Chapter 68

Liberation of the Azure Flux

Cailus stood on the command deck of the Azure Flux train, looking over the external monitors with Bruce Norman, Eric Cardigan, and a few of the merc band leaders he hired.

Ambassador Milet sat at one of the tables with his wife and daughter, rifles aimed at their heads. Sidre held Sousette close to her, trying to keep the young child calm with all the danger, chaos, and fear surrounding them.

Cailus tapped his foot a couple times. It had been two hours since he sent his final ultimatum to his brother. Right now, they were nearing one out of two stops they would have to make, if only to refuel the train. A few squads from the privateers had already secured the station they were approaching, which was now only a few minutes away.

"You test my patience yet again, brother..." Cailus growled, looking at his watch as the train slowed, then stopped. Cailus watched on one of the monitor feeds as the refueling line was connected to the train's hydrogen-2 storage fuel tanks.

"Squad one, any report of unidentified targets?" Eric asked over a radio.

"Nothing yet, sir. It's a quiet as a grave-" There was a loud burst of static as the transmission was suddenly cut.

"Squad one, do you read?!" Eric barked. "Respond! Squad one, respond!"

A short time later, Cailus saw a stream of laser fire with rockets go through the depot, taking out several more teams of mercs! The next moment, he saw several cars speeding through the depot towards the monorail train track! His face pulled back into rage as he recognized the cars: His personal IES Interceptors!

"Bruce! Tell the engineers to stop refueling the train and get us out of here, full speed! Now!" Cailus barked.

Eric looked at Cailus. "But sir, without enough fuel, we-"

"Just do it!!" Cailus roared, electric bolts radiating from his fingertips.

# # # #

"The train is starting to move again!" Chaos said through the radio link. "We have five minutes until the turbochargers in the engines are spun up! After that, it will have too much power at its disposal, and we won't be able to catch it! We need to disable one of the engines to make sure it can't get away!"

"Let's go after the rear engine!" Mick shouted, steering the G-6155 through a blown-out wall, the G-8155 and G-10155 following close behind! All the interceptors charged towards the Azure Flux, firing on the rear engine with alacrity! Swarms of missiles, laser fire, and rockets billowed from all three interceptors in a torrent of blazing fire and smoke, landing on mark with massive explosions as the rear engine was crippled!

"Azure Flux Engine 2 - status: disabled." The Interceptors' rudimentary AI, LEONIE, said. "Target's speed capability diminished by one-half. Estimated capable top speed of target: 270 KPH."

"Still too fast!" Xen said from the cockpit of the G-8155. "We need to take it down a peg or two more! What else can we do?"

"Recommendation to hinder target's mobile capability: Target monorail support wheels on cars 5 and 6." LEONIE answered.

"You heard the AI! Focus fire on cars 5 and 6!" Hatred said from the driver's seat of the G-10155. The trio of Interceptors then sped up to cars 5 and 6, engulfing their wheels in weapons fire once more!

"Target's speed capability diminished. New estimated top speed: 100 KPH." LEONIE Reported.

"Good. That'll throw a wrench in Cailus' plans!" Mick said as the train exited the cover of the enclosed depot. As the train exited, several armed off-road vehicles drove up alongside the train!

"We've got company!" Xen shouted.

"Then let 'em have it!" Mick fired the pulse lasers on the G-6155 with Xen and Hatred joining in with their own, relentlessly spraying the new hostile targets as they tried to return fire, unable to land many, if any, good shots on the interceptors!

A short while later, several jets flew overhead, along with a few helicopters that fired missiles at the interceptors!

"They're brining out the bigger guns, now!" Chaos said.

"I got 'em!" Jet said from the G-8155's passenger seat, locking on with cluster missiles. A few seconds later, the missiles were launched, taking down the offending aerial targets in balls of fire!

"Caution: Energy spikes detected from main target! Weapon activations detected!" LEONIE warned. "Environment: Hostile!"

Mick turned his head to look out the interceptor's windows, seeing a few concealed gun emplacements pop out of the train!

"Scatter!" Mick shouted, as the ground around the interceptors was suddenly pelted with lasers and machine gun fire!

The weapons VTOL then flew overhead, pummeling the train with it's own turrets, joined by the weapons' van as it's turret activated and fired cannon shots from a distance up the road!

"Train defenses: Disabled." LEONIE reported.

"Good shooting, weapons van!" Mick complimented.

"All in a day's work." Uniko responded.

"Any ideas on how we can get inside?" Egad asked as the VTOL hovered over the train.

"There's an emergency override hatch on the top of car 11, according to the schematics we dug up." Mick said looking over the train blueprints.

"Roger. Tommy, Bishop, Gareth, Eli, Galen, Zhal! Let's get ready to board!" Egad ordered.

The weapons van then drove up alongside the train as the VTOL hovered over it. Galen and Zhal got out of the weapons van and onto it's roof, getting ready to jump onto the train while a hatch opened on the VTOL, Egad getting ready to jump on with Tommy, Bishop, Gareth, and Eli.

"Now!" Egad shouted. Everyone then jumped onto the train, landing on the top of car 14, armed to the teeth.

Just as they boarded, the hatch on Car 11 opened, armed mercenaries in military gear pouring out of it single-file!

Bishop activated a heavy barrage energy shield on the arm of his nanosuit, shielding him, his master, and his coven brother from automatic weapons fire with not only the shield, but with his own body as the lasers bounced off his nanosuit and scales! His coven brothers returned the favor by firing back at their aggressors with precision fire! Eli even knocked one of the mercs clean off the side of the train with a headshot!

"All targets down!" Mick reported. "I'm not seeing any more bogeys coming up top from my scans."

Zarch then boarded the train from the VTOL, while Chaos and Hatred had the G-10155 board the weapons van, and jumped onto the train themselves shortly after with Uniko!

"Good luck guys!" Silva said as he took over driving the weapons van. "Galen... Give the bastard one for me."

"With pleasure, Silva." Galen said as the group went into the train through the hatch.

Silva pulled the van over, watching the train take off as Amon landed the VTOL. Silva walked in front of the van, Amon joining him as they watched the train limp off, both mentally praying and wishing their master and coven brothers luck and protection as Silva let out a loud howl that echoed across the snow-covered landscape.