Zoids: Call of the Fire
Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@hotmail.com)
http://www.angelfire.com/art/rcxshizuka/index.html
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Zoids, I am
borrowing the names, settings, etc. under fair use and
without making a profit. This work cannot be sold for
profit or retransmitted and reposted without my express
permission.
Continuity: Takes place after the Raynos appear in
the series.
------------------------------------------------
East Flatland Waste, 1400 Hours, Day 1
"Who would'a thought that I'd get so lucky as to find
a whole Viper!" Bit Cloud exclaimed, leaping out of
his jeep in excitement.
Lying on its stomach, under a thin layer of dirt
blown onto its metallic surface, the black Viper Zoid
lay prone, and appeared to be in reasonable shape.
Certainly, there were holes in its armor, and one of
its side-mounted grenade launchers was missing, but it
was still left there, after the battle held only an
hour earlier. Whichever team owned the Viper was
likely on the losing team.
It all seemed too good to be true, Bit thought.
Well, if they're going to leave something like this
out here in the middle of nowhere....
Bit made his way to the cockpit, raising his left
arm to his face to block the dust blowing his
direction as the wind picked-up. Viper Zoids were very
common Zoids, and in fact they were really nothing
special. There was only a few teams that Bit knew of
that used Vipers seriously, and none of them impressed
him. Yet salvaging this discarded Viper was not for
the Zoid itself, but for the parts.
Although a thin layer of dust formed over the
cockpit window of the black Viper, Bit could make out
the silhouette of a person-- the pilot, likely--
within. Immediately thoughts of dismantling the Zoid
transformed into disappointment, then into worry that
the pilot might need help.
He pounded his gloved fist against the window.
"Hey!" Bit cried, over the wind. "You need any help?"
Bit got no immediate response from the pilot. He
wiped a section of dust off the window, then cupped
his hands around his eyes, and peered inside.
The pilot was a young woman, appearing to be in her
late teens, her eyes shut, as if sleeping... or
meditating. She wore a heavy black coat, buttoned only
at the collar, and wore it almost like a cape, as its
length seemed to stretch to her boots and her arms were
folded under its folds rather than inserted into the
sleeves. Her dark hair was tied up in a red chord,
curiously in a shoelace knot.
Bit watched as one of the girl's arms appeared from
under the coat and reached over to the console. He
jumped at the sound of her voice, demanding, "What do
you want?"
It was obvious from her voice that this warrior was
young, but also no-nonsense. Bit summoned his
composure. "Hey, are you okay? What're you doing out
in the middle of nowhere, anyway?"
"Who're you?" she asked sternly. "If you're a
junker then I was here first. Salvage Law."
Bit cursed mentally, wondering if the pilot really
was a warrior. According to the Salvage Law the first
person who found the salvageable goods had claim to
them-- which also meant whoever this was is holding the
goods in the battle area. "Just wanted to see if you
were okay."
"I'm fine, thank you," the pilot replied, although
Bit thought she could use a little more work in
sounding sincere. "You sure you want to wait outside
like that?"
"Nah, that's okay," Bit answered, sitting up and
away from the cockpit window. "You're waiting for
something?"
"My friends, actually. If you hadn't noticed, this
Zoid isn't exactly equipped to lug any of the garbage
around here home."
"Yeah, I've noticed. By the way, who are you?"
"Shizuka, of the Fire Wheel Team."
So she is a warrior. "'Fire Wheel Team?' Name
sounds familiar... but I can't place it."
The pilot within laughed, genuinely amused. "You
wouldn't be the first. That's because barely anyone
accepts our challenges. Who are you?"
"My name's Bit Cloud!" he proclaimed proudly. "I'm
with the Blitz Team. Maybe you've heard of them."
"Heard of them? Who hasn't?" Shizuka, for her part,
did not sound as if she were awed by his presence,
which disappointed Bit. "You're the guy that joined
when they got that big winning streak that the
Lightning Team took away. That was a nice match."
For some people, he thought. His eyes passed down
the length of the Viper. "Your Zoid looks kind of
beat up. Was it that close of a battle?"
"You could say that," she granted. "Now that the
battle's over we need to pick up the pieces. We can't
afford to leave our equipment lying around like some
other teams can. We're stripping for cash."
"Yeah; sometimes you can find some nice things out
here," Bit agreed. "I find some equipment to stick on
my Liger all the time!"
"Feh. Some people think, that they have Zoids like
that, that they're better than people like me that
don't use powerful Zoids. Vipers aren't exactly
competitive in this Battle Commission, you know."
"I know what you mean," he replied with a nod, "it
must take a lot of work to keep this thing in
competition."
He heard a tone through the intercom, followed by a
slight pause. "My friends are coming. You'd better
get outta here; they don't like junkers, and they don't
like guys from other teams scouting their Zoids."
"Well, then," Bit said, standing, planting his arms
by his hips. "I guess I'll be seeing you around
sometime, then, Shizuka?"
"Heh. Later... Bit Cloud."
No sooner had Bit jumped off the nose of the Viper
the Zoid powered to life, rising from the sand. He
hurried back to where he left the jeep, narrowly
avoiding the sand shower of the Viper shaking-off the
dirt from its armor. The snake Zoid's head turned in
his direction for a moment, as if the pilot wanted to
say something, but then turned away, heading out to
meet her comrades.
Bit waited a few minutes as a monstrous juggernaut
appeared in the distance. As it drew closer he could
make out its features. It was an armored creature
modeled after a lobster, its upper armor halves painted
red and the lower portions metallic gray. It walked
on eight insect-like legs, surprisingly able to carry
the transport's weight. It came to a full stop, its
right claw opening to reveal a ramp and hangar.
Emerging from the hangar was the smaller, violet-
painted lobster cousin of the transport-- a Macurtis--
probably modified for salvage operations, as the
Macurtis was designed for both surface and underwater
combat.
"Wow, a Dragoon Nest!" Bit exclaimed. "You don't see
one of those every day!"
A portion of the lobster shell on the transport's
back opened up, revealing a hangar in the rear. A
large blue flying Zoid, a Salamander, launched. The
winged lizard Zoid vaguely resembled a legendary
dragon, and was the larger cousin of the Pterras which
Bit was already familiar with.
Although the display of such expensive Zoids all
together was marvelous, Shizuka's words were probably
true-- they wouldn't like people like Bit around while
they were conducting business, and that was probably
why the Salamander was deployed-- to act as an aerial
scout. Even though it didn't look like it was sporting
any weaponry whatsoever the Salamander was still large
enough to squash the jeep.
Of course, Bit reminded himself, Salamanders had too
frail of a frame to handle close-quarter combat.
Turning on the ignition, Bit's mind wandered. "The
Fire Wheel Team, huh?"
Blitz Team Base, 1900 Hours, Day 1
Bit's memory of the odd team name suddenly jogged
and caught up to him.
"Tomorrow we're facing the Fire Wheel Team," Jamie,
the tactical advisor, stated, standing next to the
projection screen displaying an overview of the team's
specs as made public by the Zoid Battle Commission.
"'Fire Wheel Team?'" Leena echoed, sitting at the
chair across from Bit. "Aren't they the biggest losers
in Class A?"
"That's what I heard," Brad confirmed, sitting back
in his chair with his arms folded, appearing not to
care, as usual. "They're also one of the biggest teams
around, with eight possible warriors."
"Except that some of them left the group, and the
team itself is having financial difficulties," Jamie
corrected. The screen changed to display three Zoids--
a Guysack, a Storm Sworder, and a Stealth Viper. "Only
three of their registered Zoids are used anymore
because they can't afford the upkeep for the rest of
them. Most of the Class A teams refuse to challenge
them or accept their challenges because of their
reputation, so the Zoid Battle Commission has to
arrange all their battles for them."
"Reputation... what reputation?" Bit wondered.
"They're supposed to be unpredictable because of the
amount of Zoids they have at their disposal," Brad
answered. "It's also because each of them have very
capable pilots, so people are afraid to challenge them
over that."
"But it's still hurting them even when they're not
like that, huh?" Leena finished. "Glad I'm not on
their team."
"The current rankings of their current pilots from
the last Zoid Trials are lower than our scores," Jamie
continued. "In fact their Stealth Viper pilot scored
in the low sixties."
"On the other hand it's only a Stealth Viper," Bit
added, remembering what its pilot said earlier that
day.
"What, are you worried about a dumb Stealth Viper?"
Leena teased.
"It seems to me," Dr. Toros said, interrupting, "that
those Zoids they're using are military-issue. Meaning
they're probably surplus hardware from back during the
war before the Zoid Battle Commission was set up."
"That makes them OLD!" exclaimed Bit. "If they're
winning using fossils then no wonder they're Class A."
"Not to mention Storm Sworders are one of the
hardest air Zoids to find, since they're so good,"
added Brad. "It sort of makes up for their other two
below-average Zoids."
"Right, so we can't take them lightly," Jamie
agreed, "and we're not handling the Stealth Viper like
we did with the Viper Team."
"If you say so," Leena said, unconvinced.
Continuing, "Guysack is armed with a tail-mounted
20mm cannon and two pincer claws-- that's it. They've
only switched out the tail for the gunnery pod on three
occasions, but I don't think they're going to do it
this time. The tail cannon can fire in every
direction, but the claws are forward-only; the key to
beating this one will be getting in close and behind it
or to the sides."
"The Storm Sworder can fight both on the ground and
in the air, but it's in their favor to going into the
air. It's only got one forward cannon under its
neck, and relies primarily on blades attached to each
wing."
"I'm sure you can out fly it easily," Brad said.
"Last of all, the Stealth Viper. It's got two 40mm
cannons, two grenade launchers, twin dual pod
launchers, and two image-recognition surface-to-air
missiles. It has good heat suppression and radar
deflection armor. Since it is military-issue, it is
also equipped with an ECM unit, making missiles less
effective against it. So when you go up against it
you want to use something other than missiles."
"Guess you're out of this one, Leena," Brad added,
jabbing at his fellow warrior.
"What?!" she exclaimed. "You're not going to go out
and get easy points while I'm sitting around here!"
"It'd be pointless to waste good ammo on something
that can't be hit by it," he continued.
"Guys, guys!" Bit said, getting between the two
warriors. "Geez, you don't have to get so worked-up
about it Leena."
"If it's not such a big deal, Bit, why don't YOU sit
out on this one?" she yelled angrily.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Toros
interrupted. "Bit hasn't sat out of a battle since he
joined, and we don't want to make it look like he's
the only reason we're winning...."
"Uh... thanks, Doc..." Bit said, uneasy. "But don't
you need me and Liger out there?"
"I'm sure we can handle it," Brad replied. "Even if
they are Class A they're still the lowest of Class A,
so these guys shouldn't be a problem."
"And we do need the Raynos to help with the Storm
Sworder," Jamie added. "They only have three Zoids, so
we have to be handicapped according to the rules."
Bit sighed, then shrugged. "Well, I guess you guys
can handle it...."
"Just don't let Leena go against the Stealth Viper,"
Brad persisted.
Fire Wheel Base, 2200 Hours, Day 1
The leader of the Fire Wheels, Mizuki, a woman in
her mid-twenties, sat back in her chair, giving her
full view of all three monitors set up at her station.
Her youthful face betrayed the experience she had
behind the Guysack, the Zoid of her choice. She ran
her hands back through her waist-length volume of dark
hair, throwing it over the back of the chair to ease
some of the strain of sitting back, facing her
similarly-aged lieutenants.
The left monitor held the master tactician and Zoid
pilot woman, "Spider"-- her battlefield name. Although
she was only two years younger than Mizuki Spider was
unusually brilliant, but rather cold and calculating.
Her eyes seemed to pierce into Mizuki's soul like icy
daggers, and although her peers wanted her to lighten-
up she refused to change her ways. Her role on the
battlefield these days was as the sometimes secondary
gunner for the Guysack, since her Warshark's ammunition
couldn't be paid for anymore.
The center screen beheld "Warlock," the chief
technician and chief Salamander pilot; the secondary
pilot left when the team split, so he had to modify
the large Zoid to fly without assistance. Unlike many
other pilots who wore eye lenses Warlock required them
in order to see, as they helped correct his poor
vision. His breaths exhaled, revealing cold wisps of
air, reflecting his current position deep within the
base, a forgotten military installation. The
Salamander was similarly impaired as the Warshark, but
Warlock's task now was to decrypt the doors to the
lower levels of the installation-- and that took him
to the cold recesses below, without heating.
Finally, on the third monitor was "Ziel," the ace
pilot of the team's Storm Sworder. Just like the
vicious iron raptor he piloted Ziel was very efficient
in aerial combat, utilizing the Storm Sworder's
unpopular blade option now that ammunition was scarce
for the team. The lights in his chamber were kept
purposefully dim, and only a dark silhouette could be
made out on the monitor, as Ziel seemed to like to keep
to himself most of the time.
Behind Mizuki stood Shizuka, her apprentice. Even
before three members left the team to form their own
team Shizuka was always the youngest of the pilots,
narrowly shy of twenty years. Where three Zoids were
denied ammunition the Guysack and Stealth Viper got
first dibs, and whatever was left over went to the
Storm Sworder's cannon, as both of the former Zoids
were effectively crippled without ammo. Mizuki lead
her apprentice by example by not wasting that ammo
needlessly, forcing herself and Shizuka to become
better shots. She was proud of her apprentice's 57%
accuracy rating in the simulators; it was a good
margin of miss and more than half the bullets hit
something.
Shizuka's field name was "Silencer," but Mizuki
herself had no such name. It was always something
generic like "Boss."
"Let's hear it," the boss said, expecting her
trained warriors to deliver their reports.
"I've finished up the battle plans," Spider began,
careful to hide her obvious pride in her brilliance.
"And I've analyzed the public data given on the Blitz
Team. The one we have to look out for is their Liger
Zero; it has a transforming parts capability, and we
will be unable to predict with certainty which armor
they're going to use."
"I would count on them using the Schneider," Mizuki
suggested. "Make a contingency for each of their
armors."
Spider nodded. "Right. Anyway, they've got a
Raynos now, which isn't reflected in the records yet,
as they've only recently acquired it. You can be
almost certain they're going to use it against our
Storm Sworder."
"I can handle that thing easily," Ziel chirped in.
"Raynos aren't equipped for mid-air melee like my
Storm Sworder is, so he's going to have to rely on his
two cannons. If he hits, first of all...."
"You flyboys are full of it," Warlock interrupted,
although he himself flew a flying Zoid.
"They've also a Gunsniper with a Wild Weasel Unit
attacked, so it's nothing like the other Gunsnipers
we've encountered," continued the master tactician.
"History shows that the pilot is prone to waste ammo,
but she also hits a lot, too."
"If I had that much ammo to throw away, there
wouldn't be a Zoid left," Shizuka grumbled.
"That also makes you rely too much on your ammo,"
Mizuki added sternly. "And that's unacceptable. The
Stealth Viper's ECM unit should be able to deflect most
of the missiles from that Wild Weasel Unit."
"Of course, boss, but they're the Blitz Team, and I
hardly think they're going to be THAT dumb," Spider
pointed out. "They're too good for that."
"Don't make the mistake of overestimating your
opponent," the leader countered. "If they're really
that good they wouldn't have lost to the Lightning
Team. The fact that they lost means they are beatable,
too."
"Of course, we lost to the Lightning Team, too,"
Warlock added under his breath, although Mizuki didn't
say anything to that. It was certainly true that the
Fire Wheel Team themselves weren't as good as some of
the other teams, but it helped to keep the team's feet
on the ground.
"You can't go into the simulations assuming that your
opponent is always going to make the best choice at the
right situation," Mizuki continued. "That's why I make
you do several simulations for each possible scenario;
if there is a possibility the opponent will make a
mistake, we need to know how to maximize our ability to
take advantage of it."
"Yes, boss," Spider said with a sigh. "Lastly, they
have a Command Wolf; my probability suggests that the
Blitz Team will rotate this one out for the match, so
I haven't done any serious simulations with it."
"Go back and do the simulations," the boss ordered.
"For all you know they'll switch out the Gunsniper
instead and then we'll have a problem." She turned to
face Warlock. "And you?"
"I'm still working on it," he reported. "Every time
I get past one security block there's always another
one behind it. I'll finish up the next block tomorrow
evening, but who knows how many more blocks there
are."
"If there's something usable, or sellable, we'll
need it."
"Yeah, I know, I know...."
"Ziel?"
"All the Zoids are prepped," the flyboy said. "I
went through and replaced all the parts damaged in the
battle this afternoon, and restocked the ammo to your
Guysack and the Stealth Viper, but I've few rounds for
my Zoid."
"Tough luck," Shizuka replied. "My snaky is totally
worthless without ammo."
"If it wasn't for the stupid scheduling we wouldn't
have to do two fights in a row," Ziel complained. "And
by that I mean the Battle Commission shouldn't screw
us like this."
"We're screwed as is, remember? Blitz Team, one of
the most promising teams in the league. Fire Wheel
Team, least-promising team in Class A. Ammo shortages,
bad armor, and uncompetitive Zoids." She sighed, then
chuckled to herself. "Don't you just love these
uphill battles? We are soooo going to lose."
"I don't plan on losing," Mizuki replied, amused by
her apprentice.
"Oh, and Shizu?" Spider voiced. "Do not, I repeat,
do NOT, use the switch. My calculations are doing the
simulations without that, and if you do use it that
could screw up our future battles."
"Dammit, why not?!" she complained. "You've kept
telling me that ever since I got that sucker, and I
could've used it to win all of the battles we lost!"
"It's a huge advantage to keep secret your ultimate
edge," Mizuki explained. "If you use it, and rely on
it completely, others will come to expect it, and
counter you. Then it won't be such a good edge
anymore, will it?"
"But you keep insisting I practice WITH it in the
simulator!"
"You'll know when to use it when you get there; not
a moment before, and not for the Blitz Team. They
aren't worth it."
"Besides," Spider added, "we've won those other
battles without it. We don't even NEED it."
Battleground, 0800 Hours, Day 2
The Judge Capsule landed on time, creating a massive
crater all around it. The capsule raised out of its
hole, and swung open, revealing the white Judge within.
Its head 'surveyed' the land as it habitually did,
declaring, "The land within a thirty-mile radius is a
designated Zoid battle zone."
To the Judge's left, the Blitz Team Hover Cargo
pulled to a stop at the edge of the battle area,
deploying its three Zoids from its top-mounted
catapult: a blue Command Wolf, a heavily-armed
Gunsniper, and an aerial teal Raynos.
At that moment the Fire Wheel Team's Dragoon Nest
pulled inside the zone. Its rear hangar catapult
released a dark silver, bird-like Storm Sworder, and it
banked hard to its right to orient its direction back
into the battlefield. The lobster-type transport
opened its center ramp, located under the head-bridge,
allowing a black-painted Guysack off, snapping its
scissor-like claws together in anticipation. Finally,
the Dragoon Nest's left claw opened up, allowing a
black Stealth Viper free.
Satisfied, the Judge continued, "All unauthorized
contestants and personnel must leave the battlefield
immediately." It once again made a quick scanning
sweep of the field. Most of the terrain was barren
rocky waste, with few rocky cliffs here and there, but
none large enough or significant to use as high ground,
rather as cover.
"Area scanned; battlefield set-up. The Blitz Team
versus the Fire Wheel Team. Battle mode '0983.'" The
Judge raised its arms into the air. "Ready... FIGHT!"
* * *
"I'm going on ahead," Wild Eagle announced. The
flyboy alter-ego of Jamie added boldly, "I'll see if I
can clip that Storm Sworder's wings quick."
"Roger that, Wild Eagle," Brad acknowledged in
reply, leading with his Command Wolf, Leena's Gunsniper
following behind and to the right. "If it's still
close enough to the Guysack and Stealth Viper try to
draw it away."
Over the system they heard Bit's voice from the
Hover Cargo. "Good luck, guys!"
"There won't be anything left of them," Leena
boasted, "when I'm through. This'll be a piece of
cake!"
* * *
"Raynos is moving out ahead of the pack," Spider
said, appearing suddenly on the screen in the Guysack's
cockpit. "The other two are running on behind it."
"So, they're coming to meet us, huh?" Mizuki
determined, amused. Although the Storm Sworder and
Stealth Viper were very fast, the Guysack was not, and
the boss wanted to be certain she had cover so as not
to get caught by something a lot faster than her.
That was essentially every other Zoid in the battle,
of course. "Uphill battles are more interesting," she
mused.
"I'll get the Raynos," Ziel stated, breaking out of
formation.
"Negative on that," the boss commanded. "Stay with
us."
"Why not?" he complained, wavering back into
formation.
"Because you're too damn eager to plug the Raynos,
that's why," Silencer answered. "If we can plug it on
the first pass then the battle'll be easier, and
that'll be a lot harder if I can't shoot it."
"That's a big 'if.' We all know he's better than
that, and you're going to miss with only TWO STA
missiles."
"Maybe. Or maybe not."
"Cut the chatter," Mizuki ordered. She sighed,
leaning back slightly against her pilot chair. The
Liger Zero, unexpectedly, was not present for the
battle, which disappointed the Fire Wheel boss.
However, that gave their team the best scenario for
victory, provided they could get rid of the Raynos.
The Stealth Viper and Guysack could retaliate against
aerial threats, but not exceedingly well; if the Storm
Sworder failed to bring it down both the Viper and the
Guysack are sitting ducks to strafe runs.
* * *
"Wild Eagle here, I've visual contact. I'll pull
the Storm Sworder out, and the rest is yours!"
He considered doing a quick strafe on the Guysack
and Stealth Viper, but the Storm Sworder was already
moving ahead to intercept. The Wild Eagle cracked a
smile, eager to duel against a fellow aviator.
The communications screen flickered to life, and an
unfamiliar man stared back at him, although most of
his features were obscured by a sun-visor flight
helmet. "Let's make this quick, kid," the pilot of the
Storm Sworder challenged.
"I wouldn't have it any other way!" Wild Eagle
answered in reply, killing the visual. He felt the
cannon beneath the cockpit rumble to life as he
readied it to fire, intending to take out his aerial
rival in the first pass.
Thumbing the firing trigger, a stream of deadly
bullets flew out toward the Storm Sworder, but the
Raynos was forced to bank right to dodge a hail of
fire from the Storm Sworder's own cannon. Wild Eagle
turned his head around and saw that the Storm Sworder
banked left, and was wheeling around to get behind the
Raynos.
A warning alarm flared, tracking a missile lock.
Undaunted, he kicked the throttle to full, breaking
out of the surface targeting easily. Wild Eagle didn't
need to think to know it was the Stealth Viper trying
to take a potshot at him, as the Storm Sworder wasn't
equipped with any missiles-- only the forward cannon,
its retractable head sword lance, and its wing blades.
Which meant, once the Storm Sworder was out of ammo,
it would be forced to make mid-air slash passing, and
that was only a problem if it somehow managed to keep
up with the Raynos.
He yanked the stick left, then right, avoiding
another deadly hail from the silver Zoid. He had no
idea how much ammunition the Fire Wheels loaded it up
with, but the way it was firing the Storm Sworder was
going to run out of ammo fast, and for nothing.
"Wow," he shouted, knowing the enemy pilot was
listening, "I'm not impressed!"
"I've flown head-on in a lightning storm; don't you
screw around with me, you little punk!" the pilot
cried, obviously angry. "Dammit!"
The sudden cause for alarm on the part of the Storm
Sworder's pilot was evident, as the bullet streams
ceased. Wild Eagle snorted in amusement; the Storm
Sworder had even less ammunition than he thought. "Now
I'll be happy to oblige your request and start playing
seriously!"
He cut the speed of the Raynos, then hard-turned to
line up his own shot. The Storm Sworder's head lance
was already extending, as if getting ready for its
mid-air joust. Satisfied that the enemy was committing
to the joust Wild Eagle thumbed the trigger, unleashing
his own stream of bullets.
However, at the last moment the Storm Sworder broke
from its intended flight path, veering off to the
right and over the bullet stream, pulling a braking
maneuver. The Raynos was moving too fast to slow
itself down as the Wild Eagle knew what the other pilot
was intending to do. Letting out a roar he kicked on
the afterburners, pushing the Raynos further ahead and
past the Storm Sworder, narrowly missing its clipping
dive with its right wing.
He spared a quick glance over his shoulder, killing
the afterburners after knowing the Storm Sworder was
getting ready to make another pass. "That's more like
it!"
* * *
"I've contact with the Guysack!" Brad announced as
his Command Wolf bounded across the wasteland.
Although visual contact had not been reached the
radar blip for the Guysack was within strike range.
The mercenary had long since switched-off the blips for
the Raynos and Storm Sworder, as it made him sick
watching them move around on the radar screen the way
they do. Brad looked over his shoulder, visually
confirming that Leena had kept up with him.
"The Guysack's hiding behind the rocks over there,"
Leena said, indicating a point slightly to the left of
Brad. "I can't track the Stealth Viper."
"It's definitely got good heat suppression," Brad
added, quickly toggling the heat tracker on the
console. "It looks like they're hiding out and waiting
for us, as expected."
He brought the Command Wolf around to circle the
rock the Guysack was hiding behind from the left,
while Leena's Gunsniper took off for the right,
intending a pincer attack. It would appear to others
that they were trying to flank and corner the Guysack,
but both pilots knew it was only an attempt to draw
out the hiding Stealth Viper. The longer the Viper
stayed in its hiding hole the harder it would be to
take it down later; it was better to flush it out now
by pressuring its teammate.
The moment the Command Wolf exposed itself to the
Guysack's 270 degree arc of fire its tail cannon opened
fire, but Brad pushed hard on the acceleration, moving
faster than the turret could rotate, but several
bullets bit into the Wolf's rear right leg armor. At
the same time the Gunsniper entered the range of fire,
but a loud scream and gunfire signaled to Brad that
they found the Stealth Viper.
Moving in a wide arc Brad now saw what the enemy was
doing. The Guysack, with its back to the rock, had a
natural gun position toward him, as the tail could
swing faster toward its natural forward position
rather than 180 degrees around. Coiled on top of the
Guysack's back was the Stealth Viper, firing its two
head-mounted 40mm cannons on the Gunsniper, and it was
hitting, as the Stealth Viper's head could move with
greater mobility than the Guysack's tail gun.
"You guys are history!" Leena cried.
"Wait, Leena!" Brad yelled, braking his Command Wolf
to turn and line a shot against the Guysack.
But it was already too late, as Leena was already
flipping switches. "I'll take them both out at once!
Weasel Unit Total Assault!"
As he expected the Guysack and Stealth Viper were not
moving from their position, seemingly unconcerned that
a hail of missiles originating from the Gunsniper was
about to rain destruction. Brad tried to ignore the
noise and squeezed off a few shots from the Wolf's top-
mounted cannon, then broke off to avoid more bullet
rounds.
He felt the blast of explosion behind him, followed
by Leena's protests of disbelief.
"N-no way!"
* * *
Bit stood up from his chair, having watched all of
the Weasel Unit's missiles fly over, around, and past
the Stealth Viper and Guysack combination, either
blowing up its hiding rock or the dirt behind it.
"Wow!" he exclaimed. "That's the first time I've
seen that happen!"
"That's actually quite clever," Toros admitted,
scratching his chin. "Not only did they hide the
Stealth Viper's radar, heat, and physical presence
by standing on top of each other, they're using the
Viper's electronic countermeasures to distort targeting
the Guysack as well."
"They're WHAT?!" they heard Leena scream. "You guys
didn't say anything about that!"
Her complaints were cut short as the Stealth Viper
continued fire on the Gunsniper. The radar screen
showed that the Stealth Viper and Guysack were now
splitting-up, now that their rocky cover was gone,
with the Viper going after the Gunsniper and the
Guysack the Command Wolf, as predicted.
Although the Command Wolf could handle the Guysack,
the Gunsniper would be in trouble once the Stealth
Viper got within melee range, as the Gunsniper's
cannons could not hit targets that close.
"Leena, you'd better fall back," Bit suggested.
"Don't tell me what to do!" she yelled back angrily.
"I'll get this guy before it gets to me!"
Sighing, Bit closed the transmission to the Gunsniper
for a moment, turning back toward Toros. "Hey, Doc...?
What do you think's going to happen?"
Toros folded his arms. "What'll you think will
happen, Bit?"
He looked up toward the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well,
I guess the Stealth Viper's going to get that close to
the Gunsniper, and the Guysack is buying time with the
Command Wolf until the Stealth Viper is done. Then
after that they could assist the Storm Sworder in
taking down the Raynos."
"Pretty good," Toros complimented. "That's what I
was thinking, too."
"So Brad needs to take out the Guysack and help
Leena, and then they can handle the Storm Sworder,"
Bit added.
"Mm-hmm. The only problem is we don't know how good
the Guysack pilot is with that Zoid. It's all up to
those two now."
* * *
"Did you hear that, Brad?" Toros said. "You must
take out the Guysack as soon as possible and help
Leena."
"Yeah, I gotcha, Doc," the mercenary pilot replied.
"Easier said than done."
The Command Wolf took two bounds to the left, then
turned and fired shots at the Guysack, but the
scorpion-type Zoid was unexpectedly nimble for an
insectoid monstrosity. Its lower center of gravity
afforded it better control on surfaces, making the
Guysack suitable for combat on all terrains; its only
flaws are a distinct lack of armor and effective
weaponry. If Brad wanted to hit the Guysack he would
have to get into melee range, but that would also mean
he had to put up with the Guysack's pincers. However,
since the pincers were forward-only, all he had to do
was find a way to get on one of its other three sides.
Since the scorpion was so maneuverable tackling it
from the left or right would only end in facing the
pincers, so the best way to get around it was to attack
from the rear. However, the tail cannon could easily
nail him from there, but there was not much choice in
it. As much as Brad liked to get out of such a simple
battle without a lot of holes in his Wolf's armor, he
needed to finish this now, before it got worse.
* * *
"Come on, now!" Silencer cried, weaving her Stealth
Viper around the bullet shots as it slithered closer
to the Gunsniper. "You can aim better than that!"
It was not dodging bullets at all; there wasn't any
Zoid built that she knew of that could do it. The
Gunsniper pilot, in her panic, was making predictable
moves, and it wasn't difficult to judge where her
sprays were going just by carefully watching how the
top platform of the Gunsniper was moving. Silencer
scoffed; the Wild Weasel Unit was overrated.
For her part the Viper pilot was taking her time,
savoring the moment as she weaved the snake Zoid back
and forth in the dirt, inching closer, but not close
enough for one good strike. The trick was to not put
the Gunsniper pilot in a state of panic such that she
would break and run; the Gunsniper, although top-heavy,
could still outrun the Stealth Viper. The Silencer
only needed for her to forget about that.
"'Tis I, the snake charmer," she said to herself,
having not squeezed off a single shot of her own during
the Stealth Viper's dance. "Paralyzed with fear, I
shall strike, and savor my prey!"
The moment the Gunsniper's cannons spun dry, the
Stealth Viper reared its head back and lashed out,
quickly coiling around the weapon platform's legs.
"What ego comes up, must stay down!" Silencer cried,
squeezing the Gunsniper's legs together.
* * *
"Computer frozen?!" Leena cried in disbelief, a
high-pitched whine the only response the Gunsniper
computer would give her. "You've got to be kidding
me!"
She slammed a fist against the console, in
frustration. The Stealth Viper that bested her lifted
its head into view, and stared down at her, as if
contemplating whether or not to finish off its prey.
* * *
Mizuki risked a glance in the Stealth Viper's
direction, glad to see that the Gunsniper toppled
over on its own weight. Quickly she tore herself
back to the fight at hand, quickly remembering that the
Command Wolf was the bigger threat.
Said opponent fired several more shots in her
direction, which were easily avoided, then the Wolf
ran off in the opposite direction.
"What the hell?!"
"Boss, the Command Wolf is retreating," she heard
Spider say, receiving audio-only.
"I can see that; I want to know why."
"I don't know, but don't go after it."
"I know," Mizuki acknowledged, her thoughts following
the same train as her tactician. "I need to see what
he's up to first."
Another communication came in, this time from
Silencer. "Gunsniper locked-up. I'm on my way."
"No, keep your distance," the boss ordered. "The
Command Wolf is up to something, and if it gets both
of us, then we lose."
"Roger that," her apprentice replied.
This time Ziel checked-in. "Hey, if you're not that
busy, how about creating a diversion for me? This
Raynos guy is pissing me off."
"Oh really?" Silencer said, feigning sweetness.
"I've two kids here that could help you out. Just say
'please.'"
"Look, fire the damn missiles or I'll strafe YOU!"
the flyboy yelled angrily.
"Shizu, go help him," Mizuki ordered. "This is no
time to argue."
By this time the Command Wolf had turned around, and
was heading for Mizuki's Guysack at full speed.
"A running start?! He's got to be joking!"
Mizuki frantically put the Guysack in reverse,
falling back and quickly scanning the grid for any
rocky outcroppings, but the closest one was the victim
of the Wild Weasel Unit. Cursing her timing, the boss
of the Fire Wheels cut the reverse, powered-up the
electrical charges in the pincers, and charged
forward at full speed.
"This'll be the last thing you expect, Wolfie!" she
cried, grinding her teeth together.
* * *
As Mizuki predicted, Brad wasn't expecting the
Guysack to charge, which meant the pilot knew what he
was trying to do. Quickly he redid the calculations,
coming up with a new solution now that the Guysack was
in forward motion. The jump would have to come sooner
than expected, but there still should be enough speed.
That is, provided the Guysack didn't make a sudden
stop or turn on the way, but Brad was confident he got
the Guysack pilot worked-up enough to make her forget
about that.
He watched the radar grid closely, and the solution
appeared, just in front of his position. Bracing
himself, Brad switched on the boost drives that forced
the Command Wolf to jump.
As he hoped, the Guysack hadn't changed its course,
and the Command Wolf landed square on top of the
scorpion's back, smashing through its armor with its
weight and momentum. The cockpit rocked Brad around a
bit, but the satisfactory crunch that came from
crushing an aluminum can underfoot was there to greet
him when it stopped.
Brad looked out to the sides, satisfied that the
eight legs supporting the Guysack had given way under
the weight of a Zoid heavier in density than a Stealth
Viper. He barely heard the Judge disqualify the
Guysack from the battle, and turned his attentions
toward Leena's Gunsniper.
Too late, however, as the Gunsniper was already down
on the ground, and Leena was complaining loads over the
channels. The Stealth Viper had disappeared again,
but this time there was only one blip left on the
radar.
"Guess you don't have good enough stealth after all,"
Brad noted, commanding the Wolf to give chase.
* * *
"Mizuki! Mizuki! Are you alright?"
Popping open the cockpit, coughing from the smoke
that suddenly billowed within, the boss of the Fire
Wheels watched the Command Wolf bound off. The Guysack
was completely flat against the ground, and all eight
of its legs had snapped-off. Not to mention the
telltale paw prints on the Guysack's back.
"Damn," she cursed, ignoring Spider's communications.
"That's going to cost a lot of paint jobs."
* * *
For the most part, Ziel was sick of flying around
in circles, dodging bullets. As he circled for
another pass he considered the Raynos. Its pilot was
very good, no doubt, squeezing shots only to keep Ziel
away from a mid-air wing slash. It was all he could
do to ignore the itch in his trigger finger, to fire
off the ammo he reserved, and hopefully, by now,
convinced the Raynos pilot he didn't have any. Spider
was correct; they were counting on him to run out of
ammo.
The only trouble was he couldn't find a good time to
shoot. If he fired at the wrong time he would miss
his chance for a flyby hit, and then his advantage
would be gone. If he waited too late the Storm Sworder
may be nose-diving. But now that the Stealth Viper was
free, it had two good STA missiles to annoy the Raynos
with. If he played his cards right that could lead to
a decisive victory.
The moment the Stealth Viper launched the STA
missiles the Raynos would try its best to shake them
off, and Ziel guessed it wouldn't be difficult for the
pilot to do so. That would hopefully open a window of
opportunity for the Storm Sworder to make its strike,
and he would likely have to unload some of the reserve
ammo to set up the wing clipping.
"Here goes nothing!" he heard Silencer cry.
As if on cue the Raynos reacted, and Ziel's radar
indicated that the two STA missiles have indeed
launched. Even though that gave away the Viper's
position it wouldn't matter if he could take out the
Raynos; whatever was left on the ground would be his.
The teal Zoid tilted right and kicked its
afterburners; Ziel maneuvered the Storm Sworder to his
right to catch the Raynos on the turnaround.
He mapped-out the scenario in his mind. The Raynos
would try at all costs to ditch the missiles. Even
though the Stealth Viper's STA missiles didn't pack
enough punch to destroy the Zoid it was still enough
to clip its wings. Since there were no good rocky
outcroppings within the immediate area the only true
solution would be to dive, then pull up at the last
moment, causing the missiles to impact against the
ground. All Ziel had to do was be there when he dove.
Keeping one eye on the radar the Raynos purposefully
weaved to and fro and around in arcs; the Storm
Sworder moved along the outer arc to meet the opposing
Zoid. Both missiles kept up with the Raynos, and were
gaining fast.
Ziel pulled his eyes away from the radar; the Raynos
wasn't diving as expected. Instead, the pilot was
aiming directly toward him at high speed.
"Clever," he muttered, unwilling to participate in
an exchange of targets. Reaching onto the console the
pilot killed the engines, angling the stick downward.
As gravity caught him and threatened to yank him
back to terra firma the Raynos and both missiles
zoomed past him overhead, and Ziel congratulated
himself. Even though the missiles were identity-lock
they could still detonate prematurely if they
impacted against something else-- say, a Storm
Sworder-- while pursuing the target. Keeping the
engine on would only have served to cut the margin
closer as the Raynos and Storm Sworder's distance
would've been closer to one another, and there would
have been a greater chance of eating the missiles.
Only an ameteur would make that mistake.
Quickly bringing the engines back online Ziel kicked
on the afterburners and quickly regained control of
his descent. Taking a quick glance out each side of
the cockpit window he finally realized that the Raynos
was making its diving maneuver to ditch the missiles;
its pilot probably understood what was going to
happen. Ziel yanked the stick downward to pursue.
The landscape quickly became larger in the windshield
and the sky disappeared completely as Ziel brought
the Storm Sworder in a near-straight nosedive. The
Raynos descended at a less steep angle, but began to
pull-up. Ziel ignored the missiles, easing his angle
of descent to line-up his cannon with the Raynos. The
moment the targeting computer pinged, he thumbed the
trigger.
"I hate easy targets," Ziel said, grinning to
himself.
Fire rained down upon the Raynos, putting holes
through its wings and producing satisfying plumes of
smoke.
* * *
The Wild Eagle felt each bullet tear through the
armor of the Raynos, and he frantically tried to
level out the Zoid's body for a safer emergency
landing. He had to give the Storm Sworder pilot
credit for fooling him; he never expected him to have
any more ammo left, not after this long of fighting
without using it. Of course, such a stunt was going
to cost the Storm Sworder, too.
Land caught up to the Raynos quickly, and Wild Eagle
braced himself. The only consolation for being shot
down was, judging from the Storm Sworder's frantic
attempt to get the shot in, it wasn't going to have
time to pull-up before hitting the ground.
* * *
Silencer watched as the Storm Sworder narrowly
missed a flat body landing. The Zoid's neck tore a
hole in the ground, then flipped the craft over from
momentum. Then it flipped over several more times,
on its wings, and then sliding off somewhere on its
back.
"This isn't going to be pretty," she muttered to
herself, quickly moving the Viper from one rocky
outcropping to another.
The Command Wolf was still in reasonably good shape,
and the Stealth Viper was attempting to find good
ground from which to strike. After firing its missiles
Silencer was forced into a quick skirmish before
losing the Wolf, and now she was forced to hide while
she tried to think of a way to beat her opponent.
She wiped her palms against her coat, forcing herself
to relax and breath. Her heart pounded with
exhilaration, being up against someone that was
obviously better than she was, and who beat even
Mizuki.
"Perhaps this Blitz Team does deserve its
reputation," she mused. "So it's just me and him,
huh?"
"Don't use it," Spider insisted. "You have to beat
him without the secret weapon."
"You don't have to remind me," Silencer replied,
punching more keys on the console. A chest compartment
along the Stealth Viper's body opened, and a mechanical
arm holding a mortar appeared. She guided the arm
downward, shoving the mortar into the ground, orienting
it upward. "It won't be as satisfying, will it?"
"That's the kind of stuff I want to hear!" Mizuki
encouraged. "This is what you've been trained for;
even though Command Wolves outclass your Zoid in every
way you can still beat him!"
"Cut that 'you can do it' bull," she hissed,
annoyed at her sudden virtual pep squad's appearance.
"If you pressure me I'm going to crack."
The pilot reached under the console, and adjusted
the heat suppressor further, praying silently that
she really was gone from the Wolf's sight. The boss
was right; the Command Wolf outclassed her Zoid, and
the only true advantage was to live up to the Stealth
Viper's name. All she had to do was wait for the right
moment to strike.
Or rather, make that opportunity.
"Okay, Shizu," she told herself, "he's nothing
special. Just another punk kid with an overpowered
quadruped... you can take care of him...."
Silencer imagined that the others were amused by
this, and the tingling sensation in her arms wouldn't
go away.
"I don't understand. Why can't I calm down? What
is it about this battle that excites me?"
* * *
"I don't see her, Doc," Brad said, his eyes scanning
the area in his forward arc. "This Stealth Viper may
as well be using stealth technology, too."
"But it's not," Toros replied over the link. "You
must keep your eyes open. Don't rely on the radar to
help you."
"Easy for you to say."
Slowly, Brad edged the Command Wolf around each
rocky outcropping, knowing that the Stealth Viper was
hiding behind one of them. The problem was, each time
he rounded a corner the Wolf was vulnerable to attack,
as the top-mounted back cannon could not turret; its
range of fire was only directly ahead. So for a few
precious seconds the Command Wolf would be open to
attack and the Stealth Viper was free to take shots or
run off to another hole in another direction; the snake
Zoid had the advantage of being far more maneuverable
than a quadruped Zoid.
"Not as easy as you thought it would be?"
Brad froze in his tracks, not recognizing the voice.
"Come on," beckoned the woman's voice, and Brad
realized it must be the Stealth Viper pilot. "Show me
your true power!"
"Triangulate that," he ordered, relaying the message
to the Hover Cargo.
"Don't bother. By the time you figure out where I
am, it'll be too late."
The Command Wolf's head swung side-to-side. "This is
getting kinda old," he taunted, hoping to bait the
pilot into making a mistake. "I thought you Fire
Wheel guys were better than this."
"Heh, heh. You guys are amusing, taking out one Zoid
of ours for each one we take down. Too bad the trend
is going to continue, and you'll be out of Zoids to
take ME out with!"
So she's a talker, too. He edged the Command Wolf
away from the rocks. "I was kinda hoping that you'd
give me a better challenge. Too much talking, and not
enough shooting."
"BANG!"
Brad jumped in his seat, alarmed at the sudden yell
in the audio link. He switched on the visual for a
moment, noting that the female pilot was making faces
at him, then killed it. It was then followed by
terrible, cackling laughter.
"Brad," Dr. Toros said, over the sound of the mad
cackling, "we've got a fix on the Stealth Viper's
location. It's...."
All at once three explosions rocked Brad in the
cockpit, realizing that three of the nearby rocks were
now smoking. A second later launched grenades impacted
against his blue armor, rocking the Wolf further. Bits
of shrapnel rained downwind.
Suddenly a red blip flared to life on the radar, but
it was already on top of the Command Wolf. The Zoid
protested against a physical hit, of steel grinding
against steel. Looking over his shoulder, upward, the
Stealth Viper had sheared-off the cannon, and was now
staring down at him menacingly.
No, the Viper wasn't simply standing on him, it was
wrapped around the Command Wolf's body.
"Game over," the enemy pilot shouted, obviously
pleased with herself.
Gritting his teeth, Brad yanked hard right on the
controls, forcefully turning the Command Wolf onto
its side, bringing the Stealth Viper down with him.
Machine gune fire kicked up dirt where the cockpit used
to be, but Brad was thrown hard against the cockpit,
with the window pressed against the ground. He looked
straight up out the top of the window, and spied the
Stealth Viper's head lying on its side in the dirt.
He certainly hoped the system froze from the impact.
But sadly, the Viper's head reoriented itself back
to face him. "That was a funny little stunt, but it's
over now."
* * *
"Battle over!" declared the judge. "Battle over!
The winner is... the Fire Wheel Team!"
Toros sat back in his chair, sighing. "Well, so
much for that one."
"Ah, that's no sweat, Doc," Bit assured him. "We're
still better than they are. We'll just have to
challenge them again, and I'll win it for you!"
One screen flickered to life, and Leena appeared
quite annoyed. "WHAT did you just say?"
Another came up, this time with Jamie. "Uh, guys,
how about picking me up?"
"Come on, Bit," Brad complained, opening his own
transmission. "It's not like you're the reason we
win, you know."
"How do you know I'm not?" Bit replied boastfully.
"Me and Liger could've beaten that Stealth Viper... no
problem!"
In unison, each of the pilots yelled, "BIT!!"
* * *
Shizuka the Silencer sat back against her seat,
sighing in relief, but the tingling sensation would not
go away. In the span of a few seconds, she finally
understood what it was that was egging her. Reaching
to the console, she opened a channel to each of the
Blitz Team members.
"Congratulations," she told them.
"It should be you that is congratulated," a middle-
aged man, probably the Blitz Team technician, said.
"Using remote grenade launchers like that as a
distraction...."
"It was a cheesy trick," Shizuka interrupted. "In an
even match I would have lost; but then, battles are
hardly even, aren't they? Mr. Wolf pilot, I salute
your abilities; maybe next time it'll be even closer."
She smiled, amused by the bewildered expression on
the Command Wolf pilot's face. "Uh... sure."
She gave a quick, informal solute. "From here I'll
train harder. I hope you guys will do, too, for the
next time we fight."
* * *
Mizuki ran her fingers down the side of the smashed
black Guysack, just as the Dragoon Nest arrived and
deployed the Macurtis. The smaller lobster's claws
were adjusted for scooping, and was strong enough to
tow the wrecked Zoid. In the other direction the
Stealth Viper was approaching.
How many years was it, father? Yes, it was over ten
years ago I first laid eyes on this black scorpion. It
was similarly as long ago I trained myself to pilot it
against your wishes. I remember the first singles
match; you were so angry, and I was so proud, slicing
that guy like a tuna can. I think, those times as I
earned money for our family, that I started helping the
others in town, building our team slowly from the
ground up. Every scratch and dent on your armor,
Guysack, was our badge of honor, and we never gave in
despite how easily we became outclassed. I'm proud of
all those years....
A live communication came in from Spider, from within
the cockpit of the Macurtis. "Damn, that thing's a
wreak."
"This guy's beyond salvage now," the boss said. "It
was a good last battle, wasn't it?"
"Cheer up, boss," Spider encouraged. "We can use the
prize money to buy another...."
Mizuki shook her head. "We'll strip this Guysack for
parts. Anything else we can't use we'll sell for
cash. I can't pilot another Zoid like I could him."
The Macurtis pilot remained silent.
"Our first priority is to fix the Stealth Viper and
Storm Sworder, then we'll re-outfit the Warshark to
take my place. From there we'll just have to rebuild
our finances, slow but steady." Mizuki cast her eyes
to the approaching Stealth Viper. "I think we've
enough capable warriors to carry this team on... to
victory."
* * *
Fire Wheel Base, 1600 Hours, Day 2
"Got it," Warlock muttered, finishing keying the
decryption code to the security door.
He looked out the window of the control room to the
hangar, and to the number of decrypted passkey doors
required to open the chamber at the far end. Warlock
counted six-- now seven-- open. The last six times his
efforts were rewarded with another sealed door;
whatever it was that was back there was certainly
something the old military didn't want people to
touch easily.
The sliding double doors parted, protesting against
the cold condensation the entire hangar was suffering
from ever since the facility was abandoned. It was
sheer luck Mizuki found this place, and it was this
place that prompted her to start the Fire Wheel Team in
the first place. Each of the Fire Wheels came from a
class of people who simply could not afford to buy and
maintain Zoids; to people such as them, having the
ability to enter Zoid battles was a dream come true.
Warlock stood up in his seat, catching the
reflected glint of white and blue armor. Boxy armor
at that. He scrambled for the controls, heart pounding
in realization that this was it. Flipping all the
light switches of the underground hangar on, more of
the new Zoid's features could be made out.
It stood low to the ground, and was as large as a
Liger. Its white and blue armor was made of very
simple geometric shapes, but looked incredibly sturdy
despite its bulky appearance. A cockpit window 'visor'
armor rest in a raised position, providing what would
be complete armor when in the lowered position, like a
tank. From the front it was armed with two clamp-like
claws, rather than Guysack's scissor pincers. It stood
on eight legs, like the Guysack, but the legs were
more armored and reinforced in all the structurally-
weak places. On its back was a mounted, turreted dual-
barreled shock cannon. Up and along its back formed
a scorpion-like tail, with one large gatling cannon as
its stinger, and two smaller cannons to each side of
it as backup.
Sliding back to the control console Warlock brought
up the technical specifications of the mysterious Zoid.
Reaching to the comm, he said, "Mizuki... everybody, to
Hangar 7, immediately. You should come see this."
It was rare to see a Deathpion these days, as they
are expensive as heck, but this was no ordinary
Deathpion, according to the specs. It was the second,
unfinished, Death Stinger, one of the military's top-
secret ultimate weapons in the war.
* * *
No words could describe what Mizuki was thinking,
staring at the Death Stinger head-on in the cold
hangar. Every aspect of the beast was just like the
Guysack, and then some.
"Is this a sign?" she wondered. "How could I...?"
"Boss," she heard her apprentice say, her voice
echoing in the empty chamber. "Please don't think of
this as a replacement. Think of it as... well... your
gift. A gift from all of us, for what you've done for
this team."
"It will never replace my Guysack."
"Nor should it," Shizuka agreed. "Nothing will
replace your old partner." She waved her arm,
gesturing the Death Stinger. "The past is done; now
all there's to do is lead us to our great future. Only
you can do that, because you are our leader."
Mizuki snorted, lowering her head. "It figures, I
guess. You guys would fall apart without me."
Turning away from the Death Stinger, she ordered,
"Get the simulator ready! Add this guy into the
database; we're in it for the long haul."
-----------------------------------------------
Author's Rant
The Dragoon Nest, Death Stinger, Salamander, all
exist in the Zoids universe. The Death Stinger, too,
exists; in a previous Zoids series it was one of the
top-secret weapons of the Guylos Empire (the other was
Geno Saurer). This series may or may not be the
successor to that series, but I thought it added a bit
of spice to add slight references to it.
Macuritis, Warshark, Guysack, and Storm Sworder all
appeared as Backdraft Zoids on the show. The Stealth
Viper was used many times: Backdraft Group, Champ Team,
and Viper Team.
-- Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@hotmail.com)
http://www.angelfire.com/art/rcxshizuka/index.html
Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@hotmail.com)
http://www.angelfire.com/art/rcxshizuka/index.html
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Zoids, I am
borrowing the names, settings, etc. under fair use and
without making a profit. This work cannot be sold for
profit or retransmitted and reposted without my express
permission.
Continuity: Takes place after the Raynos appear in
the series.
------------------------------------------------
East Flatland Waste, 1400 Hours, Day 1
"Who would'a thought that I'd get so lucky as to find
a whole Viper!" Bit Cloud exclaimed, leaping out of
his jeep in excitement.
Lying on its stomach, under a thin layer of dirt
blown onto its metallic surface, the black Viper Zoid
lay prone, and appeared to be in reasonable shape.
Certainly, there were holes in its armor, and one of
its side-mounted grenade launchers was missing, but it
was still left there, after the battle held only an
hour earlier. Whichever team owned the Viper was
likely on the losing team.
It all seemed too good to be true, Bit thought.
Well, if they're going to leave something like this
out here in the middle of nowhere....
Bit made his way to the cockpit, raising his left
arm to his face to block the dust blowing his
direction as the wind picked-up. Viper Zoids were very
common Zoids, and in fact they were really nothing
special. There was only a few teams that Bit knew of
that used Vipers seriously, and none of them impressed
him. Yet salvaging this discarded Viper was not for
the Zoid itself, but for the parts.
Although a thin layer of dust formed over the
cockpit window of the black Viper, Bit could make out
the silhouette of a person-- the pilot, likely--
within. Immediately thoughts of dismantling the Zoid
transformed into disappointment, then into worry that
the pilot might need help.
He pounded his gloved fist against the window.
"Hey!" Bit cried, over the wind. "You need any help?"
Bit got no immediate response from the pilot. He
wiped a section of dust off the window, then cupped
his hands around his eyes, and peered inside.
The pilot was a young woman, appearing to be in her
late teens, her eyes shut, as if sleeping... or
meditating. She wore a heavy black coat, buttoned only
at the collar, and wore it almost like a cape, as its
length seemed to stretch to her boots and her arms were
folded under its folds rather than inserted into the
sleeves. Her dark hair was tied up in a red chord,
curiously in a shoelace knot.
Bit watched as one of the girl's arms appeared from
under the coat and reached over to the console. He
jumped at the sound of her voice, demanding, "What do
you want?"
It was obvious from her voice that this warrior was
young, but also no-nonsense. Bit summoned his
composure. "Hey, are you okay? What're you doing out
in the middle of nowhere, anyway?"
"Who're you?" she asked sternly. "If you're a
junker then I was here first. Salvage Law."
Bit cursed mentally, wondering if the pilot really
was a warrior. According to the Salvage Law the first
person who found the salvageable goods had claim to
them-- which also meant whoever this was is holding the
goods in the battle area. "Just wanted to see if you
were okay."
"I'm fine, thank you," the pilot replied, although
Bit thought she could use a little more work in
sounding sincere. "You sure you want to wait outside
like that?"
"Nah, that's okay," Bit answered, sitting up and
away from the cockpit window. "You're waiting for
something?"
"My friends, actually. If you hadn't noticed, this
Zoid isn't exactly equipped to lug any of the garbage
around here home."
"Yeah, I've noticed. By the way, who are you?"
"Shizuka, of the Fire Wheel Team."
So she is a warrior. "'Fire Wheel Team?' Name
sounds familiar... but I can't place it."
The pilot within laughed, genuinely amused. "You
wouldn't be the first. That's because barely anyone
accepts our challenges. Who are you?"
"My name's Bit Cloud!" he proclaimed proudly. "I'm
with the Blitz Team. Maybe you've heard of them."
"Heard of them? Who hasn't?" Shizuka, for her part,
did not sound as if she were awed by his presence,
which disappointed Bit. "You're the guy that joined
when they got that big winning streak that the
Lightning Team took away. That was a nice match."
For some people, he thought. His eyes passed down
the length of the Viper. "Your Zoid looks kind of
beat up. Was it that close of a battle?"
"You could say that," she granted. "Now that the
battle's over we need to pick up the pieces. We can't
afford to leave our equipment lying around like some
other teams can. We're stripping for cash."
"Yeah; sometimes you can find some nice things out
here," Bit agreed. "I find some equipment to stick on
my Liger all the time!"
"Feh. Some people think, that they have Zoids like
that, that they're better than people like me that
don't use powerful Zoids. Vipers aren't exactly
competitive in this Battle Commission, you know."
"I know what you mean," he replied with a nod, "it
must take a lot of work to keep this thing in
competition."
He heard a tone through the intercom, followed by a
slight pause. "My friends are coming. You'd better
get outta here; they don't like junkers, and they don't
like guys from other teams scouting their Zoids."
"Well, then," Bit said, standing, planting his arms
by his hips. "I guess I'll be seeing you around
sometime, then, Shizuka?"
"Heh. Later... Bit Cloud."
No sooner had Bit jumped off the nose of the Viper
the Zoid powered to life, rising from the sand. He
hurried back to where he left the jeep, narrowly
avoiding the sand shower of the Viper shaking-off the
dirt from its armor. The snake Zoid's head turned in
his direction for a moment, as if the pilot wanted to
say something, but then turned away, heading out to
meet her comrades.
Bit waited a few minutes as a monstrous juggernaut
appeared in the distance. As it drew closer he could
make out its features. It was an armored creature
modeled after a lobster, its upper armor halves painted
red and the lower portions metallic gray. It walked
on eight insect-like legs, surprisingly able to carry
the transport's weight. It came to a full stop, its
right claw opening to reveal a ramp and hangar.
Emerging from the hangar was the smaller, violet-
painted lobster cousin of the transport-- a Macurtis--
probably modified for salvage operations, as the
Macurtis was designed for both surface and underwater
combat.
"Wow, a Dragoon Nest!" Bit exclaimed. "You don't see
one of those every day!"
A portion of the lobster shell on the transport's
back opened up, revealing a hangar in the rear. A
large blue flying Zoid, a Salamander, launched. The
winged lizard Zoid vaguely resembled a legendary
dragon, and was the larger cousin of the Pterras which
Bit was already familiar with.
Although the display of such expensive Zoids all
together was marvelous, Shizuka's words were probably
true-- they wouldn't like people like Bit around while
they were conducting business, and that was probably
why the Salamander was deployed-- to act as an aerial
scout. Even though it didn't look like it was sporting
any weaponry whatsoever the Salamander was still large
enough to squash the jeep.
Of course, Bit reminded himself, Salamanders had too
frail of a frame to handle close-quarter combat.
Turning on the ignition, Bit's mind wandered. "The
Fire Wheel Team, huh?"
Blitz Team Base, 1900 Hours, Day 1
Bit's memory of the odd team name suddenly jogged
and caught up to him.
"Tomorrow we're facing the Fire Wheel Team," Jamie,
the tactical advisor, stated, standing next to the
projection screen displaying an overview of the team's
specs as made public by the Zoid Battle Commission.
"'Fire Wheel Team?'" Leena echoed, sitting at the
chair across from Bit. "Aren't they the biggest losers
in Class A?"
"That's what I heard," Brad confirmed, sitting back
in his chair with his arms folded, appearing not to
care, as usual. "They're also one of the biggest teams
around, with eight possible warriors."
"Except that some of them left the group, and the
team itself is having financial difficulties," Jamie
corrected. The screen changed to display three Zoids--
a Guysack, a Storm Sworder, and a Stealth Viper. "Only
three of their registered Zoids are used anymore
because they can't afford the upkeep for the rest of
them. Most of the Class A teams refuse to challenge
them or accept their challenges because of their
reputation, so the Zoid Battle Commission has to
arrange all their battles for them."
"Reputation... what reputation?" Bit wondered.
"They're supposed to be unpredictable because of the
amount of Zoids they have at their disposal," Brad
answered. "It's also because each of them have very
capable pilots, so people are afraid to challenge them
over that."
"But it's still hurting them even when they're not
like that, huh?" Leena finished. "Glad I'm not on
their team."
"The current rankings of their current pilots from
the last Zoid Trials are lower than our scores," Jamie
continued. "In fact their Stealth Viper pilot scored
in the low sixties."
"On the other hand it's only a Stealth Viper," Bit
added, remembering what its pilot said earlier that
day.
"What, are you worried about a dumb Stealth Viper?"
Leena teased.
"It seems to me," Dr. Toros said, interrupting, "that
those Zoids they're using are military-issue. Meaning
they're probably surplus hardware from back during the
war before the Zoid Battle Commission was set up."
"That makes them OLD!" exclaimed Bit. "If they're
winning using fossils then no wonder they're Class A."
"Not to mention Storm Sworders are one of the
hardest air Zoids to find, since they're so good,"
added Brad. "It sort of makes up for their other two
below-average Zoids."
"Right, so we can't take them lightly," Jamie
agreed, "and we're not handling the Stealth Viper like
we did with the Viper Team."
"If you say so," Leena said, unconvinced.
Continuing, "Guysack is armed with a tail-mounted
20mm cannon and two pincer claws-- that's it. They've
only switched out the tail for the gunnery pod on three
occasions, but I don't think they're going to do it
this time. The tail cannon can fire in every
direction, but the claws are forward-only; the key to
beating this one will be getting in close and behind it
or to the sides."
"The Storm Sworder can fight both on the ground and
in the air, but it's in their favor to going into the
air. It's only got one forward cannon under its
neck, and relies primarily on blades attached to each
wing."
"I'm sure you can out fly it easily," Brad said.
"Last of all, the Stealth Viper. It's got two 40mm
cannons, two grenade launchers, twin dual pod
launchers, and two image-recognition surface-to-air
missiles. It has good heat suppression and radar
deflection armor. Since it is military-issue, it is
also equipped with an ECM unit, making missiles less
effective against it. So when you go up against it
you want to use something other than missiles."
"Guess you're out of this one, Leena," Brad added,
jabbing at his fellow warrior.
"What?!" she exclaimed. "You're not going to go out
and get easy points while I'm sitting around here!"
"It'd be pointless to waste good ammo on something
that can't be hit by it," he continued.
"Guys, guys!" Bit said, getting between the two
warriors. "Geez, you don't have to get so worked-up
about it Leena."
"If it's not such a big deal, Bit, why don't YOU sit
out on this one?" she yelled angrily.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Toros
interrupted. "Bit hasn't sat out of a battle since he
joined, and we don't want to make it look like he's
the only reason we're winning...."
"Uh... thanks, Doc..." Bit said, uneasy. "But don't
you need me and Liger out there?"
"I'm sure we can handle it," Brad replied. "Even if
they are Class A they're still the lowest of Class A,
so these guys shouldn't be a problem."
"And we do need the Raynos to help with the Storm
Sworder," Jamie added. "They only have three Zoids, so
we have to be handicapped according to the rules."
Bit sighed, then shrugged. "Well, I guess you guys
can handle it...."
"Just don't let Leena go against the Stealth Viper,"
Brad persisted.
Fire Wheel Base, 2200 Hours, Day 1
The leader of the Fire Wheels, Mizuki, a woman in
her mid-twenties, sat back in her chair, giving her
full view of all three monitors set up at her station.
Her youthful face betrayed the experience she had
behind the Guysack, the Zoid of her choice. She ran
her hands back through her waist-length volume of dark
hair, throwing it over the back of the chair to ease
some of the strain of sitting back, facing her
similarly-aged lieutenants.
The left monitor held the master tactician and Zoid
pilot woman, "Spider"-- her battlefield name. Although
she was only two years younger than Mizuki Spider was
unusually brilliant, but rather cold and calculating.
Her eyes seemed to pierce into Mizuki's soul like icy
daggers, and although her peers wanted her to lighten-
up she refused to change her ways. Her role on the
battlefield these days was as the sometimes secondary
gunner for the Guysack, since her Warshark's ammunition
couldn't be paid for anymore.
The center screen beheld "Warlock," the chief
technician and chief Salamander pilot; the secondary
pilot left when the team split, so he had to modify
the large Zoid to fly without assistance. Unlike many
other pilots who wore eye lenses Warlock required them
in order to see, as they helped correct his poor
vision. His breaths exhaled, revealing cold wisps of
air, reflecting his current position deep within the
base, a forgotten military installation. The
Salamander was similarly impaired as the Warshark, but
Warlock's task now was to decrypt the doors to the
lower levels of the installation-- and that took him
to the cold recesses below, without heating.
Finally, on the third monitor was "Ziel," the ace
pilot of the team's Storm Sworder. Just like the
vicious iron raptor he piloted Ziel was very efficient
in aerial combat, utilizing the Storm Sworder's
unpopular blade option now that ammunition was scarce
for the team. The lights in his chamber were kept
purposefully dim, and only a dark silhouette could be
made out on the monitor, as Ziel seemed to like to keep
to himself most of the time.
Behind Mizuki stood Shizuka, her apprentice. Even
before three members left the team to form their own
team Shizuka was always the youngest of the pilots,
narrowly shy of twenty years. Where three Zoids were
denied ammunition the Guysack and Stealth Viper got
first dibs, and whatever was left over went to the
Storm Sworder's cannon, as both of the former Zoids
were effectively crippled without ammo. Mizuki lead
her apprentice by example by not wasting that ammo
needlessly, forcing herself and Shizuka to become
better shots. She was proud of her apprentice's 57%
accuracy rating in the simulators; it was a good
margin of miss and more than half the bullets hit
something.
Shizuka's field name was "Silencer," but Mizuki
herself had no such name. It was always something
generic like "Boss."
"Let's hear it," the boss said, expecting her
trained warriors to deliver their reports.
"I've finished up the battle plans," Spider began,
careful to hide her obvious pride in her brilliance.
"And I've analyzed the public data given on the Blitz
Team. The one we have to look out for is their Liger
Zero; it has a transforming parts capability, and we
will be unable to predict with certainty which armor
they're going to use."
"I would count on them using the Schneider," Mizuki
suggested. "Make a contingency for each of their
armors."
Spider nodded. "Right. Anyway, they've got a
Raynos now, which isn't reflected in the records yet,
as they've only recently acquired it. You can be
almost certain they're going to use it against our
Storm Sworder."
"I can handle that thing easily," Ziel chirped in.
"Raynos aren't equipped for mid-air melee like my
Storm Sworder is, so he's going to have to rely on his
two cannons. If he hits, first of all...."
"You flyboys are full of it," Warlock interrupted,
although he himself flew a flying Zoid.
"They've also a Gunsniper with a Wild Weasel Unit
attacked, so it's nothing like the other Gunsnipers
we've encountered," continued the master tactician.
"History shows that the pilot is prone to waste ammo,
but she also hits a lot, too."
"If I had that much ammo to throw away, there
wouldn't be a Zoid left," Shizuka grumbled.
"That also makes you rely too much on your ammo,"
Mizuki added sternly. "And that's unacceptable. The
Stealth Viper's ECM unit should be able to deflect most
of the missiles from that Wild Weasel Unit."
"Of course, boss, but they're the Blitz Team, and I
hardly think they're going to be THAT dumb," Spider
pointed out. "They're too good for that."
"Don't make the mistake of overestimating your
opponent," the leader countered. "If they're really
that good they wouldn't have lost to the Lightning
Team. The fact that they lost means they are beatable,
too."
"Of course, we lost to the Lightning Team, too,"
Warlock added under his breath, although Mizuki didn't
say anything to that. It was certainly true that the
Fire Wheel Team themselves weren't as good as some of
the other teams, but it helped to keep the team's feet
on the ground.
"You can't go into the simulations assuming that your
opponent is always going to make the best choice at the
right situation," Mizuki continued. "That's why I make
you do several simulations for each possible scenario;
if there is a possibility the opponent will make a
mistake, we need to know how to maximize our ability to
take advantage of it."
"Yes, boss," Spider said with a sigh. "Lastly, they
have a Command Wolf; my probability suggests that the
Blitz Team will rotate this one out for the match, so
I haven't done any serious simulations with it."
"Go back and do the simulations," the boss ordered.
"For all you know they'll switch out the Gunsniper
instead and then we'll have a problem." She turned to
face Warlock. "And you?"
"I'm still working on it," he reported. "Every time
I get past one security block there's always another
one behind it. I'll finish up the next block tomorrow
evening, but who knows how many more blocks there
are."
"If there's something usable, or sellable, we'll
need it."
"Yeah, I know, I know...."
"Ziel?"
"All the Zoids are prepped," the flyboy said. "I
went through and replaced all the parts damaged in the
battle this afternoon, and restocked the ammo to your
Guysack and the Stealth Viper, but I've few rounds for
my Zoid."
"Tough luck," Shizuka replied. "My snaky is totally
worthless without ammo."
"If it wasn't for the stupid scheduling we wouldn't
have to do two fights in a row," Ziel complained. "And
by that I mean the Battle Commission shouldn't screw
us like this."
"We're screwed as is, remember? Blitz Team, one of
the most promising teams in the league. Fire Wheel
Team, least-promising team in Class A. Ammo shortages,
bad armor, and uncompetitive Zoids." She sighed, then
chuckled to herself. "Don't you just love these
uphill battles? We are soooo going to lose."
"I don't plan on losing," Mizuki replied, amused by
her apprentice.
"Oh, and Shizu?" Spider voiced. "Do not, I repeat,
do NOT, use the switch. My calculations are doing the
simulations without that, and if you do use it that
could screw up our future battles."
"Dammit, why not?!" she complained. "You've kept
telling me that ever since I got that sucker, and I
could've used it to win all of the battles we lost!"
"It's a huge advantage to keep secret your ultimate
edge," Mizuki explained. "If you use it, and rely on
it completely, others will come to expect it, and
counter you. Then it won't be such a good edge
anymore, will it?"
"But you keep insisting I practice WITH it in the
simulator!"
"You'll know when to use it when you get there; not
a moment before, and not for the Blitz Team. They
aren't worth it."
"Besides," Spider added, "we've won those other
battles without it. We don't even NEED it."
Battleground, 0800 Hours, Day 2
The Judge Capsule landed on time, creating a massive
crater all around it. The capsule raised out of its
hole, and swung open, revealing the white Judge within.
Its head 'surveyed' the land as it habitually did,
declaring, "The land within a thirty-mile radius is a
designated Zoid battle zone."
To the Judge's left, the Blitz Team Hover Cargo
pulled to a stop at the edge of the battle area,
deploying its three Zoids from its top-mounted
catapult: a blue Command Wolf, a heavily-armed
Gunsniper, and an aerial teal Raynos.
At that moment the Fire Wheel Team's Dragoon Nest
pulled inside the zone. Its rear hangar catapult
released a dark silver, bird-like Storm Sworder, and it
banked hard to its right to orient its direction back
into the battlefield. The lobster-type transport
opened its center ramp, located under the head-bridge,
allowing a black-painted Guysack off, snapping its
scissor-like claws together in anticipation. Finally,
the Dragoon Nest's left claw opened up, allowing a
black Stealth Viper free.
Satisfied, the Judge continued, "All unauthorized
contestants and personnel must leave the battlefield
immediately." It once again made a quick scanning
sweep of the field. Most of the terrain was barren
rocky waste, with few rocky cliffs here and there, but
none large enough or significant to use as high ground,
rather as cover.
"Area scanned; battlefield set-up. The Blitz Team
versus the Fire Wheel Team. Battle mode '0983.'" The
Judge raised its arms into the air. "Ready... FIGHT!"
* * *
"I'm going on ahead," Wild Eagle announced. The
flyboy alter-ego of Jamie added boldly, "I'll see if I
can clip that Storm Sworder's wings quick."
"Roger that, Wild Eagle," Brad acknowledged in
reply, leading with his Command Wolf, Leena's Gunsniper
following behind and to the right. "If it's still
close enough to the Guysack and Stealth Viper try to
draw it away."
Over the system they heard Bit's voice from the
Hover Cargo. "Good luck, guys!"
"There won't be anything left of them," Leena
boasted, "when I'm through. This'll be a piece of
cake!"
* * *
"Raynos is moving out ahead of the pack," Spider
said, appearing suddenly on the screen in the Guysack's
cockpit. "The other two are running on behind it."
"So, they're coming to meet us, huh?" Mizuki
determined, amused. Although the Storm Sworder and
Stealth Viper were very fast, the Guysack was not, and
the boss wanted to be certain she had cover so as not
to get caught by something a lot faster than her.
That was essentially every other Zoid in the battle,
of course. "Uphill battles are more interesting," she
mused.
"I'll get the Raynos," Ziel stated, breaking out of
formation.
"Negative on that," the boss commanded. "Stay with
us."
"Why not?" he complained, wavering back into
formation.
"Because you're too damn eager to plug the Raynos,
that's why," Silencer answered. "If we can plug it on
the first pass then the battle'll be easier, and
that'll be a lot harder if I can't shoot it."
"That's a big 'if.' We all know he's better than
that, and you're going to miss with only TWO STA
missiles."
"Maybe. Or maybe not."
"Cut the chatter," Mizuki ordered. She sighed,
leaning back slightly against her pilot chair. The
Liger Zero, unexpectedly, was not present for the
battle, which disappointed the Fire Wheel boss.
However, that gave their team the best scenario for
victory, provided they could get rid of the Raynos.
The Stealth Viper and Guysack could retaliate against
aerial threats, but not exceedingly well; if the Storm
Sworder failed to bring it down both the Viper and the
Guysack are sitting ducks to strafe runs.
* * *
"Wild Eagle here, I've visual contact. I'll pull
the Storm Sworder out, and the rest is yours!"
He considered doing a quick strafe on the Guysack
and Stealth Viper, but the Storm Sworder was already
moving ahead to intercept. The Wild Eagle cracked a
smile, eager to duel against a fellow aviator.
The communications screen flickered to life, and an
unfamiliar man stared back at him, although most of
his features were obscured by a sun-visor flight
helmet. "Let's make this quick, kid," the pilot of the
Storm Sworder challenged.
"I wouldn't have it any other way!" Wild Eagle
answered in reply, killing the visual. He felt the
cannon beneath the cockpit rumble to life as he
readied it to fire, intending to take out his aerial
rival in the first pass.
Thumbing the firing trigger, a stream of deadly
bullets flew out toward the Storm Sworder, but the
Raynos was forced to bank right to dodge a hail of
fire from the Storm Sworder's own cannon. Wild Eagle
turned his head around and saw that the Storm Sworder
banked left, and was wheeling around to get behind the
Raynos.
A warning alarm flared, tracking a missile lock.
Undaunted, he kicked the throttle to full, breaking
out of the surface targeting easily. Wild Eagle didn't
need to think to know it was the Stealth Viper trying
to take a potshot at him, as the Storm Sworder wasn't
equipped with any missiles-- only the forward cannon,
its retractable head sword lance, and its wing blades.
Which meant, once the Storm Sworder was out of ammo,
it would be forced to make mid-air slash passing, and
that was only a problem if it somehow managed to keep
up with the Raynos.
He yanked the stick left, then right, avoiding
another deadly hail from the silver Zoid. He had no
idea how much ammunition the Fire Wheels loaded it up
with, but the way it was firing the Storm Sworder was
going to run out of ammo fast, and for nothing.
"Wow," he shouted, knowing the enemy pilot was
listening, "I'm not impressed!"
"I've flown head-on in a lightning storm; don't you
screw around with me, you little punk!" the pilot
cried, obviously angry. "Dammit!"
The sudden cause for alarm on the part of the Storm
Sworder's pilot was evident, as the bullet streams
ceased. Wild Eagle snorted in amusement; the Storm
Sworder had even less ammunition than he thought. "Now
I'll be happy to oblige your request and start playing
seriously!"
He cut the speed of the Raynos, then hard-turned to
line up his own shot. The Storm Sworder's head lance
was already extending, as if getting ready for its
mid-air joust. Satisfied that the enemy was committing
to the joust Wild Eagle thumbed the trigger, unleashing
his own stream of bullets.
However, at the last moment the Storm Sworder broke
from its intended flight path, veering off to the
right and over the bullet stream, pulling a braking
maneuver. The Raynos was moving too fast to slow
itself down as the Wild Eagle knew what the other pilot
was intending to do. Letting out a roar he kicked on
the afterburners, pushing the Raynos further ahead and
past the Storm Sworder, narrowly missing its clipping
dive with its right wing.
He spared a quick glance over his shoulder, killing
the afterburners after knowing the Storm Sworder was
getting ready to make another pass. "That's more like
it!"
* * *
"I've contact with the Guysack!" Brad announced as
his Command Wolf bounded across the wasteland.
Although visual contact had not been reached the
radar blip for the Guysack was within strike range.
The mercenary had long since switched-off the blips for
the Raynos and Storm Sworder, as it made him sick
watching them move around on the radar screen the way
they do. Brad looked over his shoulder, visually
confirming that Leena had kept up with him.
"The Guysack's hiding behind the rocks over there,"
Leena said, indicating a point slightly to the left of
Brad. "I can't track the Stealth Viper."
"It's definitely got good heat suppression," Brad
added, quickly toggling the heat tracker on the
console. "It looks like they're hiding out and waiting
for us, as expected."
He brought the Command Wolf around to circle the
rock the Guysack was hiding behind from the left,
while Leena's Gunsniper took off for the right,
intending a pincer attack. It would appear to others
that they were trying to flank and corner the Guysack,
but both pilots knew it was only an attempt to draw
out the hiding Stealth Viper. The longer the Viper
stayed in its hiding hole the harder it would be to
take it down later; it was better to flush it out now
by pressuring its teammate.
The moment the Command Wolf exposed itself to the
Guysack's 270 degree arc of fire its tail cannon opened
fire, but Brad pushed hard on the acceleration, moving
faster than the turret could rotate, but several
bullets bit into the Wolf's rear right leg armor. At
the same time the Gunsniper entered the range of fire,
but a loud scream and gunfire signaled to Brad that
they found the Stealth Viper.
Moving in a wide arc Brad now saw what the enemy was
doing. The Guysack, with its back to the rock, had a
natural gun position toward him, as the tail could
swing faster toward its natural forward position
rather than 180 degrees around. Coiled on top of the
Guysack's back was the Stealth Viper, firing its two
head-mounted 40mm cannons on the Gunsniper, and it was
hitting, as the Stealth Viper's head could move with
greater mobility than the Guysack's tail gun.
"You guys are history!" Leena cried.
"Wait, Leena!" Brad yelled, braking his Command Wolf
to turn and line a shot against the Guysack.
But it was already too late, as Leena was already
flipping switches. "I'll take them both out at once!
Weasel Unit Total Assault!"
As he expected the Guysack and Stealth Viper were not
moving from their position, seemingly unconcerned that
a hail of missiles originating from the Gunsniper was
about to rain destruction. Brad tried to ignore the
noise and squeezed off a few shots from the Wolf's top-
mounted cannon, then broke off to avoid more bullet
rounds.
He felt the blast of explosion behind him, followed
by Leena's protests of disbelief.
"N-no way!"
* * *
Bit stood up from his chair, having watched all of
the Weasel Unit's missiles fly over, around, and past
the Stealth Viper and Guysack combination, either
blowing up its hiding rock or the dirt behind it.
"Wow!" he exclaimed. "That's the first time I've
seen that happen!"
"That's actually quite clever," Toros admitted,
scratching his chin. "Not only did they hide the
Stealth Viper's radar, heat, and physical presence
by standing on top of each other, they're using the
Viper's electronic countermeasures to distort targeting
the Guysack as well."
"They're WHAT?!" they heard Leena scream. "You guys
didn't say anything about that!"
Her complaints were cut short as the Stealth Viper
continued fire on the Gunsniper. The radar screen
showed that the Stealth Viper and Guysack were now
splitting-up, now that their rocky cover was gone,
with the Viper going after the Gunsniper and the
Guysack the Command Wolf, as predicted.
Although the Command Wolf could handle the Guysack,
the Gunsniper would be in trouble once the Stealth
Viper got within melee range, as the Gunsniper's
cannons could not hit targets that close.
"Leena, you'd better fall back," Bit suggested.
"Don't tell me what to do!" she yelled back angrily.
"I'll get this guy before it gets to me!"
Sighing, Bit closed the transmission to the Gunsniper
for a moment, turning back toward Toros. "Hey, Doc...?
What do you think's going to happen?"
Toros folded his arms. "What'll you think will
happen, Bit?"
He looked up toward the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well,
I guess the Stealth Viper's going to get that close to
the Gunsniper, and the Guysack is buying time with the
Command Wolf until the Stealth Viper is done. Then
after that they could assist the Storm Sworder in
taking down the Raynos."
"Pretty good," Toros complimented. "That's what I
was thinking, too."
"So Brad needs to take out the Guysack and help
Leena, and then they can handle the Storm Sworder,"
Bit added.
"Mm-hmm. The only problem is we don't know how good
the Guysack pilot is with that Zoid. It's all up to
those two now."
* * *
"Did you hear that, Brad?" Toros said. "You must
take out the Guysack as soon as possible and help
Leena."
"Yeah, I gotcha, Doc," the mercenary pilot replied.
"Easier said than done."
The Command Wolf took two bounds to the left, then
turned and fired shots at the Guysack, but the
scorpion-type Zoid was unexpectedly nimble for an
insectoid monstrosity. Its lower center of gravity
afforded it better control on surfaces, making the
Guysack suitable for combat on all terrains; its only
flaws are a distinct lack of armor and effective
weaponry. If Brad wanted to hit the Guysack he would
have to get into melee range, but that would also mean
he had to put up with the Guysack's pincers. However,
since the pincers were forward-only, all he had to do
was find a way to get on one of its other three sides.
Since the scorpion was so maneuverable tackling it
from the left or right would only end in facing the
pincers, so the best way to get around it was to attack
from the rear. However, the tail cannon could easily
nail him from there, but there was not much choice in
it. As much as Brad liked to get out of such a simple
battle without a lot of holes in his Wolf's armor, he
needed to finish this now, before it got worse.
* * *
"Come on, now!" Silencer cried, weaving her Stealth
Viper around the bullet shots as it slithered closer
to the Gunsniper. "You can aim better than that!"
It was not dodging bullets at all; there wasn't any
Zoid built that she knew of that could do it. The
Gunsniper pilot, in her panic, was making predictable
moves, and it wasn't difficult to judge where her
sprays were going just by carefully watching how the
top platform of the Gunsniper was moving. Silencer
scoffed; the Wild Weasel Unit was overrated.
For her part the Viper pilot was taking her time,
savoring the moment as she weaved the snake Zoid back
and forth in the dirt, inching closer, but not close
enough for one good strike. The trick was to not put
the Gunsniper pilot in a state of panic such that she
would break and run; the Gunsniper, although top-heavy,
could still outrun the Stealth Viper. The Silencer
only needed for her to forget about that.
"'Tis I, the snake charmer," she said to herself,
having not squeezed off a single shot of her own during
the Stealth Viper's dance. "Paralyzed with fear, I
shall strike, and savor my prey!"
The moment the Gunsniper's cannons spun dry, the
Stealth Viper reared its head back and lashed out,
quickly coiling around the weapon platform's legs.
"What ego comes up, must stay down!" Silencer cried,
squeezing the Gunsniper's legs together.
* * *
"Computer frozen?!" Leena cried in disbelief, a
high-pitched whine the only response the Gunsniper
computer would give her. "You've got to be kidding
me!"
She slammed a fist against the console, in
frustration. The Stealth Viper that bested her lifted
its head into view, and stared down at her, as if
contemplating whether or not to finish off its prey.
* * *
Mizuki risked a glance in the Stealth Viper's
direction, glad to see that the Gunsniper toppled
over on its own weight. Quickly she tore herself
back to the fight at hand, quickly remembering that the
Command Wolf was the bigger threat.
Said opponent fired several more shots in her
direction, which were easily avoided, then the Wolf
ran off in the opposite direction.
"What the hell?!"
"Boss, the Command Wolf is retreating," she heard
Spider say, receiving audio-only.
"I can see that; I want to know why."
"I don't know, but don't go after it."
"I know," Mizuki acknowledged, her thoughts following
the same train as her tactician. "I need to see what
he's up to first."
Another communication came in, this time from
Silencer. "Gunsniper locked-up. I'm on my way."
"No, keep your distance," the boss ordered. "The
Command Wolf is up to something, and if it gets both
of us, then we lose."
"Roger that," her apprentice replied.
This time Ziel checked-in. "Hey, if you're not that
busy, how about creating a diversion for me? This
Raynos guy is pissing me off."
"Oh really?" Silencer said, feigning sweetness.
"I've two kids here that could help you out. Just say
'please.'"
"Look, fire the damn missiles or I'll strafe YOU!"
the flyboy yelled angrily.
"Shizu, go help him," Mizuki ordered. "This is no
time to argue."
By this time the Command Wolf had turned around, and
was heading for Mizuki's Guysack at full speed.
"A running start?! He's got to be joking!"
Mizuki frantically put the Guysack in reverse,
falling back and quickly scanning the grid for any
rocky outcroppings, but the closest one was the victim
of the Wild Weasel Unit. Cursing her timing, the boss
of the Fire Wheels cut the reverse, powered-up the
electrical charges in the pincers, and charged
forward at full speed.
"This'll be the last thing you expect, Wolfie!" she
cried, grinding her teeth together.
* * *
As Mizuki predicted, Brad wasn't expecting the
Guysack to charge, which meant the pilot knew what he
was trying to do. Quickly he redid the calculations,
coming up with a new solution now that the Guysack was
in forward motion. The jump would have to come sooner
than expected, but there still should be enough speed.
That is, provided the Guysack didn't make a sudden
stop or turn on the way, but Brad was confident he got
the Guysack pilot worked-up enough to make her forget
about that.
He watched the radar grid closely, and the solution
appeared, just in front of his position. Bracing
himself, Brad switched on the boost drives that forced
the Command Wolf to jump.
As he hoped, the Guysack hadn't changed its course,
and the Command Wolf landed square on top of the
scorpion's back, smashing through its armor with its
weight and momentum. The cockpit rocked Brad around a
bit, but the satisfactory crunch that came from
crushing an aluminum can underfoot was there to greet
him when it stopped.
Brad looked out to the sides, satisfied that the
eight legs supporting the Guysack had given way under
the weight of a Zoid heavier in density than a Stealth
Viper. He barely heard the Judge disqualify the
Guysack from the battle, and turned his attentions
toward Leena's Gunsniper.
Too late, however, as the Gunsniper was already down
on the ground, and Leena was complaining loads over the
channels. The Stealth Viper had disappeared again,
but this time there was only one blip left on the
radar.
"Guess you don't have good enough stealth after all,"
Brad noted, commanding the Wolf to give chase.
* * *
"Mizuki! Mizuki! Are you alright?"
Popping open the cockpit, coughing from the smoke
that suddenly billowed within, the boss of the Fire
Wheels watched the Command Wolf bound off. The Guysack
was completely flat against the ground, and all eight
of its legs had snapped-off. Not to mention the
telltale paw prints on the Guysack's back.
"Damn," she cursed, ignoring Spider's communications.
"That's going to cost a lot of paint jobs."
* * *
For the most part, Ziel was sick of flying around
in circles, dodging bullets. As he circled for
another pass he considered the Raynos. Its pilot was
very good, no doubt, squeezing shots only to keep Ziel
away from a mid-air wing slash. It was all he could
do to ignore the itch in his trigger finger, to fire
off the ammo he reserved, and hopefully, by now,
convinced the Raynos pilot he didn't have any. Spider
was correct; they were counting on him to run out of
ammo.
The only trouble was he couldn't find a good time to
shoot. If he fired at the wrong time he would miss
his chance for a flyby hit, and then his advantage
would be gone. If he waited too late the Storm Sworder
may be nose-diving. But now that the Stealth Viper was
free, it had two good STA missiles to annoy the Raynos
with. If he played his cards right that could lead to
a decisive victory.
The moment the Stealth Viper launched the STA
missiles the Raynos would try its best to shake them
off, and Ziel guessed it wouldn't be difficult for the
pilot to do so. That would hopefully open a window of
opportunity for the Storm Sworder to make its strike,
and he would likely have to unload some of the reserve
ammo to set up the wing clipping.
"Here goes nothing!" he heard Silencer cry.
As if on cue the Raynos reacted, and Ziel's radar
indicated that the two STA missiles have indeed
launched. Even though that gave away the Viper's
position it wouldn't matter if he could take out the
Raynos; whatever was left on the ground would be his.
The teal Zoid tilted right and kicked its
afterburners; Ziel maneuvered the Storm Sworder to his
right to catch the Raynos on the turnaround.
He mapped-out the scenario in his mind. The Raynos
would try at all costs to ditch the missiles. Even
though the Stealth Viper's STA missiles didn't pack
enough punch to destroy the Zoid it was still enough
to clip its wings. Since there were no good rocky
outcroppings within the immediate area the only true
solution would be to dive, then pull up at the last
moment, causing the missiles to impact against the
ground. All Ziel had to do was be there when he dove.
Keeping one eye on the radar the Raynos purposefully
weaved to and fro and around in arcs; the Storm
Sworder moved along the outer arc to meet the opposing
Zoid. Both missiles kept up with the Raynos, and were
gaining fast.
Ziel pulled his eyes away from the radar; the Raynos
wasn't diving as expected. Instead, the pilot was
aiming directly toward him at high speed.
"Clever," he muttered, unwilling to participate in
an exchange of targets. Reaching onto the console the
pilot killed the engines, angling the stick downward.
As gravity caught him and threatened to yank him
back to terra firma the Raynos and both missiles
zoomed past him overhead, and Ziel congratulated
himself. Even though the missiles were identity-lock
they could still detonate prematurely if they
impacted against something else-- say, a Storm
Sworder-- while pursuing the target. Keeping the
engine on would only have served to cut the margin
closer as the Raynos and Storm Sworder's distance
would've been closer to one another, and there would
have been a greater chance of eating the missiles.
Only an ameteur would make that mistake.
Quickly bringing the engines back online Ziel kicked
on the afterburners and quickly regained control of
his descent. Taking a quick glance out each side of
the cockpit window he finally realized that the Raynos
was making its diving maneuver to ditch the missiles;
its pilot probably understood what was going to
happen. Ziel yanked the stick downward to pursue.
The landscape quickly became larger in the windshield
and the sky disappeared completely as Ziel brought
the Storm Sworder in a near-straight nosedive. The
Raynos descended at a less steep angle, but began to
pull-up. Ziel ignored the missiles, easing his angle
of descent to line-up his cannon with the Raynos. The
moment the targeting computer pinged, he thumbed the
trigger.
"I hate easy targets," Ziel said, grinning to
himself.
Fire rained down upon the Raynos, putting holes
through its wings and producing satisfying plumes of
smoke.
* * *
The Wild Eagle felt each bullet tear through the
armor of the Raynos, and he frantically tried to
level out the Zoid's body for a safer emergency
landing. He had to give the Storm Sworder pilot
credit for fooling him; he never expected him to have
any more ammo left, not after this long of fighting
without using it. Of course, such a stunt was going
to cost the Storm Sworder, too.
Land caught up to the Raynos quickly, and Wild Eagle
braced himself. The only consolation for being shot
down was, judging from the Storm Sworder's frantic
attempt to get the shot in, it wasn't going to have
time to pull-up before hitting the ground.
* * *
Silencer watched as the Storm Sworder narrowly
missed a flat body landing. The Zoid's neck tore a
hole in the ground, then flipped the craft over from
momentum. Then it flipped over several more times,
on its wings, and then sliding off somewhere on its
back.
"This isn't going to be pretty," she muttered to
herself, quickly moving the Viper from one rocky
outcropping to another.
The Command Wolf was still in reasonably good shape,
and the Stealth Viper was attempting to find good
ground from which to strike. After firing its missiles
Silencer was forced into a quick skirmish before
losing the Wolf, and now she was forced to hide while
she tried to think of a way to beat her opponent.
She wiped her palms against her coat, forcing herself
to relax and breath. Her heart pounded with
exhilaration, being up against someone that was
obviously better than she was, and who beat even
Mizuki.
"Perhaps this Blitz Team does deserve its
reputation," she mused. "So it's just me and him,
huh?"
"Don't use it," Spider insisted. "You have to beat
him without the secret weapon."
"You don't have to remind me," Silencer replied,
punching more keys on the console. A chest compartment
along the Stealth Viper's body opened, and a mechanical
arm holding a mortar appeared. She guided the arm
downward, shoving the mortar into the ground, orienting
it upward. "It won't be as satisfying, will it?"
"That's the kind of stuff I want to hear!" Mizuki
encouraged. "This is what you've been trained for;
even though Command Wolves outclass your Zoid in every
way you can still beat him!"
"Cut that 'you can do it' bull," she hissed,
annoyed at her sudden virtual pep squad's appearance.
"If you pressure me I'm going to crack."
The pilot reached under the console, and adjusted
the heat suppressor further, praying silently that
she really was gone from the Wolf's sight. The boss
was right; the Command Wolf outclassed her Zoid, and
the only true advantage was to live up to the Stealth
Viper's name. All she had to do was wait for the right
moment to strike.
Or rather, make that opportunity.
"Okay, Shizu," she told herself, "he's nothing
special. Just another punk kid with an overpowered
quadruped... you can take care of him...."
Silencer imagined that the others were amused by
this, and the tingling sensation in her arms wouldn't
go away.
"I don't understand. Why can't I calm down? What
is it about this battle that excites me?"
* * *
"I don't see her, Doc," Brad said, his eyes scanning
the area in his forward arc. "This Stealth Viper may
as well be using stealth technology, too."
"But it's not," Toros replied over the link. "You
must keep your eyes open. Don't rely on the radar to
help you."
"Easy for you to say."
Slowly, Brad edged the Command Wolf around each
rocky outcropping, knowing that the Stealth Viper was
hiding behind one of them. The problem was, each time
he rounded a corner the Wolf was vulnerable to attack,
as the top-mounted back cannon could not turret; its
range of fire was only directly ahead. So for a few
precious seconds the Command Wolf would be open to
attack and the Stealth Viper was free to take shots or
run off to another hole in another direction; the snake
Zoid had the advantage of being far more maneuverable
than a quadruped Zoid.
"Not as easy as you thought it would be?"
Brad froze in his tracks, not recognizing the voice.
"Come on," beckoned the woman's voice, and Brad
realized it must be the Stealth Viper pilot. "Show me
your true power!"
"Triangulate that," he ordered, relaying the message
to the Hover Cargo.
"Don't bother. By the time you figure out where I
am, it'll be too late."
The Command Wolf's head swung side-to-side. "This is
getting kinda old," he taunted, hoping to bait the
pilot into making a mistake. "I thought you Fire
Wheel guys were better than this."
"Heh, heh. You guys are amusing, taking out one Zoid
of ours for each one we take down. Too bad the trend
is going to continue, and you'll be out of Zoids to
take ME out with!"
So she's a talker, too. He edged the Command Wolf
away from the rocks. "I was kinda hoping that you'd
give me a better challenge. Too much talking, and not
enough shooting."
"BANG!"
Brad jumped in his seat, alarmed at the sudden yell
in the audio link. He switched on the visual for a
moment, noting that the female pilot was making faces
at him, then killed it. It was then followed by
terrible, cackling laughter.
"Brad," Dr. Toros said, over the sound of the mad
cackling, "we've got a fix on the Stealth Viper's
location. It's...."
All at once three explosions rocked Brad in the
cockpit, realizing that three of the nearby rocks were
now smoking. A second later launched grenades impacted
against his blue armor, rocking the Wolf further. Bits
of shrapnel rained downwind.
Suddenly a red blip flared to life on the radar, but
it was already on top of the Command Wolf. The Zoid
protested against a physical hit, of steel grinding
against steel. Looking over his shoulder, upward, the
Stealth Viper had sheared-off the cannon, and was now
staring down at him menacingly.
No, the Viper wasn't simply standing on him, it was
wrapped around the Command Wolf's body.
"Game over," the enemy pilot shouted, obviously
pleased with herself.
Gritting his teeth, Brad yanked hard right on the
controls, forcefully turning the Command Wolf onto
its side, bringing the Stealth Viper down with him.
Machine gune fire kicked up dirt where the cockpit used
to be, but Brad was thrown hard against the cockpit,
with the window pressed against the ground. He looked
straight up out the top of the window, and spied the
Stealth Viper's head lying on its side in the dirt.
He certainly hoped the system froze from the impact.
But sadly, the Viper's head reoriented itself back
to face him. "That was a funny little stunt, but it's
over now."
* * *
"Battle over!" declared the judge. "Battle over!
The winner is... the Fire Wheel Team!"
Toros sat back in his chair, sighing. "Well, so
much for that one."
"Ah, that's no sweat, Doc," Bit assured him. "We're
still better than they are. We'll just have to
challenge them again, and I'll win it for you!"
One screen flickered to life, and Leena appeared
quite annoyed. "WHAT did you just say?"
Another came up, this time with Jamie. "Uh, guys,
how about picking me up?"
"Come on, Bit," Brad complained, opening his own
transmission. "It's not like you're the reason we
win, you know."
"How do you know I'm not?" Bit replied boastfully.
"Me and Liger could've beaten that Stealth Viper... no
problem!"
In unison, each of the pilots yelled, "BIT!!"
* * *
Shizuka the Silencer sat back against her seat,
sighing in relief, but the tingling sensation would not
go away. In the span of a few seconds, she finally
understood what it was that was egging her. Reaching
to the console, she opened a channel to each of the
Blitz Team members.
"Congratulations," she told them.
"It should be you that is congratulated," a middle-
aged man, probably the Blitz Team technician, said.
"Using remote grenade launchers like that as a
distraction...."
"It was a cheesy trick," Shizuka interrupted. "In an
even match I would have lost; but then, battles are
hardly even, aren't they? Mr. Wolf pilot, I salute
your abilities; maybe next time it'll be even closer."
She smiled, amused by the bewildered expression on
the Command Wolf pilot's face. "Uh... sure."
She gave a quick, informal solute. "From here I'll
train harder. I hope you guys will do, too, for the
next time we fight."
* * *
Mizuki ran her fingers down the side of the smashed
black Guysack, just as the Dragoon Nest arrived and
deployed the Macurtis. The smaller lobster's claws
were adjusted for scooping, and was strong enough to
tow the wrecked Zoid. In the other direction the
Stealth Viper was approaching.
How many years was it, father? Yes, it was over ten
years ago I first laid eyes on this black scorpion. It
was similarly as long ago I trained myself to pilot it
against your wishes. I remember the first singles
match; you were so angry, and I was so proud, slicing
that guy like a tuna can. I think, those times as I
earned money for our family, that I started helping the
others in town, building our team slowly from the
ground up. Every scratch and dent on your armor,
Guysack, was our badge of honor, and we never gave in
despite how easily we became outclassed. I'm proud of
all those years....
A live communication came in from Spider, from within
the cockpit of the Macurtis. "Damn, that thing's a
wreak."
"This guy's beyond salvage now," the boss said. "It
was a good last battle, wasn't it?"
"Cheer up, boss," Spider encouraged. "We can use the
prize money to buy another...."
Mizuki shook her head. "We'll strip this Guysack for
parts. Anything else we can't use we'll sell for
cash. I can't pilot another Zoid like I could him."
The Macurtis pilot remained silent.
"Our first priority is to fix the Stealth Viper and
Storm Sworder, then we'll re-outfit the Warshark to
take my place. From there we'll just have to rebuild
our finances, slow but steady." Mizuki cast her eyes
to the approaching Stealth Viper. "I think we've
enough capable warriors to carry this team on... to
victory."
* * *
Fire Wheel Base, 1600 Hours, Day 2
"Got it," Warlock muttered, finishing keying the
decryption code to the security door.
He looked out the window of the control room to the
hangar, and to the number of decrypted passkey doors
required to open the chamber at the far end. Warlock
counted six-- now seven-- open. The last six times his
efforts were rewarded with another sealed door;
whatever it was that was back there was certainly
something the old military didn't want people to
touch easily.
The sliding double doors parted, protesting against
the cold condensation the entire hangar was suffering
from ever since the facility was abandoned. It was
sheer luck Mizuki found this place, and it was this
place that prompted her to start the Fire Wheel Team in
the first place. Each of the Fire Wheels came from a
class of people who simply could not afford to buy and
maintain Zoids; to people such as them, having the
ability to enter Zoid battles was a dream come true.
Warlock stood up in his seat, catching the
reflected glint of white and blue armor. Boxy armor
at that. He scrambled for the controls, heart pounding
in realization that this was it. Flipping all the
light switches of the underground hangar on, more of
the new Zoid's features could be made out.
It stood low to the ground, and was as large as a
Liger. Its white and blue armor was made of very
simple geometric shapes, but looked incredibly sturdy
despite its bulky appearance. A cockpit window 'visor'
armor rest in a raised position, providing what would
be complete armor when in the lowered position, like a
tank. From the front it was armed with two clamp-like
claws, rather than Guysack's scissor pincers. It stood
on eight legs, like the Guysack, but the legs were
more armored and reinforced in all the structurally-
weak places. On its back was a mounted, turreted dual-
barreled shock cannon. Up and along its back formed
a scorpion-like tail, with one large gatling cannon as
its stinger, and two smaller cannons to each side of
it as backup.
Sliding back to the control console Warlock brought
up the technical specifications of the mysterious Zoid.
Reaching to the comm, he said, "Mizuki... everybody, to
Hangar 7, immediately. You should come see this."
It was rare to see a Deathpion these days, as they
are expensive as heck, but this was no ordinary
Deathpion, according to the specs. It was the second,
unfinished, Death Stinger, one of the military's top-
secret ultimate weapons in the war.
* * *
No words could describe what Mizuki was thinking,
staring at the Death Stinger head-on in the cold
hangar. Every aspect of the beast was just like the
Guysack, and then some.
"Is this a sign?" she wondered. "How could I...?"
"Boss," she heard her apprentice say, her voice
echoing in the empty chamber. "Please don't think of
this as a replacement. Think of it as... well... your
gift. A gift from all of us, for what you've done for
this team."
"It will never replace my Guysack."
"Nor should it," Shizuka agreed. "Nothing will
replace your old partner." She waved her arm,
gesturing the Death Stinger. "The past is done; now
all there's to do is lead us to our great future. Only
you can do that, because you are our leader."
Mizuki snorted, lowering her head. "It figures, I
guess. You guys would fall apart without me."
Turning away from the Death Stinger, she ordered,
"Get the simulator ready! Add this guy into the
database; we're in it for the long haul."
-----------------------------------------------
Author's Rant
The Dragoon Nest, Death Stinger, Salamander, all
exist in the Zoids universe. The Death Stinger, too,
exists; in a previous Zoids series it was one of the
top-secret weapons of the Guylos Empire (the other was
Geno Saurer). This series may or may not be the
successor to that series, but I thought it added a bit
of spice to add slight references to it.
Macuritis, Warshark, Guysack, and Storm Sworder all
appeared as Backdraft Zoids on the show. The Stealth
Viper was used many times: Backdraft Group, Champ Team,
and Viper Team.
-- Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@hotmail.com)
http://www.angelfire.com/art/rcxshizuka/index.html