Chapter Fifteen: The Battle for the Skies
Garth was exhausted, after a long day working to redecorate the base; he had slumped back in a chair in the kitchen and was busy drinking a mug of coffee when the phone rang.
It was his father, Karyl Meyer, calling to crow about his latest discovery. Finally, a zoid pilot had uncovered a true Panzer Dragon.
"You know what this means, Garth, you're gonna have to take this guy on, see whether true-blood or hybrid Panzer Dragons are stronger in combat," the professor enthused, blinded by the research potential beyond the ability to see how dangerous such a battle might be to both participants, even under the strict regulation of the Zoid Battle Alliance, for when both participants were as heavily armed as Garth... it didn't bear thinking what damage even the winner might receive.
The pilot who had uncovered this pure-strain of Panzer Dragon was a man by the name of John Dragoon, who at the age of 22 had lost against Vega Obscura and the Berserk Fury in the Royal Cup three years before, but then he had only had a Redler to work with, not the might of a Panzer Dragon of any shape or form.
Quickly, the battle was arranged, Garth agreeing to face John in the head-to-head mode that was Battle Mode 0983, with arsenal changeover capacity allowed simply because there was no real demand to justify a head-to-head mode without arsenal interchange allowances, however, as neither the Dragowing, nor John Dragoon's Light Wing Dragon possessed any alternative arsenals, the battle would be a straightforward aerial dogfight, with the winner gaining both individual and team points, and the loser gaining absolutely nothing, except perhaps the respect of the winner.
The two were soon at opposite ends of the battlefield, Garth's father having agreed to pay all repair costs, given as this was in effect an experiment. Before Garth stood the mighty form of John Dragoon's Light Wing Dragon, a pureblooded Panzer Dragon (although, Garth thought to himself, pure-blooded was not the right term for a zoid, given that they did not bleed).
Garth surveyed the imposing form of the Light Wing Dragon, its six Gattling guns the most visible signs of its power, hovering above the sand by means of its vectored boosters, even its virulent shades of orange and blue not looking out of place on a zoid this...weird, Garth thought. And indeed, to the casual observer used to more majestic zoids like the stormsworder, the liger or the Command Wolf, the Light Wing Dragon did look weird, with a fishlike tail and masked head (which was crowned by a unicorn-like horn), a single leg consisting of three black balls with blue armour plates suspended between them, vicious claws facing both forward and backward forming its foot.
In the background, a Stormsworder hovered, its pilot the judge of this match, and a man who fervently hoped he could stay clear of the assaults that these two mighty engines of destruction would unleash. By agreement the pair were fighting without weapons restrictions, both having access to the superweapons in their arsenals that could incinerate most other zoids within seconds.
With an almighty screech from the Light Wing Dragon, the battle commenced, both zoids quickly picking up speed as they circled the battlefield, both pilots trying to spot their opponents weaknesses in the opening moments of the battle. Then, with an uncanny silence that many would find disturbing, the Dragowing accelerated still further, reaching a speed of Mach 3.7 and swinging in with its segmented bat-like wings mount a sonic-boom attack against the Light Wing Dragon, at the last moment dropping a remote detonated limpet bomb onto the Light Wing Dragon as it executed the twisting sonic-boom procedure made famous by the Stormsworder (although it had been the Reddra and the Redler that had pioneered this attack).
John Dragoon winced inside the Cockpit of the Light Wing Dragon, the degree of speed and manoeuvrability demonstrated in that one attack were breathtaking to say the least, and what was more, the Dragowing was still accelerating, its speed now Mach 3.85 as it roared around the battlefield, its mobility barely decreased by its high speed. In the space of a moment, one hand on the controls of his zoid, he armed the devastating homing lasers that were the core of his arsenal, stabbing his thumb down on the trigger and watching as the lasers lanced out, the angle of their beam following the Dragowing through a breakneck series of aerobatics until it finally caught up with the Dragowing, scoring along the serpentine tail of the zoid until he shut them off, just before they reached the cockpit of the zoid.
But, in what seemed an impossible coincidence, the Dragowing was barely damaged by even the highest intensity that the Light Wing's homing lasers could achieve, its Ultimium alloy plating having an inherent immunity to energy weapons, as well as being more effective than most against the physical impacts of conventional shells, its only major weakness (other than killing the pilot himself) was the lateral slash of blades, and that depended on getting close enough to use them.
Of course, John Dragoon, having been away from civilisation for the last few months, did not know about the strengths and weaknesses of Ultimium alloy- instead he mused, this Guy has a tough zoid, but mine is tougher, so I'll keep him on his toes until I find his weakness. And with that he opened fire with the four forward facing Gattling cannons of the Light Wing, swinging into position behind the Dragowing as it made yet another pass. But the bullets seemed to bounce right off the armour of the Dragowing, and further, Garth chose that point to detonate the limpet bomb that had attached to one side of the Light Wing's tail, the explosive force of which jolted the Light Wing from its alignment, burning halfway though the armour of the zoid in that area to leave a blackened crater-like pit in the armour of the zoid.
Damn, John thought to himself, after quickly checking that they were still alone, he must have dropped that on me when he made that sonic-boom earlier. If that's the way he wants to play this, though, I'll just have to be ready for him, and with that John ceased fire, climbing out of the wake of the Dragowing as it accelerated away, its speed now Mach 4.1, and its manoeuvres so violent that they would be fatal to the vast majority of zoid pilots.
The Dragowing furled its wings, using its underside boosters to flip it through 180 degrees as it rolled, then fired the wingtip lasers that were the cornerstone of its own integrated armament, watching on as, with near inhuman accuracy, the Light Wing Dragon dodged the coruscating bolts, charging up its own homing lasers in an attempt to remove the threat that the Dragowing's laser cannons posed, but at that moment, the wings of the Dragowing dropped to point at the ground, their lasers ceasing fire as the blades that the lasers were focussed through the joint-section of opened and energised, sheer momentum keeping the Dragowing in the air as it charged forward to use its devastating blade attack.
But then, with a last burst of strength, John Dragoon turned the Light Wing Dragon on its side, extending and energising its own blades to cut through the belly of the Dragowing, which they did, the Dragowing's wing position having denied it the ability to dodge at the last, and, its power spent and its command system frozen, the Dragowing plummeted to the ground, its speed falling off rapidly as its wings swung up, locking in their fully spread position so that Garth was able to glide his zoid to the ground manually at the last.
From his Stormsworder, cowering at the edge of the battlefield, the ZBA judge declared, "The battle is over-r-r, the w-winner is John Dragoon of the Dragoon Team" and then nosedived into the ground having fainted.
After the battle, knowing that both Garth and his opponent, John Dragoon, were likely to have drained their energy reserves, having put everything they had into that airborne duel, Garth's father, Professor Meyer, had laid on a banquet inside his personal Hovercargo, allowing both warriors to relax and recuperate in the posh dining room (basically a banquet hall with chandeliers and everything) that the professor had had fitted inside his transporter zoid. And thus it was that Garth Meyer and John Dragoon found themselves face to face, each wearing silk shirts and formal trousers (but having been spared the encumbrance of a full Tuxedo this time, given as it was only an informal occasion), with a few colleagues of the professor in attendance.
Hesitantly, the two began talking to one another, each conscious that their only other choice would be talking to some of the assembled faculty members of the university of Guygalos, a bunch of men whose only talking points appeared to be their opinions on the latest theories in various academic fields, how difficult it was getting research grants nowadays, and other such aspects of their careers.
"Good battle earlier," John offered as a conversation starter.
"Yeah, shame I lost though, your zoid doesn't seem to be quite so fast as mine, but I suppose it works more on a basis of control, rather than sheer speed and assault power," Garth replied.
"To be honest," Garth continued, "it was probably a good thing that I lost because my skills may be good, but I've not pushed myself much in the last few weeks. My battle today is gonna be just the inspiration I needed to push myself further- and I'm gonna need to the way those chaos storm creeps keep coming."
"Man I hate those guys," John Dragoon offered, "it was bad enough three years ago when they called themselves the Backdraft group, but at least back then they had to make do with the same zoids as everyone else for the most part, now they're causing havoc with zoid after zoid that hasn't been seen before, and its time that someone put a stop to it!"
With a decisive stride, John said his goodbyes and headed for the hangar, reclaimed the Light Wing Dragon, and launched into the sunset, soon becoming little more than a memory and a speck upon the horizon, for now...