DR: Now, the plot thickens... Zeke, hit the 'Disclaimer' button would you...?
Zeke: Dragon-Raptor does not own zoids or Earthseige 2. If he did, you'd be watching this on TV...
Chapter 10: Upgrades & Surprises
After Harry had left, the Blitz team had retired back inside. Jamie brewed an extra strong pot of coffee: it was going to be a long night.
"Half a million credits!" Doc crowed, his face like that of a kid in a candy store. "Think of all the great parts we could get…"
"Dad, Bit hasn't even won it yet!" Leena snapped. "Besides, it will go to clear our debts! We can't afford them anymore!"
"But, surely we could…" Steve was already flicking though a parts catalogue.
"Fine!" Leena spat. She quickly sat up and grabbed her father's shirt collar. She then proceeded to frog march him out of the room. The rest of the team heard the sound of a door being slammed after a minute, before she returned, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry about that. I think the idea of all that money has gone to his head."
"Its okay sis, he just needs a little time to calm down. Jamie, why don't you pull up data on the zoid Harry will be using?"
"Why, won't he use his Iron Kong?" Leena asked as Jamie began to punch commands into the system.
"Well, for one Liger Zero did just rip its arm off, and then demolished the hand rather well…" everyone chuckled. Bit and Liger had freed Leena by cutting the fingers away with the Laser Claws, using the same sort of precision that Bit had witnessed the first time he had met the Liger.
"Besides, I noticed that the Kong's rear armour and weapon mounts haven't been replaced yet after the Royal Cup." While Dr Layon's Whale King had taken the brunt of the charged particle explosion, enough had burned though to take a good chunk out of the back of Harry's zoid. It was the reason he had been in hospital so long, poisoned by the charged particles that had seeped through his zoids armour into the cockpit. Leon frowned, a half remembered fact about charged particles teasing his mind. Something about their effects on a persons brain...
"So I'm guessing he's using something else for his battles now." Leon looked over at Jamie. "Anything yet?"
Bit suddenly had a bad thought. "Say Leena, what about the terminal in Docs room? He could…"
Leena clearly got the same thought. She leapt up and dashed over to the wall near the central terminal. Tearing a cover plate off, she peered inside. "Jamie, which wire leads to Dads room?"
"The red one. I knew someday we might have too…" he was cut off by an electrical crackle as Leena ripped the wire from its connection. From down the hall, a cry of horror ran out.
"…Sever his personal connection." Jamie finished. He quickly minimised the search while he checked out another program. He breathed easily once the results came up.
"He had only just begun to surf. No visits to any online stores yet." The rest of the team heaved a sigh of relief.
"What if he tries one of the computers in another room?" Naomi asked.
"He can't." Leena smirked. "I took the chair out of his room when I threw him in, and stuck it under the handle on this side. Since his door opens outward, he's trapped."
The system bleeped, and Jamie brought up his search. "Harry's gone back to a Dark Horn."
"Show us, would you?"
Jamie quickly pressed a few keys. The small holo-projector in the corner lit up and displayed a miniature hologram of Harry's Dark Horn. The four-legged saurian zoid was just like Bit remembered it from the last battle Harry had used it. A Vulcan cannon similar to the ones Leena's Gunsniper carried was mounted on an arm projecting from the top of the zoids back to one side, while the other side had a pulse launcher. Slung under the body between the legs was a vector thrust pack.
"He hasn't changed the spec?" Bit asked incredulously.
"I doubt that." Leon said grimly. "Jamie, is the projector showing current data?"
Jamie typed in a few more commands. "No, that's the data from our last battle against it. God that was a long time ago… Harry submitted an update a couple of months ago."
"Must have had the work done will he was laid up…" Brad began, but he stopped when the Hologram wavered then resolved again.
The Dark Horn looked significantly different. While it retained the basic shape, a squat four-legged creature with a single nose horn and a frill of spines on the back of its triangular shaped head, the changes were obvious. Harry had added extra armour on the head, making it almost a solid block of metal. Only a charged particle gun could breach that amount of armour. The Ligers strike laser claws would only carve furrows in it.
The spines that projected from the head had been altered, while now the back carried two Vulcan cannons, one each side, and a centrally mounted dual pulse launcher. What was worse it appeared the mounting for the guns had been crafted to allow the whole arsenal to pivot round, giving the relatively sluggish zoid a much needed combat boost. The zoids front legs had been reinforced to handle the extra weight in the head.
Brad whistled. "No wonder he's working his way up Class B so quickly. Shows just what throwing a lot of money at a zoid can do to improve performance."
"What's with those spines? Any data on those?" Leon asked, slightly worried.
"According to records, they are the projectors for a type of energy shield. It's not a strong or as effective as the shield on a Shield Liger, and must be projected between the pylons, but it much easier to install. It appears Harry uses it to deflect incoming fire away from his zoids lesser armoured body." Jamie swung round to face the others. "The Ligers laser claws would just bounce off. Harry will lose some manoeuvrability with it up, but he can still fire through it."
The whole team turned to Bit. He had been silent ever since Harry's updated zoid had come up. A grim expression was on his face.
"Bit?" Leena asked, worried. She had rarely seen him this way before.
"Bit?"
Bit shook himself. "I'm going to work on the Liger." He stated as he turned towards the hanger. "If you want to help, feel free. But I'd suggest you wear old clothing." He stopped at the doorway. "Oh, Jamie? Could you bring down the portable terminal? I'm going to need to access the specs for the Ligers various armours." Then he disappeared though to the hanger.
The others looked at each other. "Is he going to do what I think he's going to do?" Leena asked.
"I'd guess we'd better go help him then." Leon answered, heading after the blond warrior. "If he is, he's going to need all the help he can get tonight."
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit worked his way over to the Ligers bay. When Steve had added a zoid bay to his home, he had had a standard pre-done unit installed. It was the average unit, consisting of one single large building, made from steel frames covered with sheet steel. It had space within for six medium sized zoids in bays, with just enough room for two more in the central area. That region was really to allow the zoids in the bays to get out via the massive doors at one end. The Blitz team home was at the other end.
Up till recently only four of those bays had been filled. Jamie's Raynos, Brad's Shadow Fox and Leena's Gunsniper took up one whole row. The Liger Zero stood opposite the Gunsniper, at the far end of the hanger. Stubby walls that only projected from the sides a half dozen meters divided each bay from the next. The arrangement allowed particularly large zoids to use two bays at once, though it really only worked with zoids that were squat but long, like the Gordos. Currently Naomi and Leon had brought both their zoids into the spare bays, with Naomi's red Gunsniper across from the Fox.
Bit removed his jacket and hung it on a peg he had added to the short wall in the bay. While the solid wall only came up about a quarter of the Ligers length, a set of motorised gantries projected out further. These were folded up against the rear wall when not in use, but could unfold to provide the solid framework needed to do almost any kind of work a zoid needed.
As Bit watched the gantries unfold and encircle the Liger, he heard footsteps behind him. "You really are going to do what we thought." Leena said in awe.
He looked behind him. Leena had changed from her yellow tank top and sky blue short skirt she wore most of the time to a pair of faded jeans and a loose T-shirt, with several stains on both. She always wore those when working on her zoid. Leon had removed his jacket, while Jamie hadn't bothered to change at all. He carried the remote terminal for the central computer under his arm.
"And what am I doing?" Bit asked a smiling forming on his lips.
Leon smiled back. "Harry said you could only use the white armour. He never said anything about modifying the armour."
"But with what?" Jamie questioned. "I don't see any great store of spare parts around…"
"Listen, you have to promise not to tell Doc about what I'm going to show you…" Bit asked. All three nodded. Bit's grin returned.
"Okay." He set off for the rear of the bar. "By the way, where are Brad and Naomi?"
"Naomi's not feeling too good again..." Leon answered.
"…So Brad had to help her first…" Leena finished. Jamie placed the terminal on one of the work desks as they reached the rear wall. Like the whole base, the bay's wall was not in perfect condition. Many of the sheet panels were discoloured, and a few didn't fit their space properly. Bit approached one such panel at ground level.
"Ah, I think I know now…" Leon's face creased into a smile.
"Know what?" Leena asked.
Bit fiddled behind one edge, before he began to pull the panel back. To Leena's and Jamie's surprise one half of the panel came away from the underlying frame easily, while the other half remained. Once the panel was fully folded back, Bit gestured them inside. As they passed though, they noticed the crudely added hinges on the inside of the panel. Leena noticed also that the way the hinges were attached that when closed one wouldn't be able to see the break in the metal unless you knew what you were looking for. 'Very clever…'
"Stop there." Bit said as he stepped though the rough doorway.
"Where are we?" Leena asked, shivering slightly. Her voice echoed slightly.
"My secret store." Bit stated as he flipped a switch by the door. Slowly, flickering strip lights came on, revealing the contents.
"Oh my."
A well-known fact about those pre-fabricated zoid hangers was that the designer had had a thing for sloping sidewalls. Since the interior bays were square, a large strip of wasted space had been created between the two walls. It did help a bit with insulation, and cut out noise, but mostly the space behind the bays was unused. Many teams with these hangers had turned this wasted space into storage rooms for parts and ammo, and that was what Bit had basically done.
The single vast floor space was almost covered in zoid parts, ranging from cannons to actuators. With the exception of a small amount of parts directly behind the Ligers bay, all the junk was covered in dust and dirt. Many larger parts were damaged in some way. Leena stared about her, startled at the amount. She had known that Bit often went off in his truck for a salvage run, but she had never thought he could collect so much…stuff. She couldn't even recognise some bits.
"Okay, I am now impressed." Leon said. He sounded it too.
"I was hoping to at some point get all of this cleaned up and make some money for myself for a change." Bit sighed.
"But, where did it all come from?" Leena spluttered.
Bit grinned. "Around." He waved his hand in the air.
"So you think there is something in here the Liger could use?" Jamie asked.
"Sure, but I never really got round to doing an inventory. Even I'm not sure what's in here."
"Well, no time like the present, is there?" Leon stated excitedly. His eyes were already dancing. His tone infected Bit and even Leena, who grinned back.
This was going to be fun.
X-X-X-X-X-X
The four of them quickly set up a system: Jamie stood in the main hanger, using the terminal to make a list of each piece of equipment that Bit, Leena & Leon brought out. With each entry Jamie also added a short description of the items condition. At first they concentrated on the parts Bit had already cleaned, but they soon were bringing out part that hadn't. Many looked like they had been sitting in the desert for years.
Brad dropped by every now and again, bringing fresh coffee for the others. He didn't stay long each time: Naomi was feeling terrible and needed him beside her. But he was keeping her apprised of the work.
After two hours, the floor of the hanger around the Liger was covered in small piles of zoid parts and weapons. They had left most of the ammo in the chamber, bringing just enough to be sure they could match up ammo to weapons. And all sorts of interesting things were emerging from the dark corners of the dump.
"Hey Jamie, get a load of this!" Bit called out as he backed out the doorway. Jamie watched as Bit carried the end of a large blade like metal object, but he couldn't place it until he saw the end Leon was carrying.
"Bit, do you know what you've got there?" He asked goggle-eyed.
"Nope. What?"
"That's an accelerator blade for a plasma cannon! And can even be used with a charged particle cannon like the Fury's!"
Bit grinned wide. "Cool! Too bad we don't have a plasma cannon, but it should make quite a sum!"
Brad walked up at that point, bringing a fresh tray. "So how's it going?" he asked coolly, an eyebrow rising as he saw what Bit and Leon were holding.
"All right, I guess." Bit lowered the blade down before wiping his forehead. "I think we've nearly got everything out."
"Good. Cause Na's been doing something herself."
"Oh? I don't see her down here…" Leena muttered as she dragged a looped mass of zoid fluid tubes though.
"She's still not feeling too good, but she did get me to help her to the desk." Brad placed the tray besides the remote terminal, before leaning back and crossing his arms. "She's been looking at the Ligers specs, and watching that list of yours. She says she's thinking about what you could do with the parts you have."
"That's great!" Bit cried. "I haven't even begun to think about what me and Liger could use. She got any ideas yet?"
Brad shrugged. "I don't think she'll put anything definite down till you've cleared out that junk heap." He straightened. "I best go. She's been rather cranky when I'm not there to comfort her." He walked off, back into the base.
"Man, she must be riding him hard…" Leon muttered before pausing, listening hard. Bit looked up, was about to speak, but then heard it too. A vehicle was approaching the base.
"What is it?" Leena asked as she stepped though, seeing the men standing still. Then she heard the approaching vehicle. She shuddered. "That had better not be Harry again!"
"I'll go see who it is." Leon volunteered before making his way towards the hanger doors. Working the personnel door, he quickly stepped outside. Outside the sound damped hanger, the noise was much clearer in the early evening air. It took Leon only a second to recognise the sound as that of a Gustav. Sure enough, the humped and segmented back of the ubiquitous transport zoid crested a ridge. Leon noted with interest that it wasn't pulling a cargo trailer.
'Who would be calling at a time like this?' He wondered as the Gustav rumbled closer. He watched as it approached the base and gently slowed to a stop a short distance away. He knew that he was clearly visible in front of the hanger. The external speaker crackled on.
"May we approach?" A soft female voice asked.
"You may." Leon called back. He was interested in that voice, wondering if the face matched the lovely sound that came from its mouth…
DR: Now who could that be... Find out next time!