Eyes In The Sky

Chapter Twenty-Four: Eyes In the Sky

The airstrip behind the Hunter Headquarters building was not very large, but it was the bane of all tired Reploids lately. The scream of a Raven’s engines as it sped off into the night was more than enough to bother Hunters in their quarters, and there had been plenty of night flights going on lately. Tonight, though, things were different, and agreeably more dangerous.

Raven 12’s engines glowed hot with blue fire as the small combat jet prepared to take off. The Ravens were based on the Dark Cloud model used during the Repliforce Uprising—a model that was now used heavily by Mavericks. Fortunately, the Ravens were superior in most things to the Mavericks’ Dark Clouds, though that was small comfort to the pilots flying them. They knew, as did any pilot, that fancy equipment was useless if the pilot was a moron, and a simple Vulcan cannon was quite enough firepower if the pilot was a genius. The Raven model was a small jet, capable of seating one person. It filled a large basement, maybe, and wasn’t nearly as fast as the birds that the Army used, but they weren’t meant to be. Hunter Ravens were meant for specific missions, and were often charged with attacking specific buildings over and over, or providing cover fire for patrols. Unlike the F-120s used by the Army, the Ravens wouldn’t speed right past their target, and could easily circle a specific building or hover in front of an enemy patrol, much like a helicopter. They could just as easily switch to serious speeds, making them an all around priceless asset. Each Raven was armed with twin Vulcan cannons underneath the wings. The bullets they fired were still more than a match for most commonly used armor, and when those didn’t work the Ravens had Sidewinder-80 missiles—two of them, usually. The Sidewinders, or S-80s, were terribly compact, perfect for the compact aircraft, and got the job done rather nicely. Most Ravens were painted black as the blackest night, which made them not only resemble their namesake, but also made them perfect for nighttime reconnaissance.

That was why Ravens 12 and 13 were equipped with powerful cameras tonight that would be used to take pictures of Seraph Castle and the surrounding area. The pictures would be used by the Invisible Men to determine Maverick launch capabilities and other enemy assets that they’d need to know about. The mission, of course, carried some danger—they’d be flying right over and around the enemy base. The good news was that plenty of aircraft passed over Seraph Castle each day, and it was rather unlikely that the Mavericks would suddenly pick tonight to react. The lights on the jets were all off, and there would be no way to identify them except for the sound, which really didn’t sound that much different from a plane flying at a higher altitude. The fact that it was night didn’t make much of a difference—the cameras had been designed with nighttime photography in mind.

Raven 12’s engines screamed, and she shot forward like a bullet, lifting off the small runway and shooting into the sky. Its pilot, Carlos Delgado, immediately slowed his speed when he was at a safe altitude and circled the Hunter HQ once. He had to wait for his partner to get in the air, after all. They would approach together. Delgado flipped on his radio. “Getting lonely up here, Alec.”

“Gimme a sec!” Alec Tremont replied with a chuckle as he activated Raven 13’s engines, now that the runway was clear. A minute later he lifted off, but he didn’t slow and circle like Carlos had done. Instead, Alec turned towards his destination and shot off in its direction. “My dead grandma flies faster than you, Carlos!”

“That’s the last time I’m courteous to you!” Delgado growled back his challenge. Alec grinned inside his jet, but another voice appeared on their headsets that sobered them up quickly.

“No cowboy shit,” Commander Taggart ordered. “Not tonight.”

“Read you, bossman,” Alec responded with feigned disappointment. “We’ll get the job done. We always do.”

“Don’t get cocky.” Both could tell that Taggart was trying to be serious, but they could hear the involuntary smile in his voice. Taggart could never get too hard headed about a mission, they knew, though they also knew he’d be a much happier man if he himself could be doing the flying.

They did have a mission, after all, and so Alec let Carlos catch up, and both Ravens disappeared into the night, headed towards the Catskills. It wouldn’t take long, and they didn’t move all that fast, since they wanted time to take all the pictures they could before coming back for another pass. Like it or not, the Mavericks would indeed get suspicious after they heard the planes come back a few times.

____________________

James Taggart adjusted the headset that adorned his skull and let out a sigh. “Those two never change.”

“You neither, Jimmy,” Caligula said from a swivel chair next to Taggart’s.

“You’ll get to fly soon enough,” Signas said, sitting behind them both in a larger, “real” chair, since most swivel chairs in existence couldn’t support a Reploid of Signas’ size.

“These missions were a breeze,” the commander of the Hunter air force said with a nostalgic smile. “I could take a hundred of those pictures before the Mavericks even knew I’d been there.”

“Gotta educate the younger generation,” Caligula said with a laugh, adjusting his own headset.

“How many do they need to take?” It was Signas.

“Top of the castle, surrounding mountain paths, anything that looks vaguely like it could launch a rocket…” Taggart shrugged. “You get the idea.”

“It’ll be nice to see what they’ve been up to defense wise,” Caligula observed. “I wish we’d been able to cut off Cyber Peacock’s money laundering op.”

“I’ll have to make sure to bring that up,” Signas realized. He and Zero left for Sub-City 3 the following morning. He’d be tired as hell, he realized, but it couldn’t be helped. He wanted to see this.

“Figure a few more minutes before they hit the target zone,” Taggart declared. “Anyone want some coffee?”

____________________

It had been weeks since Zero had been this talkative, X realized. They were going over soldier evaluations in Zero’s quarters, and while both were trying hard to concentrate, they found themselves constantly switching to other topics. A big item of communication was Cain’s retirement.

“Lord, I’ll miss him,” Zero said, filing away an evaluation of one of X’s new recruits. As expected, Unit 17 was flooding with any recruit who was halfway decent because everyone wanted the Great X to have as many troops as he could possibly have. It was kind of funny, they both thought, since X always would up working alone anyway.

“He’s not really going anywhere,” X pointed out.

“True. But the administration will be different. Signas is a good guy, but how’s he gonna react to full control of an army?”

X shrugged. “Whatever happens happens. I’m just worried about the stuff that will be lost in between the transfer. You know, like projects, certain information that would be nice to know…”

“Yeah, that’s what always happens,” Zero agreed. “I remember when Tiberius took over the medical department when that human who managed it first…Dr. Lindstrom, wasn’t it…? Yeah, Dr. Lindstrom went to the great beyond via a car crash, of all things.” The blonde Hunter shook his head. “There was such a vacuum of order there that it wasn’t even funny. This’ll be worse. Cain’s got a lot on his plate. Some of it’s bound to fall off.” He snorted out a half laugh. “He hasn’t even had a chance to look into my investigation.”

“Oh boy,” X said offhandedly, pulling out another soldier profile to look over, “what did you do now?”

“Not me,” he replied in a hardy-har-har tone, “the bossmen.” “Bossmen” could only refer to the Megacity Army.

“Fine,” X said just as offhandedly, speed reading through the dossier without really caring. What was he supposed to do with all these soldiers, anyway? “What did THEY do now?”

“Conspiracy, murder, the usual,” Zero was just as distracted as X had been. Plus it had been a long night. He didn’t realize what he was saying.

“That so?” X raised an eyebrow to peer over the top of the dossier. “Is that what’s been eating at you lately?”

“Well, to a certain…” He froze. “Oops.”

X sighed. “You know, it’s real annoying when you set the hook into some really juicy information, and then stop reeling it in the moment I get interested.”

Zero winced. “Yeah, I know…I guess I have been doing that lately, haven’t I…”

“That’s an understatement,” X said evenly as he replaced the dossier. “You occasionally resemble a newly risen zombie, and this is when you’re sober. You’ve been muttering weird things, too, whenever you see the Mavericks. What’s this privileged information that no one else can know?”

Zero did his best not to groan. He’d totally forgotten his reservations as far as telling X about Terrornova. But, if they’d been forgotten once, what did they matter? Besides, Cain was going to impale him on his cane if he didn’t give X some information soon. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“I’m listening,” X said quickly. He’d been waiting quite a while to see what Zero was so worked up about.

Zero sighed in resignation and nodded. “Okay. You know about Mea, right?”

X nodded, his mind already racing. He’d first learned about Zero’s old friend Mea while he’d watched the X-Hunters’ fortress sink into the icy waters surrounding the North Pole. X had made some comment that indicated that his rage over Zero’s death had given him the drive he’d needed to beat Sigma. The newly revived Zero had responded that he, too, was inspired by the death of a friend, and so X learned of Mea’s untimely end during the Hunter Olympiad. X would never forget the story, if nothing else because of the emotion Zero had used when telling it. He’d remembered all too well when the time came for the recent Olympiad, and knew why Zero had chosen to seclude himself from the games.

Zero forced himself to go on. He really hated talking about this. “The man who killed her…his name is Malevex.”

It took only a few seconds for X to make the connection. “Malevex…isn’t that one of the…”

Zero nodded. “He’s one of the new Maverick commanders, one of those we’ve identified.”

X’s eyes widened in what he thought was realization. “I see. You’re fighting the man who…”

“No,” Zero shook his head, surprising his friend. “It’s not that simple. I know what he looks like because I saw him that day at the Olympiad. I know his name because Mortar told me what it was.”

“Mortar…” Again, the connection took only a few seconds. “The guy from the slums? The day you got hit by that bomb?”

A nod. “Before that bomb went off, I had a good long conversation with Mortar….”

It took ten minutes to fully explain the Terrornova project and its repercussions to X, who reacted with quiet disbelief. When Zero finished, X’s head was filled with many of the same questions that had filled Zero’s a few days ago.

“And you believe him?” X asked at last.

“I know it seems dumb,” Zero admitted. “But I just…it just makes too much sense for it to be a lie, you know? I mean, it’s dangerous information nonetheless, but…”

“Tell me about it,” X said with distant eyes. “If what the humans did ever got out…well, I’d lose quite a few of these extra soldiers, I’ll tell you that.”

“Yeah.” They were quiet for a while before Zero spoke again. “I’m not so worried about it anymore, and you shouldn’t be either. What’s past is past, or at least that’s what Cain said.”

“Then what are you still worried about?”
Zero looked suddenly embarrassed. “It’s a hell of a thing to say, but I sympathize with these guys. I’ve never sympathized with an enemy before, and it’s creepy. Like, what if I choke when I have the opportunity to kill one of them?”

“These people are nuclear terrorists,” X reminded him. “Like you said, what’s past is past. They could change their ways if they wanted to, but they won’t. It’s our duty to defeat them for it.”

“It’s easy to say that now,” Zero agreed. “But still…” He stopped and shook his head, laughing at himself. “Oh, hell, who am I kidding? I’ll get so lost in the combat that I won’t realize how I beat them when I do.” He hoped that would be true. He didn’t want to have to contemplate the fate of his victims this time. More than anything, Zero thought, he feared having to talk to these people face to face. If Mortar could do so much to his mind with that story, who knew what the other three could do with their sides of the same story? If he were put up against them in combat—and he was sure that would happen—it had to be a quick, clean kill, without time to think about the scenario. No, that’ll come afterward, followed by a new swarm of angst, he thought with a mirthless smile. Aren’t I just the jolliest little bastard in the world?

The rest of their conversation was somewhat subdued, and X left twenty minutes later with his dossiers. The azure Hunter’s mind was both relieved and stressed. He’d been rather worried about his friend, but now that Zero had gotten his secrets off his chest, he’d inevitably become more and more like himself. That’s how it worked, X reminded himself, or at least that’s what had happened every time in the past. And not a moment too soon, he realized. Zero left for Sub-City 3’s Alden Base tomorrow morning. He was glad he’d gotten a chance to talk with him before then.

____________________

“Approaching target,” Taggart heard from his headset. Delgado had gotten in position first, much to Alec’s chagrin, and was reporting his progress through the radios. “Camera active. Approaching perimeter,” Delgado went on.

“I’m not picking anything up,” Caligula noted, watching the base’s radar.

“Mission’s a go,” Taggart declared. “Over.”

____________________

“Roger,” Carlos Delgado confirmed. He steered his Raven slightly downward and watched his target screen. He pressed his thumb down on a green button on his control pad and the camera attached to the underside of his jet flashed once. The flash was hard to see by anyone on the ground, preventing a detection that way. He was moving fairly slowly, but he’d still be past the compound in less than half a minute, so he took pictures as fast as he could. Raven 12 sped past Seraph Castle, followed by Raven 13, which had taken several pictures of the same target areas.

“Yee ha,” Alec said without enthusiasm into his radio.

“I hope this does some good,” Carlos responded as they put distance between themselves and the castle.

“Who the hell cares?” Alec chuckled, watching his instruments for any signs of trouble. It felt great to be flying again, he thought.

“Yeah,” Delgado replied, thinking the same thing. Alec could hear the grin in his friend’s voice.

____________________

Revolver couldn’t remember when he’d been ever so proud. He paced back and forth on a metal catwalk overlooking the main construction site, activating various buttons and control panels. Greenback bounced around nearby, overseeing the final system checks, while Chuck bossed around the engineers below. Chuck was an excellent supervisor, Revolver observed. He was an invaluable member of the team. And Greenback, for all his oddness, was a genius in weapons development. Revolver would never have guessed that this little frog would have the know-how inside his oversized head to not only tap into the power of nuclear warheads, but also to produce the weapons delivery systems for the ultimate delivery method: Gallagher.

The airship was as complete as it was going to get. It very vaguely resembled the Death Rogumer. If there was one thing Storm Eagle remembered well, it was the schematics for his old flying fortress. He’d provided Revolver with enough of those that the engineer had been able to quickly throw together the shell for what would become the Gallagher, his magnum opus.

Gallagher could be called the shark of the sky. It was a black, sleek, bullet-shaped vessel that wasn’t necessarily big, but then, Death Rogumer hadn’t been very big either, and it had caused quite a bit of trouble. Gallagher would do much worse, Revolver was sure. The airship had quite a wide variety of missile batteries that would launch huge volleys of cluster missiles down towards either one target or a collection of moving targets. That had been Revolver’s pet project, and he was very proud of it. The Mavericks only had enough small missiles in stock for two reloads after the initial volley, but Revolver thought it would be enough for this particular mission, since, after all, the real weapons were located underneath the wide, thick wings.

Two giant launchers were implanted in the Gallagher, one inside each wing. They were used, of course, to fire Buzzbombs. Or, more accurately, Revolver reminded himself, the upgraded Buzzbombs. After all, the Buzzbombs themselves were useless. The warhead was what Revolver had been interested in. The Mavericks had salvaged five Buzzbombs, but only two of the warheads had been useable. Greenback, by using his “technical witchcraft”, as Chuck called it, had been able to reactivate the warheads, even though the frog cautioned that the weapons were far from foolproof. He had no idea what might or might not cause the warheads to suddenly deactivate, since while they were operational, they were still unstable. Revolver had tried to make up for that by attaching the warheads to missile shafts that contained extreme explosive elements. This way, even if the Buzzbomb—they still called them that—didn’t create a nuclear blast as planned, the resulting explosion would still be enough to do major damage to a structure. Revolver was sure that what he had would be enough to level Hunter Headquarters. That was, after all, the real plan.

The chief Maverick engineer flipped a final lever and the roof of the construction zone began to separate. The steel panels that concealed the garage slid back into the walls of the chamber, slowly, and revealed the starlit sky. Revolver loved it. He couldn’t do astrology, but he liked to think that the stars foretold good things for him. He hoped so. Virtually everyone working on this project had come from Steel Alley, but Revolver’s loyalty was not to Steel Alley. He hated humans—he had never told anyone why, and wanted to keep the real reason a secret—and so he would fight well for the Mavericks, but he wasn’t really loyal to them, either. Revolver was loyal to himself alone. By completing this project and the mission that would soon follow, the economic crisis would be just as great as the political and military crises. It would be the perfect opportunity for Steel Alley to emerge as the dominant part of Megacity 5’s economy…and the perfect time for Revolver himself to emerge as one of the leaders of the Engineer Corps. From there, he thought with a crafty smile, it would be easy for him to assert his control over the economy, and, as he knew, with real money came real power. Real power, he knew, would give him the chance to hurt
the humans in a way far more serious than even the Buzzbombs ever could.

But that was for the future. The here and now was a final test of Gallagher’s operational capabilities. The airship had turbothrusters on its underside to get it off the ground and more thrusters on the back to maneuver through the air. The ground thrusters would ignite tonight and lift the ship briefly off the ground, just to prove to Commander Gredam that the thing really worked.

Greenback bounded up the stairs to join his boss. “Greenback reports that all is ready!” the kooky frog reported, spearing a fly with his tongue.

Revolver didn’t even flinch at the sight. In fact, he grinned. “It’s finally time, Greenback! Let’s make ‘em proud back home.”

“Yes!” the frog nodded vigorously. “Steel Alley will call us heroes!”

It was so easy, Revolver thought with amusement, to pretend that Steel Alley meant something to him. It was fun, being an actor. He couldn’t wait for the curtain call.

____________________

Delgado saw it first. They were lower this time, and they’d already split up to circle both sides of the target zone at once. He didn’t like being this low, but it was his job, and he was very good at his job. Raven 12’s target screen displayed nothing but dark ground, which Delgado photographed vigorously, but he stopped when he saw movement in the distance.

“Alec, I’m picking something up, over.”

“Which one of us is closer, over?”

“That’d be me, pal.” Carlos grinned. About time things got interesting. “I’ll snap a few shots, over.” He steered his jet off course and slowed it down. As he got closer, he could positively identify the ground splitting apart…at least, that’s what it looked like. “We got something crazy here, Alec,” the pilot reported as he snapped a few shots. “Looks like a hidden cache of some sort. I’m gonna take a closer look, over.”

Hundreds of meters away, inside Raven 13, Alec wondered what the strange feeling was that was brewing in the pit of his stomach.

____________________

“Repeat, report your situation, over,” Taggart said into the radio, somewhat annoyed.

“Something strange is going on, sir,” Delgado responded. “I’m just taking a few shots, over.”

“That’s near UNDINE,” Caligula pointed out, motioning to the radar.

“Well, what in the hell…?” Signas wondered aloud.

____________________

Delgado had to fly through some clouds, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before. He didn’t like it, but he could do it. His eyes were locked on the target radar. He took one more shot as the ground opened a little more, and then he was past the area. Still curious, he doubled back, wondering if he’d just witnessed the activation of a Buzzbomb launch site. That, he reasoned, was definitely worth his attention. Delgado turned slowly after putting some distance between him and the target. Then he lined up a shot.

The explosion wasn’t huge, but it did nearly scare the piss out of him, and the jolt sent his hand crashing down on a set of random controls that caused Raven 12 to go slightly haywire. He spent the next ten horrifying seconds steadying the aircraft, and when he dared to look back at his target screen he saw that he was already quite a ways away from the hole in the ground. What in the hell did I hit?

“Raven 13, this is 12,” Delgado said in a hoarse voice. “I’ve hit something.”

____________________

No shit, Alec Tremont thought inside Raven 13. He’d seen the fire erupt from the cloud Delgado was flying through, and it had briefly horrified him. What had it been? And more importantly, Alec thought, were there more of them?

There were dots on his radar, he noticed for the first time, small ones, and only a few of them. Carlos had probably been paying too much attention to his target screen and not enough attention to his radar, Alec concluded. Damn! “Any damage?” he asked his friend, forgetting to add the customary “over”.

“No, no,” Delgado replied, “nothing serious, just a bit of a scare…the plane is flying a little jerky, though.”

“Take your shots and come home,” Commander Taggart said from Hunter HQ. Both pilots registered the voice, knowing it really meant “come home this instant”, but neither were ready to do that. Carlos had a new target and Alec had another target to photograph—the roof of Seraph Castle. But then, he promised himself, they would leave. A few more minutes, he reasoned, wouldn’t make any real difference.

He started to get a feel for what the feeling in his stomach was, but he decided to ignore it. It was easier that way.

____________________

The Mavericks knew very well that the Hunters liked to send their spy planes over hostile Maverick bases to collect intelligence data, and Storm Eagle had taken it upon himself to put a crimp in that process. The avian had recently sowed several “eyes” in the sky that served both as floating aerial cameras…and aerial mines. Raven 12’s impact not only created a large, bright explosion, but it also tripped several alarms inside Seraph Castle. One of the cameras monitored by security personnel went offline, and alarm codes flashed on computer screens throughout the castle, but it didn’t take long to handle the problem, since the security officer in charge was Bit. He and his brother, Byte, were in charge of Seraph Castle’s security measures, and they operated most of the counter surveillance methods available to the Mavericks. Storm Eagle was the one who’d installed the sky eyes but Bit knew how to operate them, and with a few simple button pushes a command was issued to every sky eye in operation. They all began to move about in the sky, using antigravity propulsion methods, and their paths were far too random for any pilot to predict. If there were still spy planes up there, Bit thought, they wouldn’t be hidden for long.

But this of course was merely step one. He found Byte in the officer’s lounge and together they rushed to a staircase.

“What are they up to?” Byte asked his brother during the climb.

“Who knows?” Bit responded. “Probably just taking pictures. But Revolver’s running that exercise tonight, and we can’t let any pictures of that go home.” They both knew what that meant.

____________________

The Mavericks patrolling the upper outer walkways of Seraph Castle saw the blast as soon as it happened and for a while just stared in dumb silence. What were they supposed to do now?

The one to first take action was a gray Reploid with a rather ruthless past. He knew something about handling the large antiaircraft guns that The Team had had mounted on the roof in two spots, and he went right to them.

Bit and Byte emerged on the upper walkways a few minutes later, and then everyone knew how serious it was.

“Be ready,” Bit said to the gray Reploid. “Don’t shoot until we give the order.”

“Is this even a good idea?” Byte asked, uncharacteristically nervous. “What if they retaliate?”

“We don’t have much time left anyway,” Bit pointed out. “Besides, we can’t let them get any images of Revolver’s project!”

Byte thought for a few minutes and nodded approval. “But those guns won’t be good enough.” He ignored the gray Reploid’s insulted look and motioned behind him. “We need to operate the battery.”

Bit knew what that meant, and he nodded his own approval. “I’ll get the key.”

____________________

Alec piloted Raven 13 at a slight downward angle, coming up on the roof of the castle. He didn’t want to go too far down, and he knew that this was the dangerous part. If the Mavericks thought he was coming down to make an attack, things would get hairy. He took his pictures and started to pull up when he finally noticed the figures on the upper catwalks.

“Carlos! Commander! We’ve got movement on the roof!”

____________________

The gray Maverick had a perfect shot. The plane was headed right towards him, for crying out loud! But he’d been told to hold his fire, and he turned to shout at Bit but the smallish gold Reploid saw it first.

“Oh, shit,” Bit breathed. “SHOOT!”

The gray Maverick did so, but the split second of hesitation wound up saving Alec Tremont’s life. The Maverick squeezed the trigger just as Raven 13 began its upward climb. The guns rocked back and forth like a jackhammer, and the noise deafened everyone in the area. The huge bullets flew through the sky, and with their green tracers it was like a burst of jade laser fire had just pierced the night sky, coming up directly underneath Raven 13.

____________________

Alec didn’t take any damage, but the psychological effect was just as bad as the physical one would have been. His jet even reported the heat increase from the superheated rounds that had passed not five feet below him.

“I’m being shot at, sir!” he rasped into the radio.

“Hold your fire!” Taggart said forcefully. “Repeat, do not attack!”

That was fine with Alec. The pilot gained altitude until he was reasonably safe, and then turned to come around for another pass. This time, it wasn’t for pictures, though. He had to get home, and home was in the other direction. It was just as well that he didn’t pay attention as his brief horror dissolved into anger. Those bastards tried to shoot me down! And I can’t shoot back? What the hell is up with this crazy world?

The wrenching feeling in his stomach was greater than his anger, now. They shouldn’t be here, he confessed to himself. They shouldn’t have pressed their luck. They should have retreated after Carlos had hit that floating mine. But they hadn’t.

“What now?” Alec Tremont asked himself.

__________

“Christ…” Commander Taggart leaned back in his chair and wiped beads of sweat off his forehead. “RTB, repeat, return to base, both of you, over!” He looked back toward Signas, who was pale with uncertainty. “We can’t shoot back?”

“No,” Caligula responded, “not yet. For one thing, they probably already think we’re attacking them, and for another two Ravens won’t stand a chance against all of Seraph Castle’s defenses. We need those photos,” he pointed out. “We need both Ravens back here as soon as possible, and in one piece.”

____________________

“Come on, man,” Alec barked to Carlos, “we’re heading home now!”

“Roger,” Delgado replied, but that wasn’t quite true, was it? Like Alec, he was on the wrong side of the castle, and had to make a return pass to start heading home. He altered his course somewhat, thinking in the back of his mind that this was a bad idea, but doing it anyway. Raven 12 veered slightly to the right as it sped past Seraph Castle. Green bullet tracers rocketed up towards his jet, and the pilot quickly reduced altitude sharply, falling like a brick and then curving to the left. Delgado continued to the right, and snaked around until the tracers fell towards him. Now, he pulled up, and gained altitude quickly, surprising the Maverick gunman and successfully evading the attack.

“Suck it!” he whooped, and got back on his course. He was past the castle now, but he was still somewhat right of the exit route. Over in Raven 13, Alec briefly wondered what his partner was doing. It didn’t take him long to find out.

“Carlos!” Delgado heard in his radio, “What the hell are you doing, man? Get out of there!”

“You betcha,” Delgado replied distractedly, steering his Raven in his intended direction. “I’ll follow you out.”

“Now, dammit!”

“No worries, Alec. Cover me. Over.” Delgado broke communication and concentrated on his new flight plan, reducing his speed.

____________________

“What the hell is this about?” Signas demanded sharply.

“I don’t know, sir,” Taggart admitted. “Delgado’s headed back towards…”

“UNDINE,” Caligula finished. “God damn it! Get him out of there, Jimmy! The Mavericks are gonna be busting out the big guns very shortly!”

____________________

Bit reemerged from the inner chambers in the upper level of Seraph Castle with a simple card key. He dashed over to the large missile battery where Byte waited patiently and swiped the card key through a slit. Immediately, the giant box with eight internal cylinders came to life, and several Mavericks gathered around their commanders with small Surface-to-Air-Missiles.

“How many?” Bit asked.

Byte frowned. “We can’t afford to use more than four now. We’ll need these later.” His brother nodded and the Mavericks began to shove the small rockets into four of the eight cylinders. They finished and closed the bottom door, locking the missiles in place. Byte pressed a few buttons and the SAM battery’s lights went green. They were ready.

The Mavericks didn’t have many luxuries as far as item wealth, but one thing they did have in large supply was SAMs. These small missiles were fired in clusters from missile batteries, usually on board a ship or air carrier. They were also good for defending a fort, and they had been an annoyance for the Hunters during many invasion attempts on past Maverick fortresses. At the end of the fourth uprising, many SAMs were left over from Storm Owl’s defunct air force. A few arms purchases had provided the Mavericks with all the SAMs they could want to defend a base like Seraph Castle. The problem was, they only had this one launcher. The Team was working on installing another one on the back of the base, but it was doubtful that they’d work the kinks out in time. They’d been sold a lemon, apparently. But it didn’t matter for the moment, because they at least had this launcher, and for tonight, this launcher would work just fine.

Bit and Byte stared warily at each other. They did not have clearance for this. Sure, they could defend their base, but SAMs were valuable, especially with the inevitable Hunter invasion on its way. Gredam might be very pissed. Screw Gredam, Byte would say. Byte didn’t like his new commander very much. According to Byte, Gredam had come too far, too fast. Bit didn’t care quite so much. Gredam was no Sigma, that was for sure. But, Bit had decided on further reflection, was that such a bad thing?

They heard the roar of Raven 12 passing them by and the curses of the gray Maverick who couldn’t quite shoot the pilot down, and they made their decision. Sure they might be reprimanded, but Revolver was holding that test, and that was currently the matter of highest security, and security was their job.

“I’ve got a lock,” one of the Mavericks said.

Byte moved his large body to the side so that the Maverick could take full control. He’d used these things before, Byte knew. Still, he wanted to keep an eye on this grunt. SAMs were not to be wasted, after all.

The SAM launcher hummed and whirred, indicating that it did indeed have a target lock on the Raven moving speedily towards the site that the Hunters called UNDINE. Both security officers inhaled sharply at the same time, and then Byte said “Fire.”

____________________

Raven 13’s pilot was unsure of himself. Carlos wasn’t in trouble yet, but Alec knew that it was just a matter of time. The Mavericks had been alerted, and it wouldn’t be long before they attacked with something other than those machine guns.

Or would it? Alec frowned as he quickly went over the situation. Both he and Carlos were on their way out. In a minute they’d be clear…well, he’d be clear, Alec realized, but Carlos would take a little longer if he was going back to that site. Would the Mavericks have defenses there? Would Carlos have the good sense to look at his radar this time?

God exposed Alec’s hypocrisy a moment later when two of Storm Eagle’s sky eyes flew past his Raven, jerking the pilot out of his thoughts and back to the present. He immediately picked up speed and stared down at his own radar, realizing that the sky eyes had been moving in and he hadn’t even noticed. The little things didn’t have a lock-on capability, but they were moving about unpredictably, and at this moment they were both coming towards Raven 13, one above and one to the left, and to the right was Seraph Castle. Alec felt like he was in between a rock and a hard place.

And that was only the beginning. Below him, on the compound’s roof, the gray Maverick saw Raven 13 hovering there trying to evade the funny little sky eyes. He swiveled the big machine gun to the left and let fly with tracer fire. He didn’t bother with aiming, as the bright green ray of gunfire told him exactly where his bullets were going.

Alec bellowed the first obscenity that came to his head. It was so involuntary an action that he didn’t even know or remember what he had said. He immediately increased his velocity, only to be cut off by one of the sky eyes. Then he felt his aircraft jerk as bullets impacted its right side.

“Shit!” the Hunter roared and did the only thing he could: he shot forward like a bullet. The Raven plowed clear through the sky eye, and the explosion blinded Alec and sent tremors through the Raven. And so, Alec was forced to play one of the more dangerous games of his life. While zooming forward through the dark night sky, he took his eyes away from the sky and began recalibrating his instruments. His jet was in trouble, he realized. He’d make it home all right, but he couldn’t stick around to play any longer.

“Alec!” Commander Taggart’s voice filled his ears. Apparently he’d been yelling at the pilot for quite a while. It was surprising to Alec how easily the mind blocked out unnecessary noises during a crisis. “Alec, what is your status?”

“I’m hit, sir,” Tremont replied. “Nothing serious, but I need some maintenance. I’m on my way out, anyway.”

“Is the camera damaged?”

“No, sir,” Alec replied after checking. “I’m not getting a damage reading from the underside of the Raven. The bullets hit my side…though that explosion just now might have frayed the edges of your photos a little bit.”

“Roger, over,” Taggart replied quickly.

“You okay, pal?” It was Delgado.

“Yeah. I’m out of here. You come on too.”

“Roger that.”

“Right now.”

“Yeah, roger that…”

Alec then noticed something else. It must have happened while he was evading the Maverick gunner, because he sure as hell would have noticed this. Four yellow streaks of fire were extending from Seraph Castle like long golden fingers, and they were about to close their grip on a distant target. In Alec’s harried mind, it took a few seconds to realize what that target had to be.

“Oh, Jesus,” he sputtered five minutes later as he fumbled with the controls of his radio.

____________________

Carlos Delgado’s camera began to use up its final reel of film as it snapped shot after shot of UNDINE and the surrounding area. Revolver’s garage was actually located south of the UNDINE site. You could link to the garage from Doppler’s old hideout, and from the garage to the innards of Seraph Castle. Delgado had no idea that the area had been termed “UNDINE”, and certainly had no idea what was buried there, but he did know that there
was suddenly a lighted hole in the ground, and he wanted to know what that was. The problem now was that Carlos was flying lower than he had been last time, and was forced to take the mountains into account.

UNDINE was hidden in and along a cluster of large mountains, and Delgado had to add a little to his altimeter to clear them. His eyes fluttered from his target screen to the scene in front of him. He didn’t even think to look at his radar. Nervousness began to bloom when he realized that he was having a decidedly difficult time gaining enough altitude on one particular mountain, and so he cut his speed a little to buy the extra few seconds he’d need to avoid crashing into the mountainside.

“Carlos!” Alec’s voice broke both his concentration and his calm. “Carlos, you’ve got…”

“Not now!” the man snapped in nervous irritation. “I gotta concentrate on this one!”

Seconds later, Delgado rose above the mountaintop and looked down. He was lower now, and the light from the strange pit made it easier for him to observe the area. And so, he got his first real look at the top-secret intelligence facility “UNDINE”. It was the last thing he would ever see.

____________________

“Carlos!” Alec shouted through the radios, but he was too late, and knowing that only made it worse. The four SAMs came down on Raven 12 like the fingers of God. Only three of them wound up hitting, but that was enough. The explosions all seemed to take place at once, including the one from the inside of Raven 12 that reduced the entire aircraft into a charred skeletal shell that promptly split into chunks of flaming metal which fell to the ground like little meteors. Raven 12, its pilot, and the all-important pictures it had taken were lost.

“Carlos!” Alec repeated his friend’s name. “Carlos, God dammit! You bastards,” he growled as he veered Raven 13 sharply to the right, intending to whirl on the evil castle and give the Mavericks hell. Immediately his aircraft, damaged on the right flank, began to scream its protest. It soon occurred to Alec that the Raven wasn’t the only thing screaming.

“Do not engage!” Commander Taggart fairly shrieked into the radio. “Repeat, DO NOT ENGAGE!”

“DAMMIT!” Alec roared, realizing that his commander was right. To engage a fully alerted Maverick fortress with a wounded aircraft was the next thing to suicide. He swore again and tilted the aircraft back to its original path. It was time to go. He’d have to avenge Carlos another day. “Soon,” he promised the castle before leaving it behind.

Minutes later, Raven 13 left the Catskills and returned to Hunter HQ, alone.

____________________

“Affirmative,” James Taggart said wearily. He switched off his radio and removed the headset, running his hand through his messy hair.

“I’m sorry, Jimmy,” Signas said quietly as the commander sat down.

Taggart just nodded and concentrated on burying his rage. He’d broken a cold sweat, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. It might have been due to the death of one of his soldiers, but it didn’t feel quite like that, he admitted. It might have been nervousness towards the rapidly souring mission, but while he had felt a little nauseous, that still didn’t seem to be the problem. No, Taggart was sweating because he was fighting a vicious internal battle against the blazing hatred within him. He wanted to be up there, fighting the bastards, not sitting down here directing the events like it was some sort of movie.

But he was still a professional, and he still had a job to do, even if he hated it. “Tremont’s coming home. He has his pictures with him.”

Signas nodded, and Caligula bowed his head slightly. The chief spook was slightly annoyed with himself. A man had just died, a man loyal to the same cause that Caligula was loyal to. And yet, where there should have been grief there was just disappointment; Caligula cared more about the pictures Delgado had taken than about the pilot himself. The UNDINE site was one of his current “hot spots”, and he wanted all the data on it that he could get. It was a shame about Delgado, but Caligula had long since come to terms with the fact that he was more than a little dispassionate towards peoples’ lives. He certainly didn’t like it, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it. He had to say something, though, so he tried something fairly neutral. “You think they’ll retaliate?”

“You’re the spook,” Taggart pointed out distantly.

Oops. “Yeah…well…I don’t know about this one.”

Signas sighed before it could go any further. The big Reploid got to his feet and gazed at the headsets Taggart had used to communicate with his pilots. It didn’t matter what the Mavericks did, he told himself. He’d meet with the Megacity Council in a matter of hours, and so would begin the fall of the Mavericks.

“Tomorrow morning,” he said to his fellow commanders, “couldn’t come sooner.”

____________________

“Well what in the hell,” Revolver said quizzically, “do you suppose that was?”

“Greenback does not know,” the frog replied just as distantly. “Looked like fireworks, it did.”

“Those were no fireworks.” A big Maverick built to resemble a woodchuck stepped up to join his fellow engineers. He even had the big teeth, though they were razor sharp, and anyone who dared made fun of Chuck regretted it quickly. “Seems we had some guests.”

Revolver blinked, seeing the situation for what it was. “Spies?”

“Don’t worry,” Chuck replied in his ever-neutral bass voice. “They don’t think that the other one got any pictures. We shot down the one that did.”

“’We’?” Revolver frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Bit sent me the transmission himself.” Chuck shrugged. “They made use of their SAMs. We got a variant of that model aboard Gallagher.” The woodchuck grinned. “It’s nice to see such a successful sample firing drill.”

Revolver laughed hard at that one. “A drill! Well, I suppose this night wasn’t a failure after all. Gallagher’s propulsion systems work, we just didn’t get her into the sky. We shouldn’t have any problems when the real thing starts.” The chief mechanic waved Greenback towards the control pad that he’d used earlier. The frog hopped speedily towards it and flipped a few switches. The roof of the garage creaked and groaned as it slowly began to close up, reaffirming the excellent camouflage that had kept it hidden in the first place.

“Will this affect our plans?” Chuck asked in an even lower tone.

Revolver shook his head. “The Buzzbombs are active, are they not? That’s all that matters. They’re ready to be fired, almost. That’s what Greenback was for.” He shut up as the frog returned from his task.

“Greenback still thinks it looked like fireworks,” he croaked. “Greenback wonders, though, if we shouldn’t go pick up the bits and pieces?”

Revolver hadn’t thought of that just yet. “I’ll talk to Bit. In the meantime, let’s close up shop here.” He grinned. “Congratulations on our first successful test run, gentlemen. Just goes to show that even if we don’t get off the ground, we can still kick a lot of ass.”

____________________

Deactivating the missile battery was much easier than operating it. Byte flipped a lever and Bit pocketed the keycard. The Mavericks continued to patrol the roof vigorously; they would be on high alert tonight. Popular belief was that a spying run had just been foiled, but Bit and Byte weren’t so sure. What if this had been a prelude to an attack? What if the Hunters were seeking out Revolver’s garage to destroy it? It would explain the dead pilot’s actions. At any rate, there didn’t seem to be any immediate threat remaining, and so the two Mavericks congratulated the man who’d manned the SAM battery and went over to talk to the gray Reploid who’d manned the antiaircraft gun.

They were very surprised to see Mortar standing in the middle of the catwalk leading to the gray Maverick’s position.

Byte stiffened, but Bit didn’t move. Mortar didn’t seem to notice them. Neither Maverick had heard the old Reploid coming, because quite frankly Mortar didn’t seem all that old anymore. The newest, most subtle member of The Team had gone years without any fine-tuning, repairs, or oiling. When Malevex had brought him to Seraph Castle, however, Mortar had decided it was safe enough to undergo a bit of a renovation. It couldn’t really be called that, though, Bit decided. Mortar had refused to allow newer, better parts to replace the ones he’d been given at birth. He claimed that he did just fine with what he had, thank you very much, and would gladly challenge and defeat any of the new-fangled machines that walked the streets nowadays. Though Bit didn’t know it, Gredam, Malevex, and Teytha held the same attitudes about upgrades. It was mostly because of their pride in past achievements, Bit knew, but given their pasts, why would they want to be reminded of their past achievements?

Well, it didn’t matter that much to the smaller member of Dr. Doppler’s former security partnership. Mortar no longer creaked when he moved, something he did much faster now, and while he always appeared to be methodical and deep in thought, he had the reflexes and the cunning of a fox, something he’d proven time and time again in Seraph Castle’s training room. Now, the Maverick chieftain stared out towards Revolver’s hidden garage, doubtlessly trying to locate the small, burning fragments of Raven 12. His face was neutral and impassive, as usual, and Bit and Byte suddenly felt their previous nervousness returning. They hadn’t had clearance to launch those SAMs. But there hadn’t been time for clearance, they could argue. They had been forced to act fast. Still, Gredam and Byte had no particular love for each other, and Bit didn’t know Gredam well enough to be able to guess if his new commander would use any opportunity available to burn Byte and get him out of his hair. That’s what Sigma would have done, Bit realized, but just how like Sigma was Gredam?

Regardless of his feelings towards Gredam, however, Byte didn’t mind Mortar all that much. The old guy was always watching the officers with an interested expression, as though he were learning from what his underlings were saying. Byte figured that Mortar probably knew everything that he did, and had probably executed many of Byte’s strategies himself in the past, but at least Mortar made the effort to avoid patronizing his officers, and that was something Byte could respect. Still, this didn’t stop him from being nervous. Mortar didn’t look pissed, but then, he never did. Oh well, Byte thought, nothing to do now.

Mortar finally frowned, switching his gaze towards the gray Maverick and the gun he manned. His eyes picked out one of Storm Eagle’s sky eyes moving about in the gray clouds, and he mentally reminded himself that he’d have to stop their random movement. Then he turned to Bit and Byte, looking briefly past them to the SAM battery.

Both officers froze somewhat. One other thing they didn’t know much about was Mortar’s disposition towards violence. Sure, the man was an old killer, but they didn’t know whether or not he hated that fact. After all, he’d sort of come to Seraph Castle as a last resort, lest he be taken into custody by Zero. However, as it turned out their worries didn’t amount to much, as Mortar was going through one of his colder moments.

“Nice shot,” Mortar said simply to Bit and Byte. Then he turned on his heel and reentered the compound, not even glancing back.

Both security officers let out a long breath. “I told you,” Byte chuckled. “I told you that old guy was gonna be cool.”

“Let’s not push it,” Bit tried to be assertive, but he couldn’t stop his own relief from tainting his words. “He might not be in such an anti-Hunter mood the next time.”

“Right,” Byte said with a grin. “But I doubt it. ‘Next time’ will be when all kinds of bullets are flying everywhere, and you know it.” His laughter developed into a rumble. “I doubt that any of us will be in a pro-Hunter mood.”

Bit allowed him that. He stared out towards the mountains for a few seconds before turning to commend the gray gunner, and followed Mortar inside the compound. It had been a hectic night, he decided, and he had a lot of follow up security measures to take. After that he would go to bed, he promised himself. He’d have to be very alert soon, he knew. He’d have to get all the rest he could.