Super Soaker Central

"Hey, aren't we going?" Rick asked. Ed was walking towards the Skyline.

"Ed! Ed, come back!" Nat called.

The driver of the GT-R had crawled out holding his right hand, which looked as if it had been twisted. Half-scared, he stared up at Ed.

"I'm not going to hurt you, but I have this to say." Ed helped him up (he was sitting). "You can have the fastest car money can buy, but if you can't control it, it's useless."

The would-be persuer glared at Ed. "What do you mean, I can't control it?" he snapped.

Ed sighed. "Granted, you can drive it well, but you have a short fuse, and few people can drive well when they're angry."

The GT-R driver calmed down. "Can you?" he asked.

Ed just shrugged. "I dunno. Never tried."

He laughed. "We'll see each other again, but not through this damned war," he said, ripping off his blue armband. Taking out a penknife, he cut it in half and threw it on the floor.

Ed nodded and took out his radio. "D'you want me to get help for you?"

"No need." He whipped out his handphone and dialled. "Hey Tommy, I need ya to pick me up, mountain pass. Get Jane to bring her tow truck."

Ed hesitated, then asked, "Who are those guys?"

"My team. Street racing team. We'll have another race, if you're up to it," he said.

"Deal." Ed walked towards his 86, but heard the driver's voice. "Hey man, your name?"

"Ed," he called back.

"Nick. See ya around."

Ed waved and drove off to 5.

Forceuser and his squad, along with Bill, were waiting outside the mountain station. They sat out of sight watching for an hour and a half before Force decided to move. The militia would arrive soon and he wanted everything ready for them, but not so early that the Tempests would have a chance to regroup.

They moved silently up to the back entrance of the building. Slowly, he tried the door. It was locked. He gestured for Sophie. She pulled out a small metal tool and started wiggling it in the keyhole. Then there was a click and she pulled the door open. That was the end of the stealth bit, now came the butt-kicking bit.

Bill went in first, with his CPS 3000 with riot blast nozzle. The Tempests in the room behind only had a chance to gasp before they were hit by the tremendous riot blast. Force went in after Bill, his finger double tapping the trigger as he took down the targets. The second shot making sure the opponent was down.

The squad worked their way through the building, annihilating all who got in their way. They quickly got to where the warheads were stored. Force looked at Piranha, "Think you can blow this place?" Piranha grinned and replied, "Of course. It would be my pleasure."

Piranha set to work dismantling one of the warheads. While he did that, the others took up positions covering him in case backup came. Force was looking down one of the corridors when a reflection caught his eye. In one of the windows, he could the outline of a group of Tempests. "Hurry up, we've got company," he whispered to Piranha.

Force still had the water balloon launcher he took from Piranha, and he loaded it up. He aimed down the corridor. When the Tempests came round the corner, they were going to have a surprise. Stingray moved into a sniping position next to Forceuser.

Force saw a hand signal reflected in the window. He readied himself. Then, they came. The Tempests rushed round the corner. Simultaneously, Force and Stingray opened fire. The water balloon hit the first man and exploded. Force saw him go flying backwards in slow motion, taking out the people straight behind him. Stingray's first shot hit the right-hand man in the shoulder, spinning him. His next shot took him in the head, felling him.

The Tempests were mowed down in the confines of the corridor. Force and Stingray's precision shooting took out every last one of them. Just as the last Tempest hit the ground, Force heard Piranha behind him and looked round, "It's done. I've set it to go off in three minutes. We'd better get going." The squad regrouped and headed off at a run.

Any Tempest foolish enough to get in their way was taken out. As they got to the exit, Force spotted something. "You go and ready the ATVs," he told the others, "I'll be out in a second."

He turned towards the bases communication system. With a quick flick of a switch, he set it to broadcast to the whole base. He raised the microphone to his mouth, "This whole base is going to blow in a minute. I suggest you get out if you can." Then he turned and ran.

As he ran out to the waiting ATVs, Force signalled for everyone else to get going. He jumped on his ATV and checked his watch. Ten seconds. He revved the engine and headed off past the base to go out the other side. Tempests were running out the base in all directions. Force zoomed past and counted the seconds off in his head. Four, three, two, one, zero.

The initial explosion took out all the windows. The following explosions, however, were even bigger. Force felt searing heat on the back of his neck and the force of the blast threatened to throw him off the ATV. However, he kept going and was quickly out of danger.

In the sea, a short distance away from the island, Monsoon saw a huge explosion from up on the mountain. His radio buzzed, it was Forceuser, "Like the fireworks? All over the island now there should be revolts. You should have a relatively easy job." Force put the radio down and smiled. Now, he needed to get to 6 to pick up the Rebel I for Racer.

"Thanks man, I owe ya one" said Racer to the pilot, he got out of the plane and walked over to the exit, he stood outside the door waiting for five minutes, "This isn't getting anywhere, I must have miscalculated the flight." Racer walked over to a local car lot, he showed his militia badge, "Give me the fastest thing you got."

Racer then radioed to Forceuser; "Cancel my tank request. The flight got in early. Just...get back to the base in ten minutes, I will meet you there in a red Mitsubishi 3000GT. I have a plan..."

Monsoon and his crew got tired of waiting and got off the Titan and unlatched the cargo hold. Inside was another one of Monsoon's tanks that he designed at the old militia base at 2 but never actually made one.

It was massive and was able to accommodate all of his fifteen crew members. Ten were inside and each person could control one Douchenator water balloon launcher each. The remaining five either were in charge of the tank's communications or on the top with a CPS 2000.

"How about some travelling music as we battle our way to 2?" asked the first mate. "How about this one?" said Monsoon as he popped in a Rammstein CD into the tank's music player.

They stormed multiple small skirmishes between two small Tempest separatist groups along the dirt roads. "Look at all the damage the rebelling Tempests have created amongst themselves!" said one of the crew as he pointed to an almost completely demolished stone guard tower along the road.

The obliterator mounted on the tank was smaller than the one on the Titan, but still packed a punch. Monsoon and his crew had fun shooting at everything that wasn't of civilian property. They were getting close to 6 where the most recent militia base used to be. The base appeared to still be intact, but looked beaten up and war-torn. "This is where we should wait until we get the word to attack 2," said Monsoon. The crew drove the tank into the garage and they waited inside.

Toaster had radioed the militia on North Island with the coordinates of the ship, then inquired as to the situation. Hearing of the impending attack on South Island, he decided to help there too...but in his own roundabout way.

Grinning at Eyleascial, he explained his plan. Repeating it to the other members created a consensus. Confident in the idea, they headed back to North Island to pick up some 'necessities' for their assault. This included some decent weapons for Rae, and a whole whack of water balloons for the Geminis.

The Sabres set off for South Island in the Estoc, while they reviewed the plan.

Racer screeched his 3000GT into a powerslide and parked next to Monsoon's tank. He opened the door and looked behind him at the tank towering over his little sports car. "Wow, you guys are early, why you here?" asked Racer. "We just got tired of waiting," replied Monsoon.

"Forceuser and the team should be here any minute now," said Racer as he looked up the hill in front of him. He saw Forceuser and the rest cruising down the hill on ATVs. Racer checked his watch. "Finally you guys are here."

Force got off his ATV and walked over to Monsoon, "Where are the others?" "They're not here yet. We're going to wait for them and then attack 2," Monsoon replied. "OK. I'll keep myself busy while I'm waiting then."

Force went off into the old militia base and came back out with a pair of Douchenator water balloon launchers and attached them onto the ATV. He sent the rest of his squad to do the same. He had also managed to rig up an auto-pumping system by the time they saw the rest of the militia fleet approaching the port. Force looked at the others, "Looks like the wait is almost over."

While they were going through 6, Ed saw a militia guy run out and pointed him into the parking lot where Force, Racer and the rest of the militia were waiting. He parked beside the red Mitsubishi.

"Hey Force, anything new?"

"Unless you want to count kicking the Tempests outta here, no," Forceuser replied with mock sarcasm. Ed rolled his eyes, then popped the 86's boot to reveal the salvaged warhead.

"Where'd you get that?" Monsoon asked, impressed.

Ed grinned. "Nicked it." He started to examine the 3000GT. "V6 twin-turbo engine, 320 hp stock. Full-time AWD." He opened the driver's door. "Cruise control, 6-speed tranny, and one heck of an interior." Sure enough, the leather bucket seats were comfortable enough to be on a luxury car. The dashboard was flawlessly curvy and the steering wheel looked smooth.

Then the bonnet popped up. "And there it is, the ECU that's running it all. ABS, Traction Control, Keyless entry, 4-wheel-steering and Active Aero technology."

"Active Aero, it controls the spoiler and the front air dam depending on how fast you're going, right?" Racer said.

"Yep, so as to increase downforce when needed. Something like the 911's rear spoiler. The downside is, while adding all this tech to the car, they also added weight, but I don't think it matters that much unless you're thinking of tackling mountain passes and the like," Ed explained while pressing the bonnet down. "BTW, the name for it outside the States is 'GTO'."

Then he saw the ATV that Forceuser was working on. "Can you lemme do that on my 86?"

"I don't think there's going to be time for that," Force replied, "The rest of the fleet is just arriving. If you pick up the right parts from the warehouse then you might be able to do it on the move. It's up to you." "OK," Ed replied.

Forceuser gathered everyone present. "My squad and I are going to the port on the ATVs to organise the rest of the militia. I suggest some of you remain here, and some scout out ahead. I'll leave it to you to decide." Force left them talking and jumped onto his ATV. With his squad following, he set off to meet up with the army.

Spinner and the air force had successfully repelled the Tempest air strike. Six enemy planes had been shot down and their pilots taken prisoner.

The attack force was assembling at 5. Air cover was needed, so Spinner set for a bombing raid of 6 with a formation of five other planes. En route to 6, however, ack-ack fire rather changed Spinner's immediate plans... in other words, a lucky shot hit the Mosquito, and they had to bail out...

Knowing that the assault wouldn't start for a while, Toaster was keeping busy in the workshop. He had successfully modded a Monster to be a 'shotgun', with a colossus mod and a reinforcement, as well as the addition of a nozzle that was as big around as the post-trigger valve tubing, for maximum output with power.

He was now working on modding a pair of MD-3000s with some 'special features' of his design. He decided that Eyleascial would like these, so he finished up, and put them aside. Then he got to work on the bike.

Eyleascial had put her bike in his trust to add some extras to make it battle worthy. He began by adding some semi-auto water balloon launchers on either side. They were essentially a Gemini that had been divided by the motorcycle. Then, he gave it some shielding in the form of a windscreen and some modified 'riot shields' attached to the sides of the water balloon launchers. He then gave the bike the icing on the cake, a 'tank buster' minelayer.

Using Cs mines, it plopped the devices in the path of oncoming enemy tanks. When the tank rolled over it, the mine would detonate into the underbelly and/or the tracks, hopefully destroying it.

He loaded it with five mines. He stood back to look at his work. The bike was fearsome, but still maintained aesthetic flair. He also had made it easy to revert to the original bike by making the additions merely 'clip-ons', not integrated into the bike itself any farther than a chain tap for the water balloon launcher’s air pump.

Later, presenting Eyleascial with her armaments, he fully briefed her on the operation of the new features, and warned her of their limitations. She seemed thrilled with the changes.

Having added the minelayer on the bike gave Toaster the idea to do something similar for the Armadillo. He devised a method of launching the Cs mines with accuracy, and mounted it on the front of the vehicle, between the cornered Geminis. Monkey would be the one working it, he figured.

As well, he put a fresh coat of paint on the Armadillo, stylishly embossing the letters SABRES on the hull of the ship. He also spray painted an armadillo onto the driver and passenger doors of the cab. Satisfied that his work was done, Toaster set off to collect his crew, to leave and join the assault.

Forceuser was overseeing the unloading of troops and tanks from the port. Due to the sheer number of them, it was taking a long time. To make sure there was enough space for them to disembark, Force was sending them in small groups to 6.

Eventually, they were all onto dry land. Force watched as the last vehicle headed off down the road to 6. Then he revved up his ATV and followed after them.

Toaster sat at the helm of the Estoc, and stared at his target. There didn't seem to be much Tempest activity at the docks, even though the ferry port was one of the main accesses to South Island. He smiled to himself at this. Obviously, they didn't expect an infiltration from this end of the island, as the militia had landed on the opposite side at 5. That just meant it made his job easier.

He was looking through his spotting scope when he caught a glimpse of one of the vehicles that the Tempests had offloaded from the Hercs. It seemed so long ago, although it had only been a week or two since the Sabres joined the fray. Returning his thoughts to the enemy vehicle, he realised that it would drastically complicate things.

Signalling to Wontwood, who manned the Broadsword, he asked if the vehicle could be hit. It would eliminate the element of surprise, but it would prevent them from being ripped to shreds by the cannon the vehicle carried.

From past experience, he knew that it packed enough power to rival the Obliterator on the militia's Titan, or possibly the Broadsword itself. He knew that the Armadillo, despite its armour, could not take the pounding that would be delivered by that gun.

Wontwood signalled that they needed to get closer, so Toaster turned on one of the Estoc's triad powerplants and slowly brought them in, keeping the noise to a minimum. When he knew they were within range, he signalled to Wontwood.

The boat pitched backward with the recoil of their mighty weapon. Whipping through the air, the shell impacted the vehicle with such force that the shell crumpled inward, and the cannon barrel was dismembered from the turret.

Now on high alert, the Tempests attempted to locate the source of the attack.

Toaster was already one step ahead of them, however. He drove the Estoc as far in as he dared, dropped anchor, and locked the controls. He and Bukan clambered aboard the Armadillo, and the amphibious vehicle backed out of the Knuckleguard, splashing into the water. Revving the vehicle, he proceeded towards the boat launch, with the militia plastering any hostiles they could. When the Armadillo left the water, it gained a great advantage of mobility, and soon it was zipping around the port, blowing Tempests over.

The Sabres now controlled 3. After locking the Tempests in a nearby bunker that the former occupying force had installed, the Sabres set up a blockade, and began to recover supplies for use in the upcoming assault.

Except Toaster and Monkey. They examined the Tempest super-tank, or what remained of it. Luckily there hadn't been anyone inside. The vehicle was totalled. But what interested the duo was the gun. Thankfully, the barrel was the only real casualty in respect to the weapon. It appeared to be based on similar technology to the Obliterator, at least in the fact that it was a large superpowered water balloon launcher.

Toaster took a look at the pressure system in particular. It appeared that the gun was actually less powerful than he'd remembered. However, the last time he'd encountered one of these guns, all he'd had between him and it was a reinforced riot shield.

Looking for weaknesses, he found that the gun relied on a single, small air intake that fed directly to the pump. It appeared that if the hole could be plugged, the gun could not fire until the intake was cleared.

Hurrying back to the Armadillo, he picked up the radio, meaning to inform the militia of this defect. However, using the radio would also mean that the Tempests would learn of the Sabres' presence on South Island, and would attempt to retake 3. He knew that would help the militia forces on the other side of the island, but they'd only succeeded in taking the port because it was poorly guarded. Putting the radio back down, he regretted his choice, but stuck with it, because it would benefit them all in the long run.

Monkey was assigned to listen to the radio for militia chatter. He would alert them if the assault on 2 began. Satisfied that he'd won for now, Toaster went looking for Eyleascial.

Duxburian's forces had finished resting and gathering new supplies. He decided to return to the South Island for an attack, figuring that he would meet up with one of the other militia commanders eventually. The group climbed back through the mountains and into the planes. They then took off, arriving over the South Island at night. The group landed at a surprisingly unguarded airport. They took out their guns and slipped away down the road towards heavy Tempest fortifications at what appeared to be the town of 2. Taking cover behind a thick grove of trees, Duxburian instructed the 30 something people with him to take out their Douchenator water balloon launcher's to start a surprise bombardment.

Several Tempest guards were talking amongst themselves, bored standing on the wall for hours watching for enemies that weren't coming. Suddenly, they heard a voice yell "FIRE!" They ducked for cover as 30 Douchenators began firing en masse. A few dozen water balloon launcher turrets were taken out or damaged before leaders were able to regain command of their troops and put up a defence.

Tempests began firing back, but they could not see where Duxburian and his men were hiding, as the forest was dense and the group had spread out. The cover of darkness also hid incoming water balloons, so the Tempests often had no time to shield themselves.

Duxburian had brought along a modified Havoc water balloon launcher, this was strong enough to punch holes in the wall and cause more chaos. The first shot blew away three turrets which happened to be near each other on the wall. The second shot missed the top of the wall but knocked some Tempest reinforcements running towards the wall right off their feet.

The small militia group continued the bombardment throughout the night. They were able to trick Tempest commanders into thinking a much larger force was assaulting the walls due to the good coordination of the bombardment and the confusion created by each well-placed shot. However, dawn would come upon them in a few hours, and Duxburian knew that they could not remain there without revealing how small the group really was...

"Ah, nothing like a sunset run in a sports car..." said Racer from the top of a hill, he heard some people shouting in the distance, he headed down the long hill with his water balloon launcher, XP 75 and CPS 1500 in his 3000GT to check it out...

Forceuser met up with Monsoon back at 6. The whole militia army was now assembled there. Monsoon told Force that the scouts had reported there was a large Tempest force at 7. "OK, I'm going to go round the other side of the mountain with my squad on ATVs. We'll go through 1 and then check out things at 2. You lead the rest of the army to attack 7," Force explained to Monsoon. Then he got on his ATV and set off.

It didn't take long to get to 1. Force was amazed at the lack of Tempest resistance. The few Tempests that did try and attack were easily repelled. When they got to 2, it was the early hours of the morning.

On the approach up the road, Force heard sounds of fighting. He could just make out in the darkness water balloons being launched from the trees. "A coordinated water balloon attack? That's gotta be Dux," he thought. He pulled off of the road and parked his ATV.

Force approached them on foot. He headed in the direction he thought the shots were coming from. As he neared them, he heard the faint sounds of people sneaking behind him. Then he felt a gun in the back of his head. "Who are you?" one of the militia asked. "Colonel Forceuser," Force replied and then span round pushing the gun barrel out of the way, "I presume Colonel Duxburian is with you." The militiaman was temporarily shocked, "Um...yes. I'm sorry about that. I'll take you to him."

Force was led to Duxburian. "Hey Dux!" "Forceuser, it's good to see you! Is the rest of the army with you?" "No, they are going through 7. I don't think they'll be here until later this morning. I've got four people with me and we're all on ATVs armed with dual Douchenators." "Ah. I only have 30 men with me. It's going to be dawn soon, and when that happens the Tempests will find out how low in numbers we are..."

Monsoon rounded up the militia and assigned them all to a tank or armed vehicle. "We are going to storm through 7, and once that's done we'll finish the job and cleanse 2 of all enemy activity," said Monsoon. The militia all hopped into their vehicles and started for 7.

Racer got back to the base in 6 for a quick vehicle change, he parked the 3000GT next to his old Rebel I, he took out the old remote starter and opened the lock on the door, he got in and revved the engine to see if it still worked. It did. Racer then headed around to the back of the building to fill some balloons. He loaded the balloons in to the rapid-fire water balloon launchers and the main CPS cannon. He soon took off for the noise...

After getting permission from the cranky old mech ("Make sure you ain't ruining me son's ride," he had grumpily warned Ed), they had integrated the water balloon launcher system used on Forceuser's ATV with his 86. Instead of being mounted proudly on the bonnet, however, the water balloon launchers were hidden in the front quarterpanels, popping out when activated. He had also added a pair of water cannons just below the Douchenators and in the rear quarterpanels.

When Ed and Nat had finished, there were almost no telltale signs of the added weapons. As Ed had worried about the extra weight, they had also made the entire system easily detachable, and Ed had coaxed out more power from the engine and stiffened out the chassis.

"Where's Rick?" Ed asked, wiping his hands free of engine oil.

"Dunno, he disappeared when you were checkin' out Racer's GTO."

"Dammit, he'd better not be screwing around."

"He'll turn up, he usually does." Nat faced him. "What's up with you? You can be so tensed-up with the smallest things."

Ed just shrugged. "I really dunno why. I see things being screwed up and my temper just shoots for the moon."

Nat sighed. "So bloody intense, and no one to help ya cool off when you need it..." She was getting rather close to him.

"It's me."

Her hands were already around Ed. "You're crazy."

"And what about you? Learning how to seduce, playing around with feelings-you're quite the dangerous young woman, if you didn't notice," Ed remarked dryly, but his eyes had a spark of amusement.

"It's a tough world, but there are soft areas." She was almost too close to him now.

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

She kissed him, softly, tenderly, but Ed could sense the fiery passion she was struggling to hold back. "One's in front of me," she whispered when their lips parted.

A spare radio on the shelf crackled. "Monsoon here, we're nearly at 7."

"Showtime," Ed murmured in Nat's ear.

"What about Rick?"

"We'll leave a note."

They had a change of clothes and drove off to where the action was.

Toaster was getting bored waiting for the attack to come. He was sitting, listening to the radio. The militia was keeping the chatter to a minimum, which was smart, but it was so damned boring!

Looking over at the other tables in the little diner, he saw Wontwood and Bukan debating over some computer game, and Monkey was trying to coax Jeff into a Yu-gi-oh game. Eyleascial wasn't there, as she was doing a patrol route. "Probably wanted to test out her bike," Toaster thought.

He returned to eavesdropping on the guys. Bukan, as usual, was getting louder and louder in his debates. He looked close to hitting Wontwood as he paced. That wasn't anything out of the ordinary however. What was unusual was that Monkey got in on the argument. He normally didn't involve himself in game discussions.

Toaster was grinning at the escalating dispute. At least this was back to normal. This fight had taken a lot out of the Sabres, and they all missed people back home. Bukan probably only missed his computer.

Toaster perked up when he heard a mention of an assault on 7. He pulled out a map and saw that they would probably proceed to assault 2 afterwards, which was ideal. The only flaw he saw in the plan was that there would be the possibility of an assault from the rear, as he'd heard no inkling of an attack on the cave base.

Firing himself up, he began listening more attentively, and began to write out a report that he'd broadcast after he heard news on the siege of 7.

When the majority of the militia arrived at 7, with air force support to back up the almost countless amount of troops and the vast vanguard of armoured vehicles, the place looked as though a bomb had hit it. Nearly every building had a chunk taken out of it, and there were barrels lit on fire in the streets.

The Tempest situation was degrading rapidly for them. Small groups of Tempests ran across the roads and from building to building, scavenging whatever they could find.

"I sure hope the locals are okay," said Monsoon's first mate. "I've heard that they were kicked off of the island and all took a ferry to the mainland," Monsoon responded.

The gargantuan militia force advanced through the town, filling streets and buildings as they cleansed the area of potential danger. They eventually came up to the town hall. This would undoubtedly be home to one of the larger rogue Tempest groups.

A squad of well-armed troops appeared from the two giant heavy doors and formed in a "c" formation, partially curving around the building. One of them stepped forward. "Greetings. I guess you are the oh-so prosperous militia that we were fighting against before the HQ blew up. I suppose that was your doing, to?" he asked.

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