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Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: June 19th, 2012, 10:26 am
by Sakura
I always read the pdf when it's updated :shy:

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: June 26th, 2012, 6:48 am
by oldwrench
The battle is heating up, and things aren't going exactly according to plan. Who is going to get the first shot, Rydia or colonel Hellwind? I's Roy going to take the control room, or will the Red Faction hold them off? If Roy's forces take the control room, will he be in time with the cannons to save Rachel? What about Georgianna and all those mechs, how can the few mechs from the Krikav hope to survive that battle? Hang on, things are getting bumpy.

Chapter 98

General Parker looked at the timer for what seemed to be the thousandth time. Six and a half minutes yet till they dropped into normal space. He’d had his navigator cut the safety margin as close as he could. They would be dropping out deep in the star’s gravity well and much nearer the planet than the navigator was comfortable with. He knew the consequences if there was an error of a thousandth of a point in the calculations. The ruined planet of Cyndra II was a graphic reminder with its two super volcanoes where a ship had punched through the planet.

Rose hesitated, Arisa’s argument played through her head. She shook her head, that was the enemy out there, she started to pull the trigger. Again Rose took her finger off the trigger. She swore, a cargo shuttle wasn’t even armed. Even if it reported that the Krikav was coming, it was too late, the attack was already supposed to be starting. Rose saw Louis and Megumi coming alongside her. She turned toward the enemy base and raced off at full thrust.

Colonel Hellwind stared at the main battle screen as the huge mech swung its gun into firing position. “Target acquired, locked on,” Yuki informed him. Daniel almost hated to destroy the enemy machine. It was fascinating. How did they manage to create such a monster……… But, he couldn’t hesitate, that thing could destroy his ship, his command, he had to defend his command. “Fire,” he ordered.

Rydia was shaking from fright. All she could see was that big rail gun on the ship pointed straight at her. Atropos swung its main cannon into position and Rydia grabbed it and swung it toward the enemy. She tried to aim at the ship through tear blurred eyes. She didn’t want to do this, she didn’t want to be a killer, but she couldn’t hesitate, she didn’t want to die. Rydia pulled the trigger.

Megumi saw Rose land in front of her and immediately attack an enemy mech with her two sabers. She landed and Louis landed a short ways in front of her. Megumi drew her own saber then stopped in horror as Louis’ mech exploded into pieces. She stared, frozen, the top half of the mech was gone and the bottom slowly crumpled to the ground. Suddenly Megumi’s mech was slammed sideways, and she staggered to keep her balance.

“Get your head in this fight or you’re going to get killed.” Rose yelled at her as she slashed at the Firefly that was attacking Megumi.

“Hey Roy, we found the armory,” Burt yelled as he came running up carrying a machine gun.
“Good, we finally got a break,” Roy answered. “Take these men and get them weapons then take them up to the point group. They’re looking for some payback, and we need to take that control room, fast.”

Edward’s head was spinning. He was being assaulted by bad news from all sides. Rydia was gone and wasn’t answering her com. The remote cannons had failed. His men were being driven back in the tunnels. Soon the attackers would be at the control room door. He backed to a side door, he had to get out, had to make it to his escape ship. The base was going to be lost, even if his mechs won, what could he do if the enemy took over the mountain base? To hell with them. To hell with their plans. He’d set off their nukes, started their war, he wasn’t about to die for them too. Edward slipped out of the room.

Rydia pulled the trigger again…… and again. “No, No, No!” She cried. “You have to stop them!” Through her tears she saw the red flashing warning lights. “Firing control to the power gun has been lost.” Atropos told her.

“FIRE!” Colonel Hellwind yelled for the second time as his hands tightened on the edge of the console.

“Power to the main cannon has been lost, switching to backup power’” Yuki emotionlessly informed him. Seconds later she informed him, “backup power has also been disconnected.”

Daniel knew they were dead, there wouldn’t be time to find the fault and repair the cannon, but he gave the order anyway. “Get the techs to check the cables, they must have been damaged when we were hit.”

“That isn’t it, sir,” Yuki replied. “The power was shut off at the main switch, in the power control center. I do not get any response from the techs there.”

Aiden jumped up from the tactical station and ran toward the door. He had a bad feeling about this. That cannon had power only moments ago, someone had to have shut it down, someone who wanted them to lose.

Georgianna turned from the Thunderbird that she’d disabled and faced two more of the enemy mechs. She swore loudly as she saw three more come out of their mountain hangar. Where were they getting all these mechs? There couldn’t have been that many on the Ticonderoga. At least, they weren’t taking fire from the remote cannons. The tanks weren’t too effective against a fast moving mech, with their low rate of fire. Damn, where was Crichton? She checked her battle display, good, he was still behind her, well, almost behind her. At least her back was partly covered. She saw the three mechs from the Krikav come in across the field. It was about time, she and John couldn’t make it alone. She almost screamed in frustration when a lucky shot from a tank took out Louis. Where was Roy with his promise of support from those cannons?

Johanna looked on in disbelief, while the enemy mech was concentrating on the Krikav, she had moved up quickly and fired a maximum power shot with her beam rifle, the shot had done absolutely nothing. That mech must have armor like a ship’s hull.

Rydia didn’t know what to do. How could her cannon not be working? She’d checked it just before the escape. Suddenly she saw another alarm light up. “Attack, seventy three degrees right, twenty two degrees declination, beam weapon, eighteen percent weakening of hull armor.” Atropos informed her. Rydia was frantic, an attack, someone else was attacking, what was she supposed to do? All these controls, all the things they had added, she wasn’t a military pilot she didn’t know how to use them. Rydia was almost too frightened to think. Her shield! Yes, she had to swing the shield on her left arm to block that beam weapon. Rydia slammed the cannon back into storage and swung her arm shield around, but, halfway around, something slammed into the shield, the force pushed her backward. The center of the shield glowed red from the impact. “Attack from directly ahead inclination eight degrees, rail gun, shield damaged.” Atropos told her. “The shield cannot stop another hit in the same spot.”

Ben chambered another round, he didn’t understand why the colonel hadn’t fired the Krikav’s rail gun, but it didn’t matter, he’d keep hitting that thing till he broke it. Charged and ready Ben centered his targeting on the crater he’d made in that big shield and put his finger on the trigger.

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: July 5th, 2012, 7:29 am
by oldwrench
The battle is raging for control of Mar Sara, and perhaps control of the empire. Will any of the pilots survive. Perhaps they can destroy that giant and the Krikav can make it to the base in time to tip the battle in their favor. Things are hanging in the balance right now. Just a bit of a push could send it either direction. Stay tuned for more action.

Chapter 99

Chad fought through the darkness and red haze of pain. He couldn’t see, black blots obscured his vision. He gritted his teeth against the pain as he reached up for his helmet. His right arm was broken and he could barely breathe with the pain from his ribs. He tried to take shallow breaths, and calm down. Chad pushed his helmet off with his left hand, he could see again, the screen on the helmet had been ruined. “Ghost, damage report,” he called out.

“Power system out, running on back-up power,” Ghost told him, “hydraulic system damaged, operating on secondary. Cloaking inoperative, sixty two percent of sensors damaged……… “

“Just put the list on the main console,” Chad ordered. “What about the com, can we transmit?”

“Com system operative, range limited to one point one three k due to antenna damage,” Ghost informed him.

“Damn, we have to get to the base, with that short of com range, I’ll have to be at the base to have any hope of stopping their mechs.” Chad groaned as he tried to pull and reset the main power breakers. It didn’t help, there was no power, the repaired power board must have broken again. With the power gone, the thrusters would be out. They probably were bent and unusable anyway. He had to do something, he had to get up the mountain, maybe he could get a signal out. Chad yelled as he tried to stand up, his right ankle was either sprained or broken.

“Chad, you’re injured!” Ghost called out.

“No sh** Sherlock,” Chad growled through gritted teeth, “what was your first clue?”

“Your vocal tone,” Ghost answered, “without your flight suit I am unable to monitor your vital….”

“Alright, forget it,” chad groaned, “we have to get to the base. I have to stop those mechs, or our pilots are going to die.”

“Damage to systems will make that impossible.” Ghost informed him.


Ben stopped and let go of the trigger as a cargo shuttle pulled up right in front of his rail gun. He tried to move to the side but the shuttle moved with him. “Ben, she’s not the enemy, she isn’t a fighter, just let her go. “ He heard in his com unit. “Captain! Is that you?” Ben asked.

Dominic switched his com to Rydia’s channel. “Get out of here, Rydia, get to your ship. I’ll take care of things here.” He switched the com back to the Krikav’s battle channel. He was glad they hadn’t changed the code. “Ya, it’s me Ben. I have something that you have to get to the right people in the EDF. I’m sure colonel Hellwind will know what to do with it. Open your cockpit and I’ll throw it to you.”

Ben opened his mech cockpit as Dominic edged the shuttle closer. Dominic opened the hatch on the side of the cockpit and leaned out. He took the small case out of his pocket and tossed it to Ben. “That’s a memory card, it explains a lot of what’s going on.” Dominic yelled to Ben.

“Why don’t you give it to the colonel yourself?” Ben called out.

“Can’t,” Dominic yelled back, “I gotta keep that thing from ending up in the wrong hands. Take care Bullseye.” Dominic closed the hatch and moved away accelerating after the fleeing mech.


Colonel Hellwind hit the com button, ready to order Dominic to return to the ship, when the Krikav lurched to the right and dropped nose down. “Power has been cut to number three inertial damper,” Yuki called out. Daniel braced himself as the ship leveled out. Yuki was fighting to compensate for the loss of the gravity cancelling of the inertial damper. She wouldn’t be able to keep the ship up, they were going down. He just hoped she could find a soft place to crash land. He ordered the shuttle with the marines to launch and for the rest to brace for impact. “Bullseye, Johanna, get to the Red Faction base. Johanna, you’re in command until I can get there.” He called on the com. If I can get there, he thought. If they lost another of the dampers, they would turn over and drop like a stone.


The addition of the crew and pilots from the Ticonderoga and the weapons they’d found were the lever Roy needed to break through. The EDF men had a score to settle, they moved fast and hard. Once past the guards in the corridors, they found the men in the control room didn’t put up any resistance. Once inside, he ordered his men to secure the com and the remote guns.

Rachel moved a bit farther behind the large rock as more of it shattered from a hit by the tank’s rail gun. She keyed her com, answering Roy’s call. “There’s a lot more than the six tanks you told us out here. We’re getting torn up, there isn’t anywhere left to hide. Damn it, Roy, you’ve got to take out those tanks.”

Roy turned a worried look to the men at the remote gun console. “Get those guns on line, we have to take out the tanks before we lose our whole group.”

“They’re dead,” the man at the console told him. “There’s no response from the guns, I’ve got warning lights all over the place. They must have shut the guns down.”

Roy turned an angry look toward the Red faction prisoners. They shied back, except for one who glared at Roy. “The guns were out before you got in here or we’d have destroyed those mechs of yours,” He growled. “Somebody smashed the control junction box and cut the cables.” Roy paled as he turned back to the com. Rachel………. There was nothing he could do.


General Parker braced himself for the drop out of warp drive. The men on the huge warship, the Lincoln, were standing at battle stations ready to drop into normal space. Two remote sensor drones were launched immediately to cover the few seconds the main sensors would be off line. Suddenly the ship shuddered from an impact and warning alarms sounded. “Shields at maximum, damage report,” general Parker yelled, “get those sensors on line. How the hell did they know where we were coming out, what did they hit us with?”

“Hull compromised in section A twenty-two,” one man called out. “One drone destroyed,” another answered, “rocks, sir, we’re in an asteroid field.”

The general stiffened, they’d miscalculated, they’d come out too near the planet, in the belts of asteroids that the recon had shown. They wouldn’t have time to slow down, they were going to fall through and crash into the planet.

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: July 5th, 2012, 7:20 pm
by Zeratul2k
Wow, things seem to be going from bad to worse. No plan survives first contact, indeed!

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: July 28th, 2012, 5:35 am
by oldwrench
I'm still working on this, haven't had a lot of time lately. I'm trying to make it a bit exciting, and trying to save a few of our brave EDF pilots. Things aren't looking to good for them right now. They may need a miracle, but those seem in short supply. The ships are about to crash, the mechs are being overwhelmed, and Rachel and the other attack groups are in desperate situations. Did Roy take the base control center just to see his troops being destroyed?

Hang in there, the answers are coming.......... slowly, but coming.

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: August 3rd, 2012, 6:02 am
by oldwrench
This is a bit of a milestone........ chapter 100. This has gotten to be a lot longer and more detailed than I had imagined......... and a bit farther from the RPG than I thought it would get. I hope it's been entertaining, but, we are getting close to the finale. A few of the elements of suspense will be resolved this chapter. The outcome is still up in the air.

Read on

Chapter 100

Rachel backed farther behind the rocks, crowding her remaining team mates, as the tank blasted more off of the rocks sheltering them. She cursed, the tanks were playing with them, they knew there was no way out. To the west, there was a valley with a lot of broken boulders for cover. If they could make it across the open ground between them and the valley they could get away, but three of her team had died trying it. To the east, the steep cliff face behind them flattened out into a group of trees, but again, the machine guns on the tanks would gun anyone down who tried to reach them. With no chance of the promised help from those cannons Roy had been so eager to get control of, they were doomed. She had to do something to get her team out of this.

Rachel yelled back to her team, “I’m going to make a break for the trees to the east. When the tanks start firing at me, you break for the valley to the west.”

“That’s suicide,” one of her men told her, “you’ll never make it.”

“It’s the only chance for any of us to get out of this,” she barked. “Now get ready.” Rachel tensed, she knew she couldn’t make the trees. Sorry Roy, she thought, but I have to try. Rachel sprinted from behind the rocks. She heard the scream of the tank’s mini guns and the rattle of the shells hitting the cliff face behind her as they swept toward her. If she could just stay up long enough for the others to make it……….

Aiden stumbled as the ship lurched. He’d gotten to the engineering section, almost to the power control room. As he stumbled between consoles his feet hit something on the floor. Aiden looked down at the dead technician, then, he saw two others lying across the room. Now he was certain, there was a saboteur on the ship. When he got to the power room, he saw one of the subspace com techs with his hand on the breaker for one of the inertial dampers. Aiden yelled out, “you! get away from there.” The man turned toward him and began to draw a gun. Aiden rushed at the man, the sound of the gunshot was deafening in the small room.

Johanna landed hard and fast behind Rose. She quickly dived left, slamming her shield into the mech attacking Rose from that side. “You should keep your guard up,” Johanna told Rose. “Can’t have them taking you out, we’ve got a date for a few drinks when this is over.”

“Thanks,” Rose called back, “but I can’t, the left arm’s broke.”

“Right, I’ll cover your back, and keep an eye on that side.” Johanna assured her, but she knew things were pretty hopeless. There were just too many enemy mechs.

Georgianna was beginning to feel overwhelmed. She really disliked ground fighting. The gravity weighed her down, her long beam saber was a disadvantage in close fighting, and, she couldn’t use her I-shield. She’d managed to knock out one Thunderbird, but there were too many, she was forced to fight a defensive battle. Her shoulder cannons were knocked out and she’d lost part of her viewing sensors. If Roy didn’t come through with those cannons, soon, they were in deep sh**.

General Parker gripped the arms of his chair tightly, there would be only seconds till impact.

“Sir, I could pull us out of the asteroids, but it will delay our time of arrival by several minutes,” the pilot of the Lincoln informed him.

“What? Aren’t we too close to the planet?” The general asked.

“No sir, we came out exactly as calculated,” was the reply. “The asteroids appear to be moving away from the planet.”

“Stay on course, keep shields at maximum,” The general ordered. Something was happening on the planet, and he had to find out what.

Rachel dove to the ground, hoping to buy a few more seconds when she heard a loud crack, like a lightning strike, and the sound of the machine guns stopped. She turned to look and the tank nearest her was smoking out of holes punched through both sides. The second tank’s turret was turning, searching for this new attacker as it rapidly backed away in a sharp curve. Another loud crack and flames erupted from the second tank as it rocked to a halt. Rachel lay there for long moments, stunned, and relieved.

Ben smiled as his mech stood high on the side of the valley. Roy had called orders for him to take out the tanks. “That’s two down,” he yelled as he waited for his rail gun to cycle. Suddenly his alarm screamed, they had a target lock on him. He dived sideways toward a gap behind some rocks. Damn, this was going to be a game of who gets the shot off first, he thought. There sure are a bunch of those tanks, but I’m quicker on the trigger. He popped out from behind the rocks and fired. Another tank erupted in fire and smoke. Ben ducked back just as he heard the target lock alarm. The cliff side next to him exploded in a shower of rock fragments.

Aiden slammed into the saboteur, driving him back against the breaker board. They struggled for the gun, Aiden hammered the man’s wrist against the corner of a cabinet, the gun clattered away across the floor. He ignored the searing pain in his chest as he found and opening and smashed his fist hard into his adversary’s jaw. The man slumped to the floor. Aiden turned back toward the breaker panel, he could see three of the breakers pulled open. The one next to the one the saboteur had been about to pull open must be the one for the inertial compensator. If he could close that breaker, the Krikav might still make it. Aiden started forward…….. The wreckage of the battle was around him, in the darkness of space he could see the enemy ship, their cannons were decimating his battle group. If he could just reach that ship, he could pull the breaker that would cut the power to their cannons. He grabbed the breaker, if he pulled it he could save his men………. Aiden shook his head, no, this isn’t right, it didn’t happen like that. He let go of the breaker, the pain of reaching for the breaker had broken through the dark dream. He fought the blackness with all of his will. His mind cleared and he reached for the open breaker. Before he could reach it, Aiden was tackled by the saboteur. To Aiden, it seemed their fight took forever. Finally, he heard the crack as he twisted the man’s neck and his enemy fell limp to the floor. Aiden tried to get up, to get to the breakers but he fell to his knees, coughing blood. He had nothing left, he couldn’t get up. It didn’t matter, It was too late to be able to restart the inertial unit.

In a dark ship orbiting a planet, several light years distant, an esper screamed as he grabbed his head. His superior looked at the Leader, his supreme commander. I told you he could not handle the extra drug dose. It was a waste of one of our espers. The Leader drew a weapon and shot his subordinate. He looked at the startled faces of the others in the room. He pointed to one of the officers, “You are now promoted to commander of the esper division,” He ordered. He turned to leave, “I will not tolerate failure.”

Colonel Hellwind opened the ship com and called out, “brace for impact.”

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: August 31st, 2012, 5:57 am
by oldwrench
Who the heck is in that dark ship? So, they're trying to control peoples minds, but why start a war?

Rachel and her remaining group got lucky, but what about the pilots from the Krikav? Without those cannons, they don't seem to have much of a chance. There are just too many enemy mechs against them.

I'll get back to this soon.

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: September 5th, 2012, 10:07 am
by Sakura
I'm updating the pdf document right now :love:

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: September 5th, 2012, 8:41 pm
by oldwrench
And I'm working on the next exciting chapter. We have to find out what happened with Chad and Arisa. There are a few more things happening too.

Re: 5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

Posted: September 6th, 2012, 5:30 am
by oldwrench
Back to the battle! Is the Krikav going to make it? Or will they meet a terrible end on the rocks in the river valley? What about Chad? He's ready to shut down the enemy mechs, but he has no way to reach the Red Faction base. But, would his plan actually work? And what of Arisa? She still isn't able to pull the trigger, even though she was determined to. Things are happening fast and furiously, a lot faster than my writing......

Let's see where all this is leading.

Chapter 101

Arisa hurried to find Ghost. It wasn’t hard to follow the path of the mech, broken trees and displaced boulders marked the path of the fallen mech. The path through the trees led to a wider area in the bottom of the valley. Arisa saw the broken mech by the side of the river. At least Chad’s luck had held, he’d found the only wide area in the river valley. Ghost hadn’t ended up in the river. As she neared the mech, her hopes turned to worry, Ghost was a wreck and Chad didn’t answer her call. Chad just couldn’t be…….. She saw Ghost struggle to move. Arisa was elated, he was alive. Now, if he would just answer her.

Chad looked up as the shadow came across his sensors. He immediately recognized the mech. “Arisa!” He shouted into the com. Why wasn’t she answering him? “Ghost, something’s wrong with the com. I can’t reach Arisa.”

“The com system configuration was altered during the fall.” Ghost informed him.

Chad grimaced as he hit the reset on the com system and punched in the current security code, thankful that the com was on his left side. Immediately he heard Arisa’s call. “Chad! Are you alright? Answer me Chad.” He called back, “I’m alright, I mean, I’ve been worse. Arisa, the attack’s started, You have to get me to the Red faction base. Ghost’s thrusters are broken. You’ll have to carry us there.”

“No! You can’t fight. Ghost is all broken up. “Arisa answered. “I’ll call for recovery to pick you up.”

“Don’t call,” Chad ordered, “I have to get to that base, I have to stop those mechs.”

“Chad, your mech’s wrecked. Let the others finish this. They only have a dozen EDF mechs, we can handle them.” Arisa assured him.

“You’re wrong, they have at least twice that many, I saw them. They have the mechs from Tarsonis.” Chad informed her. “If I don’t get there, our pilots won’t have a chance.”

Arisa gasped. Twice that many! And their group was short several mechs. This would be really bad, but Ghost wasn’t going to be able to fight. “But you can’t fight like that, Chad. There’s nothing you can do, I have to call recovery.”

“Yes there is!” Chad pleaded. “I can shut them down with their boot codes, but I my com is damaged, I have to be at the base to do it.”

Arisa thought for a few seconds. How? Arisa knew those systems, her family’s companies built those mechs. She knew they could shut the system down by plugging into an external connector. It was the only way other than being in the cockpit to shut down a mech. What was Chad thinking? How could he do it? “You can’t do it. There’s no way you could plug into those mechs to use the boot codes.”

“I don’t need to plug in, I can send the code with the com.” Chad waited but Arisa didn’t answer. “I’m a tech, I know what I’m doing.” Still Arisa didn’t answer. Chad guessed what she was thinking, that a tech had to plug in to use the codes. “I steal cars, Arisa, I know how to hack those systems.” He pleaded.

“You wouldn’t have time,” She answered. “You wouldn’t last half a minute.”

“That’s all the time I need……. less,” Chad assured her. “I have it set up. Please Arisa, believe me.”

Arisa didn’t know what to do. She should call for recovery, but, what if Chad did know how to shut down those mechs? They had too many for the Krikav’s small group to defeat, Chad’s plan might be the only way. And, could she protect Ghost long enough to give Chad time to carry out his plan? What could she do?


Colonel Hellwind tightened the safety straps on his seat. The ship was going down, there was no stopping it. The valley below them was a mass of broken rocks with a river through the center. Those huge boulders would tear the ship apart like a tin can.

“Sir, the valley widens into level area ahead. I will attempt to reach that area for the landing.” Yuki informed him in her disconcertingly calm voice.

The colonel felt like shouting “yes” their luck was holding. In this whole rock strewn river valley, they find the one open stretch to crash land the ship. They might survive this yet.


General Edward Geraldine raced through the tunnels. He had to reach the tunnel to the secret hangar high on the mountain. As he hurried through the section of the living quarters, he was jerked back as someone grabbed his arm. Edward drew his gun as he spun to face the person. It turned out to be that ugly little man, Kirk Ashford.

“What’s happening? Why all the gunfire? Is the EDF here, are they attacking? You have to get me out of here. If they find me they’ll have me executed. You owe me Geraldine, I’ve been funding you’re little army.” Kirk stopped, running out of breath.

Edward had to force himself not to shoot the obnoxious little man, but one thing was true, he had money, and Edward was going to need finances. “Follow me, I have a ship ready.” Edward turned and hurried on, not looking if Kirk was following.

General Parker frowned at the news his com officer had relayed to him. Local communications were impossible through the disruption caused by the milling asteroids, and now, they had lost the subspace link to the mech pilot on the planet. The sudden loss of the subspace link only reinforced his conviction that something bad was happening on Mar Sara. They were flying blind and that could be a deadly mistake. He had been counting on that pilot’s recon to warn them about the movements of the enemy’s giant mech. “Pilot, get us out of these rocks. Com, I want a link to the Krikav asap. Combat units, I want a full launch as soon as we clear the asteroids, find the best possible entry point and get down to the surface.” If that super weapon was waiting for them, they had to find it and neutralize it before it could target the ship.