Pointy Muses Fic 6 - A Bugs Life

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Pointy Muses Fic

Chapter Six - A Bug's Life

By Rick R.

*****

The aftermath of the attempted NUBG attack on Rose and Neil had been hectic to say the least. The team had called the PKB, who had told them to say where they were and not to move while a PKB team had been sent around. By team, they actually meant several Arosaurers and Gorheks, as well as chief Mal Loup and his Gojulas Giga. In the meantime, they'd had dinner.

The PKB had asked Rose and Neil about the attack; they'd provided all the details that they could which, in the end, were surprisingly little. One of the enemy pilots had said something about the NUBG, but whether the Zoids were from them or mercenaries that the NUBG had hired was unclear. The conditions had meant that they'd been unable to get a good look at either of the two attackers, and hadn't been able to tell if they had any distinctive markings or other notable features.

There was even less that they could say about the Zoid that had taken out the two NUBG attackers. Between the fact that it was dark, the fact that it was raining and the speed of the attacking Zoid, neither of them had been able to tell anything about the attacker. The Dark Spiner's jamming had meant that heir Zoids hadn't picked up the attacker, and hadn't been able to make much of a record of it. The fact that Neil and Rose had run off after the attack didn't help things either. Neil had offered that whatever it was, it had four legs, was very fast and made things very dead - which didn’t help any.

About the only positive thing they could say was that the unseen attacker hadn't chased after the pair of them, which suggested that the two NUBG (Or whoever they were) Zoids were the targets of its attack.

The PKB had sent a team out to investigate the site of the attack. They didn't find much; the two Zoids had apparently been collected and removed from the site, presumably by the NUBG to cover their tracks. They did find a lot of debris (including a whole arm from the Dark Spiner) that did seem to verify Rose and Neil's story, however. They'd also done some checking, and found that there hadn't been any road works or the like in that area; clearly somebody had managed to acquire or mock up a PKB Zoid to redirect them into the ambush.

In the end, the PKB had decided to keep an eye on the Broken Chairs' base, just to see if anything happened. However, the general consensus was that it was very unlikely that the NUBG would try anything else. Having two expensive Zoids effortlessly trashed for no return was likely to discourage them from making another move on the team. The big worry, however, was that the team was scheduled for another battle that weekend; the last thing they and the ZBC wanted to do was to have to skip a round because of the NUBG attack.

In the end, the decision had been made to allow the Chairs to continue with the competition; however, for the time being they would be under PKB supervision to ensure that nothing happened. There were plenty of people within the ZBC and the PKB who had been involved with the attempted NUBG "invasion" of a few years ago who didn't want to see anything like that happen again.

*****

Michael Heywood's office could have been best described as a mess. He wasn't the neatest or most professional of people by any standards. He believed that now that he was the leader of the biggest illegal Zoid group on the planet that he didn't have to clean up after himself. After all, there were staff to do that for him. Usually his office was a mess of video disks, magazines and empty bottles.

Today it was rather neat. He'd ordered the staff to clean it up and make the place look presentable, as he had some very important business to attend to. As a result, the office looked to be spotless, which was a surprise. At the moment, the office was a lot more crowded then usual; a quartet of people were seated around the table, while Michael stood with his back turned to his desk, looking out his office windows at the NUBG arena below him. Right now, it was empty, save for a few techs clearing it up after last night's battles.

"So let me get this straight." He began. "You two were both about to wipe those two idiots out then a Zoid came out of seemingly nowhere and wiped the pair of you out in one hit. Said Zoid then ran off into the night before you could get a decent look at it."

"That's it, boss." Shane Adams, one of the men seated around the table began. He was a tall man, but beyond that was rather surprisingly nondescript. He had short brown hair and brown eyes, and sported a few days stubble. He was dressed in a plain shirt and jeans, an a bomber jacket, and currently was sporting a very large bruise on his cheek from where he'd bashed into the side of the Dark Spiner's cockpit. "The Zoid caught us both by surprise."

"Yeah man," Julian Hatchett, his partner replied. Large and muscular, he sported a shaved head and a pointed goatee beard. He was dressed in a high-necked jumpsuit and coat, and also sported several bandages on his face; some of the Zero X's panels had blown from the power surge sent through the Zoid by the shot that had disabled it. "That thing came outa nowhere and got us both. I coulda whacked it myself, if I'd seen it."

"You two are supposed to be my best pilots and my best troubleshooters!" Michael snapped as he turned to face them, his jowls wobbling in anger. "You two were supposed to teach that girl a lesson, not get your Zoids trashed!"

"We didn't expect what happened." Shane replied. "We knew that there was no way that they could have called for help. I had their comms completely jammed up."

"So what, you're saying that some random Zoid leaped out of nowhere and trashed the pair of you then ran off?" He snapped. "That somebody just decided to take a shot at you because... oh, I don't know, they were wandering around in a darkened derelict industrial estate at the dead of night and felt like killing a couple of Zoids? Is that it?"

There was a long pause. “Well, yeah..." Julian replied. "That's what I mean, man."

The room's other two occupants glanced at each other for a moment. Rachel Golden, Michael's personal assistant, spoke first. "Isn't that like..." She trailed off. Shapely and leggy, with long blonde hair worn in a neat bun and dressed in a neatly-pressed skirt and jacket, she looked the image of a professional office worker, and not the assistant to a crime boss.

"Yeah, I know." Cole McGuire, the other man replied. "And that's just what I was thinking." The tallest of the five of them, he had short brown hair and tanned skin, while his eyes were hidden behind dark glasses. He was dressed in a long black coat, with a matching shirt and pants.

"What was that?" Heywood asked.

"Its possible that the Zoid that attacked them was a vigilante of sorts." Rachel replied. "Like what happened two years ago."

Michael considered this. "Right..." He was thinking about the NUBG's attempts to take over ZBC matches and directly recruit ZBC fighters. There had been some wins and some losses, but there had been several incidents that had gone far from how they had planned it. "So what shape are the Zoids in?"

"Both of them are pretty badly beaten up, but can be repaired." Rachel continued, glancing at a datapad. "The repairs will be lengthy and expensive, but both can be made fully operable again."

Heywood glanced up at the two pilots. The two of them were both very lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries like they did. "Well, I guess I should be happy that you two arses didn’t get them destroyed and yourselves both killed." He shook his head. "Go on, get outa here." He muttered. "Go get yourselves some drinks and consider yourselves to be on the shelves for the next few weeks." The pair of them stood and left.

"So what are we going to do about the Broken Chairs, boss?" Cole began.

"I don't want to let them think that they can get away with this." Michael replied. "Nobody crosses the NUBG or makes an arse of me."

"And there's other reasons to give them another go." Rachel interrupted. "Several of the backers have shown... interest in the possibility of a battle between an NUBG team and a ZBC one."

This grabbed Michael's attention. "Really?" He began. The NUBG's backers had a tendency to spend big if they thought that something was interesting. "What kind of interest?"

"Some of them find the idea to be exciting." She continued. "They'd be certainly willing to wager a considerable amount on the outcome of such an encounter."

"Really?" He asked. "Hm... we may have to look into this further." He glanced over at Cole. "What do you think?"

"Maybe we've been goin' about this all wrong." Cole replied. "I'm thinking that we might wanna get to know our targets better before we do anything too rash. Leaked personnel files can only tell us so much, y'know."

"True." Heywood nodded. "So your idea?"

"How about the Crimson Claws?" Rachel spoke up. 'They are probably our best single team and Jean himself has certain... skills that could prove to be useful."

Michael considered this. "Sounds good. We'll lie low, say let this next round go off without a hitch... and then we'll move in for the kill."

*****

After the excitement that had been the weekend, the rest of the week was surprisingly quiet for the Broken Chairs. Aside from regular check-ins by the PKB who were "keeping an eye on things" for them "just in case" (And really because Neil suspected that they wanted to bust some heads) there was very little going on out of the ordinary. It was almost like the NUBG had spontaneously ceased to exist after the team's run in with them and the loss of their two Zoids.

That meant that everyone could take their minds off the NUBG and start thinking about the competition again.

The team had been having a quiet night in, deciding to relax rather then stress over what the NUBG may or may not be planning for them. So the plan was to stay home, order pizzas and watch some movies, which nobody could find a fault with. They'd even managed to agree on what to have and what to watch, which seemed a minor miracle.

"Hey... lookit this." Tasch commented as she was sitting at her laptop, going over the online pizza delivery menus and movie stores. "We got another battle scheduled."

"I was wondering if they were going to get round to that." Neil commented as he looked over her shoulder. "Check it out guys. They decided that we're safe to get in a battle after all."

Rose and Stephen both walked over, crawling around the computer. "We really need a bigger screen." Rose commented. "Next thing we do when we get some money is get ourselves a bigger computer so we don't have to crowd around it."

"Hang on a sec..." Tasch began. "We got ourselves that new telly, so that should be able to connect to it..." She picked up the laptop and walked over the their new set. It was a big, shiney silver, top of the line flatscreen that they had splashed out on after winning their battle in the last round, and had all but forgotten about with the problems with the NUBG. It looked rather incongruous next to their collection of battered, second-hand furniture.

Kneeling by the TV, she fumbled with the cables for a few minutes. "Dangity thing..." She muttered "I don't get it. I can fix a Zoid good, but can't connect a computer up... ahah!" She stood up, then pressed a few buttons on the remote control. After skipping a few blank screens, the computer's display came up on the main TV screen. "There ya'll go."

Stephen looked it over. "The Venom team, huh?" He began. "Can't say that I've heard of them myself."

"Me neither." Rose added. "Must be a new one for this year's competition or something."

"Lessee..." Tasch began as she bought up the info files attached to the e-mail. "Well this is odd."

"What is it?" Neil asked.

"They want to fight us in the desert outside of the city rather then in the arena."

"Why?" He replied. "Do they want to work on their tans?"

"Its not unheard of." Stephen commented as Tasch bought up a map of the area, and then a zoom-in on the designated battlefield. It was little more then a mess of open sand and dunes, with nothing else in sight. No trees, no rocks, no nothing. Just flat, open sand. "The Battle commission has the odd battle outside the regular arenas for a little variety of terrain. It also helps them reduce the wear and tear on the stadiums."

"Well they chose a perfectly miserable spot." Rose added. "Yeah, so its sunny and bright, but I can't see too much appeal to it beyond there. We might as well be battling in an arena."

"Maybe one of them has a thing for sand." Neil commented. "Who knows? Some Zoid pilots are nuts."

"Resent company excluded, of course." Stephen added.

"Of course."

"So what do they have?" Rose asked.

"Lesee..." Tasch bough up the team's info. "Well, they only got three Zoids; a Cannon Spider, a Guysack and a Stealth Viper."

"That's odd..." Stephen commented. "Only three Zoids and weak ones at that. Its not what I'd have expected from a team who are this far into the competition."

"Well maybe they like bug Zoids?" Tasch asked. "No, that ain't right. Stealth Viper's a snake, not a bug. Still... Cannon Spider's kinda cool."

"Its not like they're dangerous, even." Rose commented. "I mean, even Neil's Gunsniper would be able to handle their Zoids."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Neil muttered in reply.

Rose looked over the data. "Two of the team's Members, including their leader, are rookies. The third..." She bought up the info. "Was on a team that got punked out and broke-up midway through the last season. So I can't see much there."

"Hey, we're all rookies too, you know." Neil interjected. "We're just rather lucky ones."

"My point stands though. They look to be, well, rather weak." She finished.

"Well, a battle's a battle." Neil commented. "And we're scheduled to fight these guys."

"Seems kinda unfair, actually." Tasch commented. "What with there being three of them and four of us."

There was a moment of silence as the team considered this. "Well..." Rose spoke up. "We could leave one of us out if the battle."

"What's that?" Neil asked.

"Well, think about it." Rose explained. "Any three of our Zoids could easily spank their Zoids around. They'd be worth hardly any competition points if we went in as we are now." She looked over the info. "But if there were only three of us, well, there'd be more points because we're fighting on more equal numbers."

"You're so mercenary, you know that?" Neil replied.

"Well it does make a degree of sense." Stephen admitted. "As it stands, if we use the full team, we'll win the battle bug get very few points from it. But if we use only three Zoids, well..." He glanced over the screen. "We'll win the battle, but we'll get a lot more for it."

"I guess so." Neil shrugged. "Tasch?"

"Well, it is a lot more fair." She replied. "I mean, I'd feel kinda mean squashing their Zoids if we outnumbered them."

"So then it's settled." Rose finished. "And I figure that it should be me, Tasch and Neil who take them on."

"Why not me?" Stephen asked.

"Points, man." Rose explained. "Your Iron Kong weighs more then their whole team put together. Heck, it weighs more then the rest of our team put together. So smacking tiny little bugs around with a giant robot ape is not going to earn us nearly as many points."

"Again with the points." Neil glared at her. "Are competition points all you think aobut?"

"Hey, its not like this battle is going to be too much of a challenge." Rose replied. "So we might as well get what we can from it."

"I guess that's fair then." Stephen put his hands up. "I've been out-argued on all fronts here. Tasch, could you reply back to the commission and tell them that only three of us will be fighting this one?"

*****

The Venom Team's base was on the outskirts of the city, relatively remote from the arenas. It was part of a large block of purpose-built team bases that had only been built in the last few years, but it was on the outer edges of the section. In essence, it was a whole suburb of Zoid team bases, just another example of how far the city had gone to accommodate its biggest industry.

The Venom Team's base was one of the smaller faculties, consisting of a single base building and several Zoid hangers that were more akin to car garages then anything else. And while the base was rather small and simple, it suited the needs of its occupants perfectly.

One of the advantages that their base had over that of the Broken Chairs was that it had been outfitted with a pre-equipped briefing room that could be used for planning battles and other purposes. The Venom Team had made extensive use of the facility; it was a good part of why they had managed to succeed so far.

Laura Anderson, the team's leader, had called them together for a meeting. They'd gotten another battle allocated by the ZBC, one that was shaping up to be one of the more interesting battles thus far in their carrier. Laura didn't look the part of the stereotypical female Zoid fighter. She was short, with features that could be best described as "cute". She had shoulder length red hair and blue eyes that were behind thick-rimmed glasses. To finish the image, she was decked out in a thick turtle necked cardigan and baggy pants.

"Hey guys." She began with a smile. "Thanks for coming so promptly. I wanted to go over the plan for our next battle."

"First thing I need to know," Larry Rex, one of her team spoke up. "Is it in the desert?" Larry was a thin, almost gaunt man, with dark hair, a moustache and a small goatee beard. He was decked out like some sort of would be outlaw biker, in tattered jeans, a leather jacket and dark glasses - regardless of how appropriate they were to the situation. He was also the most experienced Member of their team; the other two were rookies.

"Uh, yeah, I'd like to know that too." Milton Palmer, the third Member of the team spoke up. Only a hair taller then Laura, he was rather lightly built, with short brown hair and brown eyes. "I mean, if it isn't, then we're probably gonna be in trouble."

"Milton, you can relax." She smiled. Milton was always like this; rather nervous and jumpy, especially before a battle. "It’s in the desert, so we can go with the usual plan."

"Well that's a relief." He admitted. "I was kinda worried there for a bit."

"So who are we going up against?" Larry asked, cutting off any further replies.

She pressed a button on her remote, bringing up some information on the screen. "The opposition for our next battle is a team known as the Broken Chairs."

"Funny name." Larry muttered.

"Yeah, it is a bit odd." She admitted. "Anyway, they're a team of all rookies." Which meant that in theory the team had an experience lead on their opponents. Larry had been in the battles for a year and a half before joining the team and had proven to be an invaluable asset to them so far. She would have freely admitted that she was really only doing this whole 'Zoid battle' thing as a bit of fun, but so far she'd turned out to be surprisingly good at it.

"Well that's okay then." Milton spoke up. 'I mean, what with two of us being rookies and all..."

"I did some checking on them, I think that they may be better then they look." She pressed another button, bringing up some battle statistics. "As you can see, they're yet to loose a battle, either individually or as a team. In fact in all their battles so far, only one of them hasn't been a four-nil victory."

"Sounds dangerous." Milton replied.

"Good." Larry drawled out. "I like a bit of danger, a bit of a challenge every now and then. I wanna see what these rookies will do."

"So, uh, what Zoids do they have?" Milton asked. He was almost the most jumpy about this part.

Another screen came up, showing the other team's Zoids. "Gunsniper, Redler, Liger Zero and Iron Kong. All pretty standard stuff." She explained. "The Iron Kong has been outfitted with the full PK armaments, but that's the limit of their modifications. As of their last battle, they don't have any CAS units for the Zero, which means that we can pretty much figure what its going to do."

"That one Kong weighs about twice as much as the whole team." Larry muttered. "We're gonna have a hard time with it."

"Well, I suspect that they will reduce the team's numbers so that they will get more points for the battle." She continued. "As they stand, they're at 353 tons. Without the Kong, they drop to 144 tons. Now when you compare that to our 85.5 tons, you can see that they'd have reasons for dropping it out - if they want to get any points off the battle, thy'll slim down the team. Heck, the Zero on its own weighs as much as we do."

"That's quite a difference." Milton commented. "And it does make sense for them to do it."

Laura nodded, clearly able to see how relieved Milton was about the idea of not facing the Iron Kong. "So as I see it, we can go for the standard attack plan. We'll isolate the Zero first, as it's the largest of their Zoids, and does have the capacity to take any of us out in a single attack."

"So what about the Redler?" Larry asked. "I don't want that thing swooping down on me."

"Speaking form experience, huh?" She asked with a smirk. "Like a certain Raynos, maybe?"

Larry quietly fumed. "You know what I mean."

"Don't worry about it." She said. "Between your SAMs, your Bomber unit and my missiles, we've got more then enough firepower to get the Redler should it try anything. Trust me, I've got it all in hand. The only real worry is what Zoids they choose to use." Laura smiled. "But, well, I think i've got a good idea."

*****

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After a short debate, Stephen had decided to rent a Gustav to transport the Zoids out to the battlefield. Rose had argued that it was unnecessary and that it would just be a waste of money. Stephen had countered that, should any of their Zoids be disabled in the battle, it'd be useful to have some way to transport them back to the base for repairs afterwards. Rose had offered that they were very unlikely that any of them would be knocked out in this battle. Neil had suggested erring on the side of caution, because he could have sworn that the other team had to be up to something.

And then Tasch had commented that the very first Zoid she ever drove was a Gustav, and that sealed it.

"Well, here we are." Stephen began as the Gustav pulled up at the battlefield. They were in the middle of a desert, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was hard to believe that it was only a couple of hours back to the city. "You guys ready?"

The three Zoids of the Broken Chairs strode out onto the flat, open expanse of sand, then stopped just inside the boundaries of the battlefield. Compared to the arenas that they were used to, this was a completely different environment. The area consisted mainly of rolling sand dunes, with a clear, cloudless blue sky overhead.

"This is kinda nice." Tasch began as she looked around the battlefield. "Yeah, it ain’t bad at all."

"I thought it would be too bright for you." Rose commented, the Liger standing next to her Redler.

"Naw." Tash shook her head. "I got the glare filters on an' I'm wearin' my sunglasses, so it ain't so bad. Besides, it just feels good to get out and about, y'know?"

"Well it does make for a pleasant change from the usual arena." Neil continued. "I mean, there's only so much of seeing the one arena over and over again that one can take."

"Enjoying the change?" Rose asked, jokingly.

"I'm beginning to see why so many office workers go crazy." He replied. "Looking at the same set of walls each and every day would be enough to drive me nuts."

"Yeah, but in an office, there's nobody shooting at you." Rose offered.

"Not unless they go crazy first." Tasch interjected. "'cause then you'd have no idea what might happen."

Neil shook his head. "You've got all the answers, don't you?" He asked.

In the distance, a Gustav pulled up on the other end of the designated battlefield. Its pilot climbed out, walking back to one of the three Zoids on its trailers. After a minute, the three of them clambered off and arranged themselves at the far end of the battlefield.

The Venom Team's three Zoids were a lot less impressive then those used by the Broken Chairs. The largest of them was a Cannon Spider; this particular Zoid had been modified with a large beam cannon and a three-shot missile pod on the sides of its main missile launcher. Coloured white and red, it stood out against the backdrop of the desert battlefield, and especially next to its two team-mates.

The other two Zoids had also been modified; the Stealth Viper sported a CP-06 Bomber unit on its body, while the Guysack was a little further altered. A pair of beam guns were mounted on the sides of its back in place of the smoke launchers; both were unfamiliar designs. One of the smoke launchers had been moved to the tail, replacing the communications dish normally mounted there.

"Well, they seem ot have invested a fair deal in souping up their Zoids." Neil commented. "All three of them are packing some modifications."

"I'm not that worried." Rose replied. "We've still got it all over them. Even your Gunsniper's gonna wail on any of them."

"...I still wanna know how they got this far." Neil commented. "There has to be somehting we're misisng here."

"Dumb luck?" Rose offered. "Don't sweat it, Neil. We can handle these guys."

A beep form the Liger's console indicated an incoming transmission. Rose answered it, a vid-window popping up with an image of one of the enemy pilots. She was a young woman, who Rose figured to be a touch on the short side. She had shoulder-length red hair, blue eyes and an outfit that seemed to emphasise her cleavage. "Hey there." The woman began. "Laura Anderson, leader of the Venom team here."

"What's up?" Rose asked, a bit surprised by this. It was unusual for the other teams to talk prior to a battle commencing.

"Not much." She replied. "Just thought I'd wish you guys luck before the start of the battle." She cheerily replied.

"Well that's awfully nice of y'all." Tasch added, butting in on the conversation. "An' good luck to you too."

"Thanks for that." Laura replied and smiled. "Well, looks like its time to go. See ya!" She finished and closed the window as the monitor drone floated over the battlefield.

“The Broken Chairs versus the Venom Team.” The electronic voice of the battle monitor began as it circled the area. “Both teams confirmed. Battlefield confirmed. Contestants ready… fight!”

As expected, the Cannon Spider made the first move. The Zoid elevated its cannon, then fired off a single missile into the air. Neil was the first to react, shouting out as he watched the missile climb into the air. "Scatter!" He shouted out, the three Zoids breaking and running in separate directions. Neil knew that the Cannon Spider's missile could carry a wide variety of warheads, and that several of them could be effective across a wide area.

Instead of coming down on any of them however, the missile exploded in midair in a brilliant ball of light, temporarily blinding the three pilots. Tasch cried out, her Redler suddenly lurching across the landscape. "I can't see a thing!" She yelled. The Redler stumbled, as if it had no idea where it was going.

"Me neither!" Rose yelled back, spots swimming before her eyes. The Zero shook its head and roared, as if it was confused. "Damn... what the hell just happened there?" She blinked several times, her vision slowly returning to her. "Damn it..."

"Urgh." Neil muttered. "It’s a flare bomb, I guess." He checked the Gunsniper's scope, but all he could see was a mess of spots. "Dazzles and confuses you for a bit."

"So what are those clowns up to?" Rose asked, finally able to get some vision back. Looking around, she could see nothing save for empty desert. It was like the enemy Zoids had simply vanished from sight. "Dammit, where are they - aaaah!"

The ground to the Liger's side suddenly erupted into a cloud of sand as the Cannon Spider emerged form hiding. The Zoid opened fire, its heavy beam cannon tearing into the Liger's flank at near point-blank range. The larger Zoid stumbled as Rose fought to keep the machine under control. "Hell!" She screamed. "The Spider's over here!"

The Zero turned to face the Cannon Spider, but before it could fire, the smaller Zoid dug into the ground again, vanishing in a cloud of sand. Rose fired anyway, a pair of blasts from the impact cannon chucking up huge clouds of sand, but not doing anything else.

"Hey!" Rose called out. "Come out and fight ya-" She was cut off as a blast hit the Liger from behind, sending it stumbling forwards. Glancing in a monitor, she could see the Guysack was behind her, its three cannon barrels smoking. Snarling, she fired the tail gun at the enemy Zoid. The smaller scorpion Zoid scurried out of the way, then opened fire again, this time scorching armour from the Zero's flank.

"He guys!" She called out. "I could use a little help here!"

"Just a sec..." Neil called out. "Sit tight. I'm coming for ya!" The Gunsniper broke into a run, sprinting across the desert towards the embattled Liger.

*****

Inside the cockpit of his Stealth Viper, Larry Rex smiled to himself. His Zoid was well hidden inside the sand dunes, and poised to strike. The plan was going of flawlessly... as it tended to do. He had to admit, Laura's plan was a good one. Deep down, he would have admitted that he was not the bravest of people; however the idea of ambushes form cover was very appealing to him.

The team had been using the plan so far this season, and it had worked for them. He had to admit that when he first joined the team, he was rather dubious about their chances of success; after all, they were in three small and relatively weak Zoids. Very few people ever did well with Guysacks or Stealth Vipers; they were usually seen as 'beginner' Zoids that people who couldn't afford better used. And in general, there just weren't that many Cannon Spiders in the competition.

Of course, he hadn't exactly been spoiled for choice when it came to picking a team this year. After the little disaster that had been last year's season, he had become rather unpopular with a lot of established teams... Never mind that what happened hadn't been his fault, oh no. But he'd copped the blame for it anyway.

But then the Venom Team had come along. Laura was new, but she hade a lot of rather interesting ideas... not the least of which was what one could actually do with a Guysack, Cannon Spider or Stealth Viper. She'd said that she liked his style and the way that he fought, which was good enough for him.

The ground shook as the Gunsniper ran closer and closer to his position. Figuring the enemy Zoid's location from the sound of its footfalls, he quietly counted down to himself. Three... two... one... now!

The Stealth Viper reared up out of the ground, sending sand cascading from off its body. Spotting the enemy Zoid, he quickly opened fire with the twin head-mounted beam cannons, sending fire across the sand at the enemy Zoid. Several shots pinged off the ground before striking the Gunsniper in the legs, sending it stumbling backwards. The enemy pilot recovered faster then he expected, however, and turned to face him.

Not wasting any time, he opened fire with his Zoid's twin wrist-mounted guns, sending streams of fire back at the Viper. Not wanting to be caught out in the open, Larry opened up the Zoid's throttle. The Viper dived into the sand again, kicking up a cloud behind it as the first few shots tore into the sand where it had been.

"Not bad, huh?" He began as the Viper burrowed underground. The key part of the plan was to keep evading the enemy Zoid and keep its pilot on the move. He used the terrin to his favour, keeping out of the way of the other machine's line of fire, hiding where they couldn't find them... and then doing the completely unexpected.

The Viper surfaced, on the other side of the Gunsniper, the two Zoids with tier back to each other. "Bet you're not expecting this, are you?" He asked as he squeezed the triggers again. A quartet of rockets leaped from the Stealth Viper's back, slamming into the Gunsniper and sending it staggering forwards. The smaller Zoid collapsed, falling flat on its face. "Yeah, that's the trick." He muttered to himself.

To his surprise, however, the Gunsniper managed to make it back to its feet, clearly not out of action as he'd originally thought. "What the hell?" He asked. "I'll have to deal with you- oh-oh!" His sensors beeped as they detected another Zoid approaching; fast, and airborne. "Crap! Its the Redler!"

The Viper dived into the sand again its tail remaining exposed for a moment. The dual missile launcher on the tail swung towards the Redler, then fired, sending its twin missiles airborne and chasing after the Redler. Then, without pausing to see if they made their target, the rest of the Viper vanished into the ground. Larry knew that there was no way that he was going to hang around where an enemy Zoid could grab him, especially not an airborne Zoid. Experiences had told him that flying Zoids were very, very bad for him.

Yeah, Vanessa, I'm talking about you, he thought to himself. The only thing he'd found that was worse then a flying Zoid was a flying Zoid piloted by a vengeful ex-girlfriend.

*****

"Ah heck!" Tasch shouted out as the two missiles soared up towards her Zoid. The Stealth Viper's pilot had done well to launch them and then duck under cover; now she had to deal with his cleverness.

The two missiles were headed straight at her. In response, she threw the HOTAS hard to one side, the Redler banking away from their path. As expected, the missiles turned to follow her. "Yeah, I can see y'all." She muttered to herself. "But you ain't gonna catch me!" As the missiles closed in, she pulled the Redler around in a tighter turn now crossing over their path and turning inside them. The enemy missiles continued to turn, but were beginning to loose her.

"An' now, yer gone!" She shouted out. She stomped on the foot pedals, then swerved then sharply to the side. The Redler's twin boosters turned, pulling the Zoid around in an incredibly tight circle. The missiles tried to follow her but to no avail; instead, the first one crossed into the second's flight path, triggering its proximity fuse. The two missiles exploded into a ball of flame.

The Redler swung around, resuming a slightly more normal flight pattern as Tasch searched around for her attacker. "How are y'all doing down there?" She asked over the communicator.

"Craptacular!" Rose shouted back. "These guys won't stand still and fight!" The Cannon Spider burrowed into the sand again as Rose took a shot at it. Before she colds do anything else, the Guysack emerged, swiping at her Zoid's legs with its claws and neatly slicing a chunk out of one of them. "Damn it! Don't these guys ever give up?"

"You're making yourself into a target like that." Neil replied. "Get moving! We'll cover you."

"Right..." Rose trailed off. She figured what she’d been doing wrong; she'd been letting the two enemy Zoids box her in and distract her, and hadn't been thinking about her own advantages here. She opened up the throttle, the Zero sprinting away from the two enemy Zoids. The Guysack and Cannon Spider both opened fire with their beam cannons, the shots narrowly missing the fleeing Zoid.

"Comin’ for ya!" Neil called out as the Gunsniper opened fire on the Guysack. In response, the enemy Zoid dug into the ground, vanishing into a cloud of dust. Before he could turn his attention to the Cannon Spider, however, the ground behind his Zoid erupted as the Stealth Viper emerged again. hissing loudly, the Zoid opened fire with its cannons.

"Whoah!" Neil called out. "I'm beginning to really, really dislike this snake!" The Gunsniper fired its boosters, scurrying out of the Viper's line of fire. "Tasch, can I get some help down here?" He yelled out.

"Sure thing!" She called back, the Redler diving towards his Zoid. Tasch dropped her sights onto the Stealth Viper, but, before she could open fire, a loud screech came form the radar warning receiver. "What in the heck?" She asked as she desperately searched around for the source of the attack.

On the ground, the Cannon Spider opened fire again, a large missile soaring out from its back and heading straight at her Zoid. Firing its boosters, the Redler climbed away form the missile as it chased after it. Then, to Tasch's considerable surpise, the missile's body split open... revealing a cluster of half a dozen smaller missiles with in. Each one of them soared after the Redler, closing in on it.

"Ah, hell!" She called out, desperately throwing the Redler into a sharp turn, trying to evade the enemy warheads.

*****

Looking at the situation as it was unfolding from cockpit of her Cannon Spider, Laura Anderson couldn't help but laugh to herself. She was really enjoying this battle so far, and not just because it was going just as she had planned. She watched the Redler for a moment as the pilot tried to dodge and weave through the flight of missiles coming after them. She had to give the enemy pilot bonus points for trying. That's what she liked to see, a little effort.

Laura thought that easy or one-sided battles weren't that exciting. That was why she had formed the Venom Team, so she could enjoy the challenge. The idea was that the team would fight in very unexpected, very odd ways and use superior tactics and unusual equipment choices to beat their enemies, not just sheer firepower or brute force as so many others preferred. The idea was that the team would use their brains and not their brawn to beat their opponents.

Besides, there was something rather appealing about beating a superior Zoid using such an underated machine as a Cannon Spider. Proving that it could be done was just as much fun, to her mind, as actually doing it. And the look on the enemy pilots face would probably be priceless afterwards.

And she liked spiders, which was always a bonus.

Having tied up the Redler for the moment, she turned her attention to the fleeing Liger Zero. The enemy pilot was trying to get away from her and Milton by simply running away. A fair plan, she figured, as their Zoids were both less then half as fast as the Liger. And she figured that the Liger's pilot had been expecting the Redler and Gunsniper to support them while they ran. Good plan, but it wouldn't benefit Laura if they pulled it off.

She locked up the Liger with the Spider's targeting system. Quickly thumbing the available options, she selected a high-explosive single warhead round from the remaining missiles. She liked the versatility that the Cannon Spider's weapon provided, but at the same time, she also knew that every now and then, a big stick was just as good.

The Spider rocked as the missile fired form the cannon, streaking straight at the Liger's damaged flank. As fast as the Liger was moving, the missile was going about seven times faster... which didn't give the pilot much time to react. The warhead struck the Liger in the side, the force of the blast lifting it off its feet and then slamming it down hard on its side.

Grinning to herself, Laura opened up the throttle, the Cannon Spider scurrying towards the downed Zoid. She was pretty sure that the missile had knocked it out of action, but experience had taught her that it always helped to be certain about these things. As the Spider bolted across the sand, she dropped the targeting sights for the beam cannon onto the Liger's exposed belly, finger on the trigger. Just In case.

The Liger, however remained motionless, giving indicating that it was indeed out of action. Spinning the Cannon Spider around, she headed back towards the rest of the battle. Looking around, she could see that the Redler had managed to make its way through the mess of missiles she had thrown at it. Okay, she's good, she thought to herself. So let's see what else this team has to offer.

Looking around, she could see the Gunsniper was running at the Stealth Viper, the two Zoids blazing away at each other to surprisingly little effect. The Gunsniper was proving to be surprisingly evasive, while Larry was staying low to the ground and making himself a harder target. Watching them go, however, she figured out what was going on.

"Larry!" She shouted into the communicator. "Look out!"

"Wha?" He called back, but was too late. The Gunsniper kicked at the Stealth Viper, the Zoid's toe claws catching it under the head. The Viper was knocked sideways, and was sent crashing headfirst into the ground.

"Dammit!" The Viper lacked melee weapons, which made it near helpless in close combat. The Gunsniper had managed to get up close enough to take advantage of this weakness. Seeing the danger to her team-mate, she dropped her sights onto the Gunsniper. "Milton! Take him out!" She called out over the communicator.

"Sure thing... look out, Laura!" He yelled out.

The Cannon Spider was rocked by several hits as the Redler swooped down on it, firing its twin beam cannons at her. Glancing around, she sighted the Redler as it pulled away for another pass. "Too close..." She muttered, opening up the throttle. The Cannon Spider again vanished into the ground, the Guysack right behind it.

*****

Neil looked around for any sign of the Stealth Viper. The Zoid had vanished underground, which meant that he couldn't sight it visually. Furthermore, the design of it and the other Zoids on the enemy team meant that they were very hard to detect; what little returns he would have normally gotten on the 3D Radar system were now coming up completely blank. It meant that he would have no idea of where the next attack would be coming from.

Checking over the Gunsiper's status board, he could see that such an attack would likely finish him off. Not good... I see very little in the way of armour here. The Zoid's legs and chest had been all but stripped bare, and the rear was a mess after the rocket attack. And that's on a Zoid that doesn't have too much armour to begin with... He added as he checked things over. I'm just not built for this sorta fighting.

The way the Venom Team was battling favoured them; they could hit and fade and slowly wear his Zoid down, while he could only react and take a shot in passing. He knew he'd damaged the Viper, but as far as he could tell, the other two were still undamaged. Not that it'd take much to put down the Guysack, he figured. All I gotta do is get it into the open.../

Which beggared one question. How the hell were the Venom team able to locate their Zoids? Being underground would block out most standard sensor systems; and while he knew that the Cannon Spider had some specialised sensory equipment, he doubted that it would be good enough to let them spot their Zoids with such accuracy. So how were they doing it?

"Hey Tasch!" He called out as he glanced around. "Can you see any sign of them?"

"Nope." She replied. "I can't see nothing from up here."

"Right. Cover me. I'm going to see if I can find some higher ground..." The Gunsniper broke into a run, sprinting across the desert. Within seconds, the Stealth Viper popped up near his Zoid, opening fire from behind this time. "Aw come on, now you're being silly!" Neil snapped. The Gunsniper weaved and dodged through the enemy Zoid's fire, its pilot desperately trying to avoid any further damage.

"I'm comin’ for ya!" Tasch called out. "Hang on!" The Redler swooped down, opening fire with its twin beam cannons. A shot struck the Stealth Viper in the flank, scoring armour off its midsection. The enemy Zoid, its pilot clearly desperate to avoid another attack, dived into the sand again.

Neil suddenly stopped the Gunsniper, the small Zoid looking around for any sign of its opponents. However, for the moment, there was nothing. Where are they? He asked himself. Why do they wait until I'm running to attack? A vague idea began to form in the back of Neil's head, one that suddenly made sense. "Hey Tasch, you've only seen them attack us when we're moving, right?"

"Well... yeah." She began. "'cept for the initial attack. I didn't see much of anything there, what with the flare bomb and all."

"I thought so." He replied. "I think they're listening in to the sound of our Zoids moving across the sand... maybe they have sensors that allow them to detect the vibrations from the feet or something like that."

"Y'know, that makes sense." Tasch replied. "It'd explain why they don't attack when we don't move."

"Yeah..." He commented. "Now if only we could lure 'em out of hiding." He contemplated the idea. "I mean, I could run around blindly and make myself a target, but I'm not in the best shape for that."

"You could do that..." Tasch commented. "But it may be easier fer y'all to shoot them form down there. I mean, you've got more firepower then' me..." She considered the matter. "Actually, I think I got an idea."

"Oh?" Neil asked. "What is it?"

"I run... and pretend to be you. Then when they pop up to attack me, y'all can shoot them."

"That's..." He thought it through. "That’s a good idea, I guess."

"So let's go then." Tasch finished, enthusiastically.

The Redler landed next to the Gunsniper in a crouch. Then the Redler took off, breaking into its bizarre hopping run, bouncing its way across the desert. Neil watched it go, amused at the way the Redler ran. It wasn't like anything else he'd ever seen, and he never quite got used to watching it.

As he expected, the Stealth Viper popped up behind her Zoid. "Tasch!" He called out. "On your six!"

"I see him!" She shouted back. The Redler suddenly leaped into the air, its engines lifting it straight up. Before the Stealth Viper could react, Neil opened fire on the Zoid form behind. The Viper's pilot hadn't seen him or, more likely, was surprised by the Redler's actions. As a result, he wasn't prepared for what happened. The Viper's body was rocked with shots from the Gunsniper's cannons. The Zoid shook and shuddered, then collapsed, slumping onto the sand.

"Yeah!" Neil called out. "I got him! I got him good!"

"Cool beans!" Tasch replied. "Now we gotta get the other two."

"Well... yeah." In his excitement, he had forgotten about the Guysack and the Cannon Spider. "Okay, Tasch? You fele up to doing it again?"

"Dang tootin' right I do." She rpelied with a grin. "Let's show these guys what we can do!"

*****

[Deadborder]

Milton Palmer nervously waited in the cockpit of the Guysack, listening for the tell-tale sounds of a Zoid moving nearby. He knew that Laura's Zoid was nearby, but at the same time he felt very exposed and alone. He knew that Larry's Zoid had been knocked out of action, which made him worried that the other team may have found a way to locate their Zoids.

Even though they had beaten the biggest and most dangerous Zoid on the enemy team, he still wasn't too comfortable with the idea of taking on the Gunsniper and the Redler. The Gunsniper had a lot more firepower then his Guysack, easily more then enough to take him out. And while his Guysack had been equipped with a pair of decently-sized beam cannons, it still was a rather small and weak Zoid.

The sensors beeped as they registered a Zoid's footfall nearby. Then came another one, then more. There was definitely a Zoid nearby, he figured. The pattern that it was tracing indicated that it was about to come right by him... a perfect chance to strike.

The Guysack clambered out from under the ground, shedding sand as it emerged. Inside the cockpit, Milton looked around for the Zoid that he had been tracking. As far as he could tell, it should have been right in front of him. Instead, there was nothing. Where'd it go? The Gunsniper should be right here? He glanced around, and then up, and spied the Redler launching into the air. Wait, if that's the Redler, then where's the...

There was a quartet of loud explosions as the Guysack was literally slammed from behind. The Zoid was knocked forwards, sprawling across the sand before crashing to the ground face-first. Checking his status board, he could see that something had just blasted him form behind, all but crippling his Zoid. The tail's controls weren't responding along with the weapons mounted on it, while the rear two legs were also out of action.

The Guysack tried to stumble to its feet, its pilot now very worried. He realised that he'd been caught out and that he was in big trouble; he had to get out of there before the enemy Zoid could strike again. The Guysack stumbled forwards, only to be hammered again by a burst of fire from the enemy Zoid. The shots tore through the remaining legs, then detonated the smoke launcher on the Zoid's side. As the Zoid was enveloped in a cloud of black smoke, he glumly noted that its combat system had been disabled.

Still, he could help out. "Uh, Laura?" he began as he activated the communicator, about the only system still functioning. "They've hit on our plan and knocked me out of action... just be careful."

*****

Tasch's Redler circled around the cloud of black smoke that was slowly billowing out of the downed Guysack. "Didja get him?" She asked.

"I'd say so." Neil replied. "The radar system says that his Zoid is out of action, so think he's a goner."

Tasch nodded. "Well that means we've only got one of 'em to go. We've really turned this one around, huh?"

"That we have." Neil added, mentally adding that he did not want to be around Rose after the battle. He doubted that she would take being beaten by a Cannon Spider that well. "Okay, ready to go? All we need to do is snare that Spider."

"Yup." She replied. "Let's go."

The Redler again dived down towards the desert floor and burst into a hopping, skipping run. This time, rather then run in a straight line, Tash bounded across the desert, trying to confuse the enemy pilot as to her heading and intentions. The Redler belted along, then suddenly skidded and changed directions, continuing along its path. "Come on..." She muttered. "I know yer down there."

"Maybe she's further away then we thought." Neil commented, his Gunsniper patiently watching the hopping Redler. "Maybe she can't detect you yet."

"I'm makin' enough noise for it." Tasch commented. "I don't get it." The Redler stopped in and abrupt skid, then slowly turned, and began running again along a different heading. "Come on... come on. I'm makin’ as much noise as a heard of Elephanders here."

As Neil watched, an area of sand near the Redler began to shift, then a red and white shape emerged from it, facing the Redler. "Tasch, she's there, right behind you!" He yelled over the communicator.

"I see her!" Tasch called back. The Redler fired its boosters and leaped into the air, soaring away from the Zoid.

"Now I've got - whoah!" Neil dropped his sights onto the Cannon Spider, but before it could fire, the Zoid responded. To his surprise, the turret swung around to face him, then launched another missile at his Zoid. "Ah hell!"

In desperation he fired off the remaining missiles from his Zoid, sending them straight at the oncoming projectile. The two weapons met in mid-flight, far to close to him for comfort. The enemy missile exploded, the blast showering the Gunsniper with debris and shrapnel. Several rounds stabbed into the Zoid, tearing into the allready damaged leg, knocking it down on its side.

"Ah... poop." He muttered. Struggling with the controls, he managed to prop the Gunsniper up. The battered Zoid managed to make it to one knee. Checking the status board, he could see that the Zoid's leg was damaged but not destroyed and it was still operational. "I guess I got lucky after all."

Glancing around, he could see that the Cannon Spider had turned its attention to Tasch's Redler. The Spider opened fire wit hthe large beam cannon mounted on its back, the shots narrowly missing the airborne Zoid. To his annoyance, he could see that the Spider was also out of range of his weapons; in fact, he suspected that the enemy pilot had done that on purpose....

"Hey Tasch!" He called out. "My leg's busted. I can't help you out form here. Sorry!"

"That's okay." She called back. "I think I know what I'm doing this time."

"This time?" He asked. "Well, if you're sure..."

"Positive." She rpelied as her eyes narrowed. The Redler lopped up and over the Cannon Spider, then dived down, lining it up for a strafing run. The Spider's pilot reacted first, however. The Zoid's main cannon fired again, sending another missile heading straight for her.

"Tasch!" Neil called out.

"Don't worry about it." She replied. "I know what I'm doin'" The Redler dived towards the missile, which split open as the last one had. The missile disgorged its load of smaller weapons, which climbed away form the shell and streaked towards the Redler.

"Nice try." She began. "But I'm smarter then y'all." The Redler abruptly dived away form the missiles, screaming straight for the desert floor. Then Tasch twisted the bosters again, the Zoid levelling out to zoom across the desert - albeit inverted. The missiles slammed into the ground behind the Redler, unable to follow the Zoid.

"And now yer mine." She finished. The Redler sped straight towards the Cannon Spider, still inverted. At the last possible second, its tailblade flicked out form the housing, slicing at the Cannon Spider as it passed over it. The blade sliced through the trio of cannons mounted on the Zoid's back, neatly slicing them across their barrels. The severed portions of all three weapons clattered to the ground, sliced free from the Zoid's body.

The Redler pulled up and circled around, flying around the damaged Cannon Spider. "I gotcha good, didn't I?" She asked nobody in particular.

The communicator beeped to life. "Nice work there." Laura's voice began. "You did a great job there... I wouldn't have expected anything like that." The red-haired woman smiled. "And you've neatly crippled my Zoid too. As enjoyable as this battle has been, I'm afraid I'm going to have to surrender."

"Well sure thing." Tasch replied. "An' thanks."

*****

The three of them watched as Stephen used the Gustav's cranes to up the Liger and load it onto the trailers. The Zoid would need a lot of work when it got back to base; same for the Gunsniper. By comparison, the Redler seemed to be nearly unharmed.

As soon as the Zoid was loaded, Rose walked over to where Tasch and Neil were standing and watching the proceedings. "How come my Zoid gets trashed, but you guys in the low-end cheap machines manage to come through and win the match?" She asked.

"Dumb luck, I guess." Neil replied. "Or maybe just brute stupidity."

"Well, they did go after you first 'cause you had the biggest Zoid." Tasch added. "Heck, they kinda forgot about me for a while."

"Lucky you." Rose commented. "Ah well, can't be helped, I guess. That was probably what my dad would have called a 'learning experience' or a 'character-building moment'." She made little inverted comma motions with her fingers to emphasise the point. "You know, you haven't learnt humility until you get trashed by a Cannon Spider."

"Don't worry about it, Rose." Neil replied. "If you think about it, there are a couple of teams out there now who lost to those guys without getting the benefits of earning a few points in reply." He shrugged. "We were the lucky ones in this case."

"Yeah..." Rose nodded. "I guess I've learned to stop underestimating my opponents."

"Well I never did." Tasch added. "I always figured these guys were up to somethin', and I was right."

"How'd you figure that?" Neil asked.

"Well, they'd made it this far in only a Cannon Spider, a Stealth Viper an' a Guysack." She explained. "Any team doin' this good in those Zoids has to be up to somethin'."

"Good point." Rose replied. "Damn it, I hate it when you make perfect sense like that."

Stephen walked over to the team. "Well guys, I've got the Zoids secured." He began. "So, you ready to get going? I figure there's not much reason to hang around here."

"Hang on a sec." Neil began. "I think somebody wants to have a word with us." Looking around, he could see the three members of the Venom team standing nearby. Almost immediately he was surprised by how short Laura was.

The four of them walked over to the other team. "Wow." Laura began. "I've got to hand it to you guys. You managed to do what no other team has done so far and figure us out. I'm impressed."

"Ah, it was little more then blind speculation, really." Neil replied. "You guys had us good. You had done a great job of trapping us."

"Yeah, but we didn't figure out what you guys were up to." Milton shook his head. "When you, uh, figured it out and used those decoys on us, we were really caught by surprise. You did just as good a job of trapping us."

"And you managed to get two of us with surprising ease." Laura continued. "Not bad at all, really."

"These guys do that sort of stuff all the time." Rose commented. "You'd be amazing how often she'll go for the purely crazy stuff in a battle." She indicated to Tasch.

"Well, that was quite impressive of you." Laura added. "I really, really didn't expect what you did there, flying inverted and striking with the tailblade. I was all prepared for another strafing run or maybe a strike with the claws, but not that. That was..." She considered it. "Quite incredibly brave, possibly crazy. Nice work."

"Ah heck, it weren't nothing." Tasch replied. "I jus' did whatever came to my mind at the time."

"Fascinating." Laura finished. "Well, you guys have done well today and I for one am very impressed. I hope to see you again some day."

"Me too." Tasch finished. "And y'all did great too."

"Thanks." She finished. The team turned and walked back to the Gustav that was standing by to carry off their disabled Zoids.

"Well they were surprisingly polite." Neil added. "We need to meet more people like that."

Rose shrugged. "Yeah, probably." She spoke up. "Come on. Let's get home. I don't want to dwell on the fact that I got trashed by a Cannon Spider any longer."

"You've got no sense of humour, you know that?" Neil commented as they walked back to the Gustav. "But then, you're so forgiving and accepting."

"Ha ha, Neil." She replied. "Very funny."

"I try, Rose. I try."

"So, glad I hired the Gustav now?" Stephen asked.

"Shut up the lot of you." She shook her head. "I'm never gonna hear the end of this, am I?"

*****

Author’s notes:

At a relatively early stage of development, one of the characters was a 'Strange Guylos Girl" who piloted a Cannon Spider. The idea didn't last (I liked the Black Redler a lot more, and saw the Spide as a little... limiting) but I thought that the idea was too good to go to waste. Thus Laura and the Venom team were born from it

Incidentally, the weapons on the Cannon Spider are the guns from a Cannon Diver.