Chapter Five
Step-By-Step
What hurt the most wasn't the fact that I had lost the battle to Nevets and his super-lizard. It wasn't even the fact that my friends could be in terrible danger as I laid in hiding down the mine shaft—although that probably should have been my greatest concern. What bothered me most was that Nevets wasn't even a very good Zoid pilot; he just had a really powerful one with impossibly strong weapons and…Plasma Armor? It must have had Plasma Armor. How else could it have survived all of our attacks?
Damn! For a technology that supposedly no one on all of Planet Zi knew about, it sure got itself spread around. I was starting to get a theory about why.
After about thirty minutes, I left the cave, and PAC-1 took a slow trot back to the major's compound. I knew I had to return to check up on my friends.
There was so sign of the Geyser of Fire on Pitra Hill. The area was totally devoid of any activity, actually, save the insect-life and an occasional animal flying by. It was too…comfortable. Kavid's Redler had been added to the pile of captured Zoids, but I could see that its cargo hold was still shut. Good. I crawled out of PAC-1 about 100-meters away and hoofed-it the rest of the way in.
Reaching the pile of Zoids, I climbed up to the Redler's cargo door and popped it open. A six-foot-long Anti-Zoid rifle slid out, right into my hands. These puppies were not made for the weak. It was quite the strain to carry it off the pile of Zoids, along with its ammunition, but it was would be worth the effort.
My next move was to get into a bunker. I picked the one next to the Zoids, betting that my friends would be in that one. When I was about ten meters away, an anti-personnel laser blast flew over my head and exploded behind me. In front of the bunker, a Helcat, most likely a sleeper, de-cloaked and re-aimed its lower cannon.
I dove right as it fired another blast. Rolling across the ground, I ended in a flat firing position and fired three rounds through the Helcat's armor with the Anti-Zoid rifle. Once inside the Zoid's body, they burst, beginning a series of light explosions and system failures. The Zoid began jerking from breakdowns and collapsed to the ground.
Anti-Zoid weapons were big and heavy, and they usually only worked on the little guys, but they sure made you feel like you had a fighting chance.
The bunker door was heavily bolted shut, so I fired another shot at the lock, and ended up blowing the entire door apart.
"Captain Kelt!" I looked down the hallway to the left, and could see some prison cells. Locked up in the first cell was Sifen.
"Sifen! Man, it's good to see you!" I said as I broke the lock open.
"Good to see you, too, sir."
"Is that the captain?" That was Mansod's voice coming from down the hall.
"Yeah, it's me. You guys all here?" I asked Sifen. His face became stone solid.
"No, sir."
My heart sank. "Who's missing? Bruno?"
Sifen danced around the answer. "Bruno is here, but locked-up farther down the hall. The Major just recently brought in Kavid. I'm not sure where he is. He was unconscious."
"Where's Katrana?" I could sense that Sifen was avoiding her for some reason.
Sifen hid his nervousness behind an emotionless face, but I read through him. "She cut a deal with Nevets."
"What?" I gasped. My fears were coming true.
"She…she paid for her freedom with a Particle Charger."
My shock trickled down to anger. "You're lying!"
Sifen stood solid. "I don't lie, Jeremy. Not to you."
I didn't want to believe him, but what he said fit perfectly with what I had started to theorize earlier today. Katrana Sared had told us that there were no other Plasma Armor-creating devices, or Particle Chargers, on all of Planet Zi, save the one she used to create the PAC-Wolves. However, since their creation, three more Zoids had been altered to carry Plasma Armor. What did they all have in common? They were all enemies of the Castaways of the Republic, and they all had contact with Katrana well before they fought us. There could be only one reason: she was trying to kill us.
"Where did she go?"
"She did not say." Said Sifen. "She gave nothing more than empty promises of returning to save us."
"Damn." That was from Kavid. I turned to see him and Bruno standing in the hall behind us. That guy could break out of anywhere. "She betrayed us again! She betrayed the whole damn Republic! I'd bet it was all for that asshole father of hers."
"Then I say she is at Mt. Hoploy." Offered Sifen.
"Agreed," I said, "But first, we've got a more urgent problem to deal with."
Mansod scratched his head. "Nevets?"
"We can't let him truck that dragon around killing everybody he sees." Said Kavid.
Mansod spoke again, "I heard him say this was a perfect time to go out and show everyone his invincibility."
Kavid and I looked at each other once again. Kavid spoke first this time. "The Battle at Gellenos!"
Sifen looked concerned, "Battle?"
I nodded. "It's a doozy."
"Doozy" was an understatement.
PAC-1, PAC-3 and PAC-4 walked down the hill, followed by Guno's silvery Gustav. We could soon see the town of Gellenos laying at the base of the hill, staring in silent awe towards what was scattered just past it across the Veergati desert. Beyond the desert town, carpeting the sands of the Southern Frontier, swarmed a sea of Zoids, engulfed in a rain of laser blasts and bursts of fire. Huge beams of energy speared the melee of metal, followed by violent ruptures and sparkles of steel. Missiles buzzed the surface of it all, searching for their prey, and once found, the targets blew to ashes, darkening the beautiful tan sand blanketing across the sea of dunes. Towers of smoke rose like tentacles into the bright blue sky, feeding the winds waving like flags into the southwest breeze.
"There must be a thousand Zoids down there." Said Mansod in child-like amazement.
"I'd estimate three-thousand-five-hundred." Calculated Sifen. Nerd. Still, it was good to have him with us. I was afraid he might not be able to join us, since PAC-3's legs were chopped off by the Stone Dragon a week ago. But Bruno was the best engineer in the entire Southern Division of the Republic's forces—PAC-3 was walking again in just under three hours.
Kavid didn't join us on our return to Gellenos. Since we needed a Particle Charger, we thought he should take a look back at the Bay of Rocks and see if Namor Bruticus, a.k.a. the "Death Sniper," may have left an extra Charger laying around. He was given one, maybe he had an extra? We had looted his stronghold once already, but it never hurt to try a second time. Besides, Kavid would be back pretty soon, right? I was starting to get a little twitchy.
"Where is Major Nevets?" asked Mansod. Good question. We all figured he would be here by now, but there was no sign of him.
"Perhaps this was not his destination." Offered Sifen.
"He'll come," He couldn't pass this up, I could feel it, "If he's going to show off his new power, this is the best place in the world to do it."
"Agreed." Sifen nodded.
"I don't know about you guys," I said, changing the subject, "but I'm tired of helping the Empire. We're going to have to pick a side to fight for until Nevets shows up, but I'd like to fight for the Helic Republic again."
"There is no better choice, sir." Sifen was rarely this mushy.
"Let's do it!" cheered Mansod.
"I don't think I'll be mucha help downa there, Cap'n. Mind if I jus' wait fer Kavid?" asked Bruno.
"That was my plan already, pal. Keep an eye out for Nevets, too.
For someone who wanted to show off his invincibility, Nevets was sure taking his time—and it was making me nervous. Whatever his reason was, it only helped us. It gave Kavid more time to come back.
It was such a strange irony, though, that the only thing that could destroy Plasma Armor was the same thing that created it—the Particle Charger. Overcharge the process and bang! Instead of strengthening atoms, it breaks them apart. My hypothesis as to why the Plasma Particle Cannon could so easily destroy Plasma Armor was that it fired a Charged Particle Beam through the center of an overcharged Particle Charger Beam. The result broke down the CPB just enough to create plasma fire, but letting enough of the Beam through to reap the benefits of both beams. The blast both could violently destroy and break down at the atomic level all at the same time. It was the most powerful blast ever created.
How could Nevets power something like that?
The battlefield was a melee of nightmare. Smashed metal and shards of shrapnel flew off in every direction. You gambled with every footstep, and your life was the ante. If a laser blast or missile wasn't flying at you, an exploding Zoid was. These guys were out for blood, the passion had consumed them—driven them mad. I doubted they could remember why they were fighting anymore.
Our PAC-Wolves struggled to remain in some type of formation as we swerved through the ever-growing junkyard. A squad of Molgas took notice of our group and opened immediate fire on us. Their worthless shells just ricocheted off of our armor plates. This seemed as good a time as any to let Mansod have some practice.
"Private, show us what you've got." I ordered.
"Y-yes, sir." PAC-4 started to walk towards the Molgas, but then I growled PAC-1, and Mansod got the hint—PAC-4 broke into a sprint.
I figured it was time we all jumped into the heat of action. "Sifen, take on that Saber Tiger. I'm going to give some support to that Liger Schneider over there."
"Yes, sir."
Mansod was having a good time tearing apart the Molgas, and I knew Sifen would be fine. I had seen a Schneider getting torn up by a Liger Zero-X and felt I should go save its life, whether it wanted it or not. Liger Zero pilots were usually pretty cocky—but getting to the Liger proved to be harder than I thought.
An Elephander plowed through a pile of dead Zoids and tried to grab me with its trunk claw. I barely managed to jump free, but as I did so I crashed into the body of a deceased Saicurtis. Turning around, I could see that the Elephander was heavily damaged. That was good. The massive attacker rotated its turret and fired a series of shots at PAC-1, which bounced off, but knocked my wolf back down.
Trying to regain my wits, I looked up to see the foot of the elephant raise into the air, attempting to smash down upon PAC-1. Out of reflex, I closed my eyes and turned my head, but when the foot hit, nothing happened. PAC-1 was undamaged.
Oh, yeah. Plasma Armor. I forgot.
I stood my Command Wolf back up and rammed into the underbelly of the Elephander as its leg was lifted and managed to knock it backwards. The massive Zoid went smashing down on its right side, increasing the amount of dents and breaks smothering its body.
I then noticed the break on the left side of its belly, aimed the 150mm turret and fired. The explosion almost knocked PAC-1 backwards. I must have hit a good system. The Elephander was done.
Wiping the sweat off my brow, I prepared to move back to the Schneider, but shook with fright as a Helcat leapt through the air and tried to swipe me. Its claw hit PAC-1's armor and shattered. PAC-1 jumped back and fired, destroying the feline.
But it wasn't over yet. Three Rev Raptors crawled atop the carcass of the fallen Elephander and stared at me in hunger. I managed to shoot one, but the other pounced onto me and attempted to tear my Command Wolf apart. PAC-1 bucked them off, and then I blasted them, sending them crashing back into the Elephander.
When I looked back at the fighting Ligers, I screamed. The Schneider hung impaled on the Zero-X' left blades, its legs dangling lifeless, with smoke pouring from its back.
Energy started pouring through my veins again, and I started firing at the Zero-X, catching it by surprise, but not doing much damage. It dropped the Schneider and turned to face me. It spread its blades in attack mode; it probably thought this was going to be easy. Liger Zero-X jumped into the air, dodging my shots and came falling down into my position—I wasn't that stupid. I rolled PAC-1 out of the way as it smacked the ground. As my CW stood back up, I leapt at the Liger's left blades and had PAC-1 bite them, then snap them off.
LZX roared with anger and jumped away. My 150mm cannon gave it a good spanking. The Liger spun around and tried to blast me with its little twin cannon, but the energy shells just bounced off PAC-1's armor as I ran towards the Imperial Zoid, raised my Zoid's front right leg and slashed the Liger's face. Zero-X jumped forward, attempting to slash me with its facial blades. They simply broke off. As the Zoid passed PAC-1, my Wolf chomped on the Liger's tail and was jerked behind it—but I wouldn't let go. PAC-1 pulled and yanked at LZX' tail like a puppy to a sock until the feline Zoid's body-part ripped out, and the Liger shrieked in pain.
Zero-X gave up and tried to run away, but my passion was too intense. I jumped PAC-1 on top of the escaping Zoid and crashed down onto its upper back. PAC-1 began tearing through the armor plating, ripping its torso apart with indestructible claws, scooping shrapnel high into the air. The hunger that flowed through me was all-consuming. The dig was soon deep enough that we exposed the LZX' Zoidcore. PAC-1 opened its mouth wide, dipped its head down, and…
Was rammed off of the Ligers back.
"That's enough!" barked a voice over the comm.
PAC-1 rolled across the ground, regained its stance, and we prepared to destroy whomever took away our victory meal. PAC-3 stood between us and the Liger Zero-X. The shock of seeing Sifen's Zoid slapped some sense into me—a little sense.
"What are you doing, sir?" demanded Sifen. "Are you insane? Do you realize what you were about to do?"
"I…I was going to…hungry…so hungry…" the passion slipped from my veins. It was just like the Legend of the Blade Liger Vampire. It would tear through its opponents and devour their Zoidcores. Could it be that PAC-1 and I were the same way? Perhaps when a Zoid and its pilot formed a bond, basic instinct took over and they became primal. After all, it was rumored that many Zoids of Legend had grown powerful by consuming Zoidcores…
"Sirs!" cried Mansod over the comm, "Look! It's some kind of new dragon!"