Well, finally, we're getting a little action. Enjoy.


"Don't make me fire at you to make sure you're still alive!"

Though, once the speaker noticed that Thomas' face was undoubtedly on the screen and had in fact taken the transmission, the speaker's face became as red as a tomato. "Oh um, sorry about that, Thomas," Lauren said, still blushing profusely, especially when she saw the expression on his face.

"Lauren, what are you doing out here all ready?" inquired Thomas. It was still too early for her to have gotten up, let alone leave Terkh. The look on her face once the young woman composed herself gave him his answer. "Oh. Right." It wasn't the first time that he had been told that his attitude and thinking were as transparent as glass. He had hoped that he had kept it hidden, but apparently it wasn't enough even then.

"Thomas. Look, you may be a member of the Guardian Force, but I've gone through the same training you have. I actually went through more field work than you did when you went into the academy. For you to just leave me behind like a defenseless child is insulting," she said, sounding genuinely upset.

"Well...umm...sorry, Lauren," Thomas said in response. He didn't think of it like that at all, and really, he felt quite embarrassed for a moment. But then he thought of something. "Where is your zoid?"

"Right beside you," she replied, sounding much more cheerful. Her zoid then lost its optical stealth so she could show just where she was on his cameras. Of course though, his radar still didn't pick up on it. "So you found that device, right? We should split up and cover more ground that way. ...Though, you'll need to give me what areas you found," Lauren stated, sounding a bit sheepish at the end.

Thomas shook his head. "I don't agree with that, Lauren. It could be a trap, and it's best if we're together," he answered to her idea. The blonde lieutenant knew that she wasn't thrilled with the idea, but he also knew that she would listen to him as long as it meant she was staying. He was a superior officer after all, and he could say it was an order. Unlike Van, who never listened to protocol (and to Thomas' dismay early on, such a display was always ignored), Lauren more than likely would listen for merely that reason. Her silence shown that she was mulling it over.

"...All right. I'll be right next to you," she said with a sigh. Her zoid's optical stealth then flared back to life and she disappeared from sight. "You just won't see me is all."

Thomas nodded, and cut off the transmission, heading for another one of the areas of interest he had earlier found. He wasn't sure if they would indeed find anything at all, but the chance that something was correct made him feel it was worth going. If he could get Lauren to go back, he would've done so. However, he had a feeling that it wouldn't be an easy task at all, and it was probably just best to let her stay along on the trip. At least as long as she told him where she was, she wouldn't get into trouble without him knowing it.

To Thomas' dismay, upon reaching each point proved that there was yet another device. It was starting to make him apprehensive, as he began to get a feeling of foreboding about this. After all, this was starting to appear to be more than his typical time of fighting bandits. Not often did they pull a fast one on Thomas Richard Schubaltz, and he was determined to not let this one go by either. As they neared the final point, he noticed that in the distance there were a couple of blotches on the horizon. "Beek, magnify those outlines," Thomas ordered. He was, by then, completely into soldier mode and rather frustrated with this situation. The magnified imaged came up on the screen, revealing a few tents that had been pitched, and a couple of unmoving Hel Cats. Immediately, his hand went to the communication controls of his Dibison, opening a channel to Lauren's zoid. "We finally found them," was all he said. Now, he wanted to tell her to leave, perhaps even give her the trivial order of going back to the village to check on it but he knew that she wouldn't fall for that.

"I know," was Lauren's response, obviously just to let him know she was still around.

They continued a bit closer, until Thomas found that the bandits were in range of his Dibison's cannons. So, he halted and asked Beek to lock onto the unused Hel Cats. He wasn't sure if any others were around, as it was a rather small number of zoids, maybe around ten. However, he had no reason to believe that there were any others currently. "Lauren, can you see any cloaked zoids?" he asked.

"No, but that doesn't mean anything. They have to move for me to see them, and that's if I have any chance of seeing them at all," she responded, her eyes not watching the communication screen. Instead, she was trying to concentrate more on looking for said stealth zoids. "So you're going to attack them from here?"

"That seems to be the best option," answered Thomas, watching as Beek was aiming the Dibison's cannons for the bandit zoids. "The Dibison has a wide attack range, so I can easily hit them from here with its cannons." Finally, the cannons had locked onto the targets, and Thomas gave Beek the go head to fire at the Hel Cats. He smirked as the shots hit their targets, one by one.

"What firepower..." Lauren commented, a tinge of awe in her voice. Thomas smirked, knowing that he had approximately the firepower of three zoids, in his one Dibison. It felt nice to impress her for once, her eyes were even wider. However, it wasn't for what he had thought. "Thomas, I count three Hel Cats in stealth mode. Possibly more."

It was with that revelation that his Dibison took a few hits, making the blonde lieutenant growl in frustration. "Beek, determine the Hel Cat's positions," he ordered, firing his triple cannons in the direction in which the shots had come from. Of course, that stealth zoid had left by that point, but he didn't want them to know that he could easily find them once Beek finished. A whistling beep from Beek heralded the readiness of the system as it went to bring up the approximate positions. Lauren was wrong, there was a number of six Hel Cats. Thankfully, his system had also recorded Night Striker's acoustics while they had traveled, and Beek had put her zoid into the equation. That explained the excess time spent on data reading. The other zoid's acoustics were different from Hel Cats, so he could pick Lauren out easily enough and not fire at her.

Lauren, in the meantime, had been using what was the standard chest cannons of a Shield Liger to fire at a Hel Cat that she had spotted. It took a couple of tries, but it did go down. She hoped that the bandits had no idea that the fellow stealth zoid that was firing at them wasn't another Hel Cat, at least not until she go close. However, she obviously didn't have the weaponry on her zoid's back that was typical of the Hel Cat. Instead, she had her wings. They were actually rather stiff mechanizations, unable to keep her in flight, but she had made it to where small boosters were on the back tips of the said wings. They also doubled as a close range weapon, similar to a Blade Liger's blades in intention, but nothing alive in design. Either way, she finally caught up to the Hel Cat, and sighed as her wing blades went right through the opposing zoid.

That was how it ended. Both of them had taken out three, though Thomas didn't count the ones he had shot initially that weren't in use. "Thomas, do you think that there are any other bandits left in the camp?" Lauren asked, obviously giving him a next step, in a semi-subtle manner.

"I think that there should be. Unless those other zoids were just extras in case their initial zoids were taken down or the last of the bandits had bailed while we fought the other zoids," he answered, having Beek scan for any life from the camp. Aside from the decoy devices, these bandits seemed to be pretty run-of-the-mill overall. Confirmation from Beek told him that there wasn't any other sign of human or zoid life. "Looks like we did it."

A sigh of relief escaped from Lauren's lips. "Thank goodness," she said, letting her stealth shut down. They then turned and started back for Terkh. "Hey, Thomas? You've become a great pilot."

The said man blinked. Did he hear her right? That was when he thought he'd better say something in return. "Thanks. I'm a member of the Guardian Force after all," he replied, giving one of his embellished laughs. Seeing the look of disapproval on her face caused him to rethink that statement. Of course, he couldn't go back, only forward. "You were good yourself. If you hadn't been around, I wouldn't have known that there were other Hel Cats until after they attacked. Again, thanks, Lauren."

A genuine smile lit up her face. "Karl was right about you. You've become a lot more mature since I last saw you," she stated. "When we get back, do you want to eat out again before you write up any reports?"

"I would like that," Thomas answered. He liked his job in the military, even more so after he become a member of the Guardian Force. However, like many other people in the world, he still hated the paperwork that went with missions like this and anything to delay it sounded rather good. It was after that last statement that they stayed silent for the remainder of the trip back, each in their own world of what should be done next. Once they got to the entrance to Terkh, Lauren and Thomas exited their zoids and started back for town. At least until Lauren stopped.


Cliff hanger, haha! Did you really think that it would be that easy for them? X3 Don't forget to review!