Apologies for taking so long to upload chapter two. I guess for now all I can give you is another re-edited version of chapter 1.
Chapter 1
The sun was rising as the small band of zoids entered the desolate town, casting long, dark shadows over its charred remains. Van Flyheight gasped in shock as he watched the thick, black clouds of smoke darkening the sky. Behind him, Thomas Shubaltz and three Helcats stared in awed silence.
The group slowly made their way through the broken streets, examining the crumbling buildings around them. Stepping carefully over bodies and rubble, they were constantly looking around, searching for hostile zoids.
The lead Helcat decided to break the silence. "What the hell happened here?" he wondered aloud.
"That's what we're here to find out," Van responded. "Thomas, check for survivors," he continued, before turning to the Helcats. "You three, check for tracks. If you find any, tell me."
After receiving a quartet of "yes, sirs," Van began to eye the buildings surrounding him with greater focus. Well, what was left of them, anyway. Most of them had been reduced to piles of ash, and those that hadn't weren't much better off. As he slowly progressed through the town, he noticed that the state of the buildings got slightly better toward the center, and that a few of them weren't even on fire. Turning toward the center, he saw that there were more bodies in the streets there than there were in the surrounding area.
His train of thought was broken by the lead Helcat's pilot. "Sir, we've found a set of tracks. I think you should see these."
"I'll be there in a second," Van replied, turning to see the Helcats huddled together around what he presumed were the tracks they'd found. After slowly making his way to them, he asked, "What's the problem?"
"It's these tracks, sir," one of the pilots replied. "They're... odd." He shifted his Helcat's head in their direction, then stepped back so Van could get a closer look.
They were definitely from a zoid, albeit a very small one. Their shape was the familiar three-toed foot of a raptor-type zoid, but was much smaller than any Van knew of. "Do you have any idea what could have left these?" he asked the lead Helcat.
"Not a single clue. We figured you would," he replied.
"Wonderful," Van said with a sigh. "It's gonna be fun fighting new zoids that I don't know anything about. Follow these tracks," he told the Helcats, "and see where they lead you. Contact Dragonhead base once an hour with your progress, and keep it slow and quiet. We don't want whatever left this knowing we're following them."
"Yes sir," they all said, before activating their stealth unit and disappearing.
Van turned around and headed back to the center of town. When he reached it, he came to a quick halt, surprised by what he saw. The town center was dominated by one building, which had all but fallen apart under the beating it had taken. Its roof had caved in, and its two still-standing walls were pockmarked by bullet holes and lined with slash marks. The most obvious mark, though, was a gaping hole in one wall, with perfectly smooth, round edges. Without approaching it, Van knew what had made it. Only one weapon in the world could leave a mark like that. "Damn it," he exclaimed. "Thomas, get over here."
"But you said–" Thomas sputtered.
"It doesn't matter what said before, Thomas," Van replied, shaking his head slowly. "You're not gonna find anyone."
Surprised, Thomas slowly walked over to the building Van was standing by. "What's wrong?" he asked warily.
"See for yourself," Van replied, directing Thomas's attention toward the hole. "That remind you of anything?"
Thomas looked at it, almost immediately recoiling inside his cockpit. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"I wish," Van replied softly. "Have BEEK check that for charged particle residue. I'm going inside."
"Inside what?" Thomas exclaimed. "There's no inside left!"
"Maybe so," Van said, "but they didn't completely destroy it. If they'd wanted to, they could've. After all, they did to the rest of the town. Something tells me there's something in there." With that, Van exited his liger and entered the building through its heavy steel doors. He met the inside with horrified silence.
He had entered into a simple lobby, with cushioned benches and a desk at the far end. Spread throughout the room were dozens of bodies lying face down in pools of blood. Seated in a chair at the desk was another.
Van rushed over to it examine it, trembling with anger when he reached it. Seated in the chair was the body of Emperor Rudolf's regent, Homaleff. His neck was lined with deep puncture wounds. Their pattern revealed what had caused them; he had been bitten, hard, by an organoid. It didn't take much thought to realize which one it had been.
Van stepped back, shaking his head and sighing.
"Raven's gonna be pissed."
Ambient growled quietly, waking from a light sleep. He lay atop a large crate, one meant to host a small zoid. It was merely a convenient coincidence that it made such a good bed. Around him were many other, similar crates of different sizes. He was in a large warehouse, and had been for several hours, waiting for his unwary prey to arrive.
Standing slowly, he peered over the edge of his lofty resting place, he saw that it had finally arrived.
Humans. There were six of them, and they were talking loudly with each other, unaware of Ambient's presence.
He leaped from his crate to one closer to them to hear what they were saying.
"... just a bunch of Guysaks," one was saying to the others.
"You're joking, " another said, a shocked expression on his face
"Nope. Gustav comes in, and the boss asks if the Gunsnipers are there like they're s'posed to be. Guy just looks at him and laughs," the first one continued.
"Unbelievable," one of the others said. "That's the third time in two months this has happened. What'd the boss say?"
"What do you think? He went all crazy on that guy. He almost pulled his gun out."
Ambient had heard enough. The shipment had come in as planned. Now, it was time to continue. He jumped down, right in the center of the group.
"What the hell?" one of them exclaimed.
Growling angrily as they stepped back in fear, Ambient bared his fangs and whipped his tail back and forth, pleased by the terrified expressions on their faces.
Oh, what fun.
As the humans came to their senses, Ambient stepped forward, roaring loudly. The largest among them reached slowly to his waist to draw a handgun that he hoped would protect him.
It wouldn't.
Ambient flew into the man, knocking him on his back and sending his weapon flying. He began to tear madly at him with the claws on his hands and feet, ripping his abdomen open and spattering the floor with blood, roaring madly the whole time. As he screamed in pain, Ambient turned from him and towards the men surrounding him, to be showered with bullets from the men surrounding him.
Shrugging them off, Ambient snarled with hatred. The fun was just beginning.
I'm a filthy, dirty liar. I told you that chapter two wouldn't take so long, but here I am, and it still isn't out yet. Hopefully, this is better than it was before. I expanded the bit with Ambient and fixed the line spacing, and also changed the beginning up a bit. The second chapter is in progress, but the flash drive it was stored on has gone missing. When I find it, I will get back on it immediately. A new character will show up, but won't be named, and Raven will kill something. Probably. Anyway, sorry this is all I can give you.
