Launch Base Zone - Infiltration

[Chadin]

"Agreed! Jii, Anu, meet us down by those shuttles! Now, here, I'll show you how to use this thing." I quickly gave Jii the nuts and bolts explanation about how my crossbow works and how to use it, etc. Hopefully between it, and the power packs tied together with some string I had, hopefully we'll be able to pull off this half-baked plan. Although, come to think of it, in all the years with the MFF, how many of our missions WEREN'T just last minute half-baked plans?

"Good luck!" I bid to Jii and Anu as Gail and I headed out towards that shuttle where the Swat-bots were loading the crates of crystal shards.

[hmm... by 'tougher looking robot', why do I have a funny feeling that's one or Rampage's Com-bots?]

[Jijeka-Te]

Chadin's explanation had gone a bit over the Egyptian pair's head, but not so much that they missed the important parts. As Gail and Chadin descended, Ji took her position and aimed the crossbow at the power packs.

(Ji) "Okay... I think I'm in position. Anu, watch the valley and say when."

[Gail Strafer]

[You know, I changed my mind. I WAS going to have them be Com-bots, but then I got another idea. Let's make them regular Swatbots. Oh, but this plan isn't any less fiendish. You will see :3.

Also, I don't think we ever actually set up the packs, but oh well. I'd rather get to the fun part of the roleplay, and it'd be OK with me to skip over us RPing out prep work. Remember the pack is supposed to cause an avalanche over the mine's entrance.]

Gail fumbled down the crumbling slope of the crater, as he darted back and forth between larger rocks to hide. He gave a small wince every time pebbles gave way and noisily slipped down the slope. But despite the annoyance, he actually grinned a little as he did this.

This reminded him a lot of one of his favorite TV shows...Neko Sentai Kittehranger. They always set up a lot of the big action scenes to happen in rock quarries so they could have lots of cool explosions and stuff. Many times a guy in a rubber monster suit would be slain by Lionranger's sword, fall down, and then randomly go kaboom. He couldn't wait to make that happen to some things around here. It actually almost felt like he was walking in on a Kittehranger shoot.

At the bottom of the hill, the two interlopers would find some large fuel drums to hide behind, where they could observe the shuttles. But by the time they'd made it to the bottom of the slope, Gail witnessed a rather terrifying sight.

The first Swatbot they'd seen with a box had now been joined by many others also carrying similar boxes. In fact, he thought he saw twelve boxes now. Even as that sunk in, he couldn't help but feel something was wrong, beyond the obvious.

"Chadin...there are only seven emeralds, right? And one master emerald? I don't know about the master emerald, but if the emeralds were whole, I think they'd only fill up one of them there boxes all together. Robotnik shouldn't need that many shuttles or boxes if he's this soon into excavation. What in Sam Hill's going on here?!"

[Chadin]

[uh oh, what have you got in store for us you vile, evil fiend?!]

I was right behind Gail all the way down the slope. Even with all my experience in stealth even I couldn't help but slip a couple times, causing some rocks to slide down the slope. But luckily, the bots were napping or something and didn't notice us. Once I reached the barrels with Gail, I pulled my hunting knife from the sheath on my leg.

Cautiously, I poked my head around the side of the barrels rather than over them since my antlers might prove to be a dead give away. Seeing the same thing as Gail, I had to agree. With all this heavy strip-mining type equipment Robotnik had to be able to sift out the shards from the rock and dirt he was digging up. So why all the crates? Then it hit me.

"Oh no... I've seen Robotnik do something like this once before back home. He was transporting something valuable through our mountains, but since he knew us Freedom Fighters might find out about the shipments he split the shipments up among a number of decoy shipments. Fortunately we managed to work out the right target thanks to the help of the a couple other Freedom Fighter groups, but it was close. I think he might be doing something similar here."

"The only problem is, we don't have time to sift through ALL these crates to work out which ones might be carrying the shards. Heck, he could even have some shards hidden on each ship. I think our best bet might be to split up and sabotage as many shuttles as possible while the Swat-bots are distracted by the landslide. Take out the pilot crew, destroy the flight controls, whatever. Those ships CANNOT be allowed to leave this island!"

[Jijeka-Te]

(Neko Sentai Kittehranger? Either you're making things up or the Japanese are weirder than I thought.)

Anu watched Gail and Chadin get into position behind the fuel drums. Ji waited patiently. Finally it seemed as if the time had come.

(Anu) "Now, Your Highness!"

Ji immediately turned her attention back to the packs and fired off her shot. She wasn't prepared for the recoil, but she scored a perfect hit.

[Gail Strafer]

[Oh, I definitely made it up. It's a Super Sentai\Power Rangers knockoff starring an all feline cast for the rangers. Giichi likes the same TV show too. In fact, I was thinking of using Lionranger (who would come from a dimension where the show is real) as my fourth character.]

The power packs ignited with a relatively small explosion. However, that was enough to blow out a chunk of the gigantic boulder they had been hidden under. Now unbalanced, the boulder started to roll downhill and collided with another boulder, which also came loose and started rolling, which then hit another boulder, and so on, and so forth until a full avalanche was under way. Before long a horde of boulders, stones, and pebbles started showering down the hill, right over the mine's entrance.

A SWATbot on guard near the cave's mouth felt some loose dirt sprinkle on its shoulder. It looked up at the disturbance, right before a particularly large boulder fell over the cave's mouth and squashed it into a metal pancake. More soon followed, causing absolute mayhem as the dump trucks and bots alike were showered by the avalanche of earth.

Chadin and Gail would both see the SWATbot's attention now squarely on the avalanche causing havoc by the mine entrance. However, once they'd had a look, the SWATbots carrying the boxes moved faster, as they started to load them onto the shuttles. But part of the guard detached to go investigate the disturbance.

"We gotta go. The rock slide must've spooked them. I think the best thing to do would be to sabotage the engines. That wouldn't be quick or easy to repair, especially way out here in the wilderness. Maybe we can stick something in the intake air vents that'll get sucked in and cause all kinds of mayhem on the mechanics." It was then that the wolf realized Chadin had pulled out his knife. With a little sly smile, he said, "Say...could I borrow your knife? Also...got anything we could use for a container?"

He playfully nodded at the fuel drums they were sitting next to, before pulling out his golden lighter.

[Chadin]

[Yeah, you would have to make the Power Ranger reference wouldn't you? XD Why do I have a bad feeling we're about to see a whole bunch of cheesy pyrotechnics next post? XD]

There's bound to be all kinds of metal... 'things' we could stuff into the engine intakes around here. Robotnik is notorious for littering anywhere he goes with all sorts of junk." I replied, already noticing a pile of discarded equipment nearby. In fact it looked sort of like one of the mining trucks... only it looked like someone had used a high-powered laser cannon to blow it to bits... From that one pile we could easily gleam several pieces of metal that would serve our purposes.

"Um..." I glanced uncertainly between Gail, my knife and the barrels of fuel we were hiding behind and his newly drawn lighter and the blanks filled themselves in. At first I was worried he was planning to use my knife as some kind of sacrificial monkey wrench to sabotage the ship engines with. Something I was under no circumstances allow to happen. But now everything made MUCH more sense. I still wasn't entirely sure what his plan was exactly, but we no longer had the luxury of discussing the plan in any detail. "I got you. Punch a hole, then light them up?" I winked back at him, twirling my blade around in my hand to offer Gail the hilt.

"As for a container, I'm afraid I don't really have anything. Maybe an empty power pack or two. But maybe that pile of junk over there has something useful. You do what you had in mind with these barrels, I'll run over there and grab as many pieces of metal to sabotage the engines with and meet you back here. Oh... and one more thing, please take good care of that knife. It's quite rare and valuable."

With that I dashed off across the gap to the junk pile. Thankfully it looked like all the security was far to busy with the avalanche to notice me. Too bad that wouldn't last too long. So, I quickly started sifting through the pile as fast as I could, grabbing any decent sized pipe or scrape of sheet metal I could find and easily carry. I just had to hope whatever Gail had in mind would either stall those ships from landing, or avoid drawing too much attention to us.

[Jijeka-Te]

Ji and Anu watched the destruction from up above. Ji had already collapsed Chadin's crossbow and tucked it away behind her royal flail.

(Ji) "Anu, follow my lead."

The pharaoh took a running start and leapt into the air, spreading her frills to glide. Anu opened his wings and followed.

[Gail Strafer]

[We need some sneaking music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMTRN1z5...re=related

]


"Sure, I'll watch over it," Gail said as he accepted the knife.

As Chadin set to work on getting materials for sabotage, Gail went into a crouch, and reached around the barrels with the knife in hand. He stabbed a hole on the side of the barrel facing the landing zone. He'd noticed they were on a slight uphill grade, relative to where the cargo shuttles were. Since the hole sat on the bottom of the container, the liquid jet fuel started gushing out in earnest and washed down the slope. For good measure he poked holes in the other barrels too.

If Plan A of engine sabotage didn't work, then Plan B of fuel sabotage could help. Not to mention setting it alight would make a great distraction if they needed to run away with their tails between their legs, literally. He wanted to see what it'd look like by setting it ablaze right now, but resisted the temptation.

However, a SWATbot who'd stayed behind to guard the crate loaders happened to see the spilling fuel off in the distance, and began to wander over to investigate. As Gail watched the fuel, he caught a glimpse of the bot approaching and quickly ducked back behind the containers. He wasn't sure if he'd been spotted yet or not...but no doubt that guard would be on its way over here. Gail knew he couldn't stay here...but he'd be seen if he moved...

---

A fair amount of the SWATpod ships had broken from their normal patrol routes to monitor the situation at the mine. They flew up high to get a good view of the situation. However, Jii and Anu perhaps might want to drop altitude to stay out of sight, just in case.

Meanwhile, the heavy bulldozer bots who had initially cleared away the camp for the bigger ships started to make their way to the avalanche. The dump trucks that had survived stood by to take away the rubble as well.

[Chadin]

As I was scavenging through the pile, I found several choice pieces to wreck those engines with; these would certainly put a little rain over Robotniks little parade. At least for a while. Right about when I was finished grabbing what I could I noticed one of the bots coming towards where Gail was hiding. Calling back on age-old tricks from the MFF, I grabbed a small scrap of metal and flung it as hard as I could, aiming for one of the ships behind the bot in the hopes the noise would distract it enough to either draw it away entirely or at least give Gail and me a chance to relocate someplace else and begin sabotaging the ships.