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Krystal and Chase: Iron Sight

Part Three: Memories

Coming in just a few miles from the colony borders, a large, black drop ship streaked towards the LZ. As it flew, one of the pilots looked back to their gunners, a pair of wolves who nodded and cocked their pulse cannons. While the guns were not strong enough to take down another drop ship, their constantly recharging ammunition supply and high rate of fire were enough to give any ground forces second thoughts about moving near the craft. The rear turrets, however, were designed to fire heavier, anti-armor rounds in rapid succession. Once they were on the ground, these guns would be enabled for the two gunners waiting for the signal to prep the guns for landing. The pilot nodded back and checked the status of the vehicle they were transporting. It had moved around slightly from the drop through the planet's atmosphere, but not enough to worry about. The goliath machine did not need to be handled delicately. It had been designed to handle as much punishment as an enemy force could throw at it. But even with those statistics in mind, the pilots knew that it still would not survive a fall from one thousand feet above the surface. The weight was a problem though. Due to the sheer size and weight of the Frontal Assault Vehicle, the transport had little maneuvering power if things got too hot. If something targeted them before they could target it and begin evasive maneuvers, the flight would be over for everyone on board. "Do we have a clear LZ?" The pilot asked, looking to his co-pilot. "The Ronins are making sure of that right now." The co-pilot replied, "They'd better have it soon though. I don't know how long we've got until something targets us down there." The pilot nodded, having seen firsthand what a good anti-air gun could do to a drop ship. "Basic shields at full power." The pilot stated, glancing to a chart on his right, "Powering the advanced units now." The co-pilot nodded, tapping at a panel on her right, "Advanced units receiving power now, should be online within a few seconds." The pilot nodded as a quick flash of green light swarmed over the cockpit widows. The second layer of shielding had been activated. And not a second too soon. The pilot slowed the craft down as they passed over the first of the colony's outer walls. Now, all they could do was hope that the Ronins did their job. * * * On the ground, Chase rounded a corner, glancing both ways before darting from cover to the next building. As he moved, the fox glanced back at his partner and the sniper, who were both keeping pace right behind him. Chase sighed quietly to himself, knowing that Krystal would eventually ask him what his connection was to this place. He was sure that, by now, she realized there was one. "I can't tell her." Chase thought to himself, checking around a corner carefully for any signs of the retreating scorpion-like robots, "There's no way I can tell how she'd react, but she'd probably just try to tell me it'll be alright like she usually does when I get worried. I'd rather let my anger be my weapon and deal with Krystal's reaction later. At least I can focus it here." Activating the waypoint on his HUD, the fox checked his handguns again for good measure. He was starting to get low on his ammunition count for now. He could hold out for a while longer, but if they had to fight off another attack like they had just faced, the fox would have to resort to the duel arm blades Bianca had been trying to teach him to use. With that in mind, Chase holstered his handguns, instead pulling the arm blades from their sheaths on his back. It was time to put his training to the test. Chase poked his head out from cover, looking down a wide street with more rubble on either side. The airfield wasn't far now, only a few more blocks. But a problem soon made itself clear. Most of the buildings here had taken the brunt of the damage from missile and laser fire during the attack. Now, most of the buildings had either collapsed or been destroyed completely, blocking the small team from getting to the airfield. Debris filled the street, the twisted steel and broken slabs of concrete strewn everywhere. The most direct route into the airfield was now cut off. "Looks like we're either going around it or under it." Chase explained, looking at Krystal and Echo One, "There should be a service tunnel nearby. It's underground, so look for a manhole or something that could lead down to it." "You talk like you know it exists." Echo One noticed, "Why is that?" "It was...in the briefing." Chase replied uneasily, "This is the only place large enough for the drop ship to land and have plenty of firing room if things get too hot. There was a service tunnel that ran from the airfield to the outside, so techs and supplies could get in and out without any difficulty and avoiding traffic top side for emergency maintenance and such." Echo One nodded, but when she looked to Krystal, she knew that Chase was lying. Krystal's unsure eyes told the tigress the truth that this little bit of information had not been in the briefing. No, there was something indeed tying this fox to this colony. But, just as Krystal had decided to, she would let it slide for now. The second it jeopardized her mission, Echo One would take matters into her own hands. * * * As the three searched the street, Krystal tapped at her HUD. Something had started to mess with it, causing her motion tracker to act erratically. The display was breaking up, randomly showing red dots where there was nothing. With a sigh, the vixen whispered the command to deactivate the motion tracker. "Hey Ronin, are you getting some trouble with your HUD?" she called to Chase. Chase looked up, "Yeah, I shut it down. We might be near that interference Dagger picked up. Keep your ears open for anything." Krystal nodded and went back to searching. As she did, the vixen saw something out of the corner of her eye. Walking over to it, Krystal realized that it was a service hatch! The metal had been warped from the heat of pulse laser fire, making it bend and warp until it no longer fit it's holdings in the ground. During the initial attack, it had probably been used to try to secure a makeshift shelter for the colonists. Now, it was covered in a layer of dirt, dust, and small chunks of rubble, making it almost invisible. Krystal got down on her knees and began to clear the rubble from it. When Chase noticed her, he walked over and began to help. Soon, the warped plating was exposed, but there was another problem. "I hate to state the obvious, but the handle's gone and it's not damaged enough to easily remove." Krystal stated, "So how do we get in now?" Chase examined the cover, his eyes resting on some of the more badly warped areas. With a smirk, the fox wormed his hand under a warped side of the plate. He gave it a little tug, seeing if he could lift it at all. When the plate moved, Chase nodded. Calling over Echo One, Chase managed to get his other hand under a spot on the other side of the plate. "Stand back and keep me covered. No telling what's down there." Chase said. Krystal nodded and pulled her assault rifle to her shoulder, backing up so that Chase had some room. Echo One drew her blaster pistol, powering it up for a shot as Chase grunted, lifting the panel up. The worn and dirty hinges groaned, resisting his efforts. Seeing this, Echo One holstered her gun and helped Chase lift the resisting panel, soon having it open. Krystal pointed her rifle down into the blackness below. Warm air rose up from the tunnel, having been trapped in it for a long time. But something else came up with it. "Phew, that thing stinks!" Krystal gagged, recoiling from the stench and waving fresh air to her nose, "Do we really have to go down there? I mean, what if that air is toxic?" "There's probably more than a few corpses down there." Chase said quietly, his ears lowering as the events of that night flashed through his mind again, "Colonists who thought they would be safe." Krystal looked to her partner, walking over and patting his shoulder, "Are you Ok?" Chase shook his head, "Yeah, I'm fine." Echo One took a look down into the tunnel, "Well, might as well get going kids." "I am not a kid." Chase said with a slight snap to his voice, "Let's move before something comes after us." As Chase climbed down the ladder, Krystal sighed, taking a breath of fresh air before following him down. Echo One smirked and grabbed the inside handle of the panel. As she lowered herself down, the tigress pulled it down with her. With a loud clanging sound, the panel fell back into place. But as it did, A robotic creature climbed slowly down from its perch. The shadows having concealed it from view, and the radar jammer in effect, the bot had remained virtually invisible until now. It had watched as the three mercenaries had entered the tunnel below the surface. But with it's speed and strength, the robot could find a much easier way into the airfield. With catlike skill the robotic creature leaped up onto a pile of debris, batting aside heavy chunks of rubble until the entrance to, what once had been, a space-port terminal was opened. The outside had sustained the majority of the damage, leaving enough room inside for the robot to navigate it's way through the ruins of the terminal. Once it had it through, the robot hid itself in the shadows once more, waiting for it's prey to arrive. * * * Down in the tunnel, Chase tapped at his shoulder, turning on the flashlight built into his shoulder plate. As the light shone ahead of him, Chase glanced back at Krystal as the vixen illuminated the light on her HAR. Echo One followed behind them, keeping her blaster ready. Chase took a second to activate the tunnel's ventilation. With a few fizzles and pops, the clanging whir of the ventilation could be heard sounding from the end of the tunnel. Soon, the air was slightly cooler and considerably less scented with years of decay. But the units soon gave out, years of disrepair finally killing the air-flow units. As the three mercenaries walked, Chase tried to avoid looking at anything that could have been a colonist at one point, for fear of recognizing them. But, as he walked, Chase's mind replayed that night again. The only reason Chase remembered this tunnel was the fact that he had used it to escape. While other colonists hid in the tunnel, praying that the robots wouldn't find them, Chase had other plans. Even at just six years old, Chase had known that safety did not come from hiding in the ground. It came from keeping on the move, a lesson he had learned very quickly that night. As he walked, Chase's mind projected images of the other colonists that night, huddled in fear and confusion, all around the fox. The sounds of gunfire and explosions echoed through the tunnel from the air ducts above, the ones that were now mostly either destroyed or damaged. The fox wiped a rogue tear from his eyes. None of them had survived. The second Chase had reached the end of the tunnel, panicked screams had reached his ears, followed by gunfire and furious metallic cries for blood. Chase had made it out with the help of another colonist, who had shoved the fox kit out of the tunnel. But as the colonist tried to climb out, a bot had grabbed him, pulling the anthropomorphic colonist back into the tunnel. By the time the bots had finished, Chase had found his hiding place among the ruins of several large compression tanks, a hole in one of the tanks had been just large enough for him to curl up inside of until rescue teams found him. Now, the tunnel was a grisly reminder of that day. A day, Chase promised, that he would never allow to happen again, even if he had to die to prevent it. His heart wanted to cry, but his mind was determined to keep moving. Chase followed his mind, right into something that didn't belong down in the service tunnel. Chase smacked, nose first, into an invisible wall! With a yip of surprise, rather than pain, the fox fell back onto his tail. Shaking his head, Chase felt a hand move under his arm to help him up. "What happened?" Krystal asked as she helped Chase to his feet. Chase rubbed his nose to relieve the pain, "Not sure. I think I hit something." "Hit something? Please. There's nothing here to-!" Echo One began as she started to walked by, when she walked right into the same thing Chase had. As the tigress cursed and grabbed her nose in pain, Krystal placed her hand in front of her, feeling cold steel against her palm. But to her eyes, there was nothing in the path. Slowly, the vixen slid her hands across the invisible wall, trying to figure out what it was. Instead, Chase drew up his handgun and shot it! Krystal cried out in surprise at the shot. She was about to scold Chase, but held her tongue as the invisible object suddenly became visible. A sparking hole was left where the shot had penetrated, a lucky shot that had pierced the small cloaking generator. "Must be the radar jammer." Chase observed, "Well, this does explain why we couldn't locate it on the surface." Krystal nodded, examining the device. She smiled, having encountered a similar device before. "I think I can deactivate it." The vixen observed, "Give me a minute." Chase nodded and pointed his handguns down the tunnel. As he did, the fox reactivated his motion tracker, watching as it flickered wildly. As Krystal worked with the device, the fox checked his ammunition quickly, refilling a half-empty magazine with a few spare bullets he had brought along. "Great, I've got three clips left." The fox though to himself, locking the clip back into his weapon, "Best only use one gun." Glancing over at his partner, the fox saw that Krystal had a panel open and was using her armor's interface to communicate with it. "What're you trying to do?" Chase asked. "A simple spoofing trick Slippy taught me." Krystal muttered, focused on the task at hand, "Basically, I want to trick it's systems into thinking we have the clearance to disable it. But trying to spoof a four hundred character authentication key isn't easy, especially with my lack of hacking equipment." Chase nodded and paced for a minute, thinking. It took another two minutes for Krystal finally successfully trick the radar jamming device. With a smile, the vixen stood up and nodded to her partner, "Done." With a nod in return, Chase glanced to his recon HUD, the motion tracker working as it should have. "Dagger, do you copy?" Chase asked after activating his com-link, "Ronin calling Dagger, do you copy?" "We read you Ronin." Came the reply, "What've you got?" "We think we found the radar jamming device." Chase said, "Ronin-2 has disabled it." "Affirmative Ronin, the area is nice and clear." Dagger replied, "That should make life easier for the drop crew. Good work." "You picking up any hostiles?" Chase asked. "Negative on that." Dagger acknowledged, "It looks like they could be using the ruins as cover from orbital tracking. You're on your own until that drop ship arrives." "Roger that, Ronin out." Chase ended, and then he looked at Krystal and Echo One, "Good job Ronin-2, but we're not done yet." "Don't tell me there's more of these things." Krystal sighed sadly. "No, that cleared up the fuzzy areas." Chase explained, "But there's still no telling where those Sevfel units are hiding. With any luck, the drop ship will arrive very soon so we can finish this mission quickly." "Then what are we waiting for." Echo One asked, "The sooner we get done, the sooner we get paid." "Not that simple." Chase explained, " Orbital's out of the picture since the ruins could be covering the Sevfel forces you two saw running away. With those barriers they're using cloaking their heat signatures we can't track them in the ruins. Without that, there's no telling what's waiting for us once we get out of this service tunnel. Keep your gun handy." Krystal nodded, understanding that the mission had just gotten a bit harder. She was out of ammunition for her sniper rifle, and her S-32 HAR was down to it's last few clips. The vixen hoped that the drop ship would also be brining ammunition. "The longer we wait down here, the worse it'll probably get up there." The tigress commented, "So let's not wait any more." Chase nodded, glad that Echo One had said what he had been thinking. Without any further adieu, the three made their way to the end of the service tunnel, Chase pushing open the heavy hatch slowly as he peeked out. After seeing that the coast looked clear, Chase pushed the plate up more, feeling the resistance of years of dirt and grime in the hinges. But one good shove was all it took to get the plate to open. Chase climbed out, reaching a hand in to help Krystal out of the tunnel. Once she was out, Krystal crouched down and aimed her assault rifle towards the ruins of an old communications tower, sweeping from it to an old terminal that had been destroyed years ago. Suddenly, the vixen heard a loud, grinding sound. Glancing back at Chase, Krystal saw that Echo One was helping him to shut the tunnel's plate cover without making too much noise. Needless to say, it did not agree quietly. Krystal stood up and watched as Chase tapped at the com-link on his armor again. As he paced, talking to someone on the other end, Krystal looked around. The airfield was oddly clear of debris compared to the rest of the colony. All around the airfield, the terminals and other buildings had sustained major damage. Most were on the verge of collapsing into themselves if they hadn't already. But the strew carnage the vixen had seen in the streets seemed to have been removed or pushed aside to keep the main landing zones clear. Hundreds of long scrapes in the ground all looked too fresh to have been done twenty years ago. The gashes cutting into the concrete pads and leading to piles of debris and wreckage, indicating that the ruins had been moved by a recent force. "Now why would this airfield be clear?" Krystal asked herself, examining the remains of an old transport, scrape marks on the ground and steel from being moved, "Most of this stuff seems to have been pushed aside recently." Chase nodded and shut of the com-link. With a sigh, the fox looked around, remembering what he had seen that night. "Does this look odd to you Ronin?" Krystal called to him, "Ronin?" "Huh?" Chase's ears perked, and then he realized that Krystal was talking to him, "Oh, what's up Ronin-2?" Krystal sighed and walked up to him, her emerald eyes filled with concern and a hint of anger, "Alright, enough is enough. What is wrong with you Ronin? I've never seen you this out of it before." Chase turned away, "It's nothing, alright? Krystal grabbed his shoulder, "It's not nothing! You've jeopardized your life and now you're almost in a daze for the second time this mission. Something is clearly wrong with you. You're always much more focused than this." Suddenly, Chase's motion tracker went crazy! Unidentified dots had begun to pop up on it from every direction. Immediately, Chase drew his Stinger. Krystal sighed, knowing that, once again, the mission had to take precedence over her partner's mental state. "We will discuss this later." Krystal said gently to him, "Just remember, I'm your partner, Chase. You can tell me anything." "Thank you, I'll remember that. Now, get to cover!" The fox ordered, and then he looked over to the tigress, "Echo One, find a firing position and wait for my mark. Focus on the closest ones first." Krystal nodded and ran behind a the twisted ruins of a transport, putting her back against it after pulling a half destroyed supply crate over to use to steady her rifle. As she checked her weapon, the vixen's emerald eyes darted to the left and right as several scorpion-like robots advanced towards them. Slowly, she swiveled her weapon, making sure that the robots could not get out of her line of fire. Echo One had climbed into a supply ship's cockpit, aiming her pistol out the broken canopy. Sighting in more of the approaching horde, the tigress growled softly, slowly putting pressure on the trigger. Keeping the bots at bay would be difficult with a sidearm instead of her sniper rifle, but at least this blaster couldn't run out of ammunition. To the surprise of both of the girls, Chase replaced his handgun, instead drawing an arm blade from its sheath. Carefully, Chase sized up his opponents, thinking over the little training he had received before the mission had begun. Quickly, the fox glanced around himself, noticing several large supply crates among the ruins of crafts that had been shoved aside. They were close enough to use as cover if the fox had to fall back. But the closest thing to him was several large compression tanks. "Let's hope I can live up to your expectations, Bianca." Chase thought, drawing his Stinger again, "Here goes nothing."