OIC (27)
MegaZone23
"Aah...leftovers."
--Casey Jones
The Wayward Son cruised its regular patrol route through
sector seventeen, on its way to do some exploration outside
the frontier, on condition green and with very little going
on. It had been a boring week.
"Like yo, there's a message coming in," q suddenly
announced. "On the emergency channel."
"Let's hear it," Zoner ordered. "Ought to liven up the
day a little."
"Coming in."
"This is Musashi Control to any vessel," a panicked
voice announced. "Please, respond!"
"Go ahead, Control," q replied. "This is the WDF
Wayward Son."
"Wayward Son?" the voice asked, sounding relieved. "The
Wedge Defense Force? Thank God! Our capital city is under
attack. Repeat, Musashi City is under attack by unknown
invaders. They're slaughtering our people in the streets--
for God's sake, help us!"
"Musashi, this is Wayward Son," Zoner announced. "Be
advised we are aware of your situation. We are taking action
now--keep us informed to new developments. Wayward Son out."
He turned. "Gryph, take your squadron down and run a quick
recon. If we have to run a full-scale op, then fine, but I
want to know what we're up against."
"Right," Gryphon replied, heading for the turbolift.
Within five minutes, the five fighters of the Eight-Ball
Squadron were streaking planetward.
"Give me all we have on Musashi, Jenna," said Zoner.
"Musashi...class-M. Terraformed about a dozen years
ago, and already has three major cities on it, one of them
domed. Vesper's the domed one, then Zepan, and the capital,
Musashi City. Temperate, a lot of rainforest. Mineral
deposits and such make it a decent mining world, but it's far
enough from Kilrathi space not to have to worry about them."
"Thanks." He turned back to the main viewer and watched
the five glowing dots recede toward the planet.
Ten minutes later, Gryphon appeared in the corner of the
screen. "There's a serious situation down here all right,"
he said. "Mecha in the streets, hosing down civilians left
and right--we were lucky to get in and out without getting
blown out of the sky. I don't recognize them, but they're
pretty tech. We're gonna need the Destroids for this, I
think. They've got crap for air cover, but their ground
troops are good."
"Okay, thanks. Get your squad back here for rearming
and some quick armor slapping, and I want you back down
there. q, alert Major Aldzinjal and his people--we need the
Destroids ready to hit the dirt in ten. Prepare to disengage
Daedalus for landing."
In a high-tech command-center kind of place, Largo
leaned back in a large and comfortable seat and smiled at the
screens of destruction. Black mecha and disguised Buma
troops were being hosed down by the WDF's Destroid divisions
with consummate ease. This he had expected, and in fact,
planned on. GENOM was going to lose this battle, and the WDF
would never know who they had beaten. At least not until it
was far too late.
"Well, that was simple," Gryphon said with a smile,
jetting back to make a gerwalk landing near the planetside
command center. He dismounted from his fighter and walked
over to Perry, who was standing near the Monster he ran
ground ops from.
"Hey, Commander," said Perry. "Dunno who those guys
were, but they weren't up to facing us down, now were they?"
"Nope," Gryphon replied. "Suits me just fine. I'm no
big fan of the skin-of-the-teeth victories."
"Major!" a Salusian trooper called, running from the
MAC-II. "We've just received a priority request for aid from
city officials. There's a concentration of enemy infantry
holed up in a pre-secondary school near downtown. They've
got student hostages."
"Aw hell," said Perry. "I hate the mop-up most of all."
"I'll handle it," Gryphon said. "Tell them assistance
is en route, and get me a secure line to the SDF-17."
"Okay," Perry replied. "Seems like you have a plan, eh
Gryph?"
"Something like that." The trooper left, and returned a
few minutes later with a field phone.
"SDF-17, this is Gryphon. Yeah, q, let me talk to
Zoner, willya? I got a situation here, and a plan for
dealing with it. Yeah, thanks. Hi, Zoner...you heard about
our little situation? Yeah. I've got a plan. We can't use
firepower to get those kids out of this, obviously. What I
figure is, we send in a couple of small squads, quiet-like.
You know, sort of ESWAT stuff. Yeah. Kei and Yuri will want
in, of course--this is just their kind of op. Uh huh. I
figure all we'll need is the Triple-S and the three of us.
Okay. Meet 'em in fifteen then." He hung up.
"You're sending the Triple-S?" Perry asked. "They'll be
pleased--haven't seen much action lately."
"Yeah, I figure it'll please Gordo to no end. He gets
so bored between vacations."
[The Triple-S was the WDF's elite Shadow Security Squad,
the commandoes' commandoes. The only unit to be equipped
with top-secret CVR-7 armor and equipment, the Triple-S
proudly bore the motto "Invisible--Invincible--Unstoppable".
Officially, the crack squad, consisting of eight Salusians, a
Praxian, and one of the elusive Predator race, did not
exist. "Gordo" was Lieutenant Commander G'rdnak Ripperfang,
the squad's Predator commander.]
Within fifteen minutes, the ten members of the Triple-S,
Gryphon, and the Lovely Angels were meeting at the conference
table between Perry's MAC's feet. On the table was a large
map of the Seventh Street School.
"Gordo, you take your squad in through the back, here,"
said Gryphon, pointing. "Your relative invisibility should
keep you undetected in the gathering dusk. Spread out, pick
off hostiles as you see fit, and try to get the kids out
alive. And try not to let them see your face, ok? No
offense, but these are little kids, they're not ready for a
shock like that."
"Right," Gordo replied, and sealed his helmet over what
was, after all, an amazingly ugly face by human standards.
"Kei, Yuri, you'll enter from the top, either here or
here. Work your way toward the office, that's probably where
they've got their nerve center set up, assuming they've got
one. Try and get the bossman, if possible. No frag
explosives. I don't want kids getting hurt."
"You think I'd go tossing frag grenades around with
children in the area? I'm hurt," said Kei.
"I know you all too well, m'love," Gryphon replied with
a grin. "You tend to get carried away..."
"Right, right. No frags."
"Okay. I'm going in through the roof, here. Unless I
miss my guess, they'll have a lot of their hostages holed up
in the gym, where they can hose em quickly if someone on our
side fucks up, but not all of them, so they'll still have an
ace to play if it comes to that. I'm going to try and take
out their guys in the gym. We can work our way to the middle
and herd them all into the killzone. Everyone clear on what
they have to do?" Everyone nodded. "Okay. Let's do it."
The force broke up. The ten members of the Triple-S
jumped onto their VR-029 Predator Cyclones and zoomed away
(except Gordo, who rode an ExoSalusia Industries J-4500
gravbike); Kei and Yuri piled into a jeep and took off;
Gryphon mounted his own '29 and raced after them.