I woke up the next day with quite a hangover. Luckily, Mansod had started some coffee and Sifen had toasted some ration wafers for breakfast. Gad, they were bland, but I learned from Mansod that if you dip them in his "special" coffee, they were at least stomach-able. Such were the ways of suffering Zoid pilots.

"Good morning, captain." Said Sifen. I nodded. Everyone knew what was coming next.

"Where's Kavid?"

"In his room, I believe. There have been a few noises coming from it throughout the night." Sifen responded.

I frowned. Not a great answer, but at least one with positive potential. I'd deal with Kavid after my meal.

Or so I thought.

Before the dripping wafer reached my mouth, there were knocks at the door. Odd. Nobody ever knocked at our door. Not even Nevets; he always barged in.

Sifen reached the door first and opened it.

Katrana Sared stood in the hallway, wearing a heavy green cloak. Her eyes searched the room and stopped when they found me. Sifen, Mansod and I couldn't think of what to say, but her next words went straight to me.

"May I come in?"

The soggy wafer crumbled between my fingers and flopped to the ground, but my cyberphonic implants could only hear my heartbeat increase. Sifen, in a rare case of dumbfoundedness, stepped aside in silence. Katrana, quivering, found a chair and sat down. In a look of elegance, she threw back her cloak's hood, revealing her gorgeous red hair, only briefly taking her eyes off of mine.

I wanted to say a thousand things, but our eye contact was like a lock; I had to wait for her to make the first move.

Unfortunately, Mansod didn't.

"Katrana, what are you doing out here?" At least it broke the ice.

"I…we need you. The Helic Republic needs you back. Despite everything my father did to you, that I…did to you…we need you to pilot Zoids for us again."

"Did a Gun Sniper step on your head or something, red head?" In all the emotion, none of us noticed Kavid enter the room. "Your father tried to kill us! You tried to kill us! We owe you nothing!"

With that, Kavid stormed out of the apartment. Katrana's face didn't change, but her eyes began to water. She knew that someone would say something like that.

Damn it all, Kavid.

I figured it was time I said something. "Including my aching head, this day has had a hell of a start. Let's back up a little." Katrana grinned. "Katrana Sared, it is amazing to see you again, despite what the town drunk had to say. We'll try our hardest to get you something to eat or drink. Sifen, considering who she is and where she has come from, shut the door!"

Sifen nodded and quickly closed the door, then braced it shut with a chair in case Nevets decided to stop by.

Katrana had the old twinkle back in her eye when she looked at me. Man, I wanted to kick the guys out.

Sifen finally spoke. "There must be a grim situation in the Helic Republic for them to ask for our help."

The twinkle faded as she picked up her coffee from Mansod. "Have any of you heard of the Stone Dragon?" We all shook our heads. "It's not what you might think. It's not a dragon- or even a dinosaur-type Zoid. It's a heavily modified Liger Zero-X." She frowned at the flavor of the coffee.

"What's so special about that?" blurted out Mansod.

"It has thicker armor than a Panzer unit, sharper blades than a Geno Breaker, heavier weapons that an Iron Kong and is faster than a Lightning Saix."

Sifen and I looked doubtful, but Mansod's jaw dropped. He'd believe anything.

"It has been tearing up outposts and villages on the Southern Frontier for weeks now, and nothing we have can stop it."

"Weeks?" inquired Sifen, "Then why haven't we heard anything about it?"

"Because no one has survived an attack of the Stone Dragon."

My jaw was set. Although the Helic Republic had betrayed me, it was still my homeland, and quite frankly, I was sick of living the life of a desperate loser in the Guylos Empire. Perhaps this was the chance the "Castaways of the Republic" needed to finally go home.

But to fight a super-Zoid...We'd done it before, and nearly died doing it. Still…

"Keep talking." I said.

I could see agreement in Sifen's eyes, but Mansod's jaw was still wide open. Katrana smiled.

"The Emperor of Guylos wants a war for the Southern Frontier, and is egging the Helic Republic on. The citizens of the Empire would never approve of a war unless the Republic started it. Therefore, the Empire is using the Stone Dragon to lure the Republic to attack first."

"I see where this is going." I said. "We would be mercenaries that would destroy the Stone Dragon, but the Republic could deny any connection to it. Damn." My sense of pride shattered.

Katrana held my hand. "Don't look at it that way. We need you. You're the best Southern Frontier pilots that we've ever had. We'll give you the best Zoids available in the entire Republic for this battle. And after this is all over, you'll be free to return to the Republic to start new lives."

I saw the twinkle return to her eyes when she said a certain phrase. "You said 'best Zoids' didn't you?" I asked with a grin.

Her smile stretched ear to ear. "Let's go see them."

I walked next to Katrana, but kept her at arms' length. Could I trust her? There was absolutely no way to be certain. Sifen and Mansod stayed behind us, providing me with some feeling of security, but I knew that they were as nervous as I was. Kavid? Who knew where he had gone off to.

We said nothing but small-talk to each other as we walked across the town of Klaylos. She was obviously a woman with a plan, with a goal. I wanted to trust her, but the past cried to me to use caution.

After about twenty minutes we reached a wheat field. At the southern side of it sat an enormous metallic granary. A rather beat-up-looking Gustav hooked up with two pretty-big trailers sat beside it. The trailers were empty, but the clamps were in locked-down positions. Odd.

Katrana spoke up first, "This is my Gustav. Don't let it's appearance deceive you." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small remote control. Upon clicking a button on it, the smashed-up appearance of her Zoid faded away, revealing the Gustav's true, perfect-condition.

"Impressive." Said Sifen.

"After we went our separate ways, I focused my military career on the development of holograms and cloaking shields." Lieutenant Sared said. She then clicked another button on the remote, and a brief flash of light fluttered across the Gustav's trailers. As the cargo de-cloaked, I lost my breath. I had an idea about what was going to be there, but it still shocked me.

Four PAC-Wolves stood on the trailers.

"Ka…Katrana…" I clumsily started, "How could…I mean, how did?" I nearly ran over to PAC-1 and gazed up at the ruby red and black Zoid. Its shining silver Long-Range Cannon shone beautifully in the sunset.

Sifen and Mansod were also in awe at the PAC-Wolves. PAC-2's Heavy Weapons system was as impressive as ever. PAC-3's missile system and thrusters were just as incredible to the eye. Although PAC-4 had no upgrades, knowing that it was indestructible with the Plasma Armor modification made you want to take on a Berserk Fuhrer with it.

"These are not the originals, correct?" inquired Sifen.

Katrana shook her head. "No. As you know, PAC-2 and PAC-3 were destroyed by the Death Sniper. Unfortunately, PAC-1 was too heavily damaged from the Charged Particle Beam to be fully repaired. But this is the original PAC-4. They have all been plasma charged using the same process as before. Everything should be fine. You're all set to go."

"Not quite." I said.

"Oh my god!"

"Well, Kavid, is that a good response, or bad?" I asked.

My friend stared for only a moment, then drew his blaster and started firing at PAC-2. The laser bolts ricocheted harmlessly off of the Zoid but caused the rest of us to drop to the ground. They also put a couple of small holes in the granary, which began to leak wheat grains.

It had taken three hours for us to find Kavid and get him back here, and this was not the response I was going to accept.

Enraged, I scampered up from the ground and sprinted for Kavid, who, as a reflex, turned the gun on me, but didn't fire.

Our chests hit first as I clamped my arms around him and took us both airborne for a brief flight before we smashed the ground hard on my forearms and his back. My adrenaline level and his alcohol level made pain a moot point.

Pulling my arms out from beneath him, I began pummeling the man I trusted my life to. "You damn idiot! What is your problem?" I screamed at him.

He managed to shove me back and kick me off. His face was a bloody mess, but he had no desire to take revenge on me. "I was damn-near ripped to pieces in that thing, and you expect me to crawl back in one again and pretend it never happened?" He sniffed and wiped blood from his mouth. His eyes were very wet.

"I wake up almost every night shaking in pain, unable to feel my hands, because of what the Death Sniper did to me in the first PAC-Wolf 2, and you want me to start fighting in another one? Are you insane?" Kavid was on the verge of hysteria.

"Kavid!" I called to him, "The Death Sniper is gone. We aren't going after another Particle Breaker Beam. We'll be going after a tough target, yes, but he won't have a Wave-Smacker. And if we do this right, Kavid, we can go home!"

Kavid sniffed again and turned to look at me. "Home?"

"Yes! Once we get through this, we can get out of this damn Empire and go back home to the Republic forever! No more Zoids!"

I could see that this was what Kavid really wanted. He used to be the best Zoid pilot I'd ever seen, but ever since the Death Sniper nearly killed him with the Particle Breaker Beam, he had started down the path of insanity. He needed to stop. But I had to ask another favor from him first.

"Just one more mission, Kavid. Please. Don't give up yet!"

Kavid stared for a few more seconds, then squinted really hard. "Okay, Jeremy. One more mission. Then I'm done with this Zoid stuff. Forever."

"I'll be right behind you, bud."