Chapter Seven: Midnight Mission Grizzly Slash let out a heavy sigh, his massive shoulders drooping under the weight of his mental burden. A slight but steady rain was falling, splattering onto Grizzly’s armor and making almost musical metallic pitters and patters. The arms dealer’s eyes were frantically searching the 12th district quarry for any sign of activity. All the workers had gone home already. Grizzly had just told the supervisor that he was new on the night security shift, and had encountered no problems about remaining in the quarry after hours. No one asked; no one cared. Grizzly really wished they had cared. He would trade his left arm-which was a pretty big arm, mind you-to stop this night from happening. Because, if what he feared was true, he may lose a lot more than an arm. Sigma had contacted his old friend Grizzly Slash earlier in the day and asked him to be among the stones and mining equipment of the 12th district quarry that night, which he now was. Grizzly hadn’t refused; it was not often that one refused Sigma. The Maverick Grand Commander had seemed pretty cordial when they had spoken via Grizzly’s wirephone, and showed no sign of warning or insinuation. He just wanted to buy something. But, since Commander Sigma didn’t often just drop by to buy something, Grizzly thought it was slightly more important. Could it be that Sigma had found out that he, Grizzly, had provided the Maverick Hunters with the information needed to tie the Seraph Corporation to the Mavericks? If so, Grizzly was dead. He knew that, of course. If not, and Sigma was totally oblivious, as he should be, Grizzly reflected hopefully, then he would get out of this without a scratch. He reminded himself that he couldn’t look too nervous or guilty. Sigma shouldn’t have any reason to suspect him, unless the bastard Hunters had called him up and told him personally, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. In fact, Sigma may not even know that the Hunters knew where his base was! Yes, that was it! There was no way he could know. Still, Grizzly was pretty nervous. The large, imposing bear linked his hands behind his head in a gesture that relaxed him, but looked utterly ridiculous, because one of Grizzly’s hands was a typical five fingered hand, and the other had five long, massive claws. He never cut himself with the claws, but he was still always careful. He heard a noise, a shrill beep. He snatched up a small device that looked almost like a handheld TV screen, but was in fact a portable radar. He’d set up the radar system around the quarry, so it’d alert him when someone showed up. He saw many blips, and with each of them came another shrill beep. Grizzly sucked in a very deep breath-the Mavericks had come. Gredam walked with Sigma, both strolling into the quarry with precise military strides. Sigma was faster, having a greater stride, but Gredam kept up nicely, not winded in the least. In front of them were three of the soldiers they’d brought with them. All of the new recruits had been trained personally by Malevex, Teytha, and Gredam, and so knew a lot about covert ops. The soldiers Sigma brought with him tonight were all elites, the best of the new training program. Behind the two leaders were the inseparable Bit and Byte, two other high-ranking Mavericks who were brutally efficient at the jobs they did. Bit and Byte led the mass of ten other elites, who made up most of the security detail, and behind even them, Malevex and Teytha were bringing up the rear, whispering quietly. “I hate this,” Malevex said for the fortieth time that night. “You worry two much,” Teytha countered blandly, also for the fortieth time. He shrugged. “Someone has to.” He scanned the entire surrounding area nervously, as though he expected something to leap out at them at any minute. “Okay,” Teytha said at last, “Now you’re just being paranoid.” “Why shouldn’t I? We’re waltzing around Hunter territory with the leader of the Mavericks among us, and we’re moving in this big mass.” He shook his head in disgust. “Look at the size of this group! Can we say ‘conspicuous target’ boys and girls?” “We’re fine,” Teytha insisted, “Even if someone did come at us, there’s too many of us here for them to beat. We’d be on them in a flash.” “Hmph…” He drifted back into silence, absently fiddling with the settings on the large, sleek sniper rifle he was carefully carrying. The Maverick was fairly well armed. In addition to the rifle, he wore a tight metal belt with enough slots and holsters for his preferred arsenal. In the holster near his left hip there was a gold crested lightsaber, one of his most prized possessions. He was pretty skilled in its usage, though he generally only used it when he had to. In the right holster was a big pistol that fired very powerful lasers that were capable of doing lethal damage to an unarmored human and very serious damage to Reploids. It was standard issue among the Mavericks, and while not as powerful as Malevex’s sniper rifle, it was a very trusty weapon. He only made use of one of the slots on his belt for accessories, filling it with a spare battery cartridge for his guns. Teytha, on the other hand, wasn’t very fond of long-range weapons, though she did keep a machine pistol in her own holster. The blasts from this gun weren’t extremely strong, but they came in such a torrent that they generally proved to be quite a problem for whoever was hit. In the other holster she too carried a lightsaber. It was a sub issue weapon, and her swordsmanship was excellent. That wasn’t it, though. On her back, fastened into a slot built into her armor, was a second lightsaber, this one with a striking blue handle and silver trim; Teytha was able to use two lightsabers efficiently at the same time. As if that wasn’t enough, the lithe assassin also had two energy daggers fitted into the spare slots on her belt. Gredam, way up ahead of them, was a one-man army. He carried a very powerful, very expensive assault rifle that doubled as a grenade launcher, though the grenade ammo was always sparse. He carried his own pistol and had several of the fragmentation grenades that their group had been supplied with. His really deadly weapon was not something he carried, though; it was built in. The armor around his broad shoulders could slide back and reveal launchers that could send a widespread volley of heat seeking missiles flying around. Gredam didn’t like to use this attack method, though, because he hated reloading his launchers. The soldiers accompanying them all carried an energy knife and a pistol as side arms and used a standard assault rifle as a main weapon. They each had two frag grenades to use if they had to. Bit and Byte used their built in weapons, like most Maverick bosses tended to, Bit’s being a variety of energy attacks from the gem on his forehead and Byte’s being a whole lot of land mines. Sigma himself just carried his lightsaber, since he wasn’t planning on doing much fighting, and he wasn’t much good with the handheld firearms, anyway. The group came to an abrupt halt when Sigma and Gredam caught sight of their target. Grizzly Slash’s clawed hand flashed an “all clear” signal, and the Maverick group broke up. Sigma, Bit, Byte, and a cluster of the elites went towards Grizzly, while Gredam went back to his two comrades. The rest of the elites spread out along the perimeter of the quarry as rehearsed, awaiting further orders. “Practiced defense strategy still stands,” Gredam declared, “We’ll seed the entrances with remote mines. Some of these guys have the specific job of mining the place…Byte will help with that. Malevex, you find yourself a sniper nest and be ready.” Malevex nodded simply, glancing at his weapon. “Teytha, you make sure the troops are in the right positions to both defend Sigma and ward off Hunter attack, then get towards the back of the quarry.” Teytha nodded in turn, and Gredam surveyed the quarry one more time. “I think we’re ready,” he finished, and that got nods from everybody. Douglas stared blankly at the computer screen for a minute before sitting bolt upright in his chair and beckoning to Archer. “We got company here, pal.” “What’s that?” Archer asked curiously. He wheeled his chair over to where Douglas was sitting and beheld the live image of the 12th district quarry. “Lots of Reploids heading in through the east side,” Douglas explained, pointing towards the little blob of huddled figures on the screen, “Quite a few of the buggers. Dunno what they could be up to so late at night, but…Grizzly Slash is still there, and from the looks of things…” Douglas zoomed in once again on Grizzly, who appeared to be trying to compose himself for something. “He’s still pretty nervous.” Archer nodded, looking back towards the group of Reploids. “Can you center in on them?” Douglas nodded, and sent a message through the computer. Up in outer space, a satellite twitched ever so slightly and its camera focused in on the Reploid group. The Hunters had finally gotten a satellite into the air, and used it mainly for reconnaissance purposes such as this. It was hell for the Mavericks to find a place where the Hunters couldn’t spy on them, but of course, they didn’t know that the Hunters knew where they would be. Without Archer’s information, the Hunters would never have known about the meeting in the 12th district quarry. “My god…” Archer breathed, looking directly at the tallest member of the Reploid group. He stood a few heads above most of the others, and was adorned in emerald armor and a flowing red cape. It was indeed Sigma, and he resembled his original form more than ever this time. “Sigma!” Douglas exploded, “Sigma’s at the 12th district quarry!” He whirled to face Archer, his face a mask of shock. “How did you know?” “It doesn’t matter,” Archer insisted, pulling away from the computer screen, “Let’s get Signas in here to see this, and in the mean time find X and Zero.” “Zero’s at a bar. Heaven’s Gates, downtown.” “I know the place. I’ll get someone sent down there right away, right after I send Signas down here. Meantime, I’ll ready as many Units as I can, 0 and 17 included.” Archer took off out of the room and down the hall towards Signas’s office. He’d known something big was going to happen, and quite frankly, he hated it when he was right. Vulcan was just about to hit the hay when Rykov came knocking on his door. “Vulcan!” he said fairly quietly as he walked in, “Get suited up with armor and your best weapons. We’ve got a mission!” Vulcan just stared from the desk where he’d been sorting out some of his personal files. “What?” “A mission,” Rykov repeated. “Our unit and several others are assembling in the Briefing Room. Looks like a big one.” He glanced at the clock, insinuatingly, and then back at Vulcan. “Get down there fast.” Vulcan frowned and nodded, letting Rykov take his leave. The Hunter sat there for a few seconds before actually starting to prepare. He hadn’t been on an actual mission yet, and the very pinnacle of a newbie’s life was The First Mission. However, the way Rykov had called this “a big one” didn’t settle well in Vulcan’s stomach. He took his standard armor, a glittering suit of silver with jet-black trimmings, and dressed in full before leaving. He personally thought he looked unimpressive, though Krysta continually remarked that she thought he looked damn good in uniform. He didn’t quite know what she meant, and he also didn’t care enough to ask. As far as weapons, he just hoped that they’d give him something before they left, since all he owned personally was his lightsaber, a standard but sturdy model with a bronze hilt and a jade green blade, and the Hunters didn’t issue weapons to their soldiers for them to personally keep. All weapons that were property of the Headquarters were, while assigned to their respective users, kept in training rooms. Vulcan’s unit had yet to be supplied with permanent weapons, so he just headed down towards the Briefing Room, where he found Rykov and Krysta among the mass of assembled Hunters. “Told ya it was big,” Rykov said simply, motioning around the room. Vulcan examined the different units present. His entire Unit had assembled, but Commander Archer was notably missing. Nearby he saw Harrier and Scythe looking cocky and neutral, respectively. Their Unit 7, led by Commander Mason, was also assembled in full. What surprised Vulcan to no end, and told him just how important this mission was, was the sight of some members of Unit 17. Then X himself came into the room with Grand Commander Signas, Chief Mechanic Douglas, and Commander Archer. Commander Mason quickly went to join them, and they moved off to a corner of the room where they could speak privately. “My god,” Krysta breathed, “We’ve got all the top Hunters collaborating on this one? What’s going on?” “Beats me…” Vulcan replied, trying to think to himself what could be happening. Perhaps another assassination? Had someone been killed, or was there some hostage crisis? Whatever it was it was big enough for all these Hunters…Rykov and Krysta realized the same thing. Harrier walked over to the group shortly after, his eyes ablaze with anticipation. “Can you guys believe it?” the sapphire Reploid began as soon as he reached them, “Our first mission is big enough that we’re going with the best Hunters on the force!” “It is something,” Rykov agreed, trying to share Harrier’s enthusiasm, but not having much luck. “Just think,” Harrier pressed, “Other Units get sent to yank cats out of trees or to stop a Maverick from robbing a grocery store, or something stupid like that.” He extended his arms to include everyone in the room. “We, on the other hand, are like part of some invasion force!” On his face was a general longing for the battle he thought would come. Harrier lived for action, and though he’d never actually partaken in serious combat, he was quite confident he could not only take whatever was coming head on, but that he would enjoy every minute of it. Vulcan absorbed this with mixed emotions, opening his eyes to a new possibility. If there were that many Hunters going on this mission, then that meant it was probably dangerous. He glanced at Rykov and Krysta, wondering if they or anyone else in this room would possibly not return. Harrier, however, wasn’t worried about it. He wished them good luck and returned to join the others in his Unit. Shortly after, Signas walked up to a podium at the center of the room, X and the other commanders sitting behind him. The other Hunters quieted down and took seats where they could find them. “As you might have gathered from the lateness of the hour and the amount of you here,” Signas began, “We have a serious situation to handle. Units 3, 7, and 17 will proceed to the 12th district quarry, where they will rendezvous with Unit 0.” “Unit 0?” Rykov, Vulcan, and Krysta mouthed to each other at the same time, each with a look of shock on their face and a growing sense of fear. Units 17 and 0…now it could be really dangerous. “You will be stopping a Maverick disturbance,” Signas went on, “I won’t say much else, but your commanders will be filling you in as you get there. Do exactly what they tell you to do. There’s not much time, so I wish you luck. Godspeed.” With that simple speech, Signas descended from the podium and the Units began to congregate. “Come on,” Archer said as soon as he had his group together, “We’re going to the garage. Douglas has transports prepared for us. I’ll tell you everything on the way. Don’t worry about weapons; we’ve got plenty for you. I know you’re a little confused, but just deal with it for now.” He turned and started towards the garage before anyone could ask him a question, but that was ok, because no one would have anyway. All Vornozeh could say was, they weren’t drunk. Whenever Zero’s crew came by his bar, they always got pretty hammered, but tonight they’d been fairly judicious about their alcohol consumption. The bartender had finally decided it was time to close up for the night and was kicking Unit 0 out when the messenger arrived. Zero went to talk to him right away…a guy as nervous as that messenger was not someone to ignore. Vornozeh could actually see the commander’s face go blank for a few seconds. Something was up. “Thanks,” Zero said to the messenger, scratching his head absently. He turned to face his curious unit. “Come on, guys. We’ve got a BIG mission to complete, down at the 12th district quarry.” That was all it took for the gang to throw down whatever they were doing and file quickly outside to the transports they had taken to Heaven’s Gates. Sol commented about having left their weapons back at the base, but the messenger insisted that they would have weapons for the Unit at the quarry. “What’s up?” said Vornozeh without opening his mouth. His eyes said it all. So did Zero’s, but he spoke anyway. “We’re off to kill Sigma, Vorno. Wish us luck.” Vornozeh blinked. “Good thing you guys aren’t hammered.” “Good to see you’re still alive,” Sigma said offhandedly while taking a luxurious stretch. “Four wars can be pretty hard to survive, eh?” Grizzly Slash shrugged uneasily. “I never did much fighting…else I’m sure I’d be out of the picture by now.” Behind Sigma, his four elite guards were glancing nervously from side to side. Grizzly had chosen a good place for the meeting, a place that was pretty much concealed from view if you were on the outside of the quarry. The Hunters would actually have to invade in order to take any of them out, but they worried also about some of their friends who were working the perimeter. If the Hunters came, their friends would be the first to go. Bit, however, put on a show of faux nonchalance. Though he too was nervous, he’d never let these underlings see it. He, like his fellow Maverick Bosses, was often seen as a figure of authority. He’d never let a display of weakness tarnish that authority. His comrade Byte was currently aiding in setting mines along the perimeter near possible entry points. If nothing happened, Byte could deactivate them and remove them for use later. They had debated simply leaving the mines to blow up the workers the next day, but at this point they didn’t really want to draw any major attention to themselves. For all their power, the Hunters were very lazy unless their enemies displayed a sufficient show of power, and they weren’t ready to do that quite yet. “God,” Sigma went on, “I’d forgotten what it was like to roam the city. I haven’t been outside of a base in years.” “Well, that’s understandable…” “Something wrong, Grizzly? You look very nervous.” Grizzly swore violently inside his head. He’d been trying to keep calm, but even though Sigma had said absolutely nothing about Grizzly’s sellout, that still didn’t mean he didn’t know. But at least he had an excuse ready. “Not really. Just kinda weird meeting with you out in the open like this.” Sigma nodded reply. “Like I said, it’s been too long since I’ve seen the great outdoors, so to speak. So this is kind of like a little field trip for me. But I guess the longer we stand out here, the more chance we have of being brutally murdered, am I right?” Grizzly nodded to imply that Sigma was very right. “All right then.” Sigma smiled inwardly. Though he was really trying to control his more maniacal urges lately, he still took pleasure in seeing fear on people’s faces. Fear meant respect, and the nervous look on Grizzly’s face conveyed both fear and respect for Sigma’s place as the Maverick Commander, and as such the world’s major enemy. Fear gave him the control he needed over people to get them to do what he needed them to do in order to achieve his goal, which again was to rid Megacity 5 of all human life. While he’d debated going after other cities where X and Zero would have a harder time getting to him, that approach had never worked in the past, and so he’d decided to take the battle directly to them. If they somehow found out that the Mavericks had made it to this quarry, the fear from their side would be paramount: If the Mavericks could get HERE, why not in Hunter Headquarters? Actually, Sigma reminded himself, they WERE in Hunter Headquarters. “So,” Grizzly’s voice conveyed urgency for haste, “You said you wanted to buy something?” “Yes,” Sigma nodded, “I actually intend to pay for it, too. Can you believe that?” “Well, uh…” Grizzly fidgeted, knowing that he’d better be damn lenient about when and what Sigma would pay him, “There’s no rush, or anything…” “Oh, my dear Grizzly,” Sigma waved him off, “Treat me as you would any other customer. You want cash, I know. What I want from you is pretty valuable, so I can understand the need to compensate you for it.” If Sigma knew about Grizzly’s betrayal, then “compensation” would probably mean Sigma’s saber rammed through his heart. But he had to look on the bright side, right? “What is it you want, exactly?” “It’s a generator. More specifically…ah, I forget. Bit?” “It’s the CX-M991, sir,” Bit reminded his commander. “Ah yes, the CX-M991. Do you still have any left?” Grizzly scratched his chin in thought, using the massive claws on his bladed arm. “I think so. They were a bit too big and expensive to really be popular, so I never sold out…I don’t have one WITH me, of course, but I’ll probably have something at my shop.” “Excellent!” Sigma smiled broadly. “When can I send someone to get it?” “Probably tomorrow, if you want.” Grizzly wanted Sigma out of his hair as soon as possible. “Tomorrow, eh? So soon? Well who am I to complain.” Then came the process of finding a price. Grizzly was more than prepared to sell it dirt cheap-anything to get the hell out of there-but Sigma made him a very generous offer that he wound up quickly accepting. While these two haggled, the other members of the security detail were having discussions of their own. Byte lumbered towards Gredam with an exhausted look on his face. The huge Reploid brute looked more annoyed than Gredam had ever seen him, which said a lot, considering Byte was always annoyed about something or someone. In this case it was Gredam, who was showing Byte up as a slightly superior member of the Maverick army, and forcing him to do things like this, which he viewed as pointless. “The mines are set,” Byte stated in a voice with enough venom in it to be toxic, “So, oh great leader, what do we do now?” “Wait,” Gredam said simply, continuing to fiddle with the handheld radio he used to keep in touch with the others. He never allowed himself to become unnerved by ass holes like Byte. “Wait,” repeated Byte with an exasperated drooping of shoulders, “Wait, wait, wait. We go through all that crap to set up for an offensive force that we have no reason to believe is coming, and then we have to take it all apart before we leave. It’s all pointless!” “Is it?” Gredam murmured, not really paying attention but knowing what Byte was saying to him because of simple repetition; Byte always said the same thing, only in different phrases. “We need to be prepared for everything. The time we drop our guard will be the time they come to get us.” He couldn’t help himself. “Didn’t you learn ANYTHING from Doppler?” Byte’s face twitched in momentary outrage, and he clenched his fists so tight that he put permanent imprints in his own palms. Dr. Doppler was his most revered idol. He and Bit considered themselves to be the finest students their master had ever trained, and since Doppler was a noted genius, the remark left an extremely acidic taste in Byte’s mouth. He grunted something and lumbered past Gredam towards Bit and Sigma. Almost immediately afterward, Gredam’s radio buzzed with the voice of one of his soldiers. “Go on,” he started. “Sir,” the soldier reported, “We’ve sighted what may be a Hunter convoy. A sufficient amount of traffic was reported to the north of the quarry, and a lot of it parked at the same spot. It’s a knoll by the old chemical plant.” “Good eye,” Gredam said as he glanced up to where he knew Malevex was perched. If anyone made it into the quarry, he was quite sure Malevex would eliminate them quite quickly, and if he missed or there were too many of them for him to get, they had enough backup on their side. “Keep me informed. I’m gonna put all our forces on alert. If they start to advance, let me know.” He smirked at the retreating form of Byte. “I hate to say I told you so, big guy, but…” Vulcan, Rykov, and Krysta sat quietly among their comrades as their transport crept towards their still unknown destination. Archer hadn’t forbidden conversation, but everyone sort of knew that this wasn’t a time for much chitchat. Besides, though everyone had a lot on their mind that they’d like to say, they had no idea how to say it, especially since they didn’t have much idea at all of what they were doing tonight. Archer’s voice penetrated the seemingly eternal silence like a massive thunderclap, though he didn’t raise his voice any at all. “Raust, Gamma, Gustav, and Torque,” he began without fanfare, “will meet with Sol and Delates of Unit 0. You will follow their orders and those of Commander Zero and myself to a T during the operation. You will be forming an advance squad that will serve as our first wave of attack. Vulcan, you will go with them, but you will proceed directly there instead of meeting with Sol and Delates. Your skills with distance rifles are better than average, so you will receive an assault rifle with an enhanced scope. You will serve as a sniper for a while, and if things get really nasty just help everyone else mow the enemy down.” The mood grew decidedly grimmer. Archer hadn’t exactly said it, but he’d as much as told them all there would be a major battle coming up. “Krysta, you’ll be doing some brief reconnaissance with Alia of Unit 17. Meet with her when we stop, and she’ll tell you what to do. From then on just assist your comrades. Rykov, Hawkins, and Kyre will work with the heavy firepower. We’ll be relying on you to do a lot of the damage.” The soldiers were quiet, expecting Archer to go on and tell them about the mission itself, but their leader kept silent for the rest of the trip, leaving them all in uneasy confusion. But if they might die, as was what seemed to be insinuated, they might as well try to enjoy their last moments. Conversation broke out in quiet tones throughout the transport, and Archer didn’t speak up against it. Some, like Rykov, kept quiet anyway, but Krysta took the opportunity to quietly address the look she read on Vulcan’s face. “You look different.” His eyebrow rose. “Excuse me?” “Yeah.” She smiled slightly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this nervous.” “Well,” he replied, “This isn’t exactly happy hour, you know. There’s gonna be some killing in a few minutes.” She shrugged. “Didn’t expect you to blanch like you did is all. You’re a decent sniper, you know…you don’t have much to worry about.” He shrugged in turn. “True. I hide in a nest while others run around out in the open.” “I didn’t mean it like that…” “I know.” He smiled uneasily. “I guess even though we all trained for this stuff, the real thing is so much different than I thought it would be.” She snorted. “The real thing is usually a lot simpler for us first timers. I don’t know what the problem is or why they need so many units, but whatever it is…” She rested a hand on his knee. “Try to stay alive, all right?” He smiled and patted her hand; the equivalent of a handshake in this confined space. “I will if you will.” They both nodded, and then there was suddenly nothing left to say. In fact, most of the light conversation died down until finally the transports stopped moving. Archer stood without great haste and surveyed the troops in his vehicle, finally nodding once. “Our mission is to invade the 12th district quarry and kill Sigma and his soldiers. You have your orders. Maverick Hunters, commence operations.”