Chapter 1.03: Awakening to a Surprise

Whelp, this could be Worse

Awakening to a Surprised 1.03

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I woke up with a sweat and a stiff back. Damn nightmares and freaking hard benches. Those nightmares of Chinese stereotypes shooting at me. They declared I was a traitor to the Confederation and killed my family. I wasn't from their space or this universe, but that tormenting dreams scared me. 

I got up and headed to freshen up. I glanced at the digital clock above the sliding door (which I'm surprised I missed yesterday), and the clock displayed '05:50'.

Grumbling, I looked for the keycard where I had placed my handgun and rifle. I made sure to grip it tightly as and ran it over the doors. All the lockers opened with the card, and in one of them was an armor pilot suit. It looked like the Republic pilot uniform but with heavier armor and a built-in holster for the handgun and a combat knife. Unfortunately, I still had to fish out a sling for the rifle out of the same gun case. Within the storage unit, I had most of the small laser pistols bagged and tagged for sale.

It took a few minutes to wear the suit, but I knew I had to get used to it if I wanted to ride out on the Command Wolf. Well, it's better to wear the bulletproof (hopefully) suit than not in the BT universe.

Fully dressed, I looked at the mirror in the bathroom area and saw a heavy armor soldier looking back. I look great, and now how to be confident enough to fight off the craziness of the BT universe. 

Based on the uploaded data, I open the door to see Hound lying down with the workstation equipment working on it. However, we didn't have any Zi metals or minerals needed for repairs. The armor will take some time to recover from natural progression, but the add-on weapon needs replacing. Rearming the attached weapon with BT weapons will take a month for Houndsoldier and then for his standard armor and interiors to heal. So about two months without combat, which is asking too much since we need more metals for him to consume to heal.

I went up to Hound and patted its head as Command Wolf came over and opened his cockpit. Command Wolf's activation happened around the same time as Shield Liger died. Thanks to Hound's seven logs transferred to the Command Wolf combat computer, it was interesting to see two points of view. I will have to watch both sides by the side to get a better idea of what happened and find out why both pirates and the Capellans are attacking that town, Little Rock.

I hopped into Wolf's cockpit and saw the logs I needed to watch. Then, I hit play as the records started up, Hound's screen on the left and Wolf's on the right.

Hound's

Core Status: Functional-heated

Weapon: Online- Warning low on missile

Sensors: Online

Location: Katinka, Little Rock area 2KM

Date: August 21, 3021, 19:42

Armor integrity: 98%

Structural integrity 99%

Wolf's

Core Status: Functional

Weapon: Online

Sensors: Online

Location Katinka, Little Rock area (outskirts) 10KM

Date: August 21, 3021, 19:42

Armor integrity: 100%

Structural Integrity: 100%

Both screens open in different locations but are heading in the same direction. Hound's rear slowly shrank as the zoid moved toward the town at max speed on his screen. The explosion heard in the background gave enough reasons for the fast pace. The Shield Liger started pulling ahead of Wolf's vision, so I focused on Hound's view and comms. I shank Wolf's screen but managed to put it in alert mode.

The comms was blazing with shouts and commands. Luckily, Hound saw a familiar mech stomping on a tank. IDs for every mech and vehicle appeared on Hound's screen, and a flash from Wolf's showed the same. Hound's screen opened another mini one with the status of the LoaderKing, and it wasn't pretty.

"Thank God Almighty that you guys showed up," Brook spoke as he blasted another 25 tons tank with more machine-gun fire. Again, it sparked before stopping dead in the water. "The support we got from the Militia has gone dark during a fight with a pirate lance of battlemech earlier, and we have been outnumbered since."

The remaining Dig King appears on the screen. It had been running when missile after missile covered it in flames. The screams of pain cut through the comms before being cut off. The industrial mech collapsed before an explosion took it CT. Houndsoldier took revenge by firing his triple cannon without hesitation at the Commando that appeared right behind Brook's mech. That one is responsible for burning Brook's lancemate.

"Thanks for the save, now. Can you help me stall for some time so my men can get the mech you found for us online?" Alerts flashed on Hound's screen, causing Brook to curse and fire his machine gun in the air while missiles began raining on them.

I could hear the roar of the Liger as it appeared, energy shield up, rushing past Hound's vision to tank whatever was hitting him from the side. The Hound's screens, which was odd since usually, it was just two at most from the previous log, showed a burning vehicle in its crosshairs. The second shows dozens of red dots on the mini-map, while the three and fourth show several men dressed in futuristic Fallout Raider armor with tanks as support. 

This battle was my first time seeing infantry with pirates. I didn't think they used them, but those rocket launchers or SRM hit Hound's left missile pods so much that they exploded and caused damage to armor and structure.

I didn't have to wait before watching as they turned to mush from the Shield Liger's shock cannons. It turned that area into a burnt mess with a glossy shine. Only parts of the vehicle remained before the screen showed it cut off. I nearly threw up before the view quickly switched to the LoaderKing.

It looked battered to hell and back as it was missing its right arm but still had its left arm firing away at a target unseen. A glance at the mini-map showed one red marker out of three vanishing in the direction of the Loaderking's weapon.

The voice continued, "We were surprised when these pirates continued their attack. The destruction you two wroth onto their bugs and those tanks last time. You save-" Several missiles slammed into the LoaderKing'sremaining arm, shearing it off before a shot from behind him flew out, and another red dot on the mini-map vanished.

A younger voice cut in from the town as a second shot came out of the settlement, "FATHER!" That shot had flown past both Zoids and slammed several meters away from a humanoid mech. Unfortunately, it didn't look like a Panther or a Javelin. Another screen appeared with the words STG-3R with details on armor and structure. The Stinger was visibly damaged and had jumped into the air with its jump jets to avoid the shot. An extra list shows that the enemy bugmech had lost both machine guns. Its laser flashed out and the screen shocked as Hound dodged the energy beam.

The Hound retaliated with two missiles out of his right forward pod before an explosion rocked him from that same side. The smoke from his right shoulder slightly clouded Hound's vision. However, the sensors picked up a couple of objects weighing 30 tons in the opposite direction of the shot. Distance on the mini-map showed up 300m away with several objects weighing 10-20 tons.

Hound's Comms picked up communication from that direction. "After that weird-ass mech, it will be worth a fortune when we take it."

It looked dire, but the screen still showed the status of the enemy. Stinger showed hit before saying downed. Luckily, the two missiles hit dead on and took the head off the Stinger. Hound fired a burst from his triple cannon before his lances appeared above the screen. I glanced at the mini-map again to see if anything hit and saw two lighter dots vanish. Hound charged the 30-ton enemy before the smoke cleared and showed two Urbanmech, both registered as UM-R60, and one just got pierced by Hound's lance. In contrast, the second got hit from behind, along with its vehicle support.

A glance at Wolf's screen showed he had fired his 50 mm beam cannons from a distance to crisp them as Hound flung the dead Urbanmech toward the base. A label pops up on the screen saying food before Wolf's radar ping something flying quickly toward Hound and Liger.

Sensor lock from Hound show them as SL17, Shilone, before a rain of missiles and laser slammed into the remaining members of Little Rock's defense force.

"Argggggg," Buster's pilot screamed before it crashed to the ground, both legs crippled from multiple blue laser strikes. The Shield Liger took several to the hind before he managed to turn around and shield the LoaderKing. Then, beams of energy rain out from the forest. A glance confirmed it was Wolf and blasted the aerospace fighter out of the skies.

I knew pirates in BT lore had aerospace fighters but really? They use such a precious resource for the bunker and the Zoids.

I couldn't keep up with how fast the action was going between the two screens as all three Zoids went into melee range. They took out another lance of tanks, and Locust didn't even get a chance to escape as both Hound and Wolf attacked it from both sides. I couldn't tell how it would look to the fleeing pirates, but they tore the bugmech as the T-Rex couple did to Eddie Carr from the Lost World.

I'm surprised there weren't any mech core explosions yet but seeing the damage reports from all three Zoids was terrible. First, the pirate attack damaged Shield Liger's mane. This action disabled his energy shield. How did they do this as? I only saw it tanking missiles with its shield up. 

A quick scan from Hound showed two larger, heavy mechs taken care of by Liger. One registration showed 54 tons, but that made sense due to it missing both arms. Unfortunately, the data didn't pull up much on the battlemech that the zoid tore to pieces. But it must have done something to break the weakened part of the shield mane. The second mech was registered as a PX-1KC and had a Large laser still on its arm but missing its cockpit.

Still, red damage all over the armor with its integrity reading at 50% and structural damage. Who could have done that? Another quick check from Wolf's visuals and Hound's sensors shows that the unidentified mech was an ON1-H Orion. The logs showed that the PX-1KC had managed to strike the Liger from behind. The battlemech must have targeted the head as damages to the right legs and mane. 

That battlemech must have realized the mane's purpose. The damage caused the Liger to turn slightly from the Orion it was charging at, but the shield failed. Instead, it allowed the heavy mech to get an alpha strike on the unshielded left side, damaging the Liger's head and destroying the energy shield projector on the left. Two lucky shots nearly destroyed the Zoid, but the missiles from the Command Wolf ended the Phoenix and ripped the left arm of the Orion.

A lance took the other arm as Hound raced by at 200 km/h, and his hind rocket flew out and destroyed the rest of the mech.

A voice cut through the silence, "Once again, thank you," Brook said from his damaged mech. "I know you two...three don't talk much and have been helping us out since discovering the old Taurian bunker. I want to give you guys a proper reward. The problem is that someone accidentally sold you guys out."

Hound and Wolf grabbed some mech remains in their jaws while Shield Liger stood face to face with the LoaderKing, who stopped a few hundred meters away. "Someone must have been tapping into our communication with the Planetary Militia. Because one of my men had contact with some merc off-world, who asked what was up with the bounty for new quad mech appearing here."

Suddenly a trailer rolled appeared nearby with heavy tarps over it. "I will give you two of the mechs we found inside. They are in decent condition, but they need some work. But they should let you operate normally and probably let the rumors of quad-mech being here fade. I got a town to calm down and a son to check up on if you can excuse me."

The LoaderKing turned around and walked back to town, stopping at Liger's dull roar, ped. It must have received the message I saw appear on the screen. "Store them. Our leader will come for them."

The trailer slowly turned back to the town as firefighters and APCs (militia ones, I guess) were helping with search and rescue. The Zoids grabbed their food and slowly trekked back to base. All were heading at 150km/h as the injury to both Hound and Liger had done enough structural damage to hurt their 'muscles.' So they need to feast on the mechs and vehicles to recover.

However, the log didn't end. That worried me as Zoids didn't have to show me the whole record after wasting time. So it took a bit longer to get back to base when alerts from the Hound sensor detected a fast-approaching object. The sensor said it was a high-tonnage plane with about one-fourth a Whale King's weight.

Sensor locked onto the incoming airplane appeared on visual, and my gut dropped. It was a Leopard, and the dropship had a House Liao sigil on one of its fins. The comms came on with one demand, "Surrender your battlemech or die." In a highly accented, definitely stereotypical Chinese voice.

I watched as the Zoids growled before dropping their food to run straight at the Leopard's LZ. The dropship had already dropped two 45-ton mechs that registered as Vindicators. Following the two medium mechs, two bugmechs leaped off the plane and raced toward the incoming Zoids.

I didn't know what would happen, but I felt Liger's death was approaching. I wanted to know if his demise is meaningless or if he goes out in a blaze of glory. I didn't have as much emotional connection as I have with Hound and Wolf, which is somewhat weird and too fast, but the Liger led them until now. So I needed to see how it went. 

I glanced pasted the screen and to the dead zoid. I knew Liger was severely injured as armor integrity was less than 40% around his head while the rest of the body was just under 60%. His structure had been damaged, with his intervals exposed in several places, not covered by external armor. The Capellans must have hurt his core. It seemed like some of the missiles had extra explosives in them. The shock cannon was on his underside, and the missile launchers were out of ammo, making it nearly impossible to shoot.

The Zoids moved at max speed with a roar that echoed throughout the area. Charging straight towards the lance of mech and the dropship. I watched as the structural damage for the Liger increased as it gave up limping to fight. The two Vindicators try to blast the Liger with their PPC and miss their first shots. Liger shrugged off the medium mechs' missile barrage. Even the two laser boating Locusts didn't stop the Liger as it continued its charge at the Leopard. The dropship tried to fly away while firing its weapons at the incoming Zoids. 

It would have gotten away if the Hound's Buster Cannon didn't hit its right-side flight stabilizer. This caused it to drop slightly as the dropship tried to compensate. One of its hanger doors opened as an Urbanmech slowly walked to its opening. It fired its AC/10 at the Liger and missed before being pelted by Vulcan and beam cannon fire from Wolf.

I watched, from Wolf's screen, as Liger took two hits from the small lasers from the walking turrets and a Large laser from the ship before he jumped straight for the left flight stabilizer. I watched the final moments, even as the Command Wolf fired away with its beam cannons at the two medium mechs while keeping its Vulcans on the Urbanmechs. Then, the Liger's claws tore into the Leopard flight stabilizer before a barrage of medium lasers and the LRM struck from his right.

The Leopard's damage cumulated enough to drop it 100 meters back to the ground. However, it would be unreasonable not to fall with the loss of both flight stabilizers and get hit by 92 tons of a zoid moving at max speed. The crash was loud and shook the area. There were several explosions as ammo and whatever explosive object inside the dropship went up in flames.

However, the damage it did to the Shield Liger was fatal. Liger's core leaked liquids from the impact. The zoid slowly limped toward the base. The Locusts' pilots must have thought it would be easy to take out the Liger as they charged, lasers firing at the wounded zoid. Instead, they each lost a leg as Wolf drove through them, blasting away with the Vulcans, before standing in front of the wounded lion. A Vindicator had fired its PPC, hoping to end the lion zoid but missed as Wolf tanked the shot.

Hound's loud howl caused the two Vindicators to turn toward the charging German Shepherd as it blasted one trooper through its CT and kicked the other back into a tree. He barked at Wolf, who was now shooting out his smoke dischargers and assisting Liger. Hound's view turn back to the two Locust and the remaining Vindicator as his twin lances appear above the view screen before turning off. I knew Hound was okay, seeing that he was recovering next to me, but something about that fight felt odd.

I watched Wolf's screen as he helped his alpha get back into the tunnel. The usually lit tunnel was dark as the battle above must have damaged lights by the action above. It didn't matter to the Zoid. They had searchlights to see. I could feel death approaching Liger as he limped his last few steps before collapsing into the scrap pile.

It gave one last roar before turning grey as his core finally expired. Wolf howled in what I now realize was despair. It howled one more time before something caused its vision to turn to know it looked familiar. A door at the end of the hanger, the same door that opened and revealed me as I stumbled around in the dark before the power came back online.

As the log ended, I saw Wolf's status report.

Armor integrity: 80%

Structure integrity 95%

Warrior found. Begin uploading logs and contacting Houndsoldier. Warning warrior has fallen unconscious.

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I felt scared and shocked as the log ended. I know it has barely been a week since the Zoids went active, and they brought trouble before I could plan anything. I had possible money or mechs in the week of pirate hunting the Zoids did. Still, I'm also on the shit list with the Capellans and probably anyone who wants to take Wolf and Hound.

I looked a the remains of the Shield Liger and the Zoid core… wait, are that two cores? Well, now the two eggs are absorbing the nutrients to grow. Back to Hound, who was getting all its missile pods replaced with SRM. Houndsolider only recovered five percent of its armor and structure integrity over one day, finally at Command Wolf, who was out of Vulcan ammo.

"Whelp," I said aloud, "This could have been worse." The steering controls pushed out and into my reach as Wolf whined slightly as a new log came up. "Zoid Piloting for Dummies, by Robert Ox Bob."

I skimmed through the manual on how to pilot a quad zoid and the sensitivity levels. I then check the weapons controls and how to turn them on and off on the combat computer. Once I felt conformable enough, I decided to try it out.

"Let's go, Wolf," I shouted, trying to get my head in the game, "I need to get ready as soon as possible."

A grow of agreement from Wolf before we moved…right into the wall. Then, just before the floor came up to meet the cockpit, I screamed.

"Oh, crap," I grumbled as I saw the first line of the ZPD manual, "Don't rush them." Well, this is going to take some time.