“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT THE MOBILE SUITS HAVE BEEN STOLEN?!!” Djibril screamed into a computer terminal which had the visage of a nameless peon who looked pretty intimidated right now.
”Th-they posed as the drivers and their ID’s were verified several times…we didn’t know someone knocked a fake bread off one of them by accident.” The poor sap stammered as he tried to remain composed to give his report.
“What about the two Strike Daggers posted at the depot? What about the Argama Base and its MS detachment?” Djibril demanded, wanting answers.
”The Argama base was attacked by another Sword Calamity unit that took out the Strike Dagger squad and disabled their vehicle hanger, and prevented any aircraft from taking off to pursue the perps.” The peon pulled on his collar, sweating up a storm. “The Londo Bell base has been called in to pursue the carriers, but there’s been a bit of a delay.”
“What delay would that be?” Djibril’s eye twitched badly, the bad news just seemed to poor in this week.
”One of the thieves escaped the depot in the Sword 01 and…well self-destructed it on the highway and now a huge section of the highway is gone. As it is the pursuit team from Londo Bell now will have to take a small detour to get back onto the highway to chase them. Fortunately radar is still able to track the carriers and they haven’t gotten off the main highway, and since we sealed it off for military use we don’t have to worry about civilian casualties if things get rough.”
”What about the Sword unit that attacked the base?”
”It left after it took out the aircraft hanger and the Dagger squad. We couldn’t track it because of some jamming interference the suit was generating that made it impossible to track by radar, thermal or sonar. I hate to say it but it made a clean getaway and we have a zero percent chance of tracking it down.” The peon shrugged helplessly. “As for identifying the unit we weren’t sure if it was the second Sword unit or the Prototype that aided in the theft. The unit had been disguised with cameo-tarps and some paint to hide some of the markings that could tell us which unit it was.”
“I wasn’t aware there was a prototype Sword unit.” Djbril said as he taps his fingers impatiently on the wood top of his desk.
”Well there was sir and last I checked both the Proto-Sword and Sword 02 were reportedly missing so it could be anyone’s guess who is using it.”
”Damn.” Djibril muttered. “Keep me informed of events, I want those mobile suits recovered!”
”Yes sir.”
*************
The three MS carriers continued to drive down the long stretch of coastal highway in their attempt to gain as much distance from their pursuers as possible. Carrier One had attached itself to Carrier Two with the piggy-back system allowing all three carriers to be connected. To speed up acceleration Lowe put Carrier Two in neutral and climbed over to Carrier Three and took control of it allowing for both the carriers in the front and back to be accelerating and thus maximizing their speed.
In the back of Carrier Three the Buster Dagger sat up, carefully moving itself into a kneeling posture and bringing the energy-rifle to bear. Inside the cockpit Kou made a small adjustment to the aiming systems. “Alright I’ve got the Buster Dagger operational, and I also made sure that the OS in the other two MS is fully operational. Also I checked to make sure none of them were dead-duds like the Sword 01.”
“That’s a relief to hear.” Jane’s voice came over the radio. “We’re still ten to fifteen minutes from the rendezvous point so keep alert. How’s the power and ammo on that thing?”
”The suit’s still connected to the trailer’s power-coil so I won’t drain the battery any if I have to fire the energy rifle. However even the coil’s power won’t last if I have to draw power from it continuously. It’s the same for the other two; they’re still plugged in and will be fully charged when we make our getaway.”
“Well its better than nothing,” Lowe remarked. “Speaking of pursuers, any sign of em’?”
Flipping a switch the radar display in the Buster Dagger’s cockpit lit up. “Oh yeah, they’ll be getting off that turnpike we passed two intersections ago and onto the road in a few minutes.”
”Can you identify the pursuers?”
“Other than some helicopters I don’t know what ground vehicles they’re using they’re using until they get onto the highway.” Kou replied, magnifying the image of the copters that were closing in. “How far till we reach the “blow-point” Jane?”
“Think you can hold them back for ten minutes?”
”Consider it done.” Kou replied as he focused his cameras on the approaching helicopters and the now visible pursuit vehicles. He counted four helicopters, six armored cars, two armored trucks, and a tank. “Oh boy, at least we don’t have to deal with any mobile suits. I might as well take care of the helicopters first.”
The head of the Buster Dagger lifted upwards and the CIWS began to fire a hail of Vulcan rounds that hit the tail of the first copter and the missile pod of another, while the other two swerved out of the way. While Kou was trying to avoid blowing the copters to bits entirely he knew it wouldn’t be an easy thing. Luckily for him though the second pass with the CIWS and the last two copters took hits that required them to ditch or make a hasty retreat to land.
Then something hit the Buster Dagger, the impact rocking the mobile suit lightly. Once his head stopped ringing, Kou looked in the monitor and spotted the tank which had moved to the front of the chase squad. “So you think that puny thing is going to take me out do ya’?”
Aiming the 1.94mm energy rifle he adjusts the amount of power in the burst and then depresses the trigger. A thin line of energy shots out and hits a slag of road twenty feet in front of the tank which caused several large chunks of concrete to fly up and not only hit the tank, but also made it swerve and hit some of the other pursuit vehicles.
”Booyah!” Kou cheered, moving the control stick so that the left hand of the Buster Dagger was flipping the pursuit forces the finger. “If this is all you’re going to throw at us then getting away is going to be cake.”
As if to mock him, more helicopters began to fly in, and more armored vehicles started to get onto the highway from various turn-off points.
”Oh fuck me…uh Jane how fare are we now?”
”Just about there, should we get into the suits now?”
Kou nods vigorously even though she couldn’t see him. “Bet your ass on that one and Lowe we better swap suits. I had to re-build the Raider’s OS and I doubt you could work it now with the tweaks I made.”
”Noted, let’s do this quick!” The Junk Tech said over the radio.
To buy them some more distance Kou opens the left shoulder missile pod and fires one missile into the road to make some of the chase vehicles crash or swerve out of control. As he did this, Jane set the “Auto-Drive” system on Carrier One which would keep the vehicle driving in a straight line down the highway as she climbed into the bed of the carrier to get inside the Forbidden Blue. Lowe put Carrier Three into neutral and got out to climb into the bed. The Buster Dagger swerved to allow Kou to pop open the hatch and jump out into the bed of Carrier Two as Lowe climbed up the leg to get into the cockpit. A few moments later the Raider Full-Spec sat up in its bed as did the Forbidden Blue. The Buster Dagger turned back to face the pursuit forces which were gaining speed.
”How much time?” Kou calls over the radio.
Jane checks her watch. “Thirty seconds until we reach the point.”
”Then let’s play the part of desperate hijackers until then.” Lowe aims the energy rifle and fires a few half-assed shots purposely missing the pursuit forces while tearing up road to slow them down.
The Raider lifts up one of its GAU-8M2 machine gun and lets loose a few rounds to help ham up the appearance of a “last stand” with the pursuit forces. The Forbidden Blue fires its CIWS at the helicopters in the air. As this continued the carriers continued to drive down the road which ended in a turn-bend that went off a cliff, and with all three mobile suits up and fighting and the carriers kept getting close to the turn they realized they weren’t stopping.
”Attention hijackers; cease and desist right now! You are about to go off a cliff and we know those carriers can’t make that turn. If you stop now and dismount the mobile suits we promise that you will not be harmed!” Came a voice through a loudspeaker from one of the chase cars.
“Oh like we’re going to fall for that one,” Lowe rolled his eyes.
”Heads up guys, we’re making our exit in three, two, one NOW!”
The carriers jolted as the first one hit the railing at the edge of the road, the massive bulk of metal sailing over the side of the cliff. The carriers and mobile suits tumbled toward the ocean where the instant they hit the waves, an explosion erupts a tidal wave of water into the air. The Earth Alliance chase vehicles halted and the soldiers got out looking over the edge of the cliff. Part of one of the carriers was laid out over some rocks and pieces of mobile suits and carriers were strung about in the water and on the rocks.
”What the hell happened?!” One soldier exclaimed. “Did the self-destruct go off?”
”Maybe, they might have been timer-delayed, maybe one of the gas tanks ruptured or they plain committed suicide since they couldn’t get away” One murmurs. “Better form a search team and call in the Coast Guard to bring in some divers to inspect the wreckage.”
Under the waves a dark shape moves swiftly at high speed under the waves. The object is a giant underwater sled designed for mobile suits, which had the Buster Dagger, Raider Full-Spec, and the Forbidden Blue hanging onto it.
”Whew my radar shows no helicopters are tracking us. Score one for our radar jammer Lowe.” Kou let’s out a deep sigh of relief as he slumps in his seat.
”Yeah I gotta admit putting a jammer on the Sword and our sled here was a pretty damn good idea.” Jane said. “Congratulations guys, we pulled it off.”
“Now all we have to do is stay under the radar, meet up with Ed, get the battery-charger to put on this sled so we don’t run outta juice and then head back to Orb.” Lowe reclined back slightly in his seat.
“Yeah but don’t forget we gotta stash these things right away.” Kou reminded him. “If anyone sees these things and reports them as the stolen suits then we’ll get Orb In trouble for harboring us.”
“Hey if we could pull this off we can hide these things from a million blood hounds.” Lowe said confidently.
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(Posted Mon, 13 Jun 2005 09:13)
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