Missing in Action

Once BJ Starr and Vo Kshaa were launched on their ATVs, Lena Marr couldn't wait to get into her flight suit, although it wasn't lost on her the silence that hung in the air between the two before they left. As Lena and Marcel dressed in their flight suits, she saw that BJ sadly stared longingly with big blue diamond eyes at Vo as he prepared his ATV after first making sure hers was travel ready, but the whole time neither said a word to each other. Still, it was obvious to Lena that BJ was still head over heels in love with Vo, although Lena couldn't get a read on his feelings for her, for Irathiants always seemed so stoic to Lena and therefore their body language and facial expressions were always less revealing to Lena as well.

Just before BJ and and Vo left on their ATVs, Lena shouted in a jocular manner, "Good luck BGF... and you too Vo! Don't you two do anything I wouldn't do, which pretty much leaves you full reign to do whatever you want to!"

As the two ATVs disembarked, Marcel reached over with one hand, grabbing one cheek of her shapely rear end and gave it a loving squeeze, which she responded to with the expected yelp of surprise and pleasure, although she wasn't really surprised but was always pleased with Marcel's affectionate attention. They finished dressing in their flight suits, then Lena with a wicked grin on her pretty chalk white face, rushed to Vigilant's outside hatch and dove out the door, yelling behind her, "Hurrrry uppp Slowpokkkeeeeee!

Lena waited to the last possible minute before deploying her wings, loving the wind in her face but then leaving a trail of wind blown snow after her wings opened close to the ground. When she had been a indentured child prostitute in Lima, her only respite had been to climb to the roof of her orphanage brothel, watching the elegant birds from her perch freely gliding in the wind, wishing she was one of them - before the headmistress would yell at her that her next customer was waiting. Back then, she never imagined she would be able to fly like them, and she reveled in the experience.

Lena raised her altitude, the flight suit reacting like an extension of her body as it was interlinked with her EGO implant, so reacted to her wishes at the speed of thought. Pride, one of the many voices in her head, was in the control booth as her EGO psyche, and was positively beaming as Lena performed loops in the sky until suddenly, she spotted the object of their search - the three storied beast that was an amalgamate of a deer and bear, obviously created when the area was terra-formed during the Pale Wars. 



Not knowing if they were being monitored by the enemy, but still wanting to let Marcel know what she was up to, Lena contacted her lover through their private communication channel saying, "Got the beer, so I'm bringing it home now!"

Lena flew towards the creatures face getting within a few feet of one large dark brown eye to get it's attention, so close she could see her reflection in it, which she did as it uttered a mighty roar that sprayed her with it's spit, making her quickly backpedal to avoid its huge snapping jaws as it lunged at her. Soon it was following her towards the thirty foot tall glowing fence around the enemy's complex, when suddenly her flight suits wings began to tremble as she began to lose altitude at an alarming rate.

"Pride! What the drek?" Thought Lena to her EGO psyche as she found herself plummeting to the ground like some modern day Icarus.

"She's gone - just disappeared!" Answered a frantic Hope through the telepathic link they shared, "Sloth and Gluttony are gone too! I think the brain virus got them! And the rest of us our just floating like there's no gravity in here and can't get to the control booth!  You need to take manual control of the flight suit."

"Well that explains why I'm no longer tired or hungry! Okay, taking manual control," Quipped Lena with a wicked smile, which quickly disappeared as she suddenly couldn't remember HOW to take manual control although she had many times in the past, being one who preferred to do things for herself rather than always relying on her EGO, so she virtually yelled into her EGO communicator, "Mayday! Mayday! Going doooown!" 



Luckily, Lena glided into a freezing cold but soft snow drift, resulting in only a concussion and no broken bones, but she had lost her SMG and her helmet, and a trickle of pink blood trailed down her forehead and onto her alabaster face, as she communicated through her EGO to Marcel, "I'm okay, go on with the mission Pooh Bear, I'll - " Then suddenly she found herself in the middle of a huge shadow, and as her unblinking blue eyes were drawn skyward, she saw the monstrous foot of the bear-like beast descending upon her, saying before she blacked out, "Scratch that, definitely NOT okay..."

Behind the mountain as the Vigilant descended, now blocked from any communication or detection signals, the infiltration team dropped from the cargo bay's outer latch to the ground below, landing somewhat hard; except for Lady Christianna who floated gently to the ground looking like a ghostly angel descending to Earth. She floated a foot over the ground, which made her about the same height as the two men who were her companions, Volodja Uljanov and their team leader Taffer.

After Lady had determined that neither man had broken any appendages in the drop, she turned to Taffer and asked with an enigmatic smile as she watched the two men don their snowshoes, "What now Chief?"

Meanwhile on her ATV, BJ Starr had turned to see how far Vo Kshaa was from her as he followed when she saw Lena Marr plummet from the sky like some fallen angel, then heard shortly after Marcel Lestrange's communication, "I am going to rescue Lena first. Mademoiselle Starr has to wait here, until we are done" he announced through communication system. "Any objections, good doers? If you have, then I suggest to...keep them to yourselves and do something useful instead, like getting Lena a gun, so she could defend herself. I know that she is self sufficient but she will be even more self sufficient when she is armed and dangerous. Move your asses, s'il vous plaît!"

"Cheese and crackers!" Exclaimed BJ, turning her ATV modified for traveling swiftly on the tundra, "I can't let that varmint have Lena for a snack! I'm going back for her!"

As Marcel flew and punched the three storied beast luring it away from the unconscious Lena, BJ rode up without reducing speed and with one hand grabbed Lena by the collar of her flight suit hefting Lena in front of her over the seat of the ATV, then before the bear like creature took notice, put on the gas as she urged her vehicle forward at even greater speed. Soon BJ passed a squadron of Assaultrons on snowmobiles going out of the enemy's compound to confront the monster, who ignored BJ as she drove in, detecting that she was a synthetic person and therefore assuming she was no threat.

"I understand the critters not stopping for me as I'm not a real person, but why ignore Lena - unless she is dead," Wondered BJ in alarm, but then a low moan from Lena reassured her that Lena was indeed alive, so BJ wondered again to herself, "Why are they not alarmed about Lena, unless they are assuming she is my prisoner!"

As BJ stopped her ATV in front of the enemy compound's main door and as if on cue, two Assaultrons came out with weapons powered up, one of which said in a halting robotic voice, "The Creator is awaiting for you below in the main atrium Designate: Belle Starr. You may bring your prisoner. Follow us." 

Sandy Bell gave Volodja a passionate kiss before he left, but one tinged by sadness. Ever since they were reunited in South America, it seemed that Fate was determined to keep them apart as much as possible. As he disappeared from view jumping from the Vigilant's outside hatch, Sandy once again wondered if their life would not be better in a more peaceful line of work, like that of an ark hunter, where all they had to worry about was the dangerous fauna and the greedy competition at an ark fall. No more diabolical evil masterminds with their seemingly endless minions and world conquering plans, just plain old smash and grab, with a beer at The Crater when the day was done. Furthermore, there always seemed to be an equally endless number of these world beater villains that the Protectors were obliged to stop.



Sandy would be the first to admit the Bay Area Protectors were needed in today's post-apocalyptic world, but sometimes she just wanted to scream, "Stop the world, I want to get off!" She was still thinking of Volodja and her going off into the sunset together, still living a life of adventure, but one centered on themselves rather than others, when suddenly Atticus addressed her breaking her mental reverie as the Vigilant's outside hatch closed.

"The Constantines have opted to stay on the Bridge until we need to assemble the strike-team and they will join us then. According to Lexy: Kimmel, Lu and Archer are currently all three in the Mess Hall. So I will be in the armory talking with Mahoney and preparing whatever equipment our strike-team will need, as any vehicles we may decide to use are already prepared, including the mechs if we decide to use them. Besides I find going through and checking weaponry can sometimes help me keep focus and stay calm, even if I am only calm on the surface."

Sandy nodded her blond head with a grim look on her pretty tan face, then proceeded to the mess hall to brief her three team mates on the mission timetable. She then grabbed a coffee-to-go and a Danish, proceeding to the ship's armory to join her commanding officer, Atticus Batman, in a final check of the equipment needed for the mission.

As they dropped from the Vigilant, Vo swerved to the side to imitate a botched landing so that BJ could have some leeway. His landing brought a big cloud of snow into the air, so he had to blindly skid downhill for sometime, following the terrain map Shirra was projecting on his retina until he could finally see what was going on ahead of him. That's was the time when he heard Lena's Mayday signal and BJ's voice saying she's going to help her. This was not planned, but Vo knew that was the only decision BJ could make if she was sharing Belle's mindset, in which Vo was sure. All he could do was to follow her and see if he could help with anything in these ever-changing conditions.

When he arrived at Lena's landing spot, BJ was already gone and she took Lena with her. The beast was trying to follow their trace but Shirra had informed Vo there were a lot of moving targets ahead. With his enhanced vision, he could see clouds of snow rising from their snowmobiles. He also saw BJ's blue dot passing through the squadron without any hiccup as she continued on her way towards the compound.

"Taf, BJ's going to the compound alone with injured Lena. The beast is following her but there's a squadron of robots going to intercept it. BJ passed them flawlessly though. It seems our beast have attracted their attention sooner than we expected. What shall we do?"

There was no reply from Taffer on that message as his group was likely out of communicating range or observing radio silence. So Vo had to make the decision himself.

"The beast will keep this squad busy for a while," he sent to Marcel, "Let's flank them and continue our work with the defense grid. With our beast falling behind, we'll have to create another distraction. Instead of playing bad cop and good cop we'll play dumbass and smartass. I'll be the dumbass and I'll reach the main entrance and have some argument with the guard to keep them busy. You'll be the smartass and use the distraction to sneak in and disable the grid."

With that said, he turned his ATV around to move sideways from the approaching assaultron squad to keep away from them and then he made a wide arc towards the entrance. He put a protection spike down knowing it wouldn't last long if the guards open fire on him, but it would be enough to turn his Blur on and get away.

"Hey you out there!" He shouted towards the gate, "I was promised a replacement for my girl in exchange of leaving you alone! But once she knew she's a synth, she just ran off to her creator! That's not a fair play! I want my girl back!"

Volodja Uljanov slid tip of his tongue over his upper lip because it still tasted of Sandy's lipstick and replied:

"I have read that one, but have to remind us to be as moderate as possible, because I remembered another story. Not Bradbury's but Garry Kilworth's. It's called "Let's Go to Golgotha!" and speaks about time travel tourism as well. The tour operator of so called "Crucifixion Tour" also warns tourists that they must not do anything to disrupt history, so they better follow the Bible. When the crowd is asked whether to spare Jesus or Barabbas, the tourists must all join the call: "Give us Barabbas!" (A priest absolves them from any guilt for condemning Christ, so there is nothing to be afraid of). But when the moment comes, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd condemning Jesus to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and local Jews are hiding at their homes because city of Jerusalem is practically taken over by tourists. We better be bloody careful when we act. Causing less harm is less bad than making a mayor mayhem."



After saying that, Volodja took his sniper rifle, threw himself into the pile of snow nearby and started to crawl towards the nearest small hill which somehow looked awfully familiar to him...

Taffer said, "Do you remember Ray Bradbury's story "A Sound of Thunder"? They were traveling in time and hunting dinosaurs in it for fun but they were killing them the exact moment they were going to die anyway of natural causes so that their premature death wouldn't alter the timeline. We'll do something similar. Each time the beast attacks one of the robots, we'll shoot it down. This way it will look natural and we won't catch the attention. Note that those robots have snowmobiles at their disposal we might want to use later to finally reach the compound with the beast in tow. If I know Vo, they will likely do something about the defense grid, so our initial plan will still work with the only difference that only Lady Christianna will stay unnoticed with everyone else working as a massive distraction. Now take your aim and pick your targets. Let's even the odds for our furry friend."

Lady Christianna almost asked, "Ray who?" but stifled the question before it was asked, hating to appear ignorant of something even when she was. At eighteen years old, she was of that age that she believed she already knew everything that was really important, but image still counted, so she couldn't appear to not know something even if she thought it wasn't important to know anyway.

Furthermore, Lady was a watcher rather than a reader, believing real life was more relevant and much more entertaining than anything springing from the mind of some fiction author. She disliked science fiction in particular, for she definitely couldn't see it's relevance to her day-to-day survival in the post-Apocalyptic world she lived in, and actually detested time travel stories for they made her head hurt with their paradoxes that were merely mind games to her. Lady liked her time linear and dependable, at least as long as you kept track of it. In her younger years, she had always watched others lead their lives, measuring them through the instrument of time, and until recently, not taking an active role in disturbing the flow of time or others lives. Since she joined the Protectors, however, Lady found herself playing a more active role on the stage of life, and in many ways, LIKING her expanded role.

With her chalk white skin and white fur lined white parka in the snow, Lady was almost invisible as she lay next to Taffer asking, "Could phase through fence, open gate - under ten minutes. Want?"

Volodja Uljanov was laying on the top of the small hill, pressing the butt of his sniper rifle against the shoulder and waiting Taffer's signal to open fire. His moment of hesitation (Ever since Volodja had to wound his friend with the sniper rifle to save friend's life, he had a moment of awkwardness and hesitation when he had to snipe a sentient being) was already passed, he made a compromise with himself and found that inner peace, needed for sniping. Ground under him seemed to be sort of...unstable, but maybe it was only thanks to Volodja's imagination. Really low scratching noise behind his back made him quickly turn around and point the sniper rifle towards the crawling object.

"Calme-toi, Volodja. Ici Marcel," whispered the object. "The eagle has landed."

"More like a vulture," said Moira to Sophie through the EGO link and both virtual girls giggled. 

"I am calm, Marcel," whispered Volodja back to him. "And I already saw that you are here. But you seem to be abandoning your mission by being down here not up in the air." 

"Veux-tu te taire et m'écouter! Just shut up and listen! Despite the fact that Lena is captured and taken inside, I am REALLY calm and I am about to punish anyone who had anything to do with it. Including you. But you can avoid that by helping me to rescue her. Like finding the way in. But I might put my calmness aside, if you insist."

Ground really seemed to be unstable after Marcel's heavy remark. Or was it still an imagination?

"Any suggestions how to do it, Marcel?" asked Volodja politely. "And will you be so kind and get off the hill. Ever since you appeared here, I have a feeling that this hill will collapse under extra weight you added."

"I am not leaving, Volodja. And you are supposed to be the one with a huge thinking capacity," grinned Marcel. "So for you, finding a way inside should be, as Mademoiselle Belle would say, easy pea..."

The hill under Volodja and Marcel collapsed and both men fell into the moist and cold darkness, not allowing Marcel to finish his line.

BUMP!

"Marcel!" said a voice in darkness.

"It is Volodja," told another voice not very eagerly. "Where are you?"

"Underneath," said Volodja in an underneath sort of the way.

"Underneath WHAT, Sacre Bleu?!"

"YOU," replied Volodja. "Get up!"

"Oh!" said Marcel and got himself up as  slowly as possible, putting pressure on Volodja' body with his every limb he could. "Where are we for real?"

"Well. We are still underneath," said Volodja and let out sigh of relief when Marcel finally lifted his weight off him. "Underneath the ground and inside someone's home. That hill looked familiar for sure and now I know, why. It was an entrance to a burrow, belonging to a representative of rodent side of local wildlife. Everything was fine until your uninvited appearance. You acted as the last straw to break the back on unfortunate camel."

"You mean that we are in some sort of a mole hole?"

"I don't think it's a mole. Probably some sort of vole or maybe a shrew. They were quite common here. But unlike ones who used to populate Alaska before our world turned to be post apocalyptic, this one seems to be really huge. On the other side...after seeing that three stories high dearbear, I am not surprised at all. By the way...unlike moles, voles and shrews don't hibernate, so I believe that we accidentally stumbled on the drill Taffer was looking for."