Zeke: Has anyone seen Fiona? I've got to tell her the next chapter is up!
DR: I think I heard her upstairs in guest room 1...
Zeke: Great, thanks! (runs upstairs)
DR: ...But she wasn't alone...
Zeke: (upstairs) Fiona! I think... ekk!
Fiona: (upstairs) (screams)
Van: (upstairs) Zeke! Get out! (Zeke comes back down, bright red)
Raven: Pop in at a bad time? (evil grin)
Chapter 25: At Any Cost
The Blitz team pilots heard Sarah's scream, and each felt their hearts stop. A nuke! These people were determined to destroy them, even at the cost of their own lives!
Vega urged the Fury to push itself to the edge, and it responded in kind, tearing a Rev Raptors head clean off. Snarling it dived towards another, intending to give it the same treatment.
Leena had finally managed to evade her attackers long enough to unleash another barrage, which had placed one Rev Raptor sparking on the ground, but her armour was failing fast. The others were pounding away with their guns.
"I need help here!" She screeched.
Bit's heart leapt into his throat at her cry for help. "Hang on, I'm coming!" The Liger used another Raptor as a springboard to leap over the others and rush towards Leena. Beneath him, Leon used his leap as cover to race past all three remaining zoids, his side blades active and fully charged up. The Command Wolf fell, as did one of the Raptors, but the last managed to get out of the path of the blade. Leon spun round to assist Bit, but the last Raptor got in his way. The Command Wolf he had sliced the rear legs off was dragging itself around, the back mounted turret continuing to fire.
Naomi pumped another shot into the Dibisons weak spot, and this time it fell, out of the fight. Swinging around, she spotted Brad having trouble with a Raptor clinging to his back. The Shadow Fox was bucking around like a wild horse, but the Raptor clung on, it's jaws clamped round the Laser Vulcan's' barrels. She slapped a shot into its neck just below the jaw. With the brains cut off from the body, it fell off him like a rag doll.
"Thanks Na'." Brad called.
"Anytime lover…" she breathed huskily, her mind wandering off the battle for a second.
Jamie prepared to begin another strafing run, but a hail of canon rounds knocked him around, tearing the sticks out of his hands. Losing control, the Raynos plunged towards the ground at breakneck speed…
Pierce watched in horror as the Raynos dived nose first towards the rocky ground below. Impact at that speed would smash the zoid into garbage! Calling him, all she got was silence. But just as the Raynos hit the hundred-foot mark, it pulled up impossibly tightly and rocketed back skywards. It also threw a barrel roll into its climb, just for a laugh.
Flushed with relief, she hailed him again. "Jamie, don't do that again!"
"I beg your pardon!" The voice was Jamie's, but not Jamie's. So was the face that appeared in the comm window.
"Wild Eagle?" Pierce asked tentatively. She had never seen his video image before, and the difference between the two was striking. While Jamie had always looked unsure about everything, the Wild Eagle had nothing but overwhelming confidence in his eyes. His eyebrows seemed to have been angled downwards and his hair slicked back.
"That's right, Little Lady," He shot back. Pierce bristled at the 'Little Lady' comment, just like before. She was taller than him, for heavens sake! "Now, lets show these walking trash heaps how to fly!"
The Raynos plunged back towards the field, screaming in at a speed Jamie would never have used. Even before he levelled out, the Wild Eagle was firing his guns at the distant targets. His shots struck again and again on one of the units attacking Stoller, barely scratching the thing. As tracer filled the air ahead of him, he simply laughed and barrel rolled though it without a scratch.
Leena was losing armour fast. She knew that the Gunsniper could not take much more punishment. Suddenly a shining white knight smashed bodily into one of her attackers, tearing apart the raptors limbs. Bit's face popped up in a Comm window.
"Leena! Stoller needs fire support! We'll handle these guys!"
Leena turned and raced towards the Elephander, whose shield finally failed. Behind her the Liger Zero roared a challenge as it dived towards another Raptor.
Stoller bit his lip as weapons fire began to strike his zoids body. While nothing they were throwing at him was particularly powerful, the constant pounding would soon tear into his zoid. He was elated to see his weapons fire finally penetrate the machine he had targeted. The two separate pods on the side unit exploded in a mass of pyrotechnics, ripping them apart and blasting the weapons outside them clear. The machine staggered to the right, blown across by the multiple detonations. Flames billowed out of the broken stubs of the side compartments.
'Man, must have been loaded with missiles…' he had time to think, as if in reply the remaining three units all fired a volley of missiles back at him. His shield was still recharging, so Stoller braced the Elephander as best he could. The multiple detonations rocked his heavy zoid about, clouding his view of the unit he had damaged regaining its footing and began to move forwards again. Alarms began to whine within the cockpit as the Elephander took serious damage.
Naomi however saw it. "Oh no you don't…" She dropped her sights onto the machines knee and fired. The round jammed within the mechanisms, stopping the joint working. It stumbled, but then the machine seemed to compensate and started limping. Naomi unleashed a string of curses that she didn't know she knew.
Vega and the Fury smashed into the last Rev Raptor that faced them, mangling it under the Fury's weight. He turned to find the Command Wolf reeling from a barrage of micro-missiles fired by the Liger. Stunned, the Wolf had no chance to evade the Fury as it slammed into it. The Fury clamped its jaws down on the Wolfs neck, before shaking it about like a dog with a toy.
Brad charged right at the Command Wolf that had been dogging him. Weapons fire flashed all around them both, but neither could hit the other. Brads eye's narrowed as he leapt to the side, then again towards the Wolf. Being an ex-Command Wolf pilot himself, he knew their weaknesses all too well. The Wolf didn't react to his sudden change in course.
"Strike laser claw!" He yelled as the Foxes claws torn across the wolf's body just behind the shoulders. That blow should have taken it down, but as with this whole battle, the Wolf seemed to shrug it off. Brad settled the matter with his laser. He pumped shot after shot into its shoulders until the Wolf fell.
Naomi was lining up for another try at the damaged thing when a hail of laser blasts and cannons shells slammed into her zoid and tore apart the section of hanger she was standing on. As the Gunsniper fell, she caught a glimpse of the nightmarish thing, the one that had knocked her off her perch. 'Hope that's not the last thing I ever see…' Impact with the floor of the hanger took the Gunsniper out, and her world went black.
Pierce flung herself towards the last Dibison. It was filling the air around her with tracer, and was staying ahead of her sonic booms. Realising that it had to go down, she armed her small supply of precious missiles. Despite the tracer getting closer, she remained on target until she had a firm lock. She pulled the trigger four times rapidly as rounds began to chew into her Storm Sworder, sending shivers running up the controls.
From underneath each wing a pair of high-speed missiles dropped away and fired their rocket motors. Each missile screamed down at the Dibison, hitting one after the other on the same spot. The first three blew a hole in the armour for the fourth to get inside. Suddenly the Dibison disappeared in the centre of a titanic denotation. Its entire supply of shells had gone off. As the flames settled, the Dibison's blackened remains could be seen within them, the entire back blown apart. It slumped down in the newly formed crater as shrapnel from the detonation cascaded down around it.
Pierce didn't have time to celebrate though. The return fire had wrecked the lower engine, and the Storm Sworder was losing power fast. Worse, the controls were also unresponsive. The Storm Sworder was going down, a thick trail of smoke left in its wake. She had no choice but to eject and hope the zoid survived the crash. She yanked on the lever between her feet, and was suddenly snapped upright by the ejection seats automatic systems.
The Wild Eagle wasn't laughing now. The monster that had brought Naomi down had winged him with its lasers. He had never seen shooting like that! Although he had managed to evade the worst of the fire, every one of his weapons was ruined. With his guns wreaked, there was little he could do. Pierce ejecting caught his eye as he circled round. He wasn't too worried until he noticed that her chute didn't open after the seat had fallen away. After several more seconds, it was clear that her chute had failed! Raking his brains, the Wild Eagle got a sudden, crazy idea…
Bit cursed as he finished off the last of the Rev Raptors with the shock cannons. Steve was transmitting tactical data to everyone, and he had seen both icons representing Naomi and Pierce fade. Turning he raced back towards the hanger where the Elephander was staggering under the constant hail of fire.
Stoller was barely able to hold on. The Elephander was being torn apart by weapons fire, and his shield was completely offline. The cannon rounds were digging deeper into the zoid and the weapons were being knocked out one by one. As another barrage of missiles struck, he slipped into darkness. The Elephander wavered for a second before slumping over onto its side, sending a billowing cloud of dust into the air. Zoid fluid leaked out of the hundreds of tears in the armour. The unknown machines switched their targets, now that the zoid that blocked their path was down. Their formation began to open up, as yawning ahead of them was the entrance to the Blitz Hanger.
Steve watched the battle with a mixture of awe and dread. Awe because his team was wining against the odds. Dread because his team was being chewed up. Nearly all of them had taken heavy damage, with three completely out of action. And they had yet to put down any of those unknowns…
Leena was firing everything she had at the unknowns when she saw the Elephander collapse. Knowing that she'd be next, she willed her weapons to punch though. As if in answer to her prays, the thing she was pounding exploded violently, throwing chunks of itself dozens of meters. The legs make a few more steps, then collapsed, flames boiling out the top where the body had sat. She switched targets, even as a hailstorm of fire tracked towards her.
Leon pushed the Blade Liger forwards as fast as it could go, Brads Shadow Fox right besides him. They both threw laser blasts at the constructs as they closed with the base. Most of their shields were failing, but their armour withstood the blasts…
Pierce knew she was going to die. With her chute failed, she had at most twenty seconds until she hit the ground. At the speed she was doing, it would be instantly fatal. She closed her eyes and began to pray, one last time…
Suddenly she heard the roar of engines as the Raynos dived down besides her, edging past slowly. Amazed, she watched as the canopy was flung open. The slipstream ripped it clean off the zoids head, sending it fluttering into the air. 'Oh god, he's not going to do…'
The Raynos suddenly pulled up, the open cockpit moving underneath her. Pierce found herself falling into the Wild Eagles lap. The closing speed was enough to wind both of them, but fortunately slow enough to avoid any serious injuries. Her flight helmet absorbed the impact with the console just behind his left shoulder. As the zoid levelled off, she grabbed what she could to prevent herself being dragged out by the slipstream.
Gritting his teeth, the Wild Eagle slowed the Raynos down, so that the slipstream was not buffering them about as much. He set the autopilot to a gently curved descent, at the slowest speed the Raynos could handle. Once done, he let go of the controls to take a firm grip on the other flyer. Pierce also levered herself upright again, before looking down at the smaller man in admiration.
Leena was getting worried. She was clean out of missiles and her Vulcans were soon to follow. She kept her trigger held down, hoping for a miracle. Suddenly four missiles shot past her and slammed into her target, blasting apart the side units. Her rounds were now faced with a side that had no armour, and she quickly cut down the damaged unit.
"Thanks for the assist Bit." She flushed.
"Anytime."
Leon dived into the remaining two escort units, side blades fully charged and deployed. The remaining fully active unit got caught in the leg, the blade slicing right though. With one support cut, the machine couldn't maintain its balance and fell face first onto the ground, just yards from the downed Elephander.
The other escort was sliced apart at the point where the body joined the hips. The laser blade sliced clean though the turret ring and the machine fell to the ground in two parts, both bursting into flames.
Bard was pounding the last one when he was bracketed by fire. As the Fox shuddered, he remembered the other one, the walking nightmare. A cannon round pierced the Foxes eye and punched though the canopy. The concussion from its passage knocked Brad out. The effect was similar on the Fox: it collapsed onto the ground.
Vega watched as the Shadow Fox fell. Seeing how the remaining units were arranged, he knew what he had to do. "You guys stop that bomb!" He yelled into the mike. "I'll hold off Mr Ugly here!"
"Be careful Vega," Bit warned. "That thing's taken out two of us already. And it's barely scratched."
"I'll fix that…" Vega muttered, as he primed the charged particle cannon systems. He had hoped to never have to use the system again. The Fury warned him that it could only guarantee seventy percent power output. 'Should be enough. After all, full power was enough to destroy that judge satellite…'
Leena poured her remaining rounds into the bomb-carrying unit, the things shield absorbing the lot. "Shit!" She cursed as the Vulcans ran dry. "I'm out!" The barrels continued to spin, hammers clicking on empty chambers before she let go.
"Get out of here Sis!" Leon yelled as he charged the bomb unit. "There's nothing more you can do!"
"I'll leave when I decide to…" she yelled back, kicking her zoid into high gear and racing for the hanger entrance, clearly the bombers target.
Leon leapt at the last machine, but he bounced off the energy shield. The machine slowed, before its body turned to face him. Leon gaped as it stared back at him while walking across his line of sight. He kicked his shield just in time, as the thing unleashed every single weapon it had on him. Cannon rounds sent ripples though the shield, while laser beams shimmered and missiles detonated. The shields power level began to drop rapidly…
Leon got the Liger to step sideways, hoping to get between the bomber and its target. It tracked him the whole way, raining fire on him at point blank range. A pair of missiles from the closing Liger Zero struck its shield, but the thing took no notice as it continued to pour an unrelenting barrage into the Blade Liger. Leon felt sweat run down his back as his shield began to falter…
Vega brought the Fury to a halt directly in the path of the walking nightmare. As he turned to face it, laser beams flashed into him. Vega scowled as he engaged the charged particle cannon. The Fury straightened, its body held flat. The tail straightened as vents opened up along the top and bottom. A barrel emerged from the opened mouth as glowing sphere of energy formed. Fearing that the system couldn't handle a large charge, and worried about the damage that was mounting, he fired the beam as soon as he could…