Chapter 16: The Big Parade
As we made our escape we saw that the Marseilles had sent its militia out. The Fiddler Crab took off and headed north for a hive in the Alps. The militia came out in a truck escorted by a Logan fighter. Apparently, the militia wanted to show their new masters how loyal they were.
Jimmy immediately volunteered to lead them off. I really didn’t like that idea, but there was no persuading Jimmy when his mind was made up. He took off to draw off the Logan and the militia while we got away. The rest of got easily away while, the militia chased after Jimmy.
We stopped once we got safely away to see if Jimmy managed to get away okay. At that point we heard an explosion and our answer, he was still engaged with the militia. Immediately, the Doctor and I raced in with the Comrade following closely behind.
We found the ruins of the truck the militia was riding in, apparently it’s destruction was courtesy of Jimmy. We looked around to see if we could find any trace of the militia or Jimmy. A quick scan by the Doctor, found the militia’s Logan in a holding pattern over a small village to the east of Marseilles.
As we headed to the village, we hid the Hummer for safety. No need to lose the only remaining Hummer we have to the militia. We traveled the rest of the way in on Cyclone.
Very quickly we found the first militiaman, but Jimmy got to him first. The militiaman had a big ‘toy rifle’ blast in his chest. The Doctor was able to surmise what direction the blast had come from as we headed that direction.
As we headed in the new direction, the Doctor began trying to listen in on the militia’s chatter. As she finally broke into the militia communications we came across a second militiaman who just like before , had a ‘toy rifle’ blast in his chest courtesy of Jimmy.
The Doctor reported that the militia was very disorganized and largely scattered in the town. Jimmy was jumping around and picking off militiamen as he came across them. The Logan above couldn’t track Jimmy, the ground clutter was just too much to try to spot a Cyclone in. Then the Logan withdrew when Jimmy fired missiles at it.
As we were determining where to go next, Jimmy landed in the middle of us. He demanded to know why we haven’t escaped yet. We told him we were concerned about him, but he wouldn’t have any of it. He was confident that he could hold off the militia and the militia had done little to disprove him. Jimmy took off down the road to hunt down more militia.
Reluctantly we headed back of town and left Jimmy to his work. We decided that we would check out the airfield where the Invid met the militia. Maybe the militia would have some equipment they would no longer be needed. More importantly for me, we would not be too far away from Jimmy if he got into trouble.
As we drove into the airfield, we saw two people run into one of the storage buildings. We moved over to investigate. The Comrade immediately took charge of the situation. He moved in position and was about to kick in the door when the door exploded.
The Comrade just barely got out of the way as the door went flying out. Behind it sat a militiaman with a heavy weapon ready to unload on those us caught unawares. Fortunately, the Comrade was quick on the draw. He unloaded into the militiaman, turning the man into swiss cheese. The Comrade then began searching the doorway for the final militiaman.
Unfortunately, the militiaman was ready to spring his final trap. He had two claymore mines set near the doors. They went off just shortly before we were about to enter the building. The Doctor and I were able to jump to the side to get out of the way, although the Doctor’s Cyclone took a little damage.
The Comrade attempted to clear the claymore by jumping up on to the building. And while he was able to clear the claymore, the forced split-second reaction did not allow him to notice the building overhang. He slammed into the overhang then crashed into the ground below taking most of the overhang with him.
I jumped into the building, chasing after the fleeing militiaman. Joan sprung to my hand and laid a burst into his right leg, blowing out most of his kneecap. The militiaman dropped to the ground unconscious.
The Doctor came in and bandaged up the militiaman. We then all began searching through the crates to see what the militia had. We found the typical supplies you would expect: weapons, ammunition, cigarettes, that kinda of stuff. However they also had these weird looking protoculture cells. It must be what the militia got from the Invid for helping them.
We gathered what supplies we could and got ready to take our prisioner with us. Unfortunately, he had disappeared. He apparently had regained consciousness and had quietly snuck away while we were busy loot…acquiring goods. I left our now signature Loraine Cross to ensure that everyone knew that not all of us were willing to give in to the Invid.
After we gathered up the supplies, we recovered our Humvee and took the long route back to base. There Jimmy was already waiting on us, wondering what took us so long. I was relieved that he was unharmed during the fighting.
At the base, we all went about doing different things. The Doctor began experimenting with the Invid Protoculture Cells and modifying them for use in our Cyclones. The Comrade met up with the Doctor and began discussing what our next strategy should be. Meanwhile, Jimmy and I quietly celebrated my 21st birthday.
Eventually we gathered together and all agreed we want to strike back at the Invid. However we knew so little about them still, why are they here? They don’t really seem to want to conquer us, its almost like they only deal with us when they have to. We really needed more information on them. So we decided that we needed to observe them. The Comrade, Doctor, Jimmy, and I headed out to go observe an Invid Hive to see what makes the Invid tick…
Tags: Memoirs Robotech Mekton
