Chapter 19

	The building was just like I expected it to be, large, gray, and plain.  
There were many large antennae and satellite dishes on the roof so I knew 
they had some form of long-range communication.  The one thing I was 
expecting to see but didn’t however, was some kind of insignia linking the 
building to one of the corporations.  As I followed Carol through the 
courtyard and up the steps to the main entrance, I could see dozens of 
enclosures of all shapes and sizes off to the sides.  As we neared the top 
of the steps, a somewhat husky man around 30 years old came running out the 
huge glass double doors with a big smile across his chubby face.

	“Oh man, I can not believe you are actually here!”  The mans excitement 
caused his voice to crack and his lower jaw to quiver.  “I knew it was Kong 
that I saw through my binoculars.  That AC of yours is one of a kind man!”  
Carol ran over to the man and threw her arms around his waist while stepping 
onto his feet.  “Look what I found daddy!  He’s Kur and her name is 
Stephanie.  They wanted to meet you.”  Carols father was obviously ignoring 
her but she didn’t seem to notice.  “Ms. Stephanie, Kur, this is my daddy, 
Dr. Samuson Simmons.  He is a scientist.”  Dr. Simmons grabbed my hand and 
began to shake it nervously.  His nervousness was beginning to rub off on 
me, after all, I am not used to this sort of thing.  “It is a pleasure to 
meet you Kur, my friends call me Sam, you can call me Sam.  You guys look 
pretty beat up, why don’t we get you inside and have the doctors take a look 
at you huh?”  Carol led the way once again as Sam began explaining what kind 
of scientist he was and what research he was doing.

	According to Sam, we were on a very large island just to the north of the 
Southern Continent that the ancients called New Guinea.  The island was part 
of the Southern Continent but somehow Sam managed to buy it a few years ago 
and is now turning it into a large wildlife sanctuary.  He says he fears the 
government and corporations have no respect for wildlife so he felt somebody 
had to do something to protect nature.  Sam also plans to open a wildlife 
preserve on mars where there is much more open land for sale, for a much 
cheaper price.  Sam never exposed the source of his funds but then again, I 
didn’t ask.

	After walking for more than a quarter hour through hallways and rooms witch 
all looked the same to me, we found ourselves in the infirmary.  “Don’t 
worry about anything, we have the best doctors in the southern hemisphere 
working here.”  Sam smiled and ushered his daughter out the door and sent 
the doctors in.  One of the doctors was a very attractive young woman.  She 
was short, maybe 5’3, with long, straight, red hair flowing down to her 
knees.  The other doctor was an older man who was a stark contrast to his 
partner.  He was a black man as tall as I was and balding.  He looked like 
he could have been 60 years old but something in his eyes told me he was 
much older than that.

	The older doctor walked right over to me and shook my hand.  “Hello Kur, 
I’m Dr. Miles, I’m very glad to meet you.  Everybody around here are huge 
arena fans.  Your matches thus far have been very exciting.”  While he was 
talking to motioned me up onto the hospital bed and began to examine me.  
“Uh, thanks.”  I really didn’t know what to say so I just let him continue 
prodding me.  I looked over his shoulder and found the much younger female 
doctor looking over Stephanie.  Dr. Miles picked up a small device and ran 
it across my whole body a few times.  While he was reading the display on 
the device I could see his eyebrows arch and a typical doctor “hmm” escaped 
from his throat.  Of course this piqued my curiosity.  “What is it?”  “It 
seems that your leg has set itself and began to heal already.  And I see 
that you have four broken ribs that are almost completely healed.”  The good 
doctor said nothing else and walked out of the room.  I took a deep breath 
and shrugged my shoulders.

	“What’s going on Kur?”  Stephanie was looking at me from the other side of 
the room while her doctor was checking her blood pressure.  “I don’t know, 
he just x-rayed me and took off.”  It was the other doctors turn to speak 
now.  “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Dr. Miles does that all the time. 
  It drives his patients nuts, they always think they are going to die or 
something.”  She began laughing at her own comment and began examining 
Stephanie’s eyes.  I laid down on the hospital bed, thankful for the chance 
to lay down in some peace and quiet.  I was just beginning to drift off to 
sleep when I heard the door open and several people walked in, led by Dr. 
Miles.  I sat up in the bed once again eager to hear what the doctor had to 
say.  “Mr. Kur, could you please come with us?  I have a few more tests I 
would like to run on you.”  I knew it, it’s always more tests when you are 
dealing with doctors.  “Um, actually, could you just fix us up so we can be 
on our way?  We are really in a pretty big hurry.”  Dr. Miles expression 
turned to two degrees shy of absolute horror at my words.  I guess he was 
hoping for a different answer.  “Oh, well yes of course.”  He sounded 
utterly defeated as he spoke with his eyes to the ground.  “Can we get a 
blood and tissue sample at least?”  I would have given him my spleen if it 
meant I could get out of there a few seconds sooner.  “Yeah sure, just make 
it quick ok?  This is literally a matter of life and death.”  He jumped into 
action, dropping his momentary depression in favor of his doctors’ work 
ethic.

	The Doctors all went to work, drawing more blood out of me than I knew I 
had, and scraping the skin from my back till I was bleeding.  All the while, 
Dr. Miles was injecting some weird biological calcium stuff into my leg and 
rib cage.  He said it was supposed to completely heal my broken bones in 
less than a couple hours.  The doctors finished their exams and treatments 
and left the room.  I sighed deeply and laid back down on the hospital bed, 
hoping to catch some sleep this time, but the door opening once again 
interrupted me.  I sat up, accepting the fact that I was going to be awake 
for a long time to come.  Sam walked into the room and made the usual small 
talk about our injuries and what the doctors said.  I finally broke the 
conversation by jumping off the bed and helping Stephanie off of hers.  
“Well Sam I would like to thank you for your hospitality, I guess you can 
just send the bill to my dorm at the cortex, but we really have to get 
going.”  Sam looked at me sort of confused for a moment before speaking.  
“Aren’t you from Corella city?”  “Yeah why?”  “Well…. I guess you have been 
gone a while.  The Global Cortex in Corella city has been destroyed.”  
“What?  No that was just the main office building.”  “Oh no, you really 
don’t know do you.  The Cortex and the Earth Government have gone to war.  
The Cortex blamed the Government for the explosion at the office building 
and not much later the Cortex responded by sending something like 50 AC’s to 
attack an office of the Earth Government.  That was the last straw I 
suppose.  They have been at war for about a month now.  Well, the Cortex in 
Corella city was the Governments first target.  It is completely destroyed.” 
  At first I couldn’t believe my ears but what Sam was saying made perfect 
sense.  Basil’s war had begun, sooner than he planned, but here it was.

	Even with the news of the war, I could only think about saving Trish.  “We 
have to go…”  I grabbed Steph by the arm and led her quickly out of the 
rooms and down the halls to the main entrance of the building.  Sam and 
Carol were right on my heels the whole way and he finally spoke up once I 
reached the edge of the thick forest path.  “Kur!  Wait hold on!  Why are 
you in such a rush?  It’s not like you can stop the war, and even if you 
could, getting there a few hours earlier wouldn’t…”  “I don’t give a fuck 
about the war ok!”  The thought that Trish has been locked away for more 
than three months was eating me up inside.  The frustration and anger I had 
with myself for letting it happen was evident in my voice.  “I don’t have 
time for this!”  I turned and started for the forest path but Stephanie 
grabbed my arm and planted her feet.  Kur stop.  Sam doesn’t deserve that.”  
She turned to Sam as I stood there trying to calm down and began to explain 
the situation.  “We have to get to Mars, there is somebody… important there 
that we have to save.”  The hesitation in Stephanie’s voice showed her 
jealousy for Trish.  After hearing Stephanie’s words, Sam’s face lit up for 
a moment then he knelt down next to Carol and whispered something in her ear 
and the little girl ran off back towards the building.  Sam rose to his feet 
and smiled broadly at me.  “Kur, I think I know of a way I can help you 
out.”  Jeez was this guy for real?  “Sam I think you’ve done plenty to help 
me, I really don’t need anything…”  He interrupted me in mid sentence with a 
wave of his hand and a un-Sam like outburst.  “Damn it Kur, let a rich fat 
man do some good huh?  I can save all the animals I like, but to help save a 
human life isn’t an opportunity that comes by a guy like me often.”  The 
sincerity in his voice and on his face was something I haven’t seen in a 
rich mans face in a long time.

	The door to the complex opened and a very attractive woman wearing what 
looked like some type of military combat uniform came walking up to us.  As 
she approached, I took a good look at her.  Her hair was dyed a bluish 
green, her eyes were a very bright blue, and she seemed to be wearing some 
kind of radio equipment or something over her ears, they looked almost like 
antenna or something.  Sam seemed very appreciative of the fact that she was 
standing next to him.  “Kur, I'd like you to meet Navi, she is the head of 
our security here and also our lead care taker for the veterinary clinic.  I 
would really like for you to take her with you.  I think it is the best way 
I can help you out.”  I’d never been offered a person before so I was not 
sure how to respond.  Navi kind of just stood there with a somewhat blank 
look on her face then suddenly began to speak.  “Hello Kur, I look forward 
to being of assistance to you.  I have been programmed with 2,780 major 
tasks and innumerable minor tasks.  My major program function is that of a 
Raven, best utilized as rear line support.”  Now it was my turn to have a 
blank look on my face as Navi extended her hand in a greeting.  I put my 
hand out and took hold of hers, her words not quite registering in my brain 
yet.  “Um… programmed?”  Sam looked confused by my question for a moment 
then quickly spoke up.  “Oh!  I’m sorry I forgot to mention.. Navi is an 
android.  I swear she is so human like that I sometimes forget.  She is an 
excellent Raven.  She has kept us pretty safe here.  Her AC is in great 
shape too, I am sure you could make good use of both of them.”

	I could not believe Sam was doing this.  “Hey listen Sam, seriously, a 
droid and an AC?  That is a lot to give a guy you barely met don’t you 
think?”  Sam just continued smiling at me as he spoke.  “Kur, don’t worry 
about it, I’ll have another droid and another AC within the week.  Please, 
take them and don’t give it a second thought, they are yours now.”  I sighed 
deeply and looked at Navi, who seemed to pick up on my body language and 
realize that she would indeed, be going with us.  Navi smiled at me then 
turned to Sam and bowed slightly to him.  “My services under you have been 
enjoyable and fulfilling Mr. Simmons.  I hope that you remain happy and 
healthy in my absence.”  Sam grinned and bowed back to his former android 
and I could see a twinge of remorse on his face.  It was obvious that Navi 
was more than just a tool to him.  I caught myself looking at Navi’s face 
for some kind of emotion and was surprised to see that se did seem a little 
sad.  I just had to make sure this was the right thing to do.  “Well uh… Are 
you sure you want to go with us Navi?  I mean this is going to be extremely 
dangerous, I can’t guarantee you will survive this.”  Navi smiled at me and 
placed her hands on her hips.  “I am 18 years past my original warranty Kur, 
survival to me is nothing more than a tune up and a virus scan.”  I could 
hear Stephanie behind me bust up laughing.  Sam was holding his head in his 
hands and his body was bouncing up and down quickly, telling me he was 
laughing silently.  Even Navi snickered a little at her own joke.  “Well ok 
then.  I guess we could wait about an hour longer, if you need to say 
goodbye to anybody.”  “I can tell by the anxiety in your voice that time is 
of the essence.  Besides, the only person I would wish to say goodbye to is 
Carol, and I would rather remember her smile than her tears.  She will 
understand in time.”  This droid was just full of surprises.  “Well then I 
guess that settles it.  We will make our way to the beach while you go get 
your AC.”  “Yes Mr. Kur.”  Oh great, more Mr. Kur’s.

	Stephanie and I began the walk through the thick forest under growth 
towards the beach where I had left Kong.  Sam followed us, telling us about 
a large cargo ship that was about 20 miles off the coast and heading north 
towards Mandolina City.  He called the ship and got them to hold their 
position and wait for us so we could get a ride.  If I knew my geography, 
and I probably didn’t, Mandolina City was on the southeastern edge of the 
eastern continent.  I could make repairs there and maybe even catch a 
shuttle to Mars.  We were almost out of the forest when we heard an AC fly 
overhead and land on the beach ahead of us.  By the time we made it to the 
beach, Navi was standing next to a blue steel colored, ultra light AC.  It 
was equipped with a very small chain gun and impressive radar antennae on 
it’s back, and a sniper rifle and small plasma blade in it’s hands.  All in 
all it was a good design, defiantly intended for long-range combat.  “Hey 
Navi, that AC is a droid pilot design right?  With two seats in the 
cockpit?”  Navi looked up at her AC and then at me.  “Yes, I pilot the AC by 
interfacing directly with the computer.  There is a seat for myself and 
another for a co-pilot or passenger.”  The droid piloted AC’s were designed 
so that only droids could operate them.  The AC’s are generally cheap to 
build and used mostly as soldiers, to spare human Raven lives in large-scale 
combat.  I was sure that there were thousands of them being used at that 
moment for the war Vincent had started between the Earth Government and the 
Global Cortex.  Well none of that mattered now, the important thing was that 
I now had somewhere to put Stephanie where she wouldn’t be molesting me or 
getting beat to death by flying control arms.  “Steph, I want you to go with 
Navi, you will be much safer strapped into her AC than you would be in 
mine.”  It was obvious Stephanie wasn’t happy with my request but she 
couldn’t deny the logic in it so she humbly agreed and climbed into the 
cockpit with Navi following close behind her.

	I quickly climbed into Kong and powered up.  “Welcome back Kur.”  “Give me 
a damage report Kong.”  I knew it was going to bad so I braced myself for 
the worst.  “Sensors show massive breaches in 70% of the external armor.  
Radiator capacity is down to 30%.  Main boosters are fully functional but 
reliability is questionable.  All weapons are missing except the STARLIGHT 
plasma blade, which is fully operational.  Cockpit control arms are worn out 
of spec and need adjustments.”  Jeez.  I’m surprised the thing was still 
running.  “The repairs will have to wait for a while, make adjustments to 
compensate for the control arm wear.”  “Affirmative.”  I looked over to see 
Navi’s AC standing next to Kong.  I just hoped she was programmed to be a 
damn good Raven.  I opened a com link to Navi.  “That is a good looking AC 
Navi, has it got a name?”  “Yes Kur, this AC is registered under the name 
Starshadow.”  “That’s a good name, it fits the AC nicely.”  Just after I 
said that, I could hear Stephanie through the com link.  “Jeez, typical name 
for a dark colored AC.  Not very original.”  Navi’s was the next voice I 
heard and it was obvious she had a sense of humor.  “I detect jealousy in my 
co-pilots tone of voice.  Do not worry Ms. Stephanie, I am not 100% 
anatomically correct.  Mr. Kur and myself could not ‘cross circuits’.”  I 
heard Stephanie begin to laugh, I could imagine she felt pretty dumb for 
even thinking I would hook up with an android.  She seemed in a better mood 
now anyway.  “Think you could turn off the jealousy for a few minutes Steph? 
  Come on Navi, lets get going.”

	I jumped high into the air and fired my boosters, hoping they would 
actually fire up.  Success!  Well that is one worry down.  I began to fly 
out over the ocean when I over heard Navi and Stephanie talking about the 
conditions inside the cockpit of Starshadow.  “If the temperature of the 
cockpit is not to your liking Ms. Stephanie, just ask and I will adjust it 
for you.  I do not use the climate control because I do not need to.”  “Just 
keep it at 72 degrees and make sure there is enough fresh air to keep me 
breathing and I’ll be fine… isn’t there a way I can see what’s going on 
outside?”  “Of course Ms. Stephanie.”  “Ah, that’s more like it.”  I don’t 
know what happened, Steph probably found a virtual reality display helmet or 
something, in any case, it seemed like she could see now.

	By now Navi had lifted off and was close behind me as we boosted over the 
ocean.  Her programming was doing an excellent job of using just enough 
energy to keep her airborne but not enough to have to land.  One of the 
benefits of an ultra light AC.  Kong however was not faring as well.  
Usually I could keep him airborne but with the boosters in as bad a shape as 
they are, I didn’t want to risk over heating them again, especially with a 
nearly useless radiator.  So I landed on a large coral reef and walked from 
time to time to give the boosters a break.  It was when I got to a large gap 
in the reef that I began to worry, and Navi’s comments didn’t help my nerves 
at all.  “Mr. Kur?  Your AC is severely damaged and weaponless, what exactly 
are we planning to do with a glass jaw light weight and a rickety super 
heavy?”  Oh if she only knew.  “A rickety heavy?  Oh come on, it’s not that 
bad.  Anyway, I was planning on just getting to Mandolina City and making 
repairs, then finding out from there what to do.”  “A logical course of 
action.  My question however was not our immediate plans, but instead, what 
is so dire that you must risk operating such a severely damaged AC with such 
haste?”  Just thinking about it took me from worried and nervous to 
depressed and determined.  “It’s a long story Navi, so I will cut it short.  
There is somebody very important to me being held on Mars and we are going 
to go save her… no matter what.”  “I see.  I will do my best to ensure this 
persons safe return to you Mr. Kur, you have my word.”  I heard genuine 
concern in Navi’s voice.  I wondered for a moment if she was really 
concerned or just programmed to sound that way at the right times.  “Thanks 
Navi.”

	We continued on for another few minutes in silence.  So far my boosters 
were holding and I was just beginning to think I would make it to the ship 
before any trouble came up.  I was wrong.  I could just make out a black 
shape on the horizon right before my radar showed a red dot, almost 3 miles 
away.  “Shit!  Navi, take a look through your sniper scope along the 
horizon.  How many are there?”  We had just reached the other side of the 
gap in the reef so I cut my boosters and landed, Navi followed along and 
lifted her sniper rifle to the horizon.  “I count 25 AC’s.  They are spaced 
about 100 yards apart and are standing on some kind of large floating 
platforms.”  Just terrific.  “You got any bright ideas Navi?  I don’t think 
we can just rush in and take them all.”  “Perhaps they will let us pass.  
Maybe they are not the enemy.”  “I wish that were the case Navi.  I am 
almost positive Vincent is behind this.  They won’t let us pass without a 
fight.”  “I assume that this Vincent is our enemy.  If you are positive that 
those AC’s will not let us pass, I can hit them from here.  However at this 
range, my bullets will only do very minor damage.  Perhaps if I aimed for 
the visual sensors on the AC’s heads I could blind them.”  That sounded like 
music to my ears.  “Ok Navi, if you can take out their cameras from here, I 
can handle the rest.  On my mark, I want you to shoot the AC in the middle 
and work your way to the left.”  “Understood.”  With Navi’s approval, I 
jumped off the reef and into the ocean.  I let Kong sink about 300 feet 
before I hit the boosters and made my way towards the line of AC’s.  I made 
it to within 500 yards and saw what was really going on.  It was a trap.  
The 25 AC’s on the surface were only the front line.  There were hundreds 
more AC’s and even more MT’s below the surface waiting for me.

	I moved in as close as I dared and hid in the darkness of the water for a 
few seconds, waiting for the more dangerous looking AC’s to look the other 
way.  I opened a secure com link to Navi and braced myself for the attack.  
“Ok Navi, take out the middle AC and work your way left.  Now!”  I waited a 
few moments, to give Navi time to disable a few of the AC’s before I made my 
move.  I fired my over boosters and shot forward then up out of the water, 
right next to the middle AC which Navi had blinded.  I tilted forward and 
over boosted right at the line of AC’s to the right and sliced through four 
of them in less than a second before the fifth saw me coming and fired his 
machine gun at me.  I barrel rolled around the bullets and sliced the core 
of the AC in half.  “What the..?”  There was no cockpit!  These AC’s were AI 
controlled.  I didn’t have too much time to think about it though because 
the rest of them were onto me.  I stopped and landed on the floating 
platform and grabbed the fallen AC’s machine gun.  There was a line of 4 
AC’s coming from directly in front of me.  I quickly boosted forward and 
fired the machine gun at the lightest of the AC’s and was happy to see that 
the bullets tore through it like it was made of paper and the AC exploded in 
a huge fireball.  There was a green glow coming from below me and at first I 
thought it was my own eyes until the glow exploded from the ocean below me, 
revealing itself to be the extended blade of an AC coming from directly 
below me.  It was a heavy weight with a Starlight blade and a huge laser 
cannon in its right hand.  The heavy swung its blade upward towards me and I 
easily blocked but that AI was on top of it’s game.  Its cannon was already 
pointed at me when it fired.  Time slowed dramatically.  I hit my over boost 
and released the limiter and just plain prayed that I would make it in time. 
  The huge laser cut directly through the heavy armor on Kong’s leg with no 
problem.  I pulled the leg to the left, getting it out of the way of the 
laser but the damage was mostly done.  Any armor that was left melted off, 
leaving the artificial muscle and other vital lines and components exposed.  
I drove my blade into the core through the head and continued to over boost 
towards the three AC’s in front of me.

	With time still moving so slowly I was able to see the AC in the middle 
lift it’s bazooka.  I threw my stolen machine gun at the bazookas barrel 
just as it fired.  The machine gun exploded leaving the three AC’s in a 
thick cloud of smoke.  I flew low, just above the oceans surface as bullets 
and rockets shot above me from inside the smoke.  I veered to the right then 
rolled over and cut left when I got to the smoke cloud and extended my 
blade, cutting each AC through the core.  I kept going on to the next AC, 
slicing it vertically down it’s center.  It was right about this time that 
time returned to normal and found myself blocking attacks from 5 different 
blading lightweights.  I didn’t see where they came from, meaning they must 
have some kind of cloaking device that I couldn’t see from the outside.  The 
blades were stabbing and slashing at me from everywhere.  Each of the five 
AC’s had two blades and seemed perfectly programmed to use them against me.  
I blocked an overhead swing with my own blade and quickly turned my left arm 
down to block a horizontal slash.  I used my right hand to block another 
slash by grabbing the AC’s wrist.  I swung the AC around, using it as a 
shield to block several more attacks before another AC cut its arm off, 
leaving me with it’s right arm in my right hand.  I threw the arm hard into 
the AC in front of me, knocking it’s head clean off.  I suddenly heard 
Navi’s voice through the com link.  “Seven targets blinded Kur.”

	I had almost forgotten about Navi and Stephanie.  I dropped into the ocean 
and boosted away from the gang of bladders and popped back out behind them.  
I boosted forward and shoulder rammed one while slicing through the other 
two to my side.  I looked back to see several AC’s boosting towards Navi, 
who was kneeling down and still firing shots at whatever AC she could get in 
her sights.  “Navi!  Get out of there now, they are coming for you!”  
“Negative Mr. Kur.  I will stay and fight.”  Damn droids going to get them 
both killed.  “Shit, fine!  You just remember you have Stephanie with you.  
If things get to bad, you get the hell out of there!”  I had just turned my 
attention away from Navi’s direction when a large MT landed right in front 
of me and then just exploded.  I could see the shock wave of the explosion 
heading towards me along with literally tons of shrapnel.  Before I even 
knew what I was doing I had activated my boosters and shot straight into the 
air.  The shockwave almost caught up to me but I managed to get away.  
“Jeez, I just out ran an explosion… Sweet!”

	On my way up into the sky I slashed a few more AC’s giving me time to check 
on Navi and Steph.  I turned to look just in time to see Starshadow snipe 
the booster of an AC flying right towards them, leaving it to fall out of 
the sky and skip across the oceans surface before sinking in.  Three more 
midweights were quickly making their way to Navi’s position When the AC she 
just shot stood up out of the water and began it’s second approach.  The 
middle AC of the three fired a rocket witch Navi easily strafed, letting it 
explode behind her in spite of not reaching its goal.  Navi boosted towards 
the damaged AC and sliced its right hand and bazooka just as another of the 
three launched 10 vertical missiles high into the air.  The AC that just 
lost its hand began looking for revenge with a wide horizontal swing of it’s 
blade but cut nothing but air as Starshadow boosted up over the slash and 
into the ocean, leaving the 10 vertical missiles exploding in a trail 
towards her that blocked the other three AC’s from following her.

	By this time I had my own problems to deal with.  I had AC’s and MT’s 
swarming to me like bees to a hive and all I had was my Starlight and an 
empty hand.  I quickly decided that the best defense is a good offense and I 
hit my over boosters with blade extended and tore through as many AC’s as I 
could before I reached the ocean below.  I stopped quickly just above the 
water and turned to grab the lightweight AC that was trying to follow me and 
using it’s own momentum I swung it around me like a sling shot and launched 
it into a crowd of AC’s and MT’s that never saw it coming.  The entire group 
exploded with the impact leaving a rain of debris falling into the water.  I 
quickly glanced over to check on Navi and Steph but it looked like 
Starshadow was still hiding under the water so I continued my own fight.  A 
heavyweight AC that looked to be even larger than Kong boosted off of one of 
the buoys and fired the largest cannon I had ever seen on an AC at me from 
just over 40 yards away.  The 20-foot long, five-foot diameter slug of what 
looked to be depleted uranium was glowing red hot from the speed at witch it 
was cutting through the air towards me.  Time slowed dramatically but the 
slug still looked incredibly fast.  I had just enough time to lift my blade 
and slice the slug in half about ten feet from Kongs chest plate.  Or at 
least that was what I had planned.  What actually happened was I lifted my 
blade and the slug hit it and began to shine like it was soaked in vegetable 
oil.  I was pushed back hard for almost 300 yards before my over boosters 
could stop me.  I was totally confused now.  “What the hell is this?  Some 
kind of shield?  On a bullet?”  Even after Kong and the slug had stopped 
moving, the slug hovered in mid air against my blade.  That was the first 
strange thing I had noticed, the second was that all of the MT’s and AC’s 
were now boosting away from me as fast as they could.  “Ugh.. This can’t be 
good” I muttered under my breath.  No sooner had I finished talking than the 
slugs oily looking shield dropped away and compartments of all shapes and 
sizes sprang open revealing dozens of machine gun and bazooka barrels, along 
with grenade launchers and a few missile platforms.

	“Shit!”  I jumped as hard as I could and hit my boosters just as every 
weapon on the damn thing began unloading themselves.  The amount of 
firepower it was shooting into the air was impossible for me to dodge; the 
entire sky was literally blanketed in bullets and missiles.  I dodged the 
heaviest fire and took the smaller bullets trying to take them in non-vital 
areas but while I was busy with that, the slug tilted up and aimed itself 
right at me.  I thought maybe it would try to hit me again but instead the 
nose flipped up and a gigantic bolt of plasma fired out of it.  I just 
managed to dodge to the right but that sent me right into a rather large 
grenade that I took full on the core.  “Warning, front core armor is at 0%.  
Recommending immediate repair and…”  “Yeah I know Kong, shut up I’m busy!”  
Now that I had no front armor, the smaller round were making their way into 
my core tearing up power lines and giving my generator a hell of a beating.  
“Crap!  What the hell am I going to do now?”  I didn’t have time to come up 
with an answer as another huge bolt of plasma was on its way towards me.  
Just on instinct I turned around and boosted straight up, the plasma bolt 
just missed my feet but once again I took a hard hit in the process.  A 
missile hit the back of my right leg tearing the armor clean off but the leg 
was thankfully still functional.  I turned back around to face my new 
opponent and found yet another barrel sticking out of it’s nose.  This one 
flashed brightly as it fired but I couldn’t see what was coming out.  That 
was when I noticed the dull green glow in my cockpit had intensified into a 
dark green light.  “How the hell can there be dark green light?”  I was 
thinking to myself when I finally saw the projectiles from the new gun.  It 
was needles, hundreds of thousands of needles.  They were glowing bright 
white and had a cone of flame at the tip of them, telling me they were 
moving incredibly fast.  I quickly looked around and found that time had 
indeed slowed down, probably the slowest it has ever appeared to me.  But 
even if time had stopped I don’t think I could have dodged those needles.  
They were everywhere as far as I could see and they were spaced no more than 
a couple feet apart.

	I decided the best thing to do would be to take them to the side armor, 
that way they would have to get through the arm and the still good armor on 
the side of the core before they hit anything vital.  So I turned, exposing 
my right side to the needles, not wanting to disable my blade arm.  The 
needles hit and I could hear them piercing right through Kong at many times 
the speed of sound.  It sounded like dropping a pile of hot rocks into a 
bucket of water, only much louder.  Time returned to normal and I realized I 
might not have much time before the next attack.  “Kong, quickly, damage 
report!”  “Radiator operating at 54%, generator operating at 30%, cockpit 
damaged but fully functional, estimated 24,000 small holes in power 
conduits, data buses, and fiber optics, beginning auxiliary routing to 
compensate.”  The needles did lots of damage to Kong but nothing that would 
incapacitate an AC.  They must be designed to kill the pilot by piercing 
through the armor.  Like the old saying goes, the body can’t live without 
the brain.  I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my stomach and a few more on my 
arms and legs.  I looked down and found 11 small holes in my body, all of 
them going in the right side and out the left.  There were 5 in my legs, 4 
in my torso and 2 in my arms.  Thankfully none of the needles hit my head 
but I did see two of them still stuck in my body, one of them sticking out 
on both sides, the other hanging out my left side.  They were about two feet 
long and no bigger around than a large nail.  I pulled the needles out and 
threw them to the floor of the cockpit.  I was surprised at first that I 
wasn’t bleeding but then I realized the extreme heat of the needles 
cauterized anything they came in contact with, so for now I was safe.

	On the other hand, no kind of pain hurts worse than a burn and these burns 
literally went all the way through me.  I didn’t have time to do anything 
about the pain but grin and bear it, but it was the type of pain that 
doesn’t stop hurting and that no matter how you try, you just can’t get used 
to it.  My frustration level was building quickly and the light from my eyes 
grew more intense.  I glanced towards Navi’s position just in time to see 
Star shadow burst out of the water and fire a sniper bullet into the waist 
joint of the nearest AC preventing it from turning around to counter the 
blade swipe that cleaved through it’s head and deep into the core.  The 
other three AC’s no more than 20 yards from her whirred around and opened 
fire with light machine guns and bazookas.  Starshadow leapt into the air 
and fired her last four shots to no avail and began taking heavy damage from 
the machine guns but was managing to avoid the heavier fire.  “Damn it!  
Stephanie is gonna be killed over there!”  My frustration was giving way to 
anger and I could feel something coming over my body.  I felt a warmth 
coursing through my body like my blood had increased in temperature.  My 
hands and feet had gone numb and my pain began to fade away.  “Am I going 
into shock?  No, this is different somehow…”  “Kur, I am afraid I can no 
longer dodge these attacks and I am out of ammo.  With out some help I will 
not last much longer.”  I barely heard Navi over the COM link and I thought 
I heard Stephanie screaming something in the background, I couldn’t be sure.

	I looked down at the damn slug that had been giving me so much trouble and 
for some reason I just snapped.  My anger boiled over to pure rage and 
hatred.  I couldn’t wait to tear that piece of shit apart and I would do it 
with my bare hands if Kong couldn’t.  I hit my over boosters and launched 
towards the slug at full speed.  The ocean was flying up behind my in a huge 
rooster tail from the pressure difference I left in the air behind me.  I 
lifted my blade and slammed it into the slug as hard as I could.  The blade 
hit the nose of the slug and knocked it back several hundred yards.  “Damn 
shields!  Argh!”  I charged in again and this time the slug charged as well. 
  We collided and began a power struggle just a few feet above the oceans 
surface.  The longer we pushed against each other the more furious I became. 
  “Warning, generator output exceeding 100%”  I didn’t even pay attention at 
first and actually the interruption just increased my rage, I was no longer 
thinking of anything but killing this thing in front of me and anything else 
that got in my way.  “Warning, generator output exceeding 200%”  “SHUT THE 
FUCK UP!”  Suddenly my Starlight blade flashed incredibly bright and melted 
through the shield and the slug like they weren’t even there.  The slug 
exploded in a huge fireball but I didn’t feel any shock wave at all.

	“Kur, please, if you do not help me now Stephanie will not survive this 
mission.”  Shit!  I had completely forgotten about them!  I looked over and 
found that Starshadow was in a lot of trouble.  “Navi!  Hurry up and come 
towards me!”  Immediately Starshadow hit the over boosters and began the 
long trip towards me.  That meant I had to get rid of all of these AC’s and 
MT’s witch were now regrouping on me and I had to somehow take out the three 
that were following Navi and Steph.  I took a deep breath and over boosted 
towards the front line of AC’s and plowed right through them, Kong was 
moving so fast the impact didn’t even slow me down.  “Wwwwwwaaaaaaarrrrrrr…” 
  What the hell?  I didn’t notice time had slowed down somewhat, witch 
explains why Kong sounded like a drunken cow.  I changed directions and 
headed for a group of MT’s about 50 yards away and sliced through six of 
them in line and grabbed the seventh and hurled it into a crowd of smaller 
MT’s sending them all tumbling into the ocean.  This gave me a pretty good 
idea.  “Navi, no matter what, do not change your course!”  “I understand but 
The AC’s are catching up to me.”  “Then release your limiter and outrun the 
bastards, you are in an ultra light, use your speed!”  I blocked an overhead 
slash from a plasma blade from a midweight that tried to sneak up behind me 
and kicked backwards knocking the core clean off the legs of the wanna-be 
backstabber.  I hit the boosters again and shot towards a heavy AC with a 
rail gun and sliced it in half vertically as I took the gun away and used it 
to take out 15 more AC’s as I boosted to the next AC with a decent weapon to 
steal.

	I looked back to check on Navi and Steph and it didn’t look like they were 
much closer than they were before.  I still had time.  I stole the large 
rocket launcher off the back of the AC in front of me and pulled its 
boosters off leaving it to fall into the ocean.  With my new support weapons 
installed I needed a new main weapon, so I boosted to a lightweight with a 
large machine gun and punched a hole through it’s core and took the gun 
before it fell.  The machine gun still had 830 rounds left and I wasted no 
time in using them.  I pulled the trigger and began aiming for critical 
areas but was surprised to see that only one bullet was firing from the gun 
for every four AC’s I was aiming at.  After slowing down my movement some, I 
managed to fire one bullet at each AC and a rocket at any MT’s that strayed 
close enough.  The enemies were falling like flies in a cloud of poison as I 
put bullets through the boosters and cameras.  All the while I was boosting 
from AC to AC slicing as many as I could.  But it seemed that for every one 
I sent plunging into the water, 2 would take its place.  This was getting to 
be too much.

	I checked on Starshadow again and it looked like they were close enough for 
my plan.  I boosted for a midweight AC and knocked its head off while 
grabbing the left leg.  I guess I gripped to hard because the leg pinched 
off in Kong’s massive hand.  I grabbed the other leg and lined up my shot.  
I began spinning around swinging the AC faster and faster and finally let it 
go right for where Navi was coming up.  The AC flew towards Starshadow even 
faster than I thought it would.  “Kur I have a bogey coming in at 12 
o’clock.  It is moving faster than anything I have ever seen.  I need some 
help now.”  “Keep your course Navi, Don’t stray even an inch!”  The AC I 
threw streamed over Starshadow's head by just a few feet and collided with 
the group of AC’s behind her.  Two of the pursuing AC’s exploded in a ball 
of fire more than a mile away from me but one was still on their tail.  I 
continued my assault on the group hoping that Navi could deal with the one 
AC on her own.  I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I darted around 
like a giant green pinball, taking apart AC after MT after AC.  Starshadow’s 
generator was running low and the over boosters cut out, letting the 
trailing AC quickly catch up, but Navi seemed to have planned this and 
quickly turned around swinging wide with her blade.  The enemy AC was still 
far enough back to react and quickly ducked the swing but hit the water 
moving at over 550 miles per hour.  The speed of the impact tore the AC to 
shreds as it skipped across the surface of the ocean.  Navi quickly landed 
on one of the nearby buoys and picked up a sniper rifle left by a long since 
defeated AC.  “Supplying support fire now Kur.”  I couldn’t help but breath 
a sigh of relief.  “Navi, take out as many as you can!  Aim for cameras, 
joints, anything, hell, shoot their weapons!”

	I had cut the number of enemies down to around 60 or so but more were still 
coming out of the water, it was getting hard just to maneuver in the swarm.  
“Oh god where is he, I don’t see him anywhere!”  “Please calm down Ms. 
Stephanie.  Although I cannot see him either it is logical to assume he is 
still out there as the enemies would not destroy themselves.”  “I’m ok 
Steph, just calm down and let Navi work.”  The interruption calmed me down 
slightly and I began to wonder how Kong was moving around so well.  The last 
I remember, my generator was only putting out like 30%.  “Kong, how is the 
generator doing?”  “The generator is moderately damaged, power is being 
routed through backup conduits, and output is currently at 525%.”  Yeah… 
right.  “Kong recheck the generator output, there is no way it is 525%.”  
“Correct, generator output is currently 550%.”  Whatever, I’ll have to check 
the sensors if I get through this.  As long as the damn thing is making 
energy I don’t care what the output is.

	I put my thoughts about the generator in the back of my mind and dove into 
battle headfirst.  If I didn’t hurry up and do something, it wouldn’t be 
long before a few of the AC’s broke off to take care of Starshadow.  The 
first thing I had to do was take care of the AC’s with long-range weapons so 
that none of them could take shots at Navi and Steph.  I noticed a group of 
light to midweights on a buoy with sniper rifles and small cannons that were 
beginning to take notice that I wasn’t the only one causing damage to their 
comrades.  Navi was dropping the enemies one by one with expert shots from 
her barrowed sniper rifle.  Before they even had a chance to turn and look 
for her, I boosted down and at over 2000 miles per hour I landed on top of 
the largest AC crushing it through the buoy and into the water.  I quickly 
rotated my right shoulder back to dodge a cannon shot and at the same time 
thrust my left arm out and gave a nearby AC a good poke through the 
generator.  I jumped and left the rest of the group there to enjoy the 
explosion of the previously poked AC.  The explosion sunk the buoy and the 
group of AC’s went down with it.

	With most of the long-range firepower taken care of, I headed for a 
lightweight AC with dual plasma blades.  This AI had no intention of letting 
me slice its AC in half and attacked first.  I easily blocked an over head 
swing and a jab to the core and parried a swinging vertical slash with a 
horizontal slash of my own that separated the AC’s left from it’s right.  
Before I had time to watch the split open AC fall into the water I boosted 
towards a group of heavily armored MT’s that were making their way towards 
Navi and Stephanie.  The MT’s had their backs to me and never knew what hit 
them.  I sliced two of them clean in half and them grabbed a third and used 
it as a club on the other two.  I continued on like this for the next few 
seconds, taking out more than 150 AC’s and MT’s all the while Navi was 
taking out the cameras and weapons of the more dangerous AC’s that were 
coming out of the water.

	I thought things were just starting to go our way because the rate of the 
new AC’s coming appearing had slowed dramatically.  That is when I noticed 
that Starshadow was now circling the battle area using her chain gun on 
anything she could get in range of.  The only thing I can think is that 
Navi’s sniper rifle had run out of ammo and she was trying to help without 
putting her ultra light AC in the thick of the battle.  A few moments later 
and the chain gun disengaged itself from Starshadow’s shoulder and fell into 
the water, leaving Navi with only her blade left to fight with.  That was 
when things got ugly.

	The ocean began to glow and boil underneath me for almost a half-mile 
radius.  Kong’s radar was going absolutely crazy.  The entire radar display 
was a sheet of blue that was turning orange and then red.  This told me that 
either one gigantic, or a shit load of small enemies, were coming up from 
directly below me.  I looked up and found Starshadow hovering not 100 yards 
outside the area of the turmoil about to be caught up in whatever was coming 
up.  “Steph…”  Shit!  What the hell do I do?  I can’t let her die here like 
this and I can’t let myself die here either.  I can’t die, not until I know 
that Trish was safe.  “Damn it!  FUCK!!!”  My whole body was tensing up and 
I got that numbness in my hands and feet again only this time it spread up 
my arms and legs.  “Warning, generator output exceeding 800%, 900%, 1200%”  
What the hell was this damn computer talking about?  Not only am I in a 
hopeless situation as it is but now my computer is going skitzo?  “GOD DAMN 
IT!!  ARGH!!”  I was boiling with rage now, my muscles felt ready to snap 
from the tension and I was clenching my jaw so hard that my teeth felt like 
they were being crushed.  “Warning, generator output exceeding 2000%, 3000%” 
  It was just then that the ocean erupted like a dormant volcano going for 
one last hoorah.  What had to be 1000 AC’s and double that in MT’s burst out 
of the ocean and surrounded me in all directions.  The swarm was so thick 
that I couldn’t see the ocean or the sky anymore.  Vincent entered my 
thoughts just then and all I could think of was what I was going to do to 
him when I met him again.  It was the last thought I had for a while, from 
that point on I was nothing but pure hatred and rage in a human body.

	The inside of my cockpit was pure green.  I could no longer see anything 
but green.  All around me was a pure green light and my body was tensing up 
into a fetal position from the pure strain of my muscles.  “Warning, 
generator output exceeding 5000%.”  Suddenly my body snapped back and my 
arms and legs spread open as fast as they could move and all of the numbness 
and tension in my body began to flow out.  “JUST FUCKING DIE!”  I yelled as 
loud as I could while the pure green light flowed out of my body and 
exploded in a perfect sphere around me.  The sphere expanded at a phenomenal 
rate and began to envelop all of the AC’s and MT’s that were closing in on 
me.  Everything that touched the sphere immediately exploded and was 
vaporized as the wave of light passed it.  I could see that the ocean below 
me was being depressed as if a huge glass bowl was being pushed down into 
the water below me.  There were so many individual explosions around me that 
it sounded like one long, loud explosion going off.

	I suddenly felt more exhausted than I had ever felt and I looked up to see 
Starshadow hovering only a few hundred yards away somehow untouched by my 
wave of light.  Every enemy was either vaporized or falling into the huge 
semicircular crater in the exposed ocean floor below me.  My body began to 
feel cold and as my eyes forced themselves shut I heard a voice “KUR!  Oh my 
god!  Hurry Navi, you have to help him!”  I felt myself falling, and then I 
felt nothing at all.