North America: Eastern US

[Deleted]

General Hughes stared at the both of them. "So, what was on the tape?"

Both Hillington and Richardson didn't know exactly what was on the tape, but they could retrieve its IP adress from the main archives. "Sir, can we head to the archives really quick and look up the contents of the audio we have here?" Hughes looked at both of them with the kind of "What-and-disappear?" face, but he knew it was the only way to tell if Agron and Leley had stolen anything of great value.
Hillington was allowed to go down to the basement archives, and check to see what was on the tape. After going through the ususal security, he accessed the computer via remote control and inserted the cassette into the audio analyzer. After recognizing the audio as part of the general archive, the system could perfom a similarity scan in order to see which, if any of the video files it belonged to.

Hillington looked at the video scan which had been selected- a summer at the beach, featuring what could be described as a family of five- a man, woman, two kids and a dog. The video was inconsequential except for a simple funny part where the dog knocked over the grill and all the barbecued food caught fire. Curious, Hillington went out on a limb and requested the origin of the tape.

"Computer, when was that tape made?"
In its classic, monotone female voice, the computer responded, "FILE CREATED IN THE YEAR 1930"
Hillington looked a bit puzzled, but eventually just brushed it off as a stretch of thinking. But he remained curious. "1930? That's almost 400 years ago." Just then, Hughes buzzed through the telecom "Hey, idiot, come on, I've got something to drink waiting on me at home, and you're keeping us apart."

Hillington scoffed "Man, all he does is drink, and somehow he's ten times stronger than me."

[Deleted]

As Hillington let the computer station, the static he had encountered just after the grill dropped switched back to its original form. Hughes looked at the disc on his desk before the left, and suddenly visions of huge ship doing some kind of training exercise came to mind.

"So, that's what's really on that tape, huh? No wonder Agron and the other feel so happy. Oh, well, as long as it doesn't contain any memories from before the war, it's completely worthless to us, and--wait. I jsut let off two fags who didn't even do their jobs. Why in the living hell did I join the Army?" He hopped in his car and headed off to his home in Baltimore.

On his way home, he experienced the same kind of deathly stench Hillington had come across on his way to D.C. He wondered whether or not this stench spread all across the Atlantic Basin and into the Mid-Atlantic Mountains, but then he decided a nice bottle of gin would wash the stench away. He looked out the window of his estate, looking onward to the old, decaying Capitol Hill, which was now missing half of its iconic dome.

[Noble 6]

Western commander, General Lucas Reinhart smiled. "Hughes you poor bastard. I think you are getting a bit overworked. You let both of them off the hook? God back in the day I remember you'd of made them lick the floor until you could see yourself in it." Like Hillington hhe too could "walk" into nowhere. "Pour me a drink would you? I wanna enjoy this day. "

[Deleted]

Hughes looked at Reinhart with a kind of stunt acknolwledgement. "Yeah, I wish I could go back to the good ol' days, back when being an officer just meant making sure brats like the Maternity were kept under control. Now they've got their hands on some of our stuff, and now we're supposed to worry.

Reinhart looked at Hughes, obviously as if he were retarded, just for good measure. "What about the phasewalkers?" Just then, the Fuhrer stepped in, and ordered a round of gin on the house--his house, that was.
"I can't believe you;re worried about those kids and their silly little powers...

...Compared to what the both of you can do, phasewalking can't even charge a goddamn battery.

[Deleted]

They all chose, quite grandiloquently, to ignore the smell of death emanating from Cape Hatteras, now dried into a canyon and teeming with old luxury yachts and tourist vessels, all filled to the rim with human bones.

[Noble 6]

Reinhart saluted the fuher. "Sir, as always, its a pleasure."

[Deleted]

As the Fuhrer drove home, he felt somewhat compelled to stop and ponder exactly what was on all those tapes and holodiscs they had confiscated over the years. He kept contemplating even as entered the remnants of the city of Atlanta. The jagged wrecks of the tallest structures made themselves known through and through, thoroughly penetrating into his psyche, initiating a kind of memory:

It's nighttime, that's all anyone can tell with the smoke rising form various neigborhoods across the city. Ambulances everywhere, figuring out who to carry and whom to let walk alongside them, and whom simply to leave behind. The vast majority of people have severe facial injuries and are having trouble walking, some succumbing and being trampled by others as the streets crowd with dead and wounded. The city's downtown area is somewhat damaged, but still standing and lively all the way up to the beautifully lit plazas.

Until the air raid siren sounds. About three minutes before the blaring noise begins, the entire city's power grid begins to fail, and a couple celebrating their honeymoon in the central park is made gravely aware of that fact. Just as they prepare to share their first real kiss of matrimony, the downtown area goes dark, and the rest of the city soon follows, though the fountain behind them is still gushing out lovely displays of water.

The people in the streets try to look around for what caused the alarm, and they found it...across the horizon, apparently off to the east, a bright flash blinds everyone foolish enough to still look at it. Then, the ground begins to rumble violently and the citizens begin to panic.

The Fuhrer, by the time he realized what he was dreaming about, was already home, though he did knock over his mailbox. "I have got to get someone else to pore over those files."

[Deleted]

The two stepped into the monolithic aircraft, still laden with all the gadgets and accessories that could make a plane at least look ready for war. Well, they didn't step in so much as they stumbled their way through the fuselage into the cockpit. Richardson stared at the controls, and sat down. Hillington just looked at them like a child trying to figure out how to write a computer program...in other words, he was completely dumbfounded, as Richardson could plainly make out. "Hey, what the fuck do we do first?" he said, obviously confused even for a Colonel.

"Don't touch anyhting, I'll get this baby in the air. No, wait. you can do something; check the main bus for hydraulic pressure and I'll balance the tanks out." Hillington just looked at him blankly. Richardson, in slight frustration, pulled down the hydraulic gagues and made sure they were up to par. They then switched the terminal electricity on and revved the plane's four gigantic engines for awhile.

Hillington looked at the tarmac and almost choked. "Hey, Mike, How the hell are we gonna get past all this? He quite aptly pointed out the fact that, once they made the turnaround to the takeoff side of the tarmac, the computers estimated they would only have 1,991 feet to run off. Beyond that, the airport grounds was sunk into a deep crevice which separated it from the rest of the city. The hole was pretty wide too, but the question remained: How would they navigate the canyon, after only having just under 2,000 feet of space to run?

Richardson answered that question with a staunch sense of pride. "Problem solved." General Hughes had an energy capsule in his hand, and he knew where to shove it (we know what you're thinking...no.) He opened the engine access board and just threw it in. "When we get to the other side, we push all these lever down at once. After that, press this button." said Richardson. The plane steadily and with a sense of grandiose navigated the bumpy tarmac, inching along and just barely making the turn. it was at this turn that their radio picked up signals from a small craft headed due west of their azimuth.

General Hughes looked on in boredom, as the security feeds came in. "Looks like we got company...two male, three female. Headed due east towards St. Louis." He knew what to do. "Hey guys, when we get off the tarmac, make sure you dont piss youselves cuz--at that exact moment, the plane's landing gear was shredded by the high speed impact of, well, bumping into a bunch of jagged concrete. "What the hell was that?!" Hillington exclaimed. Richardson said shut up to the both of them, and pretty much scared the living piss out of them when he almost pulled the aircraft into the canyon and in the opposite direction--all in less than 30 seconds. He just barely avioded collision, scraping the Peachtree tower, which was already on a list along with some other structures.

Richardson looked on at the suburbs below, then focused his attention to the sk"Okay, Ladies, just sit back and enjoy the ride. We're off to get the memories, but ya'll know the Fuhrer won't grill us only if we bring back something a bit more tangible than that...."

As they flew off, the Peachtree center, along with a litany of less noticable structures, collapsed into the canyon, disintegrating against the jagged rocks on the way down.

[Noble 6]

"Damn, okay, everyone, put on these masks. They will pump oxygen into you. This is going to get bumpy." he said as he passed out the oxygen masks. He entered his phasewalker form and steered the gunship higher. He shot even more electrical energy into the small craft and he felt it come to life as it exploded forward. He flew even higher still until it was directly under the no fly zone. He placed even more energy into the ship and the ships engines shut down. He smiled as the ship entered a completly quiet run. He entered the higher levels of the atmosphere and smiled when his ship hit the jetstream. The ship was pushed even faster, his ship was the only craft capable of this, seeing as no other ship was Phasewalker powered.
Everyone in the ship began breathing deeply into their masks while Agron in his Phasewalker state, had no need for air. He smiled when his usual brand of travel worked again. He loved traveling this high in the atmosphere, the sky was actualy blue here.
"Wow," Haku said . "How can we be here?" his voice muffled under the mask.

[Deleted]

The signal disappeared from the B-52's radar feed.
"Hey, guys, look." Hillington said. "Where do you think they went?"

Hughes came in from the fuselage and looked at Hillington blankly. "No, they didn't drop off the face of the earth, you two are just idiots." Even so, Hughes knew that they had been outmanuevered. Agron's move meant that they could not track them, and the plane's engines would almost immediately stall if they were to attempt to enter the stratosphere.
"Well, gentlemen, looks like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place", muttered Richardson, always the more pessimistic. Yet, among all the lost hope of beating the Maternity to the memories, Hughes thought even lower of the two. "You dimwits, are you really that narrow-minded?" Both Richardson and Hillington looked on in awe, and Hughes knew he would have to explain it.

"Look, we've lost track of them on our feed, and we can't do anything about that, because if you ninnies had been paying attention you'd notice that little bastard's phasewalking is jamming our communications."
Richardson knew this, but he could not find another way to track them, and Hughes clarified this as well. "The strength or radar is that it can track things that don't leave behind any kind of electrical or heat signal. however, the heavy ash in the clouds is hampering our ability to use it. Sooooooo, there's only one way we can reactivate our radar, and that's to go as high as they are."

Richardson looked at him like he was a complete idiot. "Good idea, brainiac, but we are using jets. If we pass the High Point, then our engines will sieze up from ash intake in about 13 seconds. We'd drop like hot rocks." Hughes looked at him as if though he genuinely had forgotten he had brought a General along for the ride. "Move idiots, give me the controls."

Hughes looked at the sky, whose mere red tone culd strike fear into those with the most fortitude. He jerked the handle back, and the plane went straight up. "Hey, what the hell are you doing?!!!!!!!!!!!" Shouted Hillington.
"Shut up." shouted the General. the massive plane climbed higher and higher until it reached about 19,000 feet, at which point the plane began to shake violently. the ash intake had already forced engine 1 to shut down, and the zero barrier was still 500 feet away. The shaking continued, and the oxygen maskes deployed, though no one donned them.

The plane entered the area above the High Point, and the plane's shaking took on a cataclysmic new turn, tearing some of the metal plating off and releasing several ejector seats. All three held on for dear life. Even Hughes knew a mistake now would mean the end of them. He spunt he plane 100 degrees to the left and up, increasing the violent shaking even more. More shaking. More and more pieces of the plane fell off.

Finally, the behemoth broke the stratoshpere, and all three of them couldn't help but be temporarily stunned by......the sheer beauty. The waning crescent moon, as thin as it could be, against a sky with the vivid mix of blues and reds and yellows characteristic only o the maternity's Garden. "Holy shit. It's fucking amazing. What are those little points of light, anyway?" No one knew, but they cruised along for 200 miles.

Finally, their target was in sight. The gunship was completely puny compared to the titanic B-52, and was outfitted with none of the armor or weaponry of the massive but slow craft, save miniguns.
Luna looked at Haku. "Okay, dweeb, we follow my cues from here. Go phasewalk or whatever the hell it is you do and find out about the plane's weapons." Haku reluctantly agreed, and did his job swiflty and silently. On board, he found 16 fixed turret guns, 67,000 pounds of high explosive, four lasers-one affixed to each engine-...

...and two nuclear missles, each with a 59kT yield.

[Noble 6]

" Luna, this is my ship, and as such I have this under control. Haku get back here. Loreena you are a bit better at evasive flying then I am so take the controls." Agron said.
Loreena did as she was told and took control. "Activating all flare shoots and electro-magnetic interferance algorithms. Bypassing security protocols, I'm ready." she said in her small voice.


"Luna, its time to see you sister in action." Agron said as he typed a quick code into a keyboard to his right. The floor where he stood opened, and he slipped into the High Velocity Cannon's firing station. He laid down and the panel above him closed. The Cannon was the ships only weapon, aside from his own electro bursts when close enough to enemy ships, and its minguns.


"The big three are on that ship, and don't worry guys, Loreena and I have done this plenty of times, and Never once have we been hit." His confidence in her made Loreena blush. "Get ready for some action, remember, bob and weave around their guns and missles, and get me in for a few shots, just have to dissable two engines once thats done they either pull out or, die." He hoped Hillingtons pride would get the better of him. Luna was here for a reason after all.

[Deleted]

Richardson looked at the ship, flying down and under--the plane would now have to wait before it began unleashing its frightening arsenal against the five of them...or, would it? "Jesus, are you two that stupid?" Hughes yelled, as he took control once again. Keep the electromagnetic barrier up, and I'll end this soon. Richardson didn't believe him, but he trusted in the strength of his superior's intelligence. "We won't need the lasers."

Luna looked at the plane and scoffed, though grudginly accepting its superior firepower and protection.

He dipped the titanic craft down towards the gunship, and the plane fired one of its six missles down. Loreena dodged it well, and the missle careened on until it siezed up in the clouds over Iowa City. It fell right on top of a scarecrow, setting the cornfield ablaze. "Richardson, fire another round" commanded hughes. "Fire this one here." Even though he wasn't too sure about firing completely off target, Richardson did it anyway. Loreena looked at the renegade missle, firing way off course. She knew this was a diversion, but she also knew the time they brought them was extremely valuable. She knew Agron could handle th weapons much better and would fire them with much less ambivalence.

She handed the controls to Agron for a short time--during which the B-52 forward cannon let loose on the gunship, tearing one of its guns off.

[Noble 6]

"Alright, thats how you wanna play this." Agron yelled as he flipped the ship over again. He slammed the accelorater to its full force and the ship headed onwards toward the B-52. Th mamoth ship fired its main cannons, and its turrets. Chris re-entered his Phasewalk and smiled. He used the majority of his energy and brought the whole ship into the Phasewalker world. Agron roared in rage and frustration as his ship, instead of colliding with the B-52, phased through the ship. He activated the Gunships forward shields, and came out of the Phasewalk. The tiny Gunship Smashed through the B-52 ripping open the entire back of the ship. Explosions rocked the ship and black smoke billowed from the engines.

---------------------------------

"Sir!! Hughes engines 1 through 3 have taken too much damage!!! Weapons systems are offline!. We can't pull up! We nee-" an explosion cut the engineers message short as he was engulfed in flames. An alarm began blaring inside the ship.

----------------------------------

Agron turned the ship around and began flying towards St. Louis. As they flew past, Haku and Loreena cheered as the Behemoth "sank" below the clouds.

[Deleted]

The gargantuan ship, which was by this time covered in black smoke, began making a tilted dive towards downtown St. Louis. Hughes' master plan had worked. Agron's hotheadedness had, as usual, gotten the better of him, and his phasewalk had an unexpected side effect. Hughes looked at the small gunship with a subsided sense of anger. "Well, time to actually start fighting these idiots, eh, sir?" said Richardson. Hughes look at him and smiled. "No, I have a better idea."

Hughes went out to one of the emergency exits, and did something even Richardson could not do. He looked around, and noticed the gunship headed towards the Mississippi river. Heput his hand in front of his face in a prorated fashion. He snapped his fingers and pulled Agron into the burning carcass of a fuselage.
"Hey, brat, I have a deal for you. Listen or I'll call your bluff, bigtime." Agron looked at him. "What bluff, you idiot?" Hughes pointed to the bottom of the fuselage of the gunship, and there was lodged one of the nuclear missles. "Now, seeing as how this is entirely your fault, you'd be well inclined to listen to what I have to say."

Hughes began to explain what Agron had done: "You see, your idiotic temper has gotten the better of you again. I waited for you to phasewalk through this ship, becuase I knew you'd try to do that exact thing. When you did, I put up an electromagnetic field. Since your body is now charged, I was able to track your entire path through the sky. That's how I pulled you--"

Agron tried to Phasewalk away, but Hughes gave him a staunch warning. "You are now inside and electromagnetic barrier I'M maintaining. You can't phasewalk, and If you do I will detonate the bomb-- Oh, and we just so happen to be due east of Maternity HQ. Don't do anything rash, or I'll raze it with the other missile we've got."

Obviously, Agron looked at him skeptically, until he saw the HQ in the distance. "Now, are you going to listen to my deal, or am I gonna have to kill the lot of you?"

[Noble 6]

"Well," he smiled. "he took a small step backwards towards the open hatch. "Whats your plan Hughes, this should be fun, however, with this much damage, heh, whats up then." he kept his finger on his M1A1's trigger.