DR: Bit later in the day than I intended, but anyway... Here we are people, the last part of this titanic battle!
Shadow: Less talk, more HERC smashing!
DR: Yes, onwards! I hope none of you have nervous hearts!
Chapter 26: To the Bitter End
Sarah watched as Vega fired the charged particle cannon at the most evil thing she had ever seen. The beam struck the things shield, and stopped. The shield was holding back the beam, though for how much longer, no one knew. The whole shield glowed, and a hole appeared to the rear of the machine. Quickly the hole spread; it was diverting power from the rear shield to the front to absorb the energy beam fired at it. It continued to return fire itself, laser beams stabbing back at the Fury.
Leena threw her zoid at the thing carrying the bomb, as she could see that Leon was not going to hold it off for long. Using the wreckage of another machine to gain altitude, her Gunsniper leapt into the air and came down on the bomb carrier like the raptors of ancient Earth. The momentum allowed her to punch though the weakened shields and strike the thing itself. The impact smashed the machines armour in and snapped a weapon clean off. The Gunsnipers legs were badly buckled, but it did cause the Headhunter to stumble. Of greater significance, the nuke itself was broken off and dropped to the ground.
Inside the shockproof casing, a timer started…
Leena pulled herself together inside her cockpit. Stemming the blood flowing from a gash in her forehead with one hand, she hailed Leon. "Hey, get him now will you?"
Leon's reply was broken by static, but she got enough of the message.
Leon dropped his blades and charged the machine as it turned back to him. His right laser blade slashed across its eye and tore the machine in two. As the Blade Liger landed from its leap, the machine toppled. Both halves exploded on contact, sending shrapnel flying. The Liger roared in triumph at stopping the machine.
Bit, seeing the bomb unit stopped, grinned as he turned towards Vega and the Fury. His grin faded as he saw that the thing was still resisting the charged particle beam, and was firing back. How could it do that? How could it maintain a shield and fire its weapons? What were these things?
Vega was getting worried. The Fury's power systems were being overloaded and he couldn't keep the beam going forever. Worse, this thing showed no signs of giving up. It continued to strike with its lasers, scoring deep gashes in the Fury's metal skin. In the back of his mind Vega could feel the Fury getting worried too…
Suddenly one beam slashed into the cannon itself. As the system failed, the Fury quickly shut off the weapon before it could overload, saving them both from total annihilation. Vega stared at the other, shocked at the sight before him. The thing was still advancing! There was some considerable scorching of its armour, but the single blazing eye stared back at him, pitiless hate within.
As he looked into that eye, Vega felt fear grip his heart. When he noticed the two weapons shaped like prongs charge up, that fear condensed into pure terror…
Bit was startled that the thing had taken everything Vega had thrown at it, and still stood! It was going to take more to stop that thing…
Suddenly twin bolts of yellow lightning leapt off the prong shaped weapons and landed on the Fury. The zoid convulsed as a massive electrostatic discharge played across its skin. Circuits fried, systems shorted, and the Fury bellowed as it was racked with pain it had never believed possible!
Sarah screamed as the lightning bolts flayed her son's zoid apart. Armour plating peeled back, allowing the bolts to dig deeper into the zoids vitals. Tiny crackling bolts crawled all over the zoid as it thrashed in the discharge.
Finally the discharges ceased, and the fury collapsed, blackened and charred. Minor tremors ran though the earth at the impact. The monster machine continued to advance, switching attention to the other zoids. Thin streams of smoke rose from the Fury as the Cerberus stalked past it, the many cannons and lasers on it already spitting fire.
Leon was the first to fall; a hail of cannon rounds ripped the forelegs of his Blade Liger apart in a shower of zoid parts. The Blade Liger dived nose first into the dirt, the impact slamming him into the consoles before him. Leon cried out in pain as he felt something in his arm give way under the stress.
The Raynos was next. Laser beams flashed around it, several striking it dead centre. The Wild Eagle managed to man handle the zoid away, but they were going down faster than he'd like. Pierce clung to him tightly as he wrestled with the barely responsive zoid. At last they were lined up with a stretch of sand. The Raynos belly flopped down, carving a long furrow behind it. Buried rocked scraped the underside as the Raynos slid to a stop. For a moment both pilots clung to each other, almost unable to believe that they had both got down without being hurt.
Bit felt cold terror build in his veins. What kind of a monster was this, which could bring down the most powerful zoid around with one single attack, after taking the zoids own? How could it place shots with such precision, at any range? The Cerberus switched attention to him, bringing the whole body around.
"It's unstoppable…" Bit breathed in terrified awe, as the Liger Zero took cover behind a convenient rock as cannon fire raked the air around them. Laser bolts punched deep holes into the rock, but did not burn right though.
#Nothings unstoppable# The Liger chided him.
"Then how?" In reply, the main screen displayed two words: 'Alpha Strike'. Bit looked at those words for a second, and then nodded. He felt his confidence return, and he gripped the controls tightly.
"All right partner lets try it!" He yelled as they leapt out of cover to confront the beast.
As the Liger began to charge up the attack, Bit stared into the oncoming machines eye. It stared back, a wellspring of hatred. Bit felt like he was staring into the face of the devil himself. For a second he doubted himself…
The Liger roared in defiance, and Bit's courage returned.
"ALPHA STRIKE!" He yelled as he hit the trigger.
The Cerberus's shield were still depleted from the attack by the Fury, so the small amount of charge was too weak to prevent the shock cannon shells striking the machines armour itself. The armour cracking shells did their job, weakening the armour to allow the following missiles to punch though. The micro-missiles tore into the machines heart, cutting a path deep into its vitals towards the reactor at its core.
As the LRMs pushed down into its heart, Bit looked into the things eye again.
"See you in hell!"
The next second he threw an arm in front of his eyes as the reactor blew. A blinding glare hid the detonation. When at last the glare faded, Bit looked again. All that was left of the horrendous war machine was a small crater, with a mushroom shaped cloud above it. The front surfaces of the Ligers armour were scorched black and blistered by the heat. Fragments of the machine rained down a wide area, testimony to the force of the explosion.
Bit was about to cheer in triumph, when Leon hailed him.
"Guys, we've got a problem here…" His voice filled with panic.
Turning round, Bit could see Leon standing by something, waving one arm, while the other hung loosely. Pushing Liger to run, he raced towards Leon. 'What now?'
"What kind of problem?"
"I found the nuke. Leena must have dislodged it when she gave the bomb carrier a flying kick." Leon explained. "I just got the cover off. It's running on a timer!" Not good!
"Shit! How long have we got?"
"Less than six minutes!"
"Anyway to disarm…?" Leena asked from within her Gunsniper.
"I wouldn't even try," Leon cautioned. "I don't have clue how this thing works…"
"Then we have to get it as far away as possible." Bit stated, turning the Liger towards the Hover Cargo.
"Bit, this is a nuclear weapon! It has a blast radius of at least a dozen miles! You'll never get it far enough away in time!"
"Is there anywhere we can dump it to minimise the damage?" Bit asked as he brought the Liger into the Hover Cargo. As the Liger settled onto the platform, he called for the Jaeger armour.
"If I'm reading this right, there's an abandoned mine fourteen miles north-west of here," Sarah called from the control room of the Hover Cargo, her voice shaking. The sudden realisation that the nuke could still go off overriding her fear for Vega for a few seconds. "Goes down at least three miles. If you can drop it down there, the surrounding rock should contain the blast and radiation."
"Well then, we'll have to try it." Bit stated firmly as the Ligers CAS completed.
"Bit, it's too dangerous…" Leena began to say.
"We've got no choice in the matter Leena."
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit pushed the Liger Zero Jaeger to go as fast as it. He knew time was not on their side.
The Liger carried the nuke in its jaws, delicately enough not to penetrate the casing, which might cause it to go off. Bit had set a timer running in the cockpit, synched with the bombs. The Liger was practically flying, every system pushed to the limit.
Another ZBC Hammer Kaiser paced him. It had arrived just before he had picked up the weapon. Once Doc had told them what was happening, the Hammer Kaiser had released its payload of a half dozen Spino Sappers and begun to follow the Liger, to provide a communication link.
The Sappers had set about putting down the hostile zoids that were crippled but not deactivated. Medical and Rescue crews were already on-route from Romeo City, but unless Bit got that bomb at the bottom of the mine, there would be no point in the medics getting there: They were all still within the blast radius.
"Bit, listen." Steve called from the Hover Cargo. "According to the records, you're going to have to get the bomb down the main shaft first. There's an old lift that will lower you the whole way. The mine was designed for Guysacks, so the Liger is not likely to fit.
"Once you're at the bottom of the shaft, there's a set of rail carts that run all the way to the bottom. The miners used them to travel quickly to and from the working face, and to haul the ore they dug up to the shaft. It's downhill all the way, so if you can get the weapon in one of those carts, and get it moving…"
"It should run all the way down by itself." Bit finished, glancing at the timer. Four minutes, fifty-two seconds.
"Bit Cloud!" The Hammer pilot butted in. "I once did a security tour for one of those mines. They use two types of carts: one is motorised, the other not. For this plan to work, you need to load the weapon into a non-motorised cart, and release the brake. Otherwise the cart may stop at the first level patch!"
"Got it!" Bit answered. "Come on Liger!"
The Liger, with its jaws full, didn't respond, but pushed itself even harder.
X-X-X-X-X-X
Sarah stood back from the Fury, watching in agony as the rescue crews tried to force open the cockpit canopy. The massive electrical discharge had fused several servos and joints. Smoke still rose from between the sections of the zoids armour, and the entire exterior of the zoid was blackened and blistered. There was no telling what had happened to Vega inside…
Leon stepped up besides her. Seeing her turmoil, he put his unhurt arm round her shoulders. Sarah leaned against him, drawing strength from his support. Vega had to be all right, he had to!
"Heads up, I think we've got it!" One of the crew yelled as the Fury's cockpit was slowly pried opened. A thick stream of smoke leaked out as the medics rushed forwards…
For several long seconds where Sarah's heart seemed to stop beating there was silence, and then a medic called out. "He's alive!"
Sarah's heart leapt. Her son lived! But as Vega was lifted to a stretcher, she cried out in horror. His hands were blackened and his clothing charred. He was lolling around unconscious in their arms as he was lowered to the stretcher.
Unable to contain the emotions anymore, she turned to Leon and cried into his shoulder. Leon, despite having one arm in a sling, did his best to wrap his arms round her. He tried to comfort her as he watched Vega be carried towards the paramedic Hammer Kaiser.
A young medic approached them. "I'm sorry sir, but you'll need to board the zoid too." He looked at Sarah. "He's your son?"
"Hers." Leon corrected him as he gently led Sarah towards the transport. As they approached, he saw Naomi, Brad and Stoller also being carried in stretchers into the transport. Leena was able to walk, and was being escorted within…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit fretted as the lift slowly descended. Doc had been right: the mine entrance had been too small for the Liger. But luckily the main shaft was only a short distance inside. The Liger had lowered the nuke to the ground, before nudging it to send it rolling forward. It had reached the far side of the lift cage where Bit waited. He had started the lift going as soon as the bomb rolled onto it.
Now the lift was lowering them into the dark mine. It was agonisingly slow, a painful crawl downwards. Bit kept looking at the timer, willing it to slow down or stop all together. The insistent beeping of the bomb was driving him insane! But the glowing green numbers continued to count down to Armageddon.
Two minutes, forty-nine seconds.
At last the lift reached the bottom of the shaft with a jolt. Bit quickly raced out to find the right cart to use amongst the dozens arrayed before him. After much frantic searching, he found the only cart that he needed on a spar track. A motorised cart was in the way.
Cursing, he threw the controls of the powered cart to get it out of the way, before running round to the rear of the free wheeling cart. Luckily the powered carts were electrical, and drew their power from power packs that lasted years if unused. It rolled along the track slowly, taking the other siding, the wheels squeaking and grinding as it did so. As he struggled to push the empty cart he needed, Bit realised that with the bomb in it, he'd never get the thing rolling!
At last he had the cart in position. Racing back to the lift, he took a hold of the bomb and began to roll it towards the cart.
One minute, twenty-six seconds.
Once by the cart, he took a long hard look at how he was going to get this thing in the cart. It was longer than he was tall, and was almost a full meter in diameter. Seeing his chance, Bit struggled to lift one end. God it was heavy! Once he got the end to shoulder height, he managed to get underneath it and push the bomb fully upright. Now resting on its end, he quickly glanced at the timer, breathing hard.
Fifty-eight seconds.
Luckily the cart had a low lip, so Bit only had to tip the bomb to fall into it. Bit held his breath as he pushed the bomb towards the cart. If it should go off… With a resounding clatter, the bomb fell in to the cart, rattling around till it lay diagonally across the carts bed. After several seconds without a boom Bit released his breath.
Forty-seven seconds.
Rushing back towards the powered unit he had moved before, Bit hit the controls again to set it in motion, this time towards the cart with the bomb. Once the cart was moving, he rushed back to the lift, hitting the switch as soon as he was inside. With a jerk, the lift began to rise…
Watching though the wire mesh, Bit saw the powered cart reach the bomb. The collision resounded like thunder in the cavern. At first the carts didn't more but then they both began to roll towards the depths of the mine. The last thing Bit saw as the lift cut off his view was the bomb cart beginning to run away from the power unit as it rolled down the slope…
X-X-X-X-X-X
In the medical transport, the Blitz team rested as it powered towards Romeo City. Sarah continued to sob into Leon's shoulder, while Steve, Pierce and Jamie sat just behind the pilots, listening to the distant ZBC hammerheads reports. The pilots had thrown all caution to the wind, and were pushing the transport zoid to the max.
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit tore out the mine entrance at full pelt. The Liger was already waiting for him, head down, canopy open. As Bit threw himself into the seat, the Liger was already breaking into a run. Dogging the canopy shut, Bit grabbed the comm system.
"It's on its way down!" He called to the hovering Hammer Kaiser. "Let's get out of here!"
#No shit!# The Liger bellowed as it engaged the ion boosters…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Down in the mine, the bomb continued to ride down the track. The cart had picked up speed, leaving the powered cart far behind. It tore down the tracks, passing though the points without slowing.
Eighteen… seventeen… sixteen… fifteen…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit felt his body being pushed back into the seat as Liger pushed for all his worth. They both had been told that while the mine should contain the bombs blast, it would still generate am electro-magnetic pulse that could cause significant damage to the Ligers systems. To tell the truth no one knew what would happen, since no one had ever set off a nuclear weapon on Zi before. All anyone knew was that being within the blast zone was suicide…
The ZBC transport was already clear, but the Liger was still within the danger zone…
X-X-X-X-X-X
The cart reached the final slope. Ahead lay the bottom of the mine. The cart rattled down at full tilt, screaming down the tracks.
The small wooden buffers at the end of the track shattered under the impact. The cart spun though the air, sending the bomb flying into the old work face. As it rebounded off the rock, a small rockslide was started, burying the bomb in rocks. The cart itself was smashed apart on impact with the work face.
Slowly the dust settled. A wheel of the cart continued to turn on its ankle, and from underneath the rocks the bombs timer could still be heard…
Nine…eight…seven…
X-X-X-X-X-X
The Liger flew along like a bat out of hell, pushing all its systems to the max…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Up in the medical zoid, everyone watched the timer that dominated all the screens.
"Three… two… one…" Steve breathed.
X-X-X-X-X-X
When the timer hit zero, the bomb uttered a triple bleep, before everything went white…
X-X-X-X-X-X
For dozens of miles around, people felt the detonation. Buildings shock, people stumbled and the ground heaved. Families clung together, dreading what could have caused such a tremor.
At the Blitz Base, the weakened building began to collapse as the ground bucked underneath it. The ZBC Spino Sappers staggered around, struggling to maintain their balance.
The ground above the mine bulged upwards, before sinking down again. A massive depression five miles wide was formed as the bomb vaporised several thousand tons of rock. The gases produced created a jet of flame that blew out the main shaft a hundred feet into the air.
The shock wave sent a ripple through the ground for another twelve miles. This moving wave of earth and rock tripped the Liger up, sending it flying though the air to land heavily on it's back. The EMP clamped down on the Liger, sending it convulsing…
Communications throughout Europa were cut off for several seconds as the EMP swept outwards, slowly dissipating.
X-X-X-X-X-X
Slowly the Liger came to. Groaning, it rolled upright. Every joint was stiff, and all its systems screeched in agony.
#Damn! I do not want to go through that again!# It roared, before turning its attention inward. #Bit?# It called in worry.
Slowly Bit penetrated the mist that clouded his brain. "Hey Liger… did we do it?" He groaned around the searing pain in his side.
#We did it Bit, we did it!# The Liger was relieved that Bit had survived too.
Bit sagged in relief. "Thank god…"
DR: Phew! At last that's over!
Zeke: And what a climax!
DR: You said it.
Shadow: But what did you do to me?
DR: Find out next time!