Hey everyone, Its MP here again. What's that I hear, you thought that poor
old Moonbay was going to kill me after the last chapter. No chance, she's
receiving all of the appropriate care in a padded cell right beside the one
the doctor's put Irvine in. The doctors have even agreed to give me a
warning if either or both of them get(s) out.
Anyhow, now to talk with some of my (not quite) adoring fans:
Khalsin: Hey, thanks for the rating of my story and hope you take the opportunity to read a little further than chapter 5 dude.
Kegger007: Glad you like the use of Spinosappers, etc. hope you enjoy the conclusion to that sequence.
The rest of y'all, keep reading and maybe get yourself some author alerts on my story, if I'm on a roll you'll probably need them to keep pace with me, also, any of you who're reading my other fic, the next chapter may take a while, I'm busy building a huge bunch of characters to fill out the main company in the story, and when you find yourself generating ten or more characters from scratch, it takes time as I'm sure many of you can appreciate.
Chapter 10: Alliances of Darkness and light.
The Hellcat and the Iron Kong charged headlong through the starlit streets of Geigolos, the pounding of their approaching forms enough to clear the streets ahead of them all the way to the pub that Garth had been forcibly abducted from only two and a half hours before. Now, however its customers were leaving, even the fact of a live band performance not having stopped the owner from closing up at the same time as always. On the street beneath him Garth could readily see his team-mates, the pair of them staggering down the streets, singing badly out of tune and barely coherently, some reinforcements they'd turn out to be! Moreover, if he didn't at least make an attempt to get them home safely, would he be able to live with himself afterwards? Probably not, ah well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Hurriedly he jumped out of his cockpit, bundling his comrades into the back seat of the Hellcat beside them, hurriedly promising to pay for the cleaning up of the zoid's upholstery and everything if either of the pair were sick on the way home, not that they would be of course, but he had to do something to reassure his reluctant colleague. That, however, was all hope of reinforcements out the window, given that Mykkael wouldn't leave his team-mates at home drunk, and the two of them would be nothing but liabilities if he tried to stick them in their zoids and take them with him. Unless... yes, that might just work. As they continued on their way to the base of the Paladin team, Garth got into contact with his uncle Thorsten who agreed to hustle over to the Paladin team base and look after Jake and Adrianne when they arrived, lending Mykkael his zoid for the engagement to come.
Within five minutes they reached the reinforced bunker that was the base of the Paladin team, offloading both Jake and Adrianne into the able hands of Garth's uncle, whose wounded leg was all that kept him from being just as much of a daredevil as he had been in his youth, restricting him to zoid battles that were in self-defence, and those occurred only rarely.
Mykkael, more vocal than usual with complaints that he had been ousted from his bed, hauled himself bodily into the cockpit of the supercharged Gordos that stood before him, sizing up its arsenal as Garth parked the Iron Kong, transferring to the Dragowing that he might truly hold his end of the bargain.
Within moments, the three of them were underway, the Hellcat and Gordos each advancing at their own pace as the Dragowing soared straight over the city to reach the battlefield. Beneath him, as he arrived, Garth watched as the few remaining units of the Hellfire syndicate forces tied to defend against the more numerous, more powerful forces of the Chaos Storm, a ragtag bunch of Hellcats, Iron Kongs and Zabers being all that remained of the armies of this mighty syndicate.
"This is Dragowing to Hellfire leader," Garth called over his radio, "The first phase of reinforcements has arrived, what's the situation here?" "Dragowing, this is Hellfire leader," came the crackling reply, "we couldn't handle them, they came from beneath-"and then his voice was cut off abruptly as from the ground emerged a Strike Viper, throwing a Hellcat up into the air, firing on it as it fell to the earth below.
With a roar Garth sprang into action, swinging his zoid into an attack run, ordering all of the Hellfire zoids to get out of the way as his laser cannons spat blue high energy bolts at the strike viper beneath him, melting through the armoured sections that made up the base of the zoid.
Suddenly he came under fire from another two Strike Vipers that had surfaced behind him, their repeating shock cannons rocking the Dragowing with fire as Garth began to pull it out of the low altitude pass it had made to hit the previous Strike Viper, climbing almost vertically to get out of the gunnery range of the vipers' shock cannons. Then, inverting his zoid, he spat his own return volley of blue laser fire- right into the spots where the Strike Vipers had been-they had returned to the bowels of the earth in preparation for another attack.
"Damn you," cursed Garth, "I'll get you bastards if its the last thing I do! If only I had a weapon that could turn corners, or even just follow your tunnel."
He thought, remaining at high altitude so that he could think safely and respond to enemy attacks- but no- the enemy had gone to ground. Then, wondering in his anger why he had not thought of it before, he came up with the ideal weapon for the job, the Plasma Flare cannon in the mouth aperture of his zoid, the weapon which combined with the power of his laser cannons had formed the mighty supernova assault of the Dragowing, which projected a flame of burning plasma which would fill the Vipers' tunnels and melt those zoids down to a heap of smouldering slag. Steeling himself for what he had to do, he began his low pass, his Plasma flare ready to deal the fatal blasts that would completely annihilate the remaining Strike Vipers. As he brought his zoid to a hovering halt, Garth heard the muted clank of church bells as they tolled a death knell, somehow this seemed appropriate but Garth as he pulled the trigger hoped that this attack would not prove the death of his conscience. As the Dragowing hovered, its mouth open, its wings unfurled to catch what little light the encroaching false dawn brought in their solar converter cells, which would provide backup power while the main power of the zoid fuelled the mighty plasma weapon that would ensure the defeat of these operatives of the Chaos Storm organisation. Slowly but surely the mouth of the Dragowing glowed with a nimbus of silver energy, which, once it finished coalescing, lanced out, straight into the hole that this first Viper had tunnelled, each grain of sand that it touched metamorphosing into charred glass under the intense heat, soon evaporating as the temperature of the plasma stream rose. Within moments, both strike vipers had been obliterated by the sheer heat of the plasma, their smoking remnants but puddles of liquefied alloys, both pilots having burned without a trace, unable to eject from their cockpits. The Dragowing, its energy cells drained, drifted from the sky to come to rest on the smouldering form of the desert beneath him.
"Huh," sneered the voice of the Chaos Storm commander, "you drained your zoid of all its power in that last assault; now prepare to lose it forever!"
With that the Whale King at the edge of the battlefield opened the hatch that was its mouth, releasing a swarm of zoids, modified Cannon Tortoises it looked like, although Garth could not be certain given how dizzy he was feeling.
"This stops now!" roared the familiar voice of the Hellcat operating Hellfire lieutenant as he and Mykkael arrived on the field of battle. And with that both the Hellcat and the Gordos opened fire, their cannons rupturing even the heavy armour of the slow tortoise shaped zoids.
Sensing that continuing the battle would cost them more than it would gain them, the Chaos Storm forces retreated, self destructing their remaining zoids so as not to leave many clues for when the local police moved in to examine the site.
The next day, Garth was at the bedside of the Fallen one, comforting the gravely wounded man during his last hours of life. Beside him, the selfsame Lieutenant that had saved his life the previous night sat, receiving last instructions from his leader before it was finally down to him to take charge of the Hellfire Syndicate. The name of this Lieutenant, it turned out, was Antonio Darker, and he was a wiry-framed young man whose tall body was topped by black hair that flowed down to just below his shoulders. Like any of the other members of the Hellfire syndicate he wore black leather trousers of the type originally worn by bikers and a black sleeveless T- Shirt with a fire motif on it.
Turning to Garth, he began to speak, his voice using a tone that told Garth this would be entirely business, "Garth, given your actions yesterday, or perhaps I should say this morning, to assist us in spite of our very real attempts to kill you-and before you ask, we would have done exactly that, given the chance-we have decided that it is best to reach a firm alliance with you and your zoid team. But this hinges upon one condition, that you make available to us all technical details for the Dragowing, that we might use them to develop a brand new zoid design that has been on the cards for quite a while now, which we have named the Hellfire Serpent."
Weighing up the options in his mind, Garth eventually agreed, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," he declared, citing the old adage that seemed most appropriate, "the Chaos Storm are a far more important enemy than your organisation, and one with which I would not compromise to save my life, so I accept this pact of friendship between us with open arms."
Whew, that was one heck of a long chapter for me to write, but I knew what needed doing in this chapter and I just about got it done without either losing my mind, breaking it into two or more chapters, or taking over a week to write it. At this point I find myself able to give you warning that this story is only the first story of what will become the Chaos Storm series, with the stories to follow being: Chaos Rampant and Storm's End.
MP signing off, and don't forget to review what you've read.
Anyhow, now to talk with some of my (not quite) adoring fans:
Khalsin: Hey, thanks for the rating of my story and hope you take the opportunity to read a little further than chapter 5 dude.
Kegger007: Glad you like the use of Spinosappers, etc. hope you enjoy the conclusion to that sequence.
The rest of y'all, keep reading and maybe get yourself some author alerts on my story, if I'm on a roll you'll probably need them to keep pace with me, also, any of you who're reading my other fic, the next chapter may take a while, I'm busy building a huge bunch of characters to fill out the main company in the story, and when you find yourself generating ten or more characters from scratch, it takes time as I'm sure many of you can appreciate.
Chapter 10: Alliances of Darkness and light.
The Hellcat and the Iron Kong charged headlong through the starlit streets of Geigolos, the pounding of their approaching forms enough to clear the streets ahead of them all the way to the pub that Garth had been forcibly abducted from only two and a half hours before. Now, however its customers were leaving, even the fact of a live band performance not having stopped the owner from closing up at the same time as always. On the street beneath him Garth could readily see his team-mates, the pair of them staggering down the streets, singing badly out of tune and barely coherently, some reinforcements they'd turn out to be! Moreover, if he didn't at least make an attempt to get them home safely, would he be able to live with himself afterwards? Probably not, ah well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Hurriedly he jumped out of his cockpit, bundling his comrades into the back seat of the Hellcat beside them, hurriedly promising to pay for the cleaning up of the zoid's upholstery and everything if either of the pair were sick on the way home, not that they would be of course, but he had to do something to reassure his reluctant colleague. That, however, was all hope of reinforcements out the window, given that Mykkael wouldn't leave his team-mates at home drunk, and the two of them would be nothing but liabilities if he tried to stick them in their zoids and take them with him. Unless... yes, that might just work. As they continued on their way to the base of the Paladin team, Garth got into contact with his uncle Thorsten who agreed to hustle over to the Paladin team base and look after Jake and Adrianne when they arrived, lending Mykkael his zoid for the engagement to come.
Within five minutes they reached the reinforced bunker that was the base of the Paladin team, offloading both Jake and Adrianne into the able hands of Garth's uncle, whose wounded leg was all that kept him from being just as much of a daredevil as he had been in his youth, restricting him to zoid battles that were in self-defence, and those occurred only rarely.
Mykkael, more vocal than usual with complaints that he had been ousted from his bed, hauled himself bodily into the cockpit of the supercharged Gordos that stood before him, sizing up its arsenal as Garth parked the Iron Kong, transferring to the Dragowing that he might truly hold his end of the bargain.
Within moments, the three of them were underway, the Hellcat and Gordos each advancing at their own pace as the Dragowing soared straight over the city to reach the battlefield. Beneath him, as he arrived, Garth watched as the few remaining units of the Hellfire syndicate forces tied to defend against the more numerous, more powerful forces of the Chaos Storm, a ragtag bunch of Hellcats, Iron Kongs and Zabers being all that remained of the armies of this mighty syndicate.
"This is Dragowing to Hellfire leader," Garth called over his radio, "The first phase of reinforcements has arrived, what's the situation here?" "Dragowing, this is Hellfire leader," came the crackling reply, "we couldn't handle them, they came from beneath-"and then his voice was cut off abruptly as from the ground emerged a Strike Viper, throwing a Hellcat up into the air, firing on it as it fell to the earth below.
With a roar Garth sprang into action, swinging his zoid into an attack run, ordering all of the Hellfire zoids to get out of the way as his laser cannons spat blue high energy bolts at the strike viper beneath him, melting through the armoured sections that made up the base of the zoid.
Suddenly he came under fire from another two Strike Vipers that had surfaced behind him, their repeating shock cannons rocking the Dragowing with fire as Garth began to pull it out of the low altitude pass it had made to hit the previous Strike Viper, climbing almost vertically to get out of the gunnery range of the vipers' shock cannons. Then, inverting his zoid, he spat his own return volley of blue laser fire- right into the spots where the Strike Vipers had been-they had returned to the bowels of the earth in preparation for another attack.
"Damn you," cursed Garth, "I'll get you bastards if its the last thing I do! If only I had a weapon that could turn corners, or even just follow your tunnel."
He thought, remaining at high altitude so that he could think safely and respond to enemy attacks- but no- the enemy had gone to ground. Then, wondering in his anger why he had not thought of it before, he came up with the ideal weapon for the job, the Plasma Flare cannon in the mouth aperture of his zoid, the weapon which combined with the power of his laser cannons had formed the mighty supernova assault of the Dragowing, which projected a flame of burning plasma which would fill the Vipers' tunnels and melt those zoids down to a heap of smouldering slag. Steeling himself for what he had to do, he began his low pass, his Plasma flare ready to deal the fatal blasts that would completely annihilate the remaining Strike Vipers. As he brought his zoid to a hovering halt, Garth heard the muted clank of church bells as they tolled a death knell, somehow this seemed appropriate but Garth as he pulled the trigger hoped that this attack would not prove the death of his conscience. As the Dragowing hovered, its mouth open, its wings unfurled to catch what little light the encroaching false dawn brought in their solar converter cells, which would provide backup power while the main power of the zoid fuelled the mighty plasma weapon that would ensure the defeat of these operatives of the Chaos Storm organisation. Slowly but surely the mouth of the Dragowing glowed with a nimbus of silver energy, which, once it finished coalescing, lanced out, straight into the hole that this first Viper had tunnelled, each grain of sand that it touched metamorphosing into charred glass under the intense heat, soon evaporating as the temperature of the plasma stream rose. Within moments, both strike vipers had been obliterated by the sheer heat of the plasma, their smoking remnants but puddles of liquefied alloys, both pilots having burned without a trace, unable to eject from their cockpits. The Dragowing, its energy cells drained, drifted from the sky to come to rest on the smouldering form of the desert beneath him.
"Huh," sneered the voice of the Chaos Storm commander, "you drained your zoid of all its power in that last assault; now prepare to lose it forever!"
With that the Whale King at the edge of the battlefield opened the hatch that was its mouth, releasing a swarm of zoids, modified Cannon Tortoises it looked like, although Garth could not be certain given how dizzy he was feeling.
"This stops now!" roared the familiar voice of the Hellcat operating Hellfire lieutenant as he and Mykkael arrived on the field of battle. And with that both the Hellcat and the Gordos opened fire, their cannons rupturing even the heavy armour of the slow tortoise shaped zoids.
Sensing that continuing the battle would cost them more than it would gain them, the Chaos Storm forces retreated, self destructing their remaining zoids so as not to leave many clues for when the local police moved in to examine the site.
The next day, Garth was at the bedside of the Fallen one, comforting the gravely wounded man during his last hours of life. Beside him, the selfsame Lieutenant that had saved his life the previous night sat, receiving last instructions from his leader before it was finally down to him to take charge of the Hellfire Syndicate. The name of this Lieutenant, it turned out, was Antonio Darker, and he was a wiry-framed young man whose tall body was topped by black hair that flowed down to just below his shoulders. Like any of the other members of the Hellfire syndicate he wore black leather trousers of the type originally worn by bikers and a black sleeveless T- Shirt with a fire motif on it.
Turning to Garth, he began to speak, his voice using a tone that told Garth this would be entirely business, "Garth, given your actions yesterday, or perhaps I should say this morning, to assist us in spite of our very real attempts to kill you-and before you ask, we would have done exactly that, given the chance-we have decided that it is best to reach a firm alliance with you and your zoid team. But this hinges upon one condition, that you make available to us all technical details for the Dragowing, that we might use them to develop a brand new zoid design that has been on the cards for quite a while now, which we have named the Hellfire Serpent."
Weighing up the options in his mind, Garth eventually agreed, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," he declared, citing the old adage that seemed most appropriate, "the Chaos Storm are a far more important enemy than your organisation, and one with which I would not compromise to save my life, so I accept this pact of friendship between us with open arms."
Whew, that was one heck of a long chapter for me to write, but I knew what needed doing in this chapter and I just about got it done without either losing my mind, breaking it into two or more chapters, or taking over a week to write it. At this point I find myself able to give you warning that this story is only the first story of what will become the Chaos Storm series, with the stories to follow being: Chaos Rampant and Storm's End.
MP signing off, and don't forget to review what you've read.