Chapter Six
Archfiend
I spun PAC-1 around, knowing immediately what Mansod was talking about. He must not have seen Nevets' new little toy, but I had—and I was scared.
Swooping across the town of Gellenos, carrying more weapons than before, the Geyser of Fire made an attack run on the sea of Zoids that flooded the desert.
"Nevets must have been refitting his dragon with new weapons all this time." I deduced. "It's carrying big cannons now, one on each leg. But I can't understand why he would need them."
"What should we do, Captain?" asked Sifen.
I bit my pride and answered with the only reply that I knew was right. "We run for our lives." My friends were shocked to hear me say such a thing, but they nodded their heads. "Let's see if we can get some of these warriors to follow us."
We called out screams of "Run for your life!" and "A Zoid with a super-weapon has arrived, get out of here!" on multiple frequencies, but nobody wanted to listen to us. Everyone was too busy tearing each other apart. We just sounded like poor Republic Command Wolf pilots giving up on their country.
PAC-1 climbed up onto the carcass of the Elephander I had defeated earlier, and we took a view of the field. The Geyser of Fire had come under the barrage of a squad of Gunblusters, but it raised its shield and easily survived the attack. As soon as the Gunblusters gave up their assault, the Geyser's mouth began to glow. In mere moments, it's wings were raised high, it pulled its head back, then jabbed it forward while belching out a huge burst of Plasma Particle Beam. Hundreds of Zoids were evaporated by the mad levels of energy, which gave the sick illusion of a dragon incinerating its prey.
A sizzling pit of emptiness now sat in the middle of the sea of warring Zoids. Black smoke slithered from the sides of the Geyser's face, giving it a massive, dark smile. Hundreds more Zoids took notice of the major's presence now, and began to panic. Swarms of metallic beasts began to run all over each other, attempting to escape, no longer caring which country they were loyal to.
As the chaos ensued, a few valiant warriors stood up to the Geyser of Fire. But then, a curious thing happened: the dragon's new spread of heavy cannons fired spherical shells in five directions across the field. The Geyser quickly raised its level-ten shield to protect itself from the oncoming assault.
Panzers, Berserk Fuhrers, Gunblusters, Iron Kongs and Gojulas' fired up at the Geyser of Fire, nailing the shield with the most firepower ever to hit a Zoid since the legendary battles with the Death Saurer. The explosion sent shockwaves so powerful that any Zoid near the major was blown to pieces. Waves of Zoids, both dead and alive, crashed over themselves from the burst. A charcoal-black cloud of smoke rushed out from the center of the blast, blinding every man and machine in the area.
Comm-lines were flooded with calls of confusion and panic. No one knew where the dragon had come from, and both sides were blaming each other for its existence. No one was thanking the other for its possible destruction.
But I knew that it wasn't that easy. Super-Zoids never died that easy. And I was right.
A massive burst of Plasma Particle energy seemed to ignite the cloud of smoke. Energy beams fired all about the cloud, like they were being fired in different directions. The cloud was engulfed in the beams, shooting across the cloud, following the path of…the spheres! The spheres soon absorbed four full blasts of Plasma Particle Beams, and then on cue, they fired to a fifth sphere, sitting high above the cloud at an apex, like the top of a pyramid. When the energy hit the apex, it was fired back down—straight down—a blinding, deafening blast as strong as four Plasma Particle Beams. Upon hitting its ground-zero, there was another explosion—an explosion over ten-times more powerful than the one moments before. Over two-thirds of the machines on the impossibly-huge sea of Zoids were instantly obliterated. Those on the edges may have escaped evaporation, but almost all were smashed to pieces by the aftermath's shockwave.
And no one saw it coming.
How long had passed? I…I didn't know. Darkness…there was darkness. Out…I had to get out. Couldn't…couldn't get out. I was strapped to my seat…hanging sideways. Why was I sideways? Light? Was that light? Reflecting off of the control panel. Just a pin-point beam, coming through the windshield. That meant…I wasn't dead. I was near the surface of…of the ground?
I tilted my aching head up, frantically feeling for the Emergency Power Controls. I found them! With a flick of a button, I could see again, although everything was tinted red. I quickly wished I couldn't see.
I was buried beneath a deep pile of massacred Zoids—their lives brutally ripped out of them by Nevets and his damn Geyser of Fire. Somehow, most likely thanks to PAC-1's Plasma Armor, I survived the holocaust, and now I had to figure out how to free myself from my machine grave.
"I hope you're still functioning, buddy." I told PAC-1, "'Cause we've got a lot of work to do." My Command Wolf let out a weak growl, and its main systems came back on line. "Thanks, pal."
I worked the control bar and attempted to move the Wolf's legs. It groaned and struggled, but managed to wriggle itself free of the pinning weight of a crashed Liger Jager.I shouldn't have been surprised that the legs weren't broken, since they were "indestructible," but I was starting to worry about that claim.
After about twenty minutes of effort, PAC-1 cleared the top of the machine graveyard, and I lost my breath. The sea of Zoids had become an arch of Zoids, with a massive, deep crater taking an enormous bite out of the battlefield on the southwest side. A massive arch of non-vaporized Zoids still existed on the northeast side I guess Nevets' aim was a little off.
Amazingly, human survivors were scattered across the piles of death. Pilots, terrified by what they had survived, began crawling out of their Zoids, at first happy to see the sky, then scared out of their minds by what they saw. I was no superman. The seen shocked me, too. I sat frozen in PAC-1's cockpit for what seemed like days, but was probably only minutes.
Once again I was snapped into reality by PAC-3, this time crawling across the Zoid carcass' towards me. Sifen hailed me.
"Are you all right, sir?"
"Sifen. It's good to see you alive, my friend. F.Y.I., PAC-3 isn't looking too good." Sifen's Zoid had burns across its armor plating, and warps and dents across its body. There were even some parts missing.
"We were lucky to survive, sir. A few dozen humans have, but that is all. Our PAC-Wolves are the only Zoids still functioning, I'm afraid."
"And Mansod's, of course. Where is he at?"
Sifen's face wiped itself clear of emotion as he tried to hide his feelings. "I found…part of PAC-4. It was horribly damaged by the explosion. I can find no other traces of Plasma Armor in the area." Sifen's emotionless face started to break. "I do not believe Private Mansod survived."
My heart dropped so hard I nearly threw-up. Guilt began to consume me. A "Castaway" was gone! No! It wasn't fair! He tried so hard! We were always so damn hard on Mansod—he was such an idiot…but dammit! That kid had a ton of potential!
I wiped away a tear. "Sifen, from this day forward, we do not stop until Nevets is dead, or we die trying to kill him."
"Yes, sir." Sifen thought for a moment. "I never did like the Private's coffee, but it kept me going."
"That's the way Mansod was, Corporal," I said, "It was hard to stomach him sometimes, but he was always there to help."
"Yes, sir."
"Let's go check up on Kavid."
Thinking that this day could not get any worse was a foolish mistake. Sifen pointed out that we could not proceed without any ammunition, and, disturbingly, we stood upon a plethora of ammo that would never be used by its Zoids ever again.
In less than an hour, our PAC-Wolves were re-stocked with energy shells and missiles from fallen Command Wolves and Pteras'. I have never overcome the feeling of guilt for what we did, no matter how justified it may have been.
Thankfully, Gellenos was relatively untouched by the battle with Nevets. A few buildings had their windows shattered, but that was about it.
We found Bruno sitting in his Gustav, right where we had left him—next to the tailor shop.
"Cap…Cap'n Kelt! You're alive!" Our Engineering buddy's red eyes were bursting with moisture. "And Sife! Sife, youse okay!" He jumped out of his silvery Zoid and nearly broke our backs with one of his legendary bear hugs.
"So surprised to see us, Bruno?" I asked.
His cheeks grew red. "Well, I'm's sorry to say yeah. That wuz the biggest explosion I'd ever seen. It just seemed imposs' to survive."
"But Bruno, I hadn't told you I was dead yet." I winked.
The big guy thought about it for a second, then started laughing so loud it rattled the Gustav. "Thatsa right! Youse didn't tells me that! Im's sorry, Cap'n. I promise to never doubt yas again."
Sifen could only study us in confusion. Bruno then looked around. "Where's Mansod?" Our explanation really broke his uplifted mood.
"I loved his coffee." Said Bruno. "Kept me going."
I took a deep breath. "Let's get down to business. Bruno, have you heard anything from Kavid?"
"Yessir. He ain't found nuthin' out at the Bay of Rocks. He's comin' back here as fast as he can."
"This news significantly changes our plans, Captain Kelt." Analyzed Sifen. "We need to wait here for Kavid, then decide a new plan of attack."
I looked down at the Zoid graveyard, then farther north, when it struck me. "We have been fools, Sifen. We have known this entire time where a Particle Charger is, but we sent Kavid the opposite direction."
It only took Sifen a second to process the idea. "Mt. Hoploy."
"Mt. Hoploy. It's where the PAC-Wolves were first made." I whipped around with new vigor. "Bruno! Get a message to Kavid with that long-range transmitter of yours. Tell him that we're heading for Mt. Hoploy by way of the Trail."
"Yessir!"
As we entered the cockpits of our Zoids, Sifen appeared on my HUD-Comm. "Just a reminder, sir. It is more than likely that Katrana Sared has returned to Mt. Hoploy as well."
"I'm counting on it."