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Leon McManus yawned deeply as he sat at his post, the top of a giant, faded bilboard sign on the side of the highway, about 30 feet up off the ground. It was a pretty uncomfortable position to be in - straddling a thin beam way up off the ground, with a heavy battery pack urging to pull you down backwards - for several hours, with nothing but a radio, a laser rifle, and his bike down on the ground. He had sat in tighter spots, though. Wychin was busy working with the 'Army guys' with the confiscation of the alien base, with Michael Thornside cataloguing and sorting the scavenged materials. The Captain left Leon in charge of guarding the perimeter around Anchorage; scouting the highways, making sure nothing gets in or out. Toshiro was about four miles down the road, suspended from an overpass; so they could spot eachother with their rifles.
The rest of the team was making laps on the highway around Anchorage in the hovercraft, with Krotyla scanning for any signs of bug invaders. A third hovercraft was put in charge of some of the Army boys. It hadn't responded to it hailing over the radio for at least 15 minutes, which was beginning to irk at Leon. Finally, he was treated to a small bit of static.
He lifted the radio, trying not to shake himself off of the structure. "Yo, Scout 3, are you doing that?" The static ended, almost in a responsive way.
"One, two...any of you know where three went?" McManus said, trying to keep his cool.
"This is one...three boosted ahead of us a little while ago.." It was Sargeant Poole's voice.
Leon yawned again, tired of being stuck up in his little crows nest. "Try and catch up with them if you can...must have forgotten where the radio's transmit button is, I guess."
About five minutes later, there was a flash of light about 25 miles down the road, with Leon barely able to notice it. "What the hell is going on??" He barked.
Poole's voice again. "Oh shit...I think that was Three...saw some green shots going off, but that could have been the guys on board."
Both Leon and Poole knew better than that. McManus slung the rifle over his shoulder, and started climbing down to the ground. "Well, Poole, try and get Two's attention. I think they're near Toshiro, so make sure they pick him up." He then flipped the radio to all channels. "Ok, people, we've got a possible perimeter breach down on the northwest side of the Highway. All teams meet at the crash site of Scout 3, the flames should be easy enough to find. Out." With that, Leon laid back into the bike, switched on the computer-controlled engines, and started zooming down the road as the HUD flashed to life.
Written on March 07th, 2000 by Bill Tolin AKA Leon McManus