Around halfway between Kevlar and Mexico Stal's squad caught up with a UFO. Not the alien kind of UFO, mind you, a literal unidentified flying object. Or, at least it was unidentified until it spun around and unleashed a torrent of plasma.
"Hit the deck!" Ecier screamed.
"Quincy and Isaac, pound him into submission!" Stal commanded.
Both double barreled turrets swiveled and locked their sights on the MAU.
"Oh, you might want to know, Mike stole a MAU jet pack also." Samuel's voice crackled over the intercom.
"A little late!" Ecier retorted.
"Ecier, keep us out of his range while Gune and I fit jet packs to a couple of MAUs, but don't lose him!" Stal was ready for action by his third word.
Gune and Stal scrambled towards the storage unit while The Phantom rocked with every hit.
"Shields are critical!"
"Evade!"
"Got him in the rifle!"
Ecier watched as a brilliantly aimed burst from Quincy's turret caught the PSSR in the ammunition chamber.
The PSSR caught fire. Not like in the movies, where the whole gun would erupt into flame and then spontaneously explode, but caught a wonderful, translucent, hot, plasma wave, about 955* Celsius.
Ecier watched in awe as the nine-foot long PSSR melted in half. But, his awe turned to horror and surprise as Mike swung both halves at the Phantom. Ecier swung hard to the right to evade, sending Gune and Stal tumbling into the wall.
"Watch it!"
"Sorry!"
After a few seconds the MAUs inside the Phantom were ready. Stal and Gune threw on motion gear and climbed in.
"Open the cargo bay!"
"Rodger."
The two MAU's jet packs roared to life as they jumped into Atlantic airspace. Stal leaned forward and his MAU charged ahead. Gune followed closely behind, poised and ready. Stal shot out a right kick, catching Mike square on the back. Mike's MAU tumbled and somersaulted through the air, finally righting itself after three rotations. Now that Mike knew which direction the attackers were coming from, he was ready. Stal flew towards Mike and tried another kick, aiming for the chest. Mike easily caught it and countered with a right punch to the head and a left to the lower chest. Stal stumbled back as Gune seized his opportunity and delivered a roundhouse kick to the head. Mike spun with the blow and lashed out with a piston-like kick, sending Gune flying backwards. Stal knew what to do this time. He blocked a flurry of punches from Mike and landed two of his own to the ribs. While Mike curled up Stal soared upwards and grabbed Mike in a headlock. Gune was unaware that he forgot to cover the power of his jetpack and approached from below. Mike kicked Gune's open power flow and Gune plummeted back to the ocean. He then jerked upwards and caught Stal in the head. Stal chased Gune down while Mike made a getaway.
As Stal reached Gune Quincy and Isaac let the plasma fly. Unfortunately for them, Mike suspected this and climbed.
"Ecier, lock repulsor lifts on Gune!"
"Yes sir."
"Repulsor lifts locked sir!"
"Okay, I'm going after Mike!"
Empowered by rage, Stal quickly regained balance in the fight. Stal threw an attack, so blindly, so reckless, Mike never saw it coming.
Stal followed his straight on charge with a classic one-two and a kick to the face, ending up with a gigantic knife pointed at Mike's throat. Mike then decided it would be a good time to activate a stolen EMP bomb, causing Stal and Mike to plummet towards the ocean. Mike and Stal simultaneously jumped out of the falling MAUs and activated emergency rafts. Stal, knife in hand, blinded by rage, jumped onto Mike's raft and tackled him. Stal's knife was once again pointed at Mike's throat, except this time, there was no armor to protect him.
"Do it!" Mike yelled.
"Kill me and go back to your traitorous C.R.E.W.!"
"C.R.E.W., traitorous,the C.R.E.W.? You hypocrite! You're the traitor! You abandoned the C.R.E.W.!" Stal retorted.
"So, you still think that, interesting. That bunch of murderous cowards havn't told you the truth, eh?"
