[center][u]Collab with Sage, Yugeto and BBeast[/u][/center]

The shuttle heaved as Chief jumped in, his weight causing it to drop in altitude. Zachary grunted as he increased the lift to compensate. Zachary could sense the urgency in what Julian said, and quickly piloted the shuttle to ascend. He saw down below at where they were leaving and saw one young lady, Arianna, standing against twelve adversaries. It did not look like good odds, but he acknowledged that in an operation like this sometimes people need to be left behind for the greater good, and whatever reasons had led the Splinter Squad to decide to leave Arianna down there were not his to question.

He made a quick glance over to where the other shuttle was flying, and saw that it was already gaining a considerable lead. He turned his head and looked through the doorway at Chief. What he beheld was a behemoth of what appeared only manlike in form. While one corner of his mind acknowledged the Chief in his giant diamond-metal form as a ferocious warrior, the other half considered most of him deadweight in this crucial chase.

"Big guy," Zachary called out, "Can you stop being so massive? We need all the accelleration we can get."

Chief grunted and looked to the side as he relaxed his flowing spirit, causing his body to slowly thin out. The crystalline coating disappeared, disintegrating into a fine dust and what remained was his original shape, which was still far larger than average. The shuttle lurched back up again as the mass vanished, and Zachary gave all the power he could to thrust. "Get us close, let me have at 'em," Chief said firmly. Julian raised a brow, "What are you going to do, brothah? We're nearly in the sky!" He looked around, wondering if he could keep up with the shuttles in his smoke forms. "These cannons may be all we have...."

Zachary looked ahead between the skyscrapers at the shuttle they were chasing. By the looks of things he might be able to catch up once the shuttle reached full speed, but time was of the essence and that could well be too late. At a button-press the right Splinter cannon charged up a shot and fired its cannonball towards the shuttle. However, shooting was not among Zachary's skills, and the shot sailed to the side of its target and blasted out the wall of a derelict office in a tower, throwing debris into the air.

[b][i]If we want to stop them, we'll have to play to our strengths,[/i][/b] Kaa'is said to Zachary within his head, [b][i]Fight smart.[/i][/b]

He looked ahead and within his mind, together with Kaa'is, a strategy started to form. He fired off a few plasma shots, just to keep them busy for a few moments. "If I can get close enough I might be able to remotely sabotage their shuttle."

Seeing an opportunity as the military shuttle approached a gap between two large buildings, Zachary fired a smokescreen ahead of them and the two splinter cannons at the walls on either side. The projectiles struck, buildings being easier targets than shuttles, and threw debris into the path of the military shuttle, which was hopefully vieled in smoke. "Nice one, brothah!" Julian called out.

As the smoke cleared, the shuttle was nowhere to be seen. "UP! They're GOING UP!" Julian called, pointing at the top of a building, where the shuttle had chosen to completely shift its path to a vertical course. "AFTER IT! HURRY!" he cried as the shuttle cut over the top of the building and continued its path towards the base.

Zachary quickly determined another route. In going over the building, the military shuttle had wasted valuable time, so this was his chance to gain significant ground. He swerved to go around the building, banking steeply. Julian was tossed backward into Chief, and Yugeto was flung towards the side. "SHIT!" Yugeto cried out, but as the shuttle came to a stable position, the three returned to their original stances. But the maneouvre paid off, as the other shuttle was now much closer. Zachary pointed the plasma blaster at the other shuttle and fired a few blasts in the hope that one of them might hit.

"Just a little closer and I might be able to bring it down without shooting it," Zachary said. Julian nodded, "Full speed ahead then, brothah, we're nearly within range!" In the back, Yugeto raised his brows, "Hold up!" he exclaimed. He walked over to Zachary and gently placed his hand on his shoulder, "Keep on focusing on flying, I gotchu, man," he said as he began to establish a spirit link with the pilot. Julian quickly caught on and smiled, "Good thinking! Listen, Yugeto's going to give you a spirit boost, just relax and let it buff you up. You got this, brothah!" 

Sure enough, the spirt link caused a great rush of spirit to enter Zachary's own pool. The sudden influx of spirit gave Zachary a euphoric rush, but more importantly Kaa'is could sense the greater power that had been granted. [b][i]Try it now![/i][/b]

Zachary focussed on the other shuttle and, to his surprise, he was able to vaguely perceive its structure in his mind while it was still dozens of meters away. It wasn't much, but it was enough for his purposes. And with that structure, he could see exactly where to apply the minimum amount of force to bring down that shuttle. With more ease than he had ever done at a range, he moved vital metal components within that shuttle. He pulled apart the wiring in the controls. He dislodged the kinetic core directors. He jammed ailerons. He shunted the cores. The net effect was to bring the vital internal systems of the military shuttle into sudden disrepair and remove the ability to pilot the machine.

---

"FANG, I CAN'T, I CAN'T MO- THE CONTROLS ARE JAMMED! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!" The pilot of the Hunters' shuttle began panicking and flicking switches on and off in an attempt to restablish control of his vehicle. Fang frowned as she felt the shuttle jerk in air. Her eyes widened as she heard the engine whine and sputter. "Oh damn... we were so close too..."

The shuttle's left-most engine gave out first and the lack of thrust caused the shuttle to completely roll to the left, hitting a wall and spinning out until it tore through a weakened building. Completely decimating the walls both outside and inside the building, the shuttle created a gaping hole in the architecture, only to spin out once it exited the structure. It hit the ground hard and rolled a few times before it erupted into a mess of metal, sending out massive chunks of debris due to the sparked kinetic cores.

Julian cheered alongside Yugeto, and Chief grunted in disbelief. "HOLY HELL! YOU DID IT, ZACHARY!" Yugeto sighed in relief, "Move in, we need to see what's left, especially if the detonator was spared."

Zachary himself was on a high, the act of killing the machine producing almost as good a feeling as killing a person. Almost. He slowed down the shuttle and piloted it over towards the crash site and brought the shuttle to the ground a short yet safe distance away.

Julian took a deep breath and stood by the door. "Alright, we're gonna do a quick sweep. If there're any survivors... well... y'know...." he said with a nod. Yugeto nodded in response and Chief cracked his knuckles. "Open the doors, Z," Yugeto said as he began channeling his spirit throughout his body to warm himself up. With the flick of a switch the doors unlocked and they could be opened. Julian nodded once again and activated the door control, causing the large door to hiss as it opened. The three jumped out and Yugeto and Chief began cautiously walking towards the shuttle. Julian turned around and gave a small salute, "Watch the shuttle, it's a priority. If shit hits the fan, try to give us some support with the cannons. If it's too much, just head back to base." Zachary responded with a small salute of his own. "No problem, Julian." He looked to the controls and thought through the contingencies. If the trouble appeared with the three of them in the firing line, he'd be just as likely to hit them with the cannons as the enemy, but in that case the smokescreen might help too. [b][i]We've still got that extra spirit, too,[/i][/b] Kaa'is added.

With that, Julian regrouped with the other two and neared the crash site. Chief sniffed the air, "Hm. Blood." Yugeto felt a strange sense of relief, but kept his guard up. When they were mere feet away, a single bat flew out of the wreckage and past Yugeto's head, causing him to duck. At the same time, a hooded individual in black armor seemed to rise out of the ground. Julian held his hands to his sides and held Yugeto and Chief back, "SHIT! Ready yahselves!" he cried. Chief grit his teeth as he saw another large man of similar size emerge from the wreckage. He stood at around nine feet, only two feet under Chief's height. 

The brute held a mangled corpse in his hand. He was covered in cuts and bruises, but they healed almost instantly before everyone's eyes. "Lizard's dead. Blame it on the crash," he said monotonically. Chief roared at the man, feeling challenged. He brushed off Julian's arm and charged at him at full speed. The brute simply stood there, until Chief was within reach. Right before Chief could attack, however, a huge ball of fire shot out from the wreckage and crashed into the center of his torso, sending him flying backward, and then upward. As the fire engulfed his body, it flung him back downwards, causing him to crash in a fiery mess. He groaned in pain, having been able to coat himself in metal right before impact. Julian flinched at the whole scene and retreated a bit with Yugeto. 

"Ghost, what now?" came the voice of the man wielding fire. The first individual whose identity was concealed by a hood and mask spoke up: "Where are your men?!" 

Julian froze. Ghost shook his head and spoke once again, "We've seen your patrol routes multiple times! We have cameras EVERYWHERE! So tell me: WHERE. ARE. YOUR. MEN?!" Julian sighed, feeling at loss for plans. They weren't far from detonation range. He knew one of them had to have the device, and a chase would be futile. He would have to confront them. He closed his eyes and focused his spirit, causing a black smoke to form up around his feet and hands.

Ghost scoffed, "Ah... they're already mobile, hm? You're merely the stalling party..." He then turned to the other two. "Orc, Pyrus. Take these fools out." Pyrus nodded, "And you?"

Ghost looked at the bat that flew in circles above the group. "FANG! On me. We're going to finish what we started." Ghost pressed a button on his earpiece, "Nekros, the Golden Mercenaries are en route to the wall. That's all you. Take 'em out, they have no hosts."

Julian's eyes widened. He knew that there was no way he could chase the man named "Ghost" while he was occupied with Orc and Pyrus. He looked to Yugeto:

"TAKE THE SHUTTLE AND GET TO HECTOR ASAP! THEY'RE GOING TO BE ANNIHILATED IF YOU DON'T HELP THEM"

Yugeto hesitated. He didn't want to leave another ally behind. "I'll help you here, Zachary can-" Julian held up a hand, "WE DON'T HAVE THE TIME, HE WON'T MAKE IT ALONE! CALL UP HQ AND TELL THEM TO GET SQUAD ONE OUT HERE! WE NEED TO EVAC SECTOR ZERO RIGHT NOW!"

Zachary, who had been watching in terror as the Hunters emerged from the wreckage and the scene unfold, pressed the comms button and forwarded the message. "Sector Zero, you need to evacuate immediately. There is a serious bomb threat. Get Squad One out here immediately."

Pyrus rolled his neck and began walking forward, "Enough bantering, man," he said just as he let loose another fireball. Julian ran forward and leapt over the fireball, spinning before launching a condensed ball of black smoke. It erupted into a cloud of smog, which Julian quickly blended with. His voice echoed out of the smoke: 

"GO! NOW!"

Yugeto looked around frantically and then nodded before running back to the shuttle. As the doors opened, he took one more look back. [i]'Damnit, Locks, you better stay alive. That buddha was too damn good.'[/i] He then jumped on board and knocked on the cockpit door. "ZACH! We're headed out! Let's go, let's go!"

"I'm already on that," Zachary replied. The engines, already active, went to full power and lifted the shuttle off the ground.

Ghost sighed and stepped backwards before spinning and breaking out into a sprint, covering amazing distances with each bound. Fang followed suit and flew through the sky and into the broken windows of a nearby building. Zachary saw them go, flitting through the buildings, and knew that he would have no chance to shoot them with his shuttle. Instead, he turned the other way and flew off towards the Wall, where we would be able to get Yugeto to help the Mercs charging the Wall. He glanced over his shoulder at Yugeto. Whatever was waiting for the Mercs at the Wall didn't sound good, but the spirit powerhouse that was Yugeto and the artillery of this shuttle gave him a shred of confidence. He glanced down at the smoke-covered crash site for one last time before pushing down on the thrust and speeding off towards Hector's location.