ZOIDS:

Eisen Dragoons

Reviews:

Kylea- thank you, again as the story continues, my writing improves

DR- trust me she's a fire cracker

Kicker 123- Ya, I noticed that there not that many fics that include Layon, but in mine he will take a leading role!

Chapter 3: Rising Evil

The commissioner frowned, 'it just doesn't add up!' he thought. He had decided that he would personally go through the Backdrafts financial records and double check what his investigators had found. Even before the Backdraft fought with Blitz team, they were diverting massive amounts of funds to a project known only as 'RO' or 'Red October'. He had cross-referenced this 'Red October' against everything, and only came up with two positive matches; both of them dated back to the nest of humanity, Earth, and the details were sketchy, at best. One was a historical reference; the other was the name of a movie.

"I guess I'll have to have a little talk with the count about this" he said, he got up from his seat in the ultrasaurus's bridge and paused. He didn't know weather it was gut feeling, human instinct or what, but when ever he looked at the words 'Red October' he got a feeling of dread, and it made him very uneasy. He decided to sleep on in and have a little 'talk' with the count in the morning.

Inside his jail cell, the infamous Count Umbra, the feared Count of the Backdraft, was smiling. He wasn't smiling because he was wearing the orange jumpsuit that came with prison, but he was smiling because had the perfect plan for the fall of the ZBC. He reached under his pillow and found a small rectangular object that he was looking for. He pulled out a very simple cellphone and thought 'I'll have to give them a bonus for being ahead of schedule.' He typed in a number and turned down the volume, he wanted to contact them without being heard by the guards.

As the count put the phone to his ear, he didn't hear and ring tones, just a steady beeping as the connection was establish. There was a click as the receiver picked up on the other end, but before the count could speak, a voice came over the other line "I was wondering when you would call, Count."

Umbra scowled, he recognized the voice as belonging to the smart AI known only as Anubis, and knowing that this AI liked to play games made him much more of a problem.

"I don't have time to play games Anubis. Did your 'master' receive the shipment?"

"Yes we did" Anubis replied, in an almost business like manner, " two extra-large resurrection chambers, one medium chamber, 500 Diloforce, 250 Grounchar, 1000 Demantis and another thousand Maccurtis, 200 Saber Loin, 300 Guntiger, and last but not least 20 Rev Raptor, all the units are unmanned, each one has a remote control unit worked into the cockpits. And thank you for the local judge launch and retrieval unit, it will be very useful."

The counts face returned to its former smile, now for the plan…

"To quote my master 'what did we ever do to deserve this?'"

The count was shocked, "What!"

"My master told you that he needed rare, powerful zoids, not these, cheap, mass-produced scrap heaps!"

"Now you listen here, Anubis, I gave your 'master' all his funding up till now, thus I make the directions for project 'Red October'. If I pull my funding, then his half-finished ship won't be able to take off without blowing up!" he smiled, 'that should shut him up.'

Unfortunately, it didn't and the count could almost hear Anubis grinning on the other end of the line. What the AI said next caused shockwaves of terror to course through the count.

"Project Red October has already been completed."

The count was having trouble finding his words "W-When?"

Anubis sneered "When do you think?"

The count groaned; he had been informed via privet e-mail that the project was going to be completed on schedule, that being October the first. Seeing this, he lowered the amount of funds so the project could be completed when he saw fit, despite the fact that even when lowered, the amount he was sending over was still a very large number.

"W-where a-are you?" the count stuttered, afraid of the answer.

"We are currently at an altitude of 30,000 feet above Europa, heading for the ZBC headquarters to retrieve a few zoids that should have been given to us. My master's plans have been set in motion and nothing can stop him. The backdraft belongs to us now."

The count heard no more, for the phone had slipped form his hand; clattering to the floor. 'My god,' he thought, 'what have I done?' He didn't hear the phone emit a crackling sound as it self-destructed, for the mighty count of the backdraft was weeping. He had given a mad man the power to annihilate the world as they know it.

On board the Devastator, Anubis processed the electronic equivalent of a smile. He had been going through the systems of the ship, learning of its ins and outs, and had become very pleased. And it was hard to please an AI, and a Smart AI at that. He paused for a moment and sifted through his data banks, like a human, Anubis could forget things. He grinned as he found the file on the different types of AIs.

The terms 'smart' and 'dumb' when applied to AIs was misleading, while all AIs were incredibly intelligent, 'dumb' AIs lacked creativity. 'Smart' AIs had creativity, but this would cause them to form endless feedback loops in their programming, thus a 'smart' AI would have a lifespan of only seven years. But Anubis was the next generation of 'smart' AI. He could think creatively and like a human, but at the speed of a computer, and he didn't form feedback loops, thus he had no limit on his lifespan.

In the bridge of the Devastator, a holo-projector flickered to life, displaying Anubis's holographic form. He was named after, and took the form of the Egyptian jackal-headed god of death. As he looked around the sparsely populated bridge he noticed his master wasn't sitting in the commanders' chair as he usually did. Anubis frowned; this was very unlike him. He usually was in the bridge to over see the beginning of an operation.

Anubis activated the ships internal sensors and quickly located his master, who was, surprisingly in the zoid hangar. 'Of all the places, why there?' he thought as he transferred his electronic presence were his master was.

His master was standing on the closest catwalk to the forward deployment ramp; the zoids they received from the count lay out before him. The first row was made up of the Rev Raptors, which could take more damage than any other zoid the count had sent them; next was a column of Saber lions and Guntigers, the weakest of the zoids. Next there was the Diloforce, then the Demantis and Maccurtis and finally the Grounchar.

As Anubis's holographic form appeared standing on the railing, he opened his mouth to speak when his master cut him off. His tone was calm, almost as if his mind were somewhere else.

"Not now, Anubis."

The AI shut his mouth; he knew better than to try to speak, for his masters' word was law. As his master began to speak, Anubis gave him his full attention.

"How long until we reach the target?"

Anubis put his hand to his chin; in reality this meant that he was running through the calculations. Usually, Anubis would give his answer as soon as he had the answer, which was usually in a nanosecond, but when his master was the one asking, he double and triple checked his answers. Finding the answers satisfactory, he replied.

"We shall arrive at the target site just in time to deploy the units; I will then open fire with the main guns in order to clear a path for our three 'thieves' to get the two zoids onto the Devastator and out of harms way. Which makes me question why we need three warriors to steal two zoids, master."

His master turned to face Anubis, and he finally realized why one of his warriors had said merely looking in his eyes could invoke your deepest, darkest, fear. His master had the creepiest blue eyes Anubis had ever seen, for his master rarely looked at him right in the eye. As Anubis watched, his masters' eyes began to soften, something that he had only seen once in his life when he was created. This meant that his master was excited about something. As his maser began to speak, he once again gave him his full attention.

"Then prep a third set of scaffolding gantries, 'cause another zoid will be joining us soon, and delay our arrival by about two minutes." And with that Anubis's master walked off, a grin on his face. Anubis was stunned, but refused to let it stop him from executing the new orders with the speed and precision that only an AI could achieve.

'Be swift, be silent, use the shadows' the man thought as he watched the ZBC guard pass his hiding place. With the assistance of the sound suppressing gear and personal cloaking device, he could penetrate deeper into a ZBC facility than even the best-trained spec. ops agent ever could. 'The ZBC trained me,' the man thought, 'but they tried to betray me, and NOBODY betrays Red X!' The guard passed him again, and this time Red X struck. As he did, he deactivated his stealth gear, revealing his appearance. He wore a skintight black outfit with a large red X emblazoned over the heart; the low end of the upward stroke extended to cross the chest. Gray belt and gloves, the latter with X's on the backs of the hands adorn his waist and hands. A black mask whose face resembles a white skull, with another red X on the forehead; its upstroke was extended, like the one on the chest, to cross the right eye, covered his face. The voice changer in his mask would heavily distort his voice. A long black cape hung from his shoulders, the under side was gray in color; the bottom edge of the cape looked torn, as though X had one too many close calls.

When he reached his victim, he gave the guard a powerful Judo chop to the back of his neck, efficiently knocking him out. Red X caught the guard and his gun before they could hit the ground and make noise. After disposing of the weapon, and looting the poor guards' wallet, Red X hog tied him and tossed him into a broom closet with three other guards that had shared his fate. As he locked the door, he heard a guard that his 'partner' was supposed to eliminate, yell "Freeze, you big oaf, drop your weapons and put your hands behind your head!"

As Red X ran in the direction of the shout, not even bothering to activate his stealth gear, he sighed. His partner Korgoth, aka 'silent warrior', knew as little about stealth as he did about manners. As he was about to round the corner, he heard Korgoth yell.

"HA! Like you could threaten me, you pint sized son-of-a-bitch!"

As he rounded the corner, he took the entire situation in at a glance. The guard had his back to X, while Korgoth was standing in the middle of the hallway, his hands on his hips, using his large mass to prevent anyone from getting through the hall. Korgoth had the physique of a large bear and a deep voice to go with it. Red X wasn't sure, but he believed that Korgoth was descended for the tribe of Russia only known as 'Cossacks.'

Before Korgoth or the guard could react, Red X lased out and delivered a rock hard punch to the back of the guard's head. The guard collapsed onto the floor out cold. When Red X looked up at Korgoth, he could have laughed. The look on his face was priceless!

"Now why did you have to go and ruin my fun, X?" he grumbled, his shoulders drooping.

Though Korgoth didn't see it because of his mask, Red X rolled his eyes. 'Of all the people, he has to be the leader of a feared fanatical group.'

"You know what master said, no body count." He said, his voice distorted, yet still showed Red X's teenage youth. "And besides, you'd make a bloody mess of him" he said as he looted the guards wallet, after which he tossed his prone body into an abandoned room. When he looked back at Korgoth, Red X noticed he was grinning.

"Now what are you so happy about?" He asked.

"Nothing, just starring at the freak in the tights"

Red X felt his blood begin to boil. 'Oh, so now he's going to go on about that now is he?' It was a well known fact that Korgoth thought that the suit Red X wore was down right hilarious, and he made that known to just about everybody on ship.

"Look, Korgoth, would you just shut-up until we reach the objective and then you can make all the jokes about me you can, you muscle-bound bimbo!" This only caused Korgoth to roll with laughter.

"That coming from a guy called 'Monroe'!" Korgoth replied once he stopped laughing.

Three more guards and about a dozen more jokes later, that ranged from the mild to the obscene, the odd duo arrived at their 'objective', the ZBC zoid hangar 'I', or impound. Korgoth, seeing the door to the hangar, stopped cracking jokes and spoke with the tone of a commander, instead of that of a joke-loving buffoon.

"So, you think we should wait for Jason?" he asked.

Red X sighed, "You know how Chief Butz hates being called by his real name. Call him 'Red Baron', then he's happy and he won't get on our cases!"

Korgoth smiled, every warrior had his or her nickname. His was silent warrior because, while most pilots hurl insults at one another in the thick of battle, he rarely spoke during combat. Red X was Adam Monroe's nickname, and he refused to be called by anything else. Chief Butz, real name Jason Butz, was better known as the Red Baron because there was no one who could best him in the sky and in high-speed attacks on the ground. Their master didn't need a nickname like the rest of them; he merely went by his first name.

As they approached the door they heard three reports from a powerful handgun. Both Red X and Korgoth froze. They both looked at each other then back at the door. Korgoth was the first to speak.

"How the hell did he do that?"

"He couldn't have gotten by us, and this is the only way in or out of the hangar," replied Red X, who had a confused look on his face, hidden behind the mask.

Korgoth decide that enough was enough and kicked down the door to reveal their sneaky friend. He was leaning against the leg of a zoid, all decked out in his usual attire, that being that he was dressed like a Nazi officer from the hat right down to the shiny boots. He had just holstered his large caliber pistol when he looked up at his late arrivals. His short cut brown hair was only slightly sticking out from under his hat, while his blue eyes were framed by his slim glasses.

"What took you so long?"

Korgoth didn't answer; instead he fired off his own question.

"How the hell did you get in here?"

Red X decided not to talk, he would rather find out how the Baron got into the hangar without detection. Looking around he could see the three unfortunate guards to suffer the Baron's wrath. He remembered that their master had told them no body count until they reached the hangar. 'Well now that we're here, I guess it's OK' he thought with a grin.

"How'd I get in? Simple, I had Anubis wire a transfer of a zoid that was being held in hangar 1 to the impound hangar, then I the hid in the cockpit of the zoid while it was being transferred."

Red X looked up from a control panel he was fiddling with.

"What Zoid did you use?"

The Baron smiled and pointed over his left shoulder

"That one."

Red X looked off to his right and felt his jaw drop. The zoid he was looking at was a quadruped, its body was a deep forest green, the gyro caps on the zoid were somewhere between bright, light blue and teal. The fangs, teeth, claws, and blades were off-white, almost ivory colored. Its charcoal colored armor was punctuated by streaks of neon green, with the yellow cockpit adding to the effect. It was a zoid that Red X thought he would never see again after he was betrayed.

"My liger…" he whispered, before breaking into a run. When the ZBC sent him on his first mission to deal with bandits in southern Europa, they refused to let him use his Forest and Night Flight Blade Liger; instead they gave him a gunsniper. He managed to take care of the bandits while only loosing the left ear of the gunsniper. But when he got back to the ZBC HQ they refused to accept his access code, saying that the person he claimed to be died in action three days ago, hence the betrayal.

Climbing into the cockpit, he did a system check and found that everything was all right. Red X activated the speaker and yelled at his partners.

"Come on guys, let's get the goods and bust our way out of here!"

Korgoth smiled, the 'goods' as Red X put it was in fact the two operational Genosaurers that attacked the Berserk Fury during the royal cup tournament. Climbing into the Genosaurers cockpit Korgoth could see that the ZBC eggheads had tried to lock out the command systems. 'Smart,' he thought, 'but totally futile.'

As the Barons' Genosaurer powered up, he glanced to the right and sighed. While two of the Genosaurers got away with only minor damage, the third Genosaurer took a major hit from the Fury's CPC. Its guns had melted under the intense heat, and its body and armor where a total mess. Thankfully the core and battle computer were undamaged. With the amount of damage it had incurred though, it would take it decades for the zoid to heal itself.

As the large black and purple zoid finished powering up, the Red Baron pulled the zoid around to face the Hangar doors. He smiled as Korgoth pulled his Genosaurer besides him, each footfall shaking the hangar itself. The Genosaurer wasn't only one of the most feared fighting machines; to him, it was also a work of art. Red X's Blade liger pulled up in-between the Genosaurers and opened a comm channel.

"So are you going to blast the doors down with the CPC?" X asked, grinning from ear to ear. The Baron noticed that Red X had removed his mask, revealing his blood red hair, dull green eyes and pale skin. When the baron replied, his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"And have the hangar come down around our ears? No, we'll just have to do it the old fashion way." X's smile only got bigger.

Korgoth butted in, "That's the way I do things!"

Immediately, both Genosaurers leveled their 120mm back mounted pulse laser cannons and their forehead mounted 40mm pulse laser guns at the hangar doors while X rotated the blades of his liger forward to bring the repeater guns to bear and aimed the chest mounted pulse cannons at the door dead center. All three zoids opened fire at once, within minutes; the doors were about ready to buckle. Red X was about to say something when a voice came over the comm system shouting a single, two-word phrase.

"Get back!"

The warriors didn't need any more prompting, for Red X's liger leaped back while the Red Baron and Silent Warrior put their Genosaurers' hover jets into full reverse. Seconds later, the hangar doors vanished in cloud of smoke and derbies. The voice once again came over the comm channels.

"We have arrived!"

Before the smoke could clear, X's liger charged out of the hangar, followed closely by the two Genosaurers. Out side of the hangar, there was total chaos, half of the facility had been razed to the ground and unmanned zoids ran to and fro attacking the ZBC zoids with unnerving precision. Two Spinosappers noticed the escaping liger and Genosaurers and moved to bloke their path. They were the first to feel Red X's wrath as he cut their zoids heads off with his blade ligers laser blades. As the Spinosappers collapsed, the liger and Genosaurers continued to their intended destination, the Devastator.

Red X grinned, the first time he saw Devastator, he had mentioned that it looked like a super sized Backdraft Whale King, and he had been partly correct. The Devastator was a new type of whale king known as the Ultimate Whale King. Red X was surprised when he discovered exactly how large Devastator was; she was three times lager than a normal Whale King, easily bigger than an Ultrasaurus. In fact, her main guns were the same 360mm cannons carried by the Ultrasaurus, but instead of carrying four, she carried six; four up front, two on the back along the spine, and each gun had its own turret. The turrets on the sides of the Devastator were capable of rotating 360 degrees around, while the guns themselves could be elevated until they were perpendicular to the Devastator's hull, thus it could dish out withering firepower in any direction. But even if some one was able to get by the main guns, they would then have to deal with the 4000+ laser cannon batteries. He wasn't sure what weapon was concealed beneath the translucent orange nose, but he was sure it was powerful.

Even air-bound opponents were no threat to the Devastator, for the large triple barreled weapon stationed below the bridge was replaced with three super sized missile batteries, each battery held more missiles than the Liger Zero Panzer. But Devastator didn't only excel in the offensive arena; her defensive capabilities were top of the line and state of the art as well. While not visible to the naked eye, the Devastator was surrounded by a powerful energy shield that didn't need to be lowered in order for her to fire, only when zoids were either boarding or leaving did the shield need to be lowered. But the part of the Devastator that Red X liked the most was her cloaking device. When active, Devastator was invisible not only to the naked eye, but to all know sensor types as well.

As the Blade Liger and Genosaurers approached, the shield around the ships forward ramp was disabled and the ramp lowered. Neither the Liger nor the Genosaurers slowed down as they boarded the ship. As long as the ships shields were disabled and she was on the ground, she was vulnerable. The moment they hit the ramp though, the Devastator began lifting off and started closing the main ramp. Once the ramp had closed, Devastator's shield reformed around the vessel.

Inside the Devastator, Red X could see the zoids that weren't sent into combat, those being the Barons, Silent Warriors, and his gunsniper. The first zoids he past were a Triple S and a Lightning Saix, it was easy to tell that they were the Baron's because of their paint job. The Triple S wasn't a stealthy black color, instead it was a bright crimson, and the Saix had a red streak running down its forehead. Korgoth's zoid, as Red X put it, was over gunned and over customized.

Both spaces for Korgoth's zoids were taken up by his one zoid, that zoid was his command Elephander. It was equipped with the shield/sword unit on the end of its trunk, giving it amazing offense/defensive capabilities; the dorsal guns were replaced with an Assault Gattling unit, making any attempt to attack it from the air futile. But the most interesting thing about the Elephander was mounted on its sides.

On either side of a normal Elephander, there were large vents that allowed the Elephander to stay cool even in the desert, but on Korgoth's, the large vents were replaced by numerous smaller vents scattered around the Elephander. In place of the large vents were thick support pylons, each pylon held a massive gun that flanked the sides of the Elephander, the back of the guns lining up with the Elephanders rear with the guns muzzles extending just a few inches past the tips of the Elephanders tusks. To the casual observer, they were nothing more than very big guns, but the trained eye could see what they were, medium ranged buster cannons, giving the Elephander a devastating punch at long range.

Red X pulled his blade liger along side his gunsniper, the only sine of damage being its missing left ear. As Red X shut down his zoid and opened the cockpit, he made a mental note to thank Anubis for putting up the gantries for his liger as he put his mask back on. He jumped out off his liger to make a perfect three point landing in between the zoids feet, as he looked up he shiver and said "Damn I hate those things."

Occupying the majority of the Devastator's main hangar was a battalion of BattleMechs, or as most liked calling them, just 'Mechs. The 'Mech that was the closest to Red X was the Atlas, its blazing red eyes were what creeped him out the most, to him it made the 'Mech look positively pissed. The Atlases left arm was currently in pieces; according to his master, they were enhancing the 'Mechs capabilities by integrating zoid parts into them.

As he diverted his eyes away from the 'Mech he heard a slow clapping coming from above him. He looked up and froze, for standing on a small lift that was slowly traveling downwards from above the mech was his master, Nemesis. His master was of medium height, being only 5' 7 ½", but commanded respect with his piercing gaze from his blue eyes. His white skin contrasted sharply against the black clothes that he always wore. His shot cut dirty-blond hair and close cut, neatly trimmed beard and mustache also added to his aura of power. As the lift reach the main floor, Nemesis grinned as he stepped off.

"Well done by all of you, your performance has exceeded even my expectations, and with these Genosaurers, we can let the ZBC know why we are feared." His grin turned evil as Korgoth, the Baron, and Red X watched.

"Soon they will learn to fear the Backdrafts best; soon everyone will fear the dreaded Team Destoroyah!"

Authors note: Team Destoroyah was name after one of Godzilla's deadliest enemies, fitting for the deadliest warriors of the backdraft.

Now R&R or else!