while their targeting sensors are being messed up by the sonic," Weitzler whispers.
"Mark," he whispers as they drop out their trees and make a smooth landing. He quickly crouches down behind a bush and brings his left leg up, while curling his hands into firing position. He then lets loose with all 3 of his lasers, as his squad mates follow. Quickly they cut down the last of the robots.
"Status report," Lieutenant Weitzler orders.
After all the Defenders report in with just some minor laser burns, Lieutenant Weitzler orders: "To the school: double time it!"
With that the 9 Defenders set off at a rapid sprint back towards the academy yard. Once they reach the yard they crouch down in the low bushes and survey the scene.
"I count 2 robots guarding the front door," L'hopital says
Switching to his infrared vision, he continues: "It appears the students are clustered on the 4th floor, and the robots are currently searching all the floors, trying to find them,"
"Booker, Rundell, Clawson, Blanc, sweep the lower floors and clear out the robots. L'hopital, Gadbois, Shaw, Trant, on me to rescue the kids," Weitzler orders.
After they all acknowledge, Booker and Rundell start creeping towards the building, while the other Defenders lie in wait, hands curled into firing position. As the combat droids level their left arms straight at the 2 Defenders, the waiting Defenders let loose with a salvo of their fingertip cutting lasers, quickly cutting down the 2 droids. The other 7 Defenders pop up and start running into the building. Once there, Booker, Rundell, Clawson, and Blanc set off down the first floor hall, while the other Defenders start silently climbing up the stairs, fingers curled into firing position waiting to cut down whatever robots were guarding the 4th floor. Unchallenged, the 5 Defenders reach the 4th floor, and pop out.
Switching to his IR vision, L'hopital states: "I'm getting a very large mass of heat from the far lab,"
"Let's go," Lieutenant Weitzler orders as he starts sprinting towards the door as Gadbois assumes a backstop position, with his anti-armor laser ready to fire.
Once outside the door, Weitzler and L'hopital take positions on either side of it as they peer inside.
"I count 20 robots surrounding the kids. It looks like they're moving in for the kill," L'hopital states.
"Gadbois, Trant, head to the roof and come in through the windows. The rest of you on me," Weitzler orders.
As Gadbois and Trant peel off and start back towards the stairs, Weitzler positions himself by the door. With a massive servo assisted kick he slams the door into the room down and jumps in, hands curled into firing position. The other 2 Defenders follow him in, forming a V formation with their fingers curled into firing position. Once inside, he sees the 20 robots forming a half circle around a clump of students. Most of the students are cowering in fear, but the front 5 kids are staring at the combat droids in a loose combat style.
"For your crimes against XANA, we hereby sentence you, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, Ulrich Stern, Aelita Schaeffer, and Jeremie Belpois to immediate death by laser," One of the robots says in a dull mechanical voice as they all level their lasers at them.
"We will never bow down to you XANA," The girl with pink hair responds defiantly as the combat robots charge up their lasers.
"UN Defender COMMAND FREEZE!" Lieutenant Weitzler shouts.
Half of the robots turn around and immediately level their left hands straight at the Defenders. As they charge up their lasers, Lieutenant Weitzler fires a bright blue arc of electricity at one of the lead robots, short circuiting it. The other Defenders let loose with their fingertip lasers as they dive for cover behind one of the lab benches. From the outside Gadbois and Trant hit the window with a blast of their sonics, breaking it right as they jump through it on top of 2 of the robots about to execute the 5 kids. From on top of the robots they bring their left legs up and let loose with their heavy anti-armor laser. As they do this, the other robots turn on them and let loose with their own barrage of blue laser spheres. Trant's and Gadbois's nanocomputer quickly respond, throwing them into a low dive towards the nearest cover. Before she can get out of the way, one of the spheres hits Trant in the left upper chest and she goes down.
L'hopital responds with a barrage of anti-armor laser of his own, dropping the last of the robots.
"CLEAR!" he shouts.
"L'hopital, Gadbois guard the door. Shaw guard the windows," Lieutenant Weitzler orders as he pops out from behind cover to run to Trant. Reaching her side, he immediately rips open the hole in her uniform where the laser hit her.
"Hey Lieutenant, do you think I'm going to be ok," She says weakly.
"Lucky for you it looks like your ceramic laminated bones protected your organs from the blast. You might have a nasty scar, but you'll live," Lieutenant Weitzler responds as he bandages her wound up.
As he finishes, Rundell walks into the room.
"Sir, we have finished our sweep of the building and have destroyed all remaining robots," she says.
"Very good Rundell. Trant, do you feel well enough to walk?" Weitzler responds
"Yes sir," she responds
"Rundell, please take Trant to the nearest police checkpoint, give them a sitrep and make sure she gets to the hospital. Gadbois, please call Paris Squad 1 and have them meet us here," Weitzler orders.
"Yes sir," All 3 of them respond as Rundell offers her hand to help Trant up.
"You 5, come with me," Weitzler says, as he looks at the 5 teenagers who the robots were trying to execute.