Here Without You, Baby

Chapter Three: Goodbye, My Love

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

I'm here without you baby but your still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you baby but your still with me in my dreams
And tonight, there's only you and me

3 Doors Down (Here Without You)

I had to stop him. Even though they were the ones subjugating my people, I couldn't just let him kill them. So I stopped him; I fired my Gauss Rifles at his flight pack, and incapacitated him. Smoke started pouring out of it, and he lost altitude quickly. I went on an intercept path to where his ejection pod should have ejected to, to get him out of there as quickly as I could. I really didn't care about how mad he'd get at me. But the cockpit exploded.

"CRASS!" I screamed, fearing the worst. I soon calmed down when I saw the ejection pod. But the Storm Sworder exploded and something flew out of it and hit him. It tore through his parachute, and he plummeted down.

Instantly, I swooped down to try to catch him, and I was right next to him. His CORE module reported that he was knocked out and his heart was beating irregularly. I tried to get him into my cargo bay, but a sudden thermal rocketed my Harrier far away from him. By the time I got control back, he was gone, and his CORE module had stopped transmitting.

Amy just kept on going down, frantically scanning the ground in hopes that Crass had somehow made it. I had to grab her with my talons to force her to level off before she crashed into the ground. Then we headed back to the Hammer. When we entered the bay and left our cockpits, she shot me a cold look. Before I could say anything, Renee came in and told us to go to the lounge. Amy went there, ignoring me the whole way.

How could she? I was so close. I was just about to find him when she pulled me out.

Mark had everyone go to the lounge so we could figure out what to do, even though it was obvious.

"We have to find a new place to touch down." Mark said. "We have to assume that Jonathan told the Terrans about our plans. Seymour, reprogram all our security modules and homing beacons. As long as they stay the same, we'll be vulnerable to infiltration. Joanna, where else can we land?"

"Hey, we have to send someone to find Crass." I said.

"That's impossible. If we go back, they'll be on top of us."

"Are you saying that we're gonna just leave him there?"

"With all due respect, I don't think there's anyone to find."

I looked at him in disbelief. How could he? How could he possibly say something like that? Crass went through a hell of a lot worse and still made it. He was knocked out and his heart was beating irregularly. I had to leave; I was on the verge of breaking down, and them seeing me couldn't make it any better.

I stormed out of there and went to my room. I sat on my bed and started bawling. Catherine came in a few minutes later and sat next to me, trying her best to comfort me. We sat there, crying…

It was four weeks since the incident. Amy was second in command, but Joanna took over when we determined that Amy wasn't fit to command; she's been holed up in her room ever since. We found another ore deposit that we could harvest, and hid the Hammer inside large cavern near it. We would use the Herculean X2 as our transport ship when we did our missions, and the Hammer would stay there, as a mobile base. We unpacked the HQ we had from the asteroid as our permanent base.

"This is our primary objective." Joanna said, as she pointed to a warehouse in a huge industrial complex. "This is the primary HEV production plant of this region. Taking it out will seriously cripple their forces, and will make it easier to liberate the Northeastern Gulag.

"We will be divided into two teams, the distracters and the demolishers. Catherine will lead two of us and keep base defenses focused on us, while Molly and two others will infiltrate the base and set the explosives. Mark will pilot the X. When they are out of the base, the distracters will go here," she said, pointing to a forest "and lay low. The X will be waiting nearby to extract. Any questions?"

"Yes." Amy said. Everyone was surprised by her appearance. "There's only seven people in the operation, but there's eight of us."

"Well… I thought-"

"That I'd just stay here and mope around. No… Crass wouldn't want that." She said darkly. Then she somehow brightened up. "And this is my planet anyway. I can't let you guys have all the credit."

"Alright." Joanna said, and quickly regained her composure. "Molly and I have decided that Molly, James and Renee will be on the demolition team. Everyone else is with Catherine."

No one objected, and the group dispersed the females gave Amy words of comfort while the guys stood there uncomfortable. Soon, the team was inside the X, and waiting deployment.

No one could agree on a name for the Herculean X2, and since there wasn't any commander there technically, no one had the final word. So everyone just called it the X. For this mission, they would need fast but powerful platforms, so the Mad Cat, the Liger X, and the pair Command Wolfs would be used for the mission. Catherine had the Liger, Joanna had the Mad Cat, and Amy and Seymour had the Command Wolfs. The demolition team would use a light jeep to get as close to the base as possible.

Mark quickly approached the complex, and landed the cloaked X near the front entrance. As soon as the bay doors opened, alarms went off and defenders activated. The Liger came out first, and tried to focus attention away from the vulnerable HEV's leaving the X. As soon as the last one got off, the X lifted off with its bay doors still open. It headed towards the extraction point, but kept low. The complex was between the X and forest, so it quickly flew past it, and did a low run so that the jeep could dart out of the closing bay doors. Momentarily, the X was completely out of sensor range and cloaked, and landed at the designated extraction point. Then it shut down all systems to evade pursuit; they were completely alone.

Molly's team quickly arrived at a back entrance to the complex, and quickly got in. They turned on their night-vision goggles, and stalked from one building to another. Their job was to take the factory out, not kill people, so they tried to keep themselves as hidden as possible, shooting people with their silenced submachine guns only when necessary. They finally entered the factory, with the battle raging in the background.

The complex was heavily defended. Hidden turrets popped out of nowhere and Gauss Rifle slugs were flying all over the place. To add to that, there was an army of Godoses, relentlessly attacking.

They worked in pairs, Catherine and Amy, and Joanna and Seymour. The more powerful HEV's attacked a large group, while the Command Wolfs finished off the remains.

The reason why they kept the original HEV's was because even though they weren't as fast as the hybrid HEV's, they had more powerful weapons. This was because the Zoids had less space, and less powerful versions of the Terran's weapons were used.

While Catherine was taking care of a group of Godos that were attacking them, Amy sniped out a few of those Gauss turrets with her own Gauss Rifle. They were lightly armored, and she quickly took out most of them; Seymour decided to help.

Joanna relentlessly pounded the Godos with her PPC's and Large Lasers. Small and lightly armed, most of them succumbed immediately. In a few more minutes of insanity, the Godos and most permanent base defenders were wiped out.

"That's the last of them." Catherine said as she electrocuted a bunch of Godos with her electromagnetic dischargers.

"Don't speak so soon." Joanna commented as she focused their attention to a new group of enemies heading for them. There were four Red Horns and two Blade Ligers.

"Shit!" Seymour said as two Red Horns fired their chain guns at him. Amy dodged as the other two did the same. Joanna locked onto one Blade Liger and fired a long stream of LRM's at it, while Catherine charged at the other, weapons blazing.

"That's the last of them." Renee said, coming back empty handed. Molly had told them what strategic spots to put the bombs so that it would cause maximum damage.

"Lets roll." James said as he led the group away. No sooner had he said that, a platoon stumbled upon them.

"Hey you! Stop right there!" their leader said. James instantly took over and fired his silenced submachine gun at them; Molly and Renee did the same. The firefight ensued from at least five minutes, until James and the girls realized they were wasting ammo that they didn't have much of the start with.

"Dammit!" James said. He got the girls attention and told them to cover him. He took out a bunch of flash grenades and threw them at the enemy fire squad. They all covered their eyes and waited for the flash to end. Within seconds, they started taking an alternative route away from there.

But one of the people from the fire squad had managed to have his eyes closed, and got a lucky shot at James. He instantly ended his life, and staggered to keep up with the girls. Renee noticed the staggering hulk, and gave him support, followed by Molly. They soon made it to the Jeep and got the hell outta there.

Molly drove while Renee dressed James' wound.

"Ahh!" he moaned in pain when she put on the anti-septic

"Come on you big baby" Renee smirked as she applied the salve.

When they were safely out of range, the set off the remote detonators, and fireworks went off…

Amy and Seymour had managed not to get damaged, and took out two of the four Red Horns. Joanna, though, had extensive damage to her shoulder pod, and was missing an arm. Catherine had to retreat from the fighting for a little bit to let her Zoid cool down. Luckily, one Blade Liger was scrap, while the other tried to take out Joanna.

Suddenly, the earth shook, and a bright flash came from the complex. The enemy hesitated momentarily, and the distracters quickly took their cue to leave; they rushed away from the battlefield.

They circumvented the base, and entered the forest. They turned off their active radar, and followed their nav-points to the extraction point. When they reached it, they saw the shutdown X with its bay doors open. The jeep was parked inside the X, and they all entered it as quickly as they could. The X rapidly initiated its systems and cloaked. It touched off, and they finally headed back home.

AH! Crass is gone. Kaput. He's going to meet his creator…

Thanks for reading! And I'd really like some feedback because I want to know what you guys think of the sequel so far, and ideas are always appreciated.

[Nite]