[FIC] BLOOD TIES second edition
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 4:24 am
Two years ago Siberia former USSR special storage facility (maximum security prison for individuals of special circumstances, political prisoners and embarrassments)
It was another cold dank day but they all were the smell of blood and other bodily fluids was especially foul but after three years in the same cell prisoner number 3409 was used to it. He sat on his rack eating his meal to a prisoner here what he had was a banquet he had earned it and the swollen shut left eye, broken arm cuts, lacerations and bruised were proof of that.
One he thought long ago he had could remember a day when he would have considered what he was eating “dog food” but those days were long dead, dead as his mother his father and his younger brother they had all been killed back in Helmajistan.
All killed by him the man no the devil, the devil that he had tried to kill the devil who had put him here in this perpetual purgatory a place of constant struggle where the only way to survive was to bend to the will of the guards and every so often but another poor prisoner out of his misery before he returned the favor.
“Oh Sousuke I am glad you died my little brother you never had to live like this never had to kill your dreams and denies your soul the way I have.”
And then that voice came from the darkness the voice he had wanted never to here the voice of the devil. The voice of Gauron
“Oh poor child you still have hope do you my oh my and I though this place would have killed it, but I am glad to see you have grown stronger from it.”
At first 3409 thought that the voice was in his head. He had gone through times when his inner demons had played with his mind before. But then he realized that the voice was real and coming from just out side the door.
“So the Devil come to watch his lions why don’t you come in and I ll show you, all my hopes.”
The Devil Gauron chuckled
“Sorry but I am not here for that besides I don’t think you’d survive not in your condition.”
Now 3409 chuckled
“Who said any thing about survival after life here’ hell would be a paradise.”
“Its amazing a man of you age surviving here but then again your brother also found a way to survive…”
The devil Gauron let that linger
“YOU LIE!!!”
“No I don’t he is alive and well and I can let you see him in of course I there is a price.”
“Let me guess my immortal soul sorry but it kinda died the same day as you killed my family.”
“Oh please nothing so dramatic I want you to work for me and my people in exchange you get to see your beloved brother Sousuke.”
“And I suppose you have proof of this?”
A manila envelope slid through the slit the guards use to slip food to prisoners.
3409 picked it up and opened it like a child on Christmas morning. In it was a photo of a young man though it took him a moment the first thing that came to him were the eyes. The eyes he had seen so often in his dreams and memories, yes it was his brother there was no doubt this was his brother.
Though it took him a moment to figure out what the moisture running down his face was 3409 soon put a word to it tears he was crying, Yes he was crying because he had to put his love for his baby brother over his hate and, Choose the evil that would lead him to his only blood to his only hope to the one thing he lived for his brother Sousuke.
“Ok so now Devil I am ready but if you so much as think of my brother with a smile on that corrupted face of yours I will rip your heart out.”
“I would not have it any other way. Shinji Sagara”
3409 stood and the door opened for the second time in his life Shinji Sagara was lead in to shadows by a demon named Gauron.
01:20 hours Japan Sousuke’s safe house
“SHINJI!!”
Sousuke leaped out of bed covered in a cold sweat his USP tactical with tactical light module in hand.
He pointed his gun in to the darkness looking for a target but finding none. He took several deep breaths put the guns safety back on and returned it to under his pillow. In his mind he ran the dream over and over it was the same night mare an assemblage of fact and fiction the destruction of his village the death of his parents and that strange addition, that boy he did not know yet he knew him.
Sousuke got out of bed and washed his face. That boy Shinji who was he? Was he real or just an illusion some part of his mind trying to emerge from the darkness?
Ever since he had meet Ms Chidori he had slowly been changing reviling more of him self not only to her and the others but also him self. Before he had always been afraid to get close too people and even now that was true. The scares of losing that unit back in Helmajistan were still fresh in his mind, but still he had realized that he could no longer shut others out he could no longer play the roll of a cold unfeeling Golem, because he had realized that he liked to be with people not just fellow solders but people his own age people who had problems that he had never thought were problems, like dating, love letters and arguing over what’s for dinner. Silly things that fascinated him but for the past week this nightmare had been on his mind like a parasite constantly feeding off him.
What was it he had always been told oh yes?
“When some thing is on your mind, talk to some one about it”?
This was the last straw tomorrow he was going to talk to Ms Chidori about it.
1020 hours. USA the former, Nevada nuclear test range north of Los Vegas Groom Lake Air Base “Area 51”
The black hawk helicopter they were riding in was making the cuvee sitting next to the Major sick. The Major was sure of it. After all no one was that pale in the desert but the Major was safe as long as the poor S.O.B. kept looking out the open door.
The major also had his eyes locked out; word on the glorious titans making high speed maneuvers on the ground, it was the sixteenth test run of the new ARX-1100 Angel series Arm slaves and all was going well. The Angels, what an appropriate name. They were a joint project between the services to clear the last hurtle that prevented true instant mobilization of Arm slaves. No longer would a landing ship have to risk harm just off the coast of an enemy shoreline to deploy AS squads deep behind enemy lines. No longer would deploying a unit of Arm Slaves require the costly practice of disposable booster rocket packs or the rumored ICBM module they were the next generation of Arm slaves.
But soon the major would have his turn in the most advanced AS ever built, the ARX-1100X Arch Angel, a special version fitted with the llama generation 2 driver. He could see it now how a single AS could be sent in and take threats of huge sizes without endangering a single innocent or having to lay a single Old glory on a coffin and thanking a mother or wife for allowing a there son or daughter to death.
“Well doc, are you proud of your toys?”
“Why yes, major. They are one of my greatest accomplishments, and the best is yet to come.”
“I can’t wait to try out that special toy of yours. Just amazing the implications of your gizmos. I mean, just the projections make this thing sound like some kind science fiction."
“Yet if you told some one twenty years ago about an Arm Slave, they would tell you that was sci-fi. It truly is amazing the leaps and bounds we have gone through in the last twenty years."
“Yah I remember my daddy brining home an apple 2 how it took him minutes to set it up but it took longer to boot and doe any thing then to set it up yet today a computer small enough to sit in a ladies hand bag has a thousand times more capacity.”
“Oh yes major technology is amazing in the right hands.”
The cuvee smiled weakly
10:23 hours, McCarran International Airport
Johnson and Dylan were bored there. They sat waiting for an eternity.
“When is he going to get here?”
“Damn customs! Overly dependent on outdated search techniques -- just slows things down, that’s all.”
“Shut up! Do you want to get us searched to?”
The pair looked how they felt -- dressed in bad, sweaty suits, blending in to the row upon row of fresh foolish tourists come seeking a quick buck and maybe a sin or two. What is it about risk that makes human beings so excited?
But what they were seeking was more interesting, but to get it they would need a special individual: the one they were waiting for.
“Hey, one of these tourists is not like the others,”
Dylan said, pointing at a tall Asian man with black hair, blue eyes and a goatee, wearing a trench coat, with only a duffel bag for luggage. As the man approached, more of his face became clearer. He bore the signs of a hard life, his face scarred, his nose crooked, but his walk. His walk was strong and with a fighting spirit in it.
“I am a traveler from the east, come to meet the hope of salvation in the city of sin,”
He said in a deep, authoritative voice that seemed unearthly from a man who looked about 21 years old. That was the code word to identify him to them as the man they had been waiting for.
“Aren’t we all, my friend? An odd place for salvation is this, but hope springs eternal!”
And that was their way of confirming that these men were his contacts.
They led him to a van waiting outside, and once they were moving Johnson handed the young man a Colt 1911.
“I am Johnson. This is Dylan.”
“Akari. Steven Akari.”
“Nice knowing you, Steve. This is all the data we have on the target of acquisition. As you can see from these surveillance photos, security will be tight.”
“Hey, a lot more fun that way.”
Steven Akari aka Shinji Sagara pulled the slide back on the .45 caliber pistol and smiled.
"Oh yes much more fun."
“By the way when do we get paid?”
“Upon completion of the mission you will get the rest of the money in the mean time these ATM cards are attached to six different bank accounts the Code is written on the sleeves. you have exactly one third of your requested payment“
“Well then you’re the boss my man.”
09:10 hours Japan the train ride to school
Sousuke had started his school day like normal just a lot earlier he had not been able to go back to sleep so he just took a shower, got dressed and watched a DVD he had been given by Shinji Kazama a program called Martian Successor Nedesico to pass the time well he waited. At 8:30 hours he showed up At Kaname’s apartment and waited for her to finish getting ready at 08:55 hours they were off.
For Sousuke it was a long ride and he kept feeling Kaname's eyes on him. Finally his fuse blew.
“Kaname take a picture it last longer.”
“Huh Sousuke… what is that supposed to mean?”
She grimaced.
“You were staring at me.”
“Hay what’s with the attitude? Sousuke, I have never seen you like this before.”
Sousuke realized that she was right he was being very short with her
“LOOK… no sorry Kaname I haven’t been sleeping well. I am sorry for taking it out on you.”
She put on an apologetic face
“That’s ok Sousuke I was staring. Mostly because I can see you’re tired and I am worried about you after all I can’t have my bodyguard falling asleep in front of the enemy. Do you want to talk about what’s wrong?”
“Nightmares I have been having the same dream all week it’s starting to really piss me…get to me.”
“Please tell me about them?”
Sousuke dug in to his bag and pulled out a canteen of water. He took a drink and began.
“Well the dream is about my past in particular the day my parents were killed.
You see my parents and I were in Helmajistan. my parents were volunteer aid workers for a nongovernmental humanitarian relief agency. They were placed in charge of a field hospital in a small village they had decided to call for me as well I was on a summer brake from school. I was only 6 years old at the time, and this was my first trip any were the war was supposed to be some ways north and this was a rear line hospital so there was no danger or so they thought.”
He took another drink.
“Helmajistan why does that sound familiar? Isn’t that the country you went to on that mission during school break?”
“Yes that it was, and it’s were I ran into Gauron and a unit of Mithral was wiped out.”
“Oh my you never told me, I was wondering why you were so quiet after that.”
“But that is another mater, as I was saying every thing seemed quite safe I was happy and content. Then one day a truck full of wounded men came in from the north my parents had me stay inside the hut and not leave. There I was all alone listening to the commotion as more trucks came in. but soon I heard two sounds, I had never heard before and will never forget. They were the sounds of three Mi Mi 24 Hind helicopters and a squad of old RK 85 “Slav” and brand new RK92 savage arm slaves, with in minutes the village was engulfed in flames the hospital was being over run with infantry and the dead started to pile up. It was ethnic cleansing in its efficient and bloodiest form. As infantry with AKS 74’s,AKS-74U’s, flame throwers, Makarov pistols and hand grenades supported by 12.7,14.5 mm integrated head cannons 37 mm AS rifle fire plus rocket, missile and gun fire from the hinds engaged unarmed civilians. With out mercy”
“Oh my god.”
Kaname exclaimed under her breath.
Sousuke looked at Chidori his eyes seemed to be telling her that if this was too much she could ask him to stop.
“Please Sousuke continue.”
“Very well then, the attackers went hut to hut shooting any one in sight they would then use a flamethrower and grenades to insure they killed any one present. When they came to kill me I panicked and escaped through a small hole in one of the walls of our hut that is when I got this scar."
He ran his finger along his left cheek and the x shaped scar that had always marked him as different.
" There are many things I will not forget from that day the smell of burning flesh the screams of young children and the feeling of hopelessness. But of all the things that these memories bring, the most disturbing is the one I do not under stand.”
“Huh?”
“For some reason recently a new element has been added to my dream a boy maybe eight years old I think his name is Shinji but I don’t remember him he seemed important to me yet I don’t know.”
“Sousuke that sounds like a repressed memories perhaps…”
The train stopped it was there stop and they started the rest of the way to school on foot
09:15 hours Jindai High school, Japan
Sousuke and Chidori reach there school right in time.
Chidori thought that Sousuke was on the right track she would finish that story later. She went to say hello to Kyoko.
It turned out to be a mistake as they were talking the teacher Ms. Kagurazaka went to check Sousuke for his “toys”. He tossed her away in a single shoulder throw. The act was completely on instinct, and for it Chidori rewarded him with a Halisen to the crown of his head.
17:15 hours Groom Lake Area 51)
Shinji sat in the back of the van looking over the data on his “Target of acquisition”. He was quite impressed; they really had a monster here. Oh, the fun he was going to have.
The van sat amongst a few others. Nothing looked out of place. Just an anther van filled with UFO nuts waiting for night to watch a 707 land and proclaim it visitors from mars. Huh, how little did the security forces know what was about to hit them?
Every thing had been planed and a mole would start the game. Shinji watched the real nuts with their cameras and “gray alien” bobble heads. It was funny to him that some people could believe such nonsense. The hilarity of it all; he had to laugh. As he sat back and waited for the clock to strike 17:30
17:30 “The Black Mail Box” just out side Area 51
His wait was short. Right on time the crowds were distracted by the landing lights in the sky. Dylan started the van’s second engine an electric motor that made little sound well Johnson activated the van’s Electromagnetic camouflage system. The van vanished leaving only sparks of ionized air and the slight smell of Ozone.
Shinji smiled all this security out done by a van that looked about ready for the junkyards. He could now see the military jeeps of MPs and the white Sport utility vehicles of the private security forces that watched the perimeters waiting for exactly this situation. Yet there they were resting on their laurels. As advertised the mole in the base had done his job so far all the Anti E.C.S. was off other wise the van would surly be surrounded by a troop of angry Arm Slaves.
16:35 hours Arm slave lab one section RED AREA 51 special research area
Dr. Donovan finished making his final adjustments to the ARX 1100X Arch Angel soon he thought soon all his hard work would go to fruition
18:00 Area 51 special Arm Slave testing field
It took over a full hour and a half to cross the desert from the mailbox to the testing ground. These fields were well away from the air base and were a more resent addition to the “nonexistent” facility well most ever one knew of its work on aircraft. Few knew of the Experimental Joint Arm Slave Development Wing a unit set up with members of the U.S. Army, U.S.M.C., U.S.A.F. and U.S. Navy, Its purpose to put U.S. military Arm slave technology twenty years ahead of any other military force in the world, Even the super secret Mithral.
Shinji knew the operation he was about to engage in it was a simple plan. Bloody swift and clean. As he understood it so did Dylan and Johnson. And soon it would be done and the world would know true fear, as the most powerful weapon ever devised would be unleashed.
The Van pulled up invisible and silent before it the entrance to the target a mountain called freedom ridge the best way to hide a base was still to hide it out in the open and no satellite could look up the face of a mountain it was the perfect camouflage, for the highly classified system of bunkers. Like all military bunkers it had its own water and air supplies it ran under its own power and had multiple entrances. No doubt this one because of its resent construction would even have things to counter act claustrophobia and give the workers the illusion of living like a normal person.
Johnson climbed out of the passenger seat of the van and he took a seat next to Shinji in the second row of seats.
“Excuses me Steve but I got some work to doe.”
He pulled a panel off the in side of the sliding door. He then reached inside and pulled out two P90 sub machine guns followed by a Steyr Scout Tactical sniper rifle.
“Hay Steve doe you mind hoping up front I need the room?”
“No problem. Do you want me to give Dylan one of those too?”
“Would you be so kind?”
“No problem.”
“Thanks”
Dylan chuckled
“So polite we killers are. Just get on with it will yah.”
Both Johnson and Shinji chuckle, after being stuck in the same smelly van they had kind of bonded. But now was not the time for joking it was the time for action.
Johnson set up his rifle and opened a vent window in the door. He brought the rifle in to firing posture and aimed his target the guard at the security gate. The mole had promised the security cameras would be down, but a guard could still set off an alarm. Johnson took a deep breath held it and put the bullet right between the guards eyes in a perfect shot. The fun had begun.
Shinji Dylan and Johnson drove the van down the trough of the entry tunnel every so often stopping so Johnson could take another guard or some unlucky person in the wrong place at the wrong time out. Then they reach the elevators Shinji’s point of entry he hopped out of the passenger seat charged the P90and mover in to a crouch behind the sliding door. Johnson rolled out of the second row and sat ready to close the door from the third row of seats.
“THREE! TWO! ONE!!!,”
On one Johnson opened the door and Shinji jumped landing in a roll to prevent injury as much as possible. As the van door closed Shinji heard laughter and Johnson’s voice yelling to him.
“GOOD LUCK STEVO!!”
Shinji chuckled
“Looks like I am not the only one getting a kick out of this.”
He grabbed a pass card off the closest body and made his way to the lift.
11:15 hours Jindai high school
For the first time in anyone’s recollection Sousuke Sagara fell asleep in class fortunately the class was instructed by the same teacher he had thrown this morning so the chances of him being waken up were quite low. Kyouko got a photo and Kaname gave an evil eye to any potential disturbances. Little did they know that Sousuke’s dream was quite real and taking place almost a quarter of the world away.
19:15 hour’s Shinji made his way through the empty corridors to the every so often taking out a guard with the P90 in his hands. He repeated his mission priority’s in his mind, first infiltrate base check, then secure A S pilot suit, then secure A S and then finally secure all witnesses. He reached the volt a Huge security door that led in to the AS hanger. He checked his watch and then reached in to his pocket and pulled out a special security card that had been in the file from the mole. He slid the card through and entered the code the he had been given.
The massive door opened and Shinji moved in this was it to his right the AS pilots Locker room.
11:30 hours Tokyo time
“Secure arm slave pilot suit check, next objective secure arm slave unit Lucifer, hummm”
Those sitting around Sousuke gave a glance his way.
Kaname shook her head Sousuke was talking military in his sleep.
“Oh you know Sousuke probably dreaming about some video game or anime. Ha-ha”
Kaname was going to give him a good talking to about his sleeping habits later.
19: 30 hours Nevada time
Shinji finished adjusting the sleeve of his pilot’s suit it was difficult to adjust to the new suit but he knew that all arm slave pilots knew this they had to because the pilots suit was more than just a garment it had built in body armor, a hydration system, water pluming for cooling and they are loaded with life support sensors. The suits are made to allow for more comfort well piloting an arm slave for prolonged hours. True one could pilot an arm slave in any thing but the stresses on the body and restraints made the pilot very uncomfortable to the point of unsuitability even the Russians use special suits as unsuited piloting turned as comfortable as medieval interrogation.
He thought of the specs once more
Angel specs / archangel specs
Height nine point five meters
Weight eleven point two tons
Max speed mach .981 (for Archangel unknown the LD could boost its strength, speed, maneuverability, flight ceiling and range.) (Flight mode) with two hundred and fifty kph in land based mode (for Archangel unknown)
Max jump unassisted 50 meters (for Archangel unknown) flight mode max altitude three hundred meters (for Archangel unknown)
Max battle time one hundred twenty five hours
Power source a Ross & Humbleton APR 2500d palladium cold fusion
Armament:
Fixed two Am 11 twelve point five mil meter chain guns
Four Xm 18 wire guns
Ten fixed smoke grenade launchers
Portables firearms:
Twenty-five-millimeter chain gun
Forty millimeter/Seventy-five millimeters automatic and recoilless gun
Sixty-five-millimeter rapid-fire cannon
Geotron Graw-2 unimolecular cutter
(Archangel only) IAI “dark soul” monomolecular cutter Spear
LOSAT missile module
Javelin ultra high-speed missile system
Stinger based land to air missile system
And of course the Archangel is fitted with Lambda driver generation two all of this meant an angel equaled more then a match for the M9 and the archangel would pulverize theARX-7.
“Kashim your days are numbered. You robbed me of my vengeance. The blood on your hands belongs to me now I will take it from you. Then and only then can I be free to find my brother.”
Shinji bolted for the door his blood was on fire he was so close he could taste it soon this test would be over and then the real game would begin.
He had had it with the “group” Gauron had introduced him to, originally Shinji was going to root him self among them and spread his influence like cancer then one day he would strike, use Gauron”s connections ageist him rob Gauron of every thing and then and only when Gauron was a broken mess pleading for mercy would Shinji kill him. But that basterd Kashim interfered. So he waited and plotted for today when a technology that the group could not develop or steal via its normal means so a special mission was drawn up no one would know about it as imagine the humiliation if the us government revealed that its most top secret weapons system was stolen from its most secure base.
Oh that would surly put a nail in the pentagon’s coffin. Especially since not even the president knew about it.
It was another cold dank day but they all were the smell of blood and other bodily fluids was especially foul but after three years in the same cell prisoner number 3409 was used to it. He sat on his rack eating his meal to a prisoner here what he had was a banquet he had earned it and the swollen shut left eye, broken arm cuts, lacerations and bruised were proof of that.
One he thought long ago he had could remember a day when he would have considered what he was eating “dog food” but those days were long dead, dead as his mother his father and his younger brother they had all been killed back in Helmajistan.
All killed by him the man no the devil, the devil that he had tried to kill the devil who had put him here in this perpetual purgatory a place of constant struggle where the only way to survive was to bend to the will of the guards and every so often but another poor prisoner out of his misery before he returned the favor.
“Oh Sousuke I am glad you died my little brother you never had to live like this never had to kill your dreams and denies your soul the way I have.”
And then that voice came from the darkness the voice he had wanted never to here the voice of the devil. The voice of Gauron
“Oh poor child you still have hope do you my oh my and I though this place would have killed it, but I am glad to see you have grown stronger from it.”
At first 3409 thought that the voice was in his head. He had gone through times when his inner demons had played with his mind before. But then he realized that the voice was real and coming from just out side the door.
“So the Devil come to watch his lions why don’t you come in and I ll show you, all my hopes.”
The Devil Gauron chuckled
“Sorry but I am not here for that besides I don’t think you’d survive not in your condition.”
Now 3409 chuckled
“Who said any thing about survival after life here’ hell would be a paradise.”
“Its amazing a man of you age surviving here but then again your brother also found a way to survive…”
The devil Gauron let that linger
“YOU LIE!!!”
“No I don’t he is alive and well and I can let you see him in of course I there is a price.”
“Let me guess my immortal soul sorry but it kinda died the same day as you killed my family.”
“Oh please nothing so dramatic I want you to work for me and my people in exchange you get to see your beloved brother Sousuke.”
“And I suppose you have proof of this?”
A manila envelope slid through the slit the guards use to slip food to prisoners.
3409 picked it up and opened it like a child on Christmas morning. In it was a photo of a young man though it took him a moment the first thing that came to him were the eyes. The eyes he had seen so often in his dreams and memories, yes it was his brother there was no doubt this was his brother.
Though it took him a moment to figure out what the moisture running down his face was 3409 soon put a word to it tears he was crying, Yes he was crying because he had to put his love for his baby brother over his hate and, Choose the evil that would lead him to his only blood to his only hope to the one thing he lived for his brother Sousuke.
“Ok so now Devil I am ready but if you so much as think of my brother with a smile on that corrupted face of yours I will rip your heart out.”
“I would not have it any other way. Shinji Sagara”
3409 stood and the door opened for the second time in his life Shinji Sagara was lead in to shadows by a demon named Gauron.
01:20 hours Japan Sousuke’s safe house
“SHINJI!!”
Sousuke leaped out of bed covered in a cold sweat his USP tactical with tactical light module in hand.
He pointed his gun in to the darkness looking for a target but finding none. He took several deep breaths put the guns safety back on and returned it to under his pillow. In his mind he ran the dream over and over it was the same night mare an assemblage of fact and fiction the destruction of his village the death of his parents and that strange addition, that boy he did not know yet he knew him.
Sousuke got out of bed and washed his face. That boy Shinji who was he? Was he real or just an illusion some part of his mind trying to emerge from the darkness?
Ever since he had meet Ms Chidori he had slowly been changing reviling more of him self not only to her and the others but also him self. Before he had always been afraid to get close too people and even now that was true. The scares of losing that unit back in Helmajistan were still fresh in his mind, but still he had realized that he could no longer shut others out he could no longer play the roll of a cold unfeeling Golem, because he had realized that he liked to be with people not just fellow solders but people his own age people who had problems that he had never thought were problems, like dating, love letters and arguing over what’s for dinner. Silly things that fascinated him but for the past week this nightmare had been on his mind like a parasite constantly feeding off him.
What was it he had always been told oh yes?
“When some thing is on your mind, talk to some one about it”?
This was the last straw tomorrow he was going to talk to Ms Chidori about it.
1020 hours. USA the former, Nevada nuclear test range north of Los Vegas Groom Lake Air Base “Area 51”
The black hawk helicopter they were riding in was making the cuvee sitting next to the Major sick. The Major was sure of it. After all no one was that pale in the desert but the Major was safe as long as the poor S.O.B. kept looking out the open door.
The major also had his eyes locked out; word on the glorious titans making high speed maneuvers on the ground, it was the sixteenth test run of the new ARX-1100 Angel series Arm slaves and all was going well. The Angels, what an appropriate name. They were a joint project between the services to clear the last hurtle that prevented true instant mobilization of Arm slaves. No longer would a landing ship have to risk harm just off the coast of an enemy shoreline to deploy AS squads deep behind enemy lines. No longer would deploying a unit of Arm Slaves require the costly practice of disposable booster rocket packs or the rumored ICBM module they were the next generation of Arm slaves.
But soon the major would have his turn in the most advanced AS ever built, the ARX-1100X Arch Angel, a special version fitted with the llama generation 2 driver. He could see it now how a single AS could be sent in and take threats of huge sizes without endangering a single innocent or having to lay a single Old glory on a coffin and thanking a mother or wife for allowing a there son or daughter to death.
“Well doc, are you proud of your toys?”
“Why yes, major. They are one of my greatest accomplishments, and the best is yet to come.”
“I can’t wait to try out that special toy of yours. Just amazing the implications of your gizmos. I mean, just the projections make this thing sound like some kind science fiction."
“Yet if you told some one twenty years ago about an Arm Slave, they would tell you that was sci-fi. It truly is amazing the leaps and bounds we have gone through in the last twenty years."
“Yah I remember my daddy brining home an apple 2 how it took him minutes to set it up but it took longer to boot and doe any thing then to set it up yet today a computer small enough to sit in a ladies hand bag has a thousand times more capacity.”
“Oh yes major technology is amazing in the right hands.”
The cuvee smiled weakly
10:23 hours, McCarran International Airport
Johnson and Dylan were bored there. They sat waiting for an eternity.
“When is he going to get here?”
“Damn customs! Overly dependent on outdated search techniques -- just slows things down, that’s all.”
“Shut up! Do you want to get us searched to?”
The pair looked how they felt -- dressed in bad, sweaty suits, blending in to the row upon row of fresh foolish tourists come seeking a quick buck and maybe a sin or two. What is it about risk that makes human beings so excited?
But what they were seeking was more interesting, but to get it they would need a special individual: the one they were waiting for.
“Hey, one of these tourists is not like the others,”
Dylan said, pointing at a tall Asian man with black hair, blue eyes and a goatee, wearing a trench coat, with only a duffel bag for luggage. As the man approached, more of his face became clearer. He bore the signs of a hard life, his face scarred, his nose crooked, but his walk. His walk was strong and with a fighting spirit in it.
“I am a traveler from the east, come to meet the hope of salvation in the city of sin,”
He said in a deep, authoritative voice that seemed unearthly from a man who looked about 21 years old. That was the code word to identify him to them as the man they had been waiting for.
“Aren’t we all, my friend? An odd place for salvation is this, but hope springs eternal!”
And that was their way of confirming that these men were his contacts.
They led him to a van waiting outside, and once they were moving Johnson handed the young man a Colt 1911.
“I am Johnson. This is Dylan.”
“Akari. Steven Akari.”
“Nice knowing you, Steve. This is all the data we have on the target of acquisition. As you can see from these surveillance photos, security will be tight.”
“Hey, a lot more fun that way.”
Steven Akari aka Shinji Sagara pulled the slide back on the .45 caliber pistol and smiled.
"Oh yes much more fun."
“By the way when do we get paid?”
“Upon completion of the mission you will get the rest of the money in the mean time these ATM cards are attached to six different bank accounts the Code is written on the sleeves. you have exactly one third of your requested payment“
“Well then you’re the boss my man.”
09:10 hours Japan the train ride to school
Sousuke had started his school day like normal just a lot earlier he had not been able to go back to sleep so he just took a shower, got dressed and watched a DVD he had been given by Shinji Kazama a program called Martian Successor Nedesico to pass the time well he waited. At 8:30 hours he showed up At Kaname’s apartment and waited for her to finish getting ready at 08:55 hours they were off.
For Sousuke it was a long ride and he kept feeling Kaname's eyes on him. Finally his fuse blew.
“Kaname take a picture it last longer.”
“Huh Sousuke… what is that supposed to mean?”
She grimaced.
“You were staring at me.”
“Hay what’s with the attitude? Sousuke, I have never seen you like this before.”
Sousuke realized that she was right he was being very short with her
“LOOK… no sorry Kaname I haven’t been sleeping well. I am sorry for taking it out on you.”
She put on an apologetic face
“That’s ok Sousuke I was staring. Mostly because I can see you’re tired and I am worried about you after all I can’t have my bodyguard falling asleep in front of the enemy. Do you want to talk about what’s wrong?”
“Nightmares I have been having the same dream all week it’s starting to really piss me…get to me.”
“Please tell me about them?”
Sousuke dug in to his bag and pulled out a canteen of water. He took a drink and began.
“Well the dream is about my past in particular the day my parents were killed.
You see my parents and I were in Helmajistan. my parents were volunteer aid workers for a nongovernmental humanitarian relief agency. They were placed in charge of a field hospital in a small village they had decided to call for me as well I was on a summer brake from school. I was only 6 years old at the time, and this was my first trip any were the war was supposed to be some ways north and this was a rear line hospital so there was no danger or so they thought.”
He took another drink.
“Helmajistan why does that sound familiar? Isn’t that the country you went to on that mission during school break?”
“Yes that it was, and it’s were I ran into Gauron and a unit of Mithral was wiped out.”
“Oh my you never told me, I was wondering why you were so quiet after that.”
“But that is another mater, as I was saying every thing seemed quite safe I was happy and content. Then one day a truck full of wounded men came in from the north my parents had me stay inside the hut and not leave. There I was all alone listening to the commotion as more trucks came in. but soon I heard two sounds, I had never heard before and will never forget. They were the sounds of three Mi Mi 24 Hind helicopters and a squad of old RK 85 “Slav” and brand new RK92 savage arm slaves, with in minutes the village was engulfed in flames the hospital was being over run with infantry and the dead started to pile up. It was ethnic cleansing in its efficient and bloodiest form. As infantry with AKS 74’s,AKS-74U’s, flame throwers, Makarov pistols and hand grenades supported by 12.7,14.5 mm integrated head cannons 37 mm AS rifle fire plus rocket, missile and gun fire from the hinds engaged unarmed civilians. With out mercy”
“Oh my god.”
Kaname exclaimed under her breath.
Sousuke looked at Chidori his eyes seemed to be telling her that if this was too much she could ask him to stop.
“Please Sousuke continue.”
“Very well then, the attackers went hut to hut shooting any one in sight they would then use a flamethrower and grenades to insure they killed any one present. When they came to kill me I panicked and escaped through a small hole in one of the walls of our hut that is when I got this scar."
He ran his finger along his left cheek and the x shaped scar that had always marked him as different.
" There are many things I will not forget from that day the smell of burning flesh the screams of young children and the feeling of hopelessness. But of all the things that these memories bring, the most disturbing is the one I do not under stand.”
“Huh?”
“For some reason recently a new element has been added to my dream a boy maybe eight years old I think his name is Shinji but I don’t remember him he seemed important to me yet I don’t know.”
“Sousuke that sounds like a repressed memories perhaps…”
The train stopped it was there stop and they started the rest of the way to school on foot
09:15 hours Jindai High school, Japan
Sousuke and Chidori reach there school right in time.
Chidori thought that Sousuke was on the right track she would finish that story later. She went to say hello to Kyoko.
It turned out to be a mistake as they were talking the teacher Ms. Kagurazaka went to check Sousuke for his “toys”. He tossed her away in a single shoulder throw. The act was completely on instinct, and for it Chidori rewarded him with a Halisen to the crown of his head.
17:15 hours Groom Lake Area 51)
Shinji sat in the back of the van looking over the data on his “Target of acquisition”. He was quite impressed; they really had a monster here. Oh, the fun he was going to have.
The van sat amongst a few others. Nothing looked out of place. Just an anther van filled with UFO nuts waiting for night to watch a 707 land and proclaim it visitors from mars. Huh, how little did the security forces know what was about to hit them?
Every thing had been planed and a mole would start the game. Shinji watched the real nuts with their cameras and “gray alien” bobble heads. It was funny to him that some people could believe such nonsense. The hilarity of it all; he had to laugh. As he sat back and waited for the clock to strike 17:30
17:30 “The Black Mail Box” just out side Area 51
His wait was short. Right on time the crowds were distracted by the landing lights in the sky. Dylan started the van’s second engine an electric motor that made little sound well Johnson activated the van’s Electromagnetic camouflage system. The van vanished leaving only sparks of ionized air and the slight smell of Ozone.
Shinji smiled all this security out done by a van that looked about ready for the junkyards. He could now see the military jeeps of MPs and the white Sport utility vehicles of the private security forces that watched the perimeters waiting for exactly this situation. Yet there they were resting on their laurels. As advertised the mole in the base had done his job so far all the Anti E.C.S. was off other wise the van would surly be surrounded by a troop of angry Arm Slaves.
16:35 hours Arm slave lab one section RED AREA 51 special research area
Dr. Donovan finished making his final adjustments to the ARX 1100X Arch Angel soon he thought soon all his hard work would go to fruition
18:00 Area 51 special Arm Slave testing field
It took over a full hour and a half to cross the desert from the mailbox to the testing ground. These fields were well away from the air base and were a more resent addition to the “nonexistent” facility well most ever one knew of its work on aircraft. Few knew of the Experimental Joint Arm Slave Development Wing a unit set up with members of the U.S. Army, U.S.M.C., U.S.A.F. and U.S. Navy, Its purpose to put U.S. military Arm slave technology twenty years ahead of any other military force in the world, Even the super secret Mithral.
Shinji knew the operation he was about to engage in it was a simple plan. Bloody swift and clean. As he understood it so did Dylan and Johnson. And soon it would be done and the world would know true fear, as the most powerful weapon ever devised would be unleashed.
The Van pulled up invisible and silent before it the entrance to the target a mountain called freedom ridge the best way to hide a base was still to hide it out in the open and no satellite could look up the face of a mountain it was the perfect camouflage, for the highly classified system of bunkers. Like all military bunkers it had its own water and air supplies it ran under its own power and had multiple entrances. No doubt this one because of its resent construction would even have things to counter act claustrophobia and give the workers the illusion of living like a normal person.
Johnson climbed out of the passenger seat of the van and he took a seat next to Shinji in the second row of seats.
“Excuses me Steve but I got some work to doe.”
He pulled a panel off the in side of the sliding door. He then reached inside and pulled out two P90 sub machine guns followed by a Steyr Scout Tactical sniper rifle.
“Hay Steve doe you mind hoping up front I need the room?”
“No problem. Do you want me to give Dylan one of those too?”
“Would you be so kind?”
“No problem.”
“Thanks”
Dylan chuckled
“So polite we killers are. Just get on with it will yah.”
Both Johnson and Shinji chuckle, after being stuck in the same smelly van they had kind of bonded. But now was not the time for joking it was the time for action.
Johnson set up his rifle and opened a vent window in the door. He brought the rifle in to firing posture and aimed his target the guard at the security gate. The mole had promised the security cameras would be down, but a guard could still set off an alarm. Johnson took a deep breath held it and put the bullet right between the guards eyes in a perfect shot. The fun had begun.
Shinji Dylan and Johnson drove the van down the trough of the entry tunnel every so often stopping so Johnson could take another guard or some unlucky person in the wrong place at the wrong time out. Then they reach the elevators Shinji’s point of entry he hopped out of the passenger seat charged the P90and mover in to a crouch behind the sliding door. Johnson rolled out of the second row and sat ready to close the door from the third row of seats.
“THREE! TWO! ONE!!!,”
On one Johnson opened the door and Shinji jumped landing in a roll to prevent injury as much as possible. As the van door closed Shinji heard laughter and Johnson’s voice yelling to him.
“GOOD LUCK STEVO!!”
Shinji chuckled
“Looks like I am not the only one getting a kick out of this.”
He grabbed a pass card off the closest body and made his way to the lift.
11:15 hours Jindai high school
For the first time in anyone’s recollection Sousuke Sagara fell asleep in class fortunately the class was instructed by the same teacher he had thrown this morning so the chances of him being waken up were quite low. Kyouko got a photo and Kaname gave an evil eye to any potential disturbances. Little did they know that Sousuke’s dream was quite real and taking place almost a quarter of the world away.
19:15 hour’s Shinji made his way through the empty corridors to the every so often taking out a guard with the P90 in his hands. He repeated his mission priority’s in his mind, first infiltrate base check, then secure A S pilot suit, then secure A S and then finally secure all witnesses. He reached the volt a Huge security door that led in to the AS hanger. He checked his watch and then reached in to his pocket and pulled out a special security card that had been in the file from the mole. He slid the card through and entered the code the he had been given.
The massive door opened and Shinji moved in this was it to his right the AS pilots Locker room.
11:30 hours Tokyo time
“Secure arm slave pilot suit check, next objective secure arm slave unit Lucifer, hummm”
Those sitting around Sousuke gave a glance his way.
Kaname shook her head Sousuke was talking military in his sleep.
“Oh you know Sousuke probably dreaming about some video game or anime. Ha-ha”
Kaname was going to give him a good talking to about his sleeping habits later.
19: 30 hours Nevada time
Shinji finished adjusting the sleeve of his pilot’s suit it was difficult to adjust to the new suit but he knew that all arm slave pilots knew this they had to because the pilots suit was more than just a garment it had built in body armor, a hydration system, water pluming for cooling and they are loaded with life support sensors. The suits are made to allow for more comfort well piloting an arm slave for prolonged hours. True one could pilot an arm slave in any thing but the stresses on the body and restraints made the pilot very uncomfortable to the point of unsuitability even the Russians use special suits as unsuited piloting turned as comfortable as medieval interrogation.
He thought of the specs once more
Angel specs / archangel specs
Height nine point five meters
Weight eleven point two tons
Max speed mach .981 (for Archangel unknown the LD could boost its strength, speed, maneuverability, flight ceiling and range.) (Flight mode) with two hundred and fifty kph in land based mode (for Archangel unknown)
Max jump unassisted 50 meters (for Archangel unknown) flight mode max altitude three hundred meters (for Archangel unknown)
Max battle time one hundred twenty five hours
Power source a Ross & Humbleton APR 2500d palladium cold fusion
Armament:
Fixed two Am 11 twelve point five mil meter chain guns
Four Xm 18 wire guns
Ten fixed smoke grenade launchers
Portables firearms:
Twenty-five-millimeter chain gun
Forty millimeter/Seventy-five millimeters automatic and recoilless gun
Sixty-five-millimeter rapid-fire cannon
Geotron Graw-2 unimolecular cutter
(Archangel only) IAI “dark soul” monomolecular cutter Spear
LOSAT missile module
Javelin ultra high-speed missile system
Stinger based land to air missile system
And of course the Archangel is fitted with Lambda driver generation two all of this meant an angel equaled more then a match for the M9 and the archangel would pulverize theARX-7.
“Kashim your days are numbered. You robbed me of my vengeance. The blood on your hands belongs to me now I will take it from you. Then and only then can I be free to find my brother.”
Shinji bolted for the door his blood was on fire he was so close he could taste it soon this test would be over and then the real game would begin.
He had had it with the “group” Gauron had introduced him to, originally Shinji was going to root him self among them and spread his influence like cancer then one day he would strike, use Gauron”s connections ageist him rob Gauron of every thing and then and only when Gauron was a broken mess pleading for mercy would Shinji kill him. But that basterd Kashim interfered. So he waited and plotted for today when a technology that the group could not develop or steal via its normal means so a special mission was drawn up no one would know about it as imagine the humiliation if the us government revealed that its most top secret weapons system was stolen from its most secure base.
Oh that would surly put a nail in the pentagon’s coffin. Especially since not even the president knew about it.