" Whose is this?" " We thought it was time for your first gauntlet." "All right." "Look, it even matches my outfit." "Thank you, Mauser." "Where's that laser-fire thingy?" "I don't want to touch it." " It may go off by accident." " Oh, no." "That only has a shield projector and a heat-sensitive viewfinder." "We thought that was enough for now." "It's like a training bra." "Maybe I can paint some little flowers on it." "Red roses." "Or maybe blue ones." "What?" "There's a transmission on channel 12A." "Incoming." "MAN:" "Can you hear me?" " Respond immediately We're under attack." "We got it, Voice." " K9." " Nobody lives that close to the surface." "Nobody's gonna be there much longer." "Hear that laser fire?" "I repeat, we're under attack." "This is Jake Lawson." "Please respond." " Did he just say Jake Lawson?" " I've lost it." "That's what I heard." " Who's Jake Lawson?" " He was a great protector." "Of what?" "Someone the more stable levels hire to protect them." "He was the best." "If you heard a level was under Jake Lawson's protection," " you knew it would be a tough raid." " Like a frontier-marshal thing." " Tell him we're on our way." " Wait." "We don't even know if that's really him." "We're on our way." "This is Mauser, Wave 34." "Assistance is being directed" " toward your location." "LAWSON:" "Is anybody out there?" " He can't hear us." " Then we'd better hurry." "Why are you so hot to help Jake Lawson?" "I saw him fight once." "I was with the Black Watch." "We were trying to take Level 64 off the beta shaft." " You were with the Watch?" " Yes, I was." "We surprised them." "We were ploughing through their defences and then he showed up." "Just him against us." "He cut us to ribbons." "It's how I lost my kidney." "He got me with an incredible shot from an old McGraw gauntlet." "Wait, you want to save him because he shot you?" "I thought he was gonna finish me off, but he didn't." "What a hero." "Look, I don't expect you two to understand." "And you don't have to come if you don't want to." " Get over there, Cleo." " OK." " My guess is he's over there." " What we need is some cover fire." "That's what I call good timing." "That's Jake Lawson." "Cleo, come on!" "Jake Lawson?" "Not me, sweetie." "No." "I'm Jake Lawson." "You've got one thing going for you." "That scum out there tried to kill you, but I'll need more to go on before I decide not to waste you myself." "We were responding to your distress call." "That worked." "My apologies, Jerbo." "Sometimes, old-fashioned technology is the way to go." "Do you mind telling us why half the scum of the underground" " is trying to take our heads off?" " You don't know?" "Your message was garbled." "We didn't get all the details." "Well... let me show you what all the fuss is about." "We're talking the big bang." "500 years finto the future, she will enter a world where machines rule the Earth." "Mankind has been driven underground." "And Cleopatra is about to discover there's no place like home." "ln the year 2525" "There are women with the will to survive" "Fighting for a brand-new day" "Nothing's gonna get in their way" "And in the year 2525" "Three women keep hope alive" "Joining forces to reclaim the Earth" "Looking ahead to humankind's rebirth" "All those barrels are plutonium?" "500 years ago, I'm marching with this "No nukes is good nukes" sign, but does anybody listen?" "SCUM:" "Hey, hey, hey!" "Up until now, it's been protected by a force field, but time finally caught up with this place and the force field collapsed." "Within hours, every mercenary was here looking to turn a profit." " But you got here first?" " No, this guy over here beat me to it." "Fortunately, we have the same goal in mind." "We want to keep these weapons out of the hands of that scum." "So, if I can just have that megatronic distributor, we can all go home." "You didn't get that part of the message, either?" "What's a megatronic distributor?" " It's used to generate force fields." " Like my shield?" "Exactly." "Hey, I just got that." "Work your magic, Jerbo." "If you're the tech you claim to be, we can all go home real soon." "Now, do you really expect me to believe you didnY know anything about the plutonium?" "What do you mean?" "You just fought your way through that heavily-armed scum into a hopeless dead end." "Nobody does that without a profit motive." "Well, we do." "If you want to get that force field up, you do, too." "Do I know you?" "No." "But you shot her once." "We'll help you hold these guys off until Jerbo's finished." "You get any sense of how many of them there were?" "Oh, I can tell you." "They gave me all the sympathy technology." "It doesn't look so bad." "There's only five of them." "See that dot waving its arm?" " Does that mean something?" " You're pointing it the wrong way." "Over there." "I liked it better the other way." " Cleo, shield up." "This is gonna get nasty." " Jerbo has my shield." "Then double up." "No, we're going to be moving around too much." "Now." "My shield isn't that big." "If I knew it would come to this," "I would have protested harder" "So, you're telling me I shot you and I didn't finish you off?" "Maybe my laser jammed." "Nope" "I saw you lay down some fire after you nailed me." "I think you gave me a break." "I was into some pretty grand gestures in those days." "You became kind of a role model for me after that." "I asked around about you," "learned that you never charged a level too much for protection." "You never took up a cause unless you believed in it, and you never shot a man in the back." "Well, that last one's bunk." "You know as well as I do, you aim at what they show you - front, back, side." "If you can hit it, it's fair game." "So... now you're here to save my butt." "I guess it ain't true what they say." " What do they say?" " "No good deed goes unpunished."" "So I shot you with an old McGraw." "I wouldn't go around bragging about that." "I've gotten a little better since then." "Well, prove it." "Take the two on the left." "Ready?" "Ready." "Nice shooting." "Sarge..." " Sarge!" " Huh?" "What's in it for him?" "The same as us." "He wants to put the genie back in the bottle." "I guess it's hard being a protector when the other side has nuclear weapons." "No!" "He just destroyed the relay switch." "We needed that to start the force field remotely." "Did he damage the force field itself?" "It's fine, but now we have to turn it on manually." "Damn!" "All I needed was five more minutes." "Don't panic." "We'll keep this slime out of here until you're done." "After that, only one of us has to be here to turn on the force field." "JERBO:" "Right." "So, whoever hits that switch will be trapped in here." "Hel, Cleo," "I was the one who brought you guys down here." "It's only fair that I be the one to stay." "No, I'll do it." "What are you saying?" "You carry the Voice." "If we're gonna take the surface back, we need you." "If it's just a matter of pushing a button, we all know who the expendable one is." "The short one stays." "LAWSON:" "That settles It" "I stay." " Jerbo, make this thing work." " Right." "That was an old trick." "You cut all the wires so they'd be weak and then you held on extra tight when you pulled yours." "Prove it." "It's a brave thing you're doing." "Not as brave as you think." "I lied before." "I remember you." "You were...a beautiful, fierce young fighter." "I just... couldn't stand the thought of killing something that perfect." "I used to have a heart back then, a soul, but you get hardened after a while." "One day, I woke up and realised the Jake Lawson you talked about's been dead a long time." "I don't know about that." "When I heard about this nuke pile," "I decided right there and then, this'd be my last mission, no matter how it turned out." "This is as good an ending as any." "I did it." "All right." "You all need to get going." "I'll cover you." "Thanks, Jake." "For everything." " Come on!" "OK" "Keep your head down." "Stick close to me." "Now!" " I said, stick close to me." " You can't get much closer than this !" "Uhh!" "Uhh!" "We gotta get out of here!" "Sarge!" " Goodbye, Jake." " Sarge!" "Couldn't we destabilise the force field with an energy neutraliser?" "Impossible." "I projected two energy barriers." "Even if you neutralised one, the other would take its place." " Very good." " Thanks." "Why don't you two stop stroking your technological egos and focus on getting Jake out of there?" "Hel;" "I've got good news." " Mauser," "Voice has something." "It's a plan of an old, ancient mainframe." " There's an old tunnel that runs to the crypt." " Yes, but it doesn't really help." "I'm sure your force-field projection encircled the entire crypt," " making any tunnel access useless." " Well, not exactly." "Jake suggested I not project the force field onto the granite floor of the crypt." "I could save energy that way." "He said only a madman would try to blast his way through into a room full of nuclear weapons." "Well, we can get to Jake through the tunnel." "JERBO:" "You know, this explains everything." "I was the first there." "I set up a detection beacon to warn me of anyone approaching." "Then, suddenly, Jake appeared from deep within the crypt." "Scared me to death." "I couldn't figure out how he'd gotten in without my beacon picking him up." "But he's Jake Lawson, so you tend to think he can do anything." "He must have come up through the tunnel." "But if Jake knew about the tunnel, why didn't he tell us?" "Why indeed?" "Well, he did say this would be his last mission, no matter what." "You were right about one thing." "The Jake Lawson I talked about has been dead a long time." "If he ever lived." "You figured this out." "Very smart." "Now you be smart and don't go for that weapon." "Well, what are my alternatives?" "Walk away" "Jerbo comes in and redoes the barrier with the proper equipment." "You and I call it even." "I can trade this material for an entire level, if I want to." "I can live like a king." "I can hire my own killers to do the dirty work." "Walking away is not an alternative." "Then do what you have to do." "You... couldn't shoot me in the back." "Just call me sentimental." "Next week: 113 Hel And High Water part 1"