Chapter 16: Marine Base (II) – Race Against Time
Zero arrived to the departure bay, looking extremely relieved as he saw the rest of his team in standby.
"You are late, commander!" Quartz was the first to notice a hurrying Zero entering the bay, waving his arm to him.
Besides the more energetic Quartz, only Lapis, the most experienced among them, Sapphire, still in low spirits after the loss of her dearest friend, Ruby, and Emerald, the less talkative green-model reploid. Dia and Onyx were still receiving repairs.
"You okay, Sapphire?" Zero approached the dispirited blue comrade to ensure she's ready for the mission.
Sapphire took a brief moment to prepare herself, then looked up to her commander with renewed vigor, "yes! Sir!" She saluted Zero with her loudest voice and strong gesture. Her voice still barely shaking, but Zero was more than satisfied with how she handled the situation.
"Excellent," Zero began, "this is another one of those critical ones, we will be riding these land chasers to track down the perpetrator who took down city C. There are reports that the Repliforce took down the city's underground power station, causing a huge explosion…" Zero paused a while, gritting his teeth as he hissed in disgust, thinking how cowardly Repliforce was, attacking cities at random and causing many casualties, what's worse, the cities were the ones populated mostly by humans. "Many were killed. Anyhow, we have reports that they are going to attack the neighbouring cities as well, so we must make haste!"
"Roger!" All 4 replied in unison.
Charging in with their land chasers, the Shinobi Unit raced down the burned city. Closer to the center of the city, where the power station exploded, a huge crater was found, devouring every building, reploids and humans into its wake. Skyscrapers were mostly lit up with fire and smoke, glass and concrete shattered.
Such an obnoxious scenery, reminded Zero of the horrors of Sky Lagoon…
I cannot believe this! Even if the Repliforce wasn't the perpetrator of Sky Lagoon's fall, this… this…
Zero gaped with disbelief, the damage was too great, too severe. Thousands had died and who knows how many more were injured. In an instant the city was reduced to rubble.
Yet the enemy was nowhere to be found.
"Distress call from the Marine Base! I repeat, distress call from the Marine Base! Zero, head over there immediately!" The navigator issued a panic order, prompting the zeroth unit to follow suit.
"Commander, this could be a trap by the Repliforce!" Lapis yelled out while they were charging headlong towards the Marine Base located just around twenty unimeters away. It was well within sight.
Zero did not immediately answer, his gaze fixated towards the Marine Base, which still looked unharmed at the moment, but anything could happen during such a critical moment.
… and it happened right away.
A blast could be heard and a patch of smoke began rising up from one corner of the roof of the base.
"Dammit!" Zero stomped onto the throttler and dashed ahead of his team, his emotion got the better of him.
"Commander!" His members quickly gave chase, following their unnerved leader. "Keep a hold on yourself!" Emerald shouted through the top of her lungs.
They charged straight in into the Maverick Hunters Marine Base, inside are members manning the base struggling to hold off the attackers. Zero eyed and searched for their insignia, which revealed themselves as soldiers from Repliforce.
It's them!
Zero gripped hard the handle of the Land Chaser and steered himself with utmost precision to avoid his allies and putting himself in a better position to blast the enemies, once in target, he stamped on the button atop the very same handle he had been choking, rapidly firing energy blasts, taking down the Hover Gunners that had been plaguing the base's defense for a while.
"Commander Zero!" His allies hastily recognize him and addressed him promptly. He gave no reply, still rushing towards the deeper interior of the base and firing down any enemies he encountered.
Instead, Lapis did the questioning in his superior's place. "What happened here? Who attacked us? When did it start?" A barrage of short questions came out of his mouth as he stopped down a little to ask them, his other teammates continued their pursuit. Before Lapis received the first answer for any of his questions, an explosion occurred again just nearby, prompting him to press his replier down and together they hugged the ground to brace themselves from any falling debris. He glanced up, and at the top of his eye, something zipped through the ceiling at high speed.
"Commander Zero, you copy? Something just dashed right past my location at high speed! An explosion was started at the location it left behind!" Lapis quickly grabbed his communicator to update his commander, from his receiver all he could hear sounds of shrapnels hitting the ground from the battles and the sound of his commander's Z-Saber slicing through metal, presumably the enemy. Briefly after, came a reply, "copy that." Lapis sighed with relief.
At least his superior was still sane.
"It's… It's the Repliforce! They attacked us out of nowhere without warning just a few minutes ago! Half of our defenses were wiped out instantly, I don't think we could hold out much longer!" The Maverick Hunter finally replied with a shaky voice, obviously traumatized.
Lapis patted the shoulder of the Reploid, nodded, and dashed away to join the fray.
To deal with Hover Gunners and Hornets, Zero had to steer his Land Chaser with as much skill as he had. The Gunners tended to flock together and fired bullets at fixed and random directions, those may accumulate together and becoming impossible to dodge by steering away from them. Thankfully, Zero had received the Tenkuuha upgrade to his Z-Saber, the purple energy arising from it was able to cut down energy projectiles, rendering them useless as long as Zero was able to wipe them out. On the other hand, Hornets, the Repliforce's answer to soldiers mounting on the same Land Chasers he had been riding on, were no pushovers as they were the recon scouts of the Repliforce, with riding skills comparable to each and every member of the Shinobi Unit.
Using the Land Chaser, Zero was able to fire energy projectiles to take down opponents from far away. For anything close by, he could resort to a dashing attack simply by lifting his Land Chaser and stepping on the gas, the added acceleration from the igniter created a drive blade at its rear, incinerating anything that came in contact with it. If both of these failed, Zero would brandish his Z-Saber and slice anything within his range. Quartz, Sapphire and Emerald followed his back and provided cover.
"Look out! Something's catching up from behind real fast!" The navigator in their coms systems yelled.
"It must be what Lapis was warning us about, stay focused!" was the reply from the leader of the zeroth unit.
"Commander, behind you!" This time it was Quartz who shouted through his mechanical voice chords. They were not given even a millisecond to breathe, as the moment Zero glanced over his right shoulder, a silver shadow was diving right into him with unbelievable speed. Zero pulled his Land Chaser all the way to the left, barely avoiding the thunderous opponent by an inch, as his vehicle had been left spinning and himself being flung away from the disastrous momentum.
The mysterious attacker stopped a little in the air after grazing the ground, his attacking pattern started from above, swooping down below, and returning back up to realign himself for the next attack. He stared at the astonished Shinobi Unit for a while, left a smirk, and zipped ahead towards the other exit of the Marine Base.
"Jet… Stingray. The Aqua Destroyer, this is the first time I've met him, another powerful foe." Zero slowly got up and pulled himself back onto the Land Chaser. Why on earth did he not finish us up? The Maverick Hunters were left baffled for a moment, couldn't grasp the reason they survived the ambush attack coming so ferociously from the Repliforce commander.
Again, the reason became apparent to them shortly after, as chain explosions, erupting one by one from the entrance they once emerged. "No! Our allies are still behind!" Quartz exclaimed, "Lapis!" Immediately noticing one of their veteran members weren't around yet.
It didn't take long for Lapis to show himself, dashing past his comrades without stopping nor slowing down, "Hurry and catch up! We have to make it to the other side of the Base!" He added into the communications system. Upon receiving his words, the rest of the team followed suit, chasing down the hall of the Marine Base.
"What happened?" Zero asked.
"Repliforce had already planted time bombs throughout the entire Base! They planned to wipe us all out in it!"
What!? Zero was left bemused, how could they planted those bombs in such a short notice, without anyone from our side noticing? This was a Maverick Hunters' Marine Base, having it under attack without them knowing beforehand didn't sound plausible at all, they were notified of attacks from City C, not from the Base. If anything, they would provide backup on the assault on City C, delaying its destruction, however, it was the opposite.
As if the Marine Base was sabotaged. It was simply foolishness and recklessness of Zero to rush into the Base at the sight of the first explosion.
Did rage finally get the better on him? Causing him to lead his entire team into jeopardy? It almost happened at the Military Train, and now this.
The only thing going on in his mind, was how he was going to end the war by stopping the Repliforce, defeat them, and peace would be restored… However, the cost for it seemed to be far greater than he would've imagined…
"Commander Zero!" Sapphire's high-pitched squeal jolted him out from his line of thought immediately. As his mind returned to the scene, an enemy hornet came flying towards his way from the opposite direction, attempting a kamikaze attack to slow down the Maverick Hunters. At a whim, Zero puilled out his Z-Saber, "Raijingeki!" and infused it with lightning energy, zapping the hornet down and brought it to pieces after a delayed explosion that caused no harm from the ongoing Hunters.
If anything, the Maverick Hunters should've faulted themselves for falling into traps as simple as these. This was a large scale war, not a mere Maverick Operation.
The Repliforce was never easy opponents, their sheer force and numbers backed that fact, doubled with their powerful leadership.
However, this wasn't the time to be bothered with the ambush, Zero was perfectly aware of this, thus he fixated his gaze ahead, towards the other side of the exit, towards where Jet Stingray fled to.
"Time to take down one of the top guns in Repliforce," Zero said in a very firm tone, rushing in immediately after without a moment's delay. His remaining members of the zeroth unit followed suit.
The Marine Base was quickly crumbling with precisely timed bombs ticking off one after another, chasing behind them like hot lava. Amidst the pursuit towards the exit, the Repliforce threw in a few Hornets going to opposite way attempting to halt the Shinobi Unit, all committing suicide during the process.
They ducked on the oncoming Hornets that leaped high trying to aim at their heads, and jumped on those that went low trying to crash into their Land Chasers head on. Blasting them when they were spotted some distances away was also an option. With careful maneuver and accurate sniping, Zero and co. made their way towards the exit as chains of explosions ended their pursuit.
Right back into the bright sunlight, they were now zipping through water, where the Marine Base received their cargo and goods. The Base was an important asset for the Maverick Hunters, securing their supply from the water route, and providing naval defenses whenever necessary.
All that was gone when the Base was sabotaged.
"Spikes!" Emerald yelled, spotting red colored spikes, shaping like a ball with protruding sharp ends all over it, should a Land Chaser running at full speed happen to step onto it, it would definitely send the rider flying and disintegrating the ride in the process.
The first thing that came into mind to dodge these spikes was simply to jump over them. While trying to do so, Jet Stingray appeared from behind and charged his way through, this time in a straight line through the air instead of descending in a curve at high speed.
"What!? How could he be behind us!?" Lapis yelled in surprise.
"We did not spot him all the way towards the exit of the Base, he could simply hide somewhere and wait for us to pass," Onyx explained.
"Focus on all directions, and take him down." Zero assured his comrades, while giving a dire instruction that was not filled with mercy in any form. His tone was utterly cold and emotionless.
As if something inside him woke up.
But none of his members noticed anything peculiar about their commander, Zero was always extremely professional in his missions anyway.
Zipping far ahead and missing all his targets, Jet turned and faced the pursuers on his tail, then grabbed his knee, opening a contraction embedded on it, releasing several small, mechanical stingrays that fell straight down into the water and dashing towards the Maverick Hunters at high speed seconds after it hit the ground.
"Projectiles! Incoming from underneath us!" Lapis yelled.
Zero grabbed his Z-Saber out from his rear, stepped on the gas to give himself a strong boost, then he dragged his Z-Saber digging through the water floor, beaming in a sharp pink tone instead of the dark purplish tone imbued by Tenkuuha.
"Shippuuga!" Zero then swung the blade with absolute force assisted from the dashing momentum, slicing through most of the stingray projectiles before they even had the chance to change their course. The few leftover ones were easily dodged or destroyed by the zeroth unit members tailing from behind.
Jet Stingray was left amused, getting more serious and accepted the challenge from the commander of the Shinobi Unit of the Maverick Hunters.
He repeated that downward charge he performed in the Marine Base, aiming at Zero, but this time with even greater speed than before. Zero could only leaped with his Land Chaser at the right moment, unable to squeeze an attack in. Jet shot up just in front of the rest of the pack, causing them to stomp on the brakes a little or else they would be caught in the momentum.
Now Zero was even further away from his comrades. Jet seized this opportunity and performed the same attack again, this time from behind Zero. Zero, unable to hear the warnings coming out from his comrades mouths, slid quickly to the left and held his Z-Saber up, as Jet passed by the spot just within the range of his blade, he swiped it down attempting to slice the enemy into half. But he missed the mark due to Jet's supreme agility.
Zero, slightly pissed off, dashed forwards to cut his distance from Jet who just flew up from the aftermath of his previous attack. Zero knew if he was directly underneath Jet, he wouldn't be able to use that downwards charging attack as the arch of the movement was in such a way that being right underneath the attacker at the beginning of the attack would be safe.
Then, by being right underneath Jet, it would be the perfect setup for Zero to use Ryuuenjin.
Jet laughed away at the plan Zero was trying, seeing right through it, and shifted his body in a way that his head was facing the ground. Then he kicked the air, propelling himself towards the ground. This was a nosedive.
A nosedive! Zero immediately slammed on the brakes, halting the Land Chaser as it screeched harshly on the water floor, Jet missed him just by few centimeters away, and slamming through the ground, creating a huge hole in the path. Zero, going from full speed to a sudden stop, found his vehicle being launched forwards from the powerful momentum. Reacting as best as he could, he grabbed the handle hard, flinging himself upwards as the back side of the Land Chaser began lifting itself off the ground. Using his body as a steering, he turned the Land Chaser 360 degrees, his head facing the huge hole Jet left in the process, in which he could see another hole being drilled through horizontally, indicating Jet could be anywhere in front.
The distance he flung himself was sufficient to cover enough ground that he did not have to fall into the gap left by Jet. Upon returning onto flat ground, he quickly started his Land Chaser back up and weaved through the water floor, trying to guess the location of Jet Stingray underneath the surface, where he could well be preparing for another attack.
It did not take long for Jet to show back up, shoving through the ground and breaking through the surface, leaving no chance for Zero to dodge this time, sending him and his Land Chaser onto the sky. His vehicle totally wrecked by the powerful attack, Zero was also thankful that the Land Chaser acted as a shield protecting him to some degree.
Now in midair, Zero knew this would be his last chance to attack, or else the enemy would not be possible to be defeated nor tracked down without a vehicle.
Zero quickly came up with his best attack in midair. "Hyouretsuzan!" Surrounding his Z-Saber with a thick coating of ice, Zero stabbed his blade downwards, aiming directly into Jet's torso just underneath him.
With the extra mobility he possessed in the air, Jet Stingray rolled his body to one side, but his left leg was still caught by the blade of ice, freezing it and detaching it from the body. The frozen leg fell right down towards the ground together with Zero on his powerful momentum downwards, but Jet remained airborne, one leg missing.
Zero looked up upon the snickering Repliforce officer, who fled the scene as fast as he could. Zero could only stared from afar, his comrades arriving on their vehicles when it was already too late.
"Commander Zero! Are you okay?" Zero paid no attention to the most expected question that will first blurted out by his men, the only thing in his head, was how this operation was a failure, the enemy fled, the marine base destroyed, the city was in flames, casualties were innumerable, they did nothing to the benefit of the Maverick Hunters.
They were extremely fortunate to suffer minimal loss.
"Emergency! This is a very urgent matter!" Their coms blared out with the speaker sounded extremely agitated, the voice obviously panting, "All units are to head towards the Repliforce HQ immediately! The Repliforce had already erected a fully operational Space Port!"
"What!?" Why!?" Zero immediately questioned, his comrades also wondered the same.
"Further details will be briefed as you arrive." Much to Zero's chagrin, however, a preset answer was all he would have to settle for now.
"Damn it!" Out of extreme anger, the red commander slammed the severed leg he held in his hand hard to the ground, stomping it into pieces without hesitation. "So that was their intention all along!"
It was simply naive of them to keep trying to reduce the number of human casualties, from the first minute the war erupted, he should've known the ultimate goal of the Repliforce. A nation, a utopia, only for Reploids… that was precisely what General had declared during their independence speech. Zero never thought they would go as far as abandoning, no, destroying Earth. That would mean they would openly rebelled against their human creators, something that contradicted General's speech.
Something happened, and they changed their mind… They must be stopped!
Zero had doubts over eliminating his previously trusted allies. Now, there was no second choice available.
No more mercy.