Patlabor: NYPD

Chapter 1: Officer Down

--August 27, 2001--

"This is you final warning! We have you surrounded! Deactivate your Labor and come out with your hands up!" Sgt. Aaron Black shouted into the bullhorn. Still, there was no reply from the labor or it's two occupants.

Officer Ben Dixon waited in the cockpit of his Type-0 Peacemaker, ready to draw his gun at the first sign of trouble. The Labor was one of Mitsubishi's brand new "all terrain labors", a concept design that had become as popular with American industry as the SUV was to the motorist. Fast and agile, these new four-legged/two armed labors were very similar to the Crab-man as far as speed and mobility, had the specs to take down just about any other labor. But specs can be deceiving. The ATL was heavy for it's size, and extremely clumsy on loose soil. For this reason, the ATL was now the Labor that the Special Vehicles teams encountered the most. This particular labor had climbed to the top of a parking garage and had begun throwing cars over the roof when the police arrived. Since it was during peak business hours, there were plenty of cars left for him to lob at the SV1.

Ben had a shot, but he had been given strict orders not to fire lest he do damage to the parking structure. "Hey chief, do we know what this guy's beef is yet?"

"Not yet. All we do know is that he used to work in that hotel across the street. The manager there thinks he's probably disgruntled about something..." Kanuka looked at the computer screen in her patrol car again. "He's one of the chefs at the café in the lobby, but the labor belongs to a guy named Hapsburg who works for the Bright Manhattan Construction Company. He 's been using that Labor for 6 months, and he's got pretty good credit. No criminal record thus far, so chances are that the labor's been stolen." For just a moment, the labor disappeared from view, then reappeared as yet another car became airborne. "Incoming!" Kanuka shouted, throwing her own car into reverse and flooring it.

Ben moved over behind large bank and sought cover. Rico and Huck's labors moved in next to him just as the flying Buick came crashing down on the street next to them. Ben peaked around the corner and surveyed the damage, but flinched as another car whizzed past his labor's head. "Shit! What the hell was that?"

Aaron watched the second car smash into one of the swat team's vans. "Looks like an Outback." He said, sighing heavily. "Ben, he's starting to throw bigger cars. At this rate, you're gonna have to take him out."

"If you say so..." Ben drew his gun and stepped around the corner. The Labor was dead in his sights. "Got him lined up!"

Sgt. Black watched him aim from his command car. He had a clear line of sight, no civilians in his path. "Officer Dixon, you're cleared to..."

"Hold your fire!" Someone shouted on the radio. "The hotel just called in! The guy's calling with terrorist demands on his cell phone!"

At length, Ben realized that the voice belonged to Alex Henderson, Huck's backup. "What does he want?"

"...oh, just the usual. He wants a helicopter... two hundred grand... safe passage out of the country.. and the kosher meal on his plane ticket."

"And if we don't give him what he wants?"

"Obviously, he'll throw more cars." Alex didn't seem particularly interested in the situation. In fact, he sounded bored.

Kanuka felt the same way. "Any bomb threats or hostages?"

"He didn't mention any, but he's not the most coherent guy in the world." Alex said.

Another car sailed over the roof. This one fell short of the police officers and vehicles camped around the building, but it was enough to irritate Kanuka to the point of action. "That does it! Ben, you can go ahead and shoot the bastard."

"Roger." Ben checked his shot and fired three shells. The first one missed by a meter or two, but the second one struck just bellow the cockpit, blowing off the labor's leg from it's hip socket. The huge labor collapsed to the ground, off balance on only three legs. "I dropped him. Call the swat team before the pilot gets away!"

There was a long pause, and then Kanuka sighed. "That last Outback clobbered them. Right now, it looks like..."

"I know, I know. It's up to us. C'mon guys! Lets go make an arrest!"

"Right behind you Dix." Rico's Peacemaker followed Bens around the corner and toward the parking garage. Huck stayed back, training his revolver at the stairwell that ran from ground level to the top floor.

Ben started to climb, level by level, to the roof of the garage structure. As he approached the top floor, he heard something on the other side of the building. He looked between levels and saw another labor climbing up the side of the garage. "There's another labor up here!" He shouted. "Eyeball, what're you lookin at?! Where'd that other labor come from?!"

As Ben delayed is accent, Rico climbed to the top of the building first. The patrol chopper came through the static. "Other labor? What other labor? I don't see anything!" Ben heard a gunshot, and then looked up to see Rico's Peacemaker performing a swan dive off the top of the building. "...oh, THAT other labor!" the chopper pilot said nervously. "It looks like it's collecting those two nimrods from the first ATL... he's moving again!"

Ben quickly scaled the building to get to the roof, but another powerful shot rang out. The shell wizzed past his cockpit, and Ben realized that someone on the roof was firing off an anti-tank weapon of some kind. Not wasting time, he sprinted to the edge of the roof and jumped off, landing squarely on the back of the fleeting ATL. The huge labor tried to shake him by twisting it's upper torso back and forth, swinging it's arms impotently in every which way. Ben held on, and tried to draw his stun baton. When he released one hand to grab his weapon, the labor bucked suddenly and freed itself form his grasp, taking off down the road as fast as it's wheels could take it. Ben recovered quickly and fired the last three shells from his revolver, puncturing both of the tires on the labor's left legs. Gimped by this setback, the ATL retracted it's wheels and began galloping along on foot. Ben punched his throttles and pursued. "All units, all units, this is PTL101! Suspect labor now headed southbound on 15th avenue! I'm in pursuit!"

Ben ran off down the street as fast as the labor could move. The ATL galloped down the street like a horse, but it slipped several times when it's legs came crashing down on top of cars and other un-secured objects. The chase went on for more than half an hour, but tracked by police choppers there wasn't an place the labor could go where it could not be seen. But there were plenty of things is could do if it got enough distance from Ben's Peacemaker.

After what seemed like forever, the ATL came to a halt on the George Washington Bridge. Another Patlabor was marching toward it from the other side, brandishing a loaded riot gun. "We got him sandwiched, Ben!" It was Huck's voice, but Huck had never used a riot gun before.

"Where did you get that thing?" Ben said, drawing a spare cylinder from his right compartment and reloading his gun.

"Section 4 had it. They loaned it to me when I jumped over the road block."

Ben sighed. Coming from Huck, the words 'they loaned it to me' usually meant that he had stolen it. "Attention labor pilot! You are under arrest for labor theft and public endangerment! Throw down your weapons and get out of there, or I WILL blow you away!"

Behind him, on the roadblock, Kanuka rolled her eyes. "Just like Ohta..." she said disgusted. "Jesus Christ! There's one in EVERY city!"

In response, The machine bent it's knees a bit and two people emerged from the cockpit hatch in the top of the machine. There appeared a man in a ski mask, holding a pistol to the head of a young woman easily half his size. "Back away cop!" He shouted. "I'll kill this bitch, I swear! Just back away!"

Ben didn't back down. The gunman was in a position where anything he could do other than give up would get him killed. Even if he killed the hostage, he had to know he would be next. "This is your last chance! Throw down your weapons and surrender! Don't make me kill you!"

Abruptly, the man lifted his hostage out of the labor and threw her over the side of the hatch. His confidence apparently growing, he started up his motors and charged Ben's Peacemaker as fast as it's legs could move it. "FREEDOM!" He shouted over the loudspeaker.

Ben had had enough. He aimed his gun at the hip joints and fired twice. Both shells ripped cleanly through the labor, which collapsed to the ground, utterly useless. Thinking quickly, Ben opened his cockpit and climbed down the wince line, shotgun in hand, to the street below. He charged up to the ATL and pulled the cockpit open, pointing the shotgun into the cockpit. "Hands up asshole!" He shouted. The masked pilot inside was only too happy to oblige.

Huck ran up only moments later with his sidearm drawn. "Kanuka's sending a pickup." He said.

"Alright." Ben lowered himself into the cockpit and cuffed the pilot's wrists together before pulling off his ski mask. "Common lone ranger! You're goin for a nice long ride!"

"Up yours, cop! You're goin' down just like the rest of the assorted trash on the Earth! Just you wait! One more week and the world as you know it will come to an end!"

Ben rolled his eyes and dragged the man out of the cockpit, but he heard a single gunshot behind him. He dropped the pilot and pulled up his shotgun, but found himself staring down the pilot's hostage, a loaded .44 Magnum in her hands. "You don't belong in the new world order!" she said angrily. "You're time is come and gone!" She was almost 5 meters away from him, but that was still too close. "Drop the shotgun." She said.

At first, Ben was reluctant, but then he felt a second gun pressing against the back of his head. He heard footsteps behind him, and he could tell that there were at least 3 more people on the bridge. "Do him." One of the men said.

Ben dropped the shotgun, but the approaching sound of police sirens caught his attention. The pilot behind him broke and ran toward his Peacemaker, but the woman with the gun didn't budge. "You are an obsolete, fascist dinosaur! I retire you!" And with those words, the woman pulled the trigger and the gun fired. Ben hit the ground like a rag doll, next to the body of officer Ryan "Huck" McKinley. Meanwhile the two labor criminals climbed into his Peacemaker and sprinted across the bridge at the labor's top speed. Meanwhile, the woman who had fired the fatal shot tossed dashed around behind the disabled labor, waiting in the shadows behind it until she saw her chance.

After a few seconds, three patrol cars roared to the scene, and six police officers jumped from their cars to secure the area. The woman with the magnum jumped from concealment and aimed her weapon, but a single shot from one of the police officers punched through her ribcage on the left side. She keeled over in pain, and two officers swooped in to arrest her.

Swerving around the stopped patrol cars, Kanuka screeched to a halt next to the dead labor and ran out of the car to check her men. Huck was dead; the back of his skull had been blown off by the bullet but the contents of his head were nowhere to be found. Ben was in better shape, as the bullet seemed to have hit his skull at and odd angle and been deflected off somewhere. She dropped to her knees next to him cradled his head in her arms, trying her best to keep him from falling asleep. "Chief Clancy..." he said quietly.

"You're hurt real bad, Ben. Don't move and don't speak." Kanuka examined the wound on his head. blood flowed in a small stream from the spot, and a steady trickle was running onto her legs.

Rico moved up next to them, and pulled out his radio. "This is PTL 102 on the George Washington bridge, I've got two officers down and we need an ambulance immediately!" Rico took off his shirt and Kanuka helped him tear it into strips. Both of them started wrapping the strips of fabric around his head in a vain effort to stop the bleeding. "Ben, can you here me?"

Ben's eyes lost focus, and he began to drift. "Ben?! Ben stay with me! BEN!" Kanuka was shouting at the top of her lungs. Still, he was slipping away.

Rico heard a report on his radio. "This is PL-19, have sighted stolen Patlabor, eastbound on... holy shit!" There was a long pause from the helicopter pilot, but Rico could tell what we was looking at. Barely a block away, just below the skyline, a fireball was rising into the sky. "...oh Jesus. I don't know what the hell's going on here...I... oh man! I need a vacation..."

Rico turned down his radio, and looked at Kanuka. "We can't wait for the damn ambulance. Help me get him into the car!" He started to lift Ben's legs. Kanuka took him by the shoulders and the two of them lifted Ben into the back of the patrol car. Kanuka crouched in the back seat and kept trying to stop the bleeding while Rico started the car and sped them off to the nearest hospital. "Hang on Ben! You'll be okay!"

"Chief.." He mumbled. "Kanuka... they... they took my..." At this point, he passed out on the seat. It was out of her hands now. If Ben was going to live, it would be HIS choice and no one else's.