Chapter 6
In the week that followed the crew's return to their main base after Vanessa's disappearance, Hawk completely dropped off the face of the planet and not even the villagers knew where he might be. Wolf set up a short term protection detail to get the crew some spending money and was forced to take Tango in a Command Wolf rather than the Dark Horn Hawk piloted. When they came back, well paid for their success in driving off the other bandits, Hawk was in the cockpit of his Zoid looking as though he'd just come back in.
"Vailen you in the com room?" Wolf asked using his hand held.
"Yeah, what's up?" the older man asked with a confused tone, "Why are we on hand helds?"
"Wanted to know when Hawk got back is all," the black haired young man asked as the König started up its cooling fan.
"About five minutes ago, I left chewing him out for you, you're the big gun right now," Vailen replied with a chuckle.
Wolf rolled his eyes but couldn't quite stop the smile that formed momentarily on his lips before he jumped from the cockpit of his Zoid. Everyone stopped, even Melody who was coming to greet the arriving bunch, when they saw the black haired fifteen year old walking towards Hawk's Dark Horn.
"Hawk, you busy big man?" Wolf called up to the Dark Horn's open cockpit.
"Nope, just finishing shut downs," Hawk replied a few moments before he jumped to the ground for the cockpit.
"Wanna explain why we couldn't get a hold of you when I could have really used this Horn of yours?"
"Nope, just take it as wanting to grieve in peace," the red haired man replied somberly, "Needed to get away from it all for a while."
"I'll live with that answer then," the black haired man replied seriously, "But you're on for next run."
Hawk nodded and walked out without another word, his head held a little lower than normal as he headed for the barracks hall. Everyone was kind of surprised to see it hadn't exploded into a full on fist fight given the two men's dislike for one another, but Wolf was glad it hadn't. Melody ran over and didn't bother slowing down before she jumped into his chest nearly putting them both on the floor and the slightly younger man laughed.
"Okay I get it, you missed me," Wolf said with a chuckle as she tried to squeeze the air out of his lungs.
"We heard there was fighting near the village you guys were in, major military fighting," the brown haired young woman said as she loosened her grip.
"We didn't see any of it, the crew we were up against was a little feisty but we're fine," the black haired young man replied with a soothing tone.
As Wolf stared into Melody's bright hazel eyes he forgot they were standing in the hanger for a moment and leaned in and kissed her. It was no more than a gentle peck on the lips but Melody felt herself go slightly light headed as she leaned forward as he tried to pull back. Less than five seconds and Wolf managed to remember where he was enough to pull away, despite not wanting to. Melody's questioning stare looking back at him made his heart jump before he turned away towards everyone else staring at them, mostly slack jawed. The brown haired young woman turned red with embarrassment and buried her face in Wolf's shoulder to hide it.
"Well I guess that secret's out too," Tango said with a chuckle as he walked towards the pair, "Congrats, and you little lady, be gentle with our fearless, if temporary, leader, he's injured."
The angry glare that crossed Wolf's face was enough to tell the fifteen year old woman what her crewmate had said was true. She immediately looked him over and noticed that his whole right arm seemed bigger than his left so she grabbed his sleeve. The wince that crossed his face and the low growl that came from Wolf's throat made everyone look towards the pair a little more intently.
"Gently would you, it's nothing much but it's still tender," the black haired man said once the quick stab of pain subsided.
"What happened?" Melody asked seriously as she rolled the sleeve up a little more gently.
"Side panel in the König blew out during the fight, small scratches, just a lot of them," Wolf replied seriously, "No big deal, not like I haven't had worse," he added with a smile as he scratched the scar under his right eye.
The slightly bloody bandages were wrapped like a true doctor would have done it, making it all the easier for Melody to take them off. Wolf grew slightly uncomfortable when she showed no signs of stopping despite still being in the hanger so he pulled his arm away gently and sat down on the Dark Horn's massive foot.
"If you'd rather I don't look, just say so," Melody said looking at his half unwrapped arm and the exposed cuts from shattered computer screens.
"You can look all you like if you're that worried about it, I just got tired of standing," Wolf replied with a chuckle as he held his arm back out to her.
"You kissed me," she said quietly as she finished unwrapping his arm exposing one cut with a couple stitches.
"And you kissed me back. I was not expecting that."
"You weren't expecting to kiss me at all I bet. What's with the stitches?"
"Bigger chunk of glass and I really wasn't but hey, it was nice."
"Get to the med room, we'll put some antiseptic on it and re-wrap it with clean bandages," Melody replied as her face turned a few shades redder just before she half ran out of the hanger.
"She likes you Wolf, don't blow it," Razor's voice came from behind the younger man making him jump.
A few whoops came from across the hanger as Tango and Lemur spotted the boss of the Trazen crew. It took a few minutes of quick hugs and a few more whoops from Tango and Lemur before Razor could move without stepping on someone's foot, but he eventually made his way to where Wolf sat. The man's short blonde hair was disheveled and his beard had grown in a bit over two weeks, but the sadness showed still in his face and deep green eyes.
"Welcome back to the game Boss," the black haired young man said as he pulled his sleeve down.
"I'm not back, not completely," Razor replied seriously, "But I'm getting there, it's rough losing a wife you know."
The nearby crew members stopped cold and stared at the pair sitting on the Dark Horn's foot, Wolf simply gave a shallow nod in response.
"How is it the new guy is the only one who knew?" the blonde haired man said with a short chuckle as his crew stared at him.
"Because I didn't tell them little brother, Wolf guessed," Vailen replied with a chuckle of his own, "Good to see you made it out of your room today."
"Good to be out, if only for a while," Razor replied with a smile that didn't quite make it to his eyes, "So you let the Ghost be in charge? Should I leave him there?"
"If you're not up for it Razor, I'll hang on to it for a while longer, but only if you make the deal Vailen did," Wolf said with a serious tone.
"What deal is that?"
"That you're back before the end of the week now that we've seen your face for the first time in one," Tango replied with a laugh.
"Hey, it snapped me out of it some," Vailen said when his brother looked at him funny, "I'm still not in charge after all."
"You've got a deal Wolf, that means you get to set one more job," Razor said clapping the younger man on the shoulder before he stood up and walked back out of the hanger.
Wolf stared after the older man with a small smile forming on his lips seeing that the Trazen crew was already starting to get back to some semblance of normal. It took a quick tap on the shoulder from Tango to make him remember he had to get his arm re-wrapped and that Melody was waiting for him.
"Tango, can you handle the rest of the unloading? I got a lady waiting to fix my arm," Wolf asked as he climbed off the Dark Horn and headed towards the med-room.
"I got it Ghost, go get some kissin' out of the way," the well tanned man replied with a wide smile.
Wolf practically ran through the cavernous halls of the base towards the med-room, partly because he wanted Melody to know about Razor, partly because a few of the cuts on his arm started to seep a little, and still further so he might get that next kiss. When he got there Razor was already there and practically having the air squeezed from his chest just like Wolf had in the hanger.
"Melody, Boss Man's turning a little blue, wanna let him go?" The black haired man said with a chuckle despite the pang of unfounded jealousy he felt.
"Just came in for some pain killers, now I have a better reason," Razor said with a smile as Melody let go of him, "Look a little beat up there yourself Wolf, what happened?"
"Console in the König blew out in a fight, Blaze is already working on it, caught some glass is all," Wolf shrugged as he sat down on the small cot along the side of the room, "Doc here says it needed to be cleaned and redone so here I am," he added with a chuckle.
"It takes a pretty big hit to blow those consoles, what was in this fight?" the older blonde asked as Melody went to work on his younger crewman's arm.
"Couple beam gats like yours, my sniper rifles, one big one we pulled off yours and strapped to Tango's, couple Molgas on top," the younger man said with a smile, "Sorry about the gun, needed the fire power."
"As long as I get it back we'll be fine. What was the detail on our side?"
"Ghost Pack, Tango and Lemur, tried to get Hawk but he vanished all of last week."
"He's back now?"
"Yup, and knows he's on for next duty so it's probably gonna be convoy cover if I can find something. Those twin Gatling guns of his are handy for that kind of thing."
Razor remained silent till Melody finished and left to clean the antiseptic off her hands.
"So who hit you in the cockpit to make that screen blow?" the blonde asked quietly when he was sure she wasn't coming back.
"Red Horn with that big beam gun, damn near hit the emergency open on the ear," Wolf replied quietly as he watched around the corner for Melody, "We didn't take much of a hit, but that asshole put out a lot of cover fire."
"You win?"
"I'm here ain't I?"
Wolf's grin grew a little when Melody came back in the room, she couldn't help the small smile that came to her lips before it vanished. The brown haired young woman handed Razor his pain killers and he just smiled and nudged her in Wolf's direction.
"Make sure she's on the next detail Boss, and me too," the blonde haired man said before he stepped out of the room.
"Made the same deal as Vailen huh?" Melody asked as she started to wrap Wolf's arm.
"Yup, now we've got to figure what the next detail is," Wolf replied with a worried tone as he leaned back against the stone wall letting her finish his arm.
"You won't get that done down here," the brown haired woman said with a small smile as she sat down next to him, "But I wouldn't mind another kiss," she whispered in his ear.
Wolf smiled and gave her another gentle but longer peck than in the hanger before he pulled away, almost hating himself for having to leave. It wasn't ten minutes later that the call went through the entire base for everyone to get to the communications room.
"Alright, we're all here, so I may as well put it simple, we're behind schedule but we've got a job to do," Wolf said as he leaned across the massive table as the team filed in, "Courier leaves Guygalos in two days, which means we've got one to get there and get briefed."
"We hitting it or protecting it?" Hawk asked seriously as he took his usual seat.
"Protection detail this time," Vailen replied in Wolf's place, "Big convoy, we've got three other details in with us."
"Whose primary then?" Melody asked as she sat down next to Wolf.
"We are since we've got the flyers for air cover," the black haired man replied, "We can do the rest of this in route, load up."
The team scattered and headed for the hanger bay, Razor headed straight for his Zaber without hesitation, the crew was well on their way less than an hour later. While they were moving Vailen filled the crew in on the major details and the negotiated payment for the job, one that impressed even Hawk. It was nearly midnight when they arrived at the gates of their pick up point, the guard let them in when he confirmed Wolf's courier ID number and guided them to a place to park their Zoids.
"I'm staying with my König tonight, I can feel it in her controls that she's nervous," Wolf said through an open com to the Trazen crew.
"Yeah, I would be too, but what about that briefing in the morning?" Tango asked as he walked his Redler to a spot.
"I'll handle that when it comes up, for now I can sleep here. Besides I kinda like it, free wake up call."
The König Wolf let out a low growl as Blaze flew up and landed in his little spot at the base of its neck between the front two legs. Wolf could feel the massive Zoid shift its weight around as the black and red Organoid settled into a comfortable spot.
"Blaze one of these days she's gonna learn how to scratch you off of there," Wolf said as he popped the cockpit open for a little fresh air.
*If she does, I'll just learn to hang on better,* Blaze growled back with a hissed laugh before he curled up and went to sleep himself.
It was only five hours later that the convoy boss rang the alarm that had every guard in the hanger, nearly fifty men and women, on their feet with guns drawn, but everyone stopped to cover their ears when the König Wolf in the corner let out a window rattling howl. Wolf jumped down from the cockpit a moment later and walked to the convoy boss, a stocky grey haired man with a lab coat, the whole of the Trazen's piloting crew falling in step right behind him, Blaze rounding out the pack with Tyrant.
"You've got the floor convoy boss," Wolf said as all the other guards eventually gathered round.
"Right, which of you is supposed to be the leading crew?" the gray haired man asked as he looked to everyone.
"That would be us, we're running the flyers, two Redlers and a Pteras," Vailen replied politely, "Currently the leading man is standing right in front of you," he added pointing towards Wolf.
"Okay then, I want your team leading the convoy by two kilometers, checking the route for sleepers and possible pirates," the stocky man said looking Wolf in the eye this time, "The rest will surround the five Gustavs that will be our convoy."
"No," Wolf said with a cold calm, "I've only got ten pilots besides myself, three of which will be in the air, I'll pull three pilots from these guys and leave the air support with you, that way if we get tied up they'll see it and call you to a stop until we're either untied or they have to come save our cans."
"I'll live with that, but I'd like to maintain the two kilometers, can your birds see that far?"
"Yes, we've done some work on them for just this type of job," Razor replied with the same dead calm as Wolf.
"Pull your three then, you've got one hour till the convoy leaves this base."
Wolf looked at the Zoids in the hanger, he'd never seen such a patchwork crew in his life, Republic Command Wolves and Guysacks sitting alongside Imperial Dark Horns and Rev Raptors not a single one painted in military colors. He spotted three identical Dibisons standing together near the main door.
"Who owns the bulls?" He half shouted with a lopsided grin.
"That would be us," a tall fellow with bright orange hair said with a cocky smile, "You want us?" he asked with a gesture to the two men flanking him.
"You've got the firepower I'd want going against sleepers, you don't have to like me, but right now I'm your boss boys. Load up Trazens!"
Razor, Vailen, Hawk, Tammy, Sarah Beth and Luna gunned for their Zoids and had them powered up before the Dibison pilots could get to their cockpits. Wolf was last out of the hanger since he had to get the route map from the convoy boss and retransmit that to his people and the Dibison pilots. It didn't take them half what the convoy boss had given them to clear two klicks of terrain.
"I heard Trazen back there right?" the orange haired Dibison pilot asked through an open com as they waited for the convoy boss' call.
"You did indeed, is that a problem?" Wolf asked as his concentration turned his eyes red.
"Just wondering what a typically Republic crew is doing in Imperial territory at all, much less running block for them."
"We run all kinds of jobs, I've got courier licenses in both territories," the black haired young man replied before slamming the com unit off, "Blaze, run a check on these three if you can."
*I'll do my best,* Blaze growled before launching into the König's core and taking over the computer search functions.
Wolf hit the switch to turn the com unit back on about ten minutes before the convoy boss checked in and told them they were on the move. The black haired man deployed the Dibisons to lead the group so he could keep an eye on them and to put the biggest number of guns out front.
"Ghost, you trust these three to lead?" Vailen asked through a private link between his jade green Zaber Fang and the König Wolf.
"Nope, that's why they're up there, so we can shoot first if it comes to that," Wolf replied seriously as he watched a few faces flash across one of the side screens as Blaze did his search.
*I'm working as fast as I can but so far I'm not coming up with anything, the Dibison is too new to be out to the public so I'm checking base listings through some of the redundancy networks,* Blaze growled from his place in the core.
"I get it, prime the shots while you're at it, I want guns loaded," Wolf replied before flipping the switches to put the König's goggles and rifles down.
"What's going on back there? We just got a weapons threat from one of you guys," the orange haired pilot asked with a worried tone.
"Just checking further up, guns and goggles are down, might ought side step a touch to your left," the black haired man replied with an easy tone, "Let's go weapons hot everyone, I've got a bad feeling."
The group had been slowly trudging along maintaining their assigned two kilometer lead for nearly three hours before anything really came up. The König's goggles provided enough of a thermal reading to see the Guysacks buried in the sand about one klick ahead.
"Sleepers up ahead, Guysacks appear to be all there is," Wolf said with a calm tone, "Dibisons lock these coordinates: mark zero-two-five by eighteen."
"Rodger that, coordinates locked, ready to give them a twenty one gun salute, three times over," the orange haired pilot replied with a chuckle.
"Hold fire, Razor, Vailen side line same coordinates, pop off any stragglers."
"You got it Boss," Vailen replied as he stepped up next to the Dibison to the far left, Razor taking up post on the other end of the line.
Wolf called the convoy up and had them hold up before giving the fire order. The Dibison crew only missed two targets and Razor mowed them down with his beam Gatling gun before Vailen could get a clear shot. Wolf moved alone to the newly made Zoid graveyard and checked for anything further up before calling the convoy and telling them to come on up. Blaze's search eventually turned up that the three Dibison pilots in front of the crew had simply stolen the massive bull type Zoids from a prison guard station.
Every day of the five day trip had something; sleeper battalions, raiders looking to make a profit and even one or two travelers just looking to mooch food off the massive convoy. When the pilots of the Trazen crew saw that they were headed for the maintenance yards for the Whale Kings it took everything they had to keep Razor from turning tale and heading straight to delta base, where Vanessa's trashed Heldigunner was still laid out on the hanger floor. Wolf made a mental note to check out why he hadn't been told the final destination before they moved out.
"Well, we made it, and the most of us never saw any fighting at all thanks to the advance team," the convoy boss said with a cheerful tone, "And as such your contracts are complete, you may go your own ways from here."
"And our pay?" the orange haired Dibison pilot asked seriously as he leaned against his Zoid's hoof.
"The advance team is supposed to get a bonus, these guys earned their part of it," Vailen added diplomatically, "And we haven't seen the payoff much less our bonus."
Wolf could hear a few people unsnapping holsters and swinging rifles up to ready positions behind him. He found Melody just beside the Zoids and motioned for her to get in her cockpit. She nodded and started climbing the short rope ladder and was out of sight and safe so he could think clearly again.
"Mister, I don't care who you think you're working with here," Wolf said calmly as he moved to the front of the group, "But I don't take kindly to getting shot at for someone else's property, and not getting paid for it."
"You've got about fifty guns pointed at you right now, all we have to do is move," the orange haired pilot said making Wolf like him just a little bit more.
"Fine, you want money from the Empire that badly, the pay man is in the fifth trailer," the stocky man said with a grin, "Go get it."
Wolf could guess by the disgusted look on the old man's face he was expecting these 'mercenaries and bandits' to beat each other to death over the payroll. Even he was laughing when the crews simply molded back into their original numbers and each sent a representative to collect their cut. Wolf collected the Trazen's cut and the bonus, splitting it fair with the Dibision pilots as promised, before heading back towards the convoy boss.
"See, this is what happens when you hire real guardsmen," he said with a gesture towards the three other groups brought in on the job.
The black haired young man didn't even give the man a chance to reply before he walked away and climbed into his König Wolf. The Trazen crew was one of the first to leave with their pay while everyone else went ahead and divided it up at the maintenance grounds.
Wolf and Vailen made the call to hit delta site before they went home, to divide the money and maybe get a little peace for Razor. Only Wolf, Razor, Vailen and Melody went inside the delta hanger when they got there, the rest of the crew agreed to stay topside either till the others called them down, or were ready to leave. No one tried to say any comforting words to the emerald green eyed man as he knelt next to what used to be Vanessa's Heldigunner.
"I'll miss you Vanessa, and love you always," Razor whispered towards the dead hulk of the Zoid as he stood and wiped his tears away.
"Razor, I don't like being the one to tell you this, but the blast that picked up and threw the König that night was an EMP," Wolf said with a reverent tone, "Even if it hit the Heldigunner dead on it wouldn't have done this kind of damage."
"Can you tell me what did?" the blonde asked as he ran his fingers along the stubble on his cheek.
"No, but this thing looks like it was crushed, not shot," the black haired young man replied somberly, "If it's any help at all, whatever the hell it was, Vanessa didn't suffer."
"It's not, but thanks for trying kid," Razor replied with a very short chuckle as he walked back towards his Zaber Fang, "I'm back in the saddle as per our deal Wolf, you've done good by this crew, now take some time for yourself."