Chapter 55: We Can't Hold!
Brad looked about the hanger where he had been directed to go, his eyes wide in shock. Every bay was taken by a damaged zoid, while medics tended to the pilots as they arrived. The zoids were torn up, holes punched through amour like Swiss cheese, whole limbs torn away. A number of zoids had been brought back by Gustavs, which raced back and forth from the wall, retrieving the fallen zoids from where they had landed.
While the human techs worked flat out reloading ammo and doing what they could, the main work of repairing the zoids fell to the organoids, each one fusing with a zoid in turn. It was amazing how the tiny zoids were able to completely repair their larger cousins in seconds, but Brad noticed that as each organoid fused again and again, the repairs took longer and longer to complete.
He watched as an organoid un-fused from a Gojulas, landing on its feet just before the titan. The tan organoid stood there for a few seconds, swaying on his feet, before falling flat onto his belly. A knot of men rushed forward before rolling the exhausted being onto a stretcher. Clearly the process of healing the zoids tired the organoids immensely.
Brad felt a rush of air behind him, and he turned to face the grey organoid that had fused with the Shadow Fox when he had arrived. The Organoid swayed on his feet, and his jaw hung low.
"Your zoid is ready to fight again…" Brad looked up at the Fox, his jaw dropping as he saw how the zoid was almost fully repaired. The only sighs of damage were a faint outline of the harm he had taken. "But I must warn you, I was unable to fully repair such a unique zoid. Even if I had been a full strength it would have been difficult. With so many damaged…" The Organoids growl faded, its shoulders slumped.
"I understand." Brad gently rested his hand on the small zoids shoulder. "I appreciate what you've done. I owe you one."
"Smash some of those Cybrids to junk for me then." Brad smiled grimly as he thought about the sheer numbers of Cybrids he had seen. He quickly scrambled up the gantries to reach the Fox's cockpit. Sliding into the familiar seat, he began to throw switches as he belted in. He knew that time was not on their side. Glancing at the displays, he saw that the areas of damage had been reduced to light, rather that the crippling they had been when he got to the hanger.
The Fox slipped out of the crowded hanger, before lopping back towards the gate. Glancing about, Brad grimaced at the sight of columns of smoking rising from the fires that burned within the city. The shield that had protected the city so far was on the verge of collapse, and the Cybrid flyers continued to hammer away at it. AA fire blasted dozens from the sky, their remains sprinkled over the city.
As the Fox rounded a bend, Brad was shocked to come face to face with Leena's huge zoid, slowly limping its way down the street. "Leena! You all right?" He could see how the right foreleg was chewed up, and the armour was rippled by damage.
"Yea, I'm okay, thanks to your lover." She called back, her face filled with exhaustion. "But watch out for the mini Cybrids. They'll try to climb up your zoids legs."
"What's next, the Death Stinger returns from the grave too?" Brad snarled in frustration. Leena was about to say something along the lines of not giving voice to bad idea, since they might come true, but she was interrupted by Pierce's scream. Both pilots and their zoids looked up. Pierces sliver zoid was clear to see, but it took a lightning flash to highlight Jamie's Raynos, as it began to plummet from the skies.
"No, not Jamie…" Leena's eyes were round in fear, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
Brad could only watch as the Raynos fell, his jaw clamped tight. Cursing in anger, he kicked the Fox back into high gear, planning to make every Cybrid pay for what they had done to that lad…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Pierce could only watch as Jamie's zoid fell, her jaw hanging open from her scream. It felt like her heart was falling with him, so much had the young man come to mean to her. She resisted the impulse to simply dive after him, to crash down with him so that they would be together again, in the next life. If there was one after death.
'No! After all we've been through, it can't end like this!' Pierce felt her tears fall from her chin, just like Jamie was falling. She recalled everything the two of them had done together, especially that kiss they had shared in Christian's mansion. At that point in time, Pierce had never felt more loved before in her life. Jamie was everything she wanted in a man, kind and gentle, but with a core of steel that kicked in when need. In the past it had only really showed when he had slipped into his 'Wild Eagle' alter ego, but over the last month the edges between the two personalities had blurred to the point that even she was sometimes unsure which one she was talking to.
She squeezed her eyes shut, not willing or able to watch his descent anymore. 'If only he could eject! I could have picked him up before the Cybrids got to him…' Suddenly she recalled the time he had saved her life, when the Cybrids had attacked the Blitz Base. Back then her chute had failed after ejecting, and the Wild Eagle had performed a miraculous mid-air catch. Even watching replays of the manoeuvre blew her away…
With a sudden surge of will, she rolled the Storm Sworder over and dived after the Raynos. "Jamie, bale out!" She yelled into the comm system.
Jamie at first didn't answer. She was about to call again when he answered. "I can't Pierce. The ejection…"
"Bale out manually damn you!" Pierce screamed at him, pushing the Storm Sworder to full power. The silver zoid began to catch the smaller green Raynos.
"But, my chutes in tatters!" Jamie looked closely at his displays. "Pierce, what are you doing?" A note of worry crept into his voice.
"Jamie, I'll catch you, trust me. If you ever trust me for one moment of your life, trust me now…"
Jamie was startled to hear those words coming from her. Pierce had spoken softly, as if she had been whispering into his ear. He looked at the small photo of her he had stuck to his console just before the battle, at her smiling face framed by her brilliantly neon sea-green hair. His eye's unfocused for a second as he recalled the feelings that had coursed through him when they had at last kissed. It had been better than anything he had ever imagined it would be, her lips on his…
"Alright Pierce…" He said quietly, before grabbing the photo and ramming it into a pocket. Hitting the emergency override for the escape hatch, he pushed himself out of the stricken zoid. As the slipstream snapped his body back, he prayed that Pierce knew what she was doing…
X-X-X-X-X-X
Bit was beginning to feel the pressure. The Cybrids continued to advance, and now the Liger was taking heavy damage. He could see, in the brief moments of respite he had, that all along the wall tracer and laser beams were being traded back and forth between the zoids of the City Guard and the Cybrid horde. What the Cybrids lacked in general with power, they made up for in sheer amount. The plain was littered with the ruins of Cybrids, but the army seemed limitless.
Another ringing impact threw the Liger sideways, causing Bit to strike his head on the canopy. Over the ringing in his head, Bit heard the Ligers low growl of pain. Looking at the main display, he could see that the Liger was reaching the point of total collapse.
As blood trickled into the corner of his eye, Bit turned to look at what had hit him. A monstrous Diablo stomped forward while smoke trickled from one of the missile pods, the body tilting down to aim at him…
Suddenly something struck the Diablo, knocking it reeling. A second shot slammed into the Cybrids frontal armour, the shield having been stripped away by an earlier barrage from Jacobs Dibison. As another round struck the machine, Bit looked to his left.
Standing on the gateway was, what at first glance appeared to be Brads old Command Wolf returned from the grave. The dark blue wolf fired its long-range rifle again and again, while a gun on the back of its neck spat a line of tracer. Slowly Bit was able to make out other details that showed that this wasn't a ghost. The pivot caps and other segments of the underlying body were a silver colour, with a splash of gold on the teeth.
A comm window popped up, showing Derek's face. "Get inside Bit! I can't keep this one occupied for long!" His teeth were gritted as he continued to fire rounds into the machine that was reassessing threat indexes, and was already tilting its body upwards to target the new zoid.
"Not so fast buster…" Brads growl accompanied the banshee wail of his laser Vulcan cutting loose, the highly focused laser pulses slicing deep into the Cybrid. Their combined fire tore the machine apart, its AI struggling to retarget quickly enough.
As the Cybrid broke apart, Brad signalled Bit. "Get your ass inside Bit. I'll cover for you."
"How the hell did you get your zoid fixed so quickly?" Bit gasped as the Liger Zero slowly got to its feet.
"The organoids are healing every zoid that comes in. But you had better get there fast. They're getting tired…" Brads voice trailed off as ahead he watched as Pierce's Storm Sworder dived after Jamie. "What the hell is she doing?"
X-X-X-X-X-X
Pierce watched as Jamie jumped free of his Raynos. Biting her lip in worry, she flew right for him. It was going to be touch and go, particularly at this speed…
Jamie flailed about as he fell, the Raynos pulling ahead. As he looked over his shoulder, he saw the Storm Sworder diving right at him, as if to impale him on that sharp beak. Looking forward again, he watched as the ground came up rapidly…
Pierce slowly opened the zoids jaws, least she rip the lower jaw off. The whistle of wind around her rose rapidly in volume as the jaw hinged down, and the zoid began to buck under her fingers. The Storm Sworder was not keen on flying like this, head first towards the ground at an insane speed. "I know you're alive, so please understand. That man means more to me than anything. Help me…" Pierce whispered, not into the comm, but the zoid in general. The last couple of days had opened her eyes to the truth about zoids, the fact that they really were alive, not collections of metal parts…
The Storm Sworder continued to fight her for a second, but then it seemed to calm down, the controls responsive once more. Smiling with hope, Pierce eased the jaw open a little more, before reaching out for the manual seat lever. She knew the timing had to be perfect if this was going to work…
When it seemed that Jamie was about to be knocked right off the zoids forehead, she slammed the seat down, letting go of the controls as her seat dropped 'down' into the full fury of the slipstream. As her hair was whipped around her in frenzy, Pierce peered out to see Jamie just before her and closing. Reaching out with her free arm, she pulled him into her embrace. Yanking back on the lever, she held on tightly to him as the chair rose back into the cockpit.
Even as it rose, she reached up to trigger the zoids jaw, before scrabbling for the controls. As the seat snapped back into place, she pulled back with all her strength, letting go of Jamie to use both hands.
Every bolt, joint and panel shrieked in protest as the Storm Sworder began to pull up from its death dive. Jamie added his hands to hers, pulling back on the controls with her. Below them the Raynos continued to fall to its doom, plummeting down to crash amidst a group of Cybrids. One wing carved right through a Bulldog, so fast and hard did it hit, and the ensuring detonation of the zoid threw several Diablos off their feet.
Even with both of them working together, the ground was still coming up fast. Pierce had one last gamble to try, and in a flash she flicked a hand away from the controls to hit the takeoff booster. The ion booster built into the main engine that ran the length of the Storm Sworders body was meant to assist in takeoff, and was not only very powerful, but the thrust was angled to blast partially downwards too.
The sudden blast of power kicked them both in the backsides, but the nose of the zoid began to rise. With a jet of fire burning out of the rear of the zoid, the Storm Sworder levelled off below treetop level, the wake of their passing flattening several Cybrids they passed. The takeoff engine cut out, but it had done its job. Together they banked away from the battlefield, relief coursing through their veins.
Jamie slowly let go of the controls to gently stroke the back of her hands, before turning his head to look up at her. "Thank you. I though I was a goner…" Pierce was too full of emotion to speak, so she answered him the only way she could. Tipping her head down, she kissed him.
As they both drank of each other, Jamie slowly turned himself around, allowing him to bring a hand around the back of her head to pull her closer to him. She too brought a hand back to hug him tightly as the zoid flew higher and further away…
X-X-X-X-X-X
The gathered team members around the gate witnessed the destruction of the Raynos, and each of them felt something in their hearts die. They had been too far away to see Pierce's daring rescue, and in fact most of them had expected her to continue the dive, following Jamie into death.
"At least he took a few with him…" Cassandra commented dryly. Since she didn't know any of them, the pain she felt was only that of a lost comrade.
"He shouldn't have died at all!" Vega snarled, the Fury backing up his statement with a bellow of rage. Jamie had been a great friend, always courteous and quiet. Vega had gone to him for help when he couldn't go to Bit, and the two of them had more in common than their ages. The Fury used its rage to fuel another blast from the charged particle cannon, the beam burning right through a Diablo before a Bulldogs shields held it back. Jacob fired the last of his shells into the machine, and with the shields down his shells punched through and blasted the machine to scrap.
Steve, manning one of the Hover Cargos turrets, felt hollow. He had felt like this once before, when his wife had died. 'How am I going to tell Oscar?'
Michael sheared off a Cybrids leg, before he noticed something. "Hey, where is she going?" He hailed the Storm Sworder that was leaving the battle. "Pierce, where the…" The sight in his comm window caused his words to falter, and he gaped in shock.
"What? What is it?" Brad asked, anger and concern in his voice.
Nicholas, sitting in the rear seat of the Raiders Blade Liger, grinned as he pulled up the comm message that Michael was seeing. Just before the battle, the two teams had synced their comm channels to allow him to advise them all. As such he had overheard the conversation between the two pilots, though he had been too busy to inform the others about them.
Michael tried to speak, but no words emerged from his mouth. 'How on Zi did she…?'
At last Jamie and Pierce needed air, and they slowly parted. Looking up, Pierce saw both the stunned look of shock on Michaels face, and the wide grin on Nicholas's. With a sweet smile, she killed the visual link between the zoids.
"It's okay guys." She called on the team's frequency. "The Wild Eagle is safe." She looked down at Jamie with pure love in her eyes. His smile back was formed along the same lines as the Wild Eagles had been, but without a trace of the cocky attitude that he had possessed.
"What does that mean Pierce?" Stroller's eyes narrowed.
"It means he's right here with me."
Brads jaw fell down to his ankles at those words. "You… you rescued him from the Raynos?" He stammered, unable to believe it.
"She sure did." Jamie called out, his eyes never leaving Pierce's face.
At the sound of his voice, the Blitz felt reinvigorated. Steve loosed a cry of joy, while Vega grinned with relief.
As she flicked off the comm, Pierce loosened the seat restraints. "Jamie, as much as I wish we don't have too…"
"…We have to go back to the fight." He finished for her.
"Right." She replied as the last restraint was freed. "So we need to rearrange things here…"
Quickly Jamie turned so that he was facing the same way as she was again. As he fastened the last restraint into place, he lent back against her. "This is quite cosy…"
"Well I hope it's comfortable, because we're going in again." Pierce teased him as she threw the Storm Sworder around to return to the city. The brief respite had allowed both her and the zoid a chance to get their breaths back, and now both of them screamed in, their fire renewed…
X-X-X-X-X-X
As the City Guard was forced from the walls, the Cybrids seemed to become more reckless in their advance. They pushed forward harder than before, the barrels of their weapons so hot the rain evaporated before it struck.
The Death Saurer watched the cities defences crumble as his legions pushed onwards. 'Foolish humans!" He bellowed to the dragon zoid that refused to stay still. "Did you really think that you could stop my army?"
"By killing Helios, yes." Christian's reply was filled with defiance. "Without their master, Cybrids are nothing more than spare parts!"
"Well, since I'm their master now, you have to face me instead!" The Death Saurer lashed out with his claws, but Mnementh flitted out of his grasp. "Hold still, so I can grind your wings into dust!"
…I don't think so, murderer! Mnementh's mental challenge blasted back, in time with a volley of missiles that slammed into the Saurers jaw.
Roaring with pain, the Death Saurer snapped his jaws out, hoping to catch the blue dragon between his teeth. Although the fusion with Cybrid technology had granted the Death Saurer incredible regeneration powers, the system was being overwhelmed by the continuous assault by these ancient zoids and their allies. The old human piloted HERC was partially troublesome, its electron flux weapons carving deep into the Death Saurers ankles.
The troublesome dragon dodged the massive jaws, while the panther zoid raced up the Saurers tail, its claws digging deep. The Liger style zoid continued to charge at him, each run tearing a deep furrow in his armour. While the Genosaurer type zoid - a type patterned off himself - struck him again and again with its charged particle cannon. A weapon that had been his!
Reaching out, he could feel the presence of every zoid, organoid and ancient zoidian. But glaring bright in the city, giving scour to the cities defenders, was Zoid Eve herself! He could feel her power, power that belonged to him!
Bellowing in fury, he unleashed a massive salvo of 'Death Rain' missiles from the launchers in his tail…
X-X-X-X-X-X
The return of the Storm Sworder to the battle made a marked effect in the skies. The Land Skimmers had forgotten about the aerial zoid, and were caught flat-footed. In her first pass, Pierce cut down at least a dozen of the machines. The AA fire culled at least the same again as the Cybrids adjusted to the new threat.
Pierces performance was the only bright spot in the picture however. All the zoid bays were filled to overflowing with damaged zoids, many of which had to be ferried to the bays via Gustav. The organoids that serviced each bay were growing weaker and weaker, the continuous work taking its toll. And more damaged zoids kept coming in as the Cybrids hammered them relentlessly.
It was only around the gateway where the assault was held back. Just. The Blitz and Raiders teams were fighting beyond themselves, taking a huge toll on the Cybrid force.
Under covering fire from the others, Vega crashed into a Cerberus, the Fury's charge bearing the dreaded war machine to the ground. The teams had quickly learned that the HERCs were highly vulnerable while toppled, and would struggle to right themselves. It was the best time to destroy them.
Bellowing with power, the Fury stamped down on the Cybrid, taking care to ensure that the ELF's were taken out first. The anger driven blows crumpled the heavy armour of the Cybrid, crushing the limbs and smashing weapons. Vega had to jink away before he could finish the machine though, as another Bulldog pushed forward. The Fury roared out of frustration. This was happening far too often now!
"Never mind Fury, that one's not going to bother us again." The Fury calmed somewhat at Vega's observation, while a barrage of fire sent waves of energy and colour rippling through the Bulldogs heavy shielding.
Inside Vega sighed. There were just too many of them. While the Fury was able to draw upon vast reserves of strength – a gift from the organoid Shadow – none of the other zoids had that ability, and all of them were reaching the limit of their endurance. Even the powerful Elephander was running low, standing there almost listless.
The Bulldogs shields collapsed, but it returned fire, the massive cannon over its hips belching forth another bolt of super-heated plasma. The shot smashed into Michaels Gordos, flowing over the shields. As the plasma began to dissipate, a line of small explosions raced along the zoids back, centred on each of the plates. The shield that had protected the Gordos from the start collapsed.
"Shit! My shield generators burned out!" Michael screeched, panic clear in his voice.
"Fall back Michael!" Derek ordered from within the spare Command Wolf. "There's not much more you can do out here!" As if to underline the seriousness of the situation, a hailstorm of cannon rounds chewed at the Gordos armour, the multiple strikes rattling the heavy zoid.
As Michael began to back up, a broadcast message went out from the central command centre. "Attention all Guard units! Fall back within the wall! We can't hold them any longer! Fall back!" All along the wall zoids began to step back and climb down the inside of the wall, a few getting struck by hostile fire as they did so. Derek watched in horror as a Rev Raptors head vanished after a Cybrid particle beam struck it. "Blitz Team, Raiders Team, get inside the walls! The gates will be closed in thirty seconds! Anyone left outside will be left outside!"
"You heard him, back inside!" Vega yelled, turning the Fury around to charge towards the gateway. Michael was the first through, while Stroller backed in while he continued to blaze away. As Jane powered her Zaber Fang through, she called back on a general frequency.
"What about Christian and his people?"
"They're fully engaged with the Death Saurer. That's their job. Ours is to hold on as long as possible."
As Vega turned to look across the plain, he saw that a Bulldog was racing forward, trying to get in before the gates were closed. The remaining team members all turned their guns on the machine, causing it to trip up and fall flat onto its belly, all four legs torn apart. Side and rear ramps fell open, and the swarm of micro Cybrids tore out, pelting hell for leather towards the gateway.
"Oh no you don't…" Vega growled. The tiny Cybrids were too small to be targeted effectively, and too numerous to be taken out with conventional weapons. Fortunately, the Fury carried an unconventional weapon, the charged particle cannon. Switching the system to fire a plasma stream to conserve power, Vega brought the weapon to bear. As the beam fired, he swept it across the entire Scarab force. Nothing but scorched earth was left in its wake.
"Nice work." Derek commented.
"Yea, but I don't think…"
Vega was cut off when hundreds of missiles detonated at once across the plain. Vega looked up to see a massive explosion above the Death Saurers tail, nowhere near any of the zoids attacking it. Vega was puzzled. How on Zi did such an action help the Death Saurer? Suddenly the eagle zoid changed course violently, and as Vega watched the Apocalypse HERC was knocked about. '… It was hit by something…'
Vega engaged the long distance optics, and what he saw chilled his blood. A hail of giant metal spears rained down on the team, the razor edges punching right through their armour. 'Death Rain missiles…'
The zoids jinked and twisted, trying to evade the deadly spears, but there were just too many. They rained down thick and fast, pushing the ancient zoids to the limit of their skills. Mnementh was able to evade the raining spears, his boosters flaring with power as he jetted out from underneath the hail. Thunder, the huge triceratops zoid was too sluggish to evade the spears, but his armour was far too thick for them to penetrate.
But the others were not so fortunate. Vega watched in horror as he saw the eagle zoid crash down hard, several spears punched right through its wings. Shadow was hit in the leg, the spear punching right through to protrude from the inside. Zeke was struck mid back, pinning him down. The falling spears tripped up the graceful unicorn zoid, causing it to fall hard onto the ground, where another spear punched through the zoids silvery neck. The HERCs shield repelled the first few, but then one, then another broke through, the razor sharp tips punching deep within the armoured body. An internal detonation tore one of the side compartments apart as spears pinned the machine to the ground at an odd angle. And Panthro was knocked bodily from the Death Saurers back as a spear slammed into his hips.
Within seconds, the team of legendary zoids and pilots were crippled, leaving only two able to fight at full strength. Suddenly the Death Saurer swung about, the huge tail slamming into Thunder, sending the zoid flying into a nearby mountain slope. The impact was strong enough to crack the mountainside and start a landslide that proceeded to bury the zoid in hundreds of tons of rock.
Mnementh must have been shocked by the sudden nullification of his companions, since a swing from the Death Saurer slammed into him, sending the dragon zoid spinning through the air, crashing down in a thick forest close to where Thunder had been buried. As the Death Saurer began to advance on the city, Raven tried to fight back, firing his charged particle cannon at the monster. The Death Saurer reeled as the beam struck, but then kicked out, its massive foot catching Shadow under the jaw. The smaller zoid was thrown almost to the burning hulk of the Cybrid factory.
Vega, indeed everyone who witnessed the battle, was shocked and horrified at the result. Those zoids had been the best they had, every one of their pilots' heroes! And the Death Saurer had tossed them aside like toys.
As the monster advanced, Vega felt despair like he had never felt before. 'We're doomed. All hope is lost…'
"Vega, get your ass inside!" Brad yelled. Glancing back, Vega saw that the gates were almost closed. He was the last one outside. He looked again towards the towering monster, its head almost brushing the thick cloud cover, lightning flashing around it.
"There's nothing you can do for them." Derek gently told him, suppressed emotion thick beneath his words. "Get inside!"
With a heavy heart, Vega stepped back as the huge doors closed. As the massive gates slammed shut, they sent a thunderous ringing tone throughout the passageway. To Vega, it was like the tone of the bell that sounded his death.