Some Experience Necessary

1.14

Lidl frowned at his monitor, rolling his thumb back and forth over the camera's zoom function, his eyes narrowed. His zoid continued to lope along, the Commandwolf acting like the animal it was styled for, it's snout to the ground and flanks quivering with electrical energy. "Boss. Boss?"

"Busy."

"Boss, look-"

"Goddamnit, Lidl-"

"Bosco's found their trail." He immediately felt silly saying the pet name for his zoid, because it wasn't actually his zoid, it was just every zoid he piloted was called Bosco. It wasn't like he had a personalized zoid, he wasn't that high up, so every time a zoid was clocked in, it's memory was wiped and it was handed, fresh and new, to the next in line. Still. It felt wrong not to give it some kind of identity, even if it were only for a little while. He waited for the snickering at least, or the insults to follow. They didn't, which struck him as odd.

"Trail, mate?" Fleming's reedy voice piped up from the next CommandWolf. She was sporting a nice set of bruises across a cheek and had eyes aflame with a fight she couldn't wait to bring out. "My one's got nothing."

"Do you know what you're looking for?" Lidl shot back. With a few clicks across the dashboard he'd copied the signal and a few images and sent them down the line. "Wind's knocked it about a bit, but I'd say we're on the trail of one Zabrefang, what looks like a Liger, a Scorpion type, a larger Wolf variant and something else that looks like its some kind of bleedin' dancer. I don't know."

He heard Ida grunt in surprise. He was probably the newest here, Lidl remembered, but he felt no desire to chide him for his ignorance. Mackey however, semi-conscious and stuffed behind Ida's chair, said something that wasn't worth repeating.

"Could be a lot of fire power."

"We can handle it. They're cadets. That means they don't know shit."

"Not necessarily. That guy we came across certainly knew plenty."

Higgins swore the air blue before becoming coherent again. "That was not a cadet! He does not count! We will find him when we find him! He will not walk away-"

"He didn't exactly walk."

"Fleming." The Guysack paused for a moment, raising it's claws warningly. A traditionally level one zoid, with basic weaponry and fragile armour, the zoid was normally used for infantry support, but more often as an aide for construction purposes. Higgins however, had become quite adept at controlling the little burrower, and its mottled sandy-coloured armour was dented and scratched from fights that he'd one with cunning, ingenuity and an adoration of explosives. The military had recognized his abilities and in time he'd been awarded his personal zoid which in turn had been kitted out with all kinds of new and wonderful weaponry that made it a force to be reckoned with…as long as Higgins didn't lose his nerve and didn't decide to just run in shooting. Lidl watched him jealously, watched the bob of smaller repeater rifles latched onto the torso of the zoid, or the 20mm machine guns mounted to the claws. The arms had spectacular reach, Lidl had seen plenty of Imperial zoids brought down with a set of talons around an ankle and bullets eating away at the armour until it was brought down into a command system freeze. This wasn't even going into the little grenade launchers mounted at the base of the tail – four shots, Lidl remembered.

All he had was a stock standard Wolf towing a cart of explosives. With another Wolf, empty, running on autopilot set to follow the pack – Mackey's zoid, now unused and possibly enjoying the fact it didn't have anyone behind the proverbial wheel.

"You think you know where they are, Lidl?"

The restraints creaked against his girth, his eyebrow twitching. "Yeah." He drawled. "Tracks kinda meander a bit. Problem in the crowd I'd say. Figure there might be issues or somethin', not following orders, but in short, anyone else seein' all those dust clouds yonder?"

The pause was long and heavy.

"…Yeah." Ida said, breaking the tension, his voice quivering. Wether it was with amusement or frustration Lidl didn't know, he was annoyed and was happy to let everyone else know it.

"They'd be sleepers. And that's a Zabrefang they're tearin' the shit outta."

Something else was out there too. He got pictures of that as well, thankful that the poor Wolf could still focus. Something silver with a single black eye at its head. Without anything to use as a reference point it was impossible to tell how big the silvery-white scorpion zoid was – it was too far away from the zabrefang. Beyond them were scaffolds and crumbling buildings, neither Imperial or Republican.

He let the images drift for a little while longer, sitting there, fuming.

"So. A Zabrefang. An' a mysterious new zoid."

"Lidl, what I don't like about you is that you're a smartarse."

"Thanks, boss."

"Have at it, kids." The Guysack swung towards the mess, claws clicking in a rapid beat to carry the little zoid across the dunes. Higgins was angry that the newbies hadn't bothered to use long-range scanning. He even pondered why he'd taken out his zoid instead of checking out a Wolf – Wolves were faster, but eh…

It was coming into view, rapidly. Two of the Republican Wolves sped ahead, their cannonry units starting to stutter with machinegun fire, little puffs of sand popping up here and there as bullets missed their target. Lidl padded in their wake, careful of the explosives until he reached the maximum range for his own weaponry and laying down fire as well. "I'm gonna drop these claymores and join the fight, boss."

"…Yeah." Higgins grunted. He was already charging up his main weapon – the laser gun mounted to the end of the Guysack's tail, and was wondering if he should shoot the frenzied mass of sleeper zoids, or take out the Fang. He settled on shooting at the new zoid, wondering why it was standing still – its core was still active, so it certainly wasn't frozen. Why it wasn't moving he didn't know, but then did it matter? He smirked. A sitting target was so much easier to hit. "Let's knock 'em dead."

- To be continued