How Love Blunders All...

[Gforce]

The Virage comes around the building containing David's arsenal of weapons and lands directly in front of the door. The cockpit opens and David half climbs, half jumps out and off the ship, landing on the relatively-smooth grass with a heavy thud.

Getting up and brushing off the dust, he stretches a bit and says to himself, "Now what should I bring to show and tell?" He laughs as he opens the door, "... Oh I know!"

Walking over to the rows and rows of guns hanging over the walls, he picks up a second custom made pistol and checks the battery, then the battery on the one he had with him, "Good. Both fully charged. No running out of energy this time."

... He remembers how he had lost the bet to Jaden because his gun had ran out of juice on the last shot...

Next, David picks an assault rifle off the wall, checks its clip, and picks up 5 others. He wiped the little parts of dust away from the weapon, "... I haven't used one of these since the LSF. Be good to finally shooting at a live target" and laughs darkly to himself.

Finally he arrives at the mounts holding the VR960FX launcher and the last rocket, which was mounted in a fashion similar to an ornamental piece, "Try to escape with another ship... And I'll blow you to hell!" He loads the rocket into the launcher before slinging it over his back, "Damn! Did this thing pick up another 5 kilos while we were away?"

He grunts as he picks up the rifle and checks his pistols once more "I wonder where Jaden is? Oh well... Time to get back to the estate and break me some Hogoshan necks"

His PDA suddenly beeps with the sounds of an incoming transmission. Placing the pistol back on its holster, he picks up the device and finds it to be Jaden's transmission via a private channel. Her voice was quick and whispered low, "... The hunt awaits, David. I'll meet you at the Hunting Grounds. You don't have to try and find me...

"... I'll find you." And with that, her channel cuts off without giving David enough time to respond, the signal seemingly-untraceable.

"Fine by me..." David says to himself as he heads off up the path to estate at a light jog.

"Now... Another plan." David thinks as he jogs "We have an unknown number of contacts, but their mode of transport is destroyed" David grins at the column of smoke rising into the air

"We don't know their motivation... Assume hostile with intent to kill. Weaponry... Unknown.

"... Now, what do we have?" By now David has is half way to the estate, even with the heavy weaponry his breathing was only slightly faster than normal.

"We have two units. One is on target and is lightly armed. Two is heavily armed and will arrive within 60 seconds" David pats the launcher on his back, checking the rocket was still in place.

"Other assets... Knowledge of local terrain and the structure under attack. The bombers in the bay... ummm" David stops just short of the last turn in the path which would give him a direct view of the house. "

"Frak! They could know this is the route I'll take... Snipers..." David jogs off the path and into the forest on the left side. "Use cover, approach from unexpected angles."

The forest ran the entire perimeter of the estate, bar the beach on the western side. David had moved into the forest that ringed the Northern side of the house. The closest part of the structure he could reach without leaving the protection of the trees was the garage housing the ships.

"Ok.... What else? I think that's it." David continued along the edge of the estate, careful not to get within sight of the estate. When he finally reach the garage, he made a sprint for the wall. He raced across the open ground expecting the ground to explode around him, but it didn't. Relieved he had not been hit and perhaps not seen crossing the open ground, David forget about the extra weight he carried, and instead of hiding up against the wall as planned, he ran into it with the inertia of a 50 kilogram rocket and launcher on his back.

"Damn this bloody thing! If you hadn't of forgotten to active the defenses, none of this would have happened." Realising that he'd forgotten the defenses in assessment of the situation a second time, "Oh for gods sake... Yes defenses... Get them online, THEN find and take out the hostile targets."

David moves to the corner of the building, peaking around to see it was clear. He also similes at the sight of the source of the smoke plum. "At least I hit that one my razor."

David then sneaks round into the house, and ventures inside with the intent of getting to the holo-room and activating the defenses first.