A Difficult Beginning
From Betamountain.org
A Difficult Beginning
by AKK
"...leave the knife in place and try to cut off the head immideately with another one." The voice sounded harsh. The face of the new one showed no expression. 'Why is this necessary?' asked Niko herself. 'Why has he to teach us how to kill someone like him?'
"Remember: You won't have much time to react. The body regenerates at incredible speed. Nervous tracks will reconnect to the brain bypassing the blade. If mental access to the body is reestablished, an ST will simply stand up and finish his work. That meant: You'll die."
"What, if we just shoot you down?"
"It will take no effect, Ranger Hardford." Gooseman smiled grimly. "The BioDefense is trained to handle this. Except your weapon delivers an amount of energy great enough to desintegrate more than half of the body in less than a tenth second."
"Only ship cannons are that strong." said Fox.
"And I won't be outside the vessel, Sir."
"If BioDefense is active... if you are prepared to battle, a knife won't cut in."
The ST nodded. "You won't have a chance." Directly looking at Niko: "Maybe except you."
"Seems, he at least likes women, if nobody else." chuckled Doc.
"That's not the point. I don't have defenses against her powers. If they are strong enough... I can't tell for sure."
"So we have to bring you down before you start to attack us." The Captain summarized. "We have to separate brain from body by dividing the spinal marrow followed by a decapitation. Energy weapons won't be useful except of very strong ones not included in the standard equipment. Correct?" His face had an odd expression while he mustered the tall blonde man in front of them. He oathed by himself, that someone is making the start for his team so difficult. Nobody likes to tell his fundamental weaknesses to others, specially not a SuperTrooper. He sighed loudlessly after Gooses nodding. "Any other possibilities left?" He felt sorrow to ask. Not to end up this horror-show.
"Plasmafire(*) will do it, too." The answer came dryly. "'cause it can't be stopped by normal matter. I'm unable to produce magnetic fields strong enough to encapsule it."
"At least, he has his limits..." Docs voice clirred in the abruptly silent hall with the big silvery windows beneath the ceeling.
"Yes, I have!" Gooseman spun around, hissing at Doc. "And I am commanded to tell them to all of you." He growled with showed fangs. "But be sure, you are not going to need them. I don't want to be frosted like all the others." "Nobody of us asked for this, Gooseman." Zach assured calmly.
"I know." It took him a visible effort to calm down. Only icy coldness in his eyes remained as he managed a cynical grin. "At least I'm not told to give you practical exercises."
Behind one of the mirror-windows Senator Weiner turned to Cmdr. Walsh and the brain-unit of Prof. Negata: "You won. This time. But some day, he will fail, Walsh4. And then this whole thing is over, once and for all!" Leaving the room he he murmured to himself: "At least, he mentioned a way to kill them, I didn't know before."
"You both have a very dangerous enemy, Joseph." Negata snarled after Weiner left. "I wonder, why he so grimly wanted Goose in ice and you resigned." "Because we both know to much about something, he wants to bury." Walsh turned to the window. "Please stop asking, old friend." He looked down into the hall, watching the Series-5 Rangers leave to charge their implants for the first time...
(*) Plasma: the fourth state of matter aggregation, where electrons are separated from the molecule nuclei.