Jeurridam Ch. 14: Red Canyon FPT1..

The ride to Red Canyon was long and silent. We all were happy to arrive and get out the buggy. It was a shock to see how well organized the camp was! Everything just seemed so in place and clean! And there were so many buggies, buggies I've never even seen before! The Merchant Clan was far bigger and more organized than I previously thought.

Alistair wasted no time in leading us over to Sandles. Sandles was mesmerizing! He was a very tall, dark skinned multi-racial, probably a mixture of Mojave with African. His eyes were a startling grey and his hair kinked into wild curls, pulled back into a messy Zulu knot. His face was thin and chiseled, with budding stubble around his chin. He was covered from the neck down in a number of strange tattoos and keloids, obviously a very rough and tumble guy! He and Zeek locked eyes, seemingly becoming entranced in one another's gaze.

"Sandles..." Alistair said, snapping him out of it. A look of worry and disappointment spread across Sandles face. He couldn't look Alistair in the eye.

"We found the items you were looking for..." He said.

"Okay?" Alistair said, picking up on Sandles's nervousness, "Spill kid..."

"I've been struggling to hold down everything while you were gone. Some of our forces flaked in the middle of the night and made off with some... assets..." Sandles said, shaking in fear. He didn't know what Alistair would do.

"What assets?" Alistair growled.

"Kido and Bronze tried to make off with the rotor bikes... We stopped Bronze but Kido got away. All we know is that he headed west towards Death Valley but it's impossible to catch him on one of those things. I'm so sorry boss! The Earthquake last night scared a lot of our men. Some of our buggies, supplies, rations, and ammunitions are also missing." Sandles said. Alistair sighed, not pleased by this. He looked out at the remaining force, seeing the numbers were pretty strong.

"You did what you had to do! You still managed to hold down the fort on your own. Kido and Bronze's betrayals won't be something I forget." Alistair said, placing a firm hand on Sandles's shoulder, "But anyways, this is Zanir... the mad boy genius of the Mojave! He was Galveston's partner in crime, the reason we got so much done in so little time!"

"Yeah," Sandles said, looking at me intently, "I remember you!" He held up his hand, only there was no hand, "You did this to me not too long ago!" He smiled, seeming to enjoy the fact. However it grinded me to the core.

"I am so sorry..." I said, clenching my miserable little head.

"No sweat, dude." Sandles smiled before getting back serious, "So what exactly do we need the materials for?"

"You see the dust rising in the desert?" I asked him. He turned, looking down the valley side into Jeurridam. There was a stream of dust rising as if something was hauling all kinds of ass to get here.

"Yeah..." He said, unsure what to make of it.

"That is a mech of mine called... let's call him Emann. Emann has a weapon called an EMP bola launcher that I want to get rid of and replace with a more energy efficient pulse weapon. We may need it." I said back.

"That's cool." He said as the mech arrived. Every single head turned as the thirteen foot tall manticore came strutting through the base like he owned it.

"Where are the materials?" I asked.

"WYATTT!!!!!" Sandles screamed.

"Coming boss!" A shrill voice youngster said. He carried a crate full of the materials collected, handing them to Sandles.

"I hope this will be to your needs." He said, unsure if this was enough material. I looked in the crate, pretty content with the findings.

"Good enough..." I shrugged, taking the crate from him.

"Before you get started Zanir," Alistair said, standing in the distance, "I wanna show you something..."

"Sure!" I said rushing over. The manticore was right behind me, people having to move and duck to avoid the machine, "Do you realize you're the size of an elephant? Stay with the others!"

"I just wanna tag along!" The manticore responded, flooring me! Since when could he speak?

"BETH!!!!! Did you update him to the latest firmware?" I asked.

"YEAH???? Problem?" She asked back, unsure if this was good or bad.

"No! Just surprising!!!" I laughed, following Alistair.

"Okay." Alistair began as the manticore joined up with Big Daddy, "For about three years, me, Galvy and a team of other mechanics were designing these speeders of our own. I ordered for them to be moved out of The City of Rust the other day when shit got real."

"Alright..." I said back.

"I was wondering do you think these things could go up against the revivalists' racers..." He said. We entered a massive tent where I could finally see these beauties.

One was missing but seven remained! They had motorcycle-like chassis but no wheels. Instead of wheels, they had coaxial rotors, two in the front and two in the back. The rotors spanned about four and a half feet but were folded back into the chassis for stowage. The bottom rotor had pitch spokes for multi direction control, an actually marvelous design for something so small. The speeder stood on two retractable legs that could become seamless with the chassis. Sitting atop the chassis was a motorbike-like seat with yolks for control. In front of the yolks were a number of screens, obviously for controlling this thing.

Sitting atop the front rotor mount was an interchangeable weapons system, much like the system for the buggies. The weapons mount seemed fixed, probably a wise decision considering how little area for control the speeder had. The only control surfaces I could see were two dihedral stabilizers in the back which probably helped a lot for maneuverability.

However, not all of the speeders were built to the same specification. Some were much leaner looking with only two blades per rotor, and no stabilizers while others were more heavy duty looking with five blades per rotor and anhedral stabilizers. Despite the heft, there was a noticeable trend amongst all of the speeders. They lacked armor!

"Wow..." Was all I could say.

"We call them rotor bikes." Alistair said.

"How functional are these things?" I asked.

"Very! When I designed them, I had low altitude coursing flight in mind. But these things are capable of multi-directional flight at up to thirty thousand feet and have a top speed of over three hundred miles an hour! Some look more crude than others but they have the same ground hugging programming, and computational abilities. Galvy made sure of that when he was programming them. Do you think they can go head to head with the racers?" Alistair said.

"Just from looking at them, I can tell they are incredibly mobile. They lack armor which concerns me though. The racers do have armor, light but enough to ward off against anything less powerful than a thirty millimeter cannon. Can the rotor-bikes withstand that type of firepower?" I asked.

"No, they'd fall apart. They are invisible to radar though and can be outfitted with the tank buster cannon." He said.

"Well, to me it sounds like these are the perfect strike vehicles. They can get in and get out while doing a whole bunch of damage in the blink of an eye. They're utterly traceless... I'd have to see these things in action..." I shrugged. Alistair squeezed his watch.

"Sandles, get in here." He said.

"Roger." Sandles said, arriving within seconds.

"Show Zanir how these things work." Alistair smiled.

"Okay." Sandles said. He put on a harness, a parachute and a helmet before climbing into one of the big black matte racers.

Alistair opened the tent as Sandles powered the thing on. The rotors produced a low pitch swooshing as they sped up. The bike lifted off the ground, Sandles guiding the machine out of the tent. Everyone in the camp stopped to watch this thing take flight. Once it was out in the open, I could finally see what this thing was capable of.

Sandles ascended banking hard to the left. The rotor bike accelerated swiftly before entering a steep vertical climb. It banked hard into a hammerhead stall before diving back at the ground. Sandles pulled the rotor bike out of the dive in a screeching fly-by. My watch said he was doing nearly three hundred forty miles an hour. He then did several two hundred plus mile an hour fly bys, banks, rolls and inversions to show just how nimble a craft this was. This machine had zero turn radius even at it's top speed!

"Yeah," I began, "These things could run circles around a racer the same way your buggies run circles around the cicadas. At one point that thing was traveling one hundred miles an hour faster than a racer's top speed! You have an incredibly mobile force... it could be just the surprise we need to take on the Revivalists for this second time..."

"But ultimately, racers are the bigger threat to these. I wish we had more of them..." Alistair sighed.

"I'm gonna come up with a plan. Don't you worry..." I smiled. Alistair nodded as Sandles brought the rotor bike in for a landing. He parked the bike back in the tent, coming out with the helmet. His hair knot was all squished down.

"So do you like the rotor bikes?" He asked.

"Yeah, they're kind of awesome..." I said, heading back over to the manticore.

"So what about your mechs?" He asked, looking at them as we came over.

"They're all shitty terrible people," I teased, "Especially that big red one... but he's kind of my father."

"What?" Sandles laughed.

"When my father died, we saved his brain and put him in the big red robot. Now he just bosses me around and we squabble like children." I shrugged with a laugh.

"Well sorry to hear that your father is dead but that's kind of cool!" He said.

"It is." I said, looking at the manticore, "Why do I have the feeling he's gonna give me the hardest time."
"Why?" He asked.

"He's like a little bit... um... hard headed. Very free spirit, that mech has." I chuckled.

"You talk about them like they're living breathing creatures." He noted.

"They're not but very close... Like scary close! They think they're alive and they actually do breath and feel the need to survive." I said.

"Wow... I just thought they were mere killing machines." He said.

"That's what they're supposed to be but when you take the killing protocol out of them, this is what they become... sentients." I said back, reaching the manticore.

I climbed on his back, looking at his tail. It had so many pieces and segments... The end though is what I was most concerned about. How difficult would it be to turn this bola launcher into a pulse cannon? It all would depend on the temperament of the the manticore. He rolled over looking at me.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I wanna upgrade your tail." I said.

"Are you serious?" He asked, flipping over to his feet. I was thrown off but somehow manage to catch myself with a gravity field.

"Easy!" I said.

"But I like my tail the way it is!" He said back.

"I'm just gonna make it better." I smiled.

"No..." He said, standing. He was off sprinting down the valley side like a toddler having a temper tantrum. The only thing was that this toddler was thirteen feet tall and two thousand pounds.

"Big Daddy!" I said, running after the manticore. Big Daddy came swooping in! I lept onto his back in one seamless motion. We flew after the manticore, my watch locking onto his signal. Once it did, I shut him down! The mech came tumbling to a halt in the soft dirt of the valley floor.

"So sorry about that..." I said as Big Daddy and I came in for a landing, "His nanites are easily commanded. This can be something that I program to be done!"

"Really?" Big Daddy asked.

"Yes! His nanites can be restructured for just about any purpose. A pulse cannon for sure!" I said, "Let's take him back to camp."
Big Daddy did so and things went underway. After programming his nanites on what to do, they reconstructed the end of his tail, placing a powerful one hundred thirty millimeter photon pulse cannon on the end. Many stood watch, including Alistair and Sandles.

"What just happened?" Alistair asked.

"Um, the manticore threw a temper tantrum. He didn't want me to work on his tail." I laughed.

"God, something that big doesn't have any business throwing a temper tantrum." Alistair said, freaked out by the very thought.

"I'm setting it up so he won't notice the tail change, like it has always been there. I just don't want to deal with him getting upset anymore. And I'm also giving him an actual name... Emann." I smiled.

"All of that from that little watch on your hand?" Sandles asked.

"Yep." I said back as a few gravity blades came floating over from the back of June's buggy. Sandles eyes lit up with horror.

"Oh God..." He said, stepping back.

"Don't worry. These blades are being re-purposed. I'm using the solenoids and conduits from the blades for the gravitational properties." I said, hoping to reassure him.

"Still though... I've been stuck thinking about those blades since what happened." He said, having to leave. I felt bad for the kid. These blades did seem to leave in engraving on whomever caught the wrong end of them.

I continued to scan the manticore, watching his nanites closely. They were fusing with the blades, deconstructing them to re-apply them to other regions. This would be finished within a few minutes. Zeek came over, looking at the big mech, lying on the ground.

"You like that Sandles dude?" He asked plainly.

"He's cool." I said, before realizing what he meant, "Wait you mean do I... like him? No..."
"You sure?" Zeek asked with an innocent smile.

"Yeah... Right now I'm kinda over the whole relationship thing. He's a really pretty and genuine guy with scars and a strong ability to lead... You should go after him. He seemed to like you..." I smiled back.

"You really think so?" Zeek asked, unsure.

"I know so!" I said.

"Was there something I missed?" Zeek asked.

"Well of course you couldn't see the waves transferring when your eyes locked onto his." I smiled.

"Really?" Zeek said, taken aback.

"Yes... You should try him!" I smiled.

"Eh, I don't know." Zeek said back, quite unsure. There were not many things that could make Zeek feel unsure. For Sandles to be able to do that meant he must had something Zeek was weak for. Hopefully he'd come around so he could talk to Sandles. It was weird seeing Zeek be shy...

Minutes later, everyone had crowded around the table. It was time to discuss how this was gonna go down.

"Okay this is..." I said having to pause as I looked down at my watch, "Oh no... This is not good..."

"What?" Beth asked.

"Orb is picking up some massive, massive ships coming from the west." I responded.

"The West?" Alistair asked alarmed, "This definitely is not good! How many ships..."

"Five." I said, "With a number of small reinforcement carrying brigates. This looks like a continuation of the Occupancy..."

"Fuck..." Alistair said.

"Yeah those kids may be screwed. It might not be wise for us to engage. You think we can try the same trick twice to see if it can work?" I asked.

"That depends on how locked down they have this place." Alistair responded.

"It's tight! Thermal scans reveal all the captives are being kept in a hangar that is heavily guarded. I can get in there myself but I'd need some cover. I want to steal a transport..." I said back.

"Do any of the ships have a charged particle cannon?" Alistair asked.

"Yeah two..." I said looking at the massive vessels.

"Do you think they can be taken down?" He asked.

"If it was just one, it'd be alright. Two is a bit of a stretch. What I am doing is moving the remaining turrets into position around the base. They will provide ranged cover to anything! The Manticore has a powerful pulse beam that can destroy a tank or down a small ship. Big Daddy has dual pulse beams that can do the same. Orb is good for anti-personnel and small vehicles with her beam cannon..."

"What about the deer looking thing?" Someone asked.

"It's not a combat mech." I said, which seemed to shock everyone.

"So, they have a fleet coming to land at the base..." Alistair noted.

"No," I said confused, "They're just hovering in place... I don't get it."

"Really?" Alistair said, finding this intriguing.

"It doesn't matter... We can go after the thrusters and crash them... Wait," I said watching the feed, "The three smaller ships have landed. They're opening their bays!"

Everyone became tense as we all began to watch the video feeds. To our horror, mechs began to come out of the cargo bays. There were dozens in each ship. The mechs began patrolling the surrounding area, which had us all perplexed.

"So they're avoiding Jeurridam all together? What are these people planning! This is quite a huge force they brought here!" Alistair said.

"We can't go against them... They brought the cavalry this time!" I said, not wanting these good people to be hurt.

"Come on! We need to push those tyrants out!" Sandles said.

"Yeah!!!" A cosigner in the rear responded.

"I don't think we'd have the same element of surprise as we did before. I don't think the Revivalists will fall for the same tricks..." I said, just not sure.

"The only thing they have different know is mechs and two Juggernaut ships this time... They obviously aren't gonna deploy any more tanks or racers after suffering such heavy losses. If we strike at the same times, take out the mechs while we take out the Juggernaut class ships, they'd be defenseless... again..." Alistair said.

"How can we be so sure that this is the only fleet on the way. I don't want to get there, wipe the floor with them only to have another fleet that was only a few hours away come in on top of us... We'd be fucked!" I said back.

"But we can't wait either! Area 51 is like the gateway to Jeurridam with all those resources and vast amounts of information it has. Not to mention the five hundred or so kids being held captive there... The more time we waste, the more likely we are to lose out... I'm sorry but we just can't wait on the UCAC... This is more urgent than they understand!" Alistair said.

"True..." I said, having to think about it, "How far out did the UCAC say they were?

"They said six to eight hours away give or take an hour or two...." Alistair shrugged and that was early this morning when we finally made radio contact.

"Eh..." I sighed, "Then let's do this..."

Everyone began to prepare for this mission. We expected it to be considerably more grueling than the surprise retaliation we had on them before. I made tweaks to all the mechs, making sure they were in good order. Lastly, I booted up the manticore, the big mech looking around. He was a bit disoriented but it was okay.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Um..." I began, not wanting to lie to him, "I had to make some changes. You have a new tail."

He looked at it, flexing it.

"Strange... I don't remember getting this." He said.

"Good." I sighed.

"Hey..." Someone called out from behind. It was Sandles. He had this excited grin on his face that went away as soon as he saw the Manticore up close and personal. The giant mech was intimidating yet mesmerizing at the same time.

"Yeah?" I finally responded.

"How does the tail cannon work?" He asked, "I was really curious when you um... said you were gonna make a cannon out of light bulbs and mirrors."

"Well, it's fairly simple actually. The fifty watt light bulb produces light that is reflected across several mirrors. These mirrors amplify the light produced by the bulb thousands of times. The light passes through a lens which narrows the beam. Before the beam can escape the barrel of the cannon, countermeasures create a field of gravity so dense that light particles are frozen in place. These particles link together and become photonic molecules that continues to grow the longer the light bulb is on. The the countermeasures reverse the field and fling the light particles at an incredible velocity. Whatever it hits is burned by twelve million degrees of raw energy." I said.