Chapter 11: Under Siege
Over the next week, the Marine spent time training the Doctor, the Comrade, and I how to use the Cyclones. The Doctor kept marveling how she felt like one of those super heros in the comic books. Definitely, a Cyclone pilot held many of the same properties.
A Cyclone enhanced your strength, enabled even a weakling like myself to lift objects with the greatest of ease. One could hop great distances with a slight kick of the Cyclone boosters. And of course, the armor of a Cyclone of was superior to any body armor known.
Over the course of the week we had transformed the warehouse we were using as a headquarters into a makeshift paintball arena. It was to perfect to practice with the Cyclones. The Comrade, the Doctor, and I decided to a practice session in a 3-way shootout.
The Comrade made the first move, moving to engage the Doctor while putting obstacles between me and him (A smart move). The Doctor then turned and headed my direction firing a simulated missile at me. I was hit, but the Cyclone’s simulation program reported to me that the make believe damage was minor. I returned fire on the Doctor but failed to score any hits with my simulated ‘toy gun’.
The Comrade then moved where he could see me and the Doctor and opened up a barrage of shots. The Doctor managed to parry the shots fired at her, I mainly used the cover of a barrel to protect me from those shots. The Doctor stayed aggressive and opened fire on the Comrade, the shots “hit” the Comrade but not seriously to impede him during this practice run. I fired shots both at Comrade and the Doctor, but before I could results of my work as you say “all Hell broke loose.”
Thru windows along opposite sides of the warehouse, commandos came through and rope dropped on to the ground. They immediately demanded we surrender. The Marine and Jacques (who were on top of the SC Battloid), dove into the Battloid before the commandos could open fire on them.
The commandos did open fire on the rest of us. The ones nearest to the Cyclones, changed clips and fired at us. The bullets damaged are armor some but held firm against that kind of fire. The commandos on the other side open fired on the Russian tank crew, and although our female tank driver went down, our large tank gunner managed to block most of the incoming fire with his shield.
The Comrade immediately raced to his tank crew’s rescue, while the Doctor and I dealt with the commandos on our side. The Doctor grabbed one of the obstacles and slammed into six of the commandos, pinning against the warehouse corner. Joan and Charles entertained two of the remaining commandos with controlled bursts as jumped behind a barrel to use for cover.
The commandos then fired grenades in hopes of killing the tank crew as well as damaging the Comrade’s Cyclone as well. The Battloid managed move fast enough in time to intercept the grenades with its massive shields. The Comrade managed to avoid the shots fired at him.
The Battloid turned towards the commandos on its side and fired a blast into the wall of the warehouse. The shear heat of the blast is enough to get the commandos to scatter. The Battloid then ran outside crushing a few of the commandos along the way. It was then I heard a lot of fire outside.
Some commandos fired at me, but once again the barrel took most of the shots. I fired a missile into them convincing them to scatter and start running out of the building. I followed to convince them not to come back.
In the meanwhile, our strong Russian tank gunner managed to get his driver and himself inside the Pride of Russia. The Comrade tried to follow suit shedding his Cyclone as he began making his way to the tank. Unfortunately, the commandos opened up on the Comrade and he was knocked out in a hail of bullets.
The Doctor fired missiles at the commandos who had just gunned down our Comrade, killing a couple of them but directing most of the rest out of the building. The tank crew immediately fired some anti-personnel device killing the remaining commando in the immediate vicinity of the Pride of Russia.
I ran outside and was stunned to see there was an army waiting for us outside. They had already did a number on our Battloid, one of its legs had been blown off. The Marine however did manage to get his shots off. The army had only a few jeeps and a tank, and the tank gun had been crippled by the Battloid’s rifle.
I immediately recognized the councilmember leading the army and immediately jumped over his jeep. Crushing the front end of the jeep, I grabbed the councilman and put Joan to his head. I immediately demanded that everybody quit fighting or I blow his head off. I was hoping nobody would call my bluff.
Unfortunately, the battle raged around me anyway. The Battloid destroyed the tracks of the tank. Some commandos immediately responded by blowing off the hatch of the Battloid and demanding that I surrender or they would kill the Marine and Jacques.
The Marine and Jacques weren’t going down without a fight. They immediately got free and began fighting the commandos in hand-to-hand combat. I raced over to help them shooting the kneecaps of the two of the commandos. At that point Pride of Russia came bursting out of the warehouse wall. The Pride of Russia immediately obliterated the enemy tanks and the jeeps nearby. Finally things were finally looking up, I hoped we wouldn’t have any other surprises…
Tags: Memoirs Robotech Mekton
