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0079.10.21 "Yup, here it is, just like they said." Seak gripped the boulder with his mechanical arm and slowly, but surely, the rock began to move. McEvoy, Ellison, Jesup and Montgomery, all wearing normal suits, stood behind them. Everyone carried at least three weapons, even the good doctor. They'd brought extra to give out to the miners, who weren't allowed to own firearms. Of course, this didn't mean they didn't have a few lying around. It was much too cold to go out in a standard cold weather jacket, only the temperature controlled normal suits would suffice. The group of revolutionaries went quickly into the tunnel, coming after about a half hours crawl into a secret passage that led to the bottom of Amador Cities mining complex. "Don't suppose we'll get much rest 'fore we get there, my back's killin' me." Clyde moaned. He'd been up the last three days fixing this, figuring out how to do that. He wasn't much ready for a gunfight. "No rest for the wicked old friend. I'll give you a shot of adrenaline before we get the operation underway." Frederick responded. As they came out into the tunnel, they were greeted by a few more people than they expected. Almost a hundred men crowded the corridoor, armed with all manner of pickaxes, improvised flamethrowers, and molotov cocktails. McEvoy, the leader of the ground operation, took off his helmet and breathed the cool Amador air, filled with the dust and soot of the lower class. "Mornin' boys, we heard there was gonna be a party upstairs." "I'm getting a signal Jonas. Freedom 1 has made contact." Hudson said, watching as the morse code signal tapped itself out. A small wire, over a dozen miles in length, led from the atmospheric controlled cargo container they'd been using as a command post all the way to the bottom of Amador. This particular container had been designed to carry live animals through space, and worked perfectly as an impromptu shelter. The six mobile suits, their pilots gone, sat in a small gulley about fifteen minutes away from the base of the city, a large red tarp covering the entire operation. Inside his Zaku, Jonas sipped a cup of coffee, and looked at the bowl of oatmeal seated between his legs. Part of him was too anxious for food, but the other part knew that he wouldn't be able to fight well on an empty stomache. "Plan was to give them two hours, right?" Jonas asked. He'd made the plan himself, but other things were on his mind. With his family captured, he wasn't quite the leader that he normally was. "Yup. I brought some cards from the ship, fancy a game of poker?" Hudson smirked. The battleplan was drawn up in charts all over the floor of the container, along with their sleeping bags and a small kerosene lamp. They were only going to get one shot at this, and they had to make it count. "No thank you Mr. Kyle. Minds not in it today. Think I'd rather just wait." Jonas said. He picked up an empty book at his feet and started to write, considering how he'd make his legacy live on if he were killed for his revolution. One hour later The group had split into two teams, Freedom 2 led by McEvoy and Ellison were with a group of just over 50 colonists were riding the elevator shaft to level 3, using McEvoys access card to visit his mother. They actually were visiting his mother. Freedom 1, led by Seak, Jesup and Montgomery, were headed to the Cosmoport and the military garrison on level four, with a slightly larger and better armed group of colonists. Freedom 2 quickly dispersed after making it to level 3, McEvoy finding his mother waiting for him at the bench. "I wish you wouldn't do this son. You know how I hate to see you fighting like this..." She looked at McEvoy, her son moving a submachinegun behind his back so she wouldn't see it. She knew he had the thing, but she didn't want to look at it all the same. "Ma, I'm doing this for you... We all are..." Matt gave his mother a hug. "I know son, I know." Forty five minutes later "Sir, I'm getting some strange reports from our MPs at levels 14 and 15... It seems quite a few miners are missing." MacAllisters aide handed him the report. Creighton sighed, wanting more time to play with the Keller family. They'd been so much fun the night before. "I'm not liking how this is going. You couldn't track that pod that dropped from Kellers fleet yesterday morning?" "No sir, those fireworks were laden with M particles, they scrambled everything we had." The aide responded curtly. This was the first thing Mars had ever seen anywhere close to a military engagement, and he was a little nervous. MacAllister however, was not. "I want everybody on alert. The entire base. Send a platoon to deck one and have them protect the consu-" The commander stopped his thought as the garrison started to shake. There were no earthquakes on Mars, the core of the planet was nearly dead. "What the..." Both of them exclaimed, another aide running into the room a few seconds later. "Bombs sir! Terrorist attacks! We've lost communication with levels one, two and three." "That tears it. Lock us down, get the marines ready. We'll do a sweep and make it back up level by level. Kill anyone you see, I don't care how many civilian casualties there are, Federation or Martian. We're showing these rats that this is my ship." MacAllister howled. The two aides walked out of the room, MacAllister following behind them with a pistol in hand. Angel stood up straight as the man left his office, just in time for him to put the pistol to her forehead and fire. Seaks team burst into the main cargo bay of level 3 and was met with gunfire, guards and MPs already taking up defensive positions. Three miners went down instantly, John rushing behind a heavy crate and firing with his rifle. One guard went down, a bullet through the forehead, and the rest dove for cover. The guards were seriously outnumbered, and the disorderly colonists pushed the charge, running out into the middle of the room. As soon as they did a heavy machinegun rang out from the upper level, killing more than a dozen of the guerillas instantly, the rest diving for cover on the walls. "I can see I'm going to be needed here." Montgomery said to himself, running next to Seak and spreading out his tools. He pointed at a pair of young boys, no older than fourteen, who had wanted to help the revolution. "You two bring anybody who looks like they're not dead, we'll patch them up here. Be careful now." The two boys nodded silently and crept out from behind the crates, pulling the first groaning miner back to Frederick. He was an older man, three heavy rounds deep in his abdomen. Frederick went to work, and at the same time John threw a flash grenade into the room. He used the one second burst to leap into the air, mechanical legs and lower gravity letting him bound across the room in a single jump. He turned and threw a second grenade, it landing behind the machinegun and killing the crew just as they fired, over a dozen bullets flaying Seaks body even before it landed on the floor. "Shit... Y'er in charge now doc." Clyde said lowly, popping up from behind a crate to lay down suppressive fire with a shotgun. The remaining guerillas moved in and covered the cargo bay even as MacAllisters men entered the room, the two forces now about equal, but with the MPs much better armed. Clyde took out two with his shotgun and ducked down as a hail of bullets panged against the crate he was now behind, a heavy firefight breaking out in the cargo hold. Freedom 2 was doing much better, McEvoy and his men taking advantage of the confusion to go from house to house, rounding up important individuals, counsil members, and other miscellaneous VIPs. There was little resistance, and what guards there were fell quickly. Once they had made their way up to level 1, they looked at their quarry. "Six cabinet members, two corporation beaurocrats, and the JDEG ambassador... Mighty fine haul if'n I do say so myself. Y'think this'll be enough fer Jonas' family Samson?" Matt laughed, kicking one of the hostages in the side. He'd never felt so good. "Hope so. How are we supposed to contact that rapist of a dictator anyway?" The two looked at each other, and then at McEvoys mother. A tear in her eyes, she pulled out her cellphone. "They WHAT?! You WHAT?!" MacAllister howled. He had barely been able to listen to the terms McEvoy had given him before hanging up the phone and punching the wall. "Prep the shuttle. What remaining cabinet members we have access to and myself will be leaving immediately. The Garrison forces are to guard the Cosmoport till the end. Send a dispatch to Revil on Earth, tell him Mars has been compromised and is no longer a profitable enterprise." Commander MacAllister saluted his lieutenant and then turned to leave the room. "And the Keller family, sir?" "Kill them." The commander grinned and lit a cigar as he walked towards the shuttle, a suitcase full of solid gold bars in his hand. Gunshots rang out from the cargo bay adjacent as he got in the shuttle, yelling at the pilot as he was told it would take another ten minutes to fuel the ship. Jesup and the remainder of the guerrilas were having a hard time. The colonial marines were simply much better armed and much better prepared than they had anticipated, and the guerillas were holding their ground, but paying for every inch in blood. It seemed Federation soldier ran as red as a Martian when they were taken down, and Clyde mused to himself, thinking they were purifying these devilish souls. Montgomery did his best to keep people alive, but injured men still do not fight very well. One of the two boys was hit by a stray shell, and Montgomery started working on him, but quickly realized that the young boy wasn't going to make it. "Sir... Would you... Would you tell my little sister that we're free?" The child said, going limp shortly after. Montgomery could have cried if it weren't for the fact that Jesup took a bullet to the jaw shortly after, the shraphnel splitting his jugular as he hit the floor next to Frederick. Frederick jammed two fingers into the wound, stopping the bleeding, but it wasn't quite enough. Clyde would be dead in just a few minutes. The majority of the guerillas of Freedom 1 taken care of, the Marines ordered a bayonet charge, and broke from their cover and to a man started to run down the cargo bay. Mixed in with the bodies of soldier and miner alike, John Seak did his last act, letting go of the handle on the grenade he'd been holding tight, pretending to be dead. The explosive went off under the marines, killing fully half of them and wounding the rest, throwing them all over the cargo bay. "Hey... Fred'rick..." Clyde said, gasping for air as his blood bubbled out from between Montgomery's fingers. "Will ya' do somethin'... fer me?" Clyde talked slowly, half of his jaw missing and his words barely intelligible. "Anything, dear friend." Montgomery was in tears now, having seen so many good men, so many friends, die in such a short span of time. "I don't want you to fold no more... Makes playin' witchaz less fun..." Clyde said, his head rolling to the side shortly after. Having waited the allotted amount of time, Jonas and Hudson fired their thrusters, Whiskey and Hudsons Rick Dom breaking through the tarp with ease and shooting towards Amador's cosmoport. The railway to heaven curved upwards as if to welcome them, both Jonas to his new role as leader of Mars, and Mars to the Earth Sphere beyond. A trio of fanfans quickly emerged from the sky, but Hudson took two out quickly with his shotgun, Jonas downing the third with his 120mm. The two mobile suits banked right and left, limited gravity on Mars allowing them to fly almost as well as they could in space. Burning thruster fuel they jetted into the sky above the cosmoport, a hail of missiles coming after them from the bases defenses. Jonas dodged a barrage of small missiles and let a streak of 120mm shells down truck after truck, grabbing his heat sword and cutting a Fanfan in two even as he landed on one of the bases Type 61's. Hudson was a little less lucky, the brunt of the bases firepower going after the larger target that was his Rick Dom. He felled a type 61 with his giant bazooka but was then hit with several missiles, his Rick Dom being pushed back and beginning to fall down the mountain. Jonas growled, firing round after round of his machinegun into the enemy. Half the bases defenses still remained. He dropped his Zaku to the ground to avoid fire from the four AA turrets surrounding the garrison building, and it was then that he noticed the shuttle getting ready for liftoff at the Cosmoport. Meanwhile, McEvoy and the men of Freedom 2 had met up with those in Freedom 1, and together they had pushed the marines out of the cargo bay. Moving through the garrison room by room, Samson Ellison was the one to find the Keller family. The lieutenant, not having a heart of stone like MacAllister, had decided to ignore his order and leave them alive. Ellison gave a hand signal to McEvoy, who rushed for the comm system in the next room. Leaping into the chair he quickly accessed the controls, looking for Kellers IFF signal. "Jonas' Jonas boy we got 'em they okay! That fucker stepdad 'o mine's leaving on that shuttle, don't let it take off!" McEvoy yelled into the microphone. Jonas, fueled by justice, vengeance and the Martian dream, powered his thrusters once more even as the shuttle started blasting upwards on the Cosmoport towards the Earth Sphere. Jonas pushed hard on the throttle, disregarding the warning lights as they started coming on all over his display. Slowly, inch by inch, his Zaku II started to overtake the shuttle, and just before it managed to exit the shaffolding of the cosmoport, Keller grabbed his chain mine off the Zakus left shoulder, grappling the shuttle with it and yanking back on it like a whip. The spacecraft lurched backwards, slamming bridge first into the railing even as the chain mine exploded, taking the Zakus arm, the shuttle, and the top third of the cosmoport with it. Hudson, his Rick Dom having righted itself and rejoined the fight against the few remaining Fanfans, covered Jonas as his Zaku's thrusters overheated and it began to fall like a rock. Jonas watched as the cosmoport fell apart around him, smiling as he heard his little girls voice scream 'Daddy!' over the radio. There had been some casualties that could never be replaced, but his people were now free. Jonas Keller - 9 VP gained, 5 days damage Hudson Kyle - 9 VP gained, 4 days damage Samson Ellison - 2 CP gained, 2 days injury Matt McEvoy - 2 CP gained, 2 days injury Clyde Jesup - Killed in action John Seak - Killed in action Frederick Montgomery - Inherits Clyde's chair |