How Love Blunders All...

[Gforce]

David held his serious facial expression as the blasts passed, "It seems your help has arrived. Well, I better cut this short." he leans back in the chair, spinning his pistol in his right hand. "So, seeing as you’re not willing to talk, and that I have more... pressing issues to address, we’ll have to continue this later. But not before..."

Suddenly he stops spinning his pistol, aims for just a fraction of a second and fires. The single bolt passes through Rei's left arm, causing her to scream in pain.

"That’s for not cooperating. You’ll get your next chance after your little sleep." Rei had just enough time to look up from her arm to see David’s right elbow heading for her head. In one swift moment David had knocked Rei unconscious, her body crumbling to the floor.





David then starts walking back to the chair. "Now bring up---" He stops himself from saying any more as he turns back around to Rei, "Just in case you’re bugged..." He then drags her out of the holo room, securing her to the bar, "You won't be going anywhere for a while." He then heads back inside.

As soon as the door closes David says aloud: "Identify ships." The holo room displays 1 red dot representing Strix’s ship, and shows it landed, "... Only one..." Suddenly another blast is heard outside the room, "Definitely not just one... Identify whatever just fired." A simple error message appears, ::: Unable to locate target. System damage detected. All non-hardened systems offline: possible EMP damage. ::: David becomes slightly baffled at the reply the computer gives him, "Huh... cloaked... And still able to fire? That must be some high-end military grade equipment.

"Don’t tell me it’s the LSF..." His face turns slightly pale as he says the next words, "Contact George Darwin, priority call!"

The calling icon the holo room displayed lasted only a second before the familiar voice of George Darwin filled the room. "How’s the situation David? I see it’s getting quite hot down there." He was still grinning that smug smile of his.

"Indeed it is, I’ve captured the first one who got here, but she wasn’t going to talk. Perhaps later she might."

"I see. And the other 3 ships? Only 1 is detectable, but from what your estate's systems are telling me, there are definitely 3 ships."

"Yes they seem to have cloaking devices, but they can still fire so they’re even more fun... LSF perhaps?" David tries to hide his nervousness at the possibility it was the Liberty Security Force closing in on them.

"Not from what I can tell, in any case, you need to take down those ships. I ordered the Timepiece to move into geosynchronous orbit above your position, just let me know if you need anything and we’ll send it down."

Relieved that George doesn't think the intruding party is LSF, David returns to the task at hand, "Roger, make a direct link to my PDA. I may need to contact you on the fly, and this place has been EMP’d I think, so the wireless will be down, but if you’re overhead we’ll get line-of-sight.

"And about those ships; All missiles bar the manuals have already fired and chances are those ships will be able to jam the guidance systems."

"Indeed. We need to think of another way to track them other than visual or heat seeking... What’re the other outputs of such a ship?"

"Well, fighters don’t leave much of a disturbance, so I doubt we could track them off that. With the heat from the reactor covered they basically cover all output."

"Would the reactor output anything else? Fusion creates helium but that couldn’t be expelled..."

The two remain silent deep in thought for a moment when suddenly David has an idea, "What about the engines? The trails could bond with oxygen to form water...

"Water, that’s it! Could we track the amount of water vapour in the air? Maybe if we can get the missiles close enough, they’ll fire counter-measures, and the manual missile pack enough punch to do some damage even if they only hit the counters. And if I fire 2 to hit at the same time, the shockwaves will create a ripple-effect powerful enough to affect the targetted ships."

George thinks about this for a moment longer, "That... could work. I’ll have the crew look for a tracking system that can be sent to your PDA. Because the wireless is down, you will have to add the program to each missile by direct connection. Up for a bit of a run?"

"It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to lug that bloody missile around." He glances over at the missile and launcher in the corner, checking that they were still in fact there.

George laughs lightly, "Ah, but that’s your party piece. If the first 2 missiles manage to take down the first ship, you will need the remaining two as well as a third to take down the second."



But his next words come out in a serious tone, "You will also have to be quick, I’ve no doubt they may well cut their losses and retreat if one of those ships goes down... And we can’t afford to let any of them escape with information on the estate, David. Not even its location."

David lowers his head and exhales heavily, "I know... I just hope it’s not already too late to stop any information being leaked."

"Don’t worry, any location co-ordinates that are true remain only on the ships that are there, the co-ordinates they have been using have been false by the same margin, so they have not yet picked up on the discrepancy. Once the Timepiece is in position we can effectively jam all communications we see fit, but we won't be able to stop them from escaping the cone."

"Got'cha, I’ll worry about taking them down, you worry about covering the estate."

George hesitates for a moment, "There is... one final thing, David. In the case you do fail, I will have no choice but to completely erase that island. While I have not yet purchased enough antimatter to create a bomb to station on the island, the one aboard the Timepiece is more than sufficient to destroy all traces of the island. If the true co-ordinates of that island escape even once, I will not hesitate to have the bomb dropped, and you may not be able to evacuate that island in time."

A part of David almost dies inside of him, but he tries to keep his calm, simply nodding in reply, "I understand George, do what you must to prepare for the worst, but the battle is not lost yet. And until it is I would appreciate if that thing didn't come screaming towards us with the intent of turning everything here into nothing."

George laughs lightly, "Of course not, only if I loose contact with you or I find the true location has been reviled will that bomb be dropped. That island wasn't cheap to create, you know! I'd rather not waste my ace aboard the Timepiece blowing up what I so painstakingly-put together anyway!

"But as you said, if it must be done, then it must be done, and we're the types to do it."

"Alright, I'll let you know as soon as I program each turret. I still have my flight suit on so I can hook my PDA up to that so you'll even get my vitals. We wont be loosing contact, or at least I damn well hope we don't."

"Ah, excellent thinking." George pauses for a moment, listening to something, "I've just been told we're approaching Planet New Tokyo now. By the time you get to the first rack we should be able to send the program to you. Good luck David.

"... You may need it." And with that George cuts the transmission.

David laughs as he gets out of the chair and opens the door to the holoroom. "Was never one for goodbyes... 4 racks to program, I better get to work."

He then drags unconscious Rei back into the holoroom. After quickly tying her up to the holoroom chair, he collects the launcher, the rest of his weapons, and exits the room, the door behind him sealing shut, “Room, lock: code Beta unlock.” ::: Completed ::: “Lets hope for all our sakes I win, otherwise we won't even be dust.”





Positioned near the southern exit of the building, after waiting for the next barrage of fire from the cloaked ships, David makes a mad dash towards the southern most missile rack.





-----





Jaden was finally looking at her foe in-the-flesh (figuratively and literally), and honestly did not expect her adversary to be as 'lightly'-armed as her, "Though I did give my position away with that estupido branch, I'm still impressed that you were able to avoid most of my sniper shots that would've killed even trained military soldiers." She saw the shot that glanced off of Strix's chest-area, and smiled darkly to herself, "Clearly you are a warrior with blood worthy of---"



Jaden paused at seeing the grin that the Kusarian sported. It was something the ex-Corsair knew all too well: the longing for lust. And, seeing it coming from a woman who was only wearing a bikini and short-skirt slightly unnerved Jaden: she hasn't been exposed to many lesbians in her life, let alone one that lusted for her, and was her opponent to boot. At least her opponent didn't look too bad herself: her dark blue hair flowed in the breeze with an air of mystique and awe.



"... sacrificing." Though it would've been hasty and illogical to conclude based on these details alone, Jaden had a hunch the only reason something like this could be happening to her was because of one person whom she thought she had gotten rid of long ago.

"The meep-mouth Mila sent you mercs after us, didn't she? Figures why I'm going toe-to-toe against an albino lesbian-ninja in a battlegown as skimpy as mine. She sure knows how to draw in the unusual sorts... But hey, you could say I'm unusual myself, heh." Though shrugging her shoulders and speaking in an apparently-casual tone, her stance was also at the ready. With the pistol on her right-hand and a cooling can on the other, the blades on her metal wristbands immediately shick out of their holes, and if Strix looked closer Jaden appeared to be surrounded by a transparent, shimmering kinetic shield.

Jaden slowly aims her pistol at the Kusarian, with the can on Jaden's other hand aimed at the pistol. Jaden's voice immediately becomes cautious and grim, "Now... I've only got two questions for you before we dance. One, who sent you? And two, why?" The wind gently echoed its howl in the forest as Jaden waited for the reply... hostile or otherwise.