Omniknight's!
 New Team Knight Rider: Special Forces story

  Jenny Andrews walked through Sky One. She felt odd. Uneasy. Maybe it was just
woman's intuition, but she felt very certain, that somewhere... right now...
something was very, very wrong. She paced through the garage. Beast's voice
called out to her. "Hey Jenny, I just got a new set of shocks. Want to go for a
ride and test them out?" Jenny distractedly answered "Not today, Beast." She
headed towards her room. Maybe some tv would take her mind off her uneasiness.
  The cars watched as Jenny left. As soon as she was out of earshot, Plato spoke
up in a sportscaster's voice. "Oh, and he's shot down again, Marty! That's gotta
hurt!" Beast growled at the black motorcycle. "Shaddap." "Honestly, Beast,"
Dante sniffed. "I don't know what makes you carry on so. She's a human, you're a
truck." Beast considered the matter for a moment before replying "Hey, a truck
can dream, can't he?" 
  From his perch in the shadows on the opposite side of the garage, Archer
watched and listened. It was what he was best at. He slid back over the railings
and walked silently down the hall. He had noticed how distracted Jenny had been.
Maybe she had the same nervous feeling he'd had all morning. Something was about
to happen. Every instinct in his body was certain of that fact. And it was going
to be something big.
  Jenny flicked through the channels. Rerun. Dumb talk show. Psychic Talk USA
commercial. She sighed, and turned to CNN. Maybe the news... "We interrupt to
bring you this breaking story!" The anchor said. Jenny leaned forward. This
should be interesting. "The city of Seattle, Washington has been destroyed."
Jenny gasped. An entire city? Gone? It wasn't possible! The anchor nervously
eyed the camera. "We don't have all the details, yet, but we now switch you live
to a local reporter on the scene!" 
  The tv image changed to show a young man in perhaps his mid-twenties. Behind
him, there were numerous large, smoking craters. Evidence of whatever seige had
been laid to the former city. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he began, "This is all
that remains of one of the largest cities in the United States. About an hour
ago, city leaders received a message from a man calling himself Dr. Smith. He
claimed that the city would be destroyed as an example of his groups power. He
made no demands. This is all that remains of Seattle." 
  The camera panned to show the piles of rubble. "A few thousand citizens
escaped, but most were killed instantly." the reporter went on. "Survivors
discribed a group of enormous robots attacking the city. There is evidence at
the scene that supports this claim... " The camera angle shifted to show part of
an enormous mechanical arm lying on the ground. "This is all that is left of the
one robot, if they were truly robots, that was accidentally caught in the
destruction." Jenny sucked in her breath. It was like a horror movie. Before the
reporter could continue, she turned off the set. She was attempting to collect
herself when her com came on. "Everyone to the situation room," Kyle Stewart's
voice said. "We've got a crisis." 
  Jenny was the last to arrive. No one glanced in her direction, however. They
were all staring at the same newscast she had just turned off. Elle Holmes was
deathly pale as she said "Giant robots? But, where did they come from?" The
chief's holographic image appeared. "It seems," he began "that there was a
secret government operation to build enormous mechanical warriors. The next step
in warfare." Jenny nodded slowly. "The Arsenal project. But, it was scrapped
after initial estimates proved it would be too expensive for the economy to
fund?" 
  Across the table, Archer snorted. "And you believe everything the government
"officially" says? Oh please..." The chief glared at Archer. "If I could
continue? The project was officially scrubbed, but unofficially, it seems that
some slightly unbalanced scientists decided to go ahead with it. They received
their funding, in case you're interested, from then Microsoft president Bill
Gates." The teams registered various reactions to this news as he went on.
"Somewhere, Gates has set up a secret factory to build and control these units.
The entire system is controlled by an advanced supercomputer. It's alledgedly
the only surviving system of the H.A.L. 9000 series." 
  Kyle blinked. "You mean, like in 2001?" Trek managed a humorless chuckle.
"That's where they got the name, boss. And I think we all know what happened to
the Discovery's crew. And remember Terminator? This system's set up like in that
movie. It's artificially intelligent. Even I couldn't hack into this thing." 
  The chief gave them all a grave stare. "The President has just recieved
information from an informant by the name of Robinson. The Arsenal units are
going to continue attacking all our major cities until the entire world
surrenders to H.A.L. FLAG wants TKR and TKR:SF to stop H.A.L. and Smith by any
means possible." Duke DePalma uttered a short laugh. "Yeah, then we'll have a
casual lunch." Jenny leaned forward. "What about this Robinson guy? What else
does he know?" The chief shrugged. "We may never know. He's vanished without a
trace. We suspect that H.A.L. may have had something to do with that as well."
  A rotating image of Beast appeared on the situation room monitor. "I like a
showdown as well as the next truck," he began "But those mech warriors are
packing some serious artillary. How're we going to stand up against that kind of
firepower?" The chief gave them one of those grins that meant they weren't going
to like this one. "We've taken on a partial merger with the UN Space Defense
Force. It's in our mutual interests to stop this madnes... " He had to raise his
voice to be heard over the complaints of the teams. "And it's only temporary.
And you have no choice in the matter. Deal with it." With that, he vanished. 
  The humans slumped back in their seats. Kyle keyed the cockpit intercom.
"Captain Wyatt? We're going to Seattle." he said with a dry mouth. The teams
gazed around at each other wearily. "Anyone want to lay odds on us coming out of
this one alive?" Archer asked ironically. No one spoke. "Well then," he said,
getting up from his seat. "I'm going to go start getting ready. I think we have
our work cut out for us."
  The cars sat in stunned silence in the garage as Archer walked in. He nodded
at Omni as he walked by. "Catch the news?" he asked casually. Kat cried out
"We're all going to die!" "Nice day for it at least..." Omni said dejectedly.
Archer chuckled to himself as he walked on through the garage. He lived for
missions like this one. Behind him, he could hear the cars comparing odds on
their probable success. They were nervous. Hell, they all were. He grinned at
the thought of the coming battle. It was going to be great..

Arsenals VI through XIII had been sent to destroy Seattle. They had succeeded,
but unfortunately, they lad also lost one of their own. Arsenal VII had blown up
an industrial cording factory, and gotten caught up in the stuff. Unable to free
itself, VII had gone up with the rest of Seattle. The other units noted the
occurance and filed Cording Factories in their memories under "Things to destroy
at long range."  
  The monstrous units marched onward towards their next target, Los Angeles.
Unit number thirteen paused, detecting a blip on his radar. Thirteen turned and
scanned the horizon. Almost out of visual range, a modified cargo jet was
cruising by. The enormous mecha intensified his scan. No visible weapons. No
visible markings of any major corporation. No point in bothering with it. The
thirteenth unit turned and rejoined its' fellows as they continued on towards
L.A.
  Erica West gaped. "We're supposed to stop THOSE THINGS?!" she shouted. "Forget
it. Send in the marines!" Kyle Stewart shrugged grimly. "Who do you think went
up with Seattle?" Erica grimaced. Jenny stared at the line of machines. "How big
are those things, exactly?" she asked. Dante's image came up on the screen.
"They range in size from approximately four to seven stories in height. And I
would guess from the seismic reaction, they each weigh several tons." 
  Jenny turned to Kyle. "So where's this help we're supposed to be getting from
the UN Space Defense Forces?" she asked nervously. Kyle pushed a button on the
controls in front of him. "They sent us a squadron of remote-controlled battle
tanks." he said. "And?" Elle prompted. "And that's pretty much it." Kyle
admitted. The team swore to themselves. Kyle nodded. "I know what you mean,
guys, but look at it this way. With this firepower, we might just have a chance.
So let's make the best of it." 
  Sky One took a slight detour around the parade of Arsenal Units to touch down
beside a group of cargo planes forty miles away. Kyle and Duke checked off the
equipment in the otherwise deserted planes. "Looks like they didn't hang around
too long after they got here." Duke noted. Kyle nodded. David Archer walked
over. "Just as well." he said. "From my experience, we're better off without
those rocket jockeys hanging over our shoulders." 
  Trek Sanders suddenly dropped out of the engine compartment of one of the
tanks. "Guys, check this out!" he shouted. The three men walked over as Trek
pulled a large CPU out of the tank. "I think the cars can operate these tanks."
he told them excitedly. Kyle leaned against the machine's base. "That's a
relief. I didn't know how we were going torun so many at once." Archer looked up
at the machine doubtfully. "What kind of weapons are we talking about here?" he
asked. Trek frowned. "Well, make no mistake. It's going to take all of them to
do the job." the younger man acknowledged. "And that's only if we can confuse
the Arsenal units with additional targets." 
  Duke frowned. "Why don't I like the sound of that?" he asked. Trek sighed. "At
least three or so of us are going to have to go out there and drive around to
distract the Arsenal units long enough for the tanks to get close enough to do
their job." Duke crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I knew I didn't like
the sound of that." he told Archer. 
  Kyle glanced at his watch. Soon they would be out of time. "So the question
is, who should go." Trek finished. Archer could feel a subtle vibration under
his feet. "I volunteer." he said. "I can't just sit around and be shot at
without trying to take out a few myself anyway." He hit his com button. "What do
you say, Omni?" he asked his car. There was a brief pause on the other end
before the computer who had been a man replied "What the hell. I already died
once. I'm starting to get used to it." 
  Duke glanced out the plane door at Beast, who had exited Sky One. "We're
volunteering too." he told Kyle. Jenny Andrews and Domino exited Sky One behind
the Beast. "Don't think you're leaving us girls out." Domino called. Kyle keyed
his wrist com. "Jenny, this is too dangerous..." "I'm the one with the military
training, Kyle." she retorted. "Besides, if you order me not to go, I'll just
resign from FLAG right now and go anyway." Kyle gave a defeated sigh. 
  Erik pulled down Sky One's rampway last. Elle lowered the Prowler's sheilds
long enough to give the others a confident grin. Kyle walked back to the tank's
master controls, mumbling something under his breath about insubordination. Duke
and Archer walked down the loading ramp and headed for their vehicles. There was
a steady rumbling sound rising in the distance. It wouldn't be long now.

The line of gargantuan mechas moved onward towards Los Angeles. Suddenly, they
stopped. A sensor sweep of the surrounding region showed several small objects
heading in their diraction. Units Six and Eight activated their weapons. Four
small targets wouldn't require all seven mecha's attention. 
  Archer turned off the radio as their targets came into view. 'Holy shit!' he
thought. 'Those things are HUGE!' "Hmm..." Omniknight spoke up "I'm monitoring a
40% increase in respiration and pulse. Whatever happened to all your bravado?"
Archer pointed a finger at the car's dash. "Don't start with me, you refugee
from the afterlife." he growled. "And I told you to call me sir!" Omni gave a
sarcastic laugh. "I will when I see you do something worthy of that sort of
respect." 
  Elle, overhearing the exchange, turned on her com. "That's enough, guys." she
said. "Pay attention to your job." Erik groaned as Elle turned off the
connection. "Are those two EVER going to get along?" Elle shrugged. 
  Units Six and Eight opened fire, launching missiles and firing lasers towards
the approaching vehicles. All the cars took evasive action, dodging the blasts.
As the two lead units prepared to fire again, Attack Beast launched a missile of
his own, blowing off Six's right arm at the "shoulder". Duke gave a triumphant
shout. The rest of the enormous mecha armed their weapons, with something akin
to annoyance. These pests wouldn't bother them much longer.
  Domino took the controls as heavy fire struck the ground around them. Jenny
activated her com. "Okay, Kyle," she shouted "We've got their attention!" Domino
was knocked to the side violently by a near-miss. She went to ski mode, driving
along on two wheels, to regain her balance. As the convertable was knocked back
down on all four wheels, Domino exclaimed "These boys play rough, Kyle! We need
those tanks now!"
  Trek finished rewiring the master control for the tanks. Each of the remaining
cars would be able to control several of the machines at once. Kyle shouted up
to him "Are they ready?" Trek nodded "As ready as they'll ever be." Kyle hit his
com button. "Alright, Dante. Time for you guys to move 'em out!" In response,
the master control lit up, and the engines of the large machines whirred to
life. As they moved down the cargo plane's ramp, Kyle heard Plato's voice
exclaim. "Blast 'em all and let the archeologists sort 'em out!"
  Elle winched as a small missile exploded on Erik's heavy armor sheilding. "Any
damage?" she asked anxiously. "No." Erik replied "But I'd just as soon not press
our luck any farther than we have to." Elle nodded in agreement. She glanced out
her window as Domino was rocked by another near miss. If those tanks didn't
arrive soon, they were all dead. She gave a startled cry as one of the enormous
mecha exploded. 
  The remaining six Arsenal units scanned the new arrivals. Remote controlled
tanks. An entire squadron of them. The units quickly calculated the odds of
their success, and prepared to return fire. Unit Thirteen moved away from the
group, judging that there would be far less chance of taking an accidental hit
if he wasn't as close to the crowd. He took up a position on a slight rise. A
few tanks turned and pursued him, but he blasted them with his heavy guns. Most
of the remaining tanks were preoccupied with the attack of the group of units
below him. Arsenal unit Thirteen noted a black vehicle turning in his direction.
  Attack Beast suddenly turned towards a mecha that was taking up a more
strategic position than it's fellows. Duke grabbed the door as the centripetal
force slammed him back into the seat as Beast accelerated. Beast armed all his
cannons. 
  "Jenny, look!" Domino cried. Jenny turned to see Beast and a lone mecha facing
off. "We've got to help them!" she shouted, turning the red sports car's wheel.
She knew already that they wouldn't make it in time.

What else can I say, but 'Links'?