Whale King Havoc
Above the Dark Continent
1400 Hours
For the millionth time since she'd been thrown in there, Sandra looked around the cell. Nothing seemed to have changed in the last five minutes, she glumly told herself. Four bare walls with only a small door with a presently closed window slit. The only furnishings were a pair of benches that could also double, albeit badly, as beds and a very small convenience. Great. The door, she'd figured, was locked by a magnetic lock controlled by a keypad, which ruined any chance she had of opening it.
She'd figure that if she was left alone in a place like this, she would cope. She'd spent a lot of the last few years alone. She'd figured ways to manage without company. No, what was worse was that they'd put Rick and Vic in with her.
At the moment the pair of them were bantering on about last night's documentary and how they'd looked. This was giving Sandra a little more time to herself and allowing her to think.
They had been kidnapped by A-X, that much she knew. They were on a Whale King. Where it was heading was another matter. She had a very, very bad idea what it may be, however.
The officer that had captured her said he was a member of Pie's battalion. Emphasis on the 'was', she presumed, as the entire battalion were apparently now listed as 'missing in action'. Clearly this man was now some sort of A-X commander. He said he'd selected Vic for their mission to the Dark Continent. But why?
She turned to Vic. "That A-X commander said he selected you for their Dark Continent operation." She began. "And that you were a member of Pie's battalion. Did you know him?"
Vic leaned back on the bunk, her head drooping off then end. "Him?" She asked. "I knew him, but that was before I died."
Sandra paused a moment. Never one to be helpful, was she? "Right." She felt that asking about what Vic meant by 'before she died' was probably not a good idea. "So who is he?"
She paused in thought. "Major John Shepard." She replied. "Zoid pilot. Commander boss guy. Always dresses in black. Evil, pretentious maybe."
"The Black Major?" Rick asked, looking up form his sketchpad that he'd somehow managed to smuggle in. "Sounds like a cool name for a villain." He scribbled a bit. "He's got the face for it too."
"He had an Evil Peg." Vic continued. "Evil, baby-eating bastard horsie."
Sandra remembered seeing an Evil Pegasus in the forces attacking Novo Zemalya. That was likely him. "So this tool said he chose you for the mission to the Dark Continent?" She asked. "Did he say why?"
"He wasn't there." Vic replied. "It was eyebrow-man instead." She indicated to one of her eyebrows. "Eyebrow." She then sniggered.
Eyebrow Man? She thought. What the ferrelling hell is she talking about. No, probably best not to ask. "And did you know why he picked you?"
"Because I used to be in Pie's thing?" She replied. "Because he liked my friendly disposition and sunny personality." She smiled in that disturbing way she often did.
Great, she thought. Vic was no help at all.
"So why do you think they've got us?" Rick asked, not looking up from his pad.
"Well, we have managed to cheese of A-X in past." Sandra replied. "We did attack their central base and all that."
"Good point." Rick replied and went back to scribbling.
Sandra stood up and walked around the cell a bit. There wasn't much of anywhere to go, she realised. Great. And even if I could get out, where would I go? We're on a tooly Whale King flying above… well, I can take a good guess where. Its not like we can jump overboard.
I have a pretty good idea of where we're going, she thought. The question is, why?
Hammer Kaiser Scarab
For the most part, A-X's fleet of transport ships were configured purely as military transports. There were very little allowances for personal comforts or luxuries onboard. There was, however, one exception.
The Scarab, the fleet's only Hammer Kaiser, was equipped with a command centre for the use of the supreme commander. Originally Desmond had kept it rather simple, but Ebonflak had requested a number of changes made. As a result, the command centre now resembled nothing so much as a smaller version of his own throne room. From here, Eboflak could run any operation in the comfort that he was accustomed to.
A beep alerted him to an incoming message, the window popping up on the side of a monitor to his right. "My lord Ebonflak." John Shepard began "I am breaking radio silence at the pre-designated point to report our acquisition of the objectives as well as our meeting the fleet."
"Excellent." He replied. He'd sent John out to acquire the three mercenaries in the hope that they could provide more information on this mysterious city. The information in the journal that
Desmond had used was thorough, but by John's report it was also somewhat outdated. His hope was that these three could provide additional information and, if possible, leverage for bargaining.
Another window opened up showing the position of the fleet. John's Whale King, the Havoc joined the other three Whale kings, the Carnage, Pariah and Rouge at the lead of the fleet. In the middle was the Scarab, with the Whale Sharks Warlord and Badlander at the rear of the fleet. The full might of A-X was now arrayed and ready for battle, he thought. Truly, it was a glorious sight.
"Keep them secure for the moment, Major Shepherd." He replied. "When the time comes, I will question them myself."
"Are you sure that's wise sir?" He asked.
"Certainly." Ebonflak replied. "It is time that those three ignorant fools realised the truth of what they were up against."
No sooner had the communication ended, then John turned to Taro. "This will not work." He snarled. "I'll need to speak to them myself."
"Yes, Major." Taro replied. "Do you want me to get the jumper leads?"
"No." He replied. "Hangen used to be one of my men. I'm sure that she'll respond favourably to me." He looked around. "Besides, I don't want Ebonflak to know that we've gone behind his back."
"Yes sir."
John turned back to the front of the bridge. "Captain Tweedle", he shouted."
The captain, a middle-aged, nervous man with a rather unconvincing toupee jumped in place. "Y-yes, major?" He began, deferring to Shepard even though he technically outranked him, and certainly was the superior officer in this situation.
"Maintain current course and heading." He replied. "Inform me if anything, and I mean anything happens."
"Yes major!" He replied. "I'll do that. I'll get on it right away. That is, if anything happens I will." He turned his back, muttering as he went.
John turned back to Taro. "Watanabe, I want you to check all our sensor logs and other data. Check if anything's following us. I'm still not convinced that we got away form Bed Springs clean."
"Hai, Kuroso-sha" Taro replied, and bowed.
Shepard eyed him, and then walked of the bridge. Taking a pair of soldiers with him, he travelled down to the ship's detention block. He'd been impressed by these people, he thought as they went. They'd managed to blunt his offensive into the city. They'd attacked Lazwegaz and inflicted heavy damage on their own forces. And they had even given him a decent run in combat. He needed to know more.
He stopped at the cell and slid open the eyeslot. All three of them were there, Mortis siting on the floor looking down at something, Blackmore on a bunk glaring at the door, and Hagen seemingly staring off into space. What were they up to, he thought. Without a word, Hagen leaped off her bed and seemed to appear instantly in front of the door, her strange yellow-green eyes staring through the slot.
"Hello." She began.
He was momentarily taken back. "Private Victoria Hagen, Vinterlands Armed Forces." He began. "I am Major John Shepard. You do remember me?"
"Yes." She replied. "You eat babies." Behind her, somebody sniggered.
"I need to know more about the city that you travelled with Desmond to." He continued. "Tell me, Hagen."
"Eyebrow man." He began. "Yes, that time. That was fun." He could sense a certain… cheerfulness creeping into her voice. "We went on a dungeon crawl and we talked to sewer rats and I rode around in a Deathsaurer and burninated the countryside." She said, almost sounding like a kid talking about what they did on their holidays. "It was so much fuuun!"
So she was in the Deathsaurer, he thought. That must have been Desmonds' plan. Judging from the way it had laid into his own troops, however, what happened mustn't have been a part of the original plan. "What happened to Desmond?"
"Eyebrow." She replied, the voice dropping to a whisper. "He got Bigasaur on his face."
John had to pause for a moment. What did she mean by that. "And the others?" he asked. "What about Hallis?"
"He was whacked." She continued in the low whisper. "Like a goomba. Goomba, goomba"
Dead, he thought. "And Snow?"
"She was fun!" Hagen replied, suddenly going back to her usual cheerfulness. "She was silly and got all hysterical and squealed a lot and tried filling the ceiling with lead because she didn't like the way I arranged her socks. We had fun!"
That didn't sound like Snow at all. But, at the same time, as far as he knew that Hagen was the last person to see them alive, so he had to believe what she was saying. Now to see if she knew anything else. "Do you know a man called Jean De Lyon?" He asked.
There was a pause. "No, but hum a few bars and I'll fake it." She replied cheerily.
"I know him." Blackmore spoke up from deeper into the cell. Hagen stood aside to let her glare out. With a single, deep blue eye, her glare was almost as intense as Hagen's. "The question is, what's he to you?"
He paused. Time to put all his cards on the table. These people would probably find out eventually. "De Lyon contacted us to propose an alliance between his people and A-X." John explained.
"Give us a minute." Blackmore replied. She turned away, then walked over to where Rick was sitting. The pair of them talked in hurried whispers for a moment before Blackmore returned.
"Well?" He asked.
"Did he propose the alliance himself?" She asked. 'Or did he go through a third party?"
They seemed to know more then he did, so he felt that a full answer was the best choice. "There was communication between one of his agents and our leader." He replied.
"This… agent." She began. "Was it a woman?"
An unusual question. "No." he replied.
"Major." She began. "And I'm saying this for our sake as we're suck on board your frelling flying death trap here and are likely to still be here should any badness begin, there's a good chance that this may be a trap and that we are all going to die."
"Are we there yet?"
Pants gripped the controls for the Hovercargo even tighter, trying not to scream out in terror. "No." he replied for the zillionth time, hoping that Stuart would get the picture sooner or later.
"Oh." He paused. "Are we there yet?"
"No!" He snapped. "I'm driving! Stop bothering me!"
"Okay." Stuart replied. "No need to get angry."
He breathed deeply. Okay, this is all good. I can handle this. "Just… just go and do something else somewhere else." He replied. "I'm very busy right now."
"Okay!" Stuart shouted and walked off. Pants started counting to himself. He reached twenty-nine before anything happened. "Hey! What does this thing do?"
Normally a Hovercargo is a rather spacious vehicle, well-equipped with amenities for the crew and passengers. Pants, however, had equipped his Hovercargo with a number of extra workshops, labs and storage spaces. The end result was that there wasn't much space for all the newfound passengers. This meant that they were all cramped in the command deck for most of the time.
And Pants hated every minute of it.
Anna and Felix were okay, he'd decided. Anna tended to shout orders at him a lot, but he could live with that, as she also seemed to be the only person who could keep Stuart under some sort of control. Felix just seemed to sulk in the corners and not talk to anyone. He could deal with that.
No, the problems were Reven and Stuart. Reven had complained loudly about everything from the space available for her to sit down to the quality of the coffee in the small gallery to the colour of the interior walls. She'd apparently spent the last hour having a bath, determined to use up the entire hot water supply.
Stuart, on the other hand had a short attention span and was easily bored. He spent all his time wandering around and asking what everything did. And everyone else seemed to be ignoring him, leaving only pants to keep him under control. It was maddening. If he wasn't seeking vengeance, then he would have thrown the lot of them off ages ago.
"What's that over there?" He asked for the millionth time.
"It's a light switch!" Pants shouted. He was about ready to crack, he thought. Please oh please let something happen soon.
As if to answer his hopes, the main comms screen abruptly came on, showing the masked face of Z-One. "Hey." He began. "Got some news for you guys."
"What's up?" Anna asked, clamping one hand on Stuart's shoulder as he was inspecting one of pants' favourite bowling balls.
"The Whale King has joined up with a bunch of other ships." He began. "There's another three kings, a Hammer Kaiser and a pair of Whale Sharks." He glanced down again. "They're definitely friends as they're now moving in formation."
"Four Whale Kings, a Hammer Kaiser and two Whale Sharks?" Reven asked, clad in Pants' bathrobe and dripping all over the floor. "No way we can take them on." She said. "I say we turn around now and forget about this."
"No." Anna stated. "I want to know what they're up to." She turned back to the screen. "Keep following them. Tell us the instant they do something."
"You know, I can't keep this up forever." Z-One replied. "I gotta sleep sometime."
"Fine." Anna said. "Reven, you go and relive him."
"Me?" She replied. "Why?"
"Because you're the pilot of our only other flying Zoid." Anna explained. "I mean, if you don't want to go, we could let someone else fly your Zoid, like Stuart or Felix."
Reven paused for a moment. "Fine." She said. "I'm going." She angrily stalked out of the room. Pants couldn't help but feel relived. That was one less pain in the neck to deal with.
For the next hour, it was mostly quiet. Z-One returned and vanished, presumably trying to find somewhere to rest after being airborne for so long. Other then that, and the usual shouting at Stuart, it was mostly quiet.
It was Reven who interrupted the silence with her first report. "They're putting the ships down." She announced. "There's a small, rather secluded valley ahead with is just big enough to hold all of them."
This news came as something of a surprise to everyone. As far as they knew, there was nothing at all in the valley, or anything near it, that was of any value. Certainly nothing worth sending seven ships too. "They're not doing anything else are they?" Anna asked. "Not deploying troops or sending out flyers to secure the LZ or the like?"
"Nope." Reven replied. "Just… sitting there."
"I see." Anna said. "Hold your position and keep watching them. We're several hours behind as it is, so this may give us a chance to catch them." She looked at Felix, who shrugged. "And tell us the instant anything happens."
"Hail Ebonflak!"
Ebonflak looked down at Shepard and Watanabe as they stood in the command centre, saluting. Behind them were the three impudent outsiders that had been featured on the documentary, and had destroyed their base at Lazwegaz. Now, if what John was saying were true, it seemed that they had also defeated Desmond's forces in the Dark Continent.
He felt that, in a way, he owed them for that. Desmond's defeat had lead to his rise to the position of supreme power within A-X. However, the fact remained that they had been a problem for his organisation in past. Now they kept vital information that he needed to further his cause.
"My lord Ebonflak." John began. "As per your request, I have bought the three prisoners for you to question."
"Very good, Major." He replied. "It is strange, isn't it, that the very future of this organisation could rely on the information that these people could provide us with." He glared at them. "Bring them forward that I may question them myself."
"Yes, my lord." John agreed, indicating to the guards. The three prisoners were pushed forwards to the point where they were standing at the base of the throne. More shoving by the guards had them down on their knees, looking up at him.
"This world is corrupt!" He began. "The Ignorant Masses and their foolish leaders have been allowed to squander this planet and its resources for far, far to long! The rule of nations has lead to nothing but wars and poverty and destruction, creating a world where the future is not only dim but very, very dark indeed."
"It is up to us, the glorious soldiers of the secret ideological organization of A-X to rite those wrongs and to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive rule of nations that would destroy our world with their own greed and shortsighted foolishness. We, who have seen the light of the truth must take control of the world and save it from the ignorant masses!"
"Doesn't half go on, does he?" The brown-haired prisoner whispered to the blonde. She sniggered. The black-haired woman elbowed him in the side, no mean feat given that her hands were tied behind her back.
He stood, looming over the three of them. "You three have a sacred duty to perform, a duty that the future of humanity may yet depend upon. We need the information that the three of you possess."
"And if we don't?" The black-haired woman asked.
"Then the consequences will be dire." He explained. "Very dire indeed."
"Sounds fuuun." The blonde drawled.
He turned towards her, recognising her as Vic Hagen, the woman Shepard had pointed out. "You. You are the one who Desmond selected for his mission to the Dark Continent. Tell me, what do you know about the city there." He thought he could see Shepard indicating something out of the corner of his eye, but he dismissed it as unimportant.
"Well." She began, then looked up at him, a cheery grin on her face. "It's dark!" She smiled.
"That is hardly relevant." He replied. "What happened there. What became of our valiant forces in their fight to bring truth and order to this dark world?"
"Eyebrow." She replied and sniggered.
"Very well." He adjusted his glasses. "Since you have refused to cooperate with me, we will have to resort to more… drastic measures."
It was some hours later before they were returned to their cell on the Whale King. Even then, they waited some time before speaking. It wasn't until they'd felt the movement of the ship taking of that any of them felt secure.
"Very well then!" Rick began, in a very bad imitation of Ebonflak's voice. "For your continued impudence, I sentence you to… a room with a moose!"
They all laughed. They needed it right now.
Ebonflak's 'drastic measures'… hadn't been that drastic. They'd been poked, asked a few questions, glared at, asked some more questions and given several long silences, and then left alone with a moose. After a few hours he'd asked if they were ready to talk. Sandra had told him where he could put the moose. He hadn't taken this well, feeling that they were stronger-willed then he'd anticipated. As a result, they'd been returned to their cell while he thought of 'something else.'
"Good one. Rick." She finally spoke. "Who the frelling hell was that tool anyway?"
"The big cheese." Vic spoke. "The chief mucky-muck. The grand poobah. The toughest stain." She sniggered again.
"Yeah, I know that. Hell, I even saw his interview." She replied. "But what I mean is who did that big tool think? He's waffling on forever and ever about destinies and impudent masses and all that kind of carpet and doesn't actually say anything. He sounds like some carpet-eating villain form one of your books, Rick."
"Actually, he's giving me some great ideas." Rick replied as he picked up his sketchpad form the floor. "I liked the whole look of him."
"Useless, you are." Sandra muttered. "Still, we seem to be doing well so far."
"I hope we can talk again." Vic said. "He was funny."
Before Sandra could reply, the eyeslot opened. "You realise what's going to happen now." Shepard hissed from the other side. "It would have been easier if you'd just talked while you were with the moose."
"Yeah, well I didn't feel like it." Sandra replied.
"I don't understand." He said. "What are these people to you anyway?"
"If you can't figure it out by now, then don't bother." Sandra said.
"Whatever." He looked inside the cell. "Hagen. Tell me, what happened to the others, Desmond, Hallis and Snow. At least give me that much."
Once again, Vic appeared at the door without seeming to cross the intervening distance. "What happened?" She began. "I did."
No sooner had the fleet launched then it had once again begun to travel north, staying inside the wastelands as they approached the northern edge of the continent, heading towards the ocean. Reven's constant updates had kept the crew of the Hovercargo up to date with developments, allowing them to keep as close a tail on them as possible.
"Oh-oh." Anna said as she looked over a map. "This is not good."
"What's up?" Felix asked, walking over to her with the last of the good (well, not 'completely awful') coffee in hand.
Anna turned the map around towards him. A pair of paths had been marked out on the map, showing the course that both they and the enemy fleet were taking. "They're making for the ocean." She replied. "I'd guess, from the looks of things, they're heading into the Dark Continent."
Felix studied the map. "And if we follow their course directly, we'll end up in the drink."
Anna nodded. "Pants!" She shouted. "We have a problem here."
"What is it?" He shouted form the control station. 'I'm busy."
"At the rate we're going, we're going to fall into the ocean in a few hours."
"What?" He shouted back.
Fine, she thought. Climbing up to the control station, she dropped the map on Pant's lap. "This shows our paths, right?"
Pants studied the map. He could see their path and the estimated paths of the Enemy fleet. While the enemy's three-hour break had given them precious catch-up time, they were still significantly ahead. And the gap wasn't closing. "So?" He asked.
"So we're here." She pointed out. "And the enemy will be crossing over the ocean in about half an hour unless they change their course."
Pants paused. 'Wait a minute." He said. "The ocean?"
"Yes, water." She replied. "You know, Pants, the big blue wet thing?"
"Of course!" He slapped his forehead. "The ocean!"
"Yes, that ocean." She said. "Now I was thinking that we could do a go-around… here." She indicated on the map. "We cut through the Vinterlands and chance it going across the Skillaz ice field. At this time of the year it should be pretty solid, but there's a fair degree of risk involved-"
"Not necessary." Pants rpelied.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked.
"My dear, you forget that I am a Darth." He explained. "As such, do you really think that I would use a 'normal' Hovercargo? Dear me, no." He indicated to the control panel. For the first time, Anna could see that there were a large number of extra instruments and controls that had apparently been added after the original manufacture. "I long ago took precautions against such an eventuality."
He swept his hands across one bank of extra controls and instruments. "These controls allow me to convert the hovercargo to a sea-going mode. In this mode, we can travel across the ocean like a Hovercargo normally crosses the land. There is no need to worry about loosing our quarries." He explained.
"I see." Anna replied, somewhat unconvinced. "Well, if you say so." She stepped down from the control centre.
"Turn the Hovercargo into a ship?" Felix asked. "I'm not too sure if I want to trust this thing to keep me high and dry." He spat on the floor to emphasise his point. "I'm not to convinced of this guy's engineering skills."
"All of a sudden." Anna said. "I'm beginning to think that Z-One may have it good right now."
"Excuse me, Major?"
De Lyon blinked himself awake. He was in his bed, in his quarters on board the Null. Captain Sturm was standing over him. "What is it?" He asked as he sat up.
"Sorry to wake you, sir, but we have a report form Agent Collins." Sturm replied.
"No need to apologise." He said. "What does he say?"
"The A-X fleet has apparently passed grid FJ-1" He replied. "They're following the same route that Desmond's force used, as you predicted." He paused for a moment. "He predicts that they'll be at the city by sixteen hundred hours."
De Lyon nodded. "Good. Have everybody made ready to move out immediately."
"But sir, we won't reach the city until after them." Sturm replied.
"I understand." He said. "I will take my Zoid to meet them at the city. The rest of you are to go to grid P4Q-1 and begin construction. I'll join you there once my business in the city is concluded."
"Yes sir." Sturm saluted and left.
This was it, he thought. From here, there's no turning back. He had long ago realised that he had no regrets about what he was about to do. They'd all lied to him, used him and manipulated him to their own ends. It was particularly galling that one of those to do it best had been one of his own subordinates.
Now it was his turn.
Rose had been more then happy to cover for Sel while she took her squad out on "manoeuvres." She knew what Sel was up to, but didn't feel like informing anyone. It meant that Sel owed her another favour, and she had more leverage over her in case of an emergency. Besides, the implications of a security breach like this involving the daughter of one of the city's top military officials could be… interesting.
She'd been pretty much confined to the city since she got back form Chronos, and that was months ago. Even though she'd lived nearly her whole life indoors, it seemed to grate on her now more then it had in past. Possibly because she'd seen the outside world, she realised. She'd seen what life was like outside of this stuffy little cage and found that it was far better then anything this place could aver offer.
So she'd found herself a new job. Cade seemed to agree with her on the idea that De Lyon was up to something. At the same time, she couldn't get directly involved in the Special Operations Unit, which was under someone else's command. As a result, Rose had been acting as Cade's unofficial spy, watching certain people and seeing what they were up to.
Today she'd found an interesting one. She'd come across a pilot she recognised from the SOU and had been following her for the last few hours. Joanne Pilkington was a singularly dull person from her recollections. How she'd made it to the SOU was anyone's guess. Today wasn't proving to be any different from the norm.
Or was it?
She'd spent a lot of time talking to someone on her personal communicator, clearly trying to avoid talking through the regular lines, which could (and probably would) be monitored. After a while, she'd picked up a small package form somebody she met in a café, and then left. Interesting.
After that, she'd made a beeline for central command. Clearly she was up to something. It was very unlikely that she would be going to the central command, and definitely not alone. As she suspected, rather then using the main entrance, Joanne opted for a disused service entrance around one side. Confronted with a security access point, she pulled a card out of the package and used that to enter.
Fascinating, Rose thought. Well, two can play at that game.
Long ago she'd acquired a security card that had access to Central Command. It had taken some time and effort, but the payoff had been well worth it. Besides, he wasn't too bad looking. Waiting a moment after Joanne had gone through, she swiped her own card through the door and entered.
She slipped into a darkened corridor, quickly and quietly closing the door behind her. Listening carefully, she could hear footsteps in the distance, moving away. Trying to remain silent, she followed sounds through the darkened corridors.
Abruptly, they stopped. Looking around, Rose figured where she'd gotten to. There was an open maintenance door on the wall. Sloppy, she thought. Peering inside, she could see a ladder heading off into the depths, and no sign of Joanne.
No choice, she thought. She climbed down the ladder, trying to remain quiet. Reaching the bottom, she found herself lost in amaze of pipes and power conduits, similar to the room she'd found Amelia in. She peered around in the darkness, looking for some sign of her quarry. Then, Joanne provided one for her.
A light came on in the distance. Looking towards it, Rose could see that it was a computer screen, recessed into a wall. There was a figure kneeling next to it, presumably Joanne. Well, she thought, what are we up to?
She quietly moved closer, taking in her surroundings. It seemed to be more communications cables then anything else in here. As she approached, she realised that the wall was in fact a massive pillar, ascending into the darkness. Then she figured what it was; the central communications trunk, through which all the city's communications were run
She moved up behind Joanne before the other woman noticed. A diagram was up on the screen, showing layouts of all the city's access ways, both internal and external. Interesting.
"Funny seeing you here, Pilkington." She said.
Joanne spun around and looked up at her. From here, Rose figured, she probably looked somewhat menacing in the dim light. Perfect. "Captain O'Bannon." She began. "Uh, what are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same of you." She replied. "Down in the depths of Central command, accessing what looks like the controls for the city's security systems."
"Well..." She began, and then tried to grab at Rose's leg. Before she could, Rose seized her arm and twisted it.
"So tell me" Rose began. "What is De Lyon up to? Why are you doing his dirty work?"
"Let…" She began. "Let go of me."
"No." Rose replied. She kneed the other woman in the face, resulting in a rather satisfying cracking sound. Hooking her leg around, she kicked Joanne in the back, sending her sprawling forwards. Before Joanne could get up, Rose planted her foot on the back of her head. "Try harder next time."
Ignoring the other woman's protests, Rose switched on her communicator. "Cade?" She began. "It's me, O'Bannon. I caught one of the SOU trying to access the security control system. You might want to take a look at this."
Half an hour later, Rose found herself in Cade's office in the central command room. "You were right to contact me." Cade grudgingly admitted. Rose couldn't help but feel pleased with herself. "What you've just done is stopped one of the greatest potential security threats I've ever seen."
"Colonel?" Rose replied. "Care to explain?"
Cade picked up a disk from her desk, the same one that Rose had taken off Joanne. "This disk had the access codes to open every single access point in the city." She explained. "Everything from the front doors to the access lifts down to the main city to the Zoid hangers to the emergency escapes."
"So Joanne was trying to open up the city to an attack?" Rose asked.
"Probably." Cade replied. "There's more, however." She turned over the disk. "It also contained a destructive Virus that was programmed to attack specific targets. In this case, the control programs for the aforesaid doors."
"They would have been locked open, and we would have had no way to stop them." Rose concluded.
Cade nodded. "Exactly." She explained. "Whoever planned this, and I have a pretty good idea of who it was, wanted to open us up to an attack." She looked it over. "The enemy would have been able to come straight in through the front door. That's the cornerstone of our defensive strategy kicked out form under us right there."
"And you think it was De Lyon?" She asked. She'd expected as such, she just wanted to hear it from Cade.
Cade nodded. "Pilkington was a member of the SOU. It's a logical conclusion."
Before rose could say anything, the communicator on Cade's desk beeped. "Colonel?" A voice piped up. "Sorry to interrupt you, but we have a situation here."
Cade glared at the communicator. "I'm on my way." She stood. "You, with me." She said to Rose.
"Am I that valuable now?" Rose asked.
"No." She replied. "But I'm not going to leave you in here alone."
The pair of them walked out to the main control room. Rose could see that the big board was currently displaying a map of the area around Novo Zemalya. A cluster of red blips were heading towards the city, various ID tags attached to them. "Well?" Cade asked as she stood over a technician.
"Monitoring Station 3 detected a flight of seven unidentified ships passing through grid A3J-1" He replied. "Types confirmed as four Whale Kings, two Whale Sharks and a single Hammer Kaiser."
"Any identification in them?" Cade asked.
"Negative." He replied. "They're not ours and there's nothing to indicate that they're from any of the major Shelflands powers."
She turned to Rose. "Any ideas?"
"Snow's info gave us the size of the A-X fleet." Rose replied. "She put it at three Whale Kings, two Sharks and a Kaiser. It's possible that they've added an extra ship since then." She looked at the boards. "The numbers do fit."
"And they're heading straight for us." Cade replied. "And while to our knowledge nobody else in A-X has a copy of the journal, its possible that there were survivors from Desmond or Pie's units. After all, we never found Desmond's transport ship."
"And at the same time as these ships appear, someone tries to sabotage our security system and leave us wide open." Rose continued. "That can't be a coincidence."
"No." Cade replied, before turning to the Tech. "Put us on red alert. Recall all units to the city. And get me general Abbot immediately."
It had taken surprisingly little manoeuvring for Sel to get her squad some time for 'manoeuvres'. Her master plan was to lead them as far off course as possible, then 'accidentally' stray into restricted territory. Once there, she could show Bekka, Alex and Bob the Sovetski Soyuz ruins and give them the full story of what had happened.
She'd resolved to do this. She felt that they had a right to know the truth about their lives. It still wouldn't be easy.
She opened a link to Matt's Zoid. "Matt, can I ask you something?" She began.
"Sure." He replied. "What's up?"
"I never asked you…" She began. "I never asked you how you felt when you found out… everything. The room, the ruins, the ship, what Rose told us… all of that."
He nodded. "It was confronting to say the least." He explained. "But at the same time, not entirely unexpected."
"How so?"
Matt leaned back in his Zoid's command couch. "Many things about our lives never quite seemed… right to me." He explained. "The militarism. The paranoia. The fear of the unknown."
"We don't like anyone who's different to us." Sel said. "We see the outside world as being hostile. Dangerous even."
"After what happened with Chrom, why didn't we look outside for allies to ensure that nothing like that would happen again?" Matt asked. "Because our leaders saw the outside world as a challenge to their authority."
"It would be dangerous to allow too much contact with outside." Sel said. "Sending us into the outside world must have been a major step."
"Indeed." He said. "One of my former commanders once ordered me to kill enemy prisoners, simply so there was no risk of them escaping and informing the outside world of our existence." He continued. "That's one of the reasons why I was always so…" he paused.
"Go on." Sel said. She remembered her first battle. She had been about to crush the cockpit of a downed enemy Zoid when Matt stopped her.
"In a way kind of protective of you." He explained. "Sel, you're a wonderful human being. I just didn't want to see you become… become a cold killer like some any others have."
"You wanted me to be human." Sel said. "You knew something was wrong all along."
"I didn't want to see you become a part of it." He admitted. "I hoped that you, by remaining a good and decent human being would be different. Unlike those who currently run things."
She nodded. "I understand." There was a weak smile. "Thank you, Matt. Thank you for everything."
Before Matt could say anything, a beep from Sel's communicator interrupted her. Activating it, she was greeted by Colonel Cade's rather grim face. "Colonel?" She began.
"You and your squad are to return to the city immediately." Cade stated, a hint of anger in her voice.
Sel's heart skipped a beat. Did she know? "May I ask why?"
"An enemy fleet is heading straight for the city." Cade replied. 'We've spotted seven ships. We suspect they're form A-X."
Sel nodded. "Yes, colonel." She replied. "We'll be there as soon as possible." The link closed.
"Something up, captain?" Matt asked.
"That was Cade." Sel replied. "The city's under attack, Matt" She opened up a link to the entire squad. "Listen up, everybody. We're being recalled to the city."
"Recalled, Captain?" Bob asked. "Can I ask why?"
"There's a fleet of ships heading straight for the city." She explained. "At least seven of them. None of them are ours, and there's some suggestion that it may be A-X. If so, we have to stop them."
"Cool" Bekka said. "I've been waiting for some action for ages. Being cooped up inside that city was driving me nuts."
"If this is your idea of fun, I'd hate to see a bad time." Alex replied, dripping sarcasm. "Just a pity that this should happen on our big day out."
Is it? Sel thought. Or is this some ploy to get us back into the city so they can… She shook her head. No, now I'm being paranoid. It's my duty to protect the city, no matter what. She bought the Darkhorn around. "Enough chatter, everyone." She shouted. "We have a job to do."
The massive black Zoid tore through the air, the dark continent a blur underneath it. Despite the temptation to open it up to its fullest and achieve stratospheric flight, De Lyon had chosen to travel low to the ground in order to minimise the chances of him being detected before the time was right.
So far all was going well. The A-X fleet had shown up as he'd expected and were heading straight for the city. This would put them in the perfect spot for when he launched his plan. The fact that they'd bought Blackmore, Mortis and Hagen with them was an added bonus. It put everyone nicely in the one place at the same time.
His only concern was that Pilkington had failed to report in. This meant that her part of the operation, disabling the city's defences, had likely been compromised. It was a setback, but not a major one.
A series of red blips appeared on the long-range scanner, indicating the A-X fleet ahead of him. They were in a neat, orderly formation, steaming straight for the city, completely ignorant of what was going on. Perfect. Now was his time to strike.
Whale Shark Warlord
Over the Dark Continent
1600 Hours
Captain Henry Richards hadn't liked the sound of this plan from the very beginning. Almost nobody in charge seemed to remember that he'd been to this place before. He knew that nobody from Desmond's unit had come back alive. He'd heard the screams of sheer terror and the desperate cries for help across the communicators. And he'd been the last person to ever hear Desmond alive.
So when Ebonflak had asked him for the navigational information to reach the city, he'd naturally been a little weary. Ebonflak had explained that this time they were coming not as invaders but as allies. Henry, for some reason, wasn't assured.
This time, however, things had gone a lot easier. There had been no attempt to hide the fleet by crawling through canyons and valleys in the middle of the night. There had been no sudden electromagnetic storms to throw them off course. And there hadn't been a single instance of cruel and unusual geography leaping out to try and attack his ship.
So far, so good, he thought. Checking the navigational displays, he could see that they were nearing the city, If anything was going to go wrong, he figured. It would have happened by now.
"Captain!" A technician shouted, leaping up form his seat. "Unidentified Zoid closing from behind!"
"What?" He shouted, inwardly cursing himself for getting too optimistic.
"There's heavy interference." The tech began. "But whatever it is, it's closing in on us fast. Coming from direct stern."
"All hands!" He shouted. "Brace for impact! Helm, Take us up!"
Before anyone could respond, there was a terrible screeching sound of metal being torn asunder. The entire ship rocked, and then tilted heavily to the starboard. "We're hit!" A tech shouted. "No helm control! We're going down!"
Inside the central control room, Cade watched the main display screen in horror. A huge black Zoid had literally appeared out of nowhere and sliced through the hull of one of the Whale Sharks with some sort of blade concealed in its wing. The attack tore a huge gash in the ships side, severing the starboard control fin and leaving it belching flames and black smoke. From here, she could see that the ship was doomed.
"Get me captain Eisenbeck now!" She shouted at a technician. Eisenbeck's Reddler unit was on patrol in the area. They were the nearest unit to the enemy fleet and that… thing. She had to know what was going on.
"Yes, colonel." The tech replied. "I have him for you now."
Cade grabbed the headset. "Eisenbeck, this is Cade." She began. "I need you to return to the city as soon as possible." She'd sent his unit out to search for De Lyon's forces, but now there was a more immediate concern.
"What's the situation, captain?" he asked.
"The enemy fleet has come under attack by an unknown Zoid." She looked at it on the screen. It's general configuration resembled that of a Reddler, but it was far larger. "We don't know if its hostile, but we don't want to assume anything as yet."
"Yes, colonel." He replied.
Cade turned to Rose. "Tell me, captain." She began. "You've seen the outside world. You've been to the Shelflands. Have you ever seen or heard of anything like that…" she indicated to the screen. "That thing."
"Truthfully?" Rose replied. "No, I haven't." A part of her added, but I think I know someone who may have. "With your permission, Colonel, I want to join the rest of my unit. Whatever happens, we're going to end up with a potentially dangerous enemy on our doorstep."
Cade eyed her warily, as if to see if she had some hidden, ulterior motive. Deciding that she had none, she nodded. "Go. I have a feeling that we may need every thing we have to stop that creature."
Watching on one of several monitors, Ebonflak could see the doomed Whale Shark plummet towards the ground. Ignoring the distress calls from the crew, he switched to another monitor, this one showing the attacking Zoid. "Magnificent" he said to himself. "What a truly magnificent creature." By his estimate, it was almost as long as a Mad Thunder, with a wingspan nearly as wide as it was long.
"Such a magnificent Zoid." He began. "Truly, it must possess a power unmatched by any other in this world." He stood as he talked. "This is a power that I must possess!"
"Lord Ebonflak!" Vincent ran into the room, shouting as he went. "We're under attack! The Warlord is down!"
"I'm aware of the situation, Agent D'Allevera." He replied. "Inform the captain, and everyone else in the fleet that there has been a change of plan." He continued.
"My lord?" He replied. "What are your new orders?"
"We will land and disembark our crew compliments immediately." He announced. "Once on the ground, our troops are to engage the enemy Zoid and attempt to disable it."
"Disable it, sir?" he asked.
"Yes." Ebonflak continued. "For once we have captured that Zoid, we can harness its power for our glorious cause!" The thought of an alliance was forgotten now. This creature was truly what he needed in order to conquer the world. "And once we have that power, then we can finally bring order to this world!"
Despite what she'd said to Cade, Rose hadn't gone straight to her squad's ready room. Instead, she'd sprinted back to her quarters, not stopping for anything. No sooner was she in, then she had gone to the bedroom and grabbed Steelgrave's computer. She remembered him saying something about weapons he'd created. She had the sickening feeling she was seeing one of them now.
"What is it you want now, you-" He began, but she cut him off.
"Listen to me, Steelgrave." She hissed. "There is a Zoid outside, a huge black dragon Zoid. It's just torn a Whale King apart like it was a toy. Do you have any idea what that… that thing is!"
There was a pause. Then, the computer's speaker spluttered out what sounded like a very, very poor attempt to simulate laugher.
"What?" She snarled. "What's so funny."
"The Zoid you described." He began. "It's one of my creations. One I developed specifically to use to conquer the other Starriors. You primitive organic puddles would be nothing before it."
"What is it?" She asked, taken back. Steelgrave was prone to bluster and talking bigger then he was, but suddenly she believed him.
"My final creation." He replied. "The Gilvader."
