Zoids: A New Beginning

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own zoids

Pierce looked at the marvelous zoid that was to be her own. "What is it?" she asked. The zoid was an airborne type. It was modeled (like most airborne typses) after a pterosaur. Its short beak was lined with teeth. Two short crests extended behind the head. Unlike most airborne types, it did not walk on just its two hind legs. The wings when folded moved downward, acting as a second pair of legs, in effect making the zoid a quadruped. The whole zoid was gray.

"This is the Rodan," replied Derrik. "It is the ultimate air combat zoid. It can easily exceed Mach 5 and can reach Mach 8 when pushed to its limits. Even at Mach 5 it maintains full maneuverability which is more than can be said about most airborne zoids when they fly at Mach 3. The Rodan's shockwave is its primary weapon. However, it is also armed with a micro-plasma cannon located in the mouth. The cannon has incredible range and excellent accuracy."

"It's beautiful," was all that Pierce could bring herself to say.

"Rodan is also an Ultimate X zoid," Derrik stated as if it were nothing special.

"An Ultimate X!" exclaimed Pierce. In response to her exclamation the Rodan let off an earsplitting shriek which echoed through the hangar in the belly of the greatshark.

"I made it in conjunction with the Raptorus, and figured that you might be its pilot of choice," said Derrik. Rodan voiced its agreement with another shriek. Pierce was surprised when she realized that she understood that Rodan was agreeing with Derrik.

"What did it say?" asked Derrik. He already knew what the answer would be from the stunned look on Pierce's face.

"It agreed with you," she stammered.

"An interesting thing about Organoids, Ultimate Xs in particular. They develop a rapport with their chosen pilot that allows the said pilot to determine the zoid's vocalizations," stated Derrik flatly.

"Who are we fighting?" asked Pierce.

"We'll see."

Derrik joined Zanders and Stoler on the bridge of the greatshark. Silently, he stared out the window into the clouds over which the transport was majestically sailing. Stoler looked over and said, "When I was a young boy, you were already twenty years easily. Now, looking at you, I realize that despite the time that has passed between then and now, that your parents are still alive."

Derrik smiled. "My parents are indeed alive, and well into their third century. I come from stock that weathers the storm of time well. You would be surprised Stoler, but you are from similar stock."

Stoler held his tongue, having nothing else to say. Zanders had listened in wide-eyed interest to Derrik's almost casual, if not amused, remark.

At the Toros Base, Jamie was in the computer room finalizing the order for the laser-targeting component that would be added to the Shadowfox. Following the extraordinary success of a strategy in the last battle, which called upon the Shadowfox to coordinate and target a long-range strike made by the Liger 0 Panzer and Leena's Gunsniper to hit the enemy team with unerring accuracy, Dr. Toros had made the suggestion, ratified by Brad, that they outfit a laser-targeting unit to the Shadowfox. The other team had been using an identical strategy and Bit had merely turned their strategy against them.

After he finalized the order for the component, he saw that there was a message from the Zoid Battle Commission. He quickly scanned the message and dashed from the computer room over to the lounge where the others were.

Brad lay on one of the couches while Leena sat across from him and Bit was in the kitchen making dinner. "We have our next opponent," Jamie announced.

"Well?" said Brad.

"We're up against the X Team," said Jamie.

"Haven't heard of that one before," said Brad.

"Must be newly formed from some other Class S team," said Leena.

"Any information about who's on the team?" asked Bit, coming in with dinner.

"Nope," said Jamie.

"When's the battle scheduled," asked Leena anxiously.

"Tomorrow."

"Good, it was getting dull around here," said Brad. He was right, the Blitz Team hadn't had a scheduled battle in two weeks (mostly because they had two consecutive battles against Harry who just refused to give up).

"The battle mode is 0982," said Jamie.

"That's weird," said Bit, "The normal battle mode for Class S is 0993."

"Well, that's what the information read," said Jamie.

"Who cares as long as we're racking up the points and prize money," said Leena.

"Good point," said Bit, "Lets get 'em."

The following day on the battlefield, the Blitz Team arrived. First, the forward most piece of the hover cargo lifted up. "Leena, mobilizing Gunsniper," Leena announced.

Next, the catapult opened and Brad was first up. "Brad here, all set to mobilize Shadowfox." The Shadowfox was launched from the catapult and landed next to the Gunsniper.

The Raynos went next, "Jamie, all mobilizing Raynos." The Raynos was launched into the air and came to a hover over Brad and Leena.

Finally, the Liger 0 came up. "Bit Cloud, ready to mobilize the Liger 0." The Liger too was launched and assembled next to the others. Bit looked around, confused. "Where's the other team?"

Leena's eyes widened. "You don't think the Backdraft is going to take over another battle do you?" she asked anxiously.

Suddenly, the sand a few kilometers in front of them began to sink into a large depression. From the depression a large dorsal fin emerged. It was followed by the rest of an enormous transport craft.

"That's the greatshark!" exclaimed Jamie.

The greatshark settled onto the ground and the lower part of the dorsal fin began to open. A launch track rose up in front of the opening, creating a curve that would carry a zoid over the main dorsal cannon.

A zoid appeared at the exit and stepped onto the ramp. "Derrik, ready to mobilize Raptorus." The Raptorus was launched into the air and ground to a stop in front of the Blitz Team.

A bottom hatch dropped down, releasing a very familiar zoid. "Stoler, mobilizing the Elaphender." The Elaphender slowly made its way to where the Raptorus stood.

Another zoid appeared at the head of the ramp. It was an airborne type. "Pierce, ready to mobilize Rodan." The Rodan launched and came to a hover over the other zoids of the X Team.

A third zoid that Bit knew all too well stepped onto the ramp. "Vega, mobilizing Berserk Fury." The Fury launched from the ramp and came to a rest next to the Raptorus. It let out a thunderous roar that was echoed by a screech from the Raptorus and a shriek from the Rodan.

The Liger roared back at them. Not too far away, smoke billowed as the judge capsule landed. "Area scanned. Battlefield setup. The Blitz Team versus the X Team. Battle mode 0982. Ready…Fight!"

Bit did not waste any time. The Liger 0 turned around and sprinted towards the hover cargo. Brad went for the Elaphander. Leena also went for the Elaphander. Inside the hover cargo, Bit switched to the Shnider armor.

Brad shifted his zoid from side to side, deftly dodging the Elaphander's fire. He saw that the shielding unit on the trunk had been replaced by the sixty-millimeter hyper laser gun. The Elaphander swung its trunk like a flexible club but the Shadowfox was quick enough to dodge the attack.

Underneath the leaping Shadowfox came a barrage of missiles that smashed into the front end of the Elaphander. Brad landed on the Elaphander's right and was about to press the attack when a shot from the Berserk Fury forced him to dodge yet again. Brad fired at the Fury but the shielding unit easily withstood the meager assault.

Leena continued to fire at the Elaphander, but the dorsal cannon returned fire as well as the ventral cannon. Leena was surprised at how well she dodged the shots, but was dismayed when she saw the Raptorus slowly, carefully making its way around to cover her flank. "Hurry up in there Bit, it's three against two out here."

Brad had his hands full with the Berserk Fury. In past battles the Fury had proved more than a match for the Shadowfox. Vega only made circumventing the Fury's abilities even harder. The Shadowfox crouched low as it ducked under one of the slashes of the Berserk Fury's Buster Claws. Brad dodged around behind the Berserk Fury, but had to jump as the Fury's tail slapped the ground where he had been. He tried firing from behind the Fury bur Vega ducked and dodged his shots.

The Raptorus carefully approached the Gunsniper from behind. Leena was well aware of its presence, but could do nothing about it untile she was able to deal with the Elaphander. That in and of itself would be nearly impossible.

Derrik was about to strike when the Liger 0 Shnider was launched from the hover cargo, its Buster Slash ready. Raptorus sidestepped the Liger 0's slash, but as soon as Liger touched the ground, it turned and fired its jets, changing direction instantly. Raptorus leapt over the charge, but Liger corrected with its jets again. Derrik realized he would not be able to stay ahead of the Shnider's blades forever.

Brad found he could not find any weakness in the Berserk Fury's defenses. He settled into a defense until he could figure out a way to effectively attack the Berserk Fury. As the Shadowfox evaded yet another set of shots from the Berserk Fury, Brad looked around to find some cover so that he might have time to think of a strategy. He spotted something better than cover.

The Elaphander deplyed its shield to protect itself from the Gunsniper's attacks. Leena sighed, frustrated that she could not penetrate the zoid's defenses. She knew that the Elaphander was vulnerable to attack from the rear, but it took a zoid with speed like the Shadowfox or Liger 0 to get around behind the zoid. The Elaphander would easily be able to compensate for the relatively slow Gunsniper.

Then, something happened that swung the battle in her favor. The Shadowfox leapt to avoid the shots fired by the Berserk Fury. The catch was that it leapt over the Elaphander, turning the Elaphander into the new target for the Berserk Fury.

The Elaphander was rocked by the shots and turned to respond to the new threat, in the process turning off its shields. Leena opened fire. The Elaphander had been able to withstand the misdirected shots of the Berserk Fury, was unable to stand against an all out assault from the Gunsniper. As the massive zoid collapsed, Leena breathed a sigh of relief. "And for once we did it without Bit."

Brad wasted no time. "Leena, start firing at the Berserk Fury."

Leena happily obliged. "Weasel Unit, Total Assault," she shouted as her Gunsniper cut loose with everything it had.

Vega opened the Fury's array blades that activated a shield unit. The Berserk Fury's shield unit, which could withstand the simultaneous blasts of three Genosaurer charged particle cannons, easily withstood the Gunsniper's barrage. However, it was not covered to attack from the rear.

The Shadowfox attacked from behind while Vega was occupied by the assault from in front. The Fury lost most of its mobility while its shields were activated. Vega didn't have a chance to dodge. One of Brad's shots pierced one of the arms that joined a set of the Berserk Fury's shielding array to the body. Its shield effectively disabled, the Gunsniper's barrage was able to punch through. Between the two of them, Leena and Brad wore down and disabled the Berserk Fury.

The Raptorus and Shnider continued to duel, the Raptorus only a fraction of a second ahead of the Shnider's laser blades, a margin that was closing with each attack. Derrik knew he had to buy himself some time, but it was difficult as the Shnider had apparently analyzed and learned from the Raptorus's moves.

Up in the sky, Jamie and Pierce were waging a battle of equal ferocity. The Rodan's body was much more flexible and allowed for even tighter turns and soon, Jamie (who had slipped into his Wild Eagle persona) found that the Rodan was tight on his tail.

Despite that, Jamie was able to dodge the blasts from the Rodan's micro-plasma cannon. He decided that the time had come to take the offensive. Following an attack by the Rodan, the Raynos used airbrakes to stop abruptly. Jamie then hauled up on the flight stick, causing the Raynos to turn 180-degrees onto its back, bringing the Rodan into the line of fire. Jamie pulled the trigger, sending green bolts of laser energy stabbing out at the Rodan.

The maneuver took Pierce by surprise and she reacted too late. Still, the Rodan's maneuverability allowed it to avoid all damage except a graze. Turning around, she accelerated away from the Raynos. The Raynos did not pursue, but flew in the opposite direction. Both pilots turned around and charged, each planning to use their sonic boom to defeat the other. Pierce thought she had the advantage. Traveling at Mach 8, the Rodan's sonic boom was substantially more powerful than the Raynos's. Jamie knew this as well. He also knew that because it was moving faster, the Rodan's sonic boom traveled much farther behind the Rodan, giving him a better chance to avoid it.

The two zoids passed one another. The Rodan flew right into the Raynos's sonic boom. The Raynos began to ascend beyond the influence of the Rodan's sonic boom, but being more powerful, the sonic boom was also much larger. The Raynos bucked as it was battered by the Rodan's sonic boom, but it escaped the brunt of the blast.

Pierce was sure that she had won when an explosion rocked the Rodan. Alarms went off inside the cockpit. Looking down, she realized that the Rodan's structural integrity had been compromised. The Rodan had just lost over fifty percent of its maneuverability. With the structure so compromised, she could not fly at full speed.

Something was wrong. The Rodan should have been able to weather such a meager attack with ease. Something had to have weakened the structure beforehand. Then it came to her; the graze. The graze had weakened the outer chassis enough that the Raynos's sonic boom cracked the Rodan like an egg. With the damage the Rodan had sustained, the Raynos now matched the Rodan.

Jamie slid in behind the Rodan. With her maneuverability cut, Pierce couldn't shake the skilled pilot. "This has been the most challenging dogfight I have ever experienced!" exclaimed Jamie. "Thank you and goodbye."

The Raynos's shot went straight through the rear of the Rodan. Pierce saw the power draining. The zoid crashed not far from the greatshark. Pierce looked at the screen that announced a command system freeze. She sighed and said, "Oh well, it's good to be back."

Meanwhile, the battle between the Raptorus and the Liger 0 was heating up. The Shnider swung its head like a double-bladed axe. The Raptorus dodged backwards and jumped back farther as the Shnider pressed the attack. Derrik would have dearly liked to turn around and put some distance between him and the Liger, but he and the Raptorus had no time to turn around. At the rate it was moving, the Liger would slice the legs out from under the Raptorus before Derrik could hit the gas.

Without warning, the Raptorus moved on its own accord. It charged the Shnider. As the Shnider lunged forward, the Raptorus planted its foot on the flat of the topmost blade of the Shnider's buster slash. The Raptorus's other foot left the ground and it pushed off with the foot on the Shnider's head. The result allowed the Raptorus to land behind the Liger 0 while driiving the Liger's head into the ground, buying time for Derrik to take a breather.

Derrik sighed in relief. "Good going partner," he said, "You just saved us." The Raptorus stopped some distance away. When it turned around, Derrik saw the Shnider gearing up for its most powerful attack, the Seven Blades Attack. Already, the blades were shining a bright blue that was soon replaced by burning orange. It charged forward.

The Raptorus surprised Derrik once again by charging at the Liger. "Don't you remember Raptorus?" yelled Derrik, "We can't meet the Shnider's Seven Blades Attack head on!" The Raptorus ignored him and continued to charge. "Okay partner," he whispered, "Whatever you say."

The two zoids were approaching. All four sets of the Raptorus's claws were starting to glow. They came closer. "Seven Blades Attack!" yelled Bit. The Liger roared.

The Raptorus waited until it had almost collided with the Shnider, then threw itself onto its back, all four claws pointed upward. The Shnider's underbelly was ripped to shreds by the Raptorus's claws. The Liger went a little farther on sheer momentum, then collapsed. "We did it," said Derrik.

His relief was short lived however. He saw a bright golden glow two the left. Before it even occurred to him, or the Raptorus, what was happening, the Shadowfox's claws ripped through the Raptorus's own underbelly. The Shadowfox was followed by a barrage from the Gunsniper. The Raptorus was disabled.

"The battle is over," announced the judge. "The winner is… the Blitz Team."

Leena took a second to think about what happened. "Alright!" she exclaimed, "We won!"

"And for once it wasn't Bit that won the battle," said Brad smugly.

"Very funny," said Bit.

Derrik reflected on the battle and said, "Either way you think about it, we lost."

In the living room of the greatshark, the Blitz and X Teams met. Derrik had invited the Blitz Team over for dinner. Brad leaned back on one of the sofas and remarked, "That was a good battle."

"Yeah!" exclaimed an excited Vega, "I haven't enjoyed a battle like that since I fought the Liger 0."

"You made me proud," said Sarah. Vega blushed at the complement.

"Thanks mom," she said.

"Mom?" half the heads in the room turned.

"Sarah officially became my mother after we left the Backdraft Group," said Vega quietly.

"Oh," said Bit.

They all broke into laughter. The two teams spent the rest of the night conversing and having fun. It was a night to be enjoyed by all.

But some enjoyed that night better than others. Halfway across the world, in the belly of a whale king, Garret rested after his latest unsanctioned battle. The new zoids of the Strike Team had performed excellently. Next to him, Chaos also rested. The zoid's eyes were closed.

They were in the hangar. Garret stared contemplatively up at his Gonosaurer. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Jeremy, the pilot of the Death Stinger approaching him.

"Enjoying yourself?" he asked mockingly. His chest swelled with pride. Garret knew that ever since he had piloted the Death Stinger, Jeremy had gained something of a feeling of superiority over his fellow pilots.

"Indeed I am," Garret replied casually.

"You must know that you gave up the chance of a lifetime; piloting that tin can." His disdaining gaze fell upon the Genosaurer. "That hunk of junk would be no match for my Death Stinger."

"On the other hand," remarked Garret, his tone not changing, "The Death Stinger isn't exactly what it used to be. That zoid used to be capable of destroying entire cities with a single shot. Now, it's hard pressed to overcome the shield of an Ultrasaurus, something that would have given way like tissue paper to a Death Stinger at full power. More than that, this Death Stinger is much smaller than the one that was used in the past. This one is about equal to a Genosaurer or Dark Spiner in size."

"Still," replied Jeremy, anger finding its way into his voice, "It is still much more powerful than your pathetic Genosaurer."

Garret's glance fell upon Chaos. "Not forever."

"You think that just by using an Organoid you can exceed my power." Jeremy barked out a laugh. "Ha! You still aren't even close to being my match."

"You will see," said Garret serenely, "All in due time." He started to chuckle quietly. The chuckle grew into a long and loud bought of laughter that sent a chill down Jeremy's spine. Jeremy backed up to the door, then rushed out, leaving Garret alone in the hangar, still laughing.