Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ a tale of (now) three warriors ❯ homecomings ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I own none of the Zoids in this fanfic, but most of the characters are mine. I'll be broke from when the people behind Metroid come after me, so there's no point trying to sue me. That's all.

"So where are we headed?" Ruby asked Trey as she walked her Zaber Fang beside the Gustav.

"Back to our base. It's an ex-military outpost, so there's enough space in he hangar for another few zoids." Trey replied.

"Yeah, and the repair equipment we have isn't bad either." Robert added.

"Hey, what's that up ahead?" Ruby asked, stopping her zoid.

The Gustav slowed to a halt. Inside the cockpit, Trey keyed in the image enhancement, zooming into the spot ahead where Ruby had seen something.

"Looks like part of a…a Guysack." Robert said, peering at the screen.

"Yeah, I'd agree with you." Ruby said, from her cockpit. "And look! There are more of them."

"This doesn't look good." Trey said. "Ruby, go ahead and check it out, we'll back you up."

"Sure thing." Doing a quick ammo check, Ruby moved her zoid forward at a fast jog.

Meanwhile, Robert had taken the controls of the Gustav, with Trey taking up the controls of his Gunsniper to act as ranged fire support if Ruby needed it. Either way, Robert had revealed the small double-barrelled gun mounted inside the front of the Gustav's shell to add a little more firepower if it was needed in a hurry. Trey walked the Gunsniper beside the Gustav at the same pace.

"My God…" Ruby gasped through the com-link. She had reached the Guysack wreck. "There…are at least thirty of them. Thirty zoid corpses, and maybe one more half buried in the sand. It's a…it's like someone recently made a graveyard here."

"Damn! Ruby, get out of there fast!" Robert yelled.

Ruby turned the head of her zoid and saw what he had seen. There was a raised trail protruding from under the sand, and it was coming towards her! It was twenty metres away before she knew it, and it was flying through the air a moment later, falling towards the stunned Zaber Fang, jaws agape. Just as Ruby trained her guns on it, a single shot exploded the side of the Warshark's neck, and the disabled zoid fell to the ground.

"Move! There are more of them!" Trey yelled, before three amber triangles flashed up on his compact sensor screen. "Shit. Robert, get into the Liger. We have a fight on our hands." Trey reverted the cockpit back to the normal one, and armed his blades, facing the direction that the three new Warsharks approached from.

A few moments later, Robert's Liger growled to life, stepping off the Gustav trailer. "They're bandits." Robert stated, spinning the barrels of his gatling cannon.

"Hey, if you aren't to busy, then I've got a few problems here!" Ruby said as calmly as she could.

It turned out that she had walked right into the middle of the bandit group, and was facing off with six Warsharks and a single Stealth Viper. Jinking left and right to evade the constant stream of machine gun bullets being shot from the Viper, Ruby dispatched it with a single pass of her blades. Triumph was short lived though, as a dozen cannon shots slammed into her zoid's armour. With a lucky shot, Ruby disabled one of the Warsharks before the rest of them retreated below the sand. The Zaber Fang looked around, as if lost, trying to anticipate the next attack. By the time she did, it was almost onto her. Almost, then she shot it out of the sky. The zoid stepped back, searching again for the next attack. This time she wasn't so lucky, and before she knew it a Warshark had gripped one of her rear legs from under the sand, and began to drag it under. Ruby pulled frantically to break free, desperately shooting down two Warsharks, and just about to down a third when her guns registered a dreaded click. To make things even more awkward, the zoid that was fixed to her leg was still determined to drag her into the sand. Ruby closed her eyes, grimly accepting that this was where it ended. Suddenly the pressure on her leg eased, and Ruby snapped alert, to see the Blade Liger soar through the air, slicing the falling Warshark into two pieces. The Liger landed awkwardly, but remained standing. Just. The barrels of the gatling cannon were still spinning down, as were the small detonations that had gone off behind her. Under the sand, Ruby knew that the third Warshark had been shaken by Robert's barrage, but was still active. Almost as proof, it came flying through the air a moment later, but this time Ruby was ready, activating her blades and leaping her zoid into the air. Her landing was about as graceful as Robert's, but the Zaber Fang was still online.

"Are you two ok?" Trey asked, hobbling his beaten up Gunsniper up to where his teammates teetered on the verge of shutdown.

"I'm fine. A bit of leg damage, but nothing else." Ruby replied.

"I've only lost twenty percent mobility, but I think Ruby's lost more." Robert said.

"I've lost thirty." Ruby reported

"I've lost seventy." Trey said, and he meant it. "That base isn't far from here, but I think I'd better hitch the Gunsniper on the trailer. Ruby can take the other tray, since Robert's lost the least mobility."

After another three quarters of an hour, the Blade Team finally arrived back at their base.

"This place isn't too bad." Ruby commented as she backed her zoid off the trailer and into one of the three repair bays.

"It's good enough for what we usually need, but the amount of damage we've all taken will take a little more." Trey said, shutting down the last of his pilot systems.

"It shouldn't be that bad." Robert said optimistically, jumping to the ground from his cockpit. Trey and Ruby followed soon after, and together the Blade Team looked at their zoids.

In unison, with an identical feeling of dismay, all three of them sighed. "This will cost a heap."