DR: Just taking a break from watching SG-1 seasons 1-7 non-stop to post this up...
O'neill: Damn straight.
DR: Okay, some hints from other stories are going to be included from here on, but they are minor points. I don't own any of them. The first one to guess the source right wins either one of Leena's cookies...
Leena: Hey!
DR: ... or a date with Hathor.
Carter: What? She's a Goa'uld!
DR: Well, I suppose we can fix those annoying personality traits…
Chapter 35: Into the Mists
The trip to the coordinates supplied in the anonymous message would take just over the whole night for them to reach. Everyone was on edge, worried about all the things that had been happening. Naomi and Steve manned the two gun turrets on the Hover Cargo, while Sarah watched over the systems. Everyone else sat in his or her zoids, all on edge. They stayed like that all night, unwilling to risk being caught in bed if they were attacked.
News of further attacks against lone or small groups of zoids continued to stream in. The area encompassing these attacks was growing larger with each new strike, and rarely were there any survivors. An advisory had been sent out to the effect that no one should travel unless it was needed. The Judge Super Satellite was now fully scanning the region, devoting all of its resources to locating the attackers.
News concerning Leena had come though, gripping the whole team with fear for her safety, though there was a note of hope. A search team had found furrows in the rocks above a cliff, consistent with those dug by the claws on a Gunsniper's feet. Metallic residue on the cliff, and an imprint in the sands at the foot of said cliff, suggested that a Gunsniper had taken a fall down the cliff during the sandstorm.
A set of faded tracks eventually led the team to a recent battle zone. Scattered wreckage, consistent with the new attackers, was found in two large clusters. The one set of wreckage suggested that the machine had been crushed, rather than blown apart.
There was also a circular patch of the valley floor where the rocks had been superheated and half melted. Four hardened pools of semi-molten metal marked the destruction of a set of machines. Chemical analysis suggested that these too had been the new attackers, not zoids.
But there were also the signs of zoids having been involved. A furrow carved though the last bend before the battle zone was clear evidence of a charged particle cannon. And the most worrying thing of all, the team found debris of a Gunsniper. While there was not enough to account for the whole zoid, the right foot with the shattered stub of the shin, fragments of armour, it clearly painted a picture of a crippled zoid.
As the Hover Cargo pushed on though the night, each and every person within struggled with his or her doubts and fears. The most affected by the discovery of Gunsniper parts was Bit himself. Sitting within the Liger he brooded, his thoughts dominated by Leena, and his relationship with her.
The core of Bits concern was that he wasn't sure he would be able to continue on without her. If she had been killed, then he had lost one of the bright sparks in his life. Brad and Naomi's union, even the love felt between Leon and Sarah, highlighted the areas of Bit's own life that he had yet to fill. There was an aching void in his heart, and he had hoped that Leena, fiery tempered, trigger-happy though she was, could have filled it.
It had been why he had been so firm about the team following any lead, even one as potentially dangerous as this one. Bit knew though if it were a trap, he would not rest till he held her in his arms again. And if those things had taken her life, then he knew that he would not rest until he stood atop the last, rusting hulk…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Early afternoon, and the Hover Cargo approached the coordinates sent to them. Sarah eased the transport forward, trying to look in every direction at once. Steve and Naomi swung the turrets about, examining each and every ledge, crack and ridge that they passed. The catapult was deployed and ready to unleash the Liger Zero. Everyone tensed up.
At last Sarah eased up, and the Hover Cargo settled down. They were sitting at the edge of a mountain chain known only as 'The Misty Mountains'. No one could remember their actual name. It was a curtain of high mountains, forming a shear wall that isolated a small corner of Europa from the rest of the continent. Thick mists clung to those peaks, and there were almost no valleys into them. Some brave but foolhardy explorers had tried to penetrate the chain, but only a few had returned, scared witless.
It was said that these mountains were the last place on Zi that was untamed by man. That wild, aggressive zoids wandered the rocky paths, preying on anything they could find. Filled with places that would drive mere mortal men insane…
Others had tried to explore the chain from the sea, but the thick mists extended out to sea, and the region was periodically blanketed by the intense electromagnetic storms that made sea travel quite difficult across Zi. Aerial reconnaissance was also a failure, as thick clouds that scrambled a zoids sensors drifted above the peaks. And only a fool would attempt to fly between those razor sharp peaks.
The area of land cut off by those mountains – large enough to contain all the greatest cities on the planet – was a virtual unknown. While there were rumours about people who came and went from that region, trading goods and moving out to start families, not one of them had ever talked about what was hidden behind that curtain.
For several seconds, nothing stirred. All eyes were turned outward, and the hearts of each Blitz Team member beat rapidly.
When contact did come, it scared the life out of half of them, simply because it so normal. Someone was hailing them. After a few seconds to calm herself down, Sarah reached out to acknowledge the call, her hand trembling.
The main screen displayed a simple text message. 'Audio only transmission'
"Hello Blitz Team." The voice that filtered over the speakers to the Blitz was soft, feminine. Slowly the team began to relax. "We were beginning to wonder if you'd ever show up."
Steve decided to answer for his team. "Sorry, but we had to take a few… precautions."
"Understandable, considering everything that's been going on lately."
"Now…" Bit butted in. "Where is Leena?"
"Patience, Mr Cloud." The voice turned icy cold. "You'll see her soon enough. I'm here to guide you though."
Brad was the first to get the point. "Wait, you don't mean… though the mountains?" Others in the Blitz Team drew in their breaths at the thought of entering those torturous paths.
"Of course. You'd never make your way through yourself." Bit suddenly caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked closer at a ledge part way up the cliff ahead of them.
"What is that?" Naomi breathed, as she too saw the shape gracefully leap down the cliff. All the others in the team sucked in their breaths at the display of grace and fluid motion that was going on ahead of them.
It was only when the zoid reached the ground just ahead of them that details began to be made out. The build was somewhere between a Zaber Fang and a Hellcat, but far more graceful and smooth than either. Curved armour panels covered the whole of the zoids body, and the joints were almost completely hidden. The head was similar to the Zaber's, only slimmer, and subtler, without the over large hanging fangs. The zoid was matt black on its armour, with a dark grey colouration for the underlying sections. The eyes glowed golden, and any weapons were concealed within the smooth body, which had not a single hard angle or edge anywhere on it.
Bit was sure that the light must have been playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn that on some of the sharper lines on the zoids head and body, he saw reddish highlights…
"You can stand down now. You won't be threatened with attack while within the mists." And with that parting message, the graceful feline zoid strode into the valley to the side, each limb moving with a grace that not even the Liger Zero could match.
Sarah quickly pulled herself out her shook, and taking the controls turned the Hover Cargo to follow…
X-X-X-X-X-X
The passage though the mists lasted several hours. As the thick tendrils closed in about them the team gathered in the control room, all seeking the same thing: close companionship. With thick, cloying mist wrapping all around them, the mood turned truly claustrophobic. For Pierce and Jamie, the effect was worse. Both were flyers, used to open space and freedom. This tight, winding passage with almost no visibility unnerved them both. They clung to each other, sharing reassurance from the others presence.
Steve spelled Sarah, following the other zoid. Its jet black body disappeared into the mists alarmingly easily, and quite often the other pilot would stop and wait for them to catch up. The Hover Cargos sensors were almost useless in the mists. They had to trust the other pilot completely.
At several points rock walls loomed out of the mist, close enough it seemed to touch. The first time, Steve instinctively began to slide away from the rocks…
"Don't do that. We have to follow a narrow track. There's a steep fall the other side." Their guide told them. Since them Steve had followed the directions precisely, even when the rocks seemed close enough to scrape off paint. Plants hanging from those rocks were brushed aside by the transport.
All the while, the swirling mists seemed to inspire the darkest fears in each person sat within the Hover Cargo. All their childhood fears returned to haunt them, and their hearts quailed. Naomi clung to Brad, burying her head in his shoulder. Fears over her child's safety haunted her, as did the worry that Brad would not stay with her forever. Sometimes she lay awake at night, afraid that his presence was only a fleeting thing. That she would have to face the daunting prospect of raising a child alone. He put both his arms round her, trying to comfort her while simultaneously fighting off his own fears. He had never told her, but the thought that the child she was carrying was his sent tingles down his spine. Could he be a good role model, or was he incapable of relating to a young, impressionable mind?
Sarah was pitched between her old memories of her first and only lover, and her doubts about her future. Would Leon really stay with her? Could she have a normal life with this man? Would Vega turn into the monster his father had been? All these doubts ran though her head.
Leon struggled to cope with doubts about Sarah. Was she really the good, honest person at heart that he thought she was, or was it all an act? He tried to concentrate on the good times they had spent together, but the doubts and worries continually pushed in…
After almost three hours, Bit was almost ready to snap. He had been plagued with thoughts and visions of Leena cavorting with Harry Champ, of her blowing his precious Liger Zero to pieces in one of her foul moods… but the most disturbing of all was the image of her lying dead within the ruined cockpit of her smashed Gunsniper. The only colour on the zoid, turned to stone in death, was her blood slowly leaking out…
Down in the hold though, both the Liger Zero and The Berserker Fury felt vastly different. Wisps of the mist leaked though to the hold, and both zoids recognised it. It was no natural mist, but a powerful creation designed to test the hearts and minds of any pilot who entered. A barrier placed to protect the last great and holy place. They had both spent the last restfully period of their long lives here. They were returning to their old home, after so long…
Bit was beginning to twitch when the mists began to clear. The visions faded as the Hover Cargo surged out of the clouds. Ahead of them the jet-black zoid stood in a relaxed pose on a raised up thrust of rock. Behind it was a wide-open plain, green and fertile.
"Welcome though Blitz Team." At last the other pilot opened a visual channel. The team gazed at the youthful face of a woman, with a slim chin and wide, liquid eyes. Her eyebrows were slightly slanted over those eyes, and she wore a pale grey body stocking underneath a black vest. Her upper arms were bare, revealing her pale, alabaster skin. The most stunning feature though was her hair, a bright, vibrant red. The Team stared, but only Steve recognised the significance. 'This woman's got the same hair as Leena and her mother…'
"You can crank that transport up to full speed now." The woman continued, and at last Bit was able to place the feature about her that was familiar, aside from her hair. Her eyes… they were just like the eyes of that man back at the ball before the season, so many weeks ago. Her eyes contained as much wisdom, compassion and age as his had done.
The feline zoid leapt with grace from its perch, the body and legs coiling fluidly on the landing, before leaping again towards the beginning of a paved road that led off across the plain. Lifting their eyes, the Blitz Team were momentarily dazzled by sunlight reflecting off polished metals and pale stone. Clearly a city was their final destination.
Steve quickly brought the Hover Cargo's engines to full power, and set off after their guide. They were all eager to put as much room between themselves and those mists as possible…
DR: Let the guessing begin... till next time!