DR: Okay, it's time to rumble!
Shadow: All right!
Ambient: About damn time... (DR & Shadow stare at Ambient)
DR: You're meant to be dead! (Ambient grins evilly)
DR: Well, we'll soon fix that... (Ambient stops grinning as DR waves magic writers wand(tm). Ambient disappears in puff of red smoke)
Shadow: Good riddance.
Disclaimer: I think you all know the drill by now...
Chapter 7: Battle, Advice & Reflection
With a roar the Liger Zero landed with a shower of sand on the ground, before stepping up to it's place besides the Gunsniper and the Shadow Fox. Jamie's Raynos hovered just overhead, small dust devils behind it. The glare of it engines reflected in the laser blades of the Liger Zero's Schneider armour set. All four zoids had benefited from the long break since the Royal Cup. They were now as good as new and raring for action.
Inside the liger's cockpit, Bit shifted in his seat. He was all psyched up for this battle and raring to go. In fact he had been psyching himself up for this ever since the formal dinner when Derek Calisto had first told him about the match. After two day's travel they were finally about to begin a new season in Class S.
"Any sight of the other team?"
"Nothing yet" drawled Brad.
"You're not even looking at your scanner!" Snapped Leena. It was true; Brad was leaning back in his seat, hands behind his head. "Still dreaming of that night with Naomi I bet!"
Brad frowned, and would have snapped off a sharp reply before Jamie interrupted. "Heads up, here they are."
Bit looked forward, to see a golden blob rising over a distant sand dune. Engaging the Ligers long distance optics, the image resolved into a set of almost vertical plates. As he watched, a dark green humped back appeared beneath them, bracketed by an array of guns.
"A Gordos," Brad commented. "Rarely see one of those in a battle. Too slow for most use, and their class five zoids. Expensive."
"What's with the golden back plates?" Leena asked her tone puzzled.
Before anyone could answer though a second zoid began to appear. This one was much more recognisable. There were very few zoids with an array of heavy cannons like that. Quickly the Dibison's horned head appeared, just before the Gordos tiny, low slung head cleared the dune.
"That Bison's got a custom weapon job." Stated Jamie. "They replaced the cheek missile pods with what looks like lasers…" Jamie trailed off though as a third appeared. It was a deep red, with silver trim and weapons. Behind its feline head it mounted a twin pulse cannon with mortar top pod and side missile packs. Above each of its shoulders a small cannon was fitted, and the long sliver fangs hanging from its' upper jaw – which gave the zoid its' name – glittered in the sunlight.
"Okay, a Zaber Fang, a Dibison and a Gordos. Nothing we can't handle." Bit stated. Liger roared in agreement.
As if in answer, there was another Ligers roar from the other team, just as a blue mass appeared on the flank of the Dibison. The Blade Ligers rich blue body was contrasted by the silver highlights in its head fins and the golden teeth and electrical blades. The underlying components glinted slightly bronze in the light.
"…Oh'kay." Was all Bit could stammer out, as the Blitz Team watched as the other team arranged themselves. The Gordos took point, while the Zaber Fang and the Blade Liger took the flanks. The Dibison hunkered down, clearly setting up a bombardment pose. While the Zaber Fang and the Dibison were familiar foes, their clearly custom weapon load outs meant they could have a few surprises up their sleeves. The Blade Liger would be a serious problem, since they were so formidable in close combat. And Bit had never fought a Gordos before, so he didn't have a clue what it could do. About the only thing he knew about them was that they were both slow and heavy.
At that point the Judge capsule made it's landing on a nearby bluff overlooking the battlefield. Quickly it freed itself from the small crater its landing had made before opening up to reveal the Judge itself. After a second the judge began its pre-battle speech.
"The surrounding 60 miles is now a designated Zoid battlefield. Only contestants and support personal are allowed entrance. Danger!" The Judge scanned the area and found nothing of note. It moved onto the next step. "Class S battle, the Blitz Team Vs the Raiders Team, Battle mode 0982. Ready…" The judge held out its arms, and then snapped them back to its chest. "…FIGHT!"
X-X-X-X-X-X
On the Judges go, both teams leapt forward, or in the Gordos case lumbered. While the Blitz team simply went all out in a headlong charge with their Raynos rocketing into the air, the Raider's split up. Sitting in the rear seat of the Blade Liger, Derek was watching his displays. Narrowing his eyes, he started snapping out orders.
"Jane, take the left flank and see if you can flush out that Shadow Fox. Jacob, lay down a barrage of fire to keep them bottled up." The Zaber Fang leapt gracefully from dune to dune, veering away from its team-mates and heading for the Fox. Meanwhile the Dibison cut loose with its back mounted cannons, each one firing independently. The hail of explosives kicked up dust and sand, slowing the Blitz teams advance since they didn't want to be within that bombardment.
"Anna, keep an eye out for that Liger, that thing is powerful enough to take us all out by itself." This remark was addressed to the pilot of the Blade Liger sitting in front of Derek, though he could barely see her head behind her seat and the mass of holo-displays the team had installed in the back seat.
"Michael, you get a shot for that Gunsniper, take it. Everyone watch your missile lock indicators."
Derek watched his displays as the Blitz Team got over their initial shock and began to fight back. A hail of small calibre cannon shells came screaming out of the smoke, none of which were close enough to worry him. Of more concern was the Liger Zero, which had darted out of the smoke and was bearing down on his position. Confident that his pilot could handle herself for now, Derek watched the patterns being formed from the remaining two zoids movement.
"Michael, the Raynos is setting up for a strafing run from your six. Watch yourself."
"Got it boss, he won't know what hit him."
Jamie finished setting up his attack run, the Gordos lining up perfectly for his sights. Gordos were slow and cumbersome, but they were tough. With the exception of the spindly upper leg sections, they carried heavy armour, and as such made good mobile firing platforms. Jamie knew that with the exception of the Liger, the rest of the team would struggle to bring such a zoid down. As such, he slowed down to provide more time over his target. He doubted that he could knock the zoid out, but maybe he could hit those upper leg sections and cripple it, or possibly knock out a few weapons. As the Gordos slipped into his sights, something in the back of his mind was telling him he was missing something vitally important…
Down in the Gordos, the pilot smiled as the Raynos slowed. "Gotcha…" he whispered before pressing the firing stud.
Jamie was just about to fire when a hail of fire lanced up from the Gordos, raking the skies just ahead of him with tracer. There was no time to react, the Raynos just had to plough though and hope that it didn't take to much damage.
Jamie had forgotten that the Gordos carried rear weaponry that could be pivoted up for anti-air duty. Kicking in the boosters, the Raynos shot out of the cross fire. But before he could breathe easy, explosions outside rattled Jamie around in the cockpit. Dirty black clouds appeared before and around him and shrapnel resounded off the Raynos skin. "Flak." He thought as he powered away, leaving a dirty trail of smoke behind.
"Good shooting." Derek commented as the Raynos pulled out of the Gordos line of fire. Although the aerial zoid was not yet out of the battle, the smoke and the sluggish way it had handled as it turned showed that it had been badly hurt by the barrage.
"Didn't get as much of him as I'd like though…" Michael begun.
"And you won't get another chance at him!" Interrupted Leena. "WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!"
Sure enough when Derek looked, the overloaded Gunsniper had opened up with its entire arsenal. A rain of bullets and missiles raced after the thin laser beams that lanced out at the Gordos. Multiple detonations clouded the heavy zoid from view.
Leena's laughter died as the smoke cleared though. The Gordos came on, without a scratch to its hide. The head swung round to look at her, and then the short-barrelled cannon just in front of the left flak gun did the same. A yellow-orange beam lanced out, only just missing Leena since she jinked left. She responded with the Vulcans again, but this time saw the glowing form of an energy shield flicker up just before impact. Once the barrage ended, the shield dropped and the zoid continued its implacable advance.
"Oh great…" She cried out as she dodged another energy blast.
Brad was having about as much luck with the Zaber Fang. Although smaller and lighter, The Shadow Fox was barely staying one step ahead of the other zoid. He had stopped using the smoke dischargers since every time he had the other pilot popped a mortar round into the cloud. Hiding behind a dune didn't help as again mortar shots came over. So far He had been too busy dodging the main pulse cannons, fortunately not in a pivoting mount, to get a good shot back.
Derek was brought back to his surroundings bay a powerful jolt. Looking outside, he could see the Liger Zero chasing his Liger around. Only the deployed side blades were keeping it at bay, but not for long. Already there were several cuts and slashes in the Blade Ligers armour, none deep enough to hit anything vital, but if Bit could keep cutting away like that, he'd soon hit something vital.
"Jacob, give us a hand will you?"
"Sure boss, Give me sec." The central monitor in both seats lit up with a small tactical map, with a set of waypoints highlighted one-by-one. "Follow this path." Anna didn't need to be told twice, even though the initial move put the Liger Zero behind them. Then shells rained down and blanketed the area. The Blade Liger followed the set course and came out unharmed. The Liger Zero staggered back up having taken a couple of hits, but it was still active. Anna tired to put it down with a volley from her blade laser guns, but the Zero leapt clear of the burst. "He's good…" She whispered as the Zero roared again as it charged.
Jacob, awaiting new orders, spied the returning Raynos. Quickly switching weapons, he swung the Dibison's head up and fired off a volley from the pulse lasers he carried instead of missiles. The Raynos managed to avoid most of the shots, but a few struck the right wing and tail. A second volley creased the main body, while the third shorted out the flyer and it dived for the sand below.
Meanwhile Leena was continuing to prance around the Gordos. Its shield raised every time she fired, then dropped. She tried firing two bursts in quick succession, but that didn't work. The shield flicker up and down so fast! And she was barely keeping ahead of the beams that lanced out in return. She was already down two lasers and a missile pod, plus quite an amount of charring on the armour.
"Somebody give me hand here!" She yelled into the radio. "Jamie, where are you?"
"Sorry, I'm down." Jamie's voice was almost a whimper.
"Hang on Leena, I'm coming…" Bit yelled, diving under the latest charge of the Blade Liger before sprinting for the Gordos.
"Let's rip that turkey open partner." The Liger Roared in agreement as the five blades on the head began to form the buster slash attack.
This did not go unnoticed by the Raiders. "Jacob, get ready hit the Zero with everything you've got!" Yelled Derek as Anna pulled the Blade Liger around. "We'll set him up, you knock him down."
"Roger that."
Bit was preparing for the final charge when a hail of laser blasts lit up the air in front of him. The Liger pulled up and for a few seconds sat still.
"NOW!"
Bit saw the muzzle flashes from the corner of his eye, and began to turn away, but the shells moved far too quickly. Explosions rocked the Liger as several hit the zoid, while dust rose from near misses. As the smoke cleared the Liger Zero could be seen lying on its side, twitching. Several chucks of the orange armour had been blasted off, and two of the laser blades lay a short distance away. Although the Liger was still mobile, the armour itself was a mess. Jacob was just congratulating himself, when his radio shrieked. "Jacob, your left!" Jane yelled.
Glancing left, Jacob swore before driving the Dibison forward. The Shadow Fox had managed to get the Zaber Fangs left fore leg wrapped in its electro-net, and had come after him. Despite his efforts, the Fox's strike laser claw torn across the zoids haunches. Both back legs started to trail as neither responded to commands.
Brad finished the Dibison off with a burst from his laser, but before he could help either Bit or Leena he had to dive away again as a pair of missiles from the Zaber Fang came screaming in.
Leena opened up again at the Gordos, but its shield again repelled her attacks. She continued to fire, and this time watched as the shield dimmed, then failed. By that point Leena had stopped firing as return fire grazed her zoids leg and took out another missile pod, but she now knew the shield was not impenetrable.
"Bit, we're going to need one heck of an attack to break though that shield."
"Right, but the Schneider's totalled. I'll need to change to Panzer."
"Do it, we'll cover you!" Leena punctuated this remark by sweeping fire over the Blade Liger. While its own shield deflected the fire, it did buy Bit time to get the Zero up and heading for the hover cargo.
Jane was back playing cat & mouse with the Shadow Fox. She had to admit it moved like a dream and was very graceful. Neither side had been able to land a solid blow yet, but she was grateful that her Zaber Fang had curved armour panels that deflected most of the energy of the laser shots that hit.
The Liger Zero leapt up into the Hover Cargo, and began the process of changing into the Panzer. Even before the process was complete, Bit could feel the heat beginning to build within the Ligers servos.
Derek had watched the Liger Zero disappear into the Blitz Teams transport, and was watching in interest for when it emerged. When he saw the side panel fold down he quickly flicked on his comm. "Head's up, they're deploying the Panzer armour. Jane, you know what do…"
As the Liger was lowered to the ground, Bit was already locking in all three Raider zoids into the missile targeting system. Bit watched as panels folded out to account for all the missiles that the Panzer carried.
"BURNING BIG BANG!" He cried as every missile fired, wreathing the Liger in exhaust smoke. The temperature in the cockpit rose rapidly.
"Incoming missiles," Michael called out, his eyes widening in shock. "A heck of a LOT of missiles! My shield can't withstand that!"
"It won't have to," Derek smiled thinly. "Jane, now."
In the Zaber Fang cockpit, Jane flipped a simple switch. Suddenly the airwaves in the local area were smothered in a blanket of static as the ECM unit mounted on the zoids tail kicked in and began its tantrum. Brad had to clasp his hands over his ears as the Shadow Foxes sensitive sensors were overloaded by the broadcast. Even the judge was affected slightly, having to switch to a narrow beam laser communication system to continue to broadcast the match to the super satellite high above.
The effect on the Liger Zeros missiles was all that could have been hoped for. Suddenly each one was rendered blind and deaf, their guidance systems completely fried. Some continued on their current, ballistic course, destined to crash somewhere on the fringes of the battlefield. Others suddenly went haywire and corkscrewed away, slamming into the ground or shooting off high into the sky. Others simply exploded.
Within seconds, the Liger Zeros most powerful attack was completely nullified, by a small box of electronic components.
After ten seconds the jamming shut off and normal comms channels were clear again. "What the HELL was THAT?" Leena screeched.
"They're using an ECM unit," bit out Brad, still wincing "Damn thing nearly seized up the Foxes sensors."
Bit was simply speechless, his jaw on the floor. The Ligers most powerful attack, stopped dead cold. A near miss from the Gordos's guns snapped him back to the here and now. A second blast struck the Liger, but the Panzer armour withstood the blast.
"Two can play that game." He muttered. Quickly bring up the gun sights he bracketed the Gordos. "HYBRID CANNON FIRE!"
Both the back mounted cannons unleashed a hi-energy particle/laser beam, the recoil generated by super-heated air pushing the Liger back a few feet despite the ultra heavy armour. One beam missed, burrowing though three sand dunes before striking a rock and taking out a nice chunk of the dune it was in. The other punched though the Gordos' shield like it wasn't there and ripped across its body just above the left legs. Although it didn't breach the thick armour both upper weapons went offline, as did the shield.
Wiping his brow, Bit called Leena. "He's wide open, finish him would you?"
"Gladly!" Leena cried, planting her zoids feet solidly. Bit grinned, and then hit the emergency armour jettison. Charges went off underneath the Panzer armour, releasing the Liger Zero from its great weight.
"Oh crap!" Michael cursed as he tried to bring another weapon to bear.
Leena wasn't having any of that. "WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!"
Although some of the weapons were damaged and didn't respond, the rest were enough. Targeting the left side, Leena rained fire on the Gordos. She held down the trigger, raking the Gordos with her cannons. Rocked by the missile barrage, it didn't seem that it would ever go down. Finally the armour gave way where Bit's hybrid cannon had weakened it, and explosions ripped apart the left hip joint. Already overbalanced by the missile attack, the Gordos slumped over onto its right side, out of the fight.
Back inside the Hover Cargo, Bit called up the standard Liger Zero armour. With the Schneider damaged, it was either that or the Jaeger, and Jaeger was simply too fast for this battle. "Liger Zero, CAS complete!" He called out as the Liger was rotated back up to the catapult. The Liger was quickly sent back out to fight.
But someone had been waiting for that. As the Liger Zero was landing on the ground, a hail of laser blasts cut across its path. Mid leap, the Liger had no chance to evade the fire and took several hits. While not enough normally to cripple the Liger, the hits were to the forelegs, which couldn't take the full weight of the Liger as it landed. It nosed dived into the sand hard enough to trigger a command system freeze.
"Good work!" Derek was impressed with Anna's timing. "Now we've only got the Fox and the Gunsniper left, and I doubt the latter has much ammo left."
"You wanna bet?" Leena challenged, before opening fire again on the Blade Liger. Bullets stitched the dirt around them, but the Liger was staying one step ahead of the fire.
Jane too was sweeping fire around, and having similar luck against Brad and the Shadow Fox. Though she had managed to get rid of the electro-net, the left foreleg was still dragging. Thus hindered, she couldn't more as fast as she liked, so had to resort to gunfire to catch the agile Fox. Also Brad was getting more accurate again her slower moving target.
Jane tried one last trick. She fired off the last of her mortar rounds in a pattern to box the Shadow Fox in, and then leapt after them. The Fox ground to a halt below, but as her Zaber Fang came down, the Fox jumped back. Jane landed heavily, shaking her up for a few vital seconds.
Brad didn't waste them. "Strike laser claw!" he yelled as the agile Fox leapt forward. Its glowing claws cut across just behind the neck, ripping off the shoulder cover. Skidding in the sand, Brad prepared for second attack, but the Zaber Fang thudded into the dirt, beaten.
"Oh man…" Brad sighed with relief. That had been one tough fight. Glancing at his displays, he swung round to assist Leena. He noticed that the Fox was pretty banged up. "That fight took a lot out of…"
He never finished that thought. "BRAD! A little help here!" Leena called out, as her main weapons ran dry. The Blade Liger seemed to hear the clicking of empty chambers, as it swung round and charged right for her. Both side blades deployed and begun to glow with laser energy.
"Get away!" Leena screeched as she threw her zoid out of the Ligers path. Her desperate manoeuvre was only part successful. The right laser blade slashed deep into the Gunsnipers thigh and side, shutting it down.
"Looks like it's just you and him now" Derek said, shutting down his tactical systems. With a one-on-one fight there was little point in strategic oversight.
Both active zoids raced at each other, scattering laser energy around each other but not quite hitting. A few glancing blows on each other's armour but that was about it. As the Liger's blades came down and it jumped, Brad did the only thing he could think of. He leapt closer to the Liger's body.
Both zoids can to a jarring, spinning halt. The Foxes jaws were clamped down on the arm that supported one of the blades, but the Liger was snapping at the Foxes side. Unable to release the blade since it would slice the Fox in two, both began a merry circular tug-of-war. The Fox was however at a significant disadvantage. The Liger was both bigger and heavier, and was also less damaged.
Brad struggled to hold back the Liger, but was being pushed back towards one of the many craters that now littered the landscape. If he fell in there the Shadow Fox would be over balanced and it would be all over. He quickly ran over his list of options. They were depressingly short.
'If only I had caused more damage with the laser, then I could of…' He stopped that line of thought. The back mounted Vulcan laser was still working, after a fashion. A glancing hit by the Liger had damaged the training mechanism, but he thought that it could still pivot enough to hit it. The problem was that it had never been intended to be fired at this close range. But Brad was out of options. Quickly working the thumb pad, he began to swing the gun around.
Derek noticed the move and called out. "Anna! His laser!"
"Drat!" she cursed, but she knew she couldn't do anything to stop him. If she tried to back off he could escape and still shoot her, while none of the paws could reach. She had to trip him up now. She pushed the controls harder.
Brad felt the Foxes rear paws slipping in the edge of the crater when he got the shot lined up. With no time to waste, he hit the trigger.
The Laser Vulcan opened up, sending a hail of short laser pulses carving though the Ligers hips. All three pilots covered their eyes from the intense glare, and inside the Shadow Foxes cockpit alarms blared as the barrel tips of the laser overheated. The effect on the Liger was far worse though. Systems within the Liger shorted out, and then it slumped down, defeated. It nearly dragged the Shadow Fox down with it, but Brad released the blade arm in time.
"The battle is over! The battle is over! The winner is… The Blitz Team!" The judge called out, raising his blue hand as he did so.
Brad mopped his forehead as the Judge declared the winner. That had been too close.
X-X-X-X-X-X
"I've got to hand it to you, that was one tough match." Both teams were now sitting round a table within one of the restaurants in the local town. Part of a tradition going back to the earliest days of Class S, both teams would sit down and talk afterwards, and of particular interest to the Blitz, the losers would foot the bill for the meal. "We were a little nervous going in."
"To tell the truth, so were we." Jamie replied. "Not sure what to expect from a Class made up of previous Royal Cup winners."
"Mostly." Jane added as she returned with the drinks.
"Yea, a few got in by their battle record, or were recruited by winners from past rival teams, within limits." He glanced at Jane as she sat down. "But the core of all the teams are Champions."
"Looks like we'll be right at home then." Drawled Brad, lounging in his seat by the window.
"Oh, I wouldn't count on that for long." Derek replied.
"And why's that?" Leena challenged.
"Leena…" Doc Toros started to admonish his daughter.
"No, it's all right." Derek shifted in his seat so that Anna would be more comfortable under his arm before continuing. "It's simple really. During a teams first three matches in Class S, their opponents are given a few handicaps."
"Handicaps?" Bit questioned.
"Small things, like not using more zoids than the new team, stuff like that. Once those first three battles are over, the gloves come off."
"So Class S is very competitive, then?"
"Extremely." Derek nodded. "Each match is fought off the field almost as much as on it. Teams will constantly refine their zoids configurations, searching for that perfect counter to the other teams favoured set up…"
"You certainly countered the Panzer." Bit grumbled, but only half-heartedly. In truth he was still jazzed up by the battle. The others laughed in good humour.
"It was only a matter of time before some one did it. ECMs don't always work, and they do have a down side, but I…" Anna elbowed him gently. "…That is, we thought it best to show you how your tactics could be countered, with the right configuration. Some of the other teams might have rubbed your nose in it, I'm afraid."
"You mention changing a zoids configuration. This happen often?" Brad asked.
Derek nodded. "While most warriors generally get one arrangement of weapons on their zoid and stick with regardless, in Class S the norm is to have enough parts for two-to-three different weapon configurations per zoid. Each team has a certain style, but they can, and will, change it depending on whom they're facing. Another common theme is that each team has 'extra' zoids, used as spares if one of their main zoids is too badly damaged to compete in the next battle, or to radically alter their teams' line up."
Jamie nodded slowly. "That must get expensive."
Derek nodded. "It can be, depending on what you choose. Course the prize money up for grabs in Class S generally covers most expenditure. You'll generally find laser and other energy weapons used far more often the Class S that any other Class. Our Gordos is a bit of an exception since it's difficult to get weapons that fit it."
"I can imagine. I don't think I've ever seen a Gordos in a zoid battle before." Bit commented.
"I have, twice before today." Brad said lazily. "Their slow speed makes them more useful as area denial weapons than actual assault units."
"Don't count them out for assault." Michael stated. "The Helic Republic uses Gordoses as assault units. They may be slow, but they are almost unstoppable. Besides, a base can't run away." The gathered warriors laughed again.
"Speaking of unstoppable, were did you get that shield from? It took nearly all my ammo to punch though." Leena asked rather plaintively. "Not to mention that it was annoying to see it snap up so quickly."
Derek grinned smugly. "That's part of the reason we're a competitive team, despite being undersized by Class S standards. We use tactical equipment and coordination to better work together. We decided to turn the Gordos into a mobile fortress..." Michael smirked "…and as you said Brad, use it to deny a swath of ground to the other team. Make them work around it. The plates along its back are the shield generators; that's why they're gold rather than the standard sliver. And that's not all the non-weapon related changes we made. The back seat of our Blade Liger has been turned into a miniature command centre, with everything accessible at the touch of a button."
"So that's how you knew I was coming in." Jamie stated flatly. "You watch the overall battlefield, while your pilots handle the immediate concern."
"Correct. Today since there were only four of us I could coordinate us more tightly than normal. On a regular Class S battle I'd be hard pushed to get that kind of overview. Too much happening at once."
"So how big can a Class S battle get?" Bit was almost drooling at the thought of being involved in larger battles.
Derek thought for a few moments. "The usual battle size is about seven-on-seven, with most zoids type four, with quite a few three's and the odd two or five. The record is, I think, fifteen Vs fourteen and the smaller team had both a Gordos and a Gojulas."
The Blitz's jaws dropped. Brad was the first to recover. "How can one team support so many members?"
"Mainly, the heightened prize money. But the largest teams do tend to be military units from either the Republic or the Empire. That particular battle was a Republic Vs Empire fight, as part of the memorial of the end of the last Helic-Guylos War. Both sides were military units."
"Well, sounds like we'll enjoy ourselves greatly! I can't wait!" Bit grinned with eagerness.
X-X-X-X-X-X
'Boy was I wrong' Bit thought as he slumped down into the couch in the Blitz base. It had been almost a month since that first battle with Derek's Raider Team. He had warned them not to expect an easy time, and boy had he been right. Their second battle had been just as intense as their first, though this time the other team had luck on their side and had scraped a win. Their last 'novice' battle had been a blast, with both teams tearing into each other till only Liger Zero and the other teams Gojulas had been left standing. That time a seven-blade attack had been needed to fell the mighty saurian zoid and scrape a win. The next fight…
…The next fight they found themselves out numbered more than two-to-one. Jamie had been unable to fight as his Raynos was still undergoing repairs from the last fight, so it had been only Bit, Brad and Leena up against seven zoids. Although they put up a good fight, in the end the Liger was the only Blitz Team member still active. Surrounded by the last three zoids from the other team, Bit had no choice but to surrender.
After that it got worse. Derek had warned that some teams pushed the rules as far as they could, and the next fight had proved that. A trio of Hellcats with cloaks had forced the three Blitz team members to turn round in circles, while under constant artillery fire from three other zoids hiding behind a dune on the far side of the battlefield. Leena had managed to nail two of the Cats by simply saturating the landscape with explosions, but the third had taken her out afterwards. Brad had managed to spot it and knock out the cloak, but then they both got lead right into the gun sights of the rest of the other team. Bit managed to punch though, taking one of the artillery zoids down as he did, but the Fox was stopped dead. As Bit turned to reengage, that last Hellcat had snuck up and took him down.
The last battle had been against a mainly aerial force, six flyers with two Heldigunners providing backup. Bit had tried to use the Panzer to bring the flyers down all at once, but again an ECM shorted the missiles. Even worse some missiles that Leena had fired detonated just after leaving the missile pods. The Gunsniper was taken out by the concussion. Brad covered for Bit while he changed to Jaeger, but even the high-speed armour wasn't able to keep up with the two Storm Sworders on the Sun Ray Team. Jamie, returned now his Raynos was fully repaired, had slipped fully into the Wild Eagle, and to be fair had accounted for four of the other aerial zoids, but was caught in a cross fire by the last two and one of the Heldigunners. Brad was taken by surprise from below as the second Heldigunner came up underneath him. Its tail blades had flicked across the Foxes throat, bringing him down. Bit, now all alone, had been able to take down one of the Heldigunners when it tried the same trick, but the last Storm Sworder has used a sonic boom to pick the Liger up and hurl it into a dune. As the Liger had righted it self, a set of cluster bombs had dropped and the Liger was knocked out.
Now back from that battle – and the traditional after battle meal, paid for by the losers – the Blitz team had little enthusiasm left. Even Doc had been affected; he wasn't playing with his models so much.
"Guess we had this coming." Bit looked up at Leena, where she sat across from him. That wasn't a typical Leena comment. Hell, the expression on her face wasn't typical Leena.
"How so?"
She looked at him with tired eyes. "When was the last time we lost? When we first encountered Vega and the Fury. Ever since then, we've won every time."
Jamie laid a tray on the central table, before slumping down next to Bit. "Derek was right. The other teams have devised set ups and tactics to counter our every move, despite our teams chaotic nature."
Doc Toros, looking serious for once, sat between Leena and Jamie. "I think team," he started. "That we have face the fact that we are no longer the best around."
The whole team felt down. The string of loses hurt not only their pride. The Blitz Team was still badly in debt, despite all the prize money from the Royal Cup and their two wins in Class S.
Bit slouched in his seat, thinking back over the last few weeks. Suddenly a phrase leapt up from the depths of his memory and demanded attention.
'…a few got in by their battle record, or were recruited by winners from past rival teams, within limits...' Derek had said that, after their battle. The others were surprised when Bit suddenly shot up and raced to the central computer. He quickly began to punch in commands, looking for a certain section of rules.
"Bit, what you doing?" Leena asked.
"Remember what Derek said, about not all the members of a Class S team were in fact Royal Cup champions?" The others nodded, not getting what Bit was driving at.
"Ah, here it is." Bit crowed triumphantly as his efforts paid off and the required data was streamed to his screen. Quickly he re-directed it to the main screen on the wall so the whole team could see it. He turned back to the others.
"Derek stated that quite a few Class S teams recruit additional pilots from their old rivals." Bit now pointed to the paragraph of the rules that covered new teammate acquisition.
"You said we're not the best team around any more Doc. I suggest an alternate version: We are currently not the best anymore." While Leena's eyes boggled, Bit watched as realisation dawned on Jamie's face and Brad sat back, a slight smile crossing his face.
"I follow you Bit. You're saying that if we can get some extra team members, we will once again be the best."
"That's it!"
"Brilliant Bit!" Steve exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement. His eyes were already dancing at the thought of having a larger team.
"But it would mean we wouldn't get as much money to ourselves…" Brad pointed out. Trust Brad to watch the money angle.
"Better a smaller bite of the cookie, than a bigger bite of nothing." Bit countered. Leena smirked at his turn of a well-known phrase. "Besides, we'll still be getting more than we did last year." Brad raised an eyebrow before nodding.
"Good point Bit."
"So…" Jamie put in. "…Who are we going to look for? Did you have anyone in mind?"
Bit grinned at Brad. "Oh, I can think of two right off the top of my head…"
DR: Three guesses as to who those two pilots are (grins).