"A couple of C-17s will be making a forced landing. They'll wait for five minutes. Leave this battle to me. I'll pick you up afterward."
"What about the bomb on the plane?"
"Mao and Roger have it covered."
"Understood. Be careful of the silver AS. Both the mech and its pilot are in a league of their own."
"Don't sweat it, I'll kick his ass good!"
After a preparatory squat, Kurz's M9 leapt away.
"What's going on?" Shinji Kazama mumbled as he watched the shaking fuselage.
There was a series of explosions. Although there had been scattered combat noises ever since they landed, this seemed to be an all-out battle.
A large shadow passed by the window, setting the students' imaginations wild. Shinji caught a good look at it when it was illuminated by one of the explosions. Instantly, his jaw dropped.
"M9…"
Shinji had seen Western Arm Slaves before and wouldn't normally be that surprised. But a
"Move away from the windows!" shouted the female pilot of the AS.
The AS reached behind it and extracted a huge knife—easily twenty feet. It was a monofilament cutter designed for combat. The blade was secretly a micro-chainsaw that could cut through armor like it was cardboard. These were usually the size and shape of a combat knife, but this looked more like a Japanese sword.
"What's she going to do with that?"
Then, as a plane full of wide-eyed students looked on, the M9 forcefully brought the blade into the side of the jumbo jet. Immediately, the plane began to shake, and there was an ear-splitting screech. Screaming, the passengers clung to their seats.
What they couldn't see, however, was that the sword only sliced into the baggage compartment. After hacking into the plane and poking around with the sword, the AS mercilessly tore off the bulkhead.
"Aha! Found it!"
Thrusting its hand into the baggage compartment, it nimbly extracted a container and passed it off to another M9. Upon receiving the container, the second mech immediately turned, took a running start, and tossed the crate toward the apron on the far side of the base.
This was, of course, all very puzzling to the students, until the box landed and exploded violently.
Even from a distance of at least a quarter mile, the blast rocked the plane, eliciting another round of shrieks from the female passengers. Some of the boys on the plane took this opportunity to pull the girls close and comfort them.
"This is Urzu Two. We've cleared the bomb and will join the combat now. Uh, hold on."
Mao's speaker fell silent as the jet's entry hatch clanked open and about ten armed soldiers in blue berets ran out. Shouting in broken Japanese, they spread out around the plane.
"Please remain calm! This is a United Nations rescue squad! There is yellow tape leading away from the exit. Follow that tape to the transport vehicles waiting outside. For your safety, stay calm and don't panic. We won't leave anyone behind. I repeat: We are a United Nations…"
Content to let this play out, Mao switched her attention to guarding the transports.
"Friday!"
"Yes, Master Sergeant?" answered her mech's AI.
"Cut the ECS! Initiate the milli-wave radar. And turn on active IR and strobe light!"
"That drastically will increase the probability of being attacked."
"That's fine. I'll be an easy target."
"Roger. ECS: off. All active sensors: on."
Already, Mithril's transports landed and taxied toward the jet. The friendly M9s took care of business around the base, and the attack helicopters hovered overhead.
Mao's M9 danced away from the jet. Almost immediately, a tank emerged from a building about a quarter of a mile away, guns blazing. The first shell came dangerously close to Mao, blowing a large hole in a building behind her.
"You little…"
Mao pulled a super high-speed missile from her the backpack on the AS and took aim. Known as a Javelin, this weapon was similar to the cylindrical shoulder-mounted rocket launchers humans used.
When she aimed and fired, there was an instant reaction: Moving at a mile per second, the missile immediately smashed into the tank, obliterating it completely.
Mao tossed the empty missile tube and loaded another one while looking for something else to destroy. All around, she saw smoldering heaps of metal that used to be enemy mechs and tanks. "Hm. There aren't as many as I thought there'd be."
Sousuke's rampage took out a pretty good portion of the opposition forces.
Behind Mao, the hostage group lined up and hustled toward the two transports. She peeked at the clock in the comer of her display screen.
"Two minutes…"
Not a lot of time. Mao wondered whether Kurz was able to find and rescue Sousuke.
Leaning on Kaname for support, Sousuke ran along the runway.
"Hang in there," she said.
