Special Police DekaOps
16
It was a quiet couple of days and most of the OpsBase personnel were trying to find something to do to keep themselves busy. Ace kept her crew busy by upgrading the Machine Shepard and Hounds systems. D.E. was in the practice range keeping his skills sharp. Rev sat in the rec room reading a medical text while Boomer, who got all his work done early, played a game on the television screen. Rev watched his friend play and felt his finger twitch slightly.
After signing his name to the last piece of paperwork on his desk Dan was called to the Command Room. Michelle gave him a slight smile as he entered that he returned before going all business again. “What’s the emergency?”, he asked.
“We’re not sure yet,” the Major answered. “SPD satellites have been getting a strange energy reading inside the Andes Mountains inside Peru.”
“I’m linking up to the next satellite that’s scheduled to pass over the area in a few moments,” Michelle announced. A few keystrokes on the keyboard later and the big screen came to life. A mountain range appeared and the image froze a second later. Various readouts flashed over the image as Michelle’s fingers danced over the keyboard.
“Any luck Michelle?”, the Major asked.
“I’m running the energy signature through every database we have now,” she told him. “Nothing,” she said after a few minutes sounding disappointed in herself, “the reading too faint to make out clearly. I think some sort of damper be involved here.”
“That’s what Command thinks as well,” Pierce informed her. “That’s why we’ve been asked been asked to investigate.”
“Get in, check it out and if we have to take it out,” Dan said knowing the drill all too well. “I’ll get the team ready to launch.”
“Just remember,” Pierce said, “Peru is neutral about SPD right now. They’re not against us but they’re not exactly for us either. So watch out for the local authorities.”
“Right,” Dan replied and saluted before leaving the room.
“I don’t know how you keep all that straight,” Michelle commented. “I need a score card half the time to remember which countries are Pro SPD and which aren’t.”
“The trick is remembering which countries are against us,” He told her. “Everybody else you got a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.”
Looking at him in disbelief she asked, “How did you make Major again?”
“Funny, Helen keeps asking me that same question.”
***
The Machine Shepard was in the air and disappeared from sight as the ground beneath them closed. Inside the cockpit Ace brought the rear engines to life as she swung them around toward their destination. As usual Michelle feed them information until the reach they reached the boarder. “We are now in silent ops mode,” Boomer announced. “When was the last time I said I hated this part?”
“We all find this a little unnerving Robert,” Rev told him.
“I think it’s the fact that something could happen to us and nobody would know about it,” Ace added, then shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“Let’s keep those thoughts to a minimum,” Dan told them. “We done this before, there’s no point on dwelling about this now.”
“You’re right,” Ace agreed. She changed the subject, “So what’s the plan?”
“We stay together until we find out target. Once we find out what it is we’ll devise a plan to deal with it.”
“Hmm,” D.E. grunted, “that’s a little looser than what we usually do.”
“Unfortunately there’s this gapping hole in the intel Michelle couldn’t fill in. Like it or not we’re going in a little blind for this one.”
“I really want to vote no,” Boomer said.
“So do I,” Dan thought out loud.
***
That hole didn’t get any smaller when they reached Peru and Ace did a fly by of the area. She Landed the Shepard as close as she could and they headed out on foot. As a precaution Dan told Boomer to key into the local frequencies. After about a half hour of climbing they reached a small area where they could survey the area easily. Checking a scanner that was linked to the Shepard’s senor reading they could see the signal was getting a little stronger, but not by much. Dan figured Michelle’s guess about that dampening field was right on the money. “Do you think it might be a cloaking device?”, Ace asked after she saw the reading. “That would explain why we didn’t see anything as we passed by.”
“Possibly,” Dan was thinking along the same lines, “But what could it be hiding.” Putting the scanner into pocket on his chest he waved them foreword. Going higher on the ridge Dan took a moment and reached into another pocket and opened up a small set of binoculars. They had to be getting close to whatever the hell it was.
“What’s that over there?”, D.E. asked as he pointed at something. Dan looked over in that direction and focused as Ace and D.E. pulled out their own binoculars.
One thing was for sure, it wasn’t cloaking device. But it was camouflaged to look like part of the mountain side. Feeling a cold spot form in his stomach Dan went, “Tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
“Oh shit,” Ace muttered as she got a good look.
“Boomer,” he jumped a little as Dan said his name, “Get ready to send a message back to base. I’m breaking silent op.”
***
The Major hurried back to he Command Room when Michelle called him, “They couldn’t be done already,” he said.
“Dan sent a video message,” she informed. “We won’t be able to reply.”
Knowing something was wrong Pierce steadied himself for the moment, “Play the message.”
Dan’s image appeared on screen. He had a worried look on his face as he kept looking at something off camera. “Stevens to OpsBase. We have a situation here.” He looked lost for words for a moment as he pointed the camera toward something. In the mountainside somebody built a huge construction frame that was structured with several levels. Inside was something huge, the bottom part was fully covered but the upper part a skeletal like frame was showing the machinery inside. “A monster mech is being built on site, I repeat a monster mech is being built on site. We’re going to try to determine the status of the power and weapon systems.” There was a pause before he continued, “We’ll do what we can to slow them down, but if that thing is fully functional we might need a little help on this one. Stevens out.”
“Oh my god,” Michelle said as the message ended.
“Get me Meng Yeow and Row,” the Major ordered. “I don’t care who you have to wake up get them on the line ASAP. I’ll advise Numa-O and SPD command of the situation.”
***
Tensions were high as the Ops team studied the camera feed and sensor readings on the build site. The one question going through their minds was how did something like this go unnoticed for so long? Dan wasn’t positive but he estimated that even with robot labor working around the clock it would take a few months to build one of those things. Of course he’s been wrong before. “Looks like a Devil type to me,” D.E. said out loud. Dan just grunted as he studied the images.
“Why don’t we just blast the thing,” Ace said suddenly. “That thing not even fully armored yet. I know the Shepard laser can do some damage.”
“But what do we aim at?”, Dan countered. “And more importantly how do we know it can’t shoot back if we miss?”
“No offence Cap, but sitting on our asses isn’t getting anything done,” she told him.
“I’m aware of that Ace. Unfortunately we’re not equipped to take that thing head on.”
“I keep telling you we need a robot,” Boomer muttered. Dan and Ace found themselves agreeing with him.
“We still need to discover it’s current capabilities,” Rev reminded them.
“And to do that we need to get in there and find out,” Ace said. “Not to mention slow down construction some how.”
“I knew there was a plan in here somewhere,” D.E. said out of the blue. They looked at him wondering what he was talking about. He happily explained, “While no team in the galaxy has been able to capture a complete mech, there been enough of them around that SPD been able to put together a rough blue print of what’s inside it.”
“Please tell me you can find a weak spot,” Ace pleaded.
“Not from plans this rough,” he informed her.
Boomer looked like he got an idea, “Can you show where the power core is?”
“Give me a second,” D.E. hit a couple of controls and the schematics he pulled up appeared on screen. A part of the inside was flashing red, “Right about there.”
“Can you tell if it’s active?”
“Let me check.”
“What do you got in mind Boomer?”, Dan asked.
“I’m thinking if the core’s active we could cause a meltdown or something.”
“That’s nut,” D.E. exclaimed
“Not to mention dangerous,” Rev added.
“And it might be our only option,” Ace told them.
“There has to be another option,” Rev argued.
“Unless this bird can transform into an eighty foot mech I’m not seeing another one,” Dan said plainly.
After a minute or so D.E. finally spoke back up, “Well what ever is blocking the reading is still in effect, but I think I’m getting two readings that look like active energy cores.”
“One for the frame and one for the mech,” Dan said. “Alright we’re going with Boomer’s plan.” He cut Rev off with a wave of his hand before he could protest. “We still have to gather intel on that thing. We might as well cause as much damage as we can while we’re at it. Boomer, try to find out what type of core that might be using. Rev, you and me will be accompanying Boomer carrying extra explosives just in case he needs more. Ace, you and D.E. stay on board the Shepard. You guys are officially Plan B if this doesn’t work.”
“Rodger,” Ace replied.
“Give us two hours. If you don’t hear from us by then assume we failed and do whatever damage you can. We only got one shot at this so we better make it count. And Rev one more thing.”
“Yes Captain.”
“If you haven’t already, start saying some prayers to the Great Spirit. We’re going to need any favors we can get.”
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