Chapter 15:  Target for Tonight

Eventually, the Comrade and the Doctor came back with Annika and the Sergeant.  The two look how you say, “no worse for the wear.”  The Comrade immediately set-up them up in rooms near him.  He then declared that portion of the base as the “Russian wing.” 

This is of course, led to the Doctor getting in a huge argument with the Comrade  about it being everybody’s base.  The Comrade then countered with how he couldn’t trust the Doctor and I.  He could not trust the Doctor because she had no respect for authority, and he could not trust me because as I say I am not a nice girl. Only the Marine he trusted, because the Marine would follow orders.

Eventually, the conversation turned to what to do about the Invid.  That was good, when we focused on the enemy, our personal problems tended to go away.    The first thing we wanted to try, was to prove out the Marine’s theory to that the Invid could sense protoculture.  We gathered up our Cyclones, loaded them into the Hummer and headed to a remote area to test out our theory.

We went to a hill a little ways away.  There the Marine tried his little experiment.  He put on his Cyclone and powered the Cyclone up.  The Marine then began jumping up and down and dancing around trying to get the Invid’s attention. 

I didn’t like this plan at all.  Jimmy was prancing around like he was the celebrity at a dance party trying to get some Invid to take potshots at him.  But Jimmy thought up the plan, and Jimmy wanted to be the one to test out the theory.  I could have argued against it, but he would have done anyway with or without me.  So I decided to go along with it, and made sure that I would kill any flying crustacean that tried to shoot my Jimmy.

For the next few hours, the Marine danced a jig, but his dancing did not net any Invid.  Apparently, the Invid did have to be somewhat close to notice our protoculture.  Or the Marine had his theory wrong.  Either way we had to go to the Invid to test our theory instead of the other way around.

So we decided to head to Marseilles to see we could, how you say, russle up some Invid.  They might not have been in town, but we might find clues on where we could look for some.  The only thing the group was really concerned about, was whether somebody wanted me in Marseilles.  As far as I knew, I wasn’t really wanted in Marseilles so we were okay.

We travelled to Marseilles using the highways and just as reached a major junction outside the city, we could see the airport.  That when we saw some commotion at the airport.  There stood some two dozen collaborators, three of the armed lobsters, and some huge four armed creature we had never seen before. It looked kinda like a giant armed fiddler crab.

Well the Doctor, was determined to find out what the new Invid was.  She climbed into her Cyclone and jumped up on the highest overpass to get a good view of the Invid.  I did not like Doctor being the new target, but only slight less than Jimmy being the target.  I probably would feel the same way of about the Comrade, so I should volunteer in the future to save myself some grief.

Anyways I digress, the Doctor began scanning the Fiddler Crab with all those fancy sensors in her Cyclone.  The Fiddler turned immediately to face the Doctor, but it did not move.  Instead the Lobsters raced over to attack us. 

As the Lobsters closed the distance, the Comrade and the Marine suited up for battle.  I prepared the Hummer so if we needed to get a quick getaway we could.  I didn’t like it, but somebody had to make sure our surviving Hummer stayed safe.  Jimmy gave a quick kiss and in a flash he was off to face the Lobsters.

The Lobsters begin firing the Comrade and Doctor hitting them both.  Fortunately, neither was not hit to badly by the Lobsters annihilation disks.  I moved the Hummer to underneath an overpass, grabbed my rifle and headed over to a guard rail.  The Lobsters were out of my range for now, but I waited for my shot.  I would back up my comrades in battle…especially Jimmy.

The Marine dives into combat with reckless abandon.  He easily dispatched one of the Lobsters with a shot to the eye.  The Doctor in the meanwhile continued concentrated on scanning the Fiddler Crab.  The Comrade fires a shot that almost hits the Lobster in the eye, but the Lobster barely manages to parry its claw. 

The two Lobsters closed with the Marine and the Comrade, and just in range of my Gallant Rifle.  I fired a shot and killed the Lobster with a hit to its eye.  The remaining Lobster strafed the Marine and the Comrade.  Jimmy managed to get out of the way, but the Comrade was not so lucky.  His Gallant H-90 was melted by an annihilation disk.

I tried firing on the Lobster but missed.  The Marine was able to finish the Lobster off with a shot to eye.  As the Lobster fell, the Doctor finished up her scans of the Fiddler Crab.  Our mission accomplished we escaped, all the time the Fiddler Crab kept an eye on us as we escaped…

Tags: Memoirs Robotech Mekton