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"The excessive drinking you do has killed off too many brain cells, which explains your lapsing memory." CD said dryly, packing her medical supplies back up. "But yer right, we should probably get out of here before the locals start coming to gawk at what used to be their bar." She brushed a strand of her white blonde hair back from her shoulders, her eyes fading to the color of wheat as she glanced up at the sun.

"Sure thing Valco." James said as he ran and got outside of the wall then turned towards where they came into the city. The Alex was already coming towards the group though at a much slower pace then James could move it himself. In order to make it harder to steal, James didn't put an easy way to get into the cockpit and every time he needed to get in fast he had to pull off some impressive acrobatics, or just climb up the leg, but he always tried the former because the few times it worked he felt like a complete bad a**. Once the two were close enough to each other James jumped up and ran onto the wall inorder to get higher, then he umped off and tried to land on the open cockpit hatch. Of course he didn't have enough height and he barely had enough time to realise his mistake and grab the bottom of the open hatch. Wait... Where did the bottle go? he thought as he pulled himself up and realised that he left the alcohol at the bar. Well it was only one bottle... Once he was done thinking about the alcohol he pulled the Alex up next to the Fenrir and watched the opposite side so they wouldn't be surrounded.

The Fenrir adjusted so that its torso was turned out to the barren desert. The plasma cannon on its right arm cycled in a new charge of gas and began to superheat it automatically. There still wasn't anything on the scanners, but you couldn't be too careful. Valco turned his head to CD as she climbed into the cockpit, frowning heavily at her. "The hell is that look for, CD? What, is that about Lillium? Honestly, I was just doing my job. You know that we've got six available rooms in the Gestalt and we always need more firepower." He growled quietly and ran a hand through his gray hair, sighing.

James started laughing and as soon as he valmed down he said, "Hey you two do know that the coms are still on from when we were on out way here, so everyone that's got their coms on just heard your little lovers quarrel..." He paused as he turned the Alex to face the desert, yet in a different direction the the Fenrir. "The only good thing I can think about is that it's still the encrypted channel so Lillium didn't hear it, yet you probably don't want to talk abou those things over the coms either way."

CD settled back, a dark smile twisting her normally pretty features. "Yeah, whatever you say. Captain." It seemed like she was done spewing poison at him, but CD was just waiting for the proper time. It was obvious to her that Valco didn't like other people knowing when they fought, he got flustered and embarrassed. She didn't care. It wasn't like she had a strong reputation for being sane anyways. TRhey all knew that she was nuts, and was likely to blow up. Now was a good a time as any. But CD was going to pick her battles.

He swore quietly and the Fenrir rose up to its full height. The guns all automatically cycled in a new round, all save the plasma gun on the arm. That began to glow an eerie blue from its charging coils, showing that the weapon was reaching its fullest power. It was then that all of the color drained from his face.

"Hey Valco, we did leave the Gestalt straight ahead right?"

"Yeah, she was..."

"Cause I think there are two things there now unless I'm getting a heat mirrage on the scope..."

Valco slammed his fist against the side of his cockpit, shaking in nerves and apprehension. His fingers snapped to the comm commands and he accessed Blade's channel. "Blade! Get your a** into the Albatross and get an aerial view of this thing! Fly high and fast. If there are mechs on the ground, let us know immediately!"

-=Lillium=-
The female bounty hunter laughed quietly and 'walked' her mech toward the Fenrir, snapping the spear off of her back and into her hand. "Well, Valco, looks like your beastie and mine might have a little bit of work ahead of them." She laughed, knowing that her words would draw a sudden and sharp reaction from CD. She knew that it was Cyron and the other Corporation people headed their way, but it wasn't her job to warn them. Quite the opposite. She smiled again, thinking of the amount of money that this would bring in.

A piece of her mind almost made her feel bad. Almost. The Wolves were just thorns in the Corporation's side, no real threat to anyone else. They even helped to spread water among the less fortunate areas. But...she couldn't think of that. Her job was to lead these saps to their deaths, or at least their captures.

-=Corporation Forces=-
Cyron laughed loudly as he scanned the area around them, his comm channel silenced completely. His formation was moving very quickly, making swift ground. The Gestalt was under guard by the Doom Horn, though the Corporation Engineers hadn't been able to crack their ways into the large crawler. Still, the heavy plasma cannons on the Doom Horn would be more than enough to immobilize the larger vehicle. With the press of a button, Cyron opened an encrypted channel to all of the Mechs in his control. "Listen up. We'll soon be engaging the Crimson Wolves. They're damned good pilots, all of them, so be ready for anything. The Oppressor variant is my personal target."

Lieutenant Alder sighed heavily once the comm channel closed again. Her men had been promised leave, not a conflict with the second most wanted targets on the Corporation's "Death List." But...Cyron was a far greater fear than these mercs. She had heard that the man had lost his mind, but this was the proof. "God help us," she mumbled, holding a hand to her chest as the formation of Mechs continued to thunder along, closing on the Wolves.

Valco gave the order, and Blade watched as all of his comrades scrambled out of the hole in the city wall, into their Mechs, or in CD's case, into Valco's Mech. Now Blade was presented with a problem. He still had all of those liquor bottles jumbled up in his arms. It was going to make it awful difficult to zipline into his mech. But there was no way Blade was leaving behind his prize with all he had been through to obtain it. "Dammit, where's Sergius!? I was hoping he would bring along the land cruiser..." Blade mumbled as he turned his head to Vashti. But the blonde woman was already running off. "Hey, where ya going!?" he called out to her, but there was no reply. The girl dashed through the enormous hole that Valco had created and disappeared behind the city wall. Blade dropped to one knee, set the liquor bottles on the ground gently, and activated his mech via remote. "Alright, AL'!" Blade shouted into the transmitter of the device, activating his mech through voice recognition. "Wake up!" He then punched in the coordinates of his location and activated the thrusters. Blade gathered up his liquor bottles while waiting for his mech to appear, chuckling softly as he listened to yet another one of Valco and CD's domestic disputes via comlink.

*...the hell is that look for, CD? What, is that about Lillium? Honestly, I was just doing my job. You know that we've got six available rooms in the Gestalt and we always need more firepower.*

*Yeah? And we're only gonna be filling one of those rooms with the other chick. How much do ya wanna bet that Lillium ain't gonna be needing her own room? I'm sure that you would be more than happy to provide a bed and a nightly ******** fer her!*

"Heh."

*Dammit, CD, who the ******** do you think you are to say that? Huh? I took you in when you were alone. I'm the one who protected you when you didn't know who the ******** you were.*

*Hahaha! Hey you two do know that the coms are still on from when we were on out way here, so everyone that's got their coms on just heard your little lovers quarrel... the only good thing I can think about is that it's still the encrypted channel so Lillium didn't hear it, yet you probably don't want to talk about those things over the coms either way...*

*Shut the ******** up, James.*

Blade's head shot up in a defensive reaction as he heard sudden gunfire, but breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it was just Valco firing his light ST cannon at the ground near the Alex. After Valco and CD's transmission went dead, Blade tapped into James's private frequency. "Hahaha! You're in trooouuubblllee..." he teased his friend. "Hey, why'd you have to tell 'em? I was enjoying listening to that!" Blade was half-tempted to pipe in with his own two cents, and throw it in CD's face the fact that she had locked tongues with him earlier, but that would most likely prove to be detrimental to his health. "Word to the wise, brother: When those two are at it-*"

*Blade!* The Gunner jumped as Valco's stern voice shouted his name through the comlink, cutting him off mid-sentence. *Get your a** into the Albatross and get an aerial view of this thing! Fly high and fast. If there are mechs on the ground, let us know immediately!* The Captain barked. "Affirmative." Blade replied as the Albatross soared over his head, and touched down onto the ground next to him. The mech then dropped to it's knees as it's chest (the cockpit) opened, allowing Blade access without the use of the zipline. The pilot then jumbled all of the liquor bottles back into his arms, and scrambled up the leg (thigh) of his mech. When he reached the cockpit, Blade set all of the liquor into a special storage compartment as the hatch closed. The gunner then strapped himself in, and switched navigation to manual.

The Albatross rose to it's feet, and Blade activated the auxiliary thrusters of the jet-pack, sending the mech higher and higher in altitude. Slowly, Blade veered the mech in the direction of the Gestalt. He then switched on the afterburner, sending him shooting toward the crawler at an intense speed. Blade did just what he was told, he flew high and fast; scoping out the area within the Gestalt's vicinity, using the Albatross's teleoptics scope to zoom in on the scene....

"s**t! We got problems!" Blade announced over the comlink. "BIG ones. And it ain't Bounty Hunters, either! Looks like Corporation Forces... they're in attack formation, and they've got the Gestalt surrounded. s**t!" A particular transport-looking vehicle caught Blade's eye, as he was certain that he had seen it before. Blade magnified the scope even further upon the large crawler. The words, Doom Horn where etched along the side. "Doom Horn... weren't you saying something about that earlier today, Valco?"

Valco swore. Loudly. And continuously. "God...Dammit! Everyone, ready your Mechs! We're gonna be outnumbered in this. Son of a b***h!" His comm died out in a continued chain of incoherent cursing, some of it not even using traditional swears. The AI of the Fenrir seemed to respond in kind and the generators came up to full power. The fusion generator in the core made the whole Mech vibrate heavily before the stabilization gyros in the body kicked in, smoothing out its motions. The cannons all automatically recycled their current shell, making sure that everything was auto-prepped. On the left arm, the plasma cannon began to glow an eerie blue color as the generators went into overdrive, preparing a high strength shot.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do. Blade, keep overhead. Tell me if anything big happens. James, you take the Alex and sweep their flank. Logan, you and Derron keep back and scan ahead. Be ready to blow the ******** out of anything that you spot. Koraj, you and I are going to take 'em head on." He paused and then tabbed open the channel to Lillium and Vashti's mechs. "Lillium, you're gonna follow up with me and Koraj. Be ready to earn your keep. If you do well here, you've got an assured spot with the Wolves. Vashti, take yours around with the Alex and give him some fire support." As he opened the main channel to all of the mechs again he sighed quietly. "This isn't going to be anywhere near as easy as our other attacks. We're going to be up against pilots with top of the line mechs and training. So have fun and don't get yourselves killed. Lets move!" The Fenrir's feet began to thud along the dry, barren ground, moving as quickly as the mech could go.

((Stranger, its up to you to arm Vashti's mech. She never gave me that much information.))

-=Sergius=-
The drive back to the trailer had been utterly uneventful. Wheels against dirt leading on indefinitely. The trailer had forced the drive to be a little longer and it had been frustratingly boring without CD riding along. The lift hatch on the Gestalt opened smoothly for him and he pulled his car on with the large trailer. Less than a minute after the hatch had raised and closed he was off to work on fixing the reactor. It took less than five minutes for him to replace the fractured power rods and he was about to reactivate the power when he had an odd premonition.

"Huh...that was odd...Wonder if Valco left any liquor in this damn place..." He walked out the front of the workshop toward the cockpit, smiling as he saw the bottles on the shelf. "Good deal...not the greatest stuff, but it'll work." He took a swig from the bottle as he walked into the cockpit, nearly drowning on it as he looked out the windshield. The Doom Horn sat there before the Gestalt. Its ebony walls were flecked and smeared with damage and grime respectively. The heavy plasma cannons mounted at the tops of her sides were unactivated, fortunately.

With a hearty thump Sergius fell back into the pilot's seat, holding the bottle tightly. This was a problem of incredible size and he had no idea for an immediate fix. To activate the cannons would mean that a heavy plasma shot would tear through his transport before anything could be done to protect it. To try and pop one of the side hatches to get a side missile off would have the same result. Something was likely to come along, though. Something always did.

-=Corporation=-
The Albatross was flying high enough in the air that none of the Corporation forces were able to spot it. Had it been detected it was likely that the Doom Horn would have brought Blade screaming down out of the sky. Now, though, the mechs were getting farther away from their transport with Commander Cyron leading the group in the Faustus. The heavy particle cannon that composed its right arm was glowing as the generators charged up. The massive missile pod hanging over its left shoulder was aimed exclusively with EMP missiles and the left arm Light ST cannon had been loaded with Electrical CB rounds. He was determined to capture these rebels for later interrogation.

Alder's mech was powering up as well, the generators running overtime to prepare her twin Plasma Cannons. All of the mechs around her were loaded with Heavy ST cannons and Krak missiles. This attack needed to be clean or the low energy reserves of the Corporation standard mechs would start to run out.

((Okay...aaaand...GO! Start working to your positions, respond to s**t, etc. We attack soon!))