PAC-Wolves: Geyser of Fire - Chaps. 4, 5, 6

[pacwolf]

Okay, here's were I try the epic stuff, the "Zoids Meet Braveheart" kind of thing. Tell me what you think.

Chapter Four
Birth of Fire

Gellenos was a village far smaller than Klaylos. It was a new town, composed mostly of wood and clay buildings—nothing too permanent. Laying about twenty-five kilometers into the Veergati Desert, it was the first sign of life to come across on the journey southward into the Southern Frontier. It owed its feeble existence to the rich deposits of iron and other precious metals that laid in the hills bordering its eastern side. The Empire controlled the town, but the Republic knew of its existence, and would no doubt make a strike for this area if the War for the Southern Frontier continued.

Kavid and I parked our Zoids out of site of the town’s center. We walked the rest of the way in, looking for a bar or other social area. We were bounty hunters, and had learned long ago that bars were the best place to gather information—at least in small towns.

To our surprise the streets were disturbingly vacant, and no Zoids stood guard by the mines. Either they were called to duty, or removed from duty, there was no way to be sure. A few stray people took strong notice of us, dropped whatever they were doing and ran away, most often scrambling to seek shelter in a nearby building.

“What do you suppose that’s all about, Jeremy?” asked Kavid.

I looked down. “It’s our clothes. We’re still dressed like Imperial Officers. For some reason they must be considered a threat around here. We need a makeover.”

“Or at least a shower.” Joked Kavid. He pointed at a small tailor shop across the street. “Let’s try that place.”

“We don’t have any money.” I reminded him.

“I have a feeling that with these uniforms on, we don’t need any money.”


Upon entering the shop, I felt like the most hated man in the world. Customers in the store transformed into a frowning and growling mob and started filing out the door, never taking their eyes off of us.

“They’re sure angry at the Empire for something.” Whispered Kavid. I just quietly looked for some appropriate civilian clothes.

I jumped as the back door banged and the store’s owner stormed out. “Please, sirs, leave my store! I don’t care if you beat me! You’re scaring away all of my customers! You must go!” He wasn’t a beggar. This guy had guts.

“Sir, look, we—“ I started.

“I haven’t done anything against the Emperor! I’m doing the best I can to pay the new taxes, but I can’t do it without customers!” he ranted.

Now I was curious. “We’re new transfers to this area. What new taxes are you talking about?”

The salesman was taken for a moment by my question, but answered it. “The ones imposed by the major.”

Hairs on my back began to raise. “Major…?”

“Nevets, of course.”

Damn. That greedy pig wasn’t dead. He hadn’t been in Klaylos—he was in Gellenos, taxing these poor people to death. Nevets had put the Castaways of the Republic through blackmail hell for over a year. I was not going to let him torture a whole town the same way.

“Look, um…we’re actually Imperial Military Police, here to apprehend the major and end his corrupt activities.” My improvisational statement even got Kavid to pay attention.

“Yeah, right, sure you are, and I’m a freaking Death Saurer. You’re just here to trick me into paying more tax money!” barked the store owner.

Putting an intense expression on my face, I grabbed my uniform, “Look at me! Look at this uniform! It’s trashed! Ripped! Full of dust! Do you think a henchman of Nevets would look like this?” I really let the fake emotion fly. I heard Kavid fight back a laugh

“Well, not usually…” The salesman stroked his chin.

“Of course not! We’re MP Zoid pilots, and Nevets escaped us by shooting us down with his damn Zoids.” That’s were I made my biggest mistake and success, all at the same time.

“What are you talking about?” asked the owner, “Nevets only has one Zoid! You guys don’t make any sense! You must me Republic spies! I’m calling the authorities!”

Before he could reach his phone, Kavid’s blaster pistol leveled against the old man’s head. “Look, buddy, we need two things: clothes and information.”

“Bastards! You’re just thieves! Fine, take my clothes, destroy what little hope for a life I have left!” groaned the salesman.

“Great!” said Kavid, “We’re halfway there. Now, where’s Nevets?”

The owner debated answering that, but then shrugged his shoulders. “He’s probably at his compound atop Pitra hill, where he keeps that accursed dragon of his.”

Kavid and I exchanged glances. This was new. “What dragon?” I asked.

A veil seemed to lift from the owner’s eyes. “You really don’t work for him, do you?”

“What dragon?” I pushed.

The old man grinned. “The Geyser of Fire, he calls it.”


Our new clothes fit very nicely. I went with a tan outfit that had brown highlights. Kavid's was roughly the same design, but navy blue and red. The store owner sure had some comfy stuff. When he realized that we were actually the major’s arch-enemies, he was more than happy to give us some quality clothing—although I don’t think it was quite the “cream of the crop.” Unfortunately, the store didn’t sell shoes, so we still had to walk in the same old crappy Imperial Officer dress shoes.

“Sounds like Major Nevets has been pretty busy over the last week,” said Kavid once we were back in our Zoids.

“Nobody makes a new kind of Zoid in a week. He must have been working on this one in secret for a while.”

“Maybe it’s a Salamander?” offered Kavid. “Not many people have seen Salamanders. They could be getting the wrong idea about it.”

“I don’t think so. There are plenty of pictures of them. Someone in town would have seen one at some point in their life.”

“Yeah, probably.

We piloted our Command Wolves up Pitra Hill with Kavid keeping a very low altitude. After only thirty minutes, the tower in Nevets’ compound came into view. It was a wide, bulky tower, about four stories tall, sporting a flat roof with large hinges on the sides.

Kavid hailed me. “Something big was meant to come out of that.”

Spread about the compound were patches of destroyed land, evaporated much the same way that the town of Klaylos had been.

“Whatever destroyed our town came from here.” I assumed with a degree of certainty.

“And so are our friends.” Stated Kavid.

“What?” I said in shock. He was right. Lying next to the tower, flipped over or on their side were piled the other two PAC-Wolves and Bruno’s Gustav.

“How did Nevets get ahold of them?” I asked Kavid over the comm.

“By cutting a deal with a Vampire, Mr. Kelt.” That high-pitched voice speared through my cyberphonic implants, once again hitting their mark and making me squint.

“Nevets!” I screamed as PAC-1 turned to face the tower.

The roof of the tower opened and a Liger-sized Zoid raised out of the top floor. The massively customized Zoid had a dragon-like appearance, sporting a long neck and a snake-like tail. It’s torso was carried on large legs that rested on enormous claws. The dragon’s back grasped onto huge wings that were as wide as the body was long. But the weapons array stole the show: missiles lined the top and bottom of its wings, and blasters rode along its tail. My jaw dropped, however, at the sight of the twin Buster Cannons laying on its back, much like a Buster Eagle’s. There was no doubt that this puppy could shoot.

But Buster Cannons couldn’t vaporize a town. What else could this Zoid do?

“Enjoying the sight of my new Zoid, Mr. Kelt?” gloated Nevets from the cockpit of the dragon. “I call it the ‘Geyser of Fire’.”

“I call it target practice, major.” I slapped back, trying to sound cocky. “Who did you steal it from?” My slap worked. He got angry.

“I assure you, you worthless moron, that the Geyser of Fire is far beyond any normal man’s imagination. It is 100-percent a creation of Erem Nevets, and it will lead me to infinite reward and domination of the planet known as Zi!”

“Dominate this, asshole.” Kavid’s Redler swooped around to the right side of the tower and opened fire at the base of the structure. The heavy steel and concrete construction teetered and collapsed in a thundering roar, sending up a burst of gray dust and smoke. The Geyser of Fire crashed to the ground right in the center of it all.

“Well, that was easy.” Kavid joked.

“You know better than that, buddy.” I warned. “He’ll be back in seconds. Find a good firing position.” A shadow passed over me. “What was that? The Geyser?” I asked Kavid.

“No. Whale King. Lots of Whale Kings. They’re heading for Gellenos.” Kavid could see everything from his altitude, but I had seen this kind of movement before, back by ISSO.

“There’s gonna be a battle nearby. Soon. A big one. We need to get our friends out of here and rejoin the Republic.”

“Leaving so soon?” Two huge Buster Cannon bolts rocketed out of the gray tower rubble and nailed PAC-1 on the right side. I went flying through the air and tumbled across the ground.

It took a good two minutes for my wits to return to me. Buster Cannons weren’t Charged Particle Guns, but they were still the most powerful conventional weapon in use.

I looked back to the compound. The Geyser of Fire had arisen from the tower wreckage and was chasing Kavid. Before Kavid could circle around for a strafing pass, Nevets’ Zoid unleashed a volley of missiles at the Redler. Kavid dodged most of them, but the last one managed to hit his Zoid’s left back leg, and send him spinning to the ground.

Nevets’ dragon flew towards a compound bunker, and hovered above it. The bunker’s roof then opened, and a reload of missiles rose up and attached themselves to the Geyser as it floated in the air. It could re-arm itself without having to land! I didn’t have to have the comm open to hear Nevets’ laughing.

Then, things got really bad.

A dark red glow started building up in the dragon’s mouth. “Didn’t you always wonder what I did with all the money I blackmailed from you bounty hunters?” asked Nevets. “I didn’t just have control of Klaylos, I had control of five towns. But now that the Geyser of Fire is complete, the Empire will be mine, and soon the Republic will fall. And then, all of Planet Zi will be under my control!” Nevets’ laugh was abhorable. “All thanks to this, my ultimate weapon! The Plasma Particle Cannon!”

The red glow started to flicker with hyperactivity, and whatever the energy was, it looked ready to fire. And then—it did.

The beam pouring from the Geyser of Fire’s mouth could best be described as a Charged Particle Beam lit on fire. It was a powerful beam of light ripping through the air, but it was blood red, and spewing bursts of energy in every direction.

Just as the blast was about to release, however, Kavid’s Redler slammed its head into the dragon from the ground, knocking its aim off by just a couple of degrees—but that was enough. The Plasma Particle beam vaporized the ground next to PAC-1’s front right shoulder, and dissolved the shoulder’s armor plating. I jumped the CW out of the way before anymore damage could be done.

“Thanks, Kavid!”

“Let’s just hope your welding job keeps this head on!”

Kavid circled around and started a firing run at the Geyser, but Nevets’ beast drew upon some immense source of energy and put up a level ten shield.

“Damn!” cursed my friend. “Where does it draw all its power from?”

“From the most natural source of power for any Zoid, of course!” said Nevets. What was he talking about? “But play time is over, my old friends. Your rent is due!” The red glow started to build up and flicker again.

I took my finger off of PAC-1’s weapons trigger. This guy was insane. His answer for everything was to just destroy all his problems. There was only one option against a guy like this.

PAC-1 turned around and began running off towards the mines. The Geyser of Fire released the Plasma Particle shot, erupting everything behind me as if a volcano had just been born.

“Coward! How dare you run form me!” Your death is to be my first reward!” Man, how I hated his voice.

He turned to firing his Buster Cannons at me, but they were big and slow, and therefore easy to dodge. As a side bonus they slowed him down. After a couple of minutes I reached a mine that fit perfectly with what I needed.

First, there was a cliff, and when PAC-1 came to it, I spun around, took a defensive stance, and opened fire on the major.

“So, you choose to die like a warrior. How quaint. How stupid. I can kill you in one shot!”

I played right along. “I won’t die that easily, Nevets!”

“Ha!” The Geyser charged up the PPC again, just like I knew he would, and fired. And just like I knew PAC-1 could do, I pulled back hard on the controls and jumped my Command Wolf backwards off of the cliff, preparing for a very hard crash.

There was less of an explosion than I had hoped for, because the Particle Plasma cannon basically evaporated a lot of the ground on the cliffside, but a few big boulders followed me on my fall down. When I hit the ground, it hurt. It hurt a lot. A when the boulders rained down, it hurt even more. The Zoid was invincible. My shaking body was not.

Second, there was a mine entrance nearby. I had to move quickly. The cave entrance was twenty meters away, and the Geyser would clear the top of the cliff in seconds. I activated the cloaking devices, and PAC-1 disappeared from view. Then, in an aching rush, I wiggled my Zoid out of its rocky tomb and ran into the cave. The Geyser came swooping down over the boulders and fired the PPC, incinerating my former blanket of rocks.

Nevets’ dragon circled the new crater it had just made outside of the mine entrance for a couple of minutes, then, satisfied with his victory, the major departed.

“Check and mate, Mr. Kelt.” He gloated.

As I watched from the mine entrance, I massaged my aching head. “I’m still playing the game, Nevets.”

[pacwolf]

Chapter Five
Step-By-Step

What hurt the most wasn’t the fact that I had lost the battle to Nevets and his super-lizard. It wasn’t even the fact that my friends could be in terrible danger as I laid in hiding down the mine shaft—although that probably should have been my greatest concern. What bothered me most was that Nevets wasn’t even a very good Zoid pilot; he just had a really powerful one with impossibly strong weapons and…Plasma Armor? It must have had Plasma Armor. How else could it have survived all of our attacks?

Damn! For a technology that supposedly no one on all of Planet Zi knew about, it sure got itself spread around. I was starting to get a theory about why.

After about thirty minutes, I left the cave, and PAC-1 took a slow trot back to the major’s compound. I knew I had to return to check up on my friends.


There was so sign of the Geyser of Fire on Pitra Hill. The area was totally devoid of any activity, actually, save the insect-life and an occasional animal flying by. It was too…comfortable. Kavid’s Redler had been added to the pile of captured Zoids, but I could see that its cargo hold was still shut. Good. I crawled out of PAC-1 about 100-meters away and hoofed-it the rest of the way in.

Reaching the pile of Zoids, I climbed up to the Redler’s cargo door and popped it open. A six-foot-long Anti-Zoid rifle slid out, right into my hands. These puppies were not made for the weak. It was quite the strain to carry it off the pile of Zoids, along with its ammunition, but it was would be worth the effort.

My next move was to get into a bunker. I picked the one next to the Zoids, betting that my friends would be in that one. When I was about ten meters away, an anti-personnel laser blast flew over my head and exploded behind me. In front of the bunker, a Helcat, most likely a sleeper, de-cloaked and re-aimed its lower cannon.

I dove right as it fired another blast. Rolling across the ground, I ended in a flat firing position and fired three rounds through the Helcat’s armor with the Anti-Zoid rifle. Once inside the Zoid’s body, they burst, beginning a series of light explosions and system failures. The Zoid began jerking from breakdowns and collapsed to the ground.

Anti-Zoid weapons were big and heavy, and they usually only worked on the little guys, but they sure made you feel like you had a fighting chance.

The bunker door was heavily bolted shut, so I fired another shot at the lock, and ended up blowing the entire door apart.

“Captain Kelt!” I looked down the hallway to the left, and could see some prison cells. Locked up in the first cell was Sifen.

“Sifen! Man, it’s good to see you!” I said as I broke the lock open.

“Good to see you, too, sir.”

“Is that the captain?” That was Mansod’s voice coming from down the hall.

“Yeah, it’s me. You guys all here?” I asked Sifen. His face became stone solid.

“No, sir.”

My heart sank. “Who’s missing? Bruno?”

Sifen danced around the answer. “Bruno is here, but locked-up farther down the hall. The Major just recently brought in Kavid. I’m not sure where he is. He was unconscious.”

“Where’s Katrana?” I could sense that Sifen was avoiding her for some reason.

Sifen hid his nervousness behind an emotionless face, but I read through him. “She cut a deal with Nevets.”

“What?” I gasped. My fears were coming true.

“She…she paid for her freedom with a Particle Charger.”

My shock trickled down to anger. “You’re lying!”

Sifen stood solid. “I don’t lie, Jeremy. Not to you.”

I didn’t want to believe him, but what he said fit perfectly with what I had started to theorize earlier today. Katrana Sared had told us that there were no other Plasma Armor-creating devices, or Particle Chargers, on all of Planet Zi, save the one she used to create the PAC-Wolves. However, since their creation, three more Zoids had been altered to carry Plasma Armor. What did they all have in common? They were all enemies of the Castaways of the Republic, and they all had contact with Katrana well before they fought us. There could be only one reason: she was trying to kill us.

“Where did she go?”

“She did not say.” Said Sifen. “She gave nothing more than empty promises of returning to save us.”

“Damn.” That was from Kavid. I turned to see him and Bruno standing in the hall behind us. That guy could break out of anywhere. “She betrayed us again! She betrayed the whole damn Republic! I’d bet it was all for that asshole father of hers.”

“Then I say she is at Mt. Hoploy.” Offered Sifen.

“Agreed,” I said, “But first, we’ve got a more urgent problem to deal with.”

Mansod scratched his head. “Nevets?”

“We can’t let him truck that dragon around killing everybody he sees.” Said Kavid.

Mansod spoke again, “I heard him say this was a perfect time to go out and show everyone his invincibility.”

Kavid and I looked at each other once again. Kavid spoke first this time. “The Battle at Gellenos!”

Sifen looked concerned, “Battle?”

I nodded. “It’s a doozy.”


“Doozy” was an understatement.

PAC-1, PAC-3 and PAC-4 walked down the hill, followed by Guno’s silvery Gustav. We could soon see the town of Gellenos laying at the base of the hill, staring in silent awe towards what was scattered just past it across the Veergati desert. Beyond the desert town, carpeting the sands of the Southern Frontier, swarmed a sea of Zoids, engulfed in a rain of laser blasts and bursts of fire. Huge beams of energy speared the melee of metal, followed by violent ruptures and sparkles of steel. Missiles buzzed the surface of it all, searching for their prey, and once found, the targets blew to ashes, darkening the beautiful tan sand blanketing across the sea of dunes. Towers of smoke rose like tentacles into the bright blue sky, feeding the winds waving like flags into the southwest breeze.

“There must be a thousand Zoids down there.” Said Mansod in child-like amazement.

“I’d estimate three-thousand-five-hundred.” Calculated Sifen. Nerd. Still, it was good to have him with us. I was afraid he might not be able to join us, since PAC-3’s legs were chopped off by the Stone Dragon a week ago. But Bruno was the best engineer in the entire Southern Division of the Republic’s forces—PAC-3 was walking again in just under three hours.

Kavid didn’t join us on our return to Gellenos. Since we needed a Particle Charger, we thought he should take a look back at the Bay of Rocks and see if Namor Bruticus, a.k.a. the “Death Sniper,” may have left an extra Charger laying around. He was given one, maybe he had an extra? We had looted his stronghold once already, but it never hurt to try a second time. Besides, Kavid would be back pretty soon, right? I was starting to get a little twitchy.

“Where is Major Nevets?” asked Mansod. Good question. We all figured he would be here by now, but there was no sign of him.

“Perhaps this was not his destination.” Offered Sifen.

“He’ll come,” He couldn’t pass this up, I could feel it, “If he’s going to show off his new power, this is the best place in the world to do it.”

“Agreed.” Sifen nodded.

“I don’t know about you guys,” I said, changing the subject, “but I’m tired of helping the Empire. We’re going to have to pick a side to fight for until Nevets shows up, but I’d like to fight for the Helic Republic again.”

“There is no better choice, sir.” Sifen was rarely this mushy.

“Let’s do it!” cheered Mansod.

“I don’t think I’ll be mucha help downa there, Cap’n. Mind if I jus’ wait fer Kavid?” asked Bruno.

“That was my plan already, pal. Keep an eye out for Nevets, too.


For someone who wanted to show off his invincibility, Nevets was sure taking his time—and it was making me nervous. Whatever his reason was, it only helped us. It gave Kavid more time to come back.

It was such a strange irony, though, that the only thing that could destroy Plasma Armor was the same thing that created it—the Particle Charger. Overcharge the process and bang! Instead of strengthening atoms, it breaks them apart. My hypothesis as to why the Plasma Particle Cannon could so easily destroy Plasma Armor was that it fired a Charged Particle Beam through the center of an overcharged Particle Charger Beam. The result broke down the CPB just enough to create plasma fire, but letting enough of the Beam through to reap the benefits of both beams. The blast both could violently destroy and break down at the atomic level all at the same time. It was the most powerful blast ever created.

How could Nevets power something like that?


The battlefield was a melee of nightmare. Smashed metal and shards of shrapnel flew off in every direction. You gambled with every footstep, and your life was the ante. If a laser blast or missile wasn’t flying at you, an exploding Zoid was. These guys were out for blood, the passion had consumed them—driven them mad. I doubted they could remember why they were fighting anymore.

Our PAC-Wolves struggled to remain in some type of formation as we swerved through the ever-growing junkyard. A squad of Molgas took notice of our group and opened immediate fire on us. Their worthless shells just ricocheted off of our armor plates. This seemed as good a time as any to let Mansod have some practice.

“Private, show us what you’ve got.” I ordered.

“Y-yes, sir.” PAC-4 started to walk towards the Molgas, but then I growled PAC-1, and Mansod got the hint—PAC-4 broke into a sprint.

I figured it was time we all jumped into the heat of action. “Sifen, take on that Saber Tiger. I’m going to give some support to that Liger Schneider over there.”

“Yes, sir.”

Mansod was having a good time tearing apart the Molgas, and I knew Sifen would be fine. I had seen a Schneider getting torn up by a Liger Zero-X and felt I should go save its life, whether it wanted it or not. Liger Zero pilots were usually pretty cocky—but getting to the Liger proved to be harder than I thought.

An Elephander plowed through a pile of dead Zoids and tried to grab me with its trunk claw. I barely managed to jump free, but as I did so I crashed into the body of a deceased Saicurtis. Turning around, I could see that the Elephander was heavily damaged. That was good. The massive attacker rotated its turret and fired a series of shots at PAC-1, which bounced off, but knocked my wolf back down.

Trying to regain my wits, I looked up to see the foot of the elephant raise into the air, attempting to smash down upon PAC-1. Out of reflex, I closed my eyes and turned my head, but when the foot hit, nothing happened. PAC-1 was undamaged.

Oh, yeah. Plasma Armor. I forgot.

I stood my Command Wolf back up and rammed into the underbelly of the Elephander as its leg was lifted and managed to knock it backwards. The massive Zoid went smashing down on its right side, increasing the amount of dents and breaks smothering its body.

I then noticed the break on the left side of its belly, aimed the 150mm turret and fired. The explosion almost knocked PAC-1 backwards. I must have hit a good system. The Elephander was done.

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I prepared to move back to the Schneider, but shook with fright as a Helcat leapt through the air and tried to swipe me. Its claw hit PAC-1’s armor and shattered. PAC-1 jumped back and fired, destroying the feline.

But it wasn’t over yet. Three Rev Raptors crawled atop the carcass of the fallen Elephander and stared at me in hunger. I managed to shoot one, but the other pounced onto me and attempted to tear my Command Wolf apart. PAC-1 bucked them off, and then I blasted them, sending them crashing back into the Elephander.

When I looked back at the fighting Ligers, I screamed. The Schneider hung impaled on the Zero-X’ left blades, its legs dangling lifeless, with smoke pouring from its back.

Energy started pouring through my veins again, and I started firing at the Zero-X, catching it by surprise, but not doing much damage. It dropped the Schneider and turned to face me. It spread its blades in attack mode; it probably thought this was going to be easy. Liger Zero-X jumped into the air, dodging my shots and came falling down into my position—I wasn’t that stupid. I rolled PAC-1 out of the way as it smacked the ground. As my CW stood back up, I leapt at the Liger’s left blades and had PAC-1 bite them, then snap them off.

LZX roared with anger and jumped away. My 150mm cannon gave it a good spanking. The Liger spun around and tried to blast me with its little twin cannon, but the energy shells just bounced off PAC-1’s armor as I ran towards the Imperial Zoid, raised my Zoid’s front right leg and slashed the Liger’s face. Zero-X jumped forward, attempting to slash me with its facial blades. They simply broke off. As the Zoid passed PAC-1, my Wolf chomped on the Liger’s tail and was jerked behind it—but I wouldn’t let go. PAC-1 pulled and yanked at LZX’ tail like a puppy to a sock until the feline Zoid’s body-part ripped out, and the Liger shrieked in pain.

Zero-X gave up and tried to run away, but my passion was too intense. I jumped PAC-1 on top of the escaping Zoid and crashed down onto its upper back. PAC-1 began tearing through the armor plating, ripping its torso apart with indestructible claws, scooping shrapnel high into the air. The hunger that flowed through me was all-consuming. The dig was soon deep enough that we exposed the LZX’ Zoidcore. PAC-1 opened its mouth wide, dipped its head down, and…

Was rammed off of the Ligers back.

“That’s enough!” barked a voice over the comm.

PAC-1 rolled across the ground, regained its stance, and we prepared to destroy whomever took away our victory meal. PAC-3 stood between us and the Liger Zero-X. The shock of seeing Sifen’s Zoid slapped some sense into me—a little sense.

“What are you doing, sir?” demanded Sifen. “Are you insane? Do you realize what you were about to do?”

“I…I was going to…hungry…so hungry…” the passion slipped from my veins. It was just like the Legend of the Blade Liger Vampire. It would tear through its opponents and devour their Zoidcores. Could it be that PAC-1 and I were the same way? Perhaps when a Zoid and its pilot formed a bond, basic instinct took over and they became primal. After all, it was rumored that many Zoids of Legend had grown powerful by consuming Zoidcores…

“Sirs!” cried Mansod over the comm, “Look! It’s some kind of new dragon!”

[pacwolf]

Chapter Six
Archfiend

I spun PAC-1 around, knowing immediately what Mansod was talking about. He must not have seen Nevets’ new little toy, but I had—and I was scared.

Swooping across the town of Gellenos, carrying more weapons than before, the Geyser of Fire made an attack run on the sea of Zoids that flooded the desert.

“Nevets must have been refitting his dragon with new weapons all this time.” I deduced. “It’s carrying big cannons now, one on each leg. But I can’t understand why he would need them.”

“What should we do, Captain?” asked Sifen.

I bit my pride and answered with the only reply that I knew was right. “We run for our lives.” My friends were shocked to hear me say such a thing, but they nodded their heads. “Let’s see if we can get some of these warriors to follow us.”

We called out screams of “Run for your life!” and “A Zoid with a super-weapon has arrived, get out of here!” on multiple frequencies, but nobody wanted to listen to us. Everyone was too busy tearing each other apart. We just sounded like poor Republic Command Wolf pilots giving up on their country.

PAC-1 climbed up onto the carcass of the Elephander I had defeated earlier, and we took a view of the field. The Geyser of Fire had come under the barrage of a squad of Gunblusters, but it raised its shield and easily survived the attack. As soon as the Gunblusters gave up their assault, the Geyser’s mouth began to glow. In mere moments, it’s wings were raised high, it pulled its head back, then jabbed it forward while belching out a huge burst of Plasma Particle Beam. Hundreds of Zoids were evaporated by the mad levels of energy, which gave the sick illusion of a dragon incinerating its prey.

A sizzling pit of emptiness now sat in the middle of the sea of warring Zoids. Black smoke slithered from the sides of the Geyser’s face, giving it a massive, dark smile. Hundreds more Zoids took notice of the major’s presence now, and began to panic. Swarms of metallic beasts began to run all over each other, attempting to escape, no longer caring which country they were loyal to.

As the chaos ensued, a few valiant warriors stood up to the Geyser of Fire. But then, a curious thing happened: the dragon’s new spread of heavy cannons fired spherical shells in five directions across the field. The Geyser quickly raised its level-ten shield to protect itself from the oncoming assault.

Panzers, Berserk Fuhrers, Gunblusters, Iron Kongs and Gojulas’ fired up at the Geyser of Fire, nailing the shield with the most firepower ever to hit a Zoid since the legendary battles with the Death Saurer. The explosion sent shockwaves so powerful that any Zoid near the major was blown to pieces. Waves of Zoids, both dead and alive, crashed over themselves from the burst. A charcoal-black cloud of smoke rushed out from the center of the blast, blinding every man and machine in the area.

Comm-lines were flooded with calls of confusion and panic. No one knew where the dragon had come from, and both sides were blaming each other for its existence. No one was thanking the other for its possible destruction.

But I knew that it wasn’t that easy. Super-Zoids never died that easy. And I was right.

A massive burst of Plasma Particle energy seemed to ignite the cloud of smoke. Energy beams fired all about the cloud, like they were being fired in different directions. The cloud was engulfed in the beams, shooting across the cloud, following the path of…the spheres! The spheres soon absorbed four full blasts of Plasma Particle Beams, and then on cue, they fired to a fifth sphere, sitting high above the cloud at an apex, like the top of a pyramid. When the energy beams hit the apex, it was fired back down—straight down—a blinding, deafening blast as strong as four Plasma Particle Beams. Upon hitting its ground-zero, there was another explosion—an explosion over ten-times more destructive than the one that struck the Geyser minutes before. Two-thirds of the machines upon the impossibly-huge sea of Zoids were instantly cast into obliteration. Those on the edges may have escaped evaporation, but the shockwave smashed almost every survivor to pieces.

And no one saw it coming.


How long had passed? I…I didn’t know. Darkness…there was darkness. Out…I had to get out. Couldn’t…couldn’t get out. I was strapped to my seat…hanging sideways. Why was I sideways? Light? Was that light? Reflecting off of the control panel. Just a pin-point beam, coming through the windshield. That meant…I wasn’t dead. I was near the surface of…of the ground?

I tilted my aching head up, frantically feeling for the Emergency Power Controls. I found them! With a flick of a button, I could see again, although everything was tinted red. I quickly wished I couldn’t see.

I was buried beneath a deep pile of massacred Zoids—their lives brutally ripped out of them by Nevets and his damn Geyser of Fire. Somehow, most likely thanks to PAC-1’s Plasma Armor, I survived the holocaust, and now I had to figure out how to free myself from my machine grave.

“I hope you’re still functioning, buddy.” I told PAC-1, “’Cause we’ve got a lot of work to do.” My Command Wolf let out a weak growl, and its main systems came back on line. “Thanks, pal.”

I worked the control bar and attempted to move the Wolf’s legs. It groaned and struggled, but managed to wriggle itself free of the pinning weight of a crashed Liger Jager. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the legs weren’t broken, since they were “indestructible,” but I was starting to worry about that claim.

After about twenty minutes of effort, PAC-1 cleared the top of the machine graveyard, and I lost my breath. The sea of Zoids had become an arch of Zoids, with a massive, deep crater taking an enormous bite out of the battlefield on the southwest side. A span of non-vaporized Zoids still existed on the northeast side—I guess Nevets’ aim was a little off.

Amazingly, human survivors were scattered across the piles of death. Pilots, terrified by what they had survived, began crawling out of their Zoids, at first happy to see the sky, then scared out of their minds by what they saw. I was no superman. The seen shocked me, too. I sat frozen in PAC-1’s cockpit for what seemed like days, but was probably only minutes.

Once again I was snapped into reality by PAC-3, this time crawling across the Zoid carcass’ towards me. Sifen hailed me.

“Are you all right, sir?”

“Sifen. It’s good to see you alive, my friend. F.Y.I., PAC-3 isn’t looking too good.” Sifen’s Zoid had burns across its armor plating, and warps and dents across its body. There were even some parts missing.

“We were lucky to survive, sir. A few dozen humans have, but that is all. Our PAC-Wolves are the only Zoids still functioning, I’m afraid.”

“And Mansod’s, of course. Where is he at?”

Sifen’s face wiped itself clear of emotion as he tried to hide his feelings. “I found…part of PAC-4. It was horribly damaged by the explosion. I can find no other traces of Plasma Armor in the area.” Sifen’s emotionless face started to break. “I do not believe Private Mansod survived.”

My heart dropped so hard I nearly threw-up. Guilt began to consume me. A “Castaway” was gone! No! It wasn’t fair! He tried so hard! We were always so damn hard on Mansod—he was such an idiot…but dammit! That kid had a ton of potential!

I wiped away a tear. “Sifen, from this day forward, we do not stop until Nevets is dead, or we die trying to kill him.”

“Yes, sir.” Sifen thought for a moment. “I never did like the Private’s coffee, but it kept me going.”

“That’s the way Mansod was, Corporal,” I said, “It was hard to stomach him sometimes, but he was always there to help.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s go check up on Kavid.”


Thinking that this day could not get any worse was a foolish mistake. Sifen pointed out that we could not proceed without any ammunition, and, disturbingly, we stood upon a plethora of ammo that would never be used by its Zoids ever again.

In less than an hour, our PAC-Wolves were re-stocked with energy shells and missiles from fallen Command Wolves and Pteras’. I have never overcome the feeling of guilt for what we did, no matter how justified it may have been.


Thankfully, Gellenos was relatively untouched by the battle with Nevets. A few buildings had their windows shattered, but that was about it.

We found Bruno sitting in his Gustav, right where we had left him—next to the tailor shop.

“Cap…Cap’n Kelt! You’re alive!” Our Engineering buddy’s red eyes were bursting with moisture. “And Sife! Sife, youse okay!” He jumped out of his silvery Zoid and nearly broke our backs with one of his legendary bear hugs.

“So surprised to see us, Bruno?” I asked.
His cheeks grew red. “Well, I’m’s sorry to say yeah. That wuz the biggest explosion I’d ever seen. It just seemed imposs’ to survive.”

“But Bruno, I hadn’t told you I was dead yet.” I winked.

The big guy thought about it for a second, then started laughing so loud it rattled the Gustav. “Thatsa right! Youse didn’t tells me that! Im’s sorry, Cap’n. I promise to never doubt yas again.”

Sifen could only study us in confusion. Bruno then looked around. “Where’s Mansod?” Our explanation really broke his uplifted mood.

“I loved his coffee.” Said Bruno. “Kept me going.”

I took a deep breath. “Let’s get down to business. Bruno, have you heard anything from Kavid?”

“Yessir. He ain’t found nuthin’ out at the Bay of Rocks. He’s comin’ back here as fast as he can.”

“This news significantly changes our plans, Captain Kelt.” Analyzed Sifen. “We need to wait here for Kavid, then decide a new plan of attack.”

I looked down at the Zoid graveyard, then farther north, when it struck me. “We have been fools, Sifen. We have known this entire time where a Particle Charger is, but we sent Kavid the opposite direction.”

It only took Sifen a second to process the idea. “Mt. Hoploy.”

“Mt. Hoploy. It’s where the PAC-Wolves were first made.” I whipped around with new vigor. “Bruno! Get a message to Kavid with that long-range transmitter of yours. Tell him that we’re heading for Mt. Hoploy by way of the Trail.”

“Yessir!”

As we entered the cockpits of our Zoids, Sifen appeared on my HUD-Comm. “Just a reminder, sir. It is more than likely that Katrana Sared has returned to Mt. Hoploy as well.”

“I’m counting on it.”