[story] Saber Chase

[Dartz]

Grr. Yuku ate post.

Yet another story startup. I really need to slow down :p But it's what my 'muse' wants, I suppose. I really should finish Spices of Life.

Timeline is 2022.

It was raining on Genaros, a cold rain that seemed to search out and seep through any cracks it could find. It crawled down Maico’s back despite the best efforts of her overcoat, sending chills up through her spine.

This was a bad idea.

She clung tight to the roof as a gust of breeze whipped stinging rain into her face. All this for a scoop chase.

This was a really bad idea.

She checked her camera. It still seemed watertight, despite the best efforts of the artificial weather.

They warned her there’d be days like this.

But even reporters had to eat. And in order to eat, she had to bring in stories nobody else could. And that meant going where nobody sane would. That meant hanging off the side of a freshly built decaying apartment block. It meant being cold and hungry and shivering and doubting every second of what you were doing for a few brief seconds of footage a network might want to buy, or that might suck a few more click-throughs from her website advertisements.

Survival training didn’t come close to this.

At least she had that to fall back on. She knew how to stay out of sight of the local ADPolice. There were snipers up on the roof above her, training on the boarded-windows of the grey building below. Air-cars ringed the building with a fence made up strobing blue lights and brilliant white spotlights. Individual cops darted between cars, while others did their best to keep the gathering crowd of onlookers at bay.

If she was out there much longer she’d start getting hypothermic.

She flicked down her AR goggles, dipping in to the information that was flowing through the air around her. Tapping on a keypad on her wrist, she navigated to the nearest news site for an update. The feed popped into being... an ground view of the building taken by a camera crew she could see from her own vantage point.

“..ADPolice negotiators say they are making progress, but refuse to divulge further details.. Requests to the kidnappers to allow us to hear from Ms. Quincy herself have gone unheeded. The Kidnappers have only re-iterated their monetary demands and...”

No change. No change for the last 6 hours. 100 hours earlier, Mia Quincy was kidnapped on a shopping trip in the city’s Tinsel City district by a group that’d taken exception to some of Quincy’s policies and decided on a trip down revenge road. An hour after that, the first demand arrived in J.D. Quincy’s inbox. Ten million credits in a week, or you’ll have a catgirl for a daughter. An hour after that, the ADPolice were on the case.

6 hours ago, they tracked them down to the building opposite. For the last 6 hours, they’d been held at a standoff. She glanced down once more, and felt her pulse quicken. She snatched her camera and wiped the lense clean, before aiming it straight down.

She clicked over to the ADP radio frequency...

“...ambler is a go. I say again. Moonlight Rambler is a go.”

Thumping through the street were three K-11’s. Hulking, Patrol-surplus battlesuits that were years out of date but still deadly dangerous.

Oh no. They were going to use the battlesuits to make the entry.

Maico had the horrible feeling shrinking inside of her that she was about to videotape a bloodbath. Movement high up grabbed her attention. For a moment, she thought she was looking shreds of paper caught in the breeze. A moment later, she realised whatever they were, they were under control. They were flying under power.

Four of them.

They grew in size, dropping fast out of the clouds with a gaseous rush towards the roof of the building. They each hit with a hollow bang, a pair of shoulder mounted drive turbines blowing pebbles and shreds of cardboard. Thinking quick, she focused her camera in on what she guessed was the leader...

A red one. Humanoid. About the size of a landmate and carrying a cannon obviously borrowed from a starfighter, but it seemed much lighter armoured. The structure was visible in places, along with the pilot and what looked like a road wheel. There was a green one, a white one and a pink one... each in roughly the same configuration.

Where have I seen these before, she wondered?

She swore blind she knew what she was looking at, but just couldn’t place it. Her brain came up blank. She’d find out before she recorded the voiceover.

A cyberdroid emerged from a door on the roof. Metal skinned, reflecting the surrounding neon lights in lurid bands, it was born to kill. Luminous red eyes scanned for targets. It took a moment for it to spot the attackers on the roof... It didn’t get the chance to do much more than that. It seemed to burst from the inside out in a ball of grey smoke and orange embers chased a moment later by a double-thunderclap thumping against the inside of her chest.

Steam rose from the barrel green one’s cannon where the rain was pattering against it.

With an unseen signal, both white and green landmates seemed to open... both pilots stepping out. Hardsuits. They were women wearing Stingray hardsuits. Modified, with added weapons, but obviously Stingray’s. She focused in on the white one; no markings, just blue and white paint. She glanced around. Saber green seemed to look at her. A heartbeat later, both sprang out a pair of wings, and rode pale white jets over the edge. Blue and Pink Sabers detached from their machines, running for the front door. Antennae mounted to Pink’s hardsuit seemed to be waving at her.

Bubblegum Crisis fen. Actual Knight Sabers.

The mercenary part of her mind was already totting up what she could sell this for. The rest of her was hoping they weren’t just another group of wannabees who were about to get innocent people killed.

All four motoroids - she remembered the name now - took up covering positions, scanning other entrances. Maico scanned down the building, searching for White and Green. They seemed to be hovering in mid air, just below the boarded windows, waiting.

Beneath on the street, the ADPolice were struggling to comprehend what was going on. One of the searchlights tracked towards them, highlighting them both for a half second. The voice over had just enough time to ask what those two figures where, before they smashed through the boarded windows.

Maico’s heart was pounding. She clung desperately to her camera, like It might be her only lifeline.

Red and Green motoroids blew holes through the roof, dropping themselves inside. White and Pink stayed to cover roof. A burst of gunfire cackled inside the building before being abruptly cut off. She thought she saw it strobing through the window. There was another muffled boom; it sounded like a pom-pom grenade.

A series of dry snaps, sounding like breaking lollipop sticks were followed by a deep drumbeat that rattled the whole building.

Then silence.

And waiting.

Maico held her breath. The ADPolice committed their landmates, barging through the front door. The two motorslave powered themselves up out of the holes they made, blowing debris. All four Sabers followed behind. Pink didn’t seem to have any thrusters, her suit seemed to have some sort of reactionless drive. White could be seen to check each of them. Two blades protruding forward from her wrists snapped back into her forearm. Green reeled in what appeared to be stiff fishing wire to a pair of spools on her wrists. The cannon mounted on Blue’s shoulder locked back into place.

Job done, they remounted their motorslaves, and boosted off above the cloud layer sending debris spiralling up off the roof in their wake.

Maico was tracking them all the way up, catching one last image of the red motoroid and the blue Saber aboard it before it was lost inside the loglo of the clouds. Raindrops stabbed at her eyes, giving her double vision for a few seconds. She rubbed at her eyes to clear them, and the vigilantes were gone.

“...ADPolice are reporting, all kidnappers have been neutralised. The hostages are safe... the hostages are safe.”

Mia Quincy emerged from the front door at the same time as two landmates appeared on the roof, searching for the mysterious vigilantes.

-----

“It’s obvious. The Knight Sabers are Kangaroos.”

Maico closed her newsreader. Predictably, her video set the interwave on fire. It was dynamite. It was a goldmine. It would keep her fed for another 2 months at least. She wasn’t sure what was more satisfying.... a hot meal, or pulling one in for the independent reporters out there.

But still, there were no clues as to who these mysterious women were. It hadn’t stopped people from guessing. It hadn’t stopped others from mocking them for it.

Another story on the Sabers might set her up for the next year.

“Kandor, Crystal Tokyo, Genaros,” Maico murmured to her camera. “And Sara. That’s where Bubblegum Fen gather. The hardsuit vigilante wannabees, those who liked the idea of an all-female armoured sentai team without the fuku, and the ones who preferred the cyberpunk themes under the 80’s ness,”

Her own reflection in the camera lens had nothing to suggest.

“They aren’t from Genaros,” she said. “ADPolice confirm that they were tracked leaving the station. Sara’s a possibility, but it doesn’t seem like their style.”

Her hunch was that they were Senshi. Her training had taught her to follow her hunches.

But of course... it seemed the obvious conclusion. They were obviously women - the hardsuits seemed to be designed specifically to accentuate the female aspects. Even the motorslaves had been built with high heels.

And there was Blue standing there, for a few seconds in the classic Senshi pose while her shoulder-cannon stowed itself away. Blue’s body-language screamed Senshi... it screamed ‘action-girl’.

“Draw up a list of all those who have the money or technology to put something like this together, who have connections to the Senshi, and with this level of training.” A beat. “Former Great Justice or Sammie?” she asked.

The camera seemed to stare at her. What? What can I do? I’m just a camera, you’re going to have to do all of that. All by yourself.

I need a muse, she thought as she sighed.

“The other option. They’re Supers.” She glanced at the still image on screen. “They certainly have a level of skill that suggests some heavy training. But if this was SHIELD, they would’ve admitted it by now...” A thought, “Or not been caught in public.”

She advanced the footage forward.

“Maybe they didn’t see me.” she mused. “But of course they don’t seem too concerned about that spotlight either. And if they were Supers pulling something like this, the JLI would have released some sort of statement by now about them. And they would have a records of Fen who’d have that level of training - which they won’t share with a mere reporter such as I.”

But which they would use to cross-reference capabilities and put together a short list of those capable of pulling a stunt like this. It wouldn’t take them long to go from there, to four names.

Still, until that happened, she was still going to follow this up. She was a reporter specialising in public interest stories, and if these Knight Sabers were anything right now, they were the public’s interest.

“I have an appointment with the traffic control officer for the station - Ned saname - I am hoping he will be able to tell me if these Sabers came from within the station, or a craft outside. And if I’m lucky, where that craft went.”

She turned the camera off.

Maico rode the metro to Quincy tower. The man himself was ‘spending time with his daughter at a private retreat’. She’d been to the press conference already. Predictably it had been more about the rescuer, than the rescuee.

The lobby decor was designed to intimidate. It was a conspicuous opulence intended to make any visitor feel small and powerless. Black marble with white lightning streaks running through it. Lush red carpetting. Brass fittings. Any employee she could see was turned out in an immaculate business casual.

She crossed the carpet to the reception desk. The android behind gave her a vacant, glass-eyed stare.

“May I help you Miss?” she intoned with a plastic smile.

“Maico Tange,” she said. “I have an appointment to meet Ned Saname,”

“Yes, please take a seat. Mr. Saname is currently busy, but he will be with you as soon as possible,,”

“But of course,” said Maico. “I can imagine why,”

The android seemed impervious to conversation. It stared at her waiting for her to leave. She found herself a chair, an uncomfortable wooden one that reminded her just who was in-charge and who was the visitor, and scanned through the latest postings on these Knight Sabers.

“So, we got an Official Statement from SHIELD: Last night’s group of mercenaries on Genaros Station were not operating under our jurisdiction or authority. “

“Do-ho-ho. Of course they wouldn’t say it if it was them you know they have their own deniable agents.”

[i[“If it was deniable they wouldn’t deny it. They’d just go very quiet and this would be the last we ever heard of this group.”[/i]

“Someone hasn’t heard of plausible deniability and black-ops,”

“Wasn’t a very good blackop if someone like Maico Tange could video them,”

Hey! Whoever they were, they were right about one thing. If it was SHIELD, they would either have admitted it outright, or gone very quiet with something deliberately ambiguous. If they were Supers acting on their own, they’d just bought themselves a world of trouble.

“Ms. Tange, I presume?”

“Yes, Mr. Saname?”

“Call me Ned,” he smiled, “Mr. Saname’s my dad,”

“But of course,”

Ned looked like he hadn’t seen much sleep for the last three days. What should’ve been a sunny, broad-cheeked and bright-eyed face was darkened by a 5-o’clock shadow and a pair of sinking, sleep hungry eyes.

She was led through a rabbit warren of corridors before coming to a lift that required a retina scan, a keypad and a key card to enter. Maico kept her system recording the whole way up.

“As you can probably tell, it’s been a busy few days. I’ve been dealing with Con-Sec all morning, never mind the ADP, a bunch of Sammies who think these Sabers were one of theirs. The JLI are coming, and one of Haruhi’s lackeys was on the comm. And the reporters,”

He yawned. Obvious and fake. Yes, Maico, you are being a pain and keeping me from my wonderful soft bed.

“Thank you for your help,” she offered, “It shouldn’t take too long,”

“It won’t. I’m going to show you the same things I’m showing all the others,”

“That is?”

“We’ve got a track of them moving through the station. We know their entry point. And we can track their origin back to a spacecraft,”

Maico’s eyebrows rose,

“Really?”

“Yup,” And Ned was so proud of that. “And whoever they were, they knew this station real well. They used some of the maintenance hatches for the weather system,”


“Oh. So they probably lived here?”

“Yup. Whoever they were, they did more than live here. They probably worked in this building,”

“You’re certain?”

“Yup,” he nodded once more “I’m afraid I can’t get you a list of names, but it’s something to keep in mind.”

If he couldn’t get a list of people who’d worked there for her, where would she get one? She knew a few people in the Patrol who might be willing to help.

The main control room was easily big enough to host the rematch of Wave Convoy versus Captain Bajeena. It was split over three levels, with one whole wall given over to the big board. It was a spaghetti tangle of information that seemed to almost be beyond mortal comprehension, arranged in a pattern that had very little relation to the actual station. .

Maico was led to another lift which took her up to the third level, then along banks of computer terminals manned by various operators. Some were human. Some were mod’s. Some were cybers. One had her hair done up as a whole medusa of data cables most of which seemed useless.

She was shown to a small, out of the way terminal screen. A catgirl figurine clung to the side. Maico started when it turned to face Ned.

“Hey Ned!” it called out. “You’ve got fifty-five new messages. Whee!”

“Later Nat’” said Ned. “Bring up the sensor data we have. Start playback from from five minutes prior to first contact with the intruder,”

“Again?” the catgirl figurine rolled her eyes.

“Yes. Play it again, or no botsnacks today,”

“Awww.... alright,”

The image onscreen changed from the standard corporate logo, to a two dimensional abstraction of the L5 stations, with Genaros at the centre. Pixels representing shuttlecraft darted between numbered stars. Earthward was signalled with an arrow.

“This image is a composite of sensor data from us, New Yavin, A Baoa Qu, Beta and Central,” Ned explained. “Right now it’s showing about average traffic for that time of day. Airspace around us is a little more curtailed for obvious reasons.”

Genaros was surrounded by a dark shadow, with lines of traffic slowly queuing for entry. A red target entered from Earthward, snaking between the stations rather than following the prescribed traffic paths.

“And that’s the ‘Sabers spacecraft?”

“Yup,” Ned nodded, “That’s it. It’s skimming sensor nets, trying to minimise it’s signature.” A new window popped up beside it, listing radar and thermal information. “It’s definitely a stealther. Thermal, radar and electromagnetic returns first led us to think that it might’ve been a shuttlecraft... something about the size of a Senshi Bolitho.”

“Stealth in space?”

“Yeah. It’s not about being entirely invisible. It’s about reducing your sensor signature so that you appear to be something you’re not, something beneath notice. They just got lost in the traffic orbiting the station, right up until this happened,”

The radar cross section jumped by an order of magntitude.. it went from shuttlecraft-sized, almost up to airliner sized.

“Oh my...”

“Yup.” Ned nodded, again. “Near as we can tell, this is when they opened their cargo bay doors. That’s the signature of spacecraft’s interior.” Four small dots emerged, each one assigned tracking numbers. “And them right there, are the Sabers themselves. Energy signature matches that of a motoroid alright so it’s them”

“But of course... “ She’d seen those.

“Now watch this. This is how we know they used to work here. They used an external access hatch, normally used to refill the water tanks. Got in through there, and through a hatch in the spindle itself over the main city.”

The four signals moved towards the station. Then disappeared. The view switched over to an internal grid-map of the station, the cylindrical city-layout projected onscreen. Four targets appeared on screen, skimming across the map in formation.

“They hugged the spindle, hiding in the holographic clouds, before dropping straight down on their target.... and now you know what happens next..”

“They hit the building. Free the hostages, and make their escape.” said Maico.

“Right along the same path too. Out through the spindle and access hatch, back to their ship which remained in orbit. Now here you’re going to see it do something interesting. Look at the engine trace as it breaks out.”

Maico looked at the display as it spiked, then at Ned.

“That’s a big engine pushing it. Based on the acceleration rate, and field dynamic interface data we’ve got something that masses at least eighty to a hundred tonnes. There are very few stealth ships in that size category.” he smirked, “And only one that was ever produced for general sale,”

“And you know what that is,”

“I’d bet Natalie here and my right nut that that’s a BAT Lancer they’re using... and probably modified. Of course, the other option is that they’re using a custom hulled spacecraft, but very few fen have the resources to pull that off.”

“But of course...” said Maico. Black Aeronaut Technologies Lancer. “Those were pretty rare,” she said out loud.

“Yup,” Ned nodded once more. He seemed to do that a lot, Maico thought. “Not that many were built.”

“Can you tell where it went?” she asked.

“Sunward. Towards Venus maybe, that’s about all we can tell I’m afraid. ”

“Thank you, you’ve told me more than enough,”

Next stop. A quick email to BAT, to see what they had to say about things. Chase up any owners. See if any have disappeared, or if any of those owners have the required training and experience for an operation like this.

And see if anyone on Venus detected it landing.

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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?