Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Ronin Warriors: Illusionary War ❯ Return to Otoantou ( Chapter 8 )

"Let's move out guys.  The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get the Kusanagi, blast into space, and beat Asterra."  Rowen said.
"Still, someone should stay here to watch Sura."  Ryo insisted.
"He's right.  Sura is our only key to taking on the Miraju, and although his troops have gathered around his door, one of us should stay behind."  Anubis added.
"But who?"  came Sai's inquiry.
"Well, Enzeru's probably bringing a good deal of firepower herself, so maybe we should stick to close range fighters?"
"That would mean myself, Kento, Sage, and perhaps Sekhmet would be good for the operation."  Anubis suggested.
"What about Navcase?"  Ryo asked.
"I unfortunately have been detained by Yuriko.  If anyone would be so kind as to help me out, it would be greatly appreciated."  he explained.
"Sai and I would be glad to help out.  We'll be in the kitchen, standing by for her weird cravings."  Ran said, heading off to the kitchen with Sai, as Navcase headed for Yuriko's room.
"The rest of us should head back to Kinjiro's in case the rest of the Miraju try something funny."  Rowen said.
"Which means, Dais and Kale can go keep Sura company."  Ryo said.
"All right, it's settled, so let's move out!"  Rowen declared.

The group headed for Otoantou approached carefully, making sure not to fly too high and get blasted by Houji's renegade mecha.  As expected, the front gates were locked, but Kento was glad to show Houji that he had the key, except for the fact that the key in question also destroyed said door.  Marching in the front through the recently breached and destroyed doorframe, they found it quite uninhabited.

"Something's weird here.  Didn't Ms. Jishou say that they had a large mech problem?"  Sage asked.
"She did, but perhaps they are deeper inside."  Anubis replied.  "We should still be careful."

Proceeding further in towards the main entrance to the complex itself, one of the hangars mysteriously opened as various GUAIZ units began filing out and firing on the heroes!

"Great, these ones are bigger than we are.  What are we supposed to do to stop them?"  Sage wondered.
"I don't care how big they are, I'll take 'em down regardless!"  Sekhmet declared, going for all six of his blades and charging madly at the closest one, as it fired its grappling hook, which he sidestepped as he charged up the wire and proceeded to slash it to death, leaping off its head to the ground.

"DARKNESS FROM THE DEPTHS!!!!"  Anubis shouted, holding out his beam scythe as energy shot up from the ground and gathered around the weapon, which he then let fly and devastated one of the approaching mechs.  Sage rocketed into the air, and with a cry of "THUNDER BOLT CUT!" came crashing down cleanly through another, splitting it neatly in two.

"IRON ROCK CRUSHER!!!!" Kento shouted as he sent a flurry of stones into yet another GUAIZ, destroying it.
"It's going to take more than this to take the rest of them out!"  Anubis shouted, as the group began setting up for another round of sure-kills, only to watch as precision shooting blew the heads off the rest of them one by one.  One of them seemed to have been neglected as it was cut down by a pair of back-mounted blades.  The unit stopped as the pilot leapt down, silver bars on the shoulders of her pilot suit.

"Good to see you again, Lieutenant."  Anubis said.
"Same here.  We got here as soon as we could."  she answered, pointing to the Sniper A.S. that were still in firing position, waiting to take out any more units that decided to give them trouble.

"All right everyone, let's get to that ship!"  Anubis shouted.

Enzeru and her troops, along with Anubis and his group, made their way into the hangar the mechs had emerged from.

"Okay, there's gotta be a way down to the lower levels.  Spread out and let me know when you find it."  Enzeru ordered, as Ronin and soldier alike fanned out in search of the controls.

"Lieutenant, I found the controls for the lift.  They're over here."  Okita replied.
"Good work Sergeant Major.  Everyone, get your mechs on the lift and prepare to descend."  Enzeru commanded.

Tactical Armors, Armored Shrikes, Ulti-Maxes and Gundam-armored samurai boarded the lift and Okita proceeded to lower the lift to the next floor down.
"Get ready everyone, we have no idea what Houji's throwing at us."  Enzeru said.
"Not a problem boss, we've got everything under control."  PFC. Itazura replied.

That statement was fund to be false as various Aegis, GUAiZ, DINN's, GINN's, among other things, were waiting for them to arrive.

"Open fire!"  Enzeru shouted, as a hail of bullets erupted from the Ulti-MAX and Heavy Duty A.S., as well as the Tactical Armors, cutting down many, as the faster moving group under Anubis fanned out and took down many with precision cuts from their beam weapons.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that much of a reception."  Itazura replied.
"Stow it Itazura.  Ma'am, this lift doesn't go down any further."  Okita replied.
"Wonderful.  So what do we do now?"  Enzeru asked.
"Blast our way through that door over there, find some sort of console, and get a schematic of this place."  Okita answered.
"Sounds like a plan.  Tengu!  Set a breach charge on that door and let's get moving."  Enzeru replied.

PFC. "Tengu" Itazura pulled a charge off of one of his many bandoleers and set a charge on the door.  Anubis, Kento, and Sage got into position to charge their way in as the charge blew, forcing the door open as the samurai cleared their way into the next room, only to find nothing.

"Room's clear, but there's a problem.  Door's not big enough for the larger mecha to fit through.  The Ulti-MAX, Super Tengu, and my power armor should be fine, but that means we'll be at a disadvantage."  Okita reported.
"Dammit Houji, you're going to make this harder than I thought.  You there! Let me borrow your Ulti-MAX."  Enzeru ordered one of the troops, who stepped out of his armor and she stepped in.

"Sergeants Kaido and Seki, you're in charge until I get back.  Don't let anything except us through this door." Enzeru ordered.

"Yes Ma'am."  the two responded.

The much smaller team proceeded down the hallway, Enzeru and the other Ulti-MAX pilot leading the way since they had the most firepower.  Okita and Anubis' group brought up the rear, as they came to a key padded door along the left wall.

"Okita, do you think you can override that terminal?"  Enzeru asked.
"I'll do my best Lieutenant."  Okita said as he walked up to the console and began typing furiously.  In a matter of minutes the console turned green and the door opened.

Okita and Enzeru carefully made their way in there with their weapons ready, finding the room clear, with the exception of yet another terminal.  Okita wasted no time typing away furiously, hoping this one could buy them precious information that would help in their assault.

"Jackpot."  Came Okita's reply.
"What have you found Sergeant Major?"  Enzeru asked.
"I've got the schematics for the facility up.  This will be a challenge and then some to crack.  Turns out, all the lifts in this place are on opposite sides, and each only goes down one floor."
"How lovely.  I suppose the lift for the next floor is down the hall a ways, presumably with another welcoming committee?"  Enzeru replied.
"Affirmative Lieutenant."
"And the Kusanagi?"  Anubis asked.
"Down several more floors."  Okita replied.
"Wonderful.  This keeps getting more and more fun by the minute."  Anubis replied.
"Good.  More mechs to banish to the scrap heap."  Sekhmet replied.
"All right everyone, let's move out."  Enzeru replied.

The group filed out of the room, watching the entryway carefully to see that it was safe to proceed, and then the group continued down the hall towards the next cut off hangar.

"I don't understand this.  If each of the hangars only goes down one level, and the connecting hallways are too big for larger machines to get through, why bother?"  Sage asked.
"I'll tell ya why, to make our lives more of a hassle."  Itazura replied.
"There's the door leading into the next hangar.  I expect we'll have some new metal friends waiting for us."  Okita replied.
"Then let's give them a present.  Tengu, set a breach charge and then toss a grenade in there."
"With extreme pleasure boss!"  Tengu replied as he set the charge, cleared away form the door, and then chucked a frag grenade into the hangar, which exploded and did severe damage to most of the mechs, as the others charged in to clear the room.

"Okay, this room's clear.  Let's get on that lift and make our way down to the next level."

The three units with railguns took point at the edge of the lift, as they lowered it down in hopes that they would not have any problems on the next floor down.  Unusually, their arrival on the next floor down was without a welcoming committee.  Instead, there stood two mechs, locked into place

"That's odd, they sort of look like Himeihoshi."  Anubis commented.
"Oh dear God..."  Tengu replied, looking up at the two machines.
"What's wrong Itazura..."  Okita asked.
"These two mechs, they're smaller replicas of Alpha and Omega One from Macross Plus!"
"But what are they doing HERE?"  Kento asked, eager to know what Houji had been up to.

Suddenly, the eyes of the two mechs began to glow.

"Shit, I think we woke them up..."  Tengu replied, as he proceeded to make a break for the door.

"This is a restricted area.  Please identify yourselves."  The one resembling Alpha One asked.

"1st Lieutenant Miharu Enzeru.  We've been sent by Houji Otoantou to make sure his base is ready for action upon his return."  she said quickly, hoping the mechs would buy it.

"Understood.  We are Tsuppari and Chouka, constructed by Houji for the purpose of destroying Himeihoshi."
"That explains it.  Build Valkyries to kill Valkyries."  Anubis replied.
"And how come we never found these guys before?"  Kento wondered.
"Probably because we never went this deep into the base, or used the mech lifts."  Anubis replied.
"Are there only two of you, or are there more?"
"There was a third of us in development, but construction was never started."  Chouka replied.
"That means the plans for the third one could be here somewhere."  Kento replied.
"Or Houji could have taken them when he disappeared.  Either way, we don't have time to be looking for lost mech plans. We need to get to the Kusanagi, and get it into space, ASAP."  Enzeru interrupted.
"She's right.  Let's keep going."  Anubis replied.
"You two, you can go back on standby.  We'll come back for you later."

"As you command Lieutenant."  Tsuparri and Chouka said in unison, their eyes fading out.

"Okay, fill me in here, because I'm obviously missing something."  Tengu started to say as they made their way to the next lift.  "We got the call that said all of Houji's mechs had suddenly turned on and attacking anything that got in their way.  So why were those two off?"
"Not sure.  But it didn't look like they were armed, so we would have been fine, presumably."  Okita explained.  "But our top priority is reaching that ship."
"Yes, with the Kusanagi, we rest all hope, for Earth, and countless other worlds."  Anubis explained.

Another door was kicked in with the help of a breach charge, as more of Houji's mechs were taken out with beam blades and vibro-swords.  The lift was boarded, and the group descended to yet another level.
"Hey Okita, how many levels does this place have anyway?"  Tengu asked.
"Lots."  Okita answered.
"That's not much of an answer."  Tengu shot back.
"More mechs, take them out!"  Okita shouted as more railgun shots were unleashed and beam weapons utilized to trash Houji's toys.

The group descended several more floors, facing mechanized opposition, until, at last, they reached the floor where the Kusanagi was located.

"Damn, it's about time we got there."  Tengu shouted, relieved.

A worker from Osaki came up to the group, looking extremely relieved.

"Thank goodness you made it through all those Mechs.  The ship's all set to go, we just need to-"

The worker was cut off as mechs blasted their way through the door and everyone looked for cover.

"Into the ship!  It might be our only chance!"  Enzeru ordered.

She and the other Ulti-MAX pilot laid down suppressing fire while the others clambered across the gangplank and into the ship.

"Sage, get up to the gunnery station and see if you can help Enzeru out!  Everyone else, follow me up to the bridge, we've got to get this thing out of here!"  Anubis shouted.

As railgun shots slammed into the mechs outside, workers rushed into the ship quickly, heading for their stations, as Enzeru and the others quickly ran out of ammo and Tengu unfortunately ran out of grenades as he flew around the mammoth hangar, and then ducked into the ship.

"We've got to get this thing underway.  Any idea on how we do that?"  Anubis asked the crew.

"We're still not sure how Houji got this thing out in the first place."  one said.
"There has to be some way, a door, a passage, something!"  Anubis insisted.
"Either that or we use the weapons on this thing to make one."  Tengu added.
"No explosions."  Lt. Enzeru insisted.
"Hey!  What's this button do?"  Tengu asked, pushing a button on a console.
"Tengu!  What do you think you're doing?!"  Okita shouted.  "Do you have any idea of how this thing even works?"

Somehow, whatever Tengu had done was a good thing, as the wall in front of the ship started to slide upwards.

"Tengu!  You're a genius!"  Lt. Enzeru shouted.
"I am?"  he asked.

Their celebration was short lived as water rushed into the hangar, filling up about half the room.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"  Lt. Enzeru shouted.
"Hey, what happened to me being a genius?"  Tengu shot back.
"That was before you inadvertently flooded this place!"  Okita answered.
"Wait, it sort of makes sense.  That passage must lead out into the ocean or something."  one of the workers explained.
"Well then let's get this show on the road!"  Anubis commanded.

Workers rushed to their stations as the ship pulled out of its dock and into the hole that had just opened, only to find that the same hole had just closed behind them!

"TENGU!!!!"  Enzeru and Okita shouted.
"This one wasn't my fault!"  Tengu fired back as the chamber they were in began to fill up with water as well.  When the chamber was flooded, the outer door opened and the ship proceeded to make its way out into the water.

"Okay, let's get this thing to the surface somehow."  Anubis said.
"I don't think this thing has bow planes Anubis."  Sage replied.
"It probably has verniers of some sort."  Enzeru replied.  "You there, pull up on the controls and we should ascend nicely."

The worker she pointed to pulled back on the controls, and sure enough, the ship began to work its way up on a slight angle.

"We should be on the surface in no time."  Enzeru replied.

The ship ascended slowly, eventually gently breaking the surface as the ship rested flat in the water.

"Okay, now what?"  Anubis asked.
"We bring this thing towards Yokosuka."  Enzeru said.
"Why there?"  Anubis asked.
"Ms. Jishou said she made a few calls and got us a temporary berth there.  Besides, they've got a crew from the MSDF waiting to temporarily take this thing over until we can find a better crew."  Lt. Enzeru explained.  "Ms. Jishou will meet us there with the rest of the mecha and we'll be headed towards the Asteroid belt."

Within a matter of hours and a few close calls, the Kusanagi pulled into its dock at Yokosuka, as SFC Ikkimura came in with the rest of the forces and saluted their commander.
"Good to see you again Ma'am.  I trust all went well?"  Ikkimura asked.
"Very good Sergeant.  We managed to retrieve the ship and everything is ready to go on the Ronin's mission."  Lt. Enzeru explained.  "Get the mecha loaded aboard, so we can depart as soon as possible.

The dock area sprang to life as sailors lifted the 2805th's mechs aboard the carrier section, as well as several remote fighters based on the Masamune from Gundam SEED, along with the Midnight Express, which would be their only means of infiltrating the ship Rajei was being kept aboard.

"Good work Anubis."  Rowen said as he came up to the ship.
"Wasn't that difficult.  You've got the hard part ahead of you."  Anubis said.
"Tell me about it.  Infiltrate an alien ship, rescue an alien god thing of some sort, and get out before they blow us all up."  Rowen replied.  "Even with Navcase, Ryo, and Lt. Enzeru's help, it's still going to be tough."
"Well, good luck to you then."  Anubis said.  "I'll hold down the fort until you get back."
"Thanks for the encouragement.  Well, I'm off."  Rowen said, as he headed up the gangplank following Ryo and Navcase.

The Ronin of the strata headed up to the bridge, where he was greeted by Enzeru and the captain from the MSDF that was going to help them handle the unwieldy vessel, as the order was given to take the ship out, as the sailors present, both American and Japanese, saluted the ship as Anubis and the others from the capture mission looked on as the ship pulled away from the dock, miraculously lifted off the water, and headed off into the distance, getting smaller and smaller, until it was no more.

"Captain, we're clear of the Earth's atmosphere."  one of the sailors reported.
"Very good Petty Officer.  I thought I'd never hear myself say this, but, set a course for the asteroid belt!"
"Aye Aye!"  the petty officer replied, as he made it so.

The Kusanagi began to pull away from Earth, towards Mars, the Asteroid belt, and hopefully, with a little Chi and a lot of luck, Rajei.

NEXT EPISODE:

ROWEN:  Well this is it.  We've gotta get to Rajei or everything's all over.

RYO:  Don't worry Rowen, we'll get him free.

LT. ENZERU:  Be careful.  They'll probably throw everything they have at us to keep you from getting Rajei.

NAVCASE:  It's our next episode of Ronin Warriors:  Illusionary War;  Assault on the Miraju Flagship.  You won't want to miss this one at all!