Trains that run on time

0:37:24
Precious minutes had been lost when Proto saved her life, and precious seconds had slipped by as Makita ensured that no one would follow her from the plaza. Too many had passed.

"Last call for the departure. All units assigned to the eastern counter-assault have thirty seconds to brace for departure." The voice rings out while Makita pounds up the stairs that lead to the elevated platform the hanging railcars depart from. Her face contorts and she pushes herself to move even faster, dodging the people who stand in her way.

Makita scrambles to pull out her commlink without slowing down. Her breathing is harsh and ragged as she yells into it, "Dushka! Are you still assigned to station 82?"

"Yeah," a young voice comes back, "Why?"

"I need you to stop the train! Contact the Elder in charge! I only need ten seconds!"

"You're trying to catch the train? Forget it, Makita. It'll be back in an hour, just wait."

"I don't have an hour!" she yells in frustration.

"They won't stop the train. It's packed like sardines already."

Makita slams her commlink back into her pocket in disgust and prays she'll be fast enough anyway.

0:36:54
"The train is moving. Clear all doors and step back from the loading platform. The next train will depart in one hour. Repeat, the next train will depart in one hour."

"Stop the train!" Makita yells desperately as she rounds the final bend only a few feet from the last car as it begins to move forward.

"Hey," a voice calls from the train. "Late trooper! There's always one..." Then, jovially, "This one looks quick. Fifty says she makes it!"

"You're on, Robilov," answers another voice. "Hey, Simko, give her a hand!"

The train is still gathering momentum as Makita leans forward and forces herself to ignore her screaming lungs as she sprints for the train. A chorus of voices ring out as Makita pounds forward. "C'mon soldier! You can make it!" She's moving faster than the railcar itself as it steadily accelerates. "Ha-hah! C'mon Simko, grab her!" She passes the rear of the last car, she's almost to the door and the hand extended back toward her. "Sonofabitch. That girl is quick."

"C'mon girl! You're--" her hand extends desperately, fingers brushing against the helping hand reaching for her-- "Almost--" another brush, but she can't quite get a grip. "C'mon! RUN!" And she does, but it doesn't matter. The railcar is going faster than she is by now and she's rapidly running out of loading platform to run down.

0:36:39
Makita's legs tremble in exhaustion and she stumbles to a halt before sinking to her knees and resting her forehead on the cold metal of the platform. Her breath shuddered in and out of her as she tried to calm her oxygen-starved system and suppress the urge to break down weeping.

Then her head snapped up as a booming roar shook the station. Something hit the rails and dislodged the entire string of railcars in a massive explosion. They fell hundreds of feet to the ground below, burning all the while.

Makita's head snaps up and she spots the source of the explosion.

Hydra-class Super-krawl.

0:36:25
"Dushka!" Makita fishes her commlink back out, "Come in, it's me."

"Makita!" Dushka's voice has risen several octaves, "You're alive!"

"I missed the train," she answers softly.

"Have you ever seen a Hydra-class before? Holy shit! The Elders are mustering an assault team to take it out, you'd better get down here! Oh, and Makita--"

"I know," she cuts him off. "I know. Don't be last."

0:36:18
Makita runs.

Mostly cribbed from Red Star Annual #1 "Run Makita Run" by Christian Gossett.

Lives well spent

0:31:13
The Elders are gathering a strike team to take on the Hydra on the ground a hundred feet below the loading platform. Makita sprints to one of the emergency descent cables at the end of the loading platform and drops recklessly, using the cable to slow herself just enough to ensure she doesn't break anything important on the way down.

She can see the troops gathered below her as the air whistles past her: mostly kids in their teens with a few older men and women scattered among them. An old man, maybe even older than Papa, stands on top of a crate holding the massive red tube of a SWORD as he yells orders. "Steady, boys, steady! Squad 3, take out the rear vents! Squad 4, left treads! Squad 5, right treads!" Makita's feet hit the ground and she's already moving forward to find a squad to join.

"Makita," the Elder's voice snaps out, "You're last! Barrel duty!" He tosses the SWORD and drop line at her as she skids to a stop and she staggers as the weight slams into her chest.

The gathered troops are already murmuring, "Poor Makita." "Better her than me." "Shut up, Darzu."

She spins, eyes flashing, "Don't look at me like that! I'll last longer than any of you possibly could." Makita sets the fifty kilo rocket launcher down and shrugs into the drop-harness, "And if any damn one of you is too scared to take up the SWORD when I go down? You can rot in hell!"

Makita's securing the SWORD across her back as the Elder goes over everything one last time. "You all know the drill! First: immobilize the Hydra. Second: shield Makita. She's carrying the SWORD. When the SWORD-bearer falls, the closest trooper takes up the burden."

0:30:01
The words are only half-heard as, once again, her father's voice fills her ears. Makita, remember: if a Hydra-class Krawl ever attacks, do everything you can to avoid being given barrel duty. She stands on the ground as the tread teams rush forward, looking up at the krawl. At over a hundred feet tall it's the largest ground unit the Reds have. A single Hydra can take out an armored division on its own.

Turning, she begins the ascent back up to the loading platform. It will provide the easiest way to get onto the top of the krawl. However, in the case that this does happen, there is one advantage to barrel duty. Everyone in the entire assault force is protecting you.

You carry the SWORD.

They are your shield. Men swarm up to the platform with her, yelling and firing toward the Hydra. They are your diversion. Makita slipped from cover to cover, moving when the Hydra's guns turned to take down one group or another. Use them.

If the tread teams have been wiped out then the beast may still be moving, which will make crossing onto it's back more perilous. The anti-personnel guns cut down men by the dozens as the Hydra lumbers forward. Makita darts among them, somehow managing to avoid the incoming fire.

A squad of priestesses will most likely be providing expanse protokols. The heavily robed women step forward and bridges of glowing red light leap from the platform to the Hydra's armored back. Men rush forward, Makita among them, scrambling to clear the expanses. But if they get taken out, their bridges go with them. A burst of fire slams past Makita and the bridge to her right fades out of existence. A dozen men fall a hundred feet as she sprints forward hoping her own bridge will hold long enough.

0:27:04
The shield squads will be some of our best. Their sole purpose is to draw fire away from you. Most of them won't make it off the beast, win or lose. Men and women slot into position as they hit the end of their bridges. There's no cover on the Hydra, really, so they set up in the open and they're mowed down by the krawl's weapons.

Even from the brief moment you have running by on your way to the barrel... some of their faces you'll never forget. A girl younger than Makita throws herself forward to intercept an incoming burst. Her eyes flash in surprise and she smiles as her legs crumple. Yells of pain mix with those of orders and encouragement: "Go, Makita! Go! Go! Go!" "Blow this bastard!" "Okay, the deck squad's wiped. Shift fire to the heavy gun emplacements!" "Give 'em hell, Makinoshka!" Faces flash past, some dead, some dying, some alive for the moment. She doesn't know who most of them are, but she knows her father is right: she'll never forget.

0:26:42
As you approach the barrel, remember two things: mask and dropline. Makita launches herself onto the arch of the barrel and turns to sprint up it's length as the last of the shield squads surge forward to distract the Hydra's defenders from the lone girl silhouetted against the sky.

Mask first. It's been soaked with Stimulant D. Smells terrible, but without it the propellant gases in the barrel will knock you out. Be careful not to keep the mask up too long, Stimulant D is a damn dirty buzz. Halfway up the barrel she pulls the chemical soaked cloth across her nose and mouth. A single whiff burns her nose and makes her eyes water, and she can feel the effects. Colors swirl and the world tilts slightly. Somehow she manages to keep her balance on the sloped surface of the barrel as time turns soupy and the air is sucked from her lungs.

Dropline second. By now, if you have approached the beast and not been hit by autofire. If you have climbed onto it's back and not fallen. It is time for your descent into the mouth of the Hydra. Reaching back, Makita snags the handle of her dropline's magnet and grips it tightly. As she reaches the end of the barrel she stoops low enough to slam the magnet down on the metal in front of her, but she can't afford to slow down as the end of the barrel draws closer and closer.

0:26:33
Makita runs.

Mostly cribbed from Red Star Annual #1 "Run Makita Run" by Christian Gossett.

Some survive, some do not

0:26:30
Trust your dropline magnet. It will hold your weight. Still sprinting forward, Makita hits the dropline release on her harness and reaches back to pull the SWORD from her shoulder. The end of the Hydra's barrel arrives and she pours on a final burst of speed and flings herself out into nothing. The line spools out and the catches as designed. Makita's headlong leap slams to a sudden halt and she falls, the line swinging her back toward the barrel. She pulls her legs up and swings into the opening, nearly choking on the gases despite the mask across her face.

0:26:25
Assemble your weapon and prepare it to fire as quickly as possible. Makita's hands fly across the bulk of the SWORD. She's never fired one before, but they're designed for simplicity and it only takes a few seconds to peel back the protective covers on each end and arm the warhead.

If you are lucky, then you will see the light at the end of the barrel as the crew opens the breech to reload. All is dark in the barrel, and Makita wonders if they've already reloaded. If she's about to be launched with the next shell. But no. There is a groaning sound and the breach opens. Men are silhouetted against the glare inside the Hydra.

This is the moment. Fire. The trigger is pulled back and the massive rocket screams down the Hydra's barrel. The fuel-air payload will entire krawl with explosive vapor and then blow the entire vehicle to bits. If it works. She doesn't have time to watch.

0:26:03
Now it is time for the second jump with your dropline. As before the distance is preset, just hit the release and jump. The distance is preset based on the Hydra's barrel to stop you a meter short of the ground. Give or take a few meters. Makita throws down the empty SWORD launcher, hits the dropline release, and throws herself backwards out of the barrel while the rocket is still in the air. She twists in the air as she falls to find that she's going to land on a pile of rubble that's likely to break something important. Hopefully her dropline is misconfigured to pull her up short.

By now there's so much Stimulant D in her system that it doesn't occur to her to try to land somewhere else, and jerking to a sudden stop a few feet above the rubble is a huge surprise which rips her hat from her head. She hangs there for a moment, swinging bemusedly, before she remembers she's supposed to take the dropline harness off now.

0:25:45
She collapses to the ground, swaying slightly, unable to focus with all the colors swirling in front of her. "Makita!" a voice yells in her ear. "Shake it off! You got through and they've sounded the evacuate. Let's go!"

Two boys about her own age are at her side, one grabs each arm and they haul her to her feet. She tries to run, but her legs don't seem to work properly, so they drag her. Her head lolls slightly as she looks over her shoulder muttering, "C'mon... blow you bastard."

"Listen!" one of the boys says, pausing. "Listen! It's starting to go up!"

The other boy forces them back into motion, "So let's not be here when it does!"

Colors swirl and Makita only half realizes that they're running again as her father's words roll on. If you have survived the unforgiving moments of your duty. And your shot has found its mark. If the dropline has not failed you, leaving you lying broken in the snow. You will hear behind you the thunder of the Hydra's arsenal ripping out it's insides.

0:24:38
There will be, I can say with certainty, a great roar of victory. Two thirds of the anti-Hydra team have been wiped out, but those who survive scream their defiance. Their voices rise in celebration and then are drowned out as the explosions within the massive krawl reaches the primary magazine.

0:24:12
Dushka, little babbling Dushka, survived the Hydra somehow. He's kneeling in front of Makita as her swimming head slowly clears from the Stimulant D. He's saying something and holding out a canteen and her hat (who knows how he recovered it). The words don't register but she snatches the offered water and upturns the container over her head, catching some in her mouth and letting the rest soak into her hair. "Dushka," she interrupts.

"Yeah?"

She lifts her free finger to her lips, "Shhhhh."

He sighs and grins stupidly, "Okay."

"Thanks for the water." She leans forward and kisses him lightly on his grimy cheek.

"You're welcome," he blushes.

She claps the hat back on top of her head. "I gotta go."

0:23:28
Makita runs.

Mostly cribbed from Red Star Annual #1 "Run Makita Run" by Christian Gossett.