NINE
ALL ROADS LEAD TO NEW HELIC CITY
Review Corner: Thank you very much, my lone reviewer randomcat23. I did design Saskia to be a bit… uhm, devious. I hope you don't think less of her. More of her deviousness in this chapter.
So I guess we have gone past the introduction part of the story. From this point on there will be more zoid actions.
Aspencade Fortress,
Helic Republic, Delpoi Continent,
Planet Zi,
July 3, ZAC 2121
"Saskia! I need my monkey wrench!"
Hotep's voice sorted through power-drill whirrs and electric-weld crackles, and jabbed Saskia's eardrums as she was working on a damaged Command Wolf. It was timed in such a way that all power tools and generators were shut down, so Saskia could hear every word. And she was not happy about it. It was not his wrench. It was Helic Republic's property. All tools and materials in the hangar belonged to Helic Republic. They were purchased with Republic's money.
"I am still using it! Can you use something else?"
"You took it from my toolbox, dammit! Now give it back!"
There it was again, my toolbox. It was Helic's toolbox. Nobody should've laid claim to it. It wasn't even assigned to him. He just happened to grab the toolbox in the morning, and Saskia just happened to grab a toolbox without a monkey wrench so she had to hijack Hotep's.
But for the sake of avoiding confrontation, Saskia just let it go.
Walking along the large hangar, Saskia wondered why such a trivial matter aggravated her. Perhaps it was because the attack on the President's daughter put everybody in alert mode. Perhaps it was because the Helic Military - fueled by the attack on the President's daughter - decided to upgrade most zoids to prepare for more attacks. Or perhaps it was because the workload skyrocketed so that everybody had to work overtime, under pressure, and more often than not Saskia was too beat up to visit the Gilvader and plan for its revival. Perhaps it was her Gilvader and the lack of meeting that made her belligerent.
There, she said it. Her Gilvader. As if it was her own…
"Here!" Saskia curtly handed in the monkey wrench to Hotep. "Happy now?"
"I can use some extra hands here," Hotep grabbed the wrench but ignored Saskia's irritated barb. "Can you help me for five minutes?"
Saskia sighed. She had her own deadline. Five minutes with Hotep would come out of her own time. And it wouldn't be five minutes. Hotep needed some serious help. Everybody did. But even if she didn't help Hotep, she wouldn't meet her deadline. Both of them would be late, and both of them would get an ass-chew from Tech Sergeant Serow. She was screwed either way, so why not go down in righteousness?
"What do you need?" Saskia decided to lend a hand.
"Grab this armor piece here, will you?" Hotep guided her to position the armor plating the way he wanted it. "I'll tell you, this is villainy, and just plain unfair. Just because some rich brat wants to hang out outside Helic City and throw money down the drain doesn't mean we have to work like horses. If that's the way she chooses to die, let her die alone! We shouldn't be responsible for her negligent behavior!"
"We are at the bottom of the pecking order, Hotep," Saskia replied unenthusiastically. "We will be responsible for anything and everything. One irresponsible person needs dozens of hard-working, responsible individuals to work their asses off so he or she can live his irresponsible life. Such wretched is life, but it is life.
"But come to think of it, we benefit much from it don't we? Without this influx of work, we're still The Wrecking Team. Serow won't let us touch a zoid without his supervision. But look at us now. We can work on a zoid alone, from start to finish. We develop skills to work on the mechanics of zoids. That's quite an accomplishment, right?"
Hotep scoffed. "Yeah? Then what? Working as a mechanic for 15 hours a day so the President's daughter can laze in the sun all day? How are we not slaves to the Helic Republic?"
"I don't know. I can't tell you how to live your life."
"If I don't know you better, I think you start to like it here."
Saskia shrugged. "Maybe. It's not what I envisioned my life would be but at least I learn something."
If that was not a good thing for Hotep, it sure was a good thing for Saskia. The overwhelming work load prompted Tech Sergeant Serow to "promote" Hotep, Huy, and Saskia to full technician, despite his own objection. Saskia grabbed this opportunity to learn the mechanics of zoids: how they lived, how they interacted with humans, how they gained energy through the core, how the core pulsed life into weapons, and how she could fix weapons and armor. The torturous work hours gave her a means to pursue her dream.
"What the hell happens to the monkey wrenches?" Huy popped up out of nowhere and grabbed Hotep's wrench. "Did you take mine?"
"Hey, hey, that's mine! Give it back!" Hotep jumped off his bench and grabbed the other end of the wrench as if his life depended on it. "Why can't you get something else?"
"Why can't you get something else?" Huy fastened his grip on the tool. "I have been using it all morning and now it's gone!"
"I have been using it all morning and now you're taking it!" Hotep screamed. "Give it back, you…"
Saskia didn't stay long to see the outcome. She just left the two friends crabbing and swearing for the 'ownership' of the monkey wrench, and went back to her work.
New Helic City,
Helic Republic, Delpoi Continent,
Planet Zi,
August 14, ZAC 2121
Armed with her newfound skill set, reinforced with the data she downloaded from Serow's computer, Saskia mapped out the parts she needed to put the Gilvader back into working condition. The zoid was in horrible condition; it needed 60-percent of its armor. Nobody in Helic Republic sold Gilvader's armor, so she had to lay out the blueprint for each armor plating. She would have to bring them to a blacksmith and had them made. Her other choice was to travel to Guylos Empire and buy them there, but she couldn't cover for the travel cost. Besides, with the security running extremely high due to recent conflicts with the Guardian Force, travelling to the Empire would raise immediate red flags.
The Gilvader's internal components were mostly intact, so Saskia was lucked out there. Whatever the zoid went through, the armor stopped it from destroying the delicate machinery. The core, however, was badly damaged. It had barely enough power to feed the zoid's component from dying, putting the zoid in a 'coma'. This would be the hardest part to tackle. Saskia had to find another core, but with the size of the zoid, it would be difficult to find a core that large. Next best thing was to fix the core with whatever she could salvage.
The Needle Guns and Plasma Cannons seemed to be in working condition. All Gravity Cannons were gone. So were the Beam Smashers. Fortunately, a local trader owned the Gravity Cannons and some duke or count in the Eastern Continent had the Beam Smashers as his personal collection.
But those could wait. First, the armor. There was a good blacksmith at New Helic City that had been building high-grade customized zoid armor platings. The fee was expensive, but Saskia had some plans to pay it off. Her savings could cover more or less half of the fee. She had to 'snake' her way around for the rest.
So one weekend she traveled t1`o New Helic City to visit the blacksmith. The main office was just a small room in a skyscraper right at downtown. It was nice that, after spending many weekends in a dark cave, she got to see modern civilization and technology. The tall building stood by the river, and Saskia spent half an hour sitting by the water, doing nothing but to immerse herself in the comforting melody of the river flow.
Getting into the office, a young man greeted her and asked her about her intention. Saskia drew a hologram player and showed him the blueprint of a piece of the Gilvader's armor. The man squinted, then engrossed himself in his computer for ten excruciating minutes. Not satisfied with what he could find, he engaged a phone conversation with somebody, shooting quick smiles at Saskia once in a while. After 15 torturous minutes, he hung up and went inside, leaving Saskia on the lobby.
A significantly older man came out, inspected the hologram, then looked at Saskia with a baffled stare.
"Where does this piece come from?" he mumbled. "Liger Zero Schneider?"
"No, a custom zoid," Saskia fibbed. The older man didn't even know what piece of armor it was, so she didn't see the reason to tell him the truth, lest she just opened a can of worm. "I am zoid bashing. This new zoid is based off a Barigator with some taste of Guylos design. That's why it needs to be painted black."
"Barigator?" the old man pulled up a schematic of a Barigator and tried to fit the piece to the zoid, but it matched nothing. "Doesn't look like it comes from a Barigator."
"Because it doesn't," Saskia swallowed. The spiky Gilvader's armor started to draw attention, and it was the last thing she wanted. "Barigator is just the inspiration. My zoid will not look like a Barigator."
"I would say," the old man mumbled again. He pulled all blueprints to get a picture of what he was dealing with, and whistled in awe when he got a rough idea of how big it was going to be. "This is some serious beast you are building. Do you have a rough sketch or anything?"
"No, just an estimation. It'll be around 95 to 100 ton, much bigger than the original Barigator."
The old man sat on his chair, scribbled something on a piece of paper, then showed Saskia a number with a lot of digits. "This job will need a lot of manpower and a lot of material. We can do it, but it won't be soon. Of course, if you want it faster and cheaper, we can thin out a lot of parts…"
"No, stick to the blueprint," Saskia cut him off.
"Look, for 100-ton zoid, you're better off with thinner armor. Your zoid will move like a sloth carrying these heavy chunks of armor, unless you are building a Grade-Up zoid like the King Gojulas."
"Not an option. I want the pieces just like shown on the blueprints."
"Do you want to pay this much?"
Saskia took a deep breath before answering, "I have a quarter of that amount in cash. But I am a zoid mechanic for Helic Military. To cover the rest of the cost, I will upgrade your zoids. Your zoids will be stronger, faster, and more efficient."
The old man sniggered. "We have 8 Godos working as heavy lifters at the plant. What are you going to do with them? Put guns on them? We can do it ourselves!"
"Civilian Godos is a detuned version of military Godos," Saskia replied halfheartedly. "I can return your Godos to their military performance. They will be 15 percent stronger and at least 20 percent faster than the current specs. Imagine how much money you can save a year with such increased performance."
"Is it legal?"
"As far as I know there is no restriction on how powerful your zoid can be," Saskia mused. "As long as they are not used as weapons, you can have them as strong and as fast as you want."
"And those are all for free?"
"In exchange for the armor pieces, built and primed just as shown in the blueprint."
The old man looked at her with doubtful stare, as if he didn't believe that Saskia had the qualification (and authority) to do what she mentioned. But he couldn't just pass up the offer. If she was telling the truth, then the company would benefit in the millions.
"Let me talk to my supervisor," the old man went inside. Ten minutes later, he came out carrying a large pile of paper. His stare was still dubious, but by the way he handled the pile of paper, Saskia knew she got herself a deal.
"Let's do the paperwork," the old man said as he handed Saskia the top piece of paper.