The next thing Deece heard was the turret spinning and he yelled, "Wait T Bar, it's a TMV!" (Tower Maintenance Vehicle) Tokey and Toney came up to the cockpit and Tokey asked,"Are you sure!" Deece pointed at the 4 green crane lights and said,"Yeah, I'm sure." Tony grumbled," You woke me up for that?" The TMV was sending a message on the Intrascreen,"TOKEY......DON'T FIRE....FREIND....DAN!"
Tokey told Deece, "Send him a message and tell him to pull along side us." Deece said, "What if it's a trick?" Tokey said," It's no trick, remember I told you about my Police friend, It's him." Deece said back,"Wow, is his name Daniel Kallen?" Tokey,"Yes." Deece laughed out," That's my cousin, what the hell is he doing way out here?" Tokey chuckled,"You must be the looser cousin he spoke of." Tony laughed,"Yeah, it's Daniel for sure."
As the massive TMV pulled to the side of the Mach1000, it looked like a semi next to a Volkswagen. The Mach 1000 is 40 feet long,12 feet wide and 14 feet high. A large ramp door opened and came within inches of the Mach side door. Daniel and a female came walking on the ramp as Tokey, Deece and Tony stepped out on the ramp also. The only light was from the crane lights and T Bar's turret window.
Tony saw who the female was and shouted," Dara, what in the hell are you doing here?" She smiled and with an angry tone said," I will leave that up to Officer Kallen to explain." Everybody looked at Daniel as Daniel explained," Tokey, the whole f***ing city is a nightmare. Seloria fired all security forces and declared a Military Marshall law. She knows it is you that took her son and I am not surprised to see that these shitheads are with you."
Daniel went on," I picked up your niece Dara because I heard that Seloria told the Roian Soldiers to find any relative of yours and torture them for information." A Roian Soldier, male or female is drafted at age 12. They take orders directly from the War Minister through implants behind their left eyes. The males are dressed in black coverall canvas that is open laced from the boots all the way up to each side of the neck.
The females are the same but the open lacing is from the ankles up to the shoulder. All Roian Soldiers carry a KX-8 rifle with a 500 yard kill range. Only the Roian snipers carry the KX-12 which is deadly accurate at 3 miles. Roian Soldiers are ruthless and kill whoever they are told to kill instantly. They travel in Huv Battle Tanks and R-40 Transports. None are as fast or have the fire power of the Mach 1000 but there are thousands of them throughout the north.
Daniel kept talking,"Seloria hung the Security minister Orolan outside the hole you guys made in the pyramid, he was set on fire alive." Maren shouted out to them all," Come look, Seloria is on!" Seloria looked cool and calm as she said," My son Jeezose has been kidnapped by terrorist rebels. They will contact me in five days.
If the smallest pinch of harm comes to my son, these rebels will know the hell of Mother god." She kicked her head back while squealing dead Latin! She composed herself and said,"Pray my children, pray for Jeezose and we shall celebrate his return, a reward will be given of 5 million MGs (Mother Gold currency - about 10 million dollars) for anyone who brings him safely to my arms." Her face faded to the jagged cross emblem.
Daniel looked up at T Bar who was looking at him and smiling. Daniel rolled his eyes to the left towards the TMV and shouted for Deece to shut the door! T Bar opened fire on the TMV as Roian Soldiers came out on the ramp firing. The crane fell and knocked the soldiers off the ramp but there were many still in the doorway firing.
A few bullets came inside as the door closed. One struck Tokey in the leg and one struck Daniel in the arm. Neither was close to being fatal but Maren, Lyran and Dara attended to them quickly. Deece jumped in the cockpit and whirled the Mach around three times and set up for Therzydo shot. (A Therzedo is and air torpedo armed with a thermite kill drill.....it comes out of whatever it goes in to.) Deece shouted up at T Bar,"Blast that bitch!" T Bar shouted as he pulled the chute release,"This is gonna hurt boys and girls!"
The Therzedo went through the massive steel of the TMV like a BB through butter. All inside the Mach 1000 could hear the twisting steel, cracking and sizzling even as the Mach pulled far away. The giant TMV rolled to one side and soldiers began falling about 300 feet to the ground. Red steam and smoke was bellowing from around the pilots cage. The soldier pilots ejected the cage and T Bar blasted it into chunks and dust.
Tony looked up at T Bar grinning and said,"Ya just had to shoot em didn't ya." T Bar grinned and said,"It was an accident, I was polishing my trigger!" Deece pulled the Mach 1000 about a mile away from the TMV as it went down. The final explosion was an enormous blast of white fire! Daniel was sitting on the floor as Dara and Lyran were bandaging his arm. He said,"Good job guys but now it's time to get the hell out of here because 10 Battle Tanks are behind them." Deece fired up all engines and headed due east.
The Battle Tank's top speed is 450 mph. Deece knew that the Mach in half speed would lose them fast so he cruised. Maren was tending to Tokey's leg and was crying,"Dammit Toke, I can't stand you being hurt like this!" Tokey put his hand on the side of her head softly and said,"I'm ok Maren, I'm ok, we will all be ok." Tony and Dara were having a conversation as Daniel climbed up in the cockpit with Deece.
Daniel said," They caught me at Dara's restaurant, heard us talking about Tokey and forced us both to fly here with them. We were supposed to grab the brat and run. Seloria promised me that I would become her security minister and Dara would be allowed to live." Deece asked,"Why didn't the Roian's just storm us when we opened the door?" Daniel answered,"I convinced them that I could get Jeezose out safely, speaking of, where is the little demon anyways?" T Bar stuck his head in the cockpit while chewing on a piece of shark jerky and said,"Don't worry about that little prick, he's armless."
Daniel and Dara didn't get it but everyone else laughed. Speaking of the devil, Jeezose woke up screaming,"I want my mother, I want my mother!" He squalled again, looked amazed at his missing arm and passed out. Tony laughed saying," Yeah he wants his mother, he really wants his mother!" Daniel and Dara looked at each other and shrugged while every one else was laughing. Maren gave Tokey and started to give Daniel pain killer shots of Thorzin Methar, it kills pain for 40 hours and speeds healing intensely.
Daniel pushed her hand away and sadly said,"Don't waste that on me." Tokey grabbed Daniel by the arm and said,"What do you mean, take it, it will help you." Daniel looked down at the ten small numbers on his watch and said,"I have about an hour or so left, the Roians injected me with poison and said they would give me the anecdote when I returned with Jeezose."
The only sound was the engines purring in cruise. Tokey had big tears running down his face as he asked Daniel," Is there anything we can do?" Daniel took a picture from his badge pocket , handed it to Tokey and said,"See that my wife Lelia and children are safe, I sent them to Tolena in sector 11 after Seloria's newscast about Lyran, promise me Toke you will help them be safe!"
Tokey answered,"More than the existence of my soul, I will do this for you my friend." Daniel sat back against the door that he had shouted for earlier to close. Lyran and Dara held his hands as he began to sweat and drift away. The grave robbers all had tears in their eyes and the silence haunted their thoughts. Tokey limped up to the cockpit and told Deece,"Sector 11 Deece, we are taking the bravest man I have ever known to his family." Deece turned the steering bar as he said back to Tokey,"Yes he is, yes we will."
