Disclaimer: Me no own Zoids.
Raven: Work on your grammar you...not...good...person.
Raven? What's going on?
Raven: I...don't...know.
DarkMetlaist?
DarkMetalist: I didn't do anything.
Raven: Likely...story.
Chapter 9
Recover
What Van saw in the room came as shock and awe to him. Throughout the open space there were three levels with open rails on each. The space was arranged to form a giant "T" where Van had just entered from the base of that "T". Lining the walls of the room were capsules filled with a green liquid and people who appeared to be in suspended animation. There were semicircular apparatuses around their heads.
"What were the papayas doing to the people in here?" Van asked himself as he inspected the capsules.
He proceeded to walk through the corridor, sweeping the weapon from left to right not sure if there were still any papaya operatives left behind. He soon came upon Moonbay's capsule. Van looked around for a latch of some sort to open it. He found one just above the clear green section and pulled the section out. The capsule's illumination powered down and the clear section retracted downwards allowing all of the fluid to spill onto the floor. Moonbay fell on her hands and knees coughing up some of the fluid.
"Moonbay are you all right?" Van asked in a concerned manner.
"Does it look like I'm all right?" she snapped back quickly.
Moonbay looked up to see who it was and realized her mistake.
"I'm sorry Van; I was just upset from the struggle before. What happened?"
"Well it appears that everyone on the base has ended up here, the papayas are headed towards the weapons destruction facility, and I am here trying to find people. You're the first I've released. Do you have a clue to what the papayas were doing in here?"
"Uh uh" Moonbay responded shaking her head from side to side "I was just put in the capsule."
"Well then you stay in this area and get the others out, and I'll go find Fiona."
Van left Moonbay to her duties and proceeded with his search mission. He took the elevator to the other levels and checked the floors hoping to find Fiona. On the third level Van came up to another door, this time with an orange light under it. He tried to get in, but the handle wouldn't budge. Van simply kicked the door in to find Fiona hooked up to a similar machine as the others, but with more wires and devices hooked up around her. He found a latch on her door and tried to release it in the same matter. However the final turn couldn't be done so he just melted the housing of the latch with his weapon and this loosened it up a bit, allowing him to unlock the capsule. Before Fiona could fall out, Van held out his arms out to catch her. Once she had become stable Van helped her out of the capsule.
"Fiona, they didn't do anything terrible to you did they?" Van asked while removing the various devices.
"No" she answered "I'm fine."
"Good, let's meet up with the others."
They left the room and headed into the main chamber where Moonbay and everyone she had liberated so far from the capsules, were working to get the others out. Van was still trying to make sense of why everyone was hooked up to these devices when he stepped on a clipboard. He picked it up and started to look it over. The heading of the papers was "Who Knew About the Weapons Destruction Facility" and there were various numbers that corresponded to the capsules. Some of the numbers had red X's while others had checkmarks. Fiona's capsule assignment had a star, which may have suggested that she knew the most about the base or it indicated that she was an ancient Zoidian, explaining the fact that she was kept in a separate room. Once having looked the papers over, Van headed to the central area of the third level to address everyone of the current situation.
"Attention everyone! I want to update you on the current situation."
The central area below became quiet.
"While you have been in suspended animation, much has occurred in the last few hours. This base was taken over by the flying papayas with the intent of setting it up as a staging area for their attack. They plan to take over planet Zi. They have the information necessary to infiltrate the weapons destruction facility and take the ammunition within. This may seem like a hopeless situation right now with us reorienting ourselves to the surroundings of this room and the base under lockdown, but we shall not let them succeed!"
A cheer erupted from the central area and quieted again to hear the rest of Van's speech.
"There are still some Zoids left in the hangar and you will have to fight back for your Zoids. Let's not make this any more difficult for us than it needs to be. Use the emergency cockpit release on the outside, and obliterate the papayas within. Let's go!"
A roar of approval came from below as the soldiers and others stormed out of the room.
"Uh Lieutenant Flyheight?" a random soldier asked
"Yes?"
"It's dark out here."
"Oh that's right" Van remembered and hit his head "I had Irvine cut the power after he locked down the base. I'll get him to turn it back on."
"Van to Irvine come in." he said through the radio.
static
"Irvine, please respond."
static
"Irvine where are you?"
"Irvine isn't here right now; I could take a message for him."
"Who is this? Irvine don't play around, this isn't funny."
"I'm sorry sir, but Irvine is unavailable at this moment in time. Now if you'll excuse me...I've got a world to conquer."
"Oh crap, giant leader papaya."
Van began to analyze the situation in deep thought. However his first priority was to get people out into the battlefield.
"Dr. D, are you here?" he called out into the crowd.
From within the crowd, a single hand went up. Van went through the crowd and faced Dr. D.
"What could I do for you Van?" he asked
"Is it possible for you to modify this weapon to serve as a temporary power source for the hallway lights?"
"Oh sure, that shouldn't be a problem at all."
Dr. D walked over to a service panel on the wall. He pulled off the cover, dug around in the wiring a bit, and pulled out a pair of wires. He hooked them up to the leads of a capsule that was empty, but was still full of the fluid. He then took Van's weapon and fired it at the capsule. There were bubbles emanating from within the capsule, and slowly, the hallway lights were coming online. They were dim, but there none-the-less there was sufficient illumination to navigate the halls.
"I realized that the fluid we were submersed in was a strong electrolyte. All it needed was a charge and voila, instant battery." Dr. D explained "Now you can take your weapon without having to leave it to power these lights." He handed the weapon back to Van.
While everyone else was headed towards the Zoid hangar bay, Van rushed to the control tower. He found Irvine bound and gagged on the floor wriggling to get free. Upon closer examination of the room, he also found a single window of the control tower that had not been locked down and broken glass around. Van went to free Irvine.
"That crazy papaya just came through the door leading from the main base." Irvine explained as he was being untied "It tried to escape by unlocking the base, but I had already locked out the controls. The papaya tied me up with its tentacles and continued to hack the system. By the time you called, it was able to get that window open and went straight through."
"Van how is it up there?" Col. Herman came in over the radio.
"Well, the their leader escaped but everything is fine here. How are you and the troops doing?"
"We've almost recovered all of the Zoids and we're about ready to go into battle." the Colonel responded
"Alright, I'll get the base out of lockdown and you can leave, I'll join you as soon as I'm done here."
"Irvine, get this base combat ready. Then join us in battle."
"Okay, Van."
Van proceeded to the Zoid holding hangars where everyone else was. When he got there, Van saw a mass of orange goo in the center of the hangar and flamethrower operators were burning the stuff.
"As you can see Van," Dr. D said as he approached. "there won't be another threat of papayas from this mess. All of their parts are being burned as we speak."
"I have some bad news Van." Col. Herman stated as he walked up. "I forgot to mention it to you over the radio. The doors are badly damaged from the papayas trying to escape and they won't budge. We would have tried to blow out the doors with our missiles, but that would be a waste of our resources. So I was wondering if you could help."
"By slicing the doors apart with the Blade Liger?" Van stated, completing the Colonel's thoughts.
"Exactly"
"Alright, have everyone ready to exit the hangar as soon as I get the doors open."
Five minutes later:
"The soldiers will be ready to move out on your signal Van." Col. Herman said from within his Zoid.
Van jumped into his cockpit and closed the cockpit visor. The controls began to power up in front of him, and the blade controls became operational. He lined up the Blade Liger as far as he could from the doors while the others were gathered along the sides of the hangar. The blades extended and were positioned in front of the Liger. With a roar from the Liger, it rushed forward and broke through the doors, leaving a gaping hole in them.
"Irvine, any luck getting the base out of lockdown?" Van asked.
"I'm sorry Van, this is going to take longer than I thought. You're going to have to break through the outer perimeter barrier."
Van continued to run towards the next barrier. The barrier broke into several large fragments that were scattered over the ground.
"Everyone move out!" Van shouted to the others as he continued out of the base premises.
The others moved in a quick, organized fashion out of the base and into the battle. Capt. O'Connell gave a whistle.
"It's going to cost us a bundle to get those defenses fixed."
Now this is the chapter with the details.
Raven: IT IS INDEED.
Are you alright?
Raven: YES I AM, NOTHING IS WRONG.
Okay. The story will continue to unfold.