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[Aurora]<>

---

Meanwhile on runway three several junior technical officers were arguing over what type of fuel to load the plane with.

"its an ASDF vehicle, its probably proto-culture or binary fusion.. what does it need fuel for anyway?"

"not all ASDF vehicles are Fusion or prot-culture you ignorant fool, they still use hydrocarbons"

"sure they do.. look at their battle armor you'd think they were friggen robots at first glance..."

"maybe they are..."

finally amidst all the rabble one of the more experienced officers spoke up.

"shut up all of you Aurora sent us the silhouette and we know what we need to do, leave the inter-departmental squabbles to bar time, for now eve got to load up that plane and get out there,a pilot needs our help damnitt..."

That point settled the crew went to work fueling up the tanker, and preparing for lift off.

<>

The comment was more terse this time, as the VF-1 trainer flew over a residential area. The double-visored head unit was extended below the main fuselage of the half-jet-with-legs, feeding video of the narrow alleyway below. It was a very dicey prospect, trying to keep the leak within a space where a truck would barely fit. A nasty thought occupied her for a moment: The people who lived there were probably dead, gunned down by the insurgents while the majority of the GNG had remained unresponsive. It was a thought that she had to shake her head clear of, and that nearly cost her a spill onto a side yard.

Finally, the home stretch: that was the last of the residentials. Up ahead lay a nice wide road with nobody on it. Rachele took advantage of this and gunned it. The sooner the mecha was down for repairs, the sooner she could take off again to lend DragonFlame aid.



It wasn't actually like the VF-1 was rendered a cripple, so the landing was smooth as silk. The landing could have probably taken place five minutes earlier had Rachele not cared about the leak. But the citizens would have paid for that, and they'd suffered enough. It was only a side note in her mind that the GNG couldn't take more PR beatings anyways.

The canopy popped open, and she stepped out, leaving out of the other side of the craft this time. Her usual seemed to be in the direct path of the leak. She didn't take off her helmet either. It was, in its current state, completely sealed...an ideal thing to be when there was a possibility of radiation. She entrusted the care of her commandeered trainer to the mechanics, and headed to what she hoped was a radiation decontamination shower area. A rinse off of her flight suit and helmet, just to be safe, was in order before she figured out what she was going to commandeer next.

[Interrogation]


"Librarian?" She smiled as she regarded him. "How flattering. I understand men like that sort of thing - like women like a man in uniform. Now, you're here for a reason: I sincerely doubt you killed so many without one. What was it? Revenge for the girl?"

[Interrogation]

She nodded, and for his benefit, tapped the glasses up her nose a bit. "There was a riot at one of our bases. In the commotion, there was an accidental discharge. Killed a civilian girl." She gave a short pause, then continued. "So if not the girl, what was it? All that killing you did is being credited on the news right now to the Downtowners, revenge against the Uptowners being sheltered by our military."

[Interrogation]

He did a fair immitation of a gallic shrug, at least, as best as you could do with your hands bound. He seemed very indifferent to this News that she was laying on him, and there was no strong emotion within him.

"I could care less what the news, or anyone else makes of this."

Truth. No deception coming from him.

Emergency containment crews hurriedly went about foaming the proto-culture that had leaked out on the landing pad to prevent it from harming the engineers that now scurried about working on the damaged craft. Meanwhile several engineers in hazardous environment suits went about containing the leak and capping it off. Once the immediate danger had subsided crews went about the much more entertaining (at least for engineers) tasks of improvising scavenging, and improving.

One team worked on filling in the gaps left by the through cut by the katana removing the weakened area and then replacing it with new armor plate., one team had the dubious task of hunting down a pair of VF-1 arms to attach to the injured Veritech, though this was no easy task with one arm missing and another damage they had few references to work with. though after a few squabbles in the armory they were able to find pair that would fit the shoulder joint and not interfere with the vehicle's ability ti transform.were able to find a pair that would work with the VF-1. the gun pod was a whole other issue entirely unfortunately... that would take more time...

[will finish this post later]

[continued from earlier]

.. but where would they fin an operation gunpod at this kind of hour? It wasn't something you could just run down to your local hardware store and with the time constraint, they certainly could not manufacture one in time to be of any use, unless....

[DBD (De-Briefing, and Decontamination) building adjacent to landing pad]

A small squat reinforced building sat literally right off the landing pad a large green triangle emblazoned on the roof. it had a large metalic door and it had three large letters on the door D-B-D. above the door frame it had 'Mission Summary and Decontamination' sign bolted to the concrete door frame.

The door was heavy but pneumatic assist made it easier to open after a few inches, and one in she was met by a long corridor with a moving floor panel like those found in many airforts, and several overhead spray bars, a red button on her left read 'External Decontamination, Stage one' it was waiting to be pushed.

[Marine Engineering and Advanced Concepts Building (MEAC) several exciting minutes later.]

There was loud and obnoxious knock on Lab 37s door, when the associated scientist ignored it it came again louder and sounding as if threatening to take down the door. Some things were ignorable ina facility designed to improve items that go boom,l someone threatening to take your door down when your swimming in energetic materials (HE) was not one of them, so needless to say they quickly opened the door to investigate.

A Dr. Maersk who was the closest one to the door was startled to be met by several men in hazmat suits, two Sea Devil power armors converted into Laborer config, and several engineering officers all who looked at him like they would a raw steak.

"we need your gunpod prototype...."

"our what?' Dr. Maersk replied with utmost confusion.

"your... umm... just a sec." one of the engineering officers pulled a technical manual from his back pocket unfolded and began scanning its pages.

"ah here it is! your EX-57 or object 850" the engineering officer smiled proudly. "we need it, now."

Dr. Maersk frowned he didnt like being pushed around but if they wanted the EX-57 so be it... "Armory Locker 27, clearance is department code 1"

the Officers, hazmat engineers and power armor all turned around and began sprinting back down to the armory.

[Armory Locker 27]

When the heavy vault door finally opened the engineering crew were dazzled, not the proto-type they were expecting which would need final assembly or fitting the weapon was fully finished, refined and ready, the only reason ti was not in standard use was simple... no need. It was project doomed from the start as were many government projects but this one doubly cursed, the current administrations dislike of variable or regular mecha had sealed this projects fate. It was now that this was irrelevant they had what they needed and while the crews began to pick up the weapon itself, and its ammo one of the Officers picked up the operations Manual and began reading.

'Overview
The Ex-57 is designed as a total operational replacement for the GU-series gunpods, it has superior Aerodynamics, superior ammunition capacity and Superior Armor Penetration compared to the tradiational GU-Series of Gunpods. The EX-57 utilizes a Cased Telescopic Electro-Thermal Chemical(CTETC) propellant to propel an 57mm to nearly twice the V0 (muzzle velocity) producing nearly three times the Kinetic energy on impact improving penetration, range and ballistic coefficient.

Taking advantage of the Increased round capacity (the Cased telescopic ammunition allows for a 40% decrease in volume per round) the EX-57 allows for each clip to carry more rounds in the same space improving carrying capacity and overall unit lethality with nearly 500 rounds per clip.

The EX-57 is similar in layout to the GU-11 utilizing three barreled system with sustained rate of fire of 1100 rpm firing a slightly larger 57mm round. the outer shell of the gunpod is designed for aerodynamics, the front has conical bore cover that remains fixed and allows the barrels to fire through it. When 'closed' the weapon is of similar aerodynamic as any low drag general purpose bomb with its handle retraced and is fully capable of firing in this mode.

Upon transforming the gun pod 'opens' the handle extends downwards in typical form, and the forward sleeve around the barrel retracts by means of three short petal shields that add additional armor protection tot he firers hands, shoulders, and head, the top line being left free of any should to assist in aiming and prevent interfering with the suits sensors...'

The engineering officer continued reading as he followed the squad out of the locker back towards the pad, there was still much work to be done.