Chapter 5: That'll do Pig, That'll do.
Shinji was nervous. Normally, he was nervous because someone was going to beat him up or steal his lunch money. Right now, however, he was nervous because Sousuke was sitting next to him, staring forward into the bulkhead that separated two of the plane's compartments as though he could see through it if he looked hard enough.
Earlier in the flight, the two boys had enjoyed a long conversation about the relative efficiency of incendiary ordinance to flechettes, but Sousuke's gaze had kept getting drawn back to the front of the plane, and this had gotten even worse when they'd seen the F-16 with United Nations markings twenty minutes previous.
"There's something wrong here," Sousuke had muttered, and Shinji was starting to agree, as he looked out the window to see several small specks, growing as they got closer to the ground, and forming into shapes he recognized as those of various Russian made war machines.
"Sousuke," he said, caught between amazement at being able to see the vehicles up close and fear at what their presence could mean, "Take a look at this!"
The taller brown haired boy took a moment away from his attempt to drill through aircraft aluminum with his stare to look out the window, where he noticed the same thing as Shinji had, and cursed. He was just about to get up and start taking a look around when the intercom crackled to life, and a familiar voice came through it, though the mercenary couldn't place where he'd heard it before.
As he heard what was basically a clear admission that he and the rest of the class were being taken hostage, and promises that he'd found empty far too many times in his life that they would be released, Sousuke frowned darkly, standing and walking towards the front of the plane.
"Sousuke, where are you going?" Shinji asked, his glance moving from his new friend to the window intermittently. "They told us to stay put."
The other boy didn't respond, walking slowly towards the door to the next compartment and sticking his head through. What he saw wasn't what he had been fearing, but it wasn't necessarily good, either. Kaname's seat was near the front of the section, and she was still in it, though looking very nervous. Standing next to her was a tall man, pointing a gun at their teacher, who was trembling, her eyes wide, and a laser dot playing across her forehead.
Without really thinking about it, the mercenary brought one arm smacking into the side of the door frame, producing a loud bang, and incidentally bruising his arm. This apparently did what he wanted it to do, as the tall figure turned towards him, causing him to duck back. Also, a woman who had been sitting right behind Kaname seemed to look at him in startlement for a moment, but he wasn't quite sure of that, as he had something a little more important on his mind at the moment.
Falling against a seat near the door, the brown haired boy blinked, his memory repeating the short glimpse he had gotten at the man's face. "Gauron?" He muttered, before shaking his head.
HR.
Melissa Mao thought alternately of hostage rescue tactics and reprimanding a squad mate for idiocy as she slowly, quietly made her way down one of the access stairwells that lead from the passenger levels of the airliner to its cargo deck. Fortunately, this particular group of captors didn't really seem to care what the passengers did, and didn't have patrols, but unfortunately they had also taken Kaname already, and she wasn't sure where they had gone.
Briefly, she wondered where Sousuke was, as she'd gone back to check his seat and pick him up earlier, only to find a rather nervous kid in glasses saying he'd left allready and he had no idea where he was. As she reached the base of the stairwell, she shelved the question of her teammate's location for a moment, playing her flashlight over the dozens of suitcases and crates that had been packed on the plane before take-off.
As her flashlight came across one with the words "Alchemical Bananas," she scowled at the idiocy of the cover name, walking over to pop open the seals, only to stop cold as she heard something rustling in the darkness. Tensing up, she looked around, and heard a soft thumping sound, before everything went silent, save the sound of shallow breathing.
Diving forward, Mao lashed out, grabbing someone by the collar and pulling them up into her flashlight's beam. "Sousuke?" She asked, looking down on the somewhat startled eyes of the brown haired boy.
"Hello Sergeant Major," the younger mercenary replied, as though they'd just met in one of De Danaan's corridors.
"What were you doing down here?" Mao demanded, somewhat irritated for letting Sousuke scare the crap out of her the way he had. She was, after all, his commander.
"I was reconnoitering the area," Sousuke said. "I've discovered several alarming things." As the Sergeant made his report, detailing the fact that there was a rather large, complex explosive stored in one of the crates in the cargo bay, Mao's eyes widened. There were several hundred civilians above them, and the idea of blowing them to hell didn't exactly sit well with her.
"We've got to get out and report this to Mithril," she said, resolutely. "The target's been taken somewhere and we've got a plane full of high schoolers, wonderful."
"Kaname's been taken?" Sousuke asked, the level voice he had possessed when being jumped and grabbed by the neck now somewhat shaky.
Mao just rolled her eyes, getting up from where she'd been hiding with the younger man behind the Banana crate, and swinging it open. "Yeah, but we'll get her back, just as soon as we get a report back to headquarters."
Sousuke was about to ask how, when he got to his feet and looked into the crate. As he surveyed its contents, a barely perceptible smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and he reached in to retrieve an automatic weapon, along with several clips of ammunition. "Let's go."
HR.
"Okay, we're on a submarine, I get that, but has anyone ever heard of verifying seals?" Ranma grumbled, as she walked down a corridor that lead from De Danaan's main hangar to some of the equipment lockers.
"You complain too much," a short, shaggy blonde haired woman in a flight suit who was walking next to the redhead snorted. "I mean, last time it was about the Savage, and now it's just a little maintenance issue."
"It's not a little issue when the ship dumps ten gallons of water on me when we dive," Ranma grumbled, irritably. "And forgive me if I figure an arm slave inside a server room is a bit of a problem."
"I'll remember that next time you ridicule me for being a little freaked out by an acid spitting spider demon, okay?" The blonde said, before the two entered an intersection. "They said your debriefing's in about half an hour, so you've got time to cool off... or warm up, whatever the case may be."
"Yes, ma'am," Ranma said, giving a crooked salute, before turning towards the showers and equipment storage section
The blonde woman chuckled, before heading back to a small communications facility near the ship's C&C. Unfortunately, her good humor died as she slipped into her seat, pulling up a log of all messages sent through the 'less classified' channels, and her eyes widened. "Oh, he's not gunna be happy about this," she winced, playing back a recent communication from Urzu 2.
"So much for time to cool off," the operations officer muttered, taking her headset off and closing the terminal down before heading from the room.
HR.
The main briefing room was a scene of barely controlled chaos, thinly disguised as military efficiency, as over two dozen people from several divisions took seats, scanned reports and tried to catch up on an incredibly complex situation in about five minutes. In the corner, Captain Tessa Testerossa watched the scene, knowing that things would calm down shortly, but wishing, at least somewhat, that they would hurry up.
Next to her, she saw Lieutenant Commander Kalinin clearing his throat, a signal that usually meant that he felt everyone was ready, or close enough to it to pretend. As he gave the initial briefing, detailing the state, location and diplomatic delicacy of the mission, she noticed a disturbance in the back of the room, which he was doing his best to studiously ignore.
Kurz Weber, one of the members of Urzu group, was walking in as though it wasn't against protocol to be several minutes late, tossing off a line about the traffic being murder, while behind him a man she didn't recognize in a black jumpsuit entered as well, taking Sergeant Major Mao's usual seat.
When the newcomer almost stood up at Lieutenant Commander Kalinin's list of priorities, Tessa was about to say something, though apparently he managed to hold back whatever comment he was about to make, slumping back to his seat. When the briefing was dismissed, everyone turned to leave, other than the man in the dark jumpsuit, who walked towards the front of the room.
"Mr. Ranma, you already know that the answer is no," Kalinin spoke before the newcomer could even open his mouth.
"But sir, I..." Ranma started, startled at the speed of the response.
"You're far too close to Miss Chidori, and lack of objectivity tends to cause problems on the battlefield," Ranma opened and closed his mouth several times, before he turned, walking away.
Tessa had heard the man's name several times, as he'd, apparently, become the Tuatha De Danaan's lone permanent intelligence agent, but had never met the man. "Commander," she asked, "why didn't you let the Sergeant make his request?"
"Sergeant Ranma has a close relationship with Miss Chidori's family," Kalinin reported. "He was going to request permission to go on the current mission, primarily for the purpose of rescuing her."
"You were afraid that he would compromise it," This was a statement, not a question, as Tessa had previously had fears of Sousuke doing the same, though more due to his orders to protect the girl, rather than any personal attachments.
Kalinin nodded, and the two turned to look at the large monitor behind them, which was beginning to show the readiness of various sections of the ship.
HR.
"No luck, huh?" Ranma turned, startled, as a hand landed on his shoulder and he resisted instinctively tossing its bearer into a bulkhead. When he saw Kurz' smiling face, he grimaced.
"Too close to the situation," the pigtailed mercenary grumbled.
The SRT member nodded. He didn't exactly like anyone from Intel, and Ranma's curse giving him the creeps didn't help matters any, but the idea of sitting and waiting while someone he knew well was put in danger was something he would feel uncomfortable with at the best of times. "Don't worry, the plan's pretty good, we'll get 'em back," he reassured.
The martial artist didn't respond, only walking past the A.S. pilot, strangely in the same direction.
Kurz snorted. "Yeash, try and cheer a guy up..."
HR.
It was like a river. That was the only way Kaname could describe it, as hundreds of images seemed to bombard her over only a few seconds, then things would go dark for a second, and new images would return. Actually, it was more like the rise and fall of waves. She was about to note that it was kind of funny that all of the analogies she could think of involved water, anything to keep her from trying to understand what she'd seen, which made her feel like her head was going to explode.
There had been a lot of waves so far, more than she really cared to count, and at the moment she would give nearly anything to have them stop. Almost as though someone had heard her, the images stopped again, and this time the blackness wasn't interrupted, until an actual, real seeming human form formed out of a blur before her, a strange headset with a translucent front held in one hand. "Ugh," Kaname managed to articulate.
"How do you feel?" A female voice asked, and the teal haired girl was relatively sure that it was coming from the person she could see.
"I don't think I can take much more of this sleep learning stuff," she admitted, moving her head a little and sitting slightly forward on what felt like an inclined bed.
"Well that's too bad, because we've got a long way to go," the unfamiliar woman said, moving from Kaname's side to a computer bank nearby.
Kaname shook her head, as her memory of the current situation began to trickle back into her. "Why are you doing this? Why can't you just let us go?"
"I'm afraid you don't have the ability to understand, not consciously, at least," the woman said, not looking at Kaname as she talked. "You're going to be quite useful to us."
The Chidori girl gulped at that, before looking around the room she was in. It was rectangular, and completely made of metal. At one end was a set of heavy steel double doors, and there were no easily visible escape routes. 'Is this why Sousuke was always following me around?' She thought to herself. 'Because people were gunna kidnap me and do experiments on me or something?'
One thing that thought brought to mind was that Sousuke was pretty convinced that her life was at stake, if whatever was after her got her. 'Are they going to... kill me?' She thought, looking over at the scientist, who was apparently ignoring her totally now.
Cautiously, the teal haired girl stuck one foot out of the pod, touching the ground with it and resisting the urge to yelp at the temperature of the metal floor. Seeing that the doctor was still ignoring her, she got the rest of the way up, and was half way across the room when she heard an ominous click.
"I'd stop there if I were you," the doctor growled, causing Kaname to turn around and look directly into the barrel of a pistol.
"Um..." Kaname tried, gulping slightly as she saw the unamused face of the woman behind the gun. Then, suddenly, for no real reason she could understand, but that Ranma, or her mother, could explain to her quite easily, she started getting angry.
She'd just wanted to go on a trip to Okinawa, with Sousuke off doing something else, so maybe she could go sun bathing or something. Was that too much to ask? Did she HAVE to get kidnapped the second he left her alone? It was down right unreasonable, she thought, and despite the fact that the gun was still aimed at her head, Kaname Chidori decided that she was going to do something about it.
'Saotome school of anything goes special technique,' Kaname thought, wondering exactly what she was thinking. "Cheap Shot!" The attack was meant to disable male attackers, but, according to Ranma, who would know such things, it worked quite well on women as well, as was evidenced when the woman holding a gun on her abruptly crumpled around the knee she'd just raised up into her groin with great force. Immediately after this, the teenager brought both hands, clenched together, down across the other's neck, and she stopped moving.
For a moment, she was terrified, wondering if she'd accidentally killed someone, before she bent down, placing a hand in front of the older woman's mouth and feeling the soft breath against her skin.
"Well, that was easy," the teal haired girl said, standing again. "But... what do I do now?"
HR.
"Okay, so who is this guy, exactly?" Mao asked, as she and Sousuke lay on top of a shipping crate, looking across at the back of a truck, where Gauron had just exited.
"A highly dangerous terrorist I fought several years ago, though I thought he was dead," Sousuke answered. "He is the one who took Chidori-san?"
"Yeah, he and a couple of other guys marched in and said something about using her for a television broadcast. The excuse was pretty hard to swallow, though." Mao responded. "Though I'm a little curious. Usually when you think someone's dead, it's because you've loaded their pants with twenty pounds of explosives. How'd this guy survive?"
Sousuke shook his head. "I don't know," he confessed. "I shot him in the head."
Mao just barely stopped herself from whistling. "Then he's a tough bastard, I'll give him that," she said. "The target's probably in that truck."
"Then we should go get her," Sousuke checked his rifle's magazine, only to have his superior officer lay a hand on the barrel.
"Slow down Sergeant, we're to wait for the others to back us up, and then the passengers are top priority." Seeing the younger mercenaries' expression, she shook her head. "Besides, if they went to all this trouble to capture Kaname, they're not going to shoot her now."
"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke agreed, though Mao noticed that this agreement didn't stop him from watching the truck like a hawk for the next ten minutes. This turned out to be a very good thing, as about that amount of time later, the truck's back door opened slightly, only to slam closed immediately.
Unfortunately, the guards who were standing in front of the door noticed, and one radioed in a disturbance, while the other grabbed the handle and re-opened it. Standing in the doorway, and looking rather disheveled, was Kaname, wearing a white lab coat. She spoke to the soldiers for a few seconds, something neither of the Mithril agents could catch, before one reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Sousuke..." Mao started, but it was too late, as the younger mercenary had drawn a bead and fired, sending the guard slumping to the ground. "I'd reprimand you for that, but it's too late now!" The Sergeant Major exclaimed, taking up her own weapon, as Sousuke jumped off of the crate and started running towards Kaname.
Fortunately, there were only two other guards in the area who had heard the disturbance, and the three were standing in relative piece at the back of the truck a few moments later. Kaname looked rather shaken, especially since there were several corpses laying a few feet away from her, but the other two were just reloading their weapons and checking for enemy targets.
"You just had to give us away, didn't you?" Mao griped, though her heart wasn't really in it.
"Kaname could have been hurt," Sousuke replied, "And my primary objective is..."
"Currently keeping a low profile, so they don't nuke the hostages," Mao cut him off. "But it's too late now, and reinforcements should be here in a few minutes."
"I saw a hangar which likely contained Arm Slaves on the other end of the base," Sousuke offered. "Since we've blown our cover now, it would probably be best to get as far from here as we can."
"I hate to admit it, but you're right," Mao agreed, and the two started for the nearest truck that hadn't been converted into an immobile laboratory.
"Um..." Kaname said, still rather confused at what was going on. She was about to ask, when something hit the truck's side nearby with a loud 'ting.' Seeing the scar left by a bullet in the metal, she gulped loudly and followed the two mercenaries.
HR.
The office was dark, save for two flickering monitors, as a dark haired woman tossed back her sixth coffee, vaguely wondering why she still stayed up until midnight working when she could probably pay people to do this sort of stuff for her by this point. Looking down at the page she was working on, where she was writing a contract negotiation, competing with the Kuno Investment Corporation for a small electronics Company in Australia, she smirked, set her cup down and was about to pick up her pencil to start again when a soft beep came from her computer.
Turning to the screen, she noticed that an alert was flashing from one of her RSS feed programs. She contemplated leaving it until later, until she realized that it was the one configured to catch material that was of personal interest to her or her family.
Opening the window quickly, her eyes widened as she read over an article that had apparently been written based on a United Nations intelligence leak, detailing the capture of a plane load of high school students from Jindai high. Noting the class number, she cursed, reaching for her phone.
After a few moments of ringing, extra dialing, and arguing with a rather sleazy sounding nasally voiced man, the person the dark haired woman wanted to speak to finally picked up on the other end of the line. "Yeah, I know you're busy," she grumbled, not being used to being on the other end of that quickly snapped comment. "This is important. Look, it's after midnight here, would I be calling if it wasn't?"
After several seconds of the person on the other end speaking loudly, and apparently yelling at someone, the dark haired woman smirked, before catching sight of her monitor, her face going somber again. "Look, just turn on CNN, the story should break in about an hour, and you might want to get back to Japan... fast."
HR.
"Okay, everything looks good here," Kurz Weber said, looking over the displays in his Arm Slave's cockpit, experimentally flexing one hand and checking the returns. "And someone even got around to recalibrating my scope." For a moment, he half expected Mao to come back at him with some snide comment,before remembering that she was already in the war zone.
"Cut the chatter Urzu 6, are you ready?" The voice of Urzu group's leader, Captain Gail McAllen, barked, his angry face appearing on the blond's monitor.
"All right, all right, it was just a status report," Kurz grumbled, flicking through the zoom modes on his machine's optics. As he focused on the transport helicopter that would return the two Arm Slaves from the drop zone, as well as taking the ground troops, he noticed a flicker of movement behind a fuel tank. Curiously, he zoomed in further, seeing a black pigtail disappearing behind the tank, before a blur burst out from it, in the direction of the chopper.
"You ready yet, Weber?" Captain McAllen's voice burst through the sniper's comm. system, causing him to jump slightly, his camera returning to its default view.
"Yes sir," Kurz said quickly, and then smirked, ensuring his microphone was off. "You're so going to owe me for this," He said, before marching towards De Danaan's catapults.
HR.
"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die," Kaname chanted to herself, trying not to think of her surroundings, as she was being shaken around like a rag doll. Normally, the teal haired girl was one of the braver people in her class, though at the moment she was being held in the hand of a giant somewhat bear-shaped robot while its other hand held the biggest machine gun she'd ever seen, and since she'd seen Commando, that was saying something.
"Are you all right, Kaname?" Sousuke's voice came through a radio the girl had been given, as the two, followed by a second A.S. with a machine gun in each hand, left the tarmac of the air field and her ride got a lot bumpier.
"Yeah, sure, I'm great," the girl yelled back into her radio, her sarcasm perhaps lost in the volume of her voice, as Sousuke seemed to take that as permission to spin, face backwards, and raise his gun to give Sergeant Major Mao some support in laying down fire to cover their retreat.
Kaname just gulped, clutching the hand of the Arm Slave even tighter, and wondering exactly who she'd pissed off to get into this mess. She didn't have much time to think this, however, as she heard what sounded like a new machine gun joining in on the chaos. Looking backwards between the arm and shoulder of the Arm Slave that Sousuke piloted, she saw that it wasn't a new weapon firing, but the sound of dozens of tree branches snapping like match sticks.
This turned out to be a good thing, as the enemy gun fire began to trail off significantly as the canopy of forest closed over the two retreating A.S.'s, and both stopped firing, not wanting to give their positions away. "Well, we lost them for now," the unfamiliar voice that the Chidori girl was beginning to associate with Mao crackled from Kaname's radio, as the older woman lowered her two guns, looking around cautiously. "Don't suppose you bothered seeing a friendly military base along with that Arm Slave hanger, huh Urzu 7?"
"Negative, Ma'am," Sousuke replied, instantly, causing Kaname to roll her eyes slightly and an exasperated sigh to come through the radio.
"I saw a river near here, I think," she offered, trying to remember exactly where they had moved since the plane landed.
"Hmm, we could move along it and see if we can find some form of civilization," Sousuke suggested, though he sounded uncertain.
"Yeah, probably angry Russian civilization," Mao returned. "Still, it's likely the only clear path out of here that'll be hard to track, so it's our best bet."
"Understood," Sousuke replied, and the two machines continued through the forest, their efforts to try and create as little disturbance in the trees as possible rather humorous, if you didn't think too hard about the fact that they would likely be killed if caught.
Kaname was doing her best, at the moment, not to think of that, especially since she was pretty sure she had been certifiably insane when she'd kicked that scientist in the crotch and stolen her gun. She would have started trembling in shock from it when she first realized what she'd done, but the three of them had been in a supply truck, being shot at at the time, and it hadn't quite had a chance to register.
Tentatively, the girl pressed down the transmit button on her radio. "Is this... normal for you guys?" She asked, wanting to talk to someone, even if it was Sousuke and some woman she barely knew.
"It's a relatively standard engagement, yes," Sousuke replied.
"Oh," Kaname said, somewhat surprised by the straight answer.
"Hey, don't worry," Mao said, seeming to understand Kaname's worry a lot more than Sousuke did. "One of Mithril's main missions is anti-terrorist and hostage rescue, you'll be fine."
"Yeah, I..." Kaname started, as she began to hear the sound of the river that they had been aiming for. "Thanks."
"What was that..." Sousuke started, before there was a soft pop from nearby that caused his Arm Slave to spin so quickly that it made Kaname a little nauseous.
"Grenade!" Mao bellowed, hauling out her machine guns and blazing away at the sky, causing a huge explosion about fifteen meters away from them. "Mutual cover position!" She barked.
"Affirmative," Sousuke said quickly, and the two A. quickly moved back to back, making their way slowly out into the middle of the open water, where they could see their surroundings more easily. Several seconds later, when there was no more disturbance, Sousuke slowly bent, trying to put Kaname down in the water without taking his eyes off of his half of the landscape. As he, and Mao, were pretty much expecting, the enemy took that moment to react, and another grenade flew out of the darkness.
The Sergeant Major quickly moved past Sousuke's machine, taking aim at the grenade and blowing it out of the sky as Kaname dropped the last few feet to the water and started running, trying to get out of the combat zone. Unfortunately, this was apparently exactly what the enemy wanted, as a bullet burst out of the tree cover nearby, hitting Mao's Savage in the chest and sending her staggering backwards.
As she was recovering, Sousuke brought his weapon up, firing into the trees where the bullet had come from, though nothing seemed to be there to be hit. "Where is he?" He growled, his exclamation audible to both Kaname, who had made it to the far bank by this point, and Mao.
"Not sure," the older woman confessed, before another shot came from the forest several meters from where the last one had, barely missing her as she dove out of the way... right into a grenade. She just had time to curse when the thing went off, causing severe damage to her machine's optics and the armor on its front and left side.
Sousuke cursed under his breath, moving forward to cover Mao's fallen form and resisting the urge to look back. "Kaname, stay out of the way," He said, quickly.
"Ah, it looks like we've got a couple of knights in shining armor, here," A voice crackled over Sousuke's inter-A.S. communications line, as a very familiar face flickered onto a small screen on the left side of his cockpit. "Too bad I broke one already."
"Gauron?" Sousuke asked, recognizing the face, as he thought he had earlier. He hadn't been able to be sure before, as he'd only seen him for a few moments, but now it was definite.
"Oh, one of our knights knows me?" The older man asked, surprised, before another shot burst from the tree line, barely missing Sousuke's arm. "Could that be... Why, I think it is! Kashim, is that you?"
Sousuke didn't respond, only returning fire once again, however his growl when his bullets only tore up trees was definitely tinged with annoyance. "Kashim," Gauron continued. "Why don't you stand down? All I've got to do is take the little burden over there off your hands, and then, who knows? I might even just let you walk out!"
The young mercenary looked over to Kaname, who was standing on the shore and had apparently lost her radio, unable to hear what they were saying, though she kept throwing worried looks between him and Mao. "You're kind of unresponsive, aren't you?" Gauron continued. "How about I take the choice away from you?"
"Wh..." Sousuke started, before a shot smashed into his side from a position that he would have thought it impossible to get to in an Arm Slave without making any noise, and his weapon fell into the water with a loud splash. "How about I ask the lady?" Gauron's voice was now coming from a set of loud speakers attached to a tall, slim Arm Slave that was walking out of the forest.
"Ask me what?" Kaname yelled, confused and now very worried.
"Oh, nothing," Gauron said off-hand. "I just need to take you back and let some of my friends play around with your brain, that's all. I just wanted to know if you'd agree to that if I didn't blow out Kashim's brains, here."
Sousuke was about to say something in response to that along the lines of 'No way in hell' when a message appeared at the bottom of his tactical display, requesting a sensor feed from RK-92-114125, and followed by the word "URZU" used as a confirmation code. He barely looked at it before sending an acknowledgment, his attention mainly focused on Gauron, who was walking closer by the moment, and now had the muzzle of what looked like a rifle welded to a grenade launcher aimed at his machine's chest.
"So, how about it, Kashim, girl?" The psychotic asked, his face on Sousuke's monitor showing a large grin.
"How about you go to hell?" The voice was Mao's, and the stream of automatic weapon fire that slammed into the side of the slender A.S. was hers as well, sending it staggering sideways, though a glowing red shield of... something... popped up to stop the rounds after the first hit.
"How in the..." Gauron demanded, spinning to see the Savage he'd downed earlier pointing its main weapon at him, though its arm was slightly shaky. As the magazine clicked on empty, however, the man chuckled. "Good shot," he admitted. "Try this one." He raised his weapon, taking careful aim at the top of the wounded Arm Slave in order to put a bullet in the cockpit. "Sorry Kashim, but I'm afraid your little friend pissed me off," he said, right before he pulled the trigger... and the front of his gun exploded.
HR.
"Captain, all troops are on course, and the two Urzu group Arm Slaves are almost at the landing zone," A man on the Tuatha De Danaan's bridge reported crisply, as Tessa sat in the captain's chair, holding her pet pig much in the way a Bond villain would do with their cat. She knew that it wasn't exactly proper protocol, but having the animal around seemed to relieve some of the stress she was under on a day to day basis, and there were actually no regulations against it.
The young captain nodded at the status report, flicking her eyes over the status board at the front of the room and affirming the report for herself before another officer reported, this one sounding a little more nervous. "Ma'am, one of the troop transports just reported an anomaly."
"What is it?" Commander Mardukas asked from next to the grey haired girl's chair.
"They say that they had a stow away aboard. He's just jumped ship, muttering something about Cheese signatures, or something."
"Cheese signatures?" Tessa asked, looking confused. "Did they say anything about this person's identity or appearance?"
"Apparently he had a braided ponytail, Ma'am," The radio operator reported. "They say he also jumped without any drop gear."
"Ranma," this was Kalinin, standing behind the captain's chair with a frown on his face. "I should have expected this."
"I'm sure it's not your fault, Mr. Kalinin," Tessa said, petting her pig. "Though I would wonder why Mr. Ranma would jump from the helicopter without a parachute, and what he meant by cheese signatures." As she said that, she felt a tug at the bottom of her shirt, and looked down to see that the pig was glowing green. She was about to look back up to the screens, when her brain finally processed what her eyes had just seen, and she looked back down at the animal in shock. Suddenly, her eyes seemed to half glaze, and she began to mumble.
Among several dozen terms that flew through her brain too quickly for her to even articulate clearly, she managed to snatch a few fragments of meaning. "Chi... Life force... Controlled Electromagnetic Energy... Lambda Driver..." Her eyes suddenly cleared, and then widened, as she looked between her pet pig and the rest of the bridge. "Commander Mardukas, prepare the Arbalest for launch," she ordered, smoothly.
"Ma'am?" The older man in the baseball cap asked, having missed what had just happened, or studiously pretended to, at the least.
"I have reason to believe that someone out there is using a Lambda Driver," Tessa explained, worriedly. "As soon as this is confirmed, we will have to deploy the Arbalest."
"Yes, Ma'am," the commander said, quickly, turning and walking off of the bridge in order to make the preparations.
Once no one was near enough to hear her, the teenaged girl looked down at her pig, unsure how to react. "When this is over," She said softly, "We're going to have a talk." The animal gulped.
END.
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