Some Experience Necessary

1.13

Harmony was still out there, but that was her choice as far as Rosalita could see. They'd made it to the ramble of buildings on the border of a sunken archaeological dig and were almost in one piece – the EnergyLiger was pockmarked all over its left side, and the Orudius was in even worse shape – both wings shot to pieces, hindquarters crippled and a useless leg. It was holding off a command system freeze, and provided that the zoid was allowed to rest for a bit, it's own reconstructive system should kick in and seal off the worst of the damage signals. Most zoids were fine on three legs, but it was the time it took for that damaged leg to be shut down and away from the system that was the issue. They would – in time – be okay.

Rosalita knew none of this, of course. Her only concern was how two of their lot were out there. She could see Raven still fighting, although he was trying to provide a diversion more than destroy everything. He was so brave! Her Konig was fine and still in ship shape – although now down half of her shells, which was unfortunate – so she was the only one actually operational. The other two were being hidden as best they could in the shadowy walls of the dig. Oh Raven, darling, hold on...

Someone tapped on the cockpit glass, and Rosalita turned her attention away from the livefeed to where Lumina-La was now standing - on the cheek armour of the Konig and leaning in to get her attention. "What?" Realizing the girl couldn't hear her, she opened the cockpit a little and narrowed her eyes. "What's the matter?"

The Zoidian's voice was very small. "There are more zoids down here."

Her stomach shrank into a tiny knot. "What?"

"I saw them first. Grace is watching them now. Some of the Raptors have come into the ruins and stuff, and I think they're looking for us."

"They're not supposed to do that!"

Lumina-La's lower lip trembled. "We're killing them, and we shouldn't. They're just doing their job. W-We shouldn't be here."

If she started crying again, she'd alert everything. Rosalita quickly changed the subject. "Is Grace okay?"

"Shaken. Kinda. I want to go home." Another gulp and her voice became even smaller. "If he hadn't been there, they would have killed me."

"No they wouldn't."

There was the scuff of shoes on gravel as Grace approached, looking small and distant beneath them. "The Orudius isn't going to move again for a while. Its' head is half gone."

"Bullshit." Came the hiss of breath.

"Wanna take a look for yourself?" Grace scowled at her. "We need help."

"We can't get a signal over these walls without everyone seeing us, duh." Rosalita gripped the controls hard, swaying a little in confusion. She didn't know what to do. "Are you sure the Orudius isn't gonna move?"

Lumina-La let out a sob. Grace climbed onto the zoid's carapace and felt her way down to the head by the goggles, gently tugging Lumina-La back to solid ground. "It's okay." She breathed to the sobbing girl. "It's okay. Really it is." Her dark gaze lifted to meet Rosalita's piercing eyes. There was surprising strength in daddy's little girl. "We need to pull Harmony back in. And we have to rescue Raven, but it means we're going to have to think about this."

"Shooting them won't work." Rosalita snapped. "We're stuck-"

Lumina-La wailed then, and beneath them there was the ominous sound of rubble being shifted. There was a strange low rumble, followed by a hissing-rattling sound. Grace buried the girl's face against her jacket to muffle her sobs, help steady her. "You've got to keep your voice down. They'll find us-"

"How? They're mindless sleepers. All they can do is shoot-"

In an explosion of pale green curls and weeping eyes, Lumina-La whirled around. It was very dramatic, but the effect was lost on Grace when she got a face full of hair that whipped across her eyes. "That's right. They shoot. They shot us. They shot me. They're shooting Raven right now, and you're there saying they're just. Mindless. Sleepers. They may be 'mindless' but they know how to hurt us!"

The words stung like a physical slap. Rosalita took a step back, her jaw dropping. "I…"

"Shut up!" Lumina-La hissed. "My EVE! Listen to you! You're so full of yourself. You can't even shoot straight! None of us can!" Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "We thought we were so great. But we're not. We have these amazing, awesome zoids, and we can't use them. We laugh at everyone around us in school, on the road, whatever, and it's not okay. None of its okay."

Lip curling, the konig pilot drew herself up, fists balling. "You can't pilot. I can. There's the difference."

"What? You couldn't even hit a bunch of sleepers!"

"Shut up Grace! This has nothing to do with you-" Her words faded as she noticed the expressions on the faces of her companions. The pale, wide-eyed look of absolute terror. It wasn't something Rosalita had ever experienced before – she'd been held up, held up folk herself, lost a zoid, but never quite like-

There was a huff of air behind her, and her shadow became very long and very round. Grace took a step back, Lumina-La fell to her knees. Rosalita looked over her shoulder and into the vacant, staring plexiglass 'eyes' of a fully weaponized RevRaptor.

Tilting it's head to the side, taking the three cadets in, it roared.

~ To be continued