Shadowlaser turned on his communicator, knowing that he was probably going to be yelled at but at the moment he would prefer that over what was happening right now. "This is Alia...Shadowlaser? Why are you contacting us now and where are you at?" said the navigator. "No time to explain," Shadowlaser replied as he kept running. "But the short version is that I followed the trucks to Dr. Weil's lab and found a bunch of Mavericks and witnessed reploids being turned into Mavericks. Now I'm being chased by the Mavericks." "Shadowlaser...Just...hang on...I'm sending help right now," said Alia with a hint of panick as she stopped the transmission.
Blade and Tau made their way to the nearest transceiver, where Blade entered in the coordinates for Maverick Hunter HQ. Unfortunately, he found that the entire teleportation network was down. "Well, so much for that." Blade muttered. He turned and went back outside just in time to see Tau pull up in a truck. "Did you just steal that?" "That's a strong word." Tau replied. "I prefer commandeer. Now come on, let's go!"
Shadowlaser dived behind a huge rock that happened to be nearby and turn on his cloaking. "I hope that the reinforcements get here soon," prayed Shadowlaser.
It didn't take long more mavericks to show up in pursuit of Blade and Tau. Fortunately for them both, this was not the first time that Blade had to shoot at oncoming mavericks from the back of a moving truck. He managed to destroy all of their pursuers before any of them could catch up.
Shadowlaser attempted to keep himself calm. He could hear the footsteps of the Mavericks stomping near him but they seem to not be able to see him, but if Shadowlaser moves too much from his current position then his cloaking would be disabled. He cursed to himself.
After a very long drive, Blade and Tau finally reached the outskirts of the city. Tau parked the truck in an empty lot. "Something feels very wrong here." Tau said ominously. "I know what you mean." Blade tapped the side of his helmet where his comm system was. "I can't get a connection to HQ." "This does not bode well." Tau muttered as he started to walk in the direction of Maverick Hunter Headquarters. "Things may be worse that I thought. We have to hurry!"
The humming of Maverick Hunter personnel carrier soon came to Shadowlaser's ears and he gave a silent sigh of relief. The friendly newcomers opened fire on the Mavericks and they quickly took cover. Shadowlaser took the opportunity to run out and get into cover near the carrier.
The sounds of battle echoed through the streets as Blade and Tau made their way further into the city. "What's going on?" Blade asked, not expecting an answer. "That should be obvious." Tau retorted. "Weil's forces have made their move." "Well that's just great." Blade sighed. "Wait, hold on! Is that the carrier up ahead?" "Looks like it." Tau nodded. "Things really are serious."
Blaster fire rained near Shadowlaser as he grabbed his sniper rifle and started returning fire. He looked down the scope and carefully aimed to conserve ammo.
Blade ducked out of the way of a stray shot fired in his direction and ignited his energy sword. They had almost reached the battle raging on ahead. Some of the mavericks were starting to notice Blade and Tau approaching, meaning that it wouldn't be long now before they were part of the fight as well.
Maverick Hunters started slowly jumping out of the carrier and took cover wherever they could. The Mavericks slowly pushed their way forward to the Hunters and Shadowlaser's sniper rifle was starting to become useless for this type of combat. He strapped it onto his back and extended his z-claws.
Blade and Tau sliced their way through the maverick forces. Blade never thought that he would see a maverick uprising of this magnitude right on the Maverick Hunters' doorstep and he certainly didn't like it. After a while, they were practically right outside of HQ, which seemed to be the center of the chaos.
"Shadowlaser! Get in the carrier now so that we can get out of here," Shadowlaser heard one of the Hunters shout to him. He instinctively obeyed the command and shot for the carrier. The other hunters quickly followed suit until all of them were inside and Shadowlaser felt the carrier jerk forward, almost knocking him to the ground. After a few minutes, Shadowlaser let out a long sigh. "Maybe, I'll get some rest when I get to HQ," thought Shadowlaser with a small grin.
Blade rammed his sword through a maverick's chest, then sliced horizontally through another. Unfortunately, this left him open to an attack from behind and before he knew it he had been knocked down and was pinned to the ground by a particularly large maverick.
The ride back to HQ was relatively quiet until the reached the actual city. Even from the distance, it looked like a warzone. Shadowlaser counted only seven more shots for his sniper rifle. "Just seven," Shadowlaser thought quietly. "I'll have to make sure that they all count, but I don't feel like getting into point-blank range combat, especially if things are as bad as they look over there."