Lyria pushed the throttle of the RTHV to max. She wasn't about to let a small squad of Wolf units stand in her way. While the red colored one caught her attention, she knew it alone wouldn't have the power to stop them.

The transport bucked back, the front end slightly raising upwards from the increase in speed. The four Wolf units parted, two each moving to each side of the road. Lyria realized that they weren't aiming to stop the transport, but line up in pursuit. As the transport blew past, the wolf's gave chase.

Lyria knew they wouldn't be able to penetrate the thick armor of the RTHV, but they definitely didn't need to follow them back to where they were headed. It was also worth noting that they mechs could cause the transport to crash if Lyria wasn't careful. She had experience handling the large vehicle, but anything could happen.

Lyria glanced down at her control panel and located the weapons lock system. She pulled the speaker system up, releasing the lock system simultaneously, "Hey, we got baggage. I need some of you to jump onto the side turrets in the mid-bay as well as the heavy gauge rifle up top. We need to get these guys off of us before we can head to where were going."

Amanda jumped up from attending to Briggs, who was coming back to his senses, and responded through the small intercom next to the door, "We hear you Lyria. We need anybody on ammunition duty?"

"No, that's not neccesary. This machine's got an autoloader function installed. You guys just need to aim and fire." Lyria checked her monitors as they were beginning to pass through the outskirts of the city. She was going to have a difficult time keeping the vehicle on a straight line for them to fire thanks to all the debris and small roads that lined the residential areas. 

Amanda and Akatsuya proceeded through the doors to the mid-bay, and located each turret. Germaine followed behind, slightly limping from the kick he had endured. In the middle of the mid-bay was a ladder leading up top. A heavy assault turret was located above, housing a direct in seat firing position for the gunner. The two small turrets on the sides were operated from within the mid-bay, a secondary computer system set up to assist with recoil dampening.

Germaine ascended the ladder, emerging into a small dome like area almost too small for his size. A twin handle system was used for firing control with the triggers on each handle. A small seat was attached to the frame of the turret, allowing the gunner to spin with the motion of the turret to help with tracking. For Germaine, it wouldn't be a problem to hold the units off.

As Amanda and Akatsuya took their seats at each turret, the computer screen in front of them powered on, a heads up display being overlaid onto it. There were two units on each side of the transport, the unique red one hanging close to the rear of the vehicle. As they went to line up their shots, the red mech suddenly struck the transport, shaking it from side to side.

Lyria reeled on the controls, holding the vehicle steady as the red mech pulled back from the strike. A channel suddenly opened up in her comms link and a voice crackled to life, "This is Director Char Malkovich of the Helix corporation. You are hereby demanded to bring your vehicle to a stop and surrender. Failure to do so will result in live fire upon your vessel and your safety cannot be guranteed."

Lyria almost wanted to laugh at the way the man had addressed her. They had already opened fire on civilians with the intent to kill. What was their defintion of live fire? "Um, sorry Mr. Director, but you've kind of already violated those terms. You see, your men opened fire on a group of civilians back in the Underground."

A moment of silence greeted the channel before Char spoke up again, "Don't think I'll fall for your lies. My men reported that you took those civilians hostage as a means to gurantee escape. I'll repeat, this is your last warning. Bring the vehicle to a halt or we will proceed to stop it ourselves."

Lyria began to be amused at his negotiation attempts. Something seemed amiss though. Why would he think that they had taken the refugees hostage? Had there been an error in their communications, or was there something larger at play going on?

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Before she could address Char again, Lyria felt a slam into the side of the RTHV. She pulled up her camera feed on the right side and spotted the culprit. It appeared as if one of the mechs had latched onto the hull and was trying to throw the thrusters out of equilibrium. That wouldn't do.

Lyria called up her intercom once again, "Hey, right side. I need to somebody to get that thing off of us." Akatsuya looked at his heads up display. He lined up the triangular reticule with the crosshairs and opened fire. The turret's gunfire ripped through the hull of the mech, shearing an arm off of the machine. It detached from the transport and crashed downwards, plowing up the ground as it slid. One down, three to go.

Lyria glanced back at her camera feeds. There was still one more on the right with the other two on her left. She looked ahead up the road, spotting an intersection in the road. A small store sat on the corner of it, a perfect opportunity to take another unit out. As they approached the intersection, she reeled the transport left, kicking the back end around. The second mech had no time to react.

The mech bounced off of the hull of the RTHV, losing it's thrust balance as it was tossed away. The pilot attempted to restabilize mid trajectory, but it was too late. The mech slammed into the small building, burying itself under the rubble that collapsed onto it. Two more to go.

Lyria looked back at her screen. The red mech had moved from the rear of the transport and was coming up alongside them. The second had begun to initiate a strafing thrust, and was leveling its attached rifle at the walls of the RTHV. Gunfire suddenly began to pepper the side of the transport. Before Lyria could cue up her comms, she heard their turrets open fire.

Amanda tried to line up her fire on the mech, but every time she came close it would alter it's speed, altering between positions at the front and rear of the transport. As Amanda was struggling to perfect her aim, Akatsuya saw the red mech come into view. On it's right arm, it carried the same rifle as the other mechs but on its left was a large gauss looking weapon, different from the traditional operating arm most Wolf units carried.

Akatsuya ignored the reticule placement that appeared on screen, focusing instead on the gauss weapon he saw. He didn't know if the transport could handle that kind of firepower, but he didn't want to find out. He opened fire, grazing the mech with hot lead. It darted left and returned fire with the machine gun attachment. The jarring was making it even more difficult for Akatsuya to get a lock on the perfect shot.

Germaine watched as Amanda struggled to place a bead on the standard mech. Left, right, left, right. He was beginning to see the timing of its movements. He lined his turret up on the left, waiting. It was as if time had slowed down when he pulled the trigger. The mech darted left, directly into the large caliber round he had fire. The shot ripped through the center of the mech, exploding in a fiery blaze, crashing into some debris.

He quickly reeled his turret around to the right. It was clear that Akatsuya was having trouble with the special red mech. It's movements were much faster than that of a standard Wolf, almost as if it could read the firing trajectories before they were made. The mech suddenly leveled the gauss rifle at Germaine and fired. A large projectile streaked past the turret, leaving a small channel in the hull of the housing.

Too close. Germaine aimed for the leg thruster of the mech while Akatsuya aimed for the weapon. Germaine fired a shot off in front of his target while Akatsuya fired directly at it. The red mech darted back, right into Germaines shot. The shot ripped through the leg, black smoke pouring out of the thruster. Still holding its speed with the transport, the mech lost its ability to move so quickly. Akatsuya took the opportunity and directed his fire at the body of the mech.

Each shot slammed into the mechs hull, chipping away at the metal protecting the machinery itself. A shot suddenly tore through the arm and shoulder of the mech. More smoke began to pour out of the machine, faltering as it tried to keep pace. Lyria grinned and pulled up her comm link once more, "Her, Mr. Director. That's a pretty nice machine you have there but I think we broke it. You also should check on your soldiers. I didn't realize making them mindless drones would also make htem liars. Your men fired the first shot, so you should look into that."

Lyria cut the channel, watching in her rear view screen as the mech began to slow down, sliding to a halt as its thrusters began to fail. As it came to a halt, it suddenly raised the gauss cannon once more. Lyria braced for the shot, trying to figure out which side she would have to sway to. As the mech began to grow smaller, she thought she saw it lower is weapon.

Lyria leaned back into her seat, letting out a pent up sigh. They had made it out safely, for the most part. She corrected their course, pulling up the intercom one more time, "Nice shooting guys. We should be in the clear now if they haven't set up another ambush. Next stop, the beautiful city of Celestia."

Germaine, Akatsuya and Amanda felt a weight lift from their shoulders. They would live to fight another day. As they removed themselves from the turret positions, Akatsuya felt a bit of nostalgia flow into him at the mention of Celestia City. Why did it seem so familiar to him?