Inside Deutschland, Hans had made his way over to Mike's VT and sat down in the open hand if the kneeling mecha. Mike climbed down from the cockpit and joined Hans, pouring out a cup of coffee from a small thermos and offering it to Hans.
Both men drank quietly until Mike finally broke the silence, "So, what state do you think the troops are in?"
Hans gave a slight shrug, "They're ready, most of them are eager for action again, Tom, Steve, Patrick, David. With Kelli its hard to tell, she's an ice cube no matter what's happening. Ann too, she complains so much I don't know what she's thinking, but I think they¹re ready. Wendy is a bit nervous, which is understandable, this being her first action. I really think we should keep an eye on David though, I overheard him commenting about some Zentraedi pilots on the Knights, didn't like the sound of it."
Mike frowned, "Not sure I understand his xenophobia, he was fine until the battlegroup was posted here. I'll keep him in the middle of the formation somewhere, no telling what he could do in the heat of battle. Anything else I should be aware of?"
Hans sipped more of his drink, "I'm concerned about my Cycloners' ammunition. We're carrying all we can on us and in the cargo boxes but if the fighting gets heavy we may not have time to even reload."
Mike thought for a moment, "I'd like your troops to run point but if it gets to be a problem, let me know and I'll have the VT's give you the cover you need to reload." He raised the thermos, "More coffee?"
Bismarck drew to within one hundred miles of the Factory and released the Horizont shuttle, accompanied by Pfc. Patrick McCrimmon in his Beta VT fighter. The huge Beta, too large to fit inside the bunkers, carried the team's supplies and extra Cyclones in its cargo bay. Slowly, Deutschland made its approach and opened the bunkers when it was five miles from the outer construction pods of the factory. First to leave were the cycloners. Hans and Tom led the way; Gallant H-90s ready for any opposition. Kelli and Steve followed carrying a box of cobalt limpet magnetic mines. The Beta transformed to Battloid and floated next to the Horizont while it unloaded. Carefully, the smaller Alpha and Hovertank Battloids and REF Gladiator pushed the large, older RDF Excalibur and the Armored VT from the bunkers. Once clear of the bunkers, the Destroids engaged their thruster packs and jetted toward the factory.
Hans and Tom moved quickly over the surface of the factory, strategically placing limpet mines on the airlock hatch. The other mecha held up a half mile away to cover the cyclones and stay clear of the blast.
"All set, Tom?" Hans asked as he placed his last mine.
"This is the last one, Sarge. All right, I'm set. Thirty seconds and counting." Both men rode their thrusters back to the rest of the team and waited for the explosion.
Mike waited patiently, and then gave the order to move in when the brief, brilliant flash tore a forty foot hole in the airlock hatch. Hans was first in followed closely by the other Cyclones; all prepared for an immediate confrontation. The Battloids entered and prepared to repulse attackers as well. Wendy in her Gladiator and David in his Excalibur entered last. Mike walked his VT up to the airlock door and activated the controls to enter the inner airlock. The inner airlock depressurized and opened slowly. Waiting inside the second airlock was a heavy work drone, a multi-limbed machine three times the size of the Excalibur.
"GET BACK! Everyone get out of its way!" Mike shouted over the tactical net. Everyone backed off and opened a path for the drone. It moved through the team without taking the least bit of interest in them.
"Into the airlock, NOW!" Mike yelled, keeping the drone covered with his GAU-20 gun pod while the rest of the team entered the inner airlock. He entered last, closed the door and began the pressurization process.
"Hans, have your troops reconfigure to cycle mode and load your saddle bags. Robert, Ann, get the jet packs off the Destroids. Patrick, monitor the command channel, let me know if anything happens with the other teams. As soon as we're ready I want to make a quick recon before we start drawing attention to ourselves. I want to know what we¹re dealing with here."
At the Black and Yellow Team entry points, similar scenes took place. Cycloners attached cobalt limpet mines to the hull of the factory and blew openings large enough to get the VTs in. Black team was composed of two Cyclones, an Alpha, a Hovertank, an REF Excalibur, and the field scientist and his Cyclone. Yellow team had two Cyclones, an Alpha, a Beta, a VF-1A Veritech, and the field scientist. Both teams entered the factory easily enough, getting out might prove to be the hard part.
The Black Arrows had just entered when a heavy work drone arrived and moved toward the jagged hole. At first it didn't register the tiny obstruction in front of it.
"Move! Move!" Captain Sorin called to the Cycloner sitting in the drone's path.
The Cycloner, still in Cyclone Battloid mode, was frozen in his tracks by the monstrous robot looming over him. The teenage soldier panicked and, raising both arms, unleashed four Scorpion missiles at the monstrosity. All four missiles struck, shearing off several of the drone's lesser appendages and damaging some of its optics. However, the drone continued on. It reached the diminutive mecha and snatched him up in the its huge mechanical claws. But the Cycloner wasn¹t through yet, he fired off all his chest mounted missiles next. The missiles impacted on the drone, severely damaging it, but not enough to make it release him. What was left of the drone's mechanical brain focused on completing its assigned task. Having no more time for the creature that had damaged it, the drone crushed the super strong Robotech armor and continued on its way. Volleys of missiles from the Alpha and Excalibur proved sufficient to crack open the droid's globular body.
"Sergeant Mueller, did your troops find anything?"
"Negative. We've checked out a large part of the Mecha Navigational Override System. Lots of machinery, several precision engineer drones and a heavy work drone, but no assault drones. How about your end, Lieutenant?"
"Robert and David found what the maps says is the Internal Defense Network. It's heavily guarded by light and heavy assault drones. Wendy and Ann have found a corridor that skirts it, I think we'll take the team down that way, towards the auxiliary command center. That ought to draw some attention our way."
"Roger, we'll be with you in two minutes. . ."
"Lieutenant!" Patrick came on the net, "Arrow Leader wants to talk to you!"
"Arrow Leader to Max Leader, come in Max Leader!" Captain Sorin called over the tac net. He leaned his Battloid mode Alpha out from the cover he had found and fired a burst from his GAU-20 gun pod at a light assault droid. His shot hit dead center and blew the small, antigrav drone to bits.
"Max Leader here, Arrow Leader."
"We've got a problem here, Max Leader. We seem to have stirred up a hornets nest of defense drones. Have you had any contact yet?"
"Negative, Arrow Leader. Do you require extraction?"
"Negative, Max Leader." He paused to fire two missiles from the Alpha's shoulder missile racks at a heavy assault drone, then quickly dodged the robot's particle beam cannon shot. The self-guiding missiles struck the robot simultaneously and blew the main body off, leaving the reverse articulated legs tottering on the deck. "Jacket Team is heading my way but they¹ve run into a squad of drones, they're attempting to disengage and link up with my team. I've lost one of my cyclones but I managed to get the Alpha and Beta from the Horizont before the hull sealed up so we should be able to hold our own. You¹re now the main team, Max Leader. Get to that fold system before the computer decides this neighborhood is too hot to stick around! Good luck Mike!"
"Good Luck, Captain! Max Leader out."
Changing back to the team's tac net, Mike started formulating his plan. "Listen up! Everyone form up on David and Ann. We'll bypass the defense network and head for the center of the factory. Arrow team is going to try to draw off some of the opposition and Jacket team is attempting a link up with the Captain, so we're it! Robert's on point, David and I are slack, then the Cyclones, then Ann and Wendy. Patrick's got the tail. Let's move!"
The team moved off quickly, knowing they didn't have much time before the computer might decide to fold away, taking them with it. It wasn't long before the computer tried to get the feel of this new team of mecha. Out of sight from the Alpha, four heavy assault drones lined up across the corridor in an ambush. As soon as Robert rounded the corner they opened up with their particle beam and laser cannons.
"Yow!" cried Robert as he dodged the first two particle beam shots. He threw his Battloid across the corridor and came up firing, striking one of the drones with a sustained burst that split it in half. Mike was quickly at Robert's side and dropped two drones with salvos of high explosive missiles from his shoulder racks. David arrived just in time to be hit by a cannon shot from the last drone. He returned the favor with a colossal blast from one of his own particle beam cannons. The shot tore through the drone and it disappeared in the resulting explosion.
"Good shooting guys." Mike said, "Any damage?"
"I took a hit in the shoulder, Lieutenant. Stinkin' droids!" The huge Destroid clumped over to Mike so he could examine the damage.
Mike whistled at what he saw. "Everyone watch out for those PBC's! All right, let's keep moving. Robert, stay a bit closer to us."
On Bismarck, General Forester was in the Combat Information Center, or "War Room" as some liked to call it, standing perfectly still watching a live video feed of the factory. Outwardly, he attempted to remain calm, a rock for the troops to rally around, but inside he was troubled, unsure.
"Anything?"
"No sir, nothing," one of the CIC crew replied.
The mecha teams had entered over thirty minutes ago, and, even though the Intel people had said that communication would be iffy at best, General Forester had expected to hear something. Then. . .
"Message from Komet sir. They've had intermittent contact with Captain Sorin. Black Team has encountered heavy resistance and taken at least one casualty. Captain Sorin also asked for Komet's Alpha and Beta before they lost contact the first time. When they entered, the Alpha pilot relayed that Black Team is now on the defensive and Blue Team is attempting to reach the fold system. Either no transmission was made regarding Yellow Team or it didn't get through."
General Forester listened in stunned silence. What had he sent those soldiers into? Sorin was in trouble; nothing on Lt. Brown's team, they might all be dead, a team of green troops now carried the brunt of the mission. He quickly arrived at a decision.
"Let me know the instant we get any indication that the factory will execute a fold. Launch Graf Zeppelin and tell Captain Hynes that he may have to go in."
"A factory with no fold system is better than no factory," he said quietly.
Blue Team quickly left the defense network behind and soon entered the drone monitoring area. Robert halted his Battloid at the doorway and waited for Mike to join him.
"What d'ya think, Lieutenant?" Robert asked, surveying the computer consoles and a multitude of other devices. A large number of drones were visible, scattered about the compartment. The rest of the team drew up as Mike considered his options.
"Hans, take your troops and Ann straight across to that far corridor, it looks like it continues this one. The Destroids will start across at the same time. The VT's will provide cover from here and follow when you're all in the corridor. Let's go!"
Kelli led the way, quickly accelerating to over 100 miles per hour. Several drones moved to intercept and were shot down by missiles from the Cyclones or gun pod shots from the VTs. A precision engineer drone appeared in the corridor they were heading for. Tom, close behind Kelli, fired off four missiles from the front faring racks. The drone spotted the attack and quickly rotated to bring its laser arm to bear. Using its sophisticated optics and sighting, the drone shot down two of the missiles, but the other two struck home. The armor piercing missiles drove through those same delicate optics into the heart of the robot, rupturing the drone's power system and touching off internal explosions. The smoking hulk fell to the deck just out of the Cyclone's path. Hans, Kelli and William reached the corridor entrance and spun to provide cover for the rest of the team. Ann, Tom and Steve continued on to intercept any other drones coming down the corridor. The Destroids plodded across the compartment, swiveling left and right, blowing away drones with particle beam, gun pod, laser and auto cannon shots and missiles. Mike saw that the huge mecha were still taking many hits despite the volume of fire they were putting out. Since the Destroids were nearly across, he ordered the Veritechs to get moving. As Robert and Patrick transformed to fighter mode and flew over the Destroids, Mike set out at a run. Oddly, the drone's fire died off and they withdrew. The Destroids crossed the last stretch unhindered, under the watchful but now silent guns of the other team members. The factory computer had decided to let them go for a time while it dealt with the mecha teams closer to the fold system, as well as hitting one of the shuttles outside.
Lieutenant Brown was at the tail end of his team as they attempted to link up with Arrow team. Things had been conspicuously quiet for the last five minutes and Lt. Brown was worrying about a trap of some sort. He was walking his Battloid mode Alpha backwards to watch the rear, leaving the rest of his team to cover the front. The Cyclones had the lead, picking the way, followed closely by the VF-1A and the field scientist on his Cyclone. The Beta was farther back, not to provide too lucrative a target for a volley of high explosive missiles.
Lt. Brown was about to voice his concern of a trap when he suddenly backed into something solid. Half expecting to find the Beta there, he was truly surprised to see a wall in front of him. He looked left and right for another corridor but only saw more walls. This wasn't what he had had in mind for a trap, but that's what it was. He called to his Sergeant on the tac net, who responded quickly. He grew more perplexed when she reported that they were under attack from a small force of light assault drones. Why cut off one mecha from the others and then attack the larger group? Unless . . . He had just started to turn around when his Alpha staggered forward under the hammer blows of sixty laser blasts. Brown turned quickly to face off with twenty light assault drones. He opened up with his gun pod, dropping three of the floating robots. In a moment four more were down and two others damaged by armor piercing missiles from his leg racks. But hopes for a quick end to the battle were dashed when a quartet of heavy laser turrets popped out of hidden compartments in the walls. Calling for support, Brown started firing at the laser turrets that were trying to shoot his legs off. He exhausted his armor piercing missiles and continued firing with high explosive and plasma missiles from the arm and shoulder racks. He was putting out an immense amount of firepower but his mecha was taking a terrible beating and the legs were starting to buckle. One by one the turrets were falling silent but six heavy assault drones showed up to keep the pressure on.
The Alpha's left leg finally gave out and the twenty-eight foot tall mecha toppled over. Brown struggled to right himself, levering the Battloid onto its left arm so he could fire. A final massive volley of his remaining missiles took out the last turret and remaining light assault drones along with one of the heavy drones. But before he could target the others with his gun pod, his mecha took four huge particle beam shots to the chest. In the cockpit, Brown was showered with sparks and blinded by smoke as systems overloaded and failed. The drones didn't stop pumping cannon shots into the fallen Battloid until the containment hatch blew apart and a Beta Battloid stepped through. Sergeant Wilkins leapt her Battloid over the inert Alpha and showered the remaining drones with missiles. She took in the carnage in front of her and then turned to the Alpha. She was too late and she knew it, the Lieutenant's dying cries fresh in her mind. She stood over the smoking ruin impassively, there would be time enough to mourn the dead later, right now she was Jacket Leader and there was a job to do or they might all suffer the lieutenant's fate. Wilkins hurried off to catch up with the rest of Yellow team.
Nothing exciting had happened since dropping their load of mecha and the pilot of the REF Horizont Komet was getting bored. Lieutenant Buchanan listened to the chit chat of the bridge crew but wished she was on the factory, flying an Alpha into battle. An alarm sounded behind her and the chit chat died instantly. "Lieutenant, we're being scanned by the factory."
Buchanan immediately radioed to the Prinz Eugen. "We're being scanned by the factory, Colonel. We're attempting to pinpoint the source."
Colonel Douglas Shaw, captain of Prinz Eugen, turned to his Executive Officer with a puzzled frown. "Why would the factory be scanning them? Factories don't carry anti-ship missiles, do they? Keep this channel open Lieutenant, be ready to pull back if...."
Prinz Eugen's XO studied the results of the their scans of the factory and stepped back, surprise written across his face.
Buchanan's panicked voice came over the comm channel, "Its' locked on to us, Colonel!"
The XO spun and yelled, "Get out of there, Komet!!"
"VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! Missiles launched!" The radar operator called. Over the open channel, Prinz Eugen¹s bridge crew heard Komet's radar operator make the same pronouncement.
A dozen missiles raced out from the factory at Komet. Buchanan ordered full power and aimed the shuttle right at the missiles, pulling up and over them and going into a vertical (relative to the factory) booster climb. The co-pilot hit the bunker release and both bunkers floated away from the shuttle. One missile struck a bunker, blowing an end off, the rest arced out and up to follow the shuttle into its climb.
"Identify!" Shaw snapped.
A tech consulted the computer and answered, "Zentraedi, medium range, armor piercing warhead, RDF designation: 'SwordFish.'"
"What?!? That can't be! Factories doesn't have anti-ship missiles!" Shaw protested.
"This one does." The XO turned to the Weapons Officer, "What's the fastest missile we're carrying?"
"Sea Sprint Proton Torpedoes." The WO answered quickly.
"Target those missiles and fire!" Eleven Sea Sprints sped away from the Garfish on intercept courses. The XO glanced at Shaw, who was staring at the factory in shock. "Comm, contact Bismarck and give them the details of what's happening. Radar, give me a range report between our missiles and the Swordfish and the Swordfish to the shuttle every twenty seconds."
"Ninety miles, 3.1 miles." The radar operator sang out.
"They won't make it." The WO said quietly.
"If Buchanan can evade them for long enough they might."
Behind them, Shaw had withdrawn into his own world, saying over and over, "this can't be happening, this is my first combat command..."
"Seventy-five miles, 2.5 miles."
"It's gonna be close." The XO said.
"Sixty miles, 1.9 miles"
The shuttle was a distant spot with twenty-two flames chasing it down.
"Forty-five miles, 1.4 miles."
"One SwordFish is dropping behind, possibly a mechanical fault." The radar operator said. "Thirty miles, 0.9 miles. Komet's pulling away a bit." A panel light starting blinking for attention. "Missile lock! VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! Missiles inbound! Count twelve! 98 seconds to impact!"
"We have a fire solution for the missile turrets on the factory," the WO said.
"Identify. Lock lasers and fire when in range! Continue firing until all missiles are accounted for! Contact Bismarck, request permission to target those missile turrets." The heavy, tri-barreled laser cannon locked onto the inbound missiles.
"Fifteen miles, 0.5 miles. Seventy-eight seconds to impact on us, range 77 miles."
"Second volley, Zentraedi, long range, reflex warhead, RDF designation: 'TigerShark.'"
The lagging SwordFish was struck by the lead Sea Sprint, lighting up the heavens. The detonation exploded two more Sea Sprints and damaged a third. The XO and the WO watched the radar (neither of them could bear to watch the visuals) as the first four SwordFish merged with the Horizont and detonated. Four missiles in the rear were hit by the rapidly closing Sea Sprints. The remaining two missed the shuttle on the first go round and turned to try again with a few Sea Sprints in hot pursuit.
Komet was passing Mach 7.5 when the first missile hit the upper right engine nacelle, causing a rapid loss in power. Buchanan did everything she could to keep control but matters were quickly beyond anyone's control. The next two SwordFish blew the left wing off, drastically shifting the shuttle's balance and throwing it side on to the rest of the salvo. The long thin neck of the Horizont was severed by the fourth SwordFish, the Sea Sprint following the SwordFish hitting the cockpit. All four bridge crew members died in the explosion. The engine compartment was ravaged and torn apart by the last of the volley of enemy missiles and Sea Sprints; the last crewmen died there.
Shaw didn't hear the report that all twelve TigerSharks had been destroyed, or that they were denied permission to fire on the factory. All he saw was the slowly spreading debris of the shuttle and imagined that it was his career. He turned and left the bridge without speaking to anyone. The XO turned to the radio officer, "Update Bismarck and send two Betas to see if there are any survivors."
Once Max team was far enough away from the drone monitoring area, the team halted to allow the Cyclones to reload their missiles from the supplies in the Beta's cargo bay. Directly ahead of them was the Auxiliary Command Center; a rotund area laid out like the bridge of a Zentraedi battleship. They entered warily, Robert again in the lead. The place was dead, empty duty stations covered the whole floor, every computer terminal powerless, no sign of defenses. They would quickly learn that quiet didn't mean harmless. They followed the outer curve of the Command Center, aiming for a passage that would lead them around the main computer, which wasn't very far from their present position. About two-thirds of the way around, a combined laser and missile turret rose out of the floor in the midst of the team. Fortunately, the turret wasn't very fast and it picked one of the Cyclones as its first target. As Kelli easily dodged the laser blast, Steve fired his thrusters, launching the Cyclone off the deck and converted to Battloid mode. The end of his short flight planted him on top of the turret where he activated his now forearm mounted sabers. The Protoculture powered blades sliced into the armor of the turret easily, severing the power conduits and silencing the giant weapon. Steve leapt off the turret and converted back to cycle mode.
"How'd you like that?" he smugly asked no one in particular, quite pleased with himself.
It was impressive; Hans had to admit, very impressive. "Just so long as you don't stand there admiring your work so much you get your tail shot off."
Ann passed them in her Hovertank. "Can we just keep moving? We're not getting any younger. You know, I'm sick of being cooped up in this armor. And why can't these things just leave us alone to do our job? Why do we have to stop so often? You know, it would be so much. . ."
"ANN!!!"
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"PUT A CORK IN IT!!"
"Yes, Lieutenant," she said, crestfallen.
The team entered the corridor they had been aiming for and encountered the first attempt by the computer to use environmental conditions to stop them. Half way to the storage chamber they would pass through, dozens of sprinkler like devices dropped from the ceiling and started spraying an acid mist onto the mecha.
"Come on! Get out of here as fast as you can!" Mike ordered.
The team broke formation and rushed for the storage chamber, hoping the acid wouldn't be coming down there too. As each mecha emerged from the acid rain, they checked themselves over for damage. Fortunately, the acid had had little effect during their short exposure. As they entered the next corridor, the temperature dropped rapidly to 80 degrees below freezing. They continued moving, unhindered by the cold. The team entered the Artificial Gravity and Life Support area and turned to head for the fold system only to find their way barred by two heavy assault drones and a light assault drone. The short fire fight left all three robots dead but they had managed to get some licks in too. The mecha's armor was getting depleted by each hit and it wouldn't be too long before some of them lost arms or legs or shut down completely.
As the team entered the corridor heading toward the Navigation Complex, radiation sensors began flashing in the mecha's cockpits. The level of radiation quickly passed lethal dosage for anything unprotected.
"Everyone make sure your body armor is sealed properly," Mike warned.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want anyone to glow in the dark," William added.
"Oh shut up!" Ann snapped.
Robert entered the Navigation Complex and looked around for any drones, then started moving through the complex. Three light assault drones rose up from behind a console and open fired. Robert blasted all three drones with his gun pod in quick succession. At the same time that the drones attacked Robert, a containment wall dropped down in the corridor, cutting Ann, Wendy and Patrick off from the rest of the team.
The factory computer had been attempting to isolate the last mecha as it had with Lt. Brown, but it mistimed the containment wall. It decided to press the attack even though it had gone astray from the start. Fifteen light assault drones and five heavy assault drones entered the corridor from the life support area and bore down on the three Robotech soldiers.
Unknown to the computer, blue team had heard of the circumstances surrounding Lt. Brown's demise and all three humans were waiting for the attack. Ann reconfigured her Hovertank to Battloid mode and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Beta and Gladiator. The drones advanced into a torrent of lasers and missiles. Patrick threw caution to the wind and strode into the remaining drones, throwing roundhouse punches at the relatively little robots. The attack was broken swiftly and the computer attempted to pull out what drones were left before they were mauled by the rampaging Battloid. Only one light assault drone escaped. The containment wall was quickly blown apart by a few shots from the Excalibur's particle beam cannons.
Elsewhere, Captain Sorin was wondering how much longer his ammo would hold out. Black Team had been forced back from their initial positions and was fighting by one of the immense Protoculture storage tanks. He had expended two-thirds of his missiles and the other Alpha and the Beta weren't much better. The Excalibur was gone; all of its firepower hadn't saved the pilot from being overwhelmed by drones. He briefly spared a thought to understand why the guy in Blue Max preferred the older RDF Excalibur to the newer, smaller REF Excalibur. The older one had two particle beam cannons as opposed to one on the newer model. That extra cannon might have helped, or it might not. In any case Blue Max was close to the fold system and proceeding well. Just to get things moving and increase the odds in their favor, Sorin had sent his remaining Cycloner and the scientist to the fold system by way of the smaller human sized corridors they had spotted. Hopefully the wouldn't be detected there. He had instructed Jacket Leader to do the same with her Cycloners and scientist. He turned back to the battle at hand and saw that the Beta pilot had started using physical force in an effort to save his missiles. Sorin watched as the Beta Battloid caved in one heavy assault drone with a punch and then caught a second by its top cannon and flung it into the wall with a resounding crash. Sorin flamed two more light drones and wondered what to do next. He switched to the command channel and told Max Leader to hurry, as if to emphasize the point the fold siren sounded.
The factory super-computer was brilliant by Zentraedi standards and a positive genius by Earth computer standards, but right now it was wondering what to do. The beings that had attacked were unlike any opponents it had been programmed to defend against. Their mecha was of such a wide variety that successful tactics against one type were ineffective against another. And the beings inside the mecha were able to alter their own battle tactics seemingly at a whim. So far, the computer's efforts to eliminate the smaller mecha teams had been less than satisfactory, only three of the fourteen attackers had gone down to appalling losses in drones. The larger team was simply driving through whatever they came up against. The computer didn't have sufficient drones to attack the intruders and defend the rest of the factory from further assault, over half of the factories' robots were already engaged or moving to attack. Even now, the patrols and routine work parties were being stripped down and sent to fight, but some of the back-up force had failed to activate and repairs would take time it could ill afford. To make matters worse, the ships holding positions around the factory had closed in, possibly to insert more mecha. It detailed a few precious engineering and heavy work drones to collect the destroyed attackers and analyze their pilots and mecha control systems; maybe a weakness could be found. Since there was obviously no Zentraedi in the area, the computer decided to fold to the next location and hopefully contain the boarders, or get help from any Zentraedi there. The ten minute countdown to fold began.
Mike had acknowledged Captain Sorin's message followed quickly by the sound they had all been dreading, the fold siren. He rapidly thought through their situation and came to a decision.
"Sergeant Mueller! Take off! Take William and your Cycloners and get to that fold system! Robert, Patrick, go with them, give them cover fire!"
As the other troops blurted their "Yes, sirs," Mike had another thought.
"Ann, can you keep up with them?"
"Are you kidding? Those things top out at two hundred miles per hour! This crate stops at a hundred!"
He swore to himself, he should have remembered that. "All right, stay with us, we'll just catch up when we can." The Armored VT, the Excalibur, the Gladiator and the Hovertank chased the Cyclones as fast as they could.