One and only Disclaimer, getting tired of writing them: I DONT OWN ZOIDS CHARACTER PROFILES THAT BELONG TO ME WILL BE AT THE END.
CLARE NOVIS (Formerly Clare O'Connell) IS DGRAYLIGER'S CHARACTER. AGAIN USED WITH FULL PERMISSION.
The Judges
Ch. 1
It has been ten years since Raven and Reese moved to the Wind Colony with Nichalo, who is now 14 years old. Van is retired from the Guardian Force and living happily with his wife Fiona, his 18 year old son Daniel, and his daughter Joyce who is 12 years old. Wolf, Clare and a 13 year old Melody, are still living right next door to them.
Irvine and Moonbay live on the other side of the village with a 14 year old Michael, who seems to be quiet the ladies man, though he never claims to like any one, and their 5 year old daughter named Sarah.
Two weeks after the sixteenth anniversary of Daniel Novis's death; Van, Irvine, Raven and Wolf were called to the base closest to the Wind Colony. When they arrived they were told they were being brought out of retirement to command a task force to help track down and arrest a group calling themselves the Judges. This group went after Zoid pilots, civilians, and military alike; they also didn't seem to care if their target was Imperial or Republican. The men and their task force spent two weeks checking out leads and getting all the details they could, which a lot of conflicted with some other detail. Basically what they knew for sure was that they had 5- 50 Zoids and four leaders.
After two more weeks they got the groups attention, and were notified of a place to meet them. It was an open desert area at least fifteen to twenty miles from the nearest anything.
"Okay fellas, we need to make this quick, the kids are starting to miss us, and I'm starting to long for home and Clare," Wolf said as they watched the group coming towards them from behind the controls of his Konig Wolf.
This was the first time they confirmed the numbers of the group. 44 mix and matched Zoids were barreling towards them at a high speed, this meant they were out gunned and outnumbered, and they all knew it.
"Not the first time we've been outnumbered, let's do this," Irvine said as he launched the Lightning Siax towards the oncoming hoard.
Van and Raven followed in the Blade Liger and Geno Breaker, Wolf flew past them all in the Supersonic Wolf. Four Zoids seemed to hang back; it was assumed by all four of the men that they were the leaders.
Irvine and the Lightning Siax took out five Zoids with teeth and claws, after losing his back mounted cannons to one of the other five he had taken down, and went after one of the leaders as a way to try and end this. He already had some pretty heavy injuries but he wasn't going to give up till he ended the fight or it ended him. They fought using nothing but their abilities of close range combat, and they were going blow for blow for more than ten minutes. The fight didn't end when Irvine permanently crippled the Zoid by ripping one of the back legs off, but when the enemy got off a lucky shot that blew the cockpit clear off the Lightning Siax. The shock wave of the bullet tearing through the Zoid and the impact with the ground killed the already badly injured Irvine.
Van managed to take out five of the enemy Zoids using the blades and claws of his Liger. One of the enemy Zoids fired a shot aimed at the cockpit, Van didn't have time to react and was killed when the bullet went through the glass, Zeke continued to fight un-piloted taking out two more before both blades snapped off from the stress, and two more with teeth and claws until being brought down with a shot to the Zoid core that exploded taking two more enemies and Zeke with it.
Raven and Wolf fought hard using every piece of weaponry they had between them, except the Geno Breaker's Charged Particle Gun, because they were having more fun in close combat. With both men laughing like maniacs as they took out another 10 Zoids before a shot to the loaded core of the Supersonic Wolf brought about a huge explosion wiping out everything within a mile and a half, Raven was killed by the blast making sure that the remaining enemy Zoids stayed within the blast zone, Shadow went with him still fused to the core of the Geno Breaker.
Wolf's body was completely incinerated by the blast, the four Organoids; Blaze, Mystic, Aurora, and Tyrant, went with him and the Konig Wolf, making sure the blast was intense, and insanely powerful. Shadow and Raven didn't eject out before the blast took them out according to the recorders in some of the enemy Zoids, and there wasn't enough left of the Geno Breaker for them to have survived.
Four Zoids limped away from the battlefield badly damaged by the blast, one limping on three legs, and the Judges were never heard from again. The battlefield was littered with Zoid corpses, the only remnants of the Konig Wolf and the Geno Breaker were two pieces of armor from the Geno Breaker's X breakers, and the Konig's tail that had been taken off by an enemy Zoid before the core explosion.
From the Pteras that flew over later the aftermath looked like a black hole in the ground that just killed everything in its path, and no person or thing was moving inside it.
"What gods on Zi would let this happen," was all the pilot of the Pteras could mutter before choking up and heading back to base tears in his eyes.
Everyone at the base, Emperor Rudolph and the President of the Helic Republic in their respective capitals, all watched on in shock knowing the Tiger slayers team had ended in combat. A path, that before their families were involved would have been the chosen way for all of them, but was now something to mourn for everyone that cared anything about them. Marian burst into tears, knowing that the friends of her husband were forever gone.
Meanwhile, back in the Wind Colony the ladies of their lives all felt the pang of sadness, and loss at the same time Wolf and Raven went down. They all looked to the direction their husbands had taken when they left the village nearly a month before. Somehow knowing that they would never see their husbands again, Clare, Fiona and Reese broke down and cried in the middle of the street, not caring who saw them, Polaris and Specular didn't know what to do so they remained quiet. Moonbay stood there motionless, still looking away to a distant place as two tears rolled down her cheeks.
Two days later they got the official notice that the loves of their lives were gone forever, the children all cried for their fallen fathers. A week later the bodies of Van Flyheight and Irvine were placed into the ground beside two empty caskets for Raven and Wolf Novis at the Wind Colony cemetery. Emperor Rudolph and his wife Marian along with many of the commanding officers of the Guardian Force were in attendance as well as the President and some of her staff, no one shed a tear even though they all felt the world had come to a stop. Rob Herman as well as Karl and Thomas Schubaltz saluted the headstones before leaving. Marian left flowers on all four graves, as did the President and the members of her staff that knew the men well.
"They went out fighting, they wouldn't have wanted it any other way," Rudolph said to the wives of the four men, who up until then had been standing tall and strong, not shedding a tear for their husbands as they were laid in the ground.
Clare broke down and cried on Polaris, who was next to her. Fiona buried her face in her hands and cried as did Reese, Specular standing watch over her.
"Mommy, why are they putting daddy in the ground?" Sarah asked as Moonbay tried her hardest not to cry in front of her daughter.
"Sarah, why don't you and I go play," Joyce said trying not to choke on the knot in her throat, while taking the young girl's hand and leading her away from the cemetery, as soon as they were out of site Moonbay hit her knees and broke down crying into her hands.
"Mom, I know there is nothing I can say right now, but I'm here if you need a shoulder to cry on," Melody said taking her mother's hand in hers.
The other's nodding the same thing to their mothers, Polaris and Specular growled their agreement as well. Daniel stood quietly watching something that had become a familiar thing in his life, funerals. Daniel had become a Republican officer in the Guardian Force, freshly signed and not even through training yet, but he had already seen his uncle Daniel buried when he was two years old, and now the others he called uncle and his father were being buried as well. He felt a great sadness, one that urged him to cry out in sorrow and pain, but as a military man he would follow Wolf's example and not allow himself to show his emotions.
"Wolf, I hope you took them all with you," the blonde haired young man said as he turned away from the cemetery and headed home, a single tear rolling down his face.
Melody was a great help to her mother and the others over the next few days, allowing them to speak freely of the past, simply because it interested her, and it seemed to help them to remember the happy times of their marriages and lives after the Guardian Force. Nichalo, Michael, and Joyce all seemed to enjoy the stories that their mothers told about their fathers, and the times they fought to protect Zi. Daniel was distant and rather annoyed by talk of the past, he had been given two weeks leave to grieve when all he wanted was to blow something up as a release for the pain he felt, he had also taken to leaving the 'Uncle' off when he spoke of Wolf, Irvine or Raven. This bothered everyone, but they let it slide due to the situation.
When he returned to his training he was still well ahead of the group he had been training with, due to his father's help with his piloting and Raven's help training physically when he first thought about joining. He spent most of his off time on the shooting ranges and obstacle courses for both human and Zoids. Nichalo seemed to be interested in the mechanics of Zoids more than piloting them, though he was a great pilot of the Psycho Genosaurer. Michael and Melody just wanted to go as fast as possible, just like their fathers before them. Joyce had no interest in anything more than science and how things worked, but she had skill in the cockpit of a Zoid. Sarah was at an age where she didn't fully understand what was going on, but was happy to sit and listen to the tales of her father and uncles.