Chương 93: REDEEM BY SERVICE
(Room)
"Youu bloody w**k**!" groaned Richard, looking at his smoking Exo-suit.
James panted, looking at the sparks coming off his Exo-suit.
During their fight, both managed to slice into and damage the power train of hydrogen fuel cells of the opposing Exo-suit, rendering them unwearable.
Richard's expression turned forlorn.
"Now its personal," he said as both he and James pulled the emergency chord, their Exo-suit coming off.
James looked at Richard wearing the a high cut ballistic helmet and body armour under the Exo-suit as required by the full combat load since he entered battle prepared, while he is wearing nothing but his uniform underneath his Exo-suit as he had pried off the Exo-suit from a wounded comrade, giving Richard an advantage in defence.
Richard threw a punch. James deflected it to the left with a counter punch, then raising his left fist, punching Richard straight in the face.
James then followed up with an elbow blow, Richard quickly raised his left elbow to block the blow. James pressed on with his attack, giving Richard a hard kick to the shin in response.
Richard groaned in pain, ducking down to avoid the follow-up kick from James that was aimed for his head, exploiting the opening to head-butt James in the chin with his helmet, pushing James back.
He then turned, dodging James' counterattacks while throwing consecutive punches at James' torso and neck, disorienting him.
"AHH!" yelled Richard, grabbing a disoriented James up, and throwing him into the wall beside.
James landed on the wall with a loud thud, and fell back onto the floor, coughing in pain.
Richard charged, intending to finish him off.
Seizing a chance, James kicked Richard off-balance, tripping him. Richard fell onto the floor. James then quickly got up, kicking Richard in the face before tackling him back down as Richard tried to get up.
He held Richard in a throat lock, intending to make him lose consciousness through suffocation. Richard coughed and gasped, removing his helmet and using it like a rock, smashing it against James' head.
Blood trailed down James' forehead, dying his grey-white space camouflage uniform red. Yet, he held on to Richard with all of his strength.
"Zap!" a taser shot out, stunning Richard, and he dropped the helmet.
James turned to Kiyoji who is still lying on the floor, weakly raising a taser.
"Thanks..." he groaned.
(Outside)
"The Deep Dwellers are no longer organised! They found it!" exclaimed Phineas, firing a volley of infrared missiles, deflecting the tendrils that were sprung at his Mecha.
He deployed his plasma blade, jabbing it into the flesh of a Deep Dweller and brought his Mecha to full speed, slicing open a deep wound.
He aimed his missiles at the cavity, only for it to click empty. He looked at his displays.
"Ah sh*t, I am out of missiles," fumed Phineas, "ah well, no worries now." He said, selecting his plasma cannon and firing, pushing the Deep Dweller back through inflicting significant pain.
"Yeah, that's nice of you to say," retorted Sean as he and Frederica looked alertly at the smoking Apollo Cosmos, preparing themselves to retaliate against any surprises that "Spectre" may throw at them.
"NOW!" ordered Xiao Tian. He, Nanami and Phineas led the 5 remaining Mechas of Diamond Detachment forward, forming a wall of fire, blasting all of their plasma cannons, missiles, railguns, autocannons and fusion cannons at the Deep Dweller, forming a reverse C wall of fire.
The 3 Pasteur-Class frigates lined up their broadsides, opening fire with all of their plasma cannon batteries from the other side.
As they did so, the Einstein-Class battlecrusier slowly drifted over.
"Sir, we have restored power to the fusion cannons!" reported the an Admiral aboard the Einstein-Class.
"FIRE!!!!" yelled the Captain, using a piece of cloth to stop the bleeding in his torso.
The heavy fusion cannons revved, and soon the beams of destruction shot out.
"Scatter!" ordered Nanami, and the Mechas maneuvered out of the way.
A blinding purple flash later, the operators looked out of their cockpits, seeing the Deep Dwellers vaporised.
"YEAAH!!!" cheered Huntington and the others in the control room.
"WOO-HOO!" cheered Singh as he hugged Xu Qing in the hangar, celebrating with Ariel and the maintenance crew.
"Well done Freddie!" commended Sean.
"You too," smiled Frederica softly.
"Pilot of the Apollo Cosmos!" radioed Nanami on the public frequency. "You have been surrounded! Power down at once!"
"Spectre" powered down as instructed, calmly looking at the UNSSD Mechas escorting a Pasteur-Class frigate that is activating its tractor beam to pull Apollo Cosmos into its hangars.
Suddenly, a radar alert came online, and then a strange Mecha teleported itself right next to Apollo Cosmos.
The Mecha is completely black in colour, with red parts glowing off its body, its slim and dark, like a banshee.
"Woah, radar's jammed," said Ariel, looking at the fire control radar on the railgun.
The same happened to all UNSSD radars in the area.
"WHAT IS THAT?" yelled Maia at Richard after James and Kiyoji met up with them, aiming her X95 rifle at his head.
"Hasta la vista," winked Richard.
Aureila and Camila bit down on something in their mouths, while Camila quickly touched Richard.
"Spectre" too bit down on something in his mouth.
"Duchess Livia sends her regards," said Richard as their bodies voidified in a burst of white light.
The UN operators fired, but their bullets hit the air and the walls around them, ricocheting.
"Ceasefire!" yelled Maia, and they stopped shooting.
"Spectre" too disappeared, bringing Apollo Cosmos with him. The black Mecha too disappeared.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" exclaimed Sean in shock.
"I did not detect a single atomic energy output from that black Mecha," said Xiao Tian, "but its Cosmic Energy output is off the charts. It's powered by a Cosmic Energy drive train, its new and not human tech."
"It's from Vanguard then," analysed Xiao Tian.
"The Extremist factions in the Dynasty has replicated our Mecha technologies?" asked a concerned Phineas.
"Never mind that," answered Xiao Tian. "Right now they have retreated, and we need to reorganise our forces."
(1 week later, temporary dormitory given to Team Zero)
"I hereby announce the verdict of the military court and the decision of the Director himself," said Marshal Romanov in a hologram video.
"As of effect from today, Team Zero is temporarily re-instated with all security clearances and command rights guaranteed. But, all actions of Team Zero requires surveillance and over watch by the Commandos, and the military commission if Captain Kiyoji Sato deems it necessary."
"Understood, Sir," saluted Xiao Tian. The rest of Team Zero saluted.
Marshal Romanov ended the call. Xiao Tian is then called away for a meeting by Huntington, leaving.
"So what now?" complained Santos. "We are Schrodinger's traitors, both traitors and loyalists at the same time now?"
The Team Zero operators are all low moraled due to this verdict.
Xu Qing chuckled.
"Let's have a quick meeting," he said, gathering everyone over.
"The Commissar is having a meeting?" joked Nanami.
"Let's think this through," said Xu Qing. "Kiyoji Sato and Zhou Xiao Tian are close buddies since the moment they met each other in UNSSD."
"Kiyoji is Xiao Tian's contact in the Commandos whenever the UNSSD SOC requires the intelligence capabilities of the Administrative Bureau. Let's say you are UNSSD's higher ups, if you don't trust Team Zero, what will you do?" asked Xu Qing.
"I will keep them on a tight leash," replied Sean.
"Ok, then who would you task to watch over them?" asked Xu Qing.
"I would assign someone who is distant from the members of Team Zero, so that they will enforce their task sternly and with an iron fist," replied Louis.
"Correct," replied Xu Qing. "But now they assigned someone close to Xiao Tian, which is open knowledge in the higher-ups, and this someone also under ranks Xiao Tian. Now, assuming the Director and the military commission are not fools, what do you think is the intention of this arrangement?"
"I see now," analysed Nanami. "Assigning Kiyoji to oversee us is the higher-ups' implicit agreement for us to do what we want and pursue our leads, Kiyoji isn't here to over see and suppress us, but rather an ally they sent over."
"Bingo," commended Xu Qing.
Nanami pulled Xu Qing over. "Is there a reward for the correct answer?" she cooed.
"No, unfortunately," laughed Xu Qing, averting his gaze from Nanami's body.
"Time to redeem by service," commented Phineas.
Just then, a message popped up on Nanami's device. She opened it.
"Big Sis' message!" she exclaimed, opening it.
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