SIX

FATE AS WE KNOW IT


Review's Corner:

randomcat23: Thank you so much for the supports! You've been here longer than I am, and your writings are great. I am honored to have been reviewed by you.

Saskia had difficult time bonding with zoids because she – for lack of better words – sucks. She stays in the program just by pure stubbornness. She just won't quit. But when it comes to skill, she is not skillful enough to control her zoid quickly. She needs time. Unfortunately, the Republic is in a state of war so it doesn't have time for her. The Republic needs pilots fast.

But it will change. Soon she finds "something" that matches her personality so she can bond *wink wink*

The Guylos Empire will appear later, although for simplicity purposes, they will not take part in the conflict. I don't want to make this into a 3-way conflict because it's confusing to write and even more confusing to read.

I can't say too much about the Guardian Force without revealing the plot, but I can say this: when the old GF members appear (Van, Irvine, Moonbay, Fiona, Rob Herman) it will be clear what is truly going on. So stay tuned!


Aspencade Fortress,
Helic Republic, Delpoi Continent,
Planet Zi,
May 15, ZAC 2121

Aspencade Fortress perched smugly on a rocky cliff facing Florecio Ocean. The mile-long concrete wall just kissed the edge of the rock formation, which immediately dropped several hundred feet down straight into the water. Small rocky hills sandwiched the fortress on its left and right, providing excellent protection against flanking enemies. Some of these hills reflected weird, eerie gleam during sundown, adding a nuance of mystery surrounding the already creepy rocky cliff.

The sky was always Saskia's sanctuary after long hours of gritty work in the hangar. Ten hours of hard labor was the norm, twelve happened occasionally. Fourteen- to fifteen-hour day didn't happen very often, but it did happen. But no matter how long she worked, she always found time lying on the cliff outside the fortress, doing nothing but to stare at the sky. Most of the time she could still see the blue sky before the sun rolled beneath the sea. A fourteen-hour day put her at dusk where the sky had turned black. But it gave her a different perspective as the stars started climbing up toward the zenith, showering her with warm twinkles and mischievous flickers throughout the night.

Saskia recalled many hours she spent lying on his father's tombstone, doing exactly like she was doing now: staring at the sky, hoping that one day the wild blue yonder would be hers. Five years later and she was nowhere closer to her dream. She was still clinging to the ground. And looking at where she was now, she doubted she would ever leave the ground.

For that reason, she had not visited her father since she started her life at the Helic military.

"I could cry, Father, but I'm done crying," she talked to herself as the tidal wave hammered the cliff in a rhythmical bellows. "I guess I'm not like you, and it's naïve of me to think that I'm like you. I've spent the better part of my youth trying to be you. You know that. We've talked about this many times. You've been very supportive of me, although you're not completely agree with my decision to go to the military. I guess I should've listened to you.

"I just like the sky, Father, just like you loved it. I want to be a part of it. I want to fly. I want to have wings so I don't have to depend on zoids or airplanes to take me to it. I want to lie down in the clouds and feel it between my fingers. I want to dance in the rain long before it touches the ground. I want to slide on the rainbow from one end to the other. I want… I want… so much I want to do.

"I wish you were here with me."

The sun started rolling down into the water, and Saskia felt she had been mulling over the impossible for too long. She got up and started walking back to the fortress to rest but the eerie gleam from the hill on the far side of the fortress piqued her interest. She noticed the soft gleam changes with the sunray's angle, as if the face of the rock had multiple reflective surfaces. But she knew it didn't. It was a virtually flat surface. That weird, eerie gleam did not come from the reflection of the rock.

"What is that?" she mused. It was near dusk, and the day would soon change to night, so she decided to let it go. But two steps later she changed her mind. She decided to check it out.

The path to the rocky hill was filled with jagged-edge rocks and pebbles, and Saskia's moccasins were torn to the point she was close to walking barefooted, but she managed to come close to the hill. And surprise surprise, it was not a flat cliff like she saw from the distance. There was a large opening on the face of the cliff. The opening was large enough for a large zoid like Gojulas to stand underneath it. But somehow the reflection of the rocks played a trick on her eyes, so from the fortress this opening didn't seem to exist.

"What is this place?" Saskia mumbled as she walked into the opening, eyes bugged open, trying to catch signs of movement. There were some small wild zoids, mechanical insects that roamed the inside of the opening, but they chirped and dispersed into the dark part of the opening as Saskia walked in. The sun was part way into the water providing sufficient light for her to walk without a flashlight. She could see the interior of the opening, no signs of humans, just wild zoids. And the deeper she walked into the opening, the stronger the eerie gleam became.

Soon Saskia came to a rocky ledge. She paused for a while, pondering if she wanted to continue and see what lied beneath that ledge, or just to let it go and went on with her life. There was a reason why people had not discovered this place. She was really close to turning back. But that soft, eerie gleam seemed to be calling her name. In the end, her curiosity won over her logic. She stepped forward to the edge of the ledge and claimed her prize.

The ledge overlooked a deep, large pit, hundreds of feet in height, and even longer in width. There was a very large zoid, if such monstrosity could be called a zoid, lying at the bottom of the pit unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was massive, much larger than a Salamander. Her raw estimation – based on comparison with the Salamander's size and weight – put it at approximately 300 to 400 tons. It even dwarfed the mighty Gojulas by sheer size, and Saskia had seen how big a Gojulas was.

The thing was painted black with purple spots all over her body. Her back sported very wide wings that didn't even fit inside the pit. The wings were bent all over the place. Half of its body submerged into the water, and judging by the amount of rust and corrosion, Saskia guessed the zoid had been here for a long time. But the upper part was in rather shiny shape, and the smooth surface reflected the sunrays with a soft but eerie gleam.

But it was its design that threw Saskia completely off. All zoids she knew were based off existing "animal", both prehistoric and contemporary. At first she was hoping that this was the remain of the mighty King Gojulas, but it was not. King Gojulas did not have wings. This design was out of this world – there was never an existing "animal" that she could relate it to. The only thing that came close in comparison to the zoid was a mythical creature called a dragon, a fire-breathing lizard existed only in fantasy books.

"Holy shit…" Saskia whispered breathlessly. "Who are you… What are you?"

She climbed down the ledge to the bottom of the pit to get a closer look. The water was waist deep, so it was easy for her to reach the mysterious zoid and climbed onto its back. The back was smooth but the armor was torn apart, a sure sign that this zoid had gone through an unimaginable carnage. Battles? Battles with who? Where? When? Questions filled up her head as she ventures deeper toward the zoid's rear. Six rocket boosters, three on each sides, jutted from its waist. And between the boosters lied a long tail, smooth as rubber, that seemingly had no end in sight.

Wings. Rocket boosters. Fly. This thing flies. It flies!

Excited, Saskia went back to the cockpit. The canopy spread almost as long as its slender head. Saskia slipped her fingers underneath the canopy and reached for the release lever. She pulled it, and the canopy hissed, spitting a ton of dust and steam. It cranked open with a loud shriek. She waited until the dust and steam dispersed, then pricked her head inside….

… and went directly face to face with a skeleton, sitting on the command couch, grinning at her.

"Oh My God!" she screamed and lost her grip. She slid on the snout of the zoid and fell into the water. Her heart drummed twice as fast as her normal rate, and she decided she had enough. She climbed the ledge then ran outside the cave. She stopped and knelt, panting laboriously, taking deep breath and coughed incessantly. Five minutes went by before she calmed herself down and started to assess the situation.

That skeleton was the last owner of the zoid. Even though he was long dead, there should be something in him that could tell her what the thing was. For a start, that zoid was created by Zoidians and piloted by a Zoidian. She saw battle scars all over its body, so without a doubt they went to a war together. But what war? What year? What faction? She knew almost all zoids in history but she had never seen something like this before.

When her curiosity trumped her fear, she went back into the cave, climbed the zoid, and searched the skeleton for any information. But amazingly she found nothing. It seemed that the cockpit caught fire so all valuable items had been burnt to ashes. What a way to die, burnt alive in a cockpit of a zoid.

It was close to midnight when Saskia removed the bones out of the cockpit and buried them under a pile of rocks next to the zoid. She gave the zoid a thorough look one more time before walking back home.