DR: I'm back, with part two of this climatic fight!
O'neill: Well then, lets get on with it!
Chapter 26: Battle Royal
"SCATTER!" Bit yelled as both Backdraft pilots fired. The particle beam missed them all, only to strike the Hover Cargo behind them. Luckily, Steve had raised his shield in time, and the ravaging energies of the cannon were held at bay by the glowing shell.
Unfortunately, the Dark Spiner's weapon didn't fire a single beam, but unleashed a broad wave front that filled the canyon. It flashed out almost instantly, sweeping across all the zoids before it. As the wave washed over each zoid they were struck by a powerful electromagnetic charge, sending them all convulsing. Their nerves and systems fired uncontrollably, tiny crackling lightning bolt running all over them.
#Not AGAIN!# The Liger Zero roared out, struggling to cope with the sudden surge. The others roared out in pain in sympathy.
Albane smiled as the Dark Spiner reset its main weapon, watching the Blitz and Raider teams zoids stagger about. The wave had crippled them, at least for the moment. With their systems scrabbled, they would be easy pickings.
"Cybrid units, engage!" Slater bellowed out, eager for blood.
The Cybrids all responded at once, their artificial voices cold and heartless. "Affirmative." Then together they opened fire, sending a hail storm of laser beams and cannon rounds into the teams. Vega, Derek, Cassandra, Stoller, Bit and Leena found themselves each under fire from a Cybrid. As they were buffeted around by the incoming fire, the rest of the team suddenly found themselves engaged by over a dozen smaller Cybrids. Small box like bodies with only five weapons, they still were dangerous foes.
High above, Jamie and Pierce looked down into the canyon in horror. They had dispatched the last Zabat in time to witness the energy wave that swept over the rest of the team, and now they could see the forces that their friends and family were facing.
"We have to help them!"
"How? The wind shear near the top of the canyon is picking up. We try to fly through that and we'll be the ones needing rescue."
Jamie slumped in his seat. Pierce was right: it was too dangerous for them to get close enough to affect the battle below. He opened his mouth to reply… but then someone replied for him.
"Aww, feeling left out are you? Well I've got the perfect solution for that…"
"Rico…" Pierce breath pure hate.
Both Blitz flyers watched as another aerial zoid came up towards them. But this was no Zabat, but a full Salamander, armed to the teeth and boosting massive armour. Over the comm Rico's smug face appeared, his blood red hair creating an evil halo around his head.
"Time for a little rematch Pierce…" He cackled cruelly before the comm switched off and a battery of guns along the leading edge of his zoids opened up.
"Break!" Jamie yelled as he put the Raynos into a zoom climb, while Pierce rolled away. They acted just in time to avoid the stream of cannon fire that filled the air where they had been. Rico turned after Pierce.
x x x x x x
Down in the canyon, the two teams were pulling themselves back together. Once the ringing was gone from its head, the Iguanosaur roared in outrage. Outrage that Leena felt wholeheartedly. "You'll pay for THAT!" She snarled, skipping the zoid to one side, evading the stream of fire from the Headhunter that dogged her. A bleeping on her central MFD drew her attention down to it, where she saw two words. Two words which filled Leena with a savage glee and caused an evil grin to split her face.
The Headhunter that was assigned to attack her tracked her movement, and was zeroing in to fire again. Since it was an artificial intelligence, the fact that the zoid had stopped moving and had brought all weapons to bear was deemed irreverent. That is until its sensors screamed out target lock warnings.
"TOTAL ASSAULT!" Leena yelled as she cut loose with nearly her whole arsenal. The kinetic force behind such an attack pushed the Headhunter back as its shields struggled, and ultimately failed, to hold back the punishment that she inflicted. A second volley of shock cannon shells smashed part the Cybrids armour, and over a dozen missiles punched trough before detonating within. The Cybrid went up in a huge fireball.
Brad smirked as he saw Leena make her kill, continuing to circle his foe. The Ramses Cybrids fire was coming nowhere close as his stealth coating prevented it from targeting him. The Cybrid was force to lead him manually, something that it was just not capable of doing. Brad suffered no such penalty, and his laser Vulcan was ripping the Cybrid apart.
Slater's eyes narrowed when he saw Leena blast the Headhunter away. Cursing, he kicked the Genosaurer into gear and advanced on her. "This time, you will lose Leena Toros!" He yelled.
"That's Leena Cloud Mister!" She yelled back as the two massive zoids charged each other, their secondary weapons stabbing out at each other. At the last second before impact Leena spun her zoid about, swinging the Iguanosaur's massive tail towards Slater. Slater hit his jump jets in response, and his zoid leapt over the tail. His lasers stabbed into her flank, causing the Iguanosaur to grunt in pain. In response she retaliated with her main guns, the massive Vulcans spitting a river of shells at him. Despite Slater's best efforts, he was still raked by them.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Leena screamed as she saw her rounds not strip off the Genosaurers armour, but detonate on a shield that surrounded the zoid! 'They not only put a Cybrid weapon on that thing, but they also gave him Cybrid shields! SHIT!'
Meanwhile Cassie used her jets to evade another bracket of laser fire, leaping high up into the air. She could see the Dark Spiner stand back for the moment, watching the battle and occasionally firing off a burst from its shoulder guns. As gravity gained a grip again on her zoid, she watched as the Spiner brought its fin upright again, charged up the shell, and then instead of firing a single wave, started sending out small blasts, aimed at her comrades. "Watch out! That other zoids throwing more waves out!"
Jane had just crushed her targets head in her zoids jaws when she heard Cassie's warning. Unfortunately it came too late as one of the bursts struck her zoid square on. Once more the Zaber Fang was sent convulsing as every circuit was overloaded. Jane cursed up a storm as the discharge burned her hands. As her zoid struggled to regain control, a trio of Ramses turned as one and fired a continuous barrage. The Zaber Fang, blackened and shot full of holes, collapsed with a heavy thud.
Naomi hung back, watching for an opening. After retreating back to the Hover Cargo and laying Janet in her crib, she had returned to the battle. After staking out a rocky outcrop, she began to fire into the Cybrids. Her hyper-velocity rounds punched through the shields around the Ramses units, but only skimmed off the Headhunters.
Bit cursed as the Liger was again forced to leap to avoid the incoming fire. The tight confines of the canyon were really hampering the Blitz and Raiders styles. There was just no room to manoeuvre! Pushing off against the rock wall, the Liger came down hard on a Ramses that was trying to box Leon on. The Cybrids shields had been close to collapse from Leon's laser fire, and they failed to stop the Liger. The Cybrid was driven to its knees, the upper body crushed.
"Thanks Bit." Leon called, wiping sweat from his brow. "I owe you one."
"Just looking out for my wife's brother." Bit grinned. "I'd never hear the end of it otherwise."
x x x x x x
In the skies above, Pierce and Jamie struggled to engage Rico's new Salamander. In addition to the Cybrid shields that it now sported, the huge zoid had clearly been tuned up since it was pulling off moves that it should not have been capable of. Several times both pilots had to break off to evade his return fire.
In his cockpit, Rico was enjoying himself tremendously. Neither Pierce nor Jamie had the firepower to punch through his shields alone, and both were clearly startled by his unexpected manoeuvrability. True he had yet to bring either of them down himself, but it was only a matter of time.
He fired off another burst towards the pair, who had formed up in an attempt to breach his shields. Pierce did the rolling crash dive that the Storm Sworder was famous for, while Jamie again went into a zoom climb. But that was what Rico had counted on, and the tail end of his burst tore into Jamie's zoid. It wasn't a clean kill at all, but it did remove the young upstarts' rear guns and damaged his engines.
As the Raynos turned away leaving a thin trail of smoke, Rico armed his missiles. "Time to end this." He muttered before squeezing off four missiles.
Jamie's head spun round when the missile warning began to wail. Behind him four contrails raced towards him. Acting on instinct, he rolled over and dove for the ground below. The missiles, like sharks after a bleeding fish, nosed over and followed.
Rico began to chuckle, but then a hail of impacts on his lower shield began to ring out. Pierce had pulled up and was lacing his belly with laser fire. With a sigh he nosed down to bring her into his sights, but stopped when he saw her zoids head. She had deployed her forehead laser blade! Realising her intent Rico pulled up again.
He almost made it. The weakened shield couldn't stop the fully charged laser blade, which proceeded to cut a thin line down the Salamanders belly. It flashed right through the belly mounted missile pod, the charge setting off the missiles. Their engines fired for about a half second before the warheads detonated. The explosion tore the pod apart, ripped into the Salamanders belly armour and gave the zoid a huge kick.
Crucially, it also blasted off the shield generator pod on the zoids belly, stripping it of protection there.
However, Rico was too enraged and too shaken up by the explosion to notice the indicator shutting off.
"Oh you bitch!" he snarled before yanking the Salamander around after Pierce.
x x x x x x
As Anna's Blade Liger struggled to throw off the effects of the Dark Spiner's electromagnetic weapon, Derek slammed his zoids tail into the Ramses that was aiming to finish her off. "Someone needs to get that new zoid!" He yelled into the comm.
"He's mine…" Cassie's voice was as cold as anyone, including Derek, had ever heard. "If someone could get this blasted Cybrid off me!"
Stoller looked across towards her blood red Genosaurer. She was pounding the Headhunter with everything she had, and it was clear that it had diverted its rear shields to reinforce the front one. Seeing his chance, Stoller took it. The Elephanders truck lashed out and grabbed a Ramses before throwing towards the Headhunter that was determined to take his head off. While that Cybrid was distracted, he turned his guns on Cassie's foe. His high power lasers sliced through the Cybrids unprotected back, cutting deep into its internals. Something critical was hit, and the entire back half of the machine exploded outwards, pitching it face down in the dirt.
"Thanks." She called, holding the comline open a little longer than necessary before she took off after the Dark Spiner.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Jacob yelled as his Dibison powered up its special attack. "MEGOLMAX!"
With a bright glare the seventeen cannons on the Dibison unleashed a yellow beam of pure energy. It arced over the battle towards a pair of Headhunters that were firing on Derek and Vega. Just before impact, the beam split apart in dozens of smaller beams that rained down on the two Cybrids. Flame and smoke filled the air and obscured the Headhunters.
When the smoke lifted, the two machines remained standing, but they had not gone unscathed. Their armour was tore apart and most of their weapons were in ruins. The one wavered on its feet, the others body sitting at an angle. Both Derek and Vega took the opportunity and finished them off with a volley of laser bolts each.
But beforeanyone could start celebrating however a Ramses snuck up behind Jacob and unleashed its full arsenal into his zoids rear. With both rear legs shorn off at the hip, the Dibison thudded into the dirt.
Bit cursed as he swiped the head off another Ramses with the Ligers strike laser claws. There were just so many of these smaller Cybrids, it was getting hard to move about! Even the best pilots, when there is no room to manoeuvre, suffer heavily when out-numbered. And over the heads of the Ramses that swarmed him, he could see Leena facing off with that Genosaurer.
Leena felt sweat run down her back as she duelled with Slater. With his new shield she was struggling to hurt him, while the mass of small Cybrids hemmed her in, preventing her from evading all his return fire. She had just managed to dodge an ELF attack, the man-made lightning bolt shooting past her zoids hip to flay a Ramses apart. Again and again her pulse lasers stabbed out only to strike the shield that protected his zoid.
Slater too was getting frustrated. With her weapons fit, Leena was able to keep up a constant barrage of fire on him and now his shields were nearing collapse. Worse, her zoid had a lot of mass and armour, allowing it to withstand greater punishment than any other zoid he knew. This was not how his vengeance should go!
On the edge of the battle, Albane smirked as he watched that fool Slater try to take down Leena alone. He had known all along that he would fail. Slater was an old dog, not what he used to be. Also his zoid was outclassed, despite the modifications that the Backdraft had made.
He had to admit, watching them in action, that the Ultimate X zoids were very powerful indeed. Each one embodied one aspect of warfare. The Liger was grace, speed and agility, the Fury raw power, and the Iguanosaur resilience and flexibility. He made a mental note to have all three zoids sampled after the battle. There was no doubt in his mind as to the eventual winner of this. The two teams were chewing through the smaller Cybrids, but they were slowly falling.
A flash of red caught his eye, and turning he found himself face to face with that red Genosaurer. Both zoids stood still, squaring off. The Genosaurers flanks were pock-marked with laser burns and impact points, but the eyes burned as bright as ever. Deep within his Dark Spiner's core, Albane felt a deep seated hatred of the other zoid. This surprised him, since it was so rare for first generation zoids to feel such passion.
His comm board lit up, and the image of a young woman appeared. Her features were stern and her raven black hair was pulled back in a forbidding hairstyle. Despite the battle her Imperial Captain uniform was unruffled. But most impressive of all was her sea-green eyes, blazing with hatred.
"You know, I should arrest you and bring you to trial…" She said her voice cold. "…But why make a jury suffer the knowledge of what you've done, when I can carry on the sentence here and now?"
Albane raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "I don't believe we've met before now miss…" He was cut off by a volley of laser bolts that stabbed out from Cassie's back mounted lasers.
"You tortured and murdered an Imperial General, stole Imperial property, and murdered over three-dozen people, most of them trainees! Teenagers!" Her Genosaurer roared in sympathy with her, and the Blitz team looked in shock at her words.
"My, my, aren't you a tetchy one…" Albane smirked as their two zoids circled each other. Around the others continued to fight the Cybrids unnoticed. Cassie then charged in, her zoids jaws snapping shut bare inches from the Dark Spiner's shoulder, its shield the only thing that held her back. In reply Albane swung his tail around, clobbering Cassie on the shoulder. Not to be out done, she fired her lasers again at point blank range, while stabbing at him again with her forehead laser blade. With the Dark Spiners cockpit, alarms warned of the shields near failure.
Underneath his cool facade, Albane felt a tiny trickle of doubt.
x x x x x x
Jamie looked over his shoulder again, eyeing the missiles that had dogged him since their launch. The damage to the Raynos meant that he couldn't simply out run them, and with no cover nearby…
Suddenly he got a wild idea, worthy of Bit. He dived for the canyon, waiting until the last possible second before pulling up with all his strength. The Raynos shuddered as it brushed the region of intense wind shear, but it remained in the air and achieved the manoeuvre he required.
The missiles were capable of achieving the same stunt, but with their higher speed they required more space to do it. However space was something they ran out of.
Each one barrelled into the danger zone. The deadly high winds took a hold and tossed the missiles completely out of control. Tumbling wildly, they all were thrown dozens of meters before slamming into the rocky ground.
Jamie released the breath he had been holding when he saw the four explosions. Turning his eye back upwards, he saw the silver streak that was Pierce dancing around trying, and failing, to shake the dark monster that was Rico's Salamander. A frown crossed his young face as he kicked in as much power as he could.
"That's it. You're going down…"
x x x x x x
Back in the canyon things were going from bad to worse for Cassie. After her surprise charge which nearly smashed The Dark Spiner's defences, Albane had gotten the upper hand and was punishing her relentlessly. The Dark Spiner was that little more flexible and agile than the Genosaurer, and his shield was deflecting the bulk of her fire. His shoulder cannons raked her again and again, but they lacked the punch to really do harm.
Around the two of them the Cybrids were falling faster, as with each one that fell, the Blitz gained a little more freedom of movement. Only one Headhunter was left, and it was reeling from Strollers attack that threatened to break through its shield.
Cassie however was oblivious to the gains the teams were making around her. All her attention was focused on the Dark Spiner, piloted by the man who had killed General Boyd, murdered all those trainees… A red mist had deceased across her vision and she fought on impulse, no longer thinking.
Suddenly Albane swept his zoids tail at her legs, and the Genosaurer fell flat on its face. Cassie's head hit the forward controls hard enough for her to see stars, and the zoid had the wind knocked out of it. Looking up in a daze, she saw the Dark Spiner's sail pitch up till it pointed at her, the panels waving more violently once more.
"It's been fun, but now it's time for you to die. After all, I have to conquer the world, and restore my families name to its rightful place as Emperor of Zi…" Albane mocked her as the charge built up to full…
DR: Yes I know, another cliffe! Surely you all know by now that I always get them out of these situtations hale and hearty? XD Just two more chapters to go...
Shadow: And trust us, Albane, Rico and Slater will each get what they desvere...