DR: I know you've been waiting with baited breathe, but here it is, the last part of the battle!

O'Neill: So... the bad guys are going down now?

Teal'c: Indeed.

O'Neill: Excellent.

Chapter 27: Endgame

A flash of dark red zipped past the rear of the Dark Spiner, and suddenly the evil zoid twisted and fell. The discharge missed Cassie's prone zoid and blasted across the canyon to envelop a pair of Ramses. Both Cybrids froze, the electrical corona playing havoc with their systems. It was so intense that the weapons misfired and ammo cooked off. Both Cybrids were torn apart by internal explosions.

"WHAT!" Albane yelled as he righted his zoid. Turning his back to Cassie, he looked about for the zoid that had caused him to stumble. His jaw dropped as his eyes alighted on a Rev Raptor that stood defiantly before him. For a second he just stared, before he broke into laughter. "You dare challenge me, little one?"

"Size isn't everything you maggot!" Cassie was stunned to hear Miranda's voice snapping back at him before she jinked her zoid out the way of his cannon fire. During her time with the Raiders, Miranda had been forced to learn fast, and the one thing she knew that her zoid could do was dodge.

"Gah!" Albane snarled as the tiny zoid evaded his fire for the fifth time. "Stand still you little pest!"

From her position near the ground, Cassie was stunned at how Miranda was making her little zoid dance and jink about, constantly evading Albane's fire. It was clear even to her stunned and battered mind that the cadet had become a worthy pilot. Shaking her head to clear the ringing in her ears, Cassie began to urge her Genosaurer up.

Across the battlefield, Bit crushed a Cybrid that had snuck in close to Michael and had threatened to take his Gordos apart. Looking around, he was stunned to realise that they had almost won. Nearly everyone was still standing, and only a few Cybrids were still active. The only serious threats left were Slater and Albane.

His eyes were drawn to Leena, where she continued to duel with Slater. His shield had failed a few minutes ago, and now her fire was chipping away at his armour. But Slater was not done yet. With a roar of rage the Genosaurer leapt up onto her zoids thigh, the fore claws digging deep into the damaged armour. A powerful kick crushed the laser turret on that side, while the jaws clamped around one of the Vulcan barrels. Leena tried to buck him off, but Slater's zoid was too heavy.

"Someone give me a hand here!" She yelled into the comm, her voice cracking.

Bit tried to get there, but a Cybrid got in his way. Luckily, Anna was free and much closer. With a roar, her Liger leapt at the duo, laser blades deployed. She slammed into the Genosaurers hip, the impact knocking him clean off Leena, while a laser blade sliced off his pulse lasers. All three zoids tumbled for a second, but it was Slater that got up first.

"Oh you'll pay for that!" He snarled, before he unleashed the ELF. The discharge flayed into the Blade Liger, digging deep into the zoids body.

"NO! ANNA!" Derek cried in horror as he saw Slater lash out at his family. His rage and pain caused the Ramses he was fighting to be crushed flat by his zoid landing on its head, the legs telescoping into themselves as they tried and failed to take a weight they had never been designed to take.

Once the weapon had run out of charge, Slater brought the Genosaurers head down to peer into the cockpit. Within, he could see both people still alive and moving. Shrugging, he began to charge up the weapon again, this time aimed at the smaller zoids cockpit…

"Hey!" Leena's voice called out, and Slater looked up… straight into the barrel of the Iguanosaur's hybrid cannon. His blood ran cold at the sight of that weapon again.

"NOOO!" He screamed, diverting power to the charged particle cannon. But it was already too late as Leena fired. The beam lanced out to strike in the back of the Genosaurers mouth, right where the power conduits that fed the ELF diverged from the main gun. Her shot burned through the casing around the cables, shearing them all together. It then burned out the back of the zoids neck to strike the cliff behind him.

For a half second the Genosaurer remained like that, a hole burned right through the back of its head, threads of electricity dancing around the edge. Then the whole zoids head exploded outwards in a fireball, before a chain reaction of similar explosions ran down the zoids spine, culminating just above the zoids hips.

The headless Genosaurer thudded into the dirt, the ragged edges where the head used to be part molten. The entire spine was blown out, the armour blasted apart.

As Vega smashed another Cybrid into scrap, Bit walked the Liger over to stand besides the Iguanosarur, which now hung its head and rested on the ground. "Leena, you okay?" He called, anxious.

"I'm okay…" She breathed, pushed locks of sweat soaked hair back. "What about you?" Her words were not directed towards Bit, but to her zoid.

#I'll be fine. Just give me a few…#

#Take you time…# The Liger growled. #We can handle it from here#

Was it Bit's imagination, or was there affection in the Ligers words?

x x x x x x

Rico was loosing his cool now. Pierce was staying just ahead of his sights, and despite the loss of her partner she was refusing to give up. She was going to lose, surely she could see that!

Pierce for her part was gasping for air. She had tried every trick she knew of the throw Rico off her tail, but he had remained there like glue. Some of the wilder tricks she daren't risk, not since the last one where he had fired every weapon he had, filling the air around her with fire. She had been force to break off the manoeuvre, right back into his sights. Slowly he had been bringing his other weapons to bear, boxing her in. Soon there would be nowhere to dodge to…

Rico smiled triumphantly as he finally got her right where he wanted her. Stroking the triggers, he began to fill the air around her with laser bolts and tracer, hemming her in. He didn't care how much ammo he used to bring Pierce down, just as long as she fell from the skies.

"Goodbye Pierce." He told her as his finger closed on the last trigger.

Suddenly a hail of laser blasts cut into his unprotected belly, stabbing deep into the Salamanders body. With the shield gone and the armour torn away by the earlier explosion of the missile pod, the lasers power went right into the zoids internals.

Pierce was stunned when Rico's fire fell away, but she was even more surprised, not to mention relieved, when she saw the source of the blasts that were tearing into the giant behind her. Tears formed in her eyes as a smile split her face.

Jamie's Raynos rose out the hazy cloud below like a phoenix, his weapons blazing. Blackened chunks of zoid parts began to fall away from within the gaping hole in the Salamander, and the titan slowed almost to a stop.

Rico stared at the display in shock as the Salamander began to slide to the right, the systems dieing around him and gravity taking control. 'How? How is he still flying?' echoed through his mind as the Salamander began to fall.

Jamie jinked to one side as the other zoid began to tumble, spinning downwards in a cartwheel. He paid it no mind as he cruised on to fly alongside Pierce's Storm Sworder. "Hey."

"Hey." Pierce replied, her tone filled with relief. "Nice entrance."

"I'm sure he appreciated it." Jamie quipped as below a massive fireball marked the crash site of the Salamander.

x x x x x x

Down in the canyon, Albane was really beginning to lose it. The little Rev Raptor continued to evade the worst of his fire, and from his quick glance at his commands status screen, the others had almost finished off his Cybrid units. Even Slater was down, what seemed like half his zoid blown apart.

Snarling in frustration, he began to charge the electromagnetic wave weapon once more. Adjusting the settings, he set it to the broadest possible arc. It would only affect other zoids for a short time, but it would be enough.

Cassie hoped that her foe would not notice her zoid right now, since she was really not capable of mounting a serious defence. The tail swipe had damaged one of the ankle joints, preventing her zoid from getting upright. She was forced to drag herself towards him, keeping quiet. But when she saw the sail flip up again, she scrambled for the radio…

…Too late. Albane discharged the weapon, the wave filling the canyon once more. All the active zoids and Cybrids stumbled and staggered as if drunk, the low level EMP scrambling their senses. Miranda's Rev Raptor tripped as it lost coordination and fell hard. Miranda herself fell awkwardly, and something in her arm gave. Biting down on a scream of pain, she looked up to see the now battered and scarred Dark Spiner aiming both its shoulder cannons at her head. Clearly he was planning to take her out, permanently. But then she saw Cassie's Genosaurer almost directly under the zoid…

Cassie knew it was now or never, but what to do? The pulse lasers would not do enough damage, and the particle cannon would take too long to charge. Plus it would give her away before she could strike. Looking up at the lower jaw of the Dark Spiner, her eyes settled on the long laser blade that projected from her zoids head…

Albane smirked as he sighted in on the Rev Raptor, making sure to place the reticule over the cockpit. Once he finished this annoyance off, he could then deal with the rest. A few more EMP waves would shut them all down, allowing him to finish them off at his leisure.

A sudden bright glow from below was his only warning before Cassie made her move. With the Genosaurers head pitched up, she had got the zoids good foot beneath her. At her command, the laser blade had gone active and she had driven it upwards into the lower jaw of the Dark Spiner. Her move was only stopped when her zoids muzzle contacted the Dark Spiner's neck. She couldn't see it, but the end of the blade was sticking out of the top of the other zoids head.

Albane could only stare at the glowing metal thing that had come out of the cockpit floor just before him. There had been excruciating pain as it had struck him between the legs before driving deeper into his body. Now all he felt was cold. He coughed, and a trickle of blood ran down his chin.

"How could this happen? I was supposed to rule Zi. I was…" His voice faded away as darkness embraced him. Around him, the cockpit controls faded too, and the Dark Spiner went as limp as Albane himself was now.

Cassie felt the dead weight of the other zoid, and realised that she had taken him down. Twisting her own zoids head, she managed to get the Dark Spiner to slide off the end and crash down besides her. For a moment all was still, before the Genosaurer tipped its head back once more and bellowed a cry of victory to the sky. Behind it, Derek's Genosaurer echoed the cry, just before the Fury, Liger Zero and Elephander added their voices.

x x x x x x

Several hours later Bit sat watching the last of the Backdrafts personal being led into a ZBC Whale King. Off to one side stood Mnementh, his presence making even the hardest Backdraft people quake in their boots. All of them decided to go quietly, after the one who tried to run for it only for Mnemenths fore paw to land around him, the three huge claws penning him in

Leena sat besides Bit, leaning against his shoulder. Brad and Naomi had disappeared inside to be with Janet again, determined not to let her out of their sight ever. Off to one side Bit could see Leon and Sarah holding each other, Vega slightly to one side.

"I've got to hand it to you, that was some fine fighting form you showed in there." Bit turned his head the other way to look at Christian as he stepped over to the young couple. Trailing just over his shoulder Bit noticed the ZBC Commissioner himself.

"Thanks." Bit felt a wry grin form on his face. Having praise from the warrior from Earth itself who had lasted so many hundreds of years was indeed high praise! "We did what he had to do."

"Indeed. As did I."

"Huh?" Bit wondered just what Christian had meant by that until he saw Samantha trot over. She was dressed as before only she had on a black form fitted body armour suit and her hair was ruffled as if she had been wearing a hat. She stopped before Christian, a large data disk in her hands.

"You got it?" He asked, his eyes on the disk.

"Oh yes…" She answered, a twinkle in her eyes. "All of it. Their entire database."

"What are you talking about?" Bit asked, more than a little confused. Sam turned towards him as she handed the disk to Christian.

"When you guys attacked, I snuck into their base." She told Bit while Christian, having pulled a portable computer from inside his coat, was bringing up the data on the disk. "During the confusion, it was easy to make my way to their central computer core and download their entire database." She jerked her thumb towards the two men, who were talking in lower but excited tones over the data that came up. "The lists of all their contacts, every hidden site, the names and bank codes for everyone who supported the Backdraft, it's all there."

Bit's jaw dropped.

x x x x x x

Away from the others, Cassandra Cortez watched as the ruined Dark Spiner and Genosaurer were lifted into the belly of an Imperial Cargo Hammerhead that had flown in to retrieve them and her. Both zoids were totalled, and were going to require a lot of work before they could be used again, but at least she could report to the tech division that the Dark Spiner project was a partial success. They had had great plans for the zoid, but it took a live combat action to learn what really worked and what didn't. Still, the main system worked perfectly.

She looked across to the body bag that lay close to the boarding ramp. Contained within were the remains of the pilot of the Dark Spiner. She hadn't meant for him to be skewered on her laser blade, but she knew in her heart that he was simply too dangerous to leave alive, even in prison. No, better for everyone that he was dead and would be buried in an unnamed, unmarked grave, forgotten. A fitting end for someone like that.

"So, you're heading back to the Empire now?" Strollers voice made her turn to the other side towards him. He stood as ever tall and straight, his face betraying nothing. The only movement was some of his steel-grey locks tossed about in the wind.

"Yes. It is my home, at least for the moment." She had to admit, Europa did have some advantages over Nyx, the land of the Empire. Warmer climate, plenty of open space, and certainly less mountainous. Also the ease of moving about was a bonus. Within Nyx movement between the settlements was not common, a legacy of past Emperors who had been obsessed with national security and control. The current Emperor was trying to break down those barriers, but it was slow going.

And of course, there were the zoids battles. After sitting on the sidelines of many a match during the last few weeks, she had grown attached to them.

But there was something else… something she was not comfortable thinking about. "So, you think things will quieten down for you now the Backdrafts gone?"

Stoller shrugged. "Maybe, for a while, but the Blitz does seem to… attract things."

"Yeah, I noticed." For a long moment the two of them stood together, an uneasy silence between them.

"Will you be coming back?" Stoller asked suddenly, almost in a rush.

For a second Cassie felt herself short of breath. Did he really say that? "I don't know, maybe. Depends how things settle down back in the Empire." All of a sudden she noticed how close the two of them had become, barely a foot apart.

"Well…" Stoller said, his voice trailing off. For another long moment they stood together, looking into each others eyes. Cassie swore that something flash through his, before he stepped back. "I'll see you around then." He then turned and walked off briskly. Cassie didn't know why, but sudden she felt saddened about that.

"Nice one captain." Miranda commented as she stepped up besides Cassie. "You just wasted a perfect chance."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Miranda rolled her eyes. "You had the perfect chance to kiss him, and you blew it!"

"I… What? Why would I want to do that?" Cassie couldn't help the blush that spread across her face.

Miranda looked at her from under a raised eyebrow. "We've all seen it. The way you two act around each other. The way you talk about him…"

"Is there a reason you're here, cadet?" Cassie snapped, cutting the younger woman off before she could carry on. Her sharp question brought Miranda up short.

"Oh, I er… was wondering if you would allow me to stay with the Raiders." Miranda had the nerve to look sheepish. "I mean, I would like to stay with them, hone my skills…"

"Oh all right. It'd be worth it just to get you out of my hair." Cassie sighed. Technically she would have to check with her commanding officer, but since General Boyd and most of the other officers were dead, she was the de-facto commander of the training base. Not that there was much left to command since the Dark Spiner was stolen.

"Great!" Miranda cheered as she turned about and ran towards the Raider Hammerhead. Cassie watched her go before shaking her head as she stepped into the waiting Imperial transport.

'Was I ever that young?'

x x x x x x

High up on the upper balcony of the Hover Cargo, Pierce watched the clean up operation tiredly. The ZBC teams were slowly gathering up the ruins of turrets, zoids and Cybrids, all to be processed and reused. Most of the zoids would be repaired before being sold on to teams, while the Cybrids would be melted down to make spare parts.

Pierce smirked in amusement when she saw Altiel being carried into the Whale King that was transporting the prisoners. When Slater, that other guy and the Cybrids had attacked, Miranda had dropped him, without putting him down first. As a result he was suffering from several broken bones, including both legs and his spine. It was almost certain that he would never walk again, and he would need life support to survive. Slater was in worse shape. The chain reaction of the Genosaurers charged particle cannon exploding had exposed him to a massive dose of charged particles, causing extensive brain damage. While the small dose that Harry Champ had suffered had turned him more violent, in Slater's case almost all of his brain functions were ruined. From now on, he would be little more than a vegetable.

Rico's body had been recovered from what was left of the Salamander. It appeared that he had tried to eject, but the forces induced by the spin, as well as the power loss from Jamie's attack, had caused the ejection system to fail. There was not much left of the zoid, just a crumpled mess that was turning to stone. It looked like the head and neck had been bent back onto them selves and buried into the left wing. It was hard to tell with all the damage.

A gentle touch on her arm made her look down, to see young Jamie standing besides her. He too looked out at the ZBC's people scurrying around. "At last it's over." He sighed.

"Yes it is." She agreed, turning her head to look once more. She slid her arm round his shoulders, drawing him in closer. "I didn't get a chance to thank you earlier for getting Rico…"

"Well…" Jamie fidgeted "…Here's a way to do so that better than words." His voice was strange, as if he was struggling to control his emotions. Under her arm she felt him twist towards her, and realised that his right hand was before her.

She looked down, only to gasp in shock. Sitting in the middle of his outstretched palm was a small velvet box, and within it was a gleaming ring. The band of silver was thin and a weave of thin strands woven together to create an airy construct. Dead centre of the top was a gleaming turquoise jewel, with the silver strands wrapped around it, holding it in place.

Zeke: Did he just...?

Teal'c: It would appear so.

DR: Hope you're all satisfied with the fates of the evil four XD. And this nicely wraps up all the loose ends. Well, those on Zi anyway... (evil grin)

Shadow: So is there any more?

DR: One more chapter for this, and a few more for my BSG story. After that, it'll be time to work on the third part...