Friday, October 23th
Early in the morning, Elya woke me up.
Sorry for disturbing your beauty sleep, but B.S.O.D asks for your help in a matter that might interest you.
I accepted the call. The familiar voice of B.S.O.D. greeted me with “Good Morning, Miss McCallan. We need your help in apprehending one of the cultists you ran into lately.”
Still yawning, I asked “Which one, and in what way can I help?”
“Amanda Smith, whom you called Shaver Girl in court, has broken into the home of Alexander Miller AKA Robot Mask and taken something. Before the police got around to arrest her, she disappeared and was later seen rowing a boat out to sea where she was picked up by some unknown submersible.
“We are already assembling a team, but the “Spectracopter” you showed us before would allow us to look for her with a far lower risk of being detected.“
Interesting. That might be the chance to grab some more Mack tech. I had my doubts that Shaver Girl herself was that important. Worst case, she would come back as a Magical Mack Girl, and one more of them would likely be less dangerous than an expedition behind enemy lines. But I was inclined to go anyway. I was a lot less sanguine about taking Wendy along. The mission might require some stealth and Miss Trigger Happy was not the type for it.
I wanted to know more. So I started to inquire about specifics.
“First, who would I be working with?”
“A team of MGs you are already familiar with, the Battle Bugs, a team of HANAF marines and myself. We are going by helicopter.”
“Isn’t it unusual that a commander risks their life at the front?"
“Yes, but nobody else is as familiar with Mack operation patterns as I am. And this operation is of the highest importance. We suspect that the Macks are trying to establish themselves at the east side of San Juan Island. That has been no-man’s land so far, but a new Mack base so close to Victoria would be a grave threat. Now we are gambling on the submarine delivering Shaver Girl there.”
Shit. I replied “Then we must hurry to catch her in time. It is not that far to San Juan Island. Where does the team plan to land? It might be fastest if I fly there directly.”
“Yes, do so please. Meeting point is the west coast of San Juan Island near Deadman Bay.” She added some coordinates.
While talking, I had already thrown off my pajamas and was struggling into my undies one-handed. But before I hung up the phone, I had a few more details to make clear.
“One more thing. I have a new helicopter, larger than the old one. It has eight small flat, ducted rotors around the cabin, that should help your team to recognize it. I will also bring a few of my Macks, but we can talk about that after landing.”
After throwing on my clothes and my armor, I knocked at Wendy’s door. A very much not sleepy voice (those Mack brains had their advantages) replied “What’s up?”
I needed to give her a reason for not coming along.
“I‘m going on a mission with SHOCKS, and yes, it is on very short notice. Could you organize the base defense in my absence? Like we have practiced?”
The answer came in a somewhat unsure tone “I guess so. But what is going on?”
I answered “SHOCKS are going after Shaver Girl, they hope she will lead them to a yet unknown Mack base. But not leaving the base undefended is really important!”
Wendy finally agreed, but I could hear the hesitation and need for personal revenge in her voice. “OK, if you say so. But make sure to kill that bitch for me!”
I subvocalized to Elya “Give control of the base to Wendy until further notice.”
Defense by Wendy would be better than no defense, she actually had some talent. The lack of an Elya to coordinate things would be a handicap though.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Nevertheless, I crammed three Battlecats, three of the Type 4AE anti-kamikaze-drone Macks and a few Spectracopters into the Explorer. Plus reloads for the Battlecats and various minor equipment such as my hacking tools. Then I lifted off in a hurry.
A short time later I was overflying Victoria, trying to catch up to the SHOCKS helicopters. SHOCKS command had advised me they were a few minutes ahead of me, but I soon spotted them as they were looking for a landing spot.
Once landed, Magical Girls, HANAF soldiers and I poured from the various aircraft. SHOCKS had arrived with two old pre-First Emergence helicopters. I immediately launched two Spectracopters and sent them towards the east coast of San Juan Island, as that seemed the most plausible place for the Macks to hide. Minutes later, they arrived there and I had them split up, one flying northwards and the other southwards.
Soon the north helicopter discovered a black shadow slipping below the coast. Going closer, I saw a camouflaged door leading under the steep coast east of Dream Lake. I shared the image with the team, and B.S.O.D commented “Clever. They know we rarely patrol the area. Without spotting that submarine, we might not have found the Mack base for months.”
After a short discussion with the pilots, she ordered us to proceed to the east side of Dream Lake. Which was only a kilometer from the Mack base, and I instructed Elya.
“When you see units that are immediately dangerous to the team, neutralize them. With units that are only good at melee, point them out but wait for my command to shoot.”
In short order, we took off again. Approaching Dream Lake, I noticed a drone of a type I had not seen before. It looked slow and flimsy. A recon drone optimized for endurance? Mack or HANAF? I called the other team on the radio. The answer came as “We have not arranged any drone reconnaissance!”
“Elya, shoot it!”
A double crack from the top turret heralded the demise of the unknown drone. Debris rained from the sky, dropping towards the lake.
Targets eliminated: 1 x unknown reconnaissance drone, presumably hostile
Reward… 1 point
New balance... 166 points
“What, only one point?”
It was like a Model One in purpose and capabilities.
I guessed we could expect unwanted company shortly. To detect it early, I ordered both Spectracopters to patrol the nearby area. One over the Mack base, one over our landing site at Dream Lake.
Seconds later, Elya warned me of incoming enemy drones, Type Six. She immediately opened fire. The top turret fired nonstop now, two of the double cracks per second. The machine gun on one of the helicopters joined in, sending a stream of tracers across the sky.
Looking up, I saw a swarm of small drones, probably Type Six, approaching. Almost every double shot from Elya ripped one of them to shreds, either in a detonation or just spiraling to the ground as debris. The machine gun was less effective, and it looked like the Mack drones would overwhelm us by sheer numbers.
On instinct, I tilted the Explorer to the side so the bottom turret had the drones in its field of fire as well. Elya immediately caught on, and the rate of exploding drones doubled.
Unfortunately, my defensive maneuver also made me drift away from the helicopters. While none of the drones came close enough to threaten my air car, the drones went after the increasingly unprotected helicopters instead. One of them slowed down and a Six caught up to it. The explosion ripped into the engine section. Trailing smoke, it staggered towards the shore, losing height. I had reversed course by now and closed the distance to the helicopters again, but the sky was already clear of Sixes.
Below me, one helicopter made a safe landing, but the other one with the MGs aboard did not quite reach the shore and sank quickly. A bunch of Magical Girls broke out by ripping the door off, which only made the craft sink faster. B.S.O.D. dived back to help the pilots out of the helicopter. Finally, a bunch of thoroughly bedraggled MGs and two equally dripping pilots reached the shore.
As it was late October and as cold as expected, I realized that hypothermia might be a serious problem. I had my Macks exit the Explorer to make room, switched the heating to maximum and offered the cabin to the MGs for warming up. B.S.O.D. gratefully accepted, while the soldiers eyed my Macks with considerable distrust.
I told them “These are mine and loyal!”
The Type 4AE were already marked as Vanguard Command units, and I immediately ordered them to spread out some twenty meters and watch the sky. For the Battlecats I quickly grabbed my red duct tape to put a “VC” in coarse letters on their flanks.
We ended up waiting half an hour for the girls’ clothes to dry somewhat, which thoroughly ruined our element of surprise. Yet B.S.O.D. as the team leader insisted on continuing the mission.
Eventually we set out with the Battlecats taking point. The 4AEs were left behind to protect the landed aircraft against kamikaze drones.
Halfway to the Mack base, we ran into two Type One scouts. I signaled the soldiers to hold fire, while Elya used the Mack-zapper on my shoulders to subdue the Macks. One of the Macks submitted to the hacking attack transmitted by the crackling, ionized beams. The other one resisted and was cut down in a spay of sparks by the claws of my Battlecats.
From experience I knew that the subdued Mack would be a viable spy for a while, but then the Macks would blow its cover somehow. Even Elya could only speculate on how exactly they did it.
So I chose to use that time to find out as much as possible. With a short explanation to B.S.O.D. I sent it back to scout the base for us. A spectracopter would act as relay for the data it picked up. The One passed dozens of Fours and Battlecats that were prepared to fight off an attack, then it approached a camouflaged entry into the ground. Suddenly the image from its camera tumbled, then the signal cut out. On the video feed from the Spectracopter I saw that a Mack Battlecat was ripping it to shreds.
I turned to B.S.O.D. and said “I found a base entrance, but there is significant resistance ahead.”