***
The Sky Raider captain in command of the Medicomm phase of this operation resisted the urge to swear. Unlike most of the Sky Raiders in Faultline, he
wasn't one of Castillos fans, regarding him as nothing more than a idiotic, glory seeking moron that had the Colonels ear. Hell, Duray himself wasn't
much more stable these days, if he had to be honest.
This operation was just more proof of that. A hit on a hero was fine, brilliant even, but you did it smart. Ambush them, intimidate them, hell, arrange a
subtle little accident if you felt like it. A blantant move like this was nothing more then a giant waste of resources and a massive security risk.
While Captain Masters, formerly an officer of the USAF like so many of the original Raiders, had managed to keep the scale of his dissatisfaction from his
superiors, Castillo, in whatever passed for his mind, must have considered him a liability in some way. After all, he'd been assigned the job of capturing
and securing Faultlines medicomm, a job Castillo had said he was confident Masters could handle. But the fact was, even in a situation as chaotic as this one,
the capes and their allies in the (Masters could admit this better then most Raiders) legitimate police force and militaries would throw everything they could
into retaking this facility.
Even before deploying, Masters had serious doubts about his ability to hold this building long enough for the Raiders to kill even Knight of the Peace, let
alone any of the dozens of heroes that would show up once word of the attack spread. Most of the Raiders were certain that the heroes would run and hide,
claiming they hadn't made it to Faultline in time. After all, they wouldn't have the safety net of their precious medicomm system, would they? Masters
on the other hand, may have hated the Capes as much as any other Raider, but he didn't doubt their courage, their beliefs or their determination.
He'd known they'd come, that they'd fight as hard as ever, and now it looked like he was being proven right. There were heroes in the building,
several groups from the reports he'd gotten from his men before their radios went silent. Based off who was fighting outside, and the mentions of women in
power armour, it was easy to work out that they were the Knight Sabres, one of Riots sub-groups. Best reports placed them at least a floor above this control
room, working their way down to the sub-basement. In ten minutes at most, they're arrive, defeat him and the very expensive Jump Bots Castillo had assigned
to him, 'just in case', and take him into custody. He had no doubt that the Raiders lawyers would provide enough interference to allow a Raider team to
secure his escape in a month or two, but by then, the damage to his reputation would be done. Any further advancement would be beyond his reach, and Castillo
and his brand of idiocy would spread across the Raiders even further.
The soldier turned towards the balcony that looked out over a massive room filled full of strange machines, starting with the familiar human built
teleporters and getting more advanced from there. While they'd managed to disable the systems that tracked the med beacons, told the teleporter arrays who
to grab and where to send them, the actual teleporters themselves were hidden behind powerful forcefields that used the same technology as the War Walls.
Captain Masters could bring the whole building down on this room, and the medicomm system would still be untouched behind the fields. Not that the Raiders
would ever dare do such a thing. After all, they needed the medicomm system as well. It was what took them to a prison hospital when a hero took them down,
after all.
"So, it comes to this," he said softly to himself. Screwed over by his own CO, watching the army he served descend into greed, madness and
fanaticism, put into a situation he couldn't fix, and up against people he hated but had the brains to respect. Not the fate he'd imagined the day he
walked into an air force recruitment office so long ago, but he'd chosen this path, he'd take it to the end. He pulled off his flight pack, useless in
such tight quarters, and placed to the side, then turned to the three Jump Bots standing in the room with him. "Lethal force," he ordered. "Take
down all heroes that attempt to enter this room.
"Acknowledged," all three machines responded in their flat metallic voices. Ports on their arms slid open, revealing gun barrels as they took aim
at the door.
His helmet radio spoke up again. This time it was the voice of a Lieutenant Jenkins, and he managed a panicked "Captain, they've penetrated the
las-" before a rather painful sounding crunch garbled his radio with a loud screech that made the mission commander wince and reflexively try and pull his
head away from the painful noise. As the transmission cut off, he swore under his breath. Jenkins and his team were less than two hallways away.
Almost as if the universe was mocking him, one of the walls chose that moment to explode inward, spraying small shards of timber and plaster across the
room. Through the blast crater, back and thigh thrusters blazing, Street Sabre boosted across the room and nailed one of the Jump Bots, her Knuckle Bomber
smashing its visor and throwing it off balance. The war machine recovered fast, getting its arms up in time to block her second blow and retaliate with its
flamethrowers. That particular choice of weapon didn't do much against the power-armoured woman except seem to annoy her really, but Masters didn't
really have any time to notice that fight anymore, as several more Sabres had followed her in.
He opened fire with his machinegun, only to lose it as Edge Sabre got in close, bringing her blade around. The Raider got clear personally, but the blade
hit and bent the barrel of his firearm. Tossing it aside, he backed up and pulled his machete from its thigh holster. A foot-long steel-impervium alloy against
what looked like some sort of Roman ceremonial blade didn't feel as reassuring as it probably should, and Masters found himself on the defensive anyway as
Edge lunged, feet not even touching the ground as she closed up the eight foot gap between them. He dodged, hissing as the heroes sword sliced a hole in the
side of his armoured vest, drawing a thin line of blood. The man's return strike sparked off her blade as she turned, and she kept moving, driving his
blade up and back.
Captain Masters deflected her next two swings, ducked the next and swung up, aiming for her armors left shoulder joint. Edge Sabre backed up, avoiding the
swing, then brought her blade around in a wide but fast swing. He got his machete in between it and him, only to wince at the crack it made on impact. As he
twisted his hand and knocked her blade up, he saw a small spiderweb of cracks on his blade. A moment later, the top four inches of the machete gave up and came
off as Edge pushed back. Her blade continued on, going over his head, and Masters lunged, only to have her nail him in the nose with a sharp punch. He
stumbled, then she spun and slashed again, carving through his chest armour and leaving a bloody gash on his chest. Adjusting her grip, she went low, cutting
open a thigh and dropping him to his hands and knees. He tried to move, then froze as a cold blade pressed against his throat. He looked up at the armoured
woman, face hidden behind her visor, and decided that he would be risking calling her bluff today, going limp in surrender. Around him, he heard the crash of
metal as the last of the Jump Bots fell, then saw the red and pink form of Net Sabre walk past him and step down into the teleporter bays, making her way
towards the computer terminals.
All he could think of was that Castillo had won, at least in regards to him. How fair was that?
***
"This is being unacceptable," Castillo growled into the radio he'd claimed from the nearest Skiff pilot. "I am not caring how many heroes
are to be gathering in New Overbrook. You are to be taking your men and pushing forward! The time has come for them to be facing the wrath of the Sky Raiders!
They no longer have their precious medicomm to be pulling them to safety when we defeat them. You will advance and-"
"Sir!" the Skiff pilot said, pointing. "They're coming to us!"
Following the pilots outstretched hand, Castillo blinked at the sight of a number of heroes taking to the air (He didn't notice Sammy misjudging her
jump off the cliff and landing in the water below with a shriek). For a moment, he looked at them in mild surprise, as if unable to believe it. Then, he smiled
broadly. "The heroes are even more foolish then I was thinking! They charge to their deaths! We will-"
The Raiders never got to learn what he was going to say, as a focused beam of flame shot down out of the sky, hit Castillo dead in the chest, sending him
plummeting towards the muddy water below. As the Skiff pilots broke formation with assorted noises of surprise, they caught a glimpse of black and red dart
past them, barely visible as it chased Castillo. "One of the capes is stealthed!" a pilot growled. "Allen, Saunders, go after her and-" his
order was interrupted by a plasma bolt tearing at one of his engines. Cursing, he tried to gain control, looking up in time to see Terrence Knight leap at,
then through his skiffs windshield.
"Is it me, or is my sister in an even worse mood about an attempt on my life then me?" Knight of the Peace wondered as he dived in, trading fire
with a Wing Officer.
"They used her lack of a secret identity to work out yours," Sell-Sword replied, casually tossing a web grenade into a skiffs engine and watching
it plummet out of control.
"Ah. I must remember to reassure her I don't blame her," he noted, nailing the Wing Officer with a taser. The Raider made yelping noises, spun
out of control, collided with another and sent them both into the side of a ruined building. A moment later, Knights boots spluttered, dropping him several
feet. "JESuss... time to go to ground!" he said, heading for the nearest stable surface. Purrfect Archer followed, having been bouncing off walls and
firing in midair, but frankly, Neko looked like she might throw up if she kept doing that.
As they landed, an irritated looking Sammy ran past, intent on taking her water frustrations out on the nearest Raider. Knight ignored her, his attention on
his rather badly battered armour. "Dammit," he grumbled as his rocket boots coughed and ejected a small cloud of smoke. "Flight's dying,
cloak's gone... this costume's gonna be scrap metal after this," he said, blasting an engineer.
Above them. Evangelia leapt, spun in midair and sliced off a Raiders flight pack, sending him plummeting. "Pooky!" she yelled as she landed,
regained her balance and lunged at another Raider. "Stop sleeping on the job and fight!"
The Raiders that had formed a defensive position next to what they'd believed was the dead body of a fallen hero were momentarily stunned by the corpse
sighing, saying "Okay bosslady, I'm coming," and were then blasted in all directions as the demon rose of the dead in a pillar of fire. Pooky da
Imp stretched, belched, then pulled out his bow and started looking for targets.
Meanwhile Ifrit had been rather painfully reminded that while Castillo might be an idiot, he was an idiot with some decent fighting skills, as he'd
pulled out of his dive, remained out of her reach, dodged her attacks, and hit back hard enough to force her on the defensive. "Ah my dear, you should be
knowing better then to be challenging a great warrior such as myself," he smiled mockingly as Ifrit darted backwards, barely avoiding a swing from his
machete. "Especially since a fragile dear like yourself should not be troubling yourself with such... intimate battles," he added. "Such is the
field of men-" he managed a shocked yelp as a wrecked car hit him at about forty miles an hour, sending him into the water below.
Ifrit blinked, then looked in the direction the car had come from, finding Iridium Horizon standing on some rubble, gravity still distorting abound the
wormhole he'd summoned the wreck through. "You know, normally one is supposed to make a heroic comment before launching their attack," she said
with a smile.
Iridium shrugged. "I'll leave drawing attention to the Tanks," he replied. Lady of the Peace laughed, then looked down at the water to see
Castillo force his way to the surface. Coughing and spluttering, he fired up his jetpack and managed to get out of the filth, only to have the fey dive at him
before he remembered she was there. Fists crackling with arcane energy, she sent him back down into the drink with a blow that broke his jaw and knocked him
out cold.
Rubbing at her knuckles, she floated down and retrieved the Raider, dumping him on the shore and pulling off his flight pack and equipment vest. "Looks
like it's nearly over," she mused, looking up at the mayhem above them. "Well, this round."
"This round?" Iridium wondered as he adjusted gravity and sent an engineer flying.
"Well yeah. The Council wanted this to send a message to heroes," she scowled. "Fear us, for we'll find you and kill you, or some such
nonsense. As if anyone in the job hasn't worked that out," she snorted, running a hand through her hair. "I think they'll need a reminder of
how the world works."
"We're the heroes, you're the racist terrorist Nazis we defend the world from?" the Controller chuckled.
"Hmm. Been a while since their little island super-fortress had a lot of explosions," she smirked.
***
The Sky Raider captain in command of the Medicomm phase of this operation resisted the urge to swear. Unlike most of the Sky Raiders in Faultline, he
wasn't one of Castillos fans, regarding him as nothing more than a idiotic, glory seeking moron that had the Colonels ear. Hell, Duray himself wasn't
much more stable these days, if he had to be honest.
This operation was just more proof of that. A hit on a hero was fine, brilliant even, but you did it smart. Ambush them, intimidate them, hell, arrange a
subtle little accident if you felt like it. A blantant move like this was nothing more then a giant waste of resources and a massive security risk.
While Captain Masters, formerly an officer of the USAF like so many of the original Raiders, had managed to keep the scale of his dissatisfaction from his
superiors, Castillo, in whatever passed for his mind, must have considered him a liability in some way. After all, he'd been assigned the job of capturing
and securing Faultlines medicomm, a job Castillo had said he was confident Masters could handle. But the fact was, even in a situation as chaotic as this one,
the capes and their allies in the (Masters could admit this better then most Raiders) legitimate police force and militaries would throw everything they could
into retaking this facility.
Even before deploying, Masters had serious doubts about his ability to hold this building long enough for the Raiders to kill even Knight of the Peace, let
alone any of the dozens of heroes that would show up once word of the attack spread. Most of the Raiders were certain that the heroes would run and hide,
claiming they hadn't made it to Faultline in time. After all, they wouldn't have the safety net of their precious medicomm system, would they? Masters
on the other hand, may have hated the Capes as much as any other Raider, but he didn't doubt their courage, their beliefs or their determination.
He'd known they'd come, that they'd fight as hard as ever, and now it looked like he was being proven right. There were heroes in the building,
several groups from the reports he'd gotten from his men before their radios went silent. Based off who was fighting outside, and the mentions of women in
power armour, it was easy to work out that they were the Knight Sabres, one of Riots sub-groups. Best reports placed them at least a floor above this control
room, working their way down to the sub-basement. In ten minutes at most, they're arrive, defeat him and the very expensive Jump Bots Castillo had assigned
to him, 'just in case', and take him into custody. He had no doubt that the Raiders lawyers would provide enough interference to allow a Raider team to
secure his escape in a month or two, but by then, the damage to his reputation would be done. Any further advancement would be beyond his reach, and Castillo
and his brand of idiocy would spread across the Raiders even further.
The soldier turned towards the balcony that looked out over a massive room filled full of strange machines, starting with the familiar human built
teleporters and getting more advanced from there. While they'd managed to disable the systems that tracked the med beacons, told the teleporter arrays who
to grab and where to send them, the actual teleporters themselves were hidden behind powerful forcefields that used the same technology as the War Walls.
Captain Masters could bring the whole building down on this room, and the medicomm system would still be untouched behind the fields. Not that the Raiders
would ever dare do such a thing. After all, they needed the medicomm system as well. It was what took them to a prison hospital when a hero took them down,
after all.
"So, it comes to this," he said softly to himself. Screwed over by his own CO, watching the army he served descend into greed, madness and
fanaticism, put into a situation he couldn't fix, and up against people he hated but had the brains to respect. Not the fate he'd imagined the day he
walked into an air force recruitment office so long ago, but he'd chosen this path, he'd take it to the end. He pulled off his flight pack, useless in
such tight quarters, and placed to the side, then turned to the three Jump Bots standing in the room with him. "Lethal force," he ordered. "Take
down all heroes that attempt to enter this room.
"Acknowledged," all three machines responded in their flat metallic voices. Ports on their arms slid open, revealing gun barrels as they took aim
at the door.
His helmet radio spoke up again. This time it was the voice of a Lieutenant Jenkins, and he managed a panicked "Captain, they've penetrated the
las-" before a rather painful sounding crunch garbled his radio with a loud screech that made the mission commander wince and reflexively try and pull his
head away from the painful noise. As the transmission cut off, he swore under his breath. Jenkins and his team were less than two hallways away.
Almost as if the universe was mocking him, one of the walls chose that moment to explode inward, spraying small shards of timber and plaster across the
room. Through the blast crater, back and thigh thrusters blazing, Street Sabre boosted across the room and nailed one of the Jump Bots, her Knuckle Bomber
smashing its visor and throwing it off balance. The war machine recovered fast, getting its arms up in time to block her second blow and retaliate with its
flamethrowers. That particular choice of weapon didn't do much against the power-armoured woman except seem to annoy her really, but Masters didn't
really have any time to notice that fight anymore, as several more Sabres had followed her in.
He opened fire with his machinegun, only to lose it as Edge Sabre got in close, bringing her blade around. The Raider got clear personally, but the blade
hit and bent the barrel of his firearm. Tossing it aside, he backed up and pulled his machete from its thigh holster. A foot-long steel-impervium alloy against
what looked like some sort of Roman ceremonial blade didn't feel as reassuring as it probably should, and Masters found himself on the defensive anyway as
Edge lunged, feet not even touching the ground as she closed up the eight foot gap between them. He dodged, hissing as the heroes sword sliced a hole in the
side of his armoured vest, drawing a thin line of blood. The man's return strike sparked off her blade as she turned, and she kept moving, driving his
blade up and back.
Captain Masters deflected her next two swings, ducked the next and swung up, aiming for her armors left shoulder joint. Edge Sabre backed up, avoiding the
swing, then brought her blade around in a wide but fast swing. He got his machete in between it and him, only to wince at the crack it made on impact. As he
twisted his hand and knocked her blade up, he saw a small spiderweb of cracks on his blade. A moment later, the top four inches of the machete gave up and came
off as Edge pushed back. Her blade continued on, going over his head, and Masters lunged, only to have her nail him in the nose with a sharp punch. He
stumbled, then she spun and slashed again, carving through his chest armour and leaving a bloody gash on his chest. Adjusting her grip, she went low, cutting
open a thigh and dropping him to his hands and knees. He tried to move, then froze as a cold blade pressed against his throat. He looked up at the armoured
woman, face hidden behind her visor, and decided that he would be risking calling her bluff today, going limp in surrender. Around him, he heard the crash of
metal as the last of the Jump Bots fell, then saw the red and pink form of Net Sabre walk past him and step down into the teleporter bays, making her way
towards the computer terminals.
All he could think of was that Castillo had won, at least in regards to him. How fair was that?
***
"This is being unacceptable," Castillo growled into the radio he'd claimed from the nearest Skiff pilot. "I am not caring how many heroes
are to be gathering in New Overbrook. You are to be taking your men and pushing forward! The time has come for them to be facing the wrath of the Sky Raiders!
They no longer have their precious medicomm to be pulling them to safety when we defeat them. You will advance and-"
"Sir!" the Skiff pilot said, pointing. "They're coming to us!"
Following the pilots outstretched hand, Castillo blinked at the sight of a number of heroes taking to the air (He didn't notice Sammy misjudging her
jump off the cliff and landing in the water below with a shriek). For a moment, he looked at them in mild surprise, as if unable to believe it. Then, he smiled
broadly. "The heroes are even more foolish then I was thinking! They charge to their deaths! We will-"
The Raiders never got to learn what he was going to say, as a focused beam of flame shot down out of the sky, hit Castillo dead in the chest, sending him
plummeting towards the muddy water below. As the Skiff pilots broke formation with assorted noises of surprise, they caught a glimpse of black and red dart
past them, barely visible as it chased Castillo. "One of the capes is stealthed!" a pilot growled. "Allen, Saunders, go after her and-" his
order was interrupted by a plasma bolt tearing at one of his engines. Cursing, he tried to gain control, looking up in time to see Terrence Knight leap at,
then through his skiffs windshield.
"Is it me, or is my sister in an even worse mood about an attempt on my life then me?" Knight of the Peace wondered as he dived in, trading fire
with a Wing Officer.
"They used her lack of a secret identity to work out yours," Sell-Sword replied, casually tossing a web grenade into a skiffs engine and watching
it plummet out of control.
"Ah. I must remember to reassure her I don't blame her," he noted, nailing the Wing Officer with a taser. The Raider made yelping noises, spun
out of control, collided with another and sent them both into the side of a ruined building. A moment later, Knights boots spluttered, dropping him several
feet. "JESuss... time to go to ground!" he said, heading for the nearest stable surface. Purrfect Archer followed, having been bouncing off walls and
firing in midair, but frankly, Neko looked like she might throw up if she kept doing that.
As they landed, an irritated looking Sammy ran past, intent on taking her water frustrations out on the nearest Raider. Knight ignored her, his attention on
his rather badly battered armour. "Dammit," he grumbled as his rocket boots coughed and ejected a small cloud of smoke. "Flight's dying,
cloak's gone... this costume's gonna be scrap metal after this," he said, blasting an engineer.
Above them. Evangelia leapt, spun in midair and sliced off a Raiders flight pack, sending him plummeting. "Pooky!" she yelled as she landed,
regained her balance and lunged at another Raider. "Stop sleeping on the job and fight!"
The Raiders that had formed a defensive position next to what they'd believed was the dead body of a fallen hero were momentarily stunned by the corpse
sighing, saying "Okay bosslady, I'm coming," and were then blasted in all directions as the demon rose of the dead in a pillar of fire. Pooky da
Imp stretched, belched, then pulled out his bow and started looking for targets.
Meanwhile Ifrit had been rather painfully reminded that while Castillo might be an idiot, he was an idiot with some decent fighting skills, as he'd
pulled out of his dive, remained out of her reach, dodged her attacks, and hit back hard enough to force her on the defensive. "Ah my dear, you should be
knowing better then to be challenging a great warrior such as myself," he smiled mockingly as Ifrit darted backwards, barely avoiding a swing from his
machete. "Especially since a fragile dear like yourself should not be troubling yourself with such... intimate battles," he added. "Such is the
field of men-" he managed a shocked yelp as a wrecked car hit him at about forty miles an hour, sending him into the water below.
Ifrit blinked, then looked in the direction the car had come from, finding Iridium Horizon standing on some rubble, gravity still distorting abound the
wormhole he'd summoned the wreck through. "You know, normally one is supposed to make a heroic comment before launching their attack," she said
with a smile.
Iridium shrugged. "I'll leave drawing attention to the Tanks," he replied. Lady of the Peace laughed, then looked down at the water to see
Castillo force his way to the surface. Coughing and spluttering, he fired up his jetpack and managed to get out of the filth, only to have the fey dive at him
before he remembered she was there. Fists crackling with arcane energy, she sent him back down into the drink with a blow that broke his jaw and knocked him
out cold.
Rubbing at her knuckles, she floated down and retrieved the Raider, dumping him on the shore and pulling off his flight pack and equipment vest. "Looks
like it's nearly over," she mused, looking up at the mayhem above them. "Well, this round."
"This round?" Iridium wondered as he adjusted gravity and sent an engineer flying.
"Well yeah. The Council wanted this to send a message to heroes," she scowled. "Fear us, for we'll find you and kill you, or some such
nonsense. As if anyone in the job hasn't worked that out," she snorted, running a hand through her hair. "I think they'll need a reminder of
how the world works."
"We're the heroes, you're the racist terrorist Nazis we defend the world from?" the Controller chuckled.
"Hmm. Been a while since their little island super-fortress had a lot of explosions," she smirked.
***