Chapter 3: Sky Lagoon (1) – The Grand Collapse

Zero and his men had landed onto the connecting bridge which leads to the main power building of Sky Lagoon. The Shinobi Unit were specialized on stealth missions and their best attribute was speed. This time, their mission was to make their way with utmost haste, into the deepest room of the building, where the main power generator was located. Their agility was required so that the Maverick Hunters can ensure that the entire power supply of the airborne metropolis would not be cut down.

Sky Lagoon was a beautiful city which was built to be floating in the air. Visitors from outside would have to take a teleporter underneath the city, which will directly transport them into the transportational hub. It housed one of the biggest shopping complexes, with a variety of choices to offer. Zero recalled for a while that he and Iris did come here to do some shopping weeks ago. This place was essentially a shopping haven.

Right after all his unit members had settled down, Zero led his men rushing through the already damaged bridge. The bridge was cylindrical in shape, with blue transparent glasses surrounding the walkable path. These glasses had already been blasted apart and currently in shatters.

As the zeroth unit charged down the bridge with utmost urgency, they were quickly interrupted by a number of Maverick bots, Knot Berets and Spike Marls mostly, as well as a swarm of Dragonfly bots zooming through the area. Like a true shinobi, Zero's unit weapon of preference consisted of beam swords and thrown projectiles, in which were used with great accuracy and skill, and they quickly make short work of these hostile enemies.

As they proceed further, they were stopped by the automated guard doors that were activated to close down the path during emergency. Without even trying to figure out how to crack the code to reopen the doors, Zero and his unit just smashed their way through the doors.

Right after they broke through the second door, they found themselves a surprise.

"Ambush!" yelled one of the Reploids. They quickly increased their alertness and scanned the surrounding. It was a little too late when one of them catches the fast movement of the enemy, as he was instantly ripped into shreds with what seemed to be a large claw.

"Over there!" Zero had no time to grief for the loss of one of his soldiers, as another one of his members notify him of the location of their attacker. The enemy was one capable of flight, as it hovered from a distance trying to pinpoint his next target. On a closer inspection, the green-shaded Maverick had a close resemblance to a dragon, with large claws and powerful feet, as well as reliable wings that allowed him to fly at incredible speed.

"Here it comes!" the dragon Maverick quickly cut down the distance between him and the Shinobi unit and slammed one part of the bridge using his strong claw. Fortunately, no casualties this time as the entire unit anticipated the attack well enough and had sufficient speed to avoid tragedy.

"Half of you! Stay here and delay his assault! The rest will follow me to the power room!" with quick wits Zero barked out orders to his unit, in which five of them will stay behind to handle the towering Maverick, whereas the remaining five will follow Zero by his tail.

"Roger!" was the one word that Zero needed to hear before he focused his eyes forward. Without any need to issue a second command, he dashed as fast as he could towards the power building, with his members promptly following behind.

Right as they managed to break into their destination building, they were met with resistance coming from several Mad Bulls, which were tank Mavericks that carry a spiky platform in front of them, charging their way as they attempt to mow down all enemies. With swift movements, Zero and his subordinates hopped around and cleared themselves from the dangerous path of the Mad Bulls, hacking them down and utilizing energy projectiles to hit their weak spots, blowing them away.

The building was already badly damaged from the relentless onslaught of the Mavericks and part of the ceiling began to crumble. Zero feared they were a little too late, but must push on to obtain confirmation of the power room's status.

Coming right up, a bunch of Knot Berets, some of them threw grenades, while some of them wielded a pistol. These goons were much more mobile compared to the simplistic Mad Bulls yet were comparatively less armored. Without much trouble as well, they made their way past these Mavericks and soon found themselves entering the power room.

Inside the room, there weren't any light nor electricity detected, as the room was very badly destroyed. The room was barely illuminated by the external light sources coming from the rescue helicopters coming from outside. The room was not complete unoccupied though.

"Dragoon!?" exclaimed Zero, immediately recognizing the commander of the 14th unit. "What are you doing here? I thought the 14th unit had been dispatched to another mission?"

"This doesn't look good, Zero!" Dragoon deemed there wasn't enough time to answer Zero's questions. "The Maverick had already took out the power!"

"What!? This will cause the Sky Lagoon to crash to the ground!" Zero retorted, with more and more questions popping into his head.

"It's too late for us to do anything now, we have to make our escape!" having said that, Dragoon quickly teleported away from the scene, leaving the dumbfounded zeroth unit in the collapsing room.

"Commander!" one of Zero's men cried out to his commander, urging him to make a decision immediately.

"Damn! Let's get out of here! Rendezvous at point 5207, at the bottom of the city! We need to measure the degree of destruction as well as rescuing every survivors! Move!"