DR: Here we go, round two comence! To make up for the shortish chapter last time, this ones a little longer. Okay, quite a bit longer.
Pierce: (storms in)WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PAST?
DR: Bit been shooting his mouth off again?
Zeke: (Shrugs)
Chapter 30: Round Two
"Let's go partner!" Bit yelled as the Liger sprinted forward. Jamie and Pierce kicked in their boosters and rocketed towards the heavens. Brad and Leena raced to keep up with Bit. Explosions from the Dibisons initial barraged tore up the ground behind them.
"Leena! You hit that Blade Liger! Brad, could you keep the Zaber Fang interested?"
"Sure thing." Brad drawled.
"What about you?" Leena asked.
"Me and Liger will handle the Genosaurer."
In the skies above, Jamie and Pierce flew wingtip to wingtip. "So, who we going for first?" she asked.
"Since Leena's targeting the Blade Liger, I'd guess the Dibison." Jamie told her. "But watch it: he's a good shot with those lasers."
Pierce shrugged. "I can take him, one pass. But you're going to have to keep him distracted…"
"Okay, get ready…" Jamie rolled over and dived for the battle below.
Brad watched how the Zaber Fang moved. As they closed on each other, both raked the ground around them with cannon fire. Both zoids danced out of the lines of fire. Brad smirked as he continued his charge. The range was closing faster than the Zaber Fang's systems could handle. Within the cockpit Jane was frowning, as the Fox got larger and larger in her displays. 'He knows my zoids larger and more powerful, why then is he closing the range?'
On the other side of the battlefield, Leena unleashed her arsenal at the Blade Liger. But instead of her normal saturation attack, she planed her firing to box in the Blade Liger. The Vulcans stitched a ling in the dirt, pulling the Liger up short. With the incoming missiles, the pilot raised the shield to withstand the blast.
But Leena had not only fired her normal complement of missiles. She had included the mortar rockets on the Gunsnipers back. These missiles fired in a high trajectory, which sent them over the top of the shield and down on the Ligers back. Explosions rocked the Liger, but it managed to remain standing. Crucially though was that the upper shield generator was damaged, rendering the shield useless. Leena forced the Liger to dance away from the ground being chewed up by her Vulcans, laughing wildly as she did so.
Bit and the Liger Zero dashed towards the Genosaurer. The saurian zoid was ambling forward, firing the pulsed laser cannons on its back. Liger Zero leapt back and forth to avoid the blasts, but kept on pushing forwards.
Jamie levelled out and began his run. Ahead was the broad side of the Gordos. Jamie had learned his lesson from their first battle; this time he was coming in from the side, where the AA guns couldn't track. With its powerful shield, he doubted he'd cause any real harm, but he only needed to distract the Dibison pilot while Pierce attacked…
Pierce rolled over and began her dive, arming her missiles as she did so. Jamie had warned them that the Raiders had an ECM unit on their Zaber, so she would have to get as close as possible before she fired her missiles…
Down in the Blade Ligers rear seat Derek's son, Nicholas, frowned as he watched the displays. The Blitz Teams Raynos had no chance at hurting their Gordos by itself. So why…
Suddenly it clicked. "Jacob, ignore that Raynos! There's a Storm Sworder coming in on your flank!"
"What? Shit…" Jacob swore as he swung the Dibisons head around.
Anna was beginning to sweat as she continued to dance the Blade Liger around to avoid the cannon fire from the Gunsniper. With her shield disabled, she would never survive another missile barrage. The only way to prevent a lock on was to keep moving. Ideally she would be closing with the Gunsniper, but Leena was using her guns to tear up the ground ahead of them whenever she tried to close…
Jane was also frowning. The Shadow Fox was still coming head on towards her. She was really beginning to regret not pushing for a pivot mount for her guns now, or arguing against removing the shoulder cannons from her zoid to equip the Genosaurer. Her cannons were fixed, while the Shadow Fox's laser Vulcan could pivot to any angle. She had managed to prevent him getting any good shots by flicking from side to side, but the range was closing fast…
'All right, if you want to go hand-to-hand, fine by me! I'm bigger and stronger!'
Jamie was still firing on the Gordos, but he had been watching the Dibison. When he saw its head flick towards Pierce, he banked and centred it firmly in his sights. Pulling the trigger, he watched as lightweight laser bolts stabbed into the zoid.
Bit watched as Derek brought the Genosaurers head up and the zoid seemed to crouch. Suddenly bright plumes blasted out the back of the lower legs, and the massive zoid rocketed into the air as it leaped. Derek was clearly planning on bringing the Genosaurer down on the Liger as it ran beneath him.
The Liger was having none of that, sidestepping so sharply that Bit felt like he had left his stomach behind. He also folding in the side blades as the Genosaurer slammed down besides them. Skidding to a stop, the Liger turned to face it.
Michael watched as the Raynos swung round to fire at the Dibison. As Jacob swung his zoids head back again, the Raynos began to bank the other way, which would take it across the Gordos tail…
'I'll get you this time…' He thought as he primed the rear guns.
Jamie realised almost too late that he'd be crossing the Gordos's tail. Reacting on instinct, he pulled back the controls, pulling the Raynos into a much tighter curve…
Pierce watched as the Raynos suddenly sharpened its turn to evade the Gordos's tail fire. As he swung back towards the Dibison, she saw the artillery zoid prepare to fire.
Suddenly the Raynos rolled though 180 degrees, before looping away from the ground zoid. Kicking in the boosters, the green flyer rocketed away far faster than the Dibison could track.
"Too slow!" Jamie's voice – the Wild Eagle – taunted.
Brad watched the Zaber Fang. 'Ordinary tactics would be for us to attempt to jump on top of the other…' He smirked again. 'But that's not what I'm planning on doing…' As the Zaber leapt, he tapped the Shadow Foxes boosters, sending the smaller zoid forward much faster. After a second, he disengaged them before priming his net launcher…
Bit watched coolly as the Genosaurer swung round to face him. Suddenly a fore claw shot out of the arm. It was still connected by a thick cord, disappearing into the Genosaurers arm. 'What the… I never expected that!' Luckily the Liger had fought Genosaurers before, and knew all their tricks. He simply made small backward hop before driving forward again. The Claw shot past the Liger, a clear miss. As the head Laser Blades begun to fold forward to form the buster slash attack, Bit noticed the cable being wound back in fast…
"Jacob, need a hand here…" Derek called as he willed the claw to rewind faster. The Liger was closing fast.
"Got my hands full here boss!"
Jane watched in shock as the Shadow Fox did not jump, but suddenly put on a sharp burst of speed. Her eyes widened as she realised what Brad was planning…
"Gotcha…" Brad stated with amusement as he fired the tail-mounted net-launcher. The net canister shot out, before blasting open and unfurling the net. The Zaber Fang had only got its forepaws on the ground when the net enveloped it. The electrical shock charge shot though the zoid, before it fell face first into the dirt.
Pierce spotted the Zaber Fang get caught in the net, and quickly acted. With the threat of an ECM gone, she primed her missiles. Once she got a lock, a quick double tap sent two high-speed missiles screaming down towards the Dibison…
"Oh hell no!" Jacob yelled as a siren screamed off in his cockpit, alerting him to the incoming missiles. He put the zoid into full forward motion, but it was too late. Both missiles hit hard into the Dibsions side. The concussion was enough to send the zoid sprawling, out of the battle.
Derek hit the jets again, jinking right and up. It played havoc with the claw recovery, but at least he dodged the Liger Zero.
Michael continued his stride forward, flicking control between both his side cannons. He was snapping shots at both the Shadow Fox and the Gunsniper, which was still keeping their Blade Liger out of the fight. But he had yet to hit either target.
Nicholas watched the displays intensely, trusting his mother to keep them mobile. "Michael, the Storm Sworders setting up for a strafing run, and the Fox is coming in!"
"Tell me something I don't know!" Michael yelled back as he powered up the shield.
Pierce watched the shield rise. As it did so, the speed of the zoid dramatically decreased. Like Harry, the Raiders drew power from the actuators to power the shield. With it up, the Gordos was slowed to a crawl. Flicking to her wing mounted guns, she opened fire just as Brad did so.
Leena unleashed another volley of missiles at the Blade Liger before pivoting towards the Gordos. Those near misses were getting too close.
"WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" She yelled, a shade of her trigger-happy personality appearing briefly.
The Gordos was rocked from three sides at once. Leena's heavy barrage won out in sheer pounding, but Brad and Pierces laser attacks cut deep. The Wild Eagle also made a head on run, his lasers probing for weaknesses.
Anna saw a chance and dived forward. With Leena distracted by attacking Michael, hopefully she could take her down now. But she had to close the range!
Derek would have helped out too, but he had the Liger Zero to worry about. So far neither zoid had connected with either pulse laser blasts or laser blades, but this duel took all their concentration and skill. He was amazed that the Liger seemed to know how to counter every move he could think of… 'Of course, how stupid of me!' If he hadn't been in the thick of the battle, he would have slapped his head in frustration. 'The Liger has faced a Genosaurer before, as well as both the evolutions above it…'
Pierce shot over the Gordos just as its shield failed. Her sonic boom rocked the heavy zoid as the Raynos whipped past, its own sonic boom adding to the motion. Brad continued to pound the much larger zoid with laser fire, probing for any weak points in the armour…
As she flew over the Gordos, Pierce spotted a charging blue shape. "Leena that Blade Ligers closing fast!" She called out.
"I know…" Leena's grin was positively evil. "I want them closer…"
Anna was getting worried. The Gunsniper still had not reacted to their approach. By now the pilot should be screaming for help and scattering fire wildly in her direction…
Suddenly the Gunsniper pivoted on one foot again, and Anna found herself staring down the multiple missile pods and cannon barrels.
"Oh hell…" She gasped.
"WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" Came Leena's roar over the comm as the Gunsniper belched fire and missiles. Explosions and dirt hid the Blade Liger from view. Soon the cloud dissipated to reveal the Blade Liger down and out.
"I got them…" Leena grinned smugly.
Brad's laser finally found a weak point in the Gordos's armour. After blasting off the weapons on his side, the armour peeled back from the damaged points. Some shots must have dug deep, because the Gordos stiffed, then flopped onto its belly.
Brad began to relax, but Jamie's warning cut across his head. "Brad, jump back!"
He did as Jamie – not the Wild Eagle, he noted – instructed just in time. A stream of plasma shot by where he had been just a second before. Glancing right, he saw the Genosaurer standing on a dune, back straight, tail vents open and jaws wide. Clearly the Raiders had also downgraded the charged particle cannon to a plasma cannon. For a second he wondered how the Liger Zero had been defeated, but then a flash of orange behind the next dune showed him that the Liger was not yet out.
Derek cursed as he saw his whole team down. The Blitz had really sharpened their skills! That Life or Death situation must have really fired them up. Or maybe the blossoming relationships had catalysed them to greater heights…
Whatever had happened, he was not going down without a fight. Spinning the Genosaurer around, he aimed at the oncoming Liger Zero. Cycling the systems, he prepared to fire the plasma cannon again…
Bit watched as the energy built up within the cannon barrel, before glancing at the Liger's main display. Grinning, he looked up again.
Leena watched as the seven blades on the Liger swung round, till they all pointed in the same direction, forwards. The entire Liger began to glow, as all seven blades charged up with energy.
Derek released the plasma stream, praying that it would work…
The beam flowed around the Liger, repelled by the charged nature of the laser blades. The Liger Zero charged in hard and fast, and the Genosaurer was unable to move until the plasma cannon systems were shut down.
"SEVEN BLADE ATTACK!" Bit yelled in triumph.
Aware of the placement of the cockpit, the Liger aimed at the Genosaurers right hip joint. The seven blades sliced though the other zoids armour like it was made of paper. Both the right arm and leg were sliced clean off in one fell swoop.
As the Liger landed from its leap and the blades folded back, behind it the Genosaurer collapsed onto its left side.
"The battle is over! The battle is over!" The Judge called out over the sound of the claxon. "The winner is… The Blitz Team!" Liger Zero replied with a resounding roar.
X-X-X-X-X-X
At the after battle meal, The Blitz got to meet the youngest member in the Raiders. "So your Derek's son!" Bit crowed as he looked over the young lad. Not much older than Vega, the youth had his father's eyes and hair, but the softer features of his mother.
"Yes, he's quite skilled too." Anna told them as she laid an arm across her son's shoulders.
"Skilled? Honey, the boys a master tactician..." The boy's head hung a little lower.
"Didn't do so good today…"
"Hey…" Derek squatted down besides him. Raising Nicholas's chin, he looked him straight in the eye. "We can't win them all. And the Blitz Team has vastly improved since our last fight." The last part was directed more towards the other team.
Bit grinned. "Thanks."
The gathered pilots spent most of that evening talking away, Derek once again providing a fountain of knowledge about Class S for the newly joined Blitz team pilots. Jamie and Nicholas were off in their own little world, talking tactics and strategy. Derek noticed that Pierce seemed to be watching Jamie more than she was listening to him and the others. 'Is it possible that she has feelings for him? Despite the age gap?' Then he remembered the other recent pairing within the Blitz Team that had rocked the world. 'If Leon Toros and Sarah Obscura can get together…' He reasoned, throwing a look at the two sat side-by-side as he did so. '…Then anything is possible.'
When their orders arrived, Anna chuckled with amusement at the amount of food on Naomi's plate. "I remember those day's. Constant hunger was a right pain." She shared a grin with Sarah Obscura.
"Frankly, I find it much better than the morning sickness." Naomi replied around her fork. "At least the food goes the way it should!" All three women laughed heartily, while their men all looked at each other, each sharing the same grin.
"Just pray you get a well behaved child like Leon was." Steve told them, to the suddenly bright red flush on Leon's face. "Me and my wife never had any trouble with him…"
"Dad!"
"…Unlike Leena." Steve carried on without appearing to hear his son. It was Leena's turn to flush bright red. "She was a right little terror…"
"Dad, stop it!" She yelled. Meekly, Steve quietened. The rest of the pilots laughed in good nature.
"So, how long before it is out of the question for Naomi to pilot again?" Brad asked quietly to Anna.
She shrugged. "I'd say, given that Naomi is a sniper rather than an assault pilot, three months tops. Course the Doctors will have the final say."
Now that Nicholas was stuffing his face with food, Jamie turned to Pierce. She had a down look on her face, like she was troubled by something. "What's wrong?" He asked in concern.
Pierce quickly shook away her dark look. "Nothing."
Jamie didn't buy it for one second, and his face showed it.
"Just a few dark memories, that's all." She relented. As Jamie continued to look at her, a shade of the Wild Eagle showed though. Clearly he didn't believe her.
Pierce found that she was unable to hold back anything from that young, honest face. "I'm not an only child." She sighed. "My parents split up, and I went with my mother. When I was about five she met a new man and remarried. Soon she ended up pregnant again. But…" Pierce's voice hitched. "She died in childbirth."
Jamie took her hand in sympathy. He could relate to her pain. His mother had died early in his life too.
"Afterwards, my step-father doted on his son and pretty much excluded me. We never liked each other in the first place, but we tolerated each other for my mothers' sake.
"After she died, I blamed him for her death. If he hadn't gotten her pregnant again, she wouldn't have died." Pierce shrugged. "As it turned out, he blamed me for her death, since if she hadn't had me before, she would have coped better with his child.
"My half brother had everything he could ask for, and turned into the most spoilt brat I have ever met. He could do no wrong; anything bad that happened around the house was my fault." Pierce's face clouded with anger.
"The little brat did most of the things he accused me of himself. He trashed his own toys so that his dad would buy him new ones! But if I wanted anything, it was always refused."
She sighed and her face relaxed. "His treatment of me was the main reason I left home so young, aged about twelve. But there was another reason." Pierce glanced at Sarah, happily leaning on Leon's shoulder as she listened to the general chatter. No one was taking any notice of her and Jamie.
"Before I left, I peeked into his 'special' drawer, the one he had forbidden me to open. It contained dozens of pictures of young women, some of them my age. On each was a little note, stating when he had slept with them."
Jamie felt shock run though his veins. What kind of a being was this man?
"He'd been playing with many young women from before he met my mother all the way up to that time. A couple of pictures had no notes on them. He was still working on those ones. One picture in particular stood out though. It was dated around the time my mother was seven months pregnant. The young woman in question was unremarkable, except she had dark blue hair."
Jamie's eyes shot open, and he stared at the blue-haired Sarah. "You mean…?"
Pierce simply nodded. "When I met her at the Backdraft, to say I was stunned would be an understatement. But imagine my shock when, as Vega grew, he turned out to be nothing like his father. I've kind of come to think of him as the brother I should have had.
"His antics are why I dropped my surname. I never wanted to be associated with that kind of scum again." She sighed deeply again. "Too bad I only found out too late that the Backdraft was full of men like him."
"Well, your free now. And I hope none of us are like that…" Jamie gently said.
Pierce looked into his wide, innocent eyes, a smile forming on her lips. "Not at all."
X-X-X-X-X-X
When the team returned to the Hover Cargo, Jamie found a message had been left for them. It was from the contractors who had been rebuilding their home base.
'Expect finishing touches complete within two days. Care to inspect our work?'
When the Blitz arrived in the valley, none of them knew what to expect. With the old base reduced to rubble, everything would be new and different.
Rounding the last bend, they saw that all the construction zoids were gone. Only the modified Hover Cargo and a couple of Gustavs remained.
However, the team's attention was solely on the new building that stood before them. Superficially it resembled the old base, the basic shape a filled in 'U'. However the whole structure was larger, and looked far better made than the old base had been. All the exterior walls except the flat end with the zoid hanger doors sloped back at a gentle angle, smoothly and without any flaws. The rows of windows along the side showed that the builders had put in two floors, with an extensive zoid hanger on the end. The hanger entrance was a bit below ground level.
The Head of the contractors was waiting for them at the zoid hanger entrance. "Welcome back Blitz Team." He called as they disembarked from the Hover Cargo.
"You managed to rebuild the base in such a short amount of time?" Steve asked as he shook the chiefs' hand.
"It's amazing what a little gratitude will accomplish."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this base is different from the agree plans…" Stoller asked, eyeing the new building.
"Yes, your right." The Chief shrugged. "Since the old building was destroyed, we decided it would be simpler and cheaper to simply demolish what was left and start again." He gestured to the open Hanger doors. "Care for a tour?"
They started in the zoid hanger. It was larger than the old unit in every way. Wider, taller, and long enough to fit twelve class four zoids easily. The Blitz Teams collection would fit in with plenty of room to spare. The whole hanger space was cleaner, less cluttered and a distinct improvement on the old hanger.
"The space behind each hanger bay is a storage area for the zoids spare parts, ammo and such like." As they approached the far end, the team could see that not only was there a door at ground level, but also a set of stairs rose up to a second floor entrance. There was also an elevator alongside.
"Since we are technically on the basement floor," The Chief told them. "We put in an access route straight from the living areas. The rest of this level is support, like the backup generator, computer core – we managed to salvage the old core and transfer all the data across to a new one by the way – water recycling and all the other things you'd generally not want to deal with."
Moving up, the team entered the central living area. It was a large, airy space, with a large sunken area edged with three soft couches, enough room for the whole team plus visitors. The main TV screen was set in the wall in the sunken region facing the central couch. Off to one side was an alcove with a large table and sixteen chairs, all carved wood. Behind that was the entranceway to the kitchen, an arched opening with a solid stone breakfast bar running across half of it. Five people could sit there with ease. Overhead a large skylight allowed the sun to filter though. Between the sunken section of floor and the kitchen was the broad hallway leading to the front entrance just visible at the end. Directly to the sides stairs led up to the second floor, and a third set was next to the main entrance, with two doors across the hall, behind the kitchen. A smaller corridor led off the main hall, with a door between it and the stairs. Just beyond the seating area was another door.
Leena was puzzled. "I though you put in two above ground floors?"
The Chief grinned in reply. "We did, but the central area of the upper floor is replaced with an open air garden."
"I take it all the bedrooms are upstairs?" Brad asked.
"Sure. They surround the garden." The chief grimaced. "I'm afraid we haven't quite finished the interior on either floor, but we're almost there."
The rest of the ground floor was well fitted. The kitchen was spacious and well appointed, with lots of workspace around the rim along with a central food preparation area in the middle, and plenty of cupboards. A large walk-in freezer was just behind the kitchen. The door just in front of the main stairs led to the central computer room, while the side corridor was access to a pair of simple rooms. One was small and square; the other was wrapped around the computer room. Neither these nor either of the two rooms across from the main stairs had been done up in anyway. "We thought you should be the ones to decide what to do with these ones, but if I was living here, I'd turn this one…" they were in the larger room. "Into a gym of some kind, and leave the others for other things."
"Thick you could get a pool in here?" Naomi asked, hope in her voice.
The contractor thought about it for a second. "A small one, sure. I would say place it in this area…" He pointed to the smaller region boarded by the computer room wall and the stairway.
The last door led to a toilet, so the whole team went upstairs to look over the second floor. Once again, the chief acted as tour guide.
"Each bedroom has an en-suite bathroom..." Leena grinned at the idea. "And we got ten rooms total. Tired to get them all the same size floor space wise, but those four at the ends are a bit bigger."
He led them into one of the rooms. It was clear that there was a lot of room in there, the en-suite bathroom taking up relatively little space. Each one had a sink, a toilet and a shower. A thin wall separated the shower cubicle from the toilet. Despite the small size at first glance, there was plenty of room for each part of the bathroom.
"We haven't finished all the en-suite units yet, so you want some other arrangement, or if any of you want partitioning of your rooms, tell us soon." The Chief warned them as he led them back out to the central garden. The skylight in the floor for the lounge below took up most of the floor, and had a raised edge and surrounded by a stone path. Raised beds along the walls, broken by three double doors to allow access, completed the design. It was clear that everything was not quite complete. There were still gaps between the stones of the paths, and the edging to the skylight needed sealing. No plants had been planted yet, and everywhere needed a coat of paint. But overall, it was clear how the place would look.
"We're also planning to add a retractable skylight above this garden." The Chief waved his hands towards the sky. "That way in summer you can have this place open to the sky, while in winter it can be sealed up against the cold." He turned to face the team. "So, what do you think?"
"It's… wonderful." Naomi breathed.
"Certainly far more than we're used to…" Leon echoed her statement.
"This isn't a home, it's a mansion…" Pierce was clearly stunned. "All this for us?"
"Yes." The Chief smiled warmly. "As I said before, this our way of saying 'thank you' for saving all our hides."
"Well, now we're in your debt." Steve clasped the chief's hand warmly. "You've given us a new home."
DR: There we are, the Blitz are home once more.
Fiona: That's so sweet... (sighs)
DR: See you all next time! and remember, I don't own Zoids (or Earthseige 2, or any other bits that will come up!)