The day the boomers died



   Nene suddenly remembered. She checked her suit's internal
clock but the EMP she had received had busted it. Almost nothing
worked anymore.

  "WAIT!"

   Priss turned around. Most of her electronics had also been
fried. A fine trail of blood could be seen through her shattered
visor, snaking down her forehead and over the prominence of her
cheek.

   "We have no choice Nene! We've got to break through NOW!"

   "Linna!" the redhead cried, turning towards her companion
behind her. "What's the time!?"

   Linna wearily looked up. Her once shiny green suit was cracked
and dripping oil, the monomolecular whips ripped from her helmet
by a robot which had lost both its arms in the process. She had
destroyed six boomers, two dobermans among them, but it had all
been for nought. With her hardsuit's servos burned out and no
ammunition remaining, there was little left for her to do except
to tend for her fallen comrade who was rapidly bleeding to death.

   "It's past three, Nene..." she answered, in a monotone voice,
trying to comfort their leader. She didn't even seem to notice
the bullets blasting around them.

   "Three WHAT?!?" yelled Nene, exasperated.

   "There's no time for this Nene! Cover me!"

   "You'll get KILLED Priss!" Nene screamed, as the explosions
around their precarious bunker became steadily more violent,
rocking the entire warehouse. "Just wait! The TIME!" she yelled,
turning again towards Linna.

   "Dammit Nene! They're going to overrun us!"

   "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP AND WAIT!" Nene wailed, desperately
grabbing the green Saber by the shoulders. "What's the exact
time?!?"

   A powerful explosion nearly knocked Priss over. Three boomers
were heading towards them, firing away.

   "FUCK YOU NENE! JUST FUCK YOU!" Priss shouted, turning to face
their attackers.

   "WHAT'S THE TI...?"

   "ZERO THREE FOURTEEN OH SIX!!!" Linna screamed, a guttural,
animalistic shriek which echoed throughout the building.

   And then, silence.

   Nothing moved.

   Nene slowly turned around. Priss was simply standing a couple
of metres away, not even breathing.

   The boomers, all three of them, crumpled on the floor,
undamaged, immobile.

   "What the fuck?" Priss murmured, as she carefully approached
the closest one to her and gave it a gentle kick, always pointing
her railgun at the mecha's head. It didn't move.

   Nene slowly got up, looking around. More boomers, further
away, all frozen, all lifeless.

   "Quick!" Priss hissed, "Let's get the hell out of here!"

   Dazed, Linna nodded, as did Nene, and between the three of
them they carried Sylia towards the exit, careful to walk around
the monsters which moments ago had surrounded them. As they
finally left the warehouse they sighed with relief, and hurriedly
headed for their vehicle. Linna whispered something into Sylia's
ear, and she smiled ever so slightly. At that point they all knew
it would be okay.

   As they hurried into their truck Nene took one final deep
breath of the chilly January air. She turned her head once,
looking back at the decrepit building where an ambush had so
nearly succeeded, foiled only by a mistake made sixty-eight years
ago. The redhead would never again forget that day, the day the
boomers died.


_________________________________
marco@chinook.physics.utoronto.ca
Gunnm: Broken Angel
http://128.100.80.13/marco/alita.html