It's A Jungle Out There
By Jelle (CD)
Part Eight
Mercy’s airplane had took off and they were safely in the air now, away
from Saudi Arabia and one of it’s dark princes. Mercy didn’t understand
why the flight wasn’t postponed because she triggered the metal detector,
but guessed the salamander prince caused the necessary confusion to make the
airport workers mistake identities and they arrested the Saudi prince for weapon
possession while she herself was just as guilty. And even if their workers insisted
on checking over Mercy, she’d never allow them to take her knife away.
She’d rather pay a fine than hand it over. While weaponry in airplanes
was taboo, Mercy was a taboo breaker. The world is a dangerous place, and Mercy
had to play lifeguard for herself and Philip.
“How’s your leg?” Philip inquired, looking up from his comic
book.
“Phil, don’t be so concerned about me. You’ve asked it every
minute now.”
“Okay, I’ll stop,” He stated and read on before looking up again
and asking “How’s your leg now?”
“I said, stop asking.”
“You said to stop asking it every minute. I’m now asking it every
half minute,” Philip proclaimed.
Mercy sighed deeply.
“I know, it’s only thirty seconds but in the marathon you’ll
miss gold,” Philip pressed defensively.
“I told you, that steward bandaged my leg and the wound is cleaned. There’s
nothing to worry about. Don’t bother me for the rest of the flight, I’m
going to sleep some more. And if you wake me up before we’ve reached New
York you’re in trouble,” She warned, yawned and fell asleep.
Philip decided not to bother her anymore and took out a rodent sized disc player
to listen some relaxing music.
Alex entered the storage building in panic and ran up to the two Nutcrackers.
“My liberators arrived and they beat those smugglers. Now’s our chance
to escape!” he declared proudly and freed Steve and Flora with the key
he snagged from Sergei’s office.
The trio quickly ran to the exit, Alex leading the way. When he left the warehouse
however, he froze. Alexander looked fearfully at the rifle that was pointed
at him by an American chipmunk in a bomber jacket and fedora.
“You don’t happen to be in possession of information that helps us
destroy this place do you?” The other chipmunk asked while keeping his
weapon pointed at Alex.
“You don’t understand sir! I’m a deserter, I have no will to
fight this battle! Please don’t shoot!”
“Chip don’t! He’s a good guy!” A voice called out to the
armed chipmunk that was familiar to him.
“Flora and Steve? You here?” Chip asked as he lowered the dart rifle.
“These smugglers took us prisoner when they raided the hospital we were
at. Alex here is not part of them out of free will. He’s willing to surrender
to the BATS when given the chance,” Flora explained quickly.
“That’s right, so please spare my life now. I never wanted to lose
my life in this war simply because I made a mistake somewhere,” Alex pressed
apologetically.
“If you tell us where to find the explosives depot, we’ll bring you
back to civilization,” Chip offered.
“Fair enough, it’s over there!” Alex agreed and turned around,
pointing to a nearby facility.
“Thanks, let’s go guys!” he called out to the other Rangers but
stopped dead in his tracks after he rounded the corner.
“Well, well, if it isn’t little Chip Maplewood. Nice to meet you again.”
Boris “Bowler” greeted with a bazooka pointed at the chipmunk detective.
Chip was shocked to see the rocket launcher the rat carried, but just couldn’t
help but remark, “So they recruited even you. These people must be desperate
and paranoid.”
“Ghrrl, you’ll pay for that insult!” the rat snarled and fired
his weapon.
Chip quickly dived for the floor and the missile passed right over his head
and hit a stack of barrels that exploded, setting off a domino effect of exploding
barrels and crates which ended at the base of a huge building with large smoke
pipes protruding from the roof.
“No!” Boris screamed, dropped his weapon and ran toward Chip, lifted
him off the ground and shook him furiously. “Look what you did! This is
your fault!”
“S-should I have stood my ground and gotten blown to pieces?” he managed.
“Idiot! That’s the power plant that supplied our base with power!
It’s damaged beyond repair!”
“Thanks, you just made our mission a lot easier,” Chip declared proudly,
hoping to make the rat feel even worse about his action.
“You don’t understand the danger of the situation do you!? When that
thing blows, this place will be wiped out, you and me included!” Boris
insisted desperately.
Monty decided enough was enough and tapped the rat’s shoulder, then punched
his face when he turned around. “That would be enough mate.” He stated
as Boris dropped Chip, a black eye forming where Monty’s fist hit.
“Don’t panic, I know what to do!” Alexander declared, trying
to keep everyone’s cool “This place has a couple of submarines. I
suppose we can ‘borrow’ a few. Underwater we’re safe from the
explosion and can escape without anyone chasing us.”
“Sounds like a plan. Show us were we can find this sub pen,” Steve
asked.
“It’s not to far, and with all the confusion there probably won’t
be anyone guarding the place.”
“We’d better tell Pèpe to evacuate the BATS soldiers or they’ll
get caught in the blast,” Chip warned and took Gadget’s radio and
ordered the captain to take every unit away from the smuggler base. “Now
take us there!” Chip ordered when he finished.
“Da!” Alex acknowledged and saluted before leading the way, leaving
Boris behind to panic.
“Here we are” Alexander stated as he led the Rangers over to a submarine
“This is the smugglers’ version of the 945 Sierra class Nuclear Submarine.
Or “Barrakuda” as the Russians call it,” Alex declared proudly.
“You mean to say Russia has these as well?” Dale asked, hoping his
fellow rodents across the world didn’t turn to mass destruction as well.
“This ship was made in Russia!” Alex corrected, not realizing that
the Rangers disliked violence and Dale was horrified instead of bewildered.
“It’s got a huge amount of firepower and when submerged, it can reach
a maximum speed of 36 knots.”
“That ought to shake of a couple o’ ships,” Monty mused before
noticing something “Lad, what about those other subs here?”
“Those are scaled down versions of the Typhoon and Hai Lung. They are inferior
to the Barrakuda, so we’d better leave them. Now get on board, I learned
a few things about subs while I was staged in Vladivostok.” Alexander advised
as he led the Rangers inside and to the bridge of the Sierra 945.
With the help of Gadget, Alex and radio assistance of a BATS girl named “Crazy
Mina” the Rangers managed to move the giant hulk of steel out of the smuggler
sub pen. They set course for the BATS encampment, their mission completed.
With the chaos that ensued after the destruction of the reactor core, Sergei
had a hard time organizing the rest of the base. With the help of Boris he managed
to calm enough people and get them aboard the submarines to evacuate. To his
dismay he noticed both Alexander and the Sierra 945 were missing, and a large
amount of his employer’s subjects had been captured by the BATS. Just when
he thought things couldn’t get any worse, Boris reported.
“Comrade, we found the missing Barrakuda on the sonar. It seems the vehicle
thieves aren’t familiar with submarines; it’s not cruising at maximum
speed, it’s not running silent and it’s currently surfaced.”
Boris informed his old friend “Should we take them out?”
“Whether we are dealing with BATS here or just cowards who thought it best
to flee and abandon us, we should get revenge. Do we have any weapons operational?”
Sergei inquired as he got up and made his way over to the bridge, his old rival
following.
“Torpedoes armed. Give them the word and they’ll fire.”
“Fine, then sink those fools! Nobody takes our ships unpunished!”
Sergei ordered one of henchmen on the bridge “Torpedoes away!” He
shouted as two of the ship’s torpedoes were fired at the Sierra 945.
Inside the Barrakuda the Rescue Rangers and their friends noticed two splashes
right next to the sub they were in. Alex immediately checked the sonar to see
his fears were for good reason, they were being followed by another submarine,
probably one of the Typhoons they left behind.
“Miss Hackwrench, we should dive immediately, we’re being followed
by those smugglers that survived!”
“What do we do now?” Chip asked worriedly “Do you suppose this
ship can hold out against another one in combat?”
“Probably, but before we’ve turned to face them the other sub has
probably closed enough on us to fire another round of torpedoes that will hit.
If we dive and increase our speed we can simply outrun their ship, the Typhoons
only go 27 knots submerged, because it’s operating under a set of steam
turbines and a pressurized water reactor. And we’re running under nuclear
power. And that’s another reason to retreat. If they manage to damage our
submarine and sink us that would create an environmental disaster. I don’t
need to tell you what that means,” Alex explained quickly as he adjusted
a few things.
“I see, I suppose that escape is the best course of action,” Chip
agreed and nodded.
“You fools, you missed them!” Sergei screamed furiously.
“The distance was too great to get an accurate shot, and this equipment
was designed by a bunch of commies not to mention,” the weapons officer
apologized, not that it helped.
“What’s wrong with our systems? At least we produce by masses, we
can topple you stinking Americans easily when it comes to quantity!” Sergei
retorted angrily.
“May I inform you that I’m a born and bred Greek? And that you filthy
reds have no idea what ‘reliable’ means?” The officer countered,
which made Sergei even more hateful.
As the two continued their debate about capitalism and communism, Boris looked
worriedly as the other sub disappeared in the dark and mysterious blackness
of the sea.