บท 245: Blitzkrieg

"Finally!" Lucy exclaims as she receives intel from the tapped Arasaka systems that a certain Mr Tanaka was scheduled to visit the prison. It'd been two weeks of waiting but finally the man was stepping out of whatever bunker he was hiding in... The temptations to get back at David for helping kill his son and humiliating him on live TV appeared too much.

David's tracker had not moved, and while there seemed to be some disturbance with its connection, it wasn't anywhere near life-threatening from what the crew could tell. With that said, she didn't waste any time in contacting everyone to launch the assault on the prison.

For it, they'd 'stolen' some AVs from Sekaiheiwa, three aerial vehicles which were fully equipped with .50 Calibre side guns, EMP grenade launchers, and enough armour to shield the earth from the sun... Metaphorically speaking...

Lucy, Kiwi, and Sasha had all been niggling away at the prison's ICE walls since before David had been arrested, the prison's budget Netrunners weren't all that useful against them, and so a back-connections had been made for them to slip in when the time was right.

They hadn't used it, aside from recovering the schedule for the inmates. Tanaka's visit should line up with when the prisoners were headed to the underground courtyard from their cells. A good explosion and power outage should force the prisoners into a quick riot.

The robots manning the prison, once they were reset by an EMP, would be easy to recalibrate to the crew's preferences. Especially with Lucy working on it... Yeah, she'd be staying back at base to get all of this done, but Ori had persuaded her that she was better off in the Net than running around shooting people, same with Kiwi.

Well, let's just hope Falco's recent flying lessons had gone well...

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"Alright, you all know what we're doing, if I have to explain it a third fucking time I'm gonna beat someone to death! Get it!?" Ori exclaims as he folds down a balaclava in the base's dressing room. "We've got a five-minute window to catch the prisoners where they need to be, and a fifteen-minute window before Tanaka shoves fifty CCs of liquid lead in David's ass, so keep your heads in the game!"

"Yeah, and we've had to sit through you telling us five god-damn times!" Rebecca says, "We know how important this is, so stop being a douchebag and taking your nerves out on us!"

"Listen, just trust us to do our jobs right and we'll get the kid out in no time." Falco adds.

...

"Alright... Now we can Falco if something goes wrong." Ori adds, prompting a cheer from Rebecca at the cowboy's confused expression.

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"Alright, we're nearing..." Ori reports over the comms as he flies the AV closer to the prison. He was second in the formation, the first was the empty AV that was flying via autopilot and Kiwi's control. It'd take all the damage from the prison's anti-air equipment and allow them to get close enough to deploy the EMP.

Third in the formation was Falco, who had Rebecca and Sasha with him. Obviously, Ori was alone in case the first AV went down too quickly. He could survive a crash while they, probably couldn't.

[ATTENTION! YOU ARE ENTERING UNAUTHERIZED AIRSPACE! LEAVE NOW OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON!!] the message pops up on all the AV's feeds before the anti-air guns start unloading at them.

*DAGADAGADAGADAGADAGADAGA!*

Bullets fill the sky, and the first AV gets absolutely pummelled. One thruster gets destroyed almost immediately, causing the AV to spin in a slight circle as it descends towards the prison. Ori and Falco's vehicles take some damage too, but nothing more than some deep scratches in their armour.

They were firing back, both Ori's and the decoy's AVs had aiming AI which were sniping at the ground cannons, while Rebecca was leaning out of Falco's AV firing the side gun, to excellent effect.

"God damn! They ain't lettin' up are they!?" Falco exclaims over the comms, inwardly wondering if this is what the Brits felt during WW2 blitzkrieg bombings.

"Just hold on, we almost got a quarter of their cannons, they'll be defenceless soon!" Ori responds.

"The decoy won't last much longer, I've lost a second thruster!"

"Kamikaze it into the prison then!" Rebecca shouts.

...

"Yeah, do that." Ori urges, "Aim at that fat group of AA trucks!"

"Affirmative..." Kiwi acknowledges, forcing the AV up and turning it downwards, allowing the last of the thrusters to move it directly at the target.

They try and shoot it down, but even after taking a third thruster, it was too late to stop it. The multi-hundred thousand dollar vehicles slams directly into the enemy, exploding into a huge fireball that destroys anything near it.

Sirens were now blaring, the prison's security systems all turned up as high as they can go. With half of the anti-air guns handled, or at least the ones that could actually penetrate their armour, it doesn't take long to clear up the rest.

"Gain distance and find a place to land. I'm gonna drop the bomb!" Ori orders. Anything too close to the detonation site would have all its systems fried. Outside of that range and they'd only be temporarily deactivated, since they needed to leave somehow, the last AV was damn near required.

"Ah, shit... Just realised how much this is gonna hurt." he mutters to himself as he flies above the centre of the prison. The nanites certainly wouldn't appreciate it... "BOMBS AWAY!"

He turns the AV slightly and opens the cabin door, allowing the large EMP bomb to roll out and falls to the ground below. Before it hits the earth, it detonates, sending out a huge shockwave and instantly shuts down both remaining AVs.

"SHIIT!" Ori roars as he feels his Cyberware buzz and crackle against his brain stem. His vision goes white as if he'd been hit by a flash bang, but fortunately he'd already located a good place to land, allowing the AV to fall in a controlled manner.

*CRASH!*