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Post by Evangeline on Jun 20, 2010 20:34:44 GMT -5
"On it." Pilar turned back to her link with Control and informed them of the situation. Control then authorized a direct link through Cmdr. Sheridan. "Hopefully that should give us some warning."
The technician, a barrel-chested ape of a CPO by the name of Winsecki, took up a similar weapon. They were ready to fire out of the helo's doors if necessary. The HH-65 strain did not have inborn armament, but Capt. Desmairais had one added on, aimed and fired by eye control. She had been training extensively with it the last two years.
CPO Winsecki sighted his battle rifle in an experimental fashion and grinned. "They give us any trouble, and they'll find out that you just don't mess with crazy-*ss polacks." He put his hand over his mic as he spoke, so that last bit was only for the other two men to hear. He then addressed the helo, "Captain, we're ready and loaded for bear."
"Well, you'll have a grizzly on your hands soon enough." Desmairais responded with grim humor. "But we don't have enough space to nail THAT hide to a wall."
The CPO turned back to Bryan. "All set, Beetle Bailey?"
<<< Gonna PM you in a bit >>>
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Post by elizar on Jun 20, 2010 22:08:54 GMT -5
After Miles was satisfied that the commander had been told of how the weapon may still be dangerous, he took a moment to relax a bit. He floated a bit in the little free space there was. "I am so going to take a vacation after this." This was the first time he felt himself and his crew to be in danger by someone malignant enough to pull the trigger.
"Ready." Bryan answered with a smile. He wondered for a moment if he should take some shed of Carl if there was indeed firing to be done. A trophy of the one who had almost killed his mother. They perhaps were not communicating like mother and son, but there was love between them.
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 21, 2010 18:31:18 GMT -5
Picard suddenly had another consideration, one he'd never had until a few months ago. "If Serafina had any idea of what was going on right now, she'd be worrying herself sick."
"He's slowing." Capt. Desmairais cautiously continued her approach, "But still not answering us."
It was then that something whizzed by her, inches from her rotor disc, and she tilted to the right and throttled up to avoid it. "They started the shooting a little too early. Morons. He must be dragging the bottom of the barrel for crew these days. Hold your fire till we see them on deck, then do what you have to to clear it."
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Post by elizar on Jun 21, 2010 19:39:15 GMT -5
(( I have a virus on my laptop. I guess my upgrade to Windows 7 will come sooner than expected, despite the marginal state of the wallet. I need the laptop for school. ))
"You've gotten real close now." Gates said. "But don't worry. We'll get back to the ground so you can snog her."
"Aye Captain." Bryan said along with the others. He stifled a chuckle as he noticed the big melding pot inside the helicopter. He was pure ash-born, Winescki a humanverse Pole, and the third, who had introduced himself as Taiq Samson, whose features were of both caucasian and nomad. His last name indicated that the slanted eyes came from his mother. "Just bring us in closer Swiftwind, then we can nail those bastards." Taiq said as patting the side of Desmairais. He had grown up with one of the mixed tribes of nomads and helicopters, hence the nickname over helicopters.
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 21, 2010 22:18:49 GMT -5
<<< Yikes >>>
"With any luck, she won't know what kind of risks we're taking." Picard initiated another series of maneuvers. "And I'll damn well make that ****er work to get a shot at me."
"You're certainly working to get us all puking sick." Lionel cracked back. "But things could be worse."
Desmairais didn't hear Samson, being intensely focused as she dipped and dagged to avoid any fire coming off Carl's decks. Finally, she let off a volley of shots which sent the forklift shooter scurrying for cover. That was the cue for the others to find targets and start shooting as well, anything that corresponded to the description of "armed flunky." While the helo and crew were keeping the crew's heads down, the vessels moved forward to engage Carl himself.
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Post by elizar on Jun 21, 2010 22:47:36 GMT -5
"The beam's pretty wide when it hits this elevation." Gates said. "It's radius is a bit larger than you're long."
"The camera was designed for geo-stationary orbit." Miles said. "The movements are making it hard to keep track of the target."
Bryan, Winescki and Taiq opened fire. They mananged to get few targets before the rest smartened up and ducked to cover.
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 22, 2010 22:15:03 GMT -5
"Sorry." Picard sighed. He stilled momentarily. "Looks like they're starting to cut him off."
Cmdr. Stokes took that as the cue to unleash the surface fleet, and everyone went to their assigned tasks. Lt. Branscombe was to keep Carl distracted with heat pulses, applied to the tender spots on his hull, while the cutter deployed her bow gun and shot a volley at the fugitive's stern section, aiming at his rudder. Her intent was to disable. She had already released the boarding party in their inflatable, and gave the Jewisons the go-ahead to follow with their reinforcements. Randy's user talents would provide them with a shield to protect them from any fire from Carl's decks.
Winsecki smirked as he saw the crew scramble for cover. "Must have run out of all his good talent."
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Post by elizar on Jun 23, 2010 6:26:50 GMT -5
Miles just looked at Winsecki as if he had seen something terrifying.
"Incoming!" He yelled in the radio, seeing his own words turn into a fountain of red angry color. He always hated the visual episodes, they were disorientating.
"Move Picard!" Miles called. He didn't know just who was going to be attacked, but he wasn't going to take the chance.
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 23, 2010 16:16:53 GMT -5
Capt. Desmairais wasn't sure who this "incoming!" was for, but she threw all her effort into evasive maneuvers, sides heaving and foam flying off her jaws. Some of the foam flecks struck Winsecki as he leaned out the door and got off a few more shots, to which Desmairais added more of her own as soon as she realized what was happening, concentrating fire on the ship's mid-deck.
"Oh, s***!" Lt. Branscombe looked up as whatever-it-was sitting on Carl's deck opened up and fired a thin stream of energy into the sky.
Picard was almost tumbling as he fired his retros and struggled to clear the space he'd been occupying, just before shutting his eyes as a blinding light struck him, and he felt a surge of heat on one side. "Did you see that? I think if it hit us, we wouldn't have known a thing, just here one minute and gone the next."
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Post by elizar on Jun 23, 2010 16:31:10 GMT -5
Bryan looked up as if he were trying to see where the stream would go. But it was futile. The episode passed and he could see clearly again. "Think the user inside is willing or is being held against his or her will?" He asked on the radio.
"We're okay, we're fine." Miles said on the radio relieved. Even though control would have noticed the moment they had been hit, he still felt the need to tell them that they had survived.
"Who knows what that beam does to living beings." Helen said sourly.
"The satellites couldn't been used after they got hit." Gates said. "Do we retreat or stay?"
Miles frowned. The last time the laser had been fired it had gotten off three shots in quick succession.
"We stay." He finally decided. "Lionel, whip up some random directions for Picard to follow. I'll try to program the camera to track with the directions."
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 23, 2010 17:44:58 GMT -5
"No way we can know 'till that thing is secured." Cmdr. Stokes replied, "Which we have to do NOW. Don't like to cripple him, that means we have to tow him back, but he's not leaving us any choice." After a second's interval, her bow gun delivered several rounds with its characteristic thump-thump-thump sound. Plumes of water went up around Carl's stern, and a couple hit home. The ship bellowed and howled in response, his rudder now useless.
"Gotcha." Lionel started entering a set of instructions for the shuttle. Picard was almost bristling, more angry than scared.
Pilar rubbed the wall section in front of her, as if trying to settle the shuttle down. She had only rarely seen him irritable, let alone swearing mad. But at least he was still listening to Miles.
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Post by elizar on Jun 23, 2010 18:56:34 GMT -5
Bryan took a deep breath as recovering from the last episode. He watched as Carl howled in pain and anger. Sorry guy, but you've done too much to get out of this scotch free. He thought, and looked at his features.
Carl looked angry and desperate, he had to know that the game was up. His own crew had stopped firing with exception of few terrified souls and he was disabled and dead in the water as most humans put it before the converge.
Another deep breath was taken, followed by the feel that someone was touching him while also punching him. He figured that the gentle and almost erotic touch came from the ocean smell while the violent punch came from the smell of metal or the gunpowder.
"He's not giving up. Carl is doing something else." Aside from the difference of synathesia, he kind of figured it was something else than another shot. The buildup was different. "Any help here please?"
"Picard, dodging manuvers." Miles commanded again. He wasn't going to take the risk. "And Lionel, be sure those things are truly random."
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 23, 2010 19:54:38 GMT -5
Randy Jewison's voice answered back on the headset. "Bryan? It's from the same source, right? If he's building up but not about to fire, he could be -- Chrysler! Nicole, Annikki, just listen and do what I say! Just collect everything you've got and relay it to me, now!"
Carl turned his gaze to them at last, regarding them with sort of a sick, sardonic smile. "I'll go to hell, but you're all coming with me."
Picard tendered his acknowledgment and began to follow Lionel's instructions. His tension had become a dull, smoldering anger, mostly directed at the now-crippled ship below. "Alright, just find something to hold onto."
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Post by elizar on Jun 23, 2010 20:11:08 GMT -5
"And I joined the army to get away from all this user shit!" Bryan yelled in frustration, but hadn't broadcast it over the radio, and the rotor was too loud for anything to hear right now. It was the navy who had been pretty good at getting all the users, the army did not care that much for them, but had joint missions with the navy or air force in case they needed the users.
"Just ya try Carl, but you'll live to see another day." Bryan muttered.
Miles sighed. Picard had never behaved like this before, not this angry. He wasn't the kind to blow up in someone's face, but to resent them and being a passive-aggressive prick for undetermined amount of time.
"Just calm down Picard." Miles said. "We're going to need you leveled during the descent." Or I'll be forced to use the manual control. Miles added silently. He couldn't imagine how it would feel like if someone just took over your actions and you couldn't do anything about it. But it was a very real possibility with Picard. Things could go wrong in space, so someone had to bring him down safely.
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Post by Evangeline on Jun 23, 2010 20:45:49 GMT -5
Randy, being the senior and most experienced of the users, redirected and reshaped the energies into a missile of sorts, and flung it at what he perceived was the power inlet for the container at Carl's midsection. The cable and fuse box smoked and sparked, and the shield he'd placed around it glowed momentarily, with another blinding light. The long interviews with Harold and Ursa after straightening out Kam had come in handy, with regards to putting together picture of the basic technics of the thing. To other observers, it appeared almost anticlimactic, a fizzle after the flash.
"Too bad, so sad. I guess we all live." the little powerboat chuckled. His mate beside him gave Carl a feral smile. She still remembered her days of captivity and slavery under his control.
"Board him." Cmdr. Stokes snapped curtly. She approached him at midships, snarling, as the humans in the inflatable and with the Jewisons began to throw lines aboard. She sunk her teeth into him to keep him still for them, and waved an aerial for Lt. Branscombe and Annikki to join her.
"Thank you, ladies." Randy acknowledged the other two users. He'd had Lt. Branscombe under his tutelage for some time, hence knowing her on a first-name basis.
Capt. Desmairais swept over the ship, looking for signs of any further resistance. The humans were swarming aboard, bearing large-bore shotguns that were more than enough to give a forklift pause. It was at this point, with her adrenalin subsiding, that she finally felt the bullet that had buried itself in her rear section, close to the tail. It wasn't a disabling injury, but it was starting to hurt enough. Her breath was getting ragged and the white foam streamed from her mouth. It was time to land.
Picard, muzzling his anger, buried himself in following orders. He didn't want for Miles to have to pull his strings. He had his pride, after all. But he was sure the first handy inanimate object he encountered was going to end up destroyed.
Pilar, while talking to Control, continued to rub the wall ahead of her. Sooner or later, the sensation would get through to him.
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