Battles always take up space :x extra long chapter this time!

Some Experience Necessary

1.11

Rosalita was a good pilot in the sense that she could make the KonigWolf run without tripping up and even coax it to jump when needed to – the massive sniper rifles though were a wince and a half. They bobbed up and down even in their folded position, and now and then the weird neck armour that Raven could see no use for jumped with it.

His Fang was slower of course, and definitely didn't have the reach, but the radar pinged faithfully with the ground that was ground and the ground that was actually a hole. There were ways out if you fell down one of them, or at least the instructors said there was. Raven was never sure about some of the people who taught him, so opted for the safer idea of avoiding the holes altogether.

The expanse of land looked like gentle rolling dunes that spread out to the horizon but was anything but. It had been discovered completely by accident and later used and monitored for training for subterranean training and zoid agility tests seeing as the natural ecology there was happy to cover up the holes again with loosely packed sand for the next hapless zoid to sink into. Nothing lived here, not even the desert grass or the tiniest beetle, and that was where the problem of the field came to a head. It was creepy. More than creepy, it was downright terrifying. He'd been through here several times on various training missions, but the booming sound of sand slipping into the dark was always a shock and he was waiting for it, feeling the sweat go down his back.

He knew they were standing on the rims of rock that lay beneath the surface of the desert, but he'd seen what the undersides of them looked like too. There was a rumour that there was a city down there somewhere, but Raven had never tried to find out even in his most rebellious phases. The first time he'd gone into such a place was when the Eisen Dragoons had picked him up several miles out from the Maha settlement, back when his – when something bad happened. When there was a lot of people he didn't know, and they were looking for something important. The memories surfaced for a moment, but he pushed them back down, letting the dark swallow them. He still had bad dreams sometimes, but his mind was healing, covering the memories of death and claws beneath a veneer of attitude and need for protection. Hating zoids was enough.

The Dragoons had gone into the caves once, but not all of them had come out. The Republic had followed them – probably revenge, but Raven was too young to think of any details. Some of it involved a fire, and a lot of screaming people. And an effigy on the wall, a doorway that lead to rubble and tubes and dead people. He'd never left Prozen's side the entire time, even when they were attacked by their own lot in the darkness…

Raven wanted to fling the canopy open and sit in the sun for awhile, but his responsibility lay with the newcomers, just as Prozen's had almost seven years ago.

"Try to stay with us, Rosalita." He called for the umpteenth time over the radio. He got a grunt in reply and a faint slowing of the defiant orphan, but not enough. It was probably best not to pursue, because behind him was a very frightened EnergyLiger that had decided that even if it's pilot wanted to go forward, it was having none of that.

Grace was coaxing it though hissing some very ladylike cussing between gritted teeth. Just across one rather large disguised hole, Lumina-La was having much more success, blindly trotting along – it was like the Orudius had some kind of shielding mechanism that stopped it from wandering into danger – ignoring any commands completely it was happy to wander by itself. Zoidian technology, obviously. Raven sniffed, not liking it at all. Someone had snuck the girl some coffee as well, which was why she was suddenly all light and flowers and big eyes. Coffee. Ecstasy for Zoidians.

Behind him, now paying extreme attention to everything going on around her, Harmony had gone chalk white and was gripping her zoid's controls. The sinkholes were hardly the kind of white knuckle ride her face was portraying but whatever. Her zoid was large enough not to worry too much about a slip or so with it's leg reach and low centre of gravity, but that was inexperience and an unknown zoid for you.

Things seemed to be going well which was why Raven was growing increasingly more suspicious. The radar had told him about an hour ago that they were completely alone – but now some very obvious revraptor signs were around, and a redhorn was about three miles back and making good time. Raven cautiously felt for the radio, still keeping an eye on the depth detector, the zoid shifting with a patience as old as time itself to let the sand resettle and let it go on. Twisting the dials carefully, back and forth, Raven listened for voices, feeling his stomach sink.

Snatches of tune he ignored, it wasn't unusual for AM-talkback radio and military bands to be crossed, but a conversation between several soldiers he'd never met made him frown. Their accents were Northern, terms Imperial. Was there supposed to be other trainees out and about today? No, surely not. He skipped past the band to find open channels with nobody transmitting – but waiting. He knew that trick, he was doing it himself – it had been the first Prozen had taught him. Listen in, see what everyone's doing. Keep quiet.

Had to be the Redhorn pilot. Maybe. The depth detector bleeped and the zoid pulled up, knocking Raven out of his moment of concentration. Scowling he nosed the zoid out of the dead end and went to look for another path across, almost bumping into Harmony in the process.

"Why'd you stop?!"

"Wrong way. Just watch the depth detector. The zoid knows what it's doing, it likes being operational even if it has a meatsack behind the controls."

"What did you just call me?!"

"It wasn't personal, Harmony – he just doesn't like zoids. Thinks they're all out to get us or something." Grace cut in. When had she been listening in? Top marks for that.

"Yeah, but he called me a meatsack!"

"Harmony, chill." Rosalita called out, her connection coming through buzzy. "I…Uh, I have long-range stuff on this zoid. I never really use it unless I'm gonna steal something."

Damn. Raven closed his eyes for a moment to think before opening his mouth. "I don't think they're hostiles. They're approaching the field, but they're not entering it."

"Wait, what?! We're not alone?!" Harmony groaned.

Raven flicked on his view screens so they all displayed properly – he preferred working alone and not checking in on team-mates, and now he felt just that little bit guilty. He hadn't realized the girls were so scared. Clumsy, complaining idiots maybe, but not afraid. Except Lumina-La of course. She'd wandered even further ahead than Rosalita. "We have a few stragglers, but I think they're crews from the school. They shouldn't bother us."

"But how do they know?!"

Rosalita face-palmed. "Gee, because we have non-standard zoids?"

"Not exactly." Raven leaned back, folding up his notebook as the Fang found a new path to take. It waited for the Deathpion to grab a hold of it's tail again and began to walk, head down and sensors on maximum. The motion was disorientating and Raven found himself being pressed into the restraint harness, his hair falling into his eyes at the change of position. "Each zoid has a unique signal, right? A barcode if you will. Letters and numbers, even if the core is cloned it's tinkered with just enough for it to show up as an individual. In a military zoid this code is always broadcasted as part of the zoid's black box to show where it is and where it is – so you don't attack your own side. If you come across a zoid that's not registered to your system, you know it's a civilian zoid, ex-military or the other side."

"Raven, none of ours are military."

He shrugged. "For one you're travelling with one that is. For all they know I could be escorting prisoners – but I'm not and you're not because the technicians assigned all four zoids with a temporary code. All these guys are from empire. They're scoping us out and we're doing the same. We should be-"

Raven didn't finish, because a moment later Lumina-La started screaming. He scowled, twisting around to see what happened to the Orudius, but she was not disappearing into a hole as he first thought, quite the opposite. It took him a moment to register the zing of bullets, caught only by the Orudius's armour exploding into shards by the head and neck.

Rage swelled within him – cockpit shots! On their own side!

"Sod this." He hissed. "Harmony, stay where you are."

"Where are you going?!" Came the hysteric shriek.

The zoid wriggled free of the Deathpion's frightened embrace, body bunching up. Fangs were hardy bastards, they'd been part of the Empire's military regime, almost unchanged, for over fifty years, and sinkhole fields were no trouble at all.

The Fang leapt for the next invisible platform, foreleg slipping a little as the zoid landed, struggling to regain control. The sand shifted, untrustworthy as what was beneath responded to suck him down. Raven didn't have time to sit and think about what was just off to his left, he swung a hard right and the Fang shifted into pursuit mode. Raven had to guess the distances between island to island, but the Fang was compensating for every leap he made, constantly updated by the radar as they moved along.

He had to hurry.

The shots kept coming. The horse-zoid spun on its hooves, rearing up like it's flesh-and-blood inspiration, wings flapping madly.

"Lumina-La! Gain control!"

Perhaps she couldn't hear him. Maybe she didn't care. Raven got no response except wailing as the sliver creature flashed in the sun. His own armour started to ping as bullets ricocheted into him as well. Using the Orudius as cover for his approach would generally be considered wrong, but even with the reinforced carapace fitted, Raven didn't trust a direct shot.

The Fang's great torso didn't swing – it's legs did, the body upright and in perfect balance as the zoid sped across the dunes. Raven swung around the bucking Orudius, realising beneath the zoid was a ground about to break – and came into full view of their attackers.

Revraptors.

He couldn't tell if they were manned, and it didn't matter. They were crouched just beyond the edge of the sinkhole field, bodies low enough to avoid direct fire, while still keeping their little machine guns ready, looped over the foreclaws. They looked menacing in this light, but up close they were just stupid machines – Raptors were rarely used by anyone talented due to all the restrictions on them. Point and shoot was all they were good for at the moment.

Raven sped towards them, trying to weave in and out of the shots and reduce the damage to his zoid – it wasn't easy, alarms were sounding now, the Fang's AI picking up that things were not right. Overshooting the final hurdle, Raven shoulder-charged into the first wave, hearing metal shriek against metal as his vision became full of claws and snapping teeth. No transmissions – motions repetitive – Sleepers!

As the momentum eased, Raven dug a forepaw into the sand and swung the great zoid's hips around, pivoting and then swinging himself off the sand to mule-kick a jumpy one in mid-air. The landing was hard, the Fang's chest armour and front legs damaged by the run up. He could hear the stop-caps squeaking as they fought to remain stable, the squeal of joints that were starting to slow. Ducking down low and now sure he was on safe ground, Raven pulled open the heat-release valve, punching it with a snarl. His view was obscured for a moment as the over-heating zoid opened all of its vents, plunging the surrounding area into a cloud of super-heated steam. The Raptors gibbered, and with a crash, two went down, pulled into a command system freeze after having a Zabrefang practically land on them and then set them on fire.

"Rosalita! How many we got here?!"

"I can't, hang on-" She was fussing with the controls. What Raven couldn't see was that she'd deployed the guns first without using the goggles – what the youth had perceived as armour when he had first seen the Wolf zoid – and now they were stuck. With a curse, Rosalita returned the guns to their upright position, tensely watching the clock as they shifted out of view. "Raven! Hang on!"

The cloud was already fading. The heat had given him enough time to manoeuvre around, so Raven lunged forward out of it, armour crackling as he sank the zoid's fangs into the shoulder of the next Raptor to foolishly brave coming near him. It was too heavy to drag completely, but Raven still did a good job of swinging it around – it struggled, tail swinging from side to side as it tried to regain control, digging its hind-claws into the wounds on the Fang's chest as its tail thwapped against the faces of its companions.

Wait a second, this isn't Sleeper behaviour…

With a couple of wet pops, something flew overhead and Raven stared in amazement as a decapitated RevRaptor rolled to a stop and was promptly swallowed by the sink-hole. Rosalita had finally gotten the sequence right.

"Raven! Raven!"

"I'm fine. Tell me what's going on-"

"But you're right there!"

"And in the thick of it." God.

"Um three are dead! There's another nine around you, and, and, some more coming in from your right!"

Raven gulped. Nine? Nine right here? What the hell? Old man, what were you thinking? This is way too many, even for a sleeper unit. He moved the control column forward again, the jaws finally tearing the forearm free. But the Raptor didn't go down. He stared in amazement as it fought the freeze and responded by tail-whipping him. With his damaged legs, the Fang felt the blow badly, and then had another latch onto his side. "I need some cover fire, goddamnit! Cover fire!"

"They're…they're too close, I'll hit you-"

"Then aim for the oncoming ones, idiot!"

"DON'T CALL ME AN IDIOT!" The Konig's fire was painfully slow. The shells were good though – while Rosalita pretty much missed the first few she started with the next lot. "HAH!"

"Lead your shots!"

"What?"

"Shoot where you think they'll be! One, two, not together, have a constant stream of fire-"

"I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING SHUT UP AND LET ME PILOT GODDAMNIT."

Raven decided to keep his mouth shut from here on in and went back to mauling and firing his short-range cannons. It wasn't that he'd forgotten them – he'd just jump into them if he shot them while moving forward. They didn't pivot – they had to fire where he was facing, and that meant getting a face full of claws unless he managed to knock them back first. This was bad.

Behind him Grace had caught up with Lumina-La and had managed to calm her down enough to keep moving. The Energyliger was good at taking damage – something nobody had thought of until now. Grace used herself as a shield, the fragile Orudius cowering beside her. There was nothing else she could do. Nothing except…a Gatling gun. And a horn, and spiky wings and a shield generator, but really!

"Lumina-La, keep your eyes on that patch of ground there…the ones by those rocks, do you see them? See how they frame a whole lot of turrets and buildings and stuff? I think that's the ruin where we're going." Grace began to turn her lumbering zoid, noticing for the first time that Harmony was staying put. She put the scruffy-haired girl out of her mind as she trained the sights on the revraptors. She didn't know how to shoot. There could be people in there. "I need you to go now, then call Harmony over, okay? But the rocks will give you some cover."

Lumina-La could only nod, hiccuping through her tears.

Grace watched Rosalita get better at firing – and actually hit them on purpose now as opposed to catching them by luck, and tried to think about what Raven had told the Konigwolf pilot. Lead the fire? Oh, shoot where they were going to be…

…The gun was loud. She'd had no idea it was loaded. Grace almost wet herself in the process as the explosions rocked the earth around her, then decided that shooting at people's feet would be much better. "Is this part of the test?" She asked through the link, squeezing the trigger gently now instead of just pressing it hard. The fire was more controlled now and was enough to distract the enemy into snarling and hissing at her as more joined the fray.

"I don't know. Maybe." Raven growled back, distracted. Even with the legs shot off from his cannon, the Raptors were still clawing forward and ripping into his hindquarters. The Fang howled.

This seemed to have an effect on Rosalita. "Prozen wants us dead!" She blurted out, frenzied in her new-found bloodlust.

"Hardly." Raven snorted.

"How'd you know?! After all, he killed-"

Raven ignored her, his eyes on his opponents and his fingers stiff from clenching the controls. "If Prozen wanted us dead, we'd be dead before we started - he doesn't waste time. I think this is something else."

~ to be continued