"Well, maybe if you weren't such a nancy boy, you wouldn't be stuck in that Command Wolf!"
The voice flowed across the com channel as though it belonged there and not heard by natural means. It just seemed... right. The voice belonged to Commander Dal Connors, although people who called him Dal didn't talk much afterward.
"There's a difference between being tough and being crusty," another voice retorted, in a mocking tone. "They have you even out your crustiness with a fresh, new Zoid."
The voices were bouncing back and forth between a small group of Zoids. Two Command Wolves, and a Great Sabre, to be precise. All three were painted in camouflage to hide themselves in the grass, as well as the sparse forests that the Northern Valley held.
"No, I just take my job seriously." Connors responded. His voice sounded scolding, but in a joking sort of way. The group was fairly laid back as far as military units go, since they had the easy job. Most of the towns in the Northern Valley shunned Zoids, and the ones that didn't had stuff like Godos' and Guysacks for construction purposes. Occasionally they saw Zabats carrying Bind Containers, probably transporting supplies from Twilight City in the south.
"Uh... sir?" a third voice invaded the conversation, sounding a little more serious, and nervous. "Take a look at your sensors. Something's moving behind us. They're coming in quick."
Connors looked at his sensors, and cursed under his breath. Someone was about to get the jump on them. Well, he wouldn't have that. With a flick of his more-than-experienced wrist, he flipped on the Sabre's three-dimensional radar system, which quickly set to work mapping out the terrain surrounding them and feeding it through a small monitor as a wireframe landscape. On the grid, two fully rendered green forms moved, heading toward the group.
"Helcats..." Connors said to himself. "Cloaked ones. Let me take care of 'em."
"Aye, sir," the Command Wolf pilots both replied in unison. They walked forward, away from the Helcats, as Connors turned his Great Sabre around.
"Alright... time to see what this experimental model can do..." Connors said to himself. He quickly aimed the Sabre's shoulder mounted guns and fired a few rounds at the approaching Helcats, more as a warning shot than anything else. The Helcats responded by dodging the shots with ease, and pivoting large gatling cannons at the Sabre. Connors cursed again as shelling rained over his Zoid, pelting the Sabre's armor.
"How're they firing that quickly?" he asked the air, not really talking to anyone else. Almost immediately, a readout popped up on the monitor, telling Connors about the Hiblit Vulcans that had been fitted to the Helcats, and suggested that he use the ASU to block their shots. Connors stared at the screen for a brief second, his gaze breaking when the Sabre was hit with more fire. Franticly searching the console, Connors found a button labeled 'ASU', and quickly slammed his palm down on it.
Outside, the Command Wolf pilots, as well as the Helcat pilots, watched as an angular energy shield pieced itself together around the Sabre, covering it on all angles. The Helcats stopped firing, and split up, attempting to flank the Sabre.
"Get out of here! Go get help!" Connors barked orders at the Command Wolf pilots.
"But, sir! There could be more of them!"
"Which is why you need to go get help. I'll hold 'em off!" As he said this, the shield around the Sabre was hit hard by missiles from either side of it. The Helcats obviously had more than the Hiblits. More missiles, and the shield was taken down. Connors cursed, and activated the flight pack. The Sabre shot through the air, landing on top of one of the cloaked Sabres. "GO! That's an order!" he shouted. Without any more talk, the Command Wolves turned and sprinted away.
The Sabre roared in pain as missiles struck its back leg. Connors pulled back on the controls, and let out a sort of battle cry. There was no way he was losing to a couple of Helcats. The standing Helcat lowered its stealth shield, allowing Connors to spot it. The two Zoids exchanged fire, the Helcat dealing more damage to the Sabre's leg.
However, Connors was the better shot, and felled the Helcat fairly easily. As the enemy Zoid fell to the ground, surrounded by thin blue threads of electricity, Connors ran a system check on the Sabre. The check was about halfway finished when the Sabre was slammed hard from the side. The hit was strong enough to send the Sabre sprawling to the ground, breaking cockpit glass and bumping Connors around a bit. His stomach slammed into the controls, and he coughed up blood.
Quickly composing himself, he brought the Sabre to its feet, looking for the source of the impact. A Shield Liger, painted the same as the Helcats, folded its energy panels back in, lowering its shield. Connors guessed that the Liger had rammed him. What he couldn't guess was how the Liger managed to avoid his sensors. But now wasn't the time.
Connors slammed his fist down on the controls, hitting the trigger for the Sabre's mortar launchers, sending all eight projectiles careening into the Shield Liger's face. Normally Connors avoided cockpit shots, but his stomach was killing him, so he wanted to end this quickly. The Shield Liger stopped moving, and simply fell down, face first. Well... what was left of its face, anyway. The explosion from the mortars had done extensive damage, peeling away most of the Liger's face armor, and obliterating the cockpit.
After scanning the area again, Connors was convinced that there were no other Zoids around, so he ran the system check again. All internal systems were still functioning at full capacity, but the Sabre's back left leg needed repairs. Wiring in the leg had been damaged, and needed to be fixed before it could move much farther. Connors cursed to himself, and ran another scan of the area, finding the closest town.
"There... that one." He said. Grabbing a bag full of supplies from behind the cockpit seat, Connors opened the cockpit and lowered the Sabre down to the ground. He input a timed command, telling the Sabre to raise its shield in three minutes. After that, he jumped to the ground and headed for the town that he picked out on the sensors.