Mike and the other large mecha stood in the corridor that opened on the computer chamber. They could all see the throngs of drones in front of the metal casing that covered the computer. They also knew that other weapons waited in the floors, ceilings and walls. Hans and all the Cyclone riders waited farther back in the corridor.
"What's the hold up?" the Arrow Cycloner said.
"He's trying to decide how to do this without getting everyone killed! Jeez!" Kelli snapped back, shaking her head.
"Sergeant Mueller, we're going to attack. I'll go first with the VTs and Destroids and head straight for the computer casing, Ann will setup in a good spot to use her main gun; we'll open a hole for you, Sergeant. When we've done that, you go in fast. Don't wait for us, don't slow down, just get in there and shut it down." He addressed the three scientists, "if we all go down, stick a cobalt mine up its guts. Save yourselves, they might be able to repair it anyway, is that clear?"
All three answered that it was.
"I'll lead," Mike said and strode out into the chamber, gun pod at high port. The other mecha spread out to either side and advanced with him. The drones reacted slowly; the computer puzzled by the brazen nature of the attack. Nevertheless, the drones turned to face their attackers and opened up with all their weapons. The Robotech mecha kept moving, their own weapons blazing. Ann stopped and moved to the side. Once she was away from the others, she reconfigured to Guardian mode. Her sleek tank turned into a single barreled cannon the size of a small house and about as fast. The huge muzzle traversed the field of combatants and she picked her first target, a small knot of light assault drones. The cannon erupted and the drones disappeared.
Realizing the danger of this new weapon, the computer directed its drones to close with the advancing mecha. Mike didn't know whether to be happy or afraid, the range meant that virtually every shot was a kill, but they would be in constant danger of being overrun. Two heavy work drones appeared and moved in to grapple with the attackers, but the Excalibur shot one to pieces with his twin particle beam cannons and blew the other one apart with a few of his medium range missiles, which packed more punch than the short range missiles carried by most of the mecha.
In his Armored VT, Mike continued in the lead; his missiles exhausted and his gun pod glowing red from constant firing. He knew his Battloid was nearly finished, but he could do one more thing. He aimed his head mounted lasers at the casing and started cutting a hole in the thick armor plate. Robert and Patrick flanked Mike, protecting him as he cut into the casing. Wendy moved away from the others to do what her Gladiator did best, bash things in hand-to-hand combat. The Gladiator knocked out light drones with back hand swipes and pounded heavy assault drones with jack hammer punches. The chin turret and shoulder cannons blazed away at everything she couldn't get a metalshod fist on. They moved on, an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.
Just when Mike thought he wouldn't succeed, the hole was cut. A small hole, admittedly, but large enough to serve. He struggled to hold the Battloid upright, but the controls became sluggish and unresponsive as the mecha began to shut down from the abuse it had suffered. With both arms shot up and useless, Mike had little choice but to hold tight as the VT fell on its face.
Robert saw Mike go down and feared the worst. His anger turned to rage and he let fly with all his remaining missiles, wiping out a score of drones and several turrets that had joined the fight. He walked straight into a densely packed cluster of drones, gun pod spewing destruction.
Hans also saw Mike go down, but the hole was there and he had his orders. He revved his Cyclone up to full power and peeled out heading for the opening that had been bought at a price he didn't want to think about. The Cyclones were moving so fast that the drones barely had time to oppose them. A few managed to get shots off at the lighting quick targets and most missed. However, one heavy assault drone got lucky and led the last Cycloner just right. The particle beam caught one of the scientists full in the face, killing him instantly.
"We lost one of the techies!" Tom yelled from his now rear-most position.
The two remaining scientists spotted where they had to work, dismounted from their Cyclones and began pulling access panels open.
Hans quickly organized their defense, "Set up around them, just like in the fold room! Use their Cyclones for cover!"
Outside, the battle raged on. Mike hadn't been killed by the fall or the damage to his mecha. He detonated the escape charges and the head of his Battloid blew off at the neck. He crawled to the opening, pulling the seat out behind him and then threw it out onto the deck. He climbed back into the mecha and appeared a moment later pulling his Cyclone in its compact travel mode. Mike unfolded the mecha and hopped on, quickly transforming into Battloid. The large painting of the Orden Pour le Merite, the Blue Max, shone brightly on the blue finish.
Ann sat in near impunity, the thick armor of her tank deflecting everything the drones threw at her. She racked up an enormous kill score in moments, each colossal blast taking out several drones and laser turrets. But the computer was gathering every drone it had and throwing them into the fray. Something would give shortly she figured, either they would win or they would die. Even the sudden arrival of the mecha from the other teams did little to elevate her spirits, although it inspired the others into a greater killing frenzy. She saw the three Betas team up and throw themselves into one swirling melee after another. The Arrow Hovertank spotted Ann and set up next to her, coordinating their fire to greater effect.
Elsewhere, Robert had gotten seperated from the Betas and was fighting a heavy work drone single handed, literally, as the drone had ripped the Alpha's left arm off. He danced around the drone, trying to stay out of its grasp, all the while emptying his gun pod into it at point blank range. The drone's armor buckled and cracked open and it shrank back, trying to turn an undamaged portion of its body to face the VT. But the Alpha was faster, slipping under its arms and punching through the damaged armor and into the drones body. Robert gave the drone's innards several more short jabs, hoping to disable it somehow. The wounded drone brought one of its massive claws around and smashed the Alpha in the chest, shearing off the arm still trapped inside, and throwing the VT to the ground. Robert was pitched around in the cockpit and ended by cracking his head heavily against the instrument panel, knocking him unconscious. The drone struggled away but the internal damage was too great and it exploded spectacularly.
Inside, the computer threw everything it had left at the Robotech soldiers crowded around the command console. Drones attacked in waves and were thrown back by steady streams of missiles and lasers. William and the other scientist worked feverishly, carefully but quickly pulling out command circuits. The computer tried desperately to reroute its command subroutines but the two scientists knew exactly what components to pull out and the computer slowly lost control of its drones and facilities. It had no immediate effect on the battle raging outside and inside as the computer fought to keep control of the drones in the immediate vicinity. However, all over the factory drones on patrol and maintenance duty were put on standby mode or switched to independent control.
Out in space, Graf Zeppelin slowed to a halt and released the MAC III from its belly. The huge mecha aimed its auto cannons and blew open the airlock hatch. The mecha team entered the outer airlock. A heavy work drone that had just finished repairing the hatch and was turning to answer the call to arms suddenly found itself on independent control and the hatch maintenance alarm again screaming for attention. It turned back to the inner airlock but had to wait for it to repressurize. When the hatch opened a host of auto cannons and particle beams blew it to tiny pieces. The white mecha tromped off in the direction of the main computer.
Inside the computer casing, the situation for the Robotech soldiers was getting worse. Their missiles ran out first, then the clips for their H-90s and EP-40s began to run short. The Arrow Team Cycloner went down from a concentrated barrage by several heavy assault drones. A precision engineering drone used the main body of the computer to shield itself from the Cycloner on the end of the semicircle of soldiers. Guided by another engineering drone, the first drone reached around the corner of the computer and caught a Jacket Team Cycloner by the upper arm and pulled him back around the corner. Still holding the man by the arm it brought its drill arm up and started drill a hole in the face plate of the man's helmet. The soldier pressed his H-90 against the drone's body and pulled the trigger... nothing, a dry clip. The drill came through the face shield and withdrew. Seeing a laser weapon quickly replace the drill, the soldier pulled his leg up enough to draw his M-37 "Weasel" from his boot, cocked it and pressed to an unarmored section of the drone. Both weapons fired at the same time. Both fell dead.
The computer was pressing the attack with a vengeance and being stymied. It started pulling drones from the battle outside the computer chamber to try to defeat the Cycloners. When two Heavy Work drones entered the fray, the prospects for the defenders looked bleak. Hans targeted the first Work drone with his M-36 "Badger" machine-pistol and opened fire. Most of the soldiers were using their second weapons by now. As the first rounds detonated on the drone he called for help on the tac net.
Wendy responded instantly, moving toward the opening in the casing even as she acknowledged Hans' order. She saw three light assault drones moving in behind the Work drones and blew apart two of them with the last rounds in her GAU-20. Moving in behind the third drone, she batted it away with the empty gun pod, then stepped in after the Work drones. Two Cyclones followed her; one in blue armor, the other in black.
Inside, the troops concentrated their fire on the lead heavy drone and blew out its optics, then after a furious moment of firing and most of their remaining ammunition, the drone went down. The second drone drove through the debris, attempting to reach the scientists and pluck them away. Then it was suddenly snatched back and pushed away by the Gladiator. The Gladiator followed it, firing with all its lasers and delivering punch after punch to the drone's underside. Behind her, Mike and Sorin rushed to the ring of defenders, jumping in to fill the ranks of the fallen. Wendy continued her onslaught and finally the armor on the drone buckled and broke open, but before she could put a weapon barrel to the opening the drone got both of its claws on the Gladiator and started crushing it.
Desperately, Wendy screamed for help. In a moment the drone had mangled both arms and was trying to twist the body apart. Hans heard her and reached for another clip for his Badger only to find an empty cargo box. He threw the useless weapon down, and drew the last weapon he had, the M-37 "Weasel" auto pistol that everyone now wore in a holster on the outside of their boot. He looked at Mike and got a quick nod. Hans fired the Cyclones thrusters and flew at the struggling mecha, landing behind the Gladiator. He dashed around the Gladiator's legs and pushed the pistol into the hole Wendy had made in the drone and fired off all five rounds. He ejected the clip, pulled another from the holder on his boot, reloaded and emptied the pistol again. The explosive bullets shredded the drone's innards and it released the mangled Gladiator to float away, coming to a rest on the far side of the chamber. Glancing over his shoulder, Hans saw that most of the other Cycloners, except for Steve, were down to their M-37's also, carefully hording the six clips each soldier carried. He saw Steve parry several laser blasts with his Protoculture sabers and slice up two drones that came too close. Hans fired his jets and leapt on top the Gladiator to help Wendy get out.
The computer was desperately trying to figure out what to do. It was losing, it knew that. It had engineering drones working on the fold system, but the component removed was proving particularly troublesome to find. The two humanoids, it knew now that they were humanoid, were pulling out its command chips, forcing it to constantly reroute it systems as well as run the battle. The information gleaned from the dead pilots and mecha had proven most interesting. The creatures were biologically very much like the Zentraedi and Robotech Masters. Their mecha were made from the same basic systems, but the permutations and refinements were astounding. They utilized the Protoculture in ways the Masters never dreamed of! The ingenuity these beings must have! Unknowingly, the computer came to the realization that the Zentraedi leader Dolza had come to moments before his death twenty-seven years before. What allies these beings would make! But would they listen? They had too! But first the computer shut down all drones and weapon systems and then through every communication system it had, it cried, "WAIT!"