


D Day

by raykong



Category: Zoids
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-16
Updated: 2009-02-27
Packaged: 2013-08-06 16:53:30
Rating: T
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,150
Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
Story URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4867479/1/
Author URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1754250/raykong
Summary: OJR Battle Story: No one saw it coming. The surprise attack on Bareshia Bay. The Imperial Zoids landing on the beaches of the Central Continent. The Zenebas Empire is ready for another war with the Helic Republic. The Empire has returned. D Day has begun.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

When I re-read my first 'D-Day' fanfic, I realized it was horribly crafted, with the action sequences terribly written, I wasn't on a rather good mood on that day so I have decided to re-write the story. Enjoy and reader comments and reviews are much appreciated.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D-15, 0545 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

1st Class Private Westing Aaus cautiously tightened the anti-g padding under his Zoid pilot suit before zipping its zipper up to his neck collar. He let out a brief sigh. _This is ridiculous. So what if there are reports of incoming bogey targets…they're probably one of those stupid tribes that decide to wander around in waters, hardly a reason enough to dispatch a squad of Zoid pilots for recon. _

The rainy weather outside, clearly visible from the peephole in his locker room seemed to agree to his point as it stormed its downpour against the ocean and the sand, sending raging waves that burst throughout the sea walls of the Dallas base and which rocked the palm trees that flooded the peninsula.

_Hopefully we can get this done and over with. _Westing grabbed his pilot helmet and pushed aside the locker door only to be greeted by a horribly wafting aura of men's deodorant and testosterone that flooded the locker compound. Westing pushed through crowds of soldiers who laughed in amusement and fooled around, cautiously walking over underwear that's been God knows where. _If only we had a civilized person on this damn base._

As he exited the compound, he gladly took a deep breath of unadulterated air before proceeding down the corridor.

The rain still pounded on the steel panes of the windows but it did little to draw Westing's attention away. It was hard, really, being the only human in the whole base. It was not as though he wanted the attention, the constant prodding and poking about life back on Earth, before their starship, the Global 3 had crashed on Zi back in ZAC 2029. That past life was beyond him, he had been only eleven during the crash-landing. Strangely, he felt as though this place was truly his home. But still…

Everything was so different here. He had no other humans to confide to. The sheer weight of the different cultures, each one a distinct parallel was so confusing. Here, the people of Zi had their life centered on war. Each one seemed to be specialized at an aspect of one form of warfare or another, be it infantry combat, guerilla warfare, or even Zoid piloting, the choice of combat he had picked.

Amongst the ranks of the Helic military, finding an intellectual whom you could actually have a normal conversation with was highly unlikely. They were a rowdy race, one that lived a brutal and rough existence they seemed to be content with. Another issue of being the only human was the often racial scorn he received from his peers. Many referring to his kind as 'invaders'….it was not as though they wanted this! He would prefer the sky blue expanse above the Earth's surface any time than the murky purple horizon that was this world. The racial tension was so high that having inter-race breeding would be similar to signing a death sentence! So much for that beautiful thing that he saw the other day.

_But I suppose I have to be content with what I have, _his mind reminded him as he heavily pondered over his life with self-pity, _At least I got transferred to the safest base in the Helic Military. _He paused for a moment before the devil in his mind bitterly added, _Yeah, because they were afraid a human wouldn't be much aid in battle._

He allowed himself to wallow in another pool of self-pity as he made his way past a few more turns, meeting several other soldiers who were passing by and just came back from mess hall.

"Hey, space boy!" one of them cried as he playfully punched Westing on the shoulder, "You aren't eating?"

Westing caught the sting of the racial epithet before reminding himself that this was just a nickname…he would have to learn not to take words too literally. "Naw, I have a recon to do."

"Alright then," the soldier replied and then left off with another friend of his.

The sight of the two of them walking away, chatting happily tugged at a string of envy in Westing's heart. He forced himself to turn away. _Look at me, worrying all about my life when I should be doing something about it. _He took his umpteenth sigh. _Perhaps this mission will show the commander a thing or two about what I can do, yeah, West, tell a few tribal men to get the hell off our coast? I see a promotion coming right ahead._

"You should not tell your head such pessimistic thoughts," he mumbled aloud as he flicked the switch and the door to the base's main hangar flipped open. Westing continued walking, his head down and constantly avoided the eyes of the technicians who were pacing on the railways, furiously tapping on computers and making final calculations to his Zoid, the RZ-010 'Pteras,' a frankly new Zoid.

The Pterosaur Type Zoid was a rather remarkable piece of technology, a down-scaled version of the powerful Salamander Zoid. It featured a new type of flight device termed the 'Magnesser Wing' technology. _A powerful Zoid, armed with useful aerial weapons though I feel it lacks a lot in speed, _Westing briefly noted.

He lifted his helmet and placed it over his head before tightening the neck clasps with the collar and the responding clips at the nape of his neck. Sealing the helmet with a final push, he slowly walked across the railway towards the walkway that led to the open canopy of the bright blue Zoid unit.

"Identification?" a technician asked as he neared the open canopy.

Westing opened one of the large and saggy pockets on his thighs and produced a laminated identification card that displayed his image, rank, and other specifics. The technician took a brief look before nodding and letting Westing pass.

_Good, no 'space boy' comments, _Westing then entered the cockpit of the Pteras as another technician informed him, "We're all good to go, sir."

"Thanks," Westing replied as the orange canopy slid down, its powerful gears grinding before the strong connectors at the end locked the canopy down and protectively sealing Westing inside the cockpit as he strapped himself onto the pilot harness. From inside the Zoid, he could still faintly hear the technician tell him, "It's all ready mate, just pull the ignition lever."

Westing responded with a nod before gripping a brightly red-marked lever and pulling it, and in a moment, sending all the panels into a flashing light. The canopy became a crystal clear monitor with a crosshair in the middle while range and other cartographic calculations appeared to the side of the monitor.

Down in between his feet laid a small control panel with specifications of the Pteras' armament, remaining ammunition, and its vital life statistics. The many keys of its miniature keyboard glowed a faint blue as the lighting underneath it flashed itself. Before gripping the control handles of the unit, Westing flicked a switch on his helmet, opening the communication line with the base's launch coordinator.

"1st Class Private, Aaus, copy?" Westing asked.

"Copy that, Private, all systems are ready to go." The coordinator replied, "Opening the hatch."

Right ahead of him, Westing could see the doors of the hangar sliding and grating against one another as the powerful levers set to pulling them aside. A rush of cold air blasted through the door, but sent no shiver down Westing in his encased cockpit. Ahead, he could see the airfield that led to the raging storms of the waters ahead and slightly further than that, could already see that two of his comrades had already flown out in their respective Pteras units.

"Hatch open, locks 3 to 5 released." The coordinator continued, "Your Zoid's core is running smoothly, ready?"

Westing took a deep breath before softly whispering to his Pteras, "You ready, partner?" The Zoid seemed to respond with a brief squawk. Westing took another deep inhalation, hoping that this would not be his last.

"1st Class Private Aaus, Pteras, launch!"

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D-10, 0550 hours**

**Off the coast of Bareshia Bay, location unknown**

**Aboard Whale Kaiser II of the Zenebas Imperial Navy**

_This is f****** ridiculous. _Corporal Helios Worthington commented to himself numbly, _Launching an attack on the 'Lics most heavily-guarded base in the whole freakin' Central Continent?!!_

He sat on a wooden chair in a dim room, illuminated only by a single halogen lamp hanging from the ceiling. In front of him was a broad wooden table; possibly made out of mahogany and on it, spread across the whole expanse was a well-worn map of the Bareshia Bay area of the Continent. Across the table were four men, all of them weather-beaten soldiers who had clearly seen many years of war.

"Come on, Worthington," one of the men, Sergeant Abel Dust prodded, "Even if you're only a Corporal, I brought you here to learn some tactical strategy."

Helios stiffled a yawn. He made it sound as though Helios had wanted to be here. Just because he was an acting squad commander did not seem to form any reason for him to even be here. All the other men were important, Abel Dust was the head of the Whale Kaiser branch of the Imperial Navy, Colonel Dariel Ross and Tabithia Sing were leaders of the 1st Army and 1st Aviation Division, respectfully while Brigadier Sergeant Austin Pound was the head of the Marine Battle Division.

"To be honest, sir," Helios began, "I find this plan rather…foolish."

"We have the advantage with new Guylos-supplied Zoids." Dust retorted.

"I know sir, but most of our men are untrained with this new powerful Zoids, with the majority of them being Guylos conscripts," Helios continued, "And who's to say that our Kaisers can even take the heavy artillery that they've loaded onto the Dallas Triangle? My gosh, there's even a 'Lic saying that goes if you wish to thank a soldier, send him to Bareshia!"

Sing let out a soft laugh while Pound dragged on the debate, "Are you doubting our Zoids?" He placed a hand on the room's walls, "This baby can take any rocket assault."

"The hide of the Kaiser is impenetrable," Dust added proudly, "And chances are the Helics will not know what hit them, considering that they've too much confidence in their base."

"If I may sound like insubordination, sir," Sing said to Dust, "But we're still going nowhere with this."

Dust placed a finger on the map, "Well, we know that once we land on the beach, there is a wide open field on this hell of a huge beach with several trenches and barbed wire in them. Our Kaisers will take the heavy pounding of the artillery while we deploy our amphibious Zoids first by the landing crafts."

"Then, with the coast clear, we land with our Kaiser, deploying our infantry troops of the 1st Army Division while the Aviation Division begin their attack on the enemy air forces and launch bombing assaults."

"But what of after that?" Helios queried.

"Simple, the divisions will then be divided up, mechanized infantry supported by Zoids to branch out to the jungles and hills above and take out enemy outposts. Once we've taken Bareshia Bay, the Special Forces can move in further to the Central Continent and our job will be done."

"Hmm…" Ross muttered, "A fairly simple 'kill what you find' strategy."

"The operation begins at 0600 hours," Sing added, "And ends at 0800 hours…two hours, are you sure that's enough time to cover the whole peninsula?"

"More than we'll ever get," Dust replied, "Our own Emperor wants this from the special coded letter he told us to open 72 hours before D-Day."

As the others talked, Helios silently pondered in his mind. _D-Day, an amphibious assault, possibly the largest of Zenebas against their heavily defended bay. Massive naval warfare coupled by thousands of landings and possibly many dying from the machine-gun pillbox outposts located on the Helic base. _

He took a calm breath. One of the many teachings his dad Sharia had taught him. His father was an admirable Brigadier General with a fantastic record; he had trained Helios to be a soldier from day one. A pity his father never got to see him graduate from the military academy before dying in a Helic assault. Brigadier General Sharia Worthington died with full military honors and was awarded posthumously the Zenebas Cross of Recognition.

Helios wandered if perhaps he should feel some hatred towards the Helics for murdering his father. Well, murder was hardly murder in war. But yet, he could not single out every single Helic just because one 'Lic killed his father, right? That was like racism…almost like how some soldiers squared out the humans from the crashed space shuttle. His mind wandered, _Incredible how the humans managed to develop interstellar space travel._

"HELLO?!!!" Dust cried for the third time, his face a mere three inches from Helios' face before Helios finally acknowledged his existence.

"Sorry, sir…" Helios said apologetically with a sheepish smile, "I'm just kinda worn out lately."

"You shouldn't have brought this boy along," Pound muttered to Dust. Helios raised an eyebrow at the comment but kept his mouth shut.

"Ah, it was a fault on my part," Dust intoned, "My apologies, Worthington; I suppose strategy would not be your strong point. You should get prepared right about now, your helmet and firearms…we'll land in about ten minutes."

"Alright then, I'll inform the whole crew." Sing offered as she walked over to the radio speaker system latched onto the wall of the room and clicked the connection open before crying out in a strong and distinct voice, "All hands on deck!! Repeat all hands on deck! Operation D-Day will commence in ten minutes!"

There was a brief crackle of silence as someone muttered to Sing through the radio's headphones while Dust rolled up the map and kept the ink pens and compasses. Sing's expression looked slightly puzzled, but definitely far from worried. Helios could tell from her posture that something that was not yet identified as a thread could be up. After three seconds of a report, she clipped the headphones back and shut the radio's connection before turning to the four men with a grim face.

_Uh oh, _was Helios' first thought.

"According to the mast lookout," Sing paused for a moment before proceeding, "He reports that he saw at least four or three flying Zoids circling around our fleet. Hopefully the foggy nimbostratus clouds and the rain fog would have fazed their optics but chances are they're going to return to base and the 'Lics…well, will probably prepare for a battle."

"Why didn't we shoot the scouts?" Pound asked.

"We would not have been able to hit it, our main guns would probably have missed it and might have revealed our position from radar systems back on the bay, the lookout thought it best to keep it on the low. Best not to inform this to our men."

"Morale is the soldier's mother that keeps telling him to try his hardest." Helios whispered.

The statement caught everybody's ears and everyone turned around to face him with puzzled expressions on their face. Helios stared back, embarrassed for a moment before adding, "Uh…my…um dad, taught me that."

A few nods of recognition resumed before Dust clapped his gloved hands together and said, "All right, we probably should get on deck, D-Day is about to begin."


	2. Chapter Two

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D-5, 0555 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

The blue webbed-like feet of the Pteras skidded across the road of the runway, sending chips and chunks of tar flying everywhere while sparks flew in the air. Westing shifted the controls to balance the Pteras' weight…and yet his mind was not fully focused on the action but more on what they saw.

A massive armada! Six huge and gigantic red ships, barely hidden with their massive size and coupled with that were countless landing crafts, each one of them heavily armed. No doubt that these were Zenebas forces ready to launch an attack…and Westing would have bet his life that they were no peace-warring tribe.

_How does the day change so quickly to the night? A happy moment to sadness? _A moment ago Westing was seeking to prove himself a worthy pilot and now it seemed his chance had been delivered…in the form of a massive naval assault. They had already reported it on their flight back there, the transmission coded for fear of enemy interception and the coordinators were confident that the heavy artillery of the Dallas Triangle would be able to withstand the incoming ships.

As a safety precaution though, Zoids were being loaded and prepared along with a few artillery divisions being dispatched…hoping at least that no enemy would come. And yet, while the others had a hundred percent confidence of the power of their heavily-guarded base…Westing could not but harbor a bad feeling…perhaps this was one of the side-effects of being human?

His Pteras had fully landed and now ground crews were racing to the runway as the other three skidded to their stops too. Trucks with extendable stairs drove to the heads of the Zoids to bring the pilots down and Westing came down in one such vehicle while other men did adjustments on the massive machine which had begun to squibble a little.

_They seem so certain…barely a faint trace of worry on anybody's face but still…_Westing shook his head. This was always him, being the pessimistic one of the lot.

Shaking away such thoughts as he walked down to the foot of the stairs of the truck, a few crew members helped him down as he unbuckled his helmet and walked to where the three other Pteras pilots had already gathered.

"Hey, West," one, Dote Smith called out, "You saw those things?"

"Crystal clear," Westing replied.

The three Zoids aviators stared at him for a blank moment. Westing sighed again.

"It's a….um, 'human expression,'"

But they had already continued their conversation and so Westing warily followed them back to the doors of the hangar. "Yeah, I know," Larry Landis cried, "Those huge ships were…gigantic! I swear you can hold over a thousand soldiers in one of those damn things."

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you," Stan Elliot offered, "With our huge guns and laser cannons coupled with seeker torpedoes and depth charges, you can be sure that they won't have any a chance."

"But what if they have aerial support too?" Larry countered.

"Nah, our air force will be able to take them," Dote added in, "Why worry, right? We're the best and most heavily-guarded base in the whole of Bareshia. Plus, even if we go down, there still over 20 other Republic settlements in the whole island."

"They're not aware of the huge Zoids hangar we have on the mountains, right?" Stan asked.

And so in this manner the conversation rumbled on between the three men as they and Westing continued to walk down the runway where they finally entered the open and busy hangar. Across the commotion, Westing could see that counter-measures were already being prepared…with artillery shells dug from the compartments, the heavy machine-guns of the superior Raynos units. Even infantry could be seen walking around and trying to find some spare cartridges to add to their duffel sacks.

From a corner of the room, a tall man, his whole body of twig-like composure passed the door there. His elaborate uniform clearly identified him as a Lieutenant Colonel. Westing could feel his eyebrows rise. There was a somewhat…strange flair to this man. His whole body, his neck, limbs, even his fingers were like long and spindly branches and closer examination revealed that his nails were probably sharper than those of a Command Wolf's.

The sharp violet eyes of the man glanced around before it caught the four pilots'. The Lt. Colonel walked up to the four of them who suddenly stopped and erected themselves as they saluted in a united voice, "Sir!"

"At ease," the Lt. Colonel replied and the men relaxed, "I am Lt. Colonel Bart Luffia, and which one of you would be 1st Class Private eh…" He glanced down briefly at his sheet of paper on the clipboard, "Westing Aaus?"

Westing felt his cheeks burn like an overheated laser gun as the Lt. Colonel Luffia singled him out. His partners were equally confused, wondering of all reasons why this man was searching for a human pilot. "You are to follow me, as you are being recomissioned as an artillery Zoid pilot."

Now his peers were even more puzzled. "Why?" Stan probed.

Again, Luffia glanced down at his clipboard once again before replying, "Because apparently our strategy commander decided that he did not want Aaus doing field work but rather firing support."

At this, the other three burst out laughing while Westing began to stifle a little bit in his suddenly uncomfortable suit. _They don't trust me and are reducing me to artillery support? What the hell? _"And you all," Luffia added, addressing the other three, "Need to log some official reports on what you witnessed in this so-called 'armada.'"

Westing wiped his brow as Luffia turned away and began to follow him. _This man does not even have a tiny aura of tension from him…he seems completely relaxed and at ease. _Luffia led him down the hangar and back into the corner entrance that he had entered where a technician briefly saluted them.

_Artillery Zoid duty? Is my record so poor that they personally take me out of field work for supporting fire? _A mixture of anger and shame crept up in the corners of Westing's mind…perhaps mixed with a slight bit of irritancy. _Never mind, I must look on the brighter sides of things…and I'll prove myself, even if it is on such a job as artillery support. _

It was not as though it was a loser's job, but merely that being assigned to artillery duty is generally frowned upon, perceived as weakness. It still played an important factor, especially for infantry. Before Westing's mind could thing no more, Luffia began to speak, "You were assigned to artillery duty because we don't have enough men, not because you are a poor soldier."

Westing froze for a moment as they descended down a set of stairs. _What? So…that must mean…_ "Do not consider yourself a mere human," Luffia continued, "I perceive that you think of yourself as such but you are equal to us Zoidians, after all, there is only a 98.89 percent of difference between our genetic makeups."

"You'll be operating a RZ-013 that will be entrenched and provide both heavy machine-gun and cannon fire towards the incoming infantry and possibly, Zoids. We're planning to hold most of our infantry as reserves, leaving most of the combat to artillery and the pillboxes before letting our infantry to the fight. There will be about seven more units with you."

_And so easily night waves back into the morning. _This was getting better by the moment as a small grin leaped up on Westing's face. Now he had a far more important role to play in this game of war, and that little token of support from the Lieutenant Colonel would be cherished. _I probably should thanks the Colonel._

"Thank you, Lt. Colonel Luffia." Westing said gratefully.

"You are welcome," Luffia responded, his expression passive.

With that irritating spark cleared from his mind, Westing could now focus on the delegated job ahead. Artillery fire. The RZ-013…the 'Cannon Tortoise.' It seemed simple enough, to be entrenched and basically fire at hordes of Imperial soldiers and Zoids. What form of enemy Zoids would the Zenebas be able to deploy? Storches and Sinkers could now be outflown by the Raynos. Perhaps they would deploy Molgas?

Westing chuckled at the thought. Those caterpillars wouldn't even stand the semi-quarter of a chance against the heavily-guarded base. But then again… Westing's mind suddenly rumbled with a slight jolt of shock. _What if they have…new Zoids?_

It all made sense now! Why would they attempt such a daring amphibious attack against the most heavily guarded base in the Helic Military? Most perceived it as a final kamikaze but then again…could it also serve as a testing ground for new Zoids? Perhaps sheer and powerful ones that would overwhelm their forces? Since the crash of the Global 3, Zoid technology had advanced, as evidenced by the developments of the Gojulas and the Iron Kong.

_And aren't the new ships merely proof to that? Oh Lord. _Suddenly Westing felt a wave of uneasiness cloud his body and a vibe that resembled sea-sickness clouded him. _Perhaps I should ask Lt. Colonel Luffia about this? But then again I'd probably end up sounding stupid._ His mind was now racing and pacing with thousands of variables and outcomes of this assault. _This could possibly be the most titanic calamity in Helic history!!!_

He paused for a quick breather as Luffia turned around the corner and opened a door into the outside where a shaded walkway that protected them from the rain appeared. _Ok, West, you're just freaking out now. Stop looking at the blacker side of the canvas…this might just be a quick test round for the new Zoids. If there are any. _Westing drew his suit tighter as they exited the base and into the outside, choosing instead to remain silent about his troubling 'revelation.'

It would be two minutes later before the two finally arrive in an underground hangar where the seven Cannon Tortoise Zoids were having final round checks to their systems. Some of them growled a little when the technicians fit the machine-gun catridges wrongly into their system. _It's often that we forget that these 'machines' are actually living creatures…they're just like us, beings forced to fight in war. Soldiers. _

A obese man, his voluptuous belly sagging from the layers of his army jacket walked up to Luffia and placed a small glance at Westing before saluting Luffia, "Head of Artillery Command, Major Edward Bush, sir!" He then pointed a pudgy finger at Westing, "Is this the replacement."

"Yes he is," Luffia replied, "Alright then, I shall leave him to you." The Lieutenant Colonel placed a final nod of encouragement towards Westing before departing.

Bush eyed him for a moment. Westing almost felt like he was being 'visually molested' by the Major's analysis but he finally relented. Bush paused briefly before asking rather obnoxiously, "You're a human, aren't you?"

Westing sighed. In a base of over four-hundred personnel, there was the occasional imbecile who was not aware of anything in the world that revolved around him. "Yes, sir," Westing replied stiffly, "I'm a human."

Bush's face lit up with a smile before punching him in the hand. "A human! Ah, I hear your kind is ingenious with technology!" Westing's mouth dropped a few millimeters in surprise…wow, a Zoidian who did not actually look down on the human race but rather on their strengths. _Wow…perhaps an intellectual?_ He glanced down on his arm. That would leave a bruise.

"Come," Bush grabbed Westing by the arm, "Let me show you to your Zoid." The plump soldier led Westing down the railing and towards the hangar floor where alarms and yellow labels crowded the whole area. A single technician unplugged some cords from a slot in the Cannon Tortoise's foot before recoiling them into a cart and pulling it away. Westing took this time to look up at the huge Zoid before him.

The Cannon Tortoise was clearly heavily armored, with their particle cannon that were mounted up front providing an atmosphere of intimidation. Painted in a drab green and black color scheme, Westing could make out some cuts and paint rips in the sides of the machine, showing years of age along with the dust that gathered in the Zoid body's nooks and crevices. The automatic guns, two of them, that were mounted on either side had just had their shells loaded and the technicians who operated the robotic limbs used to this slowly maneuvered away.

"Alright, come on, get in." Bush commanded as the canopy of the Tortoise shifted open. Westing placed his helmet on and began rushing to the cockpit as he saw that a few of the other Tortoises already had their hatch doors open and were now crawling past the rain and the muddy sand to drop into the barbed trenches. Westing ran and then lifted himself unto the cockpit and sat on the seat.

He strapped on the harness as Bush muttered, 'Good luck,' and the canopy began to close. Pulling the lever, the Zoid ignited, letting out what sounded a bit like a groan. "No whining, Tortoise."

The Zoid's head turned a little, sending Westing a bit to the right, as though the Tortoise was surprised that Westing was addressing it. It sounded a bit like, 'Are you talking to me?' Grabbing the controls, Westing cried, "1st Class Westing Aaus, Cannon Tortoise, launching!"

The coordinator 'rogered' the command and the hatch open. From within the cockpit, Westing could see the rain raging down upon them, a blazing storm as the trees swayed madly, their branches in the air as though warning Westing of some horrible event to come. The Cannon Tortoise moved forward, its feet splotching the wet sand underneath as the Zoid lumbered forward into the rain. Westing took a deep breather. _A bad omen._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+5, 0605 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

By 0600 hours, the Zenebas forces had managed to take down three pillbox outposts and managed to subdue at least fourteen artillery cannons. The landing crafts had already made to the beach coast, with only four out of sixteen being destroyed in the process. Wardicks and Brachios units were readily being deployed and soon a full-on battle was boiling at its beginning.

_They probably did not expect a Zoid attack first…not an infantry one,_ Helios noted, _it goes against almost every rule of mechanized warfare but I suppose compromising in this situation is acceptable. They probably did not suspect of new Zoids either…_ Helios turned his gaze upon the porthole where he could see the battle just beginning to start.

_The Wardicks…rather slow on land but at least they possess an infiltration quality of burrowing. The Brachios, ah, it appears to be an impressive unit in my eyes…though perhaps not the best in land warfare, but I believe many pilots appreciate its versatility in both land and aquatic fields…_

Taking his eyes off the battle, he glanced around and eyed the other soldiers. Most of them were nervous, shakily fiddling with the straps of their laser rifles while others looked as though they were going to vomit. _I do not blame them…most of them are new to the face of war anyways….soon, they'll remember it as well as their own mother's face._

He then heard Sing's voice call from the radio speaker overhead the compartment he was in. "All hands, prepare for Whale Kaiser landing in three…" All soldiers began to close their eyes, a few of them even praying to the elder tribal gods as the ship continued to rock against the waves. "Two…"

"ONE!"

The Whale Kaiser burst through the torrent of the ocean and smashed hard on the sand, sending spurts of dust and muck everywhere. Helios quickly glanced out the window. Oh, the expressions of the shocked soldiers up in the machine-gun towers were priceless. A coordinator made a call before the hangar door of the massive Whale Kaiser opened, and light cut through to the eyes of the nine-hundred fully-armed soldiers.

_The scene might have been more beautiful if there were not machine-gun fire in every damn corner. _Quickly, Helios' eyes analyzed the lashing trees, the rain that poured, sending pitter-patters across the hull of the Kaiser and the screams of men and the battles that were beginning to take place between the armored Zoids. One man screamed, "CHARGE!" and the whole of the 1st Army Division ran out onwards, bearing their weapons forward with relentless advancing.

Chaos shortly ensued. The moment Helios had exited the Kaiser, a massive blue beam shot from what appeared to be a trench and created a rocketing explosion of sand just mere meters from his position and unfortunately, vaporizing a few of the Zenebas troops. Sand clouded Helios vision momentarily before he tightened his grip on the laser rifle and continued onwards.

The other Whale Kaisers had already landed and troops were beginning to pour all across the beach. Massive explosions bombarded themselves all across the raining beach and sent dust and confusion in the whole battle.

Helios hit the dirt, hoping to throw himself off the enemy's sight. The terrain could be used to their advantage with the beating storms and up ahead, Helios could see the Aviation Division doing their thing with the Helic Air Force. He took a brief moment to look around the battlefield.

There were no infantry, merely trenches quite far ahead where Zoids with huge particle cannons bombarded the Zenebas troops with no mercy. Outpost towers were everywhere, with soldiers firing machine-gun fire down and encampments in the dirt of artillery cannons that blasted against the 'beached' Whale Kaisers. Though the sand blurred his vision, Helios could make out a runway and more grey buildings further on and beyond that, the dense rainforest and the barely visible mountains hidden in mist.

_F***. _

Without another moment of hesitation, Helios pulled himself to his feet, charging onwards with his laser rifle. He stopped about a few meters from an outpost station before going prone and aiming his rifle towards the machine-gunner up there. "Die, muthaf*****!!!!"

He pulled the trigger and several rapid fire streams of neon yellow energy surged from the firearm though failed to hit the soldier. The shots merely hit the edges of the tower, sending sufficient amounts of dust and debris to cloud the man's vision.

_TAKKA TAKKA TAKKA!!!_

Suddenly, another round of fire burst at the tower, but this one was far more deadly. The rounds were those of a …Zoid. Throughout the haze and fighting, Helios turned around to see one of their new models, the Dimetrodon with its machine-gun slowly murdering the outpost station before the whole structure threatened to topple.

Feeling as though he left this in good hands, Helios continued to charge forward.

Around him he saw carnage…the true face of war. Men were being vaporized by cannons and having their limbs torn bit by bit with machine-gun fire. A man's whole abdomen was shredded apart by an artillery cannon, sending him insides bursting everywhere and a splash of blood that coated Helios and the other men surrounding that soldier.

"Argh, damn!!!" Helios cried as he spat out some blood.

"We need to get to the f***** beachhead!!!" another soldier cried out to Helios.

"Well, the let's f***** go!" Helios retorted and the soldiers began to pounce onwards to the beach.

The puddles that collected in the sand were now contaminated with crimson blood and Helios could feel his heavy armor being seeped in with a mixture of blood and water. Ignoring the tingling sensation, he continued running in a crouched manner, trying to maintain a zig-zag pattern in a hope that the enemy would not be able to get a secure lock on him.

_BOOM!_ An artillery cannon launched a single round near Helios and when the shot burst two meters from Helios' position, it felt as though a nuclear warhead had exploded right next to his ear. Helios tripped, his whole body toppling to the ground as a shrieking sound surrounded his eardrum, his hearing completely cut off except to that distinct pierce.

"Ah, F***!!!!" Helios cried as another soldier grabbed him by the arm and lifted him.

"You okay, sir?" the soldier cried over the loud explosions surrounding them.

"Just run!" was the only reply Helios could give as the sand ahead of them erupted with machine-gun fire. Helios could see it now…the beachhead with barbed wire…a crawling position there would provide sufficient cover. They were so close to it…

Helios continued to run. His feet were now sore, his muscles tense and weak. The world around him seemed disoriented slightly confused as all the sounds of the rain and the explosions were being clouded. He grated his teeth against one another and placed a palm on his face. _Ow…my head hurts….focus!_

The moonlight cast the shadows of the hundreds of soldiers who still were running to the beachhead. Away to the right, Helios could see a Wardick emerge from the sand and lunging at a Cannon Tortoise only to be shot down by automatic fire. A Dimetrodon blasted an outpost tower to hell while medics ran down from deployable ladders on the Brachios units.

_My…ah! What the…_ Helios quickly shifted his position as sand burst abruptly around him, similar to the rain. _Argh, another f****** problem here, you can barely tell the difference between rain and machine-gun fire._

An outpost station was setting them on his sights and let out a volley of machine-gun fire. Another soldier who was running alongside Helios got shot in the balls and thighs before crumpling on the floor shrieking, "AAIIEE!!!!! MAMA!!!!!" Helios looked pitifully at the man for a moment before seeing a single sniper's shot blasting through his skull and sending a black-red mixture of blood and lead across the ground.

Turning away, he continued to run. Quickly yet cautiously, he kept jumping or running over dead and mangled bodies of Zenebas soldiers that littered the beach…ileums flailing everywhere….hands with their soaked veins blackening the beach and the occasional head still strapped on its helmet.

_This is the worst place on Zi…_

"C'mon, we're almost there!!" a soldier screamed as more began to pile next to Helios.

"Dammit, spread out more!" Helios cried out across the resounding battlefield.

_BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! _

The machine-gun operator was not spraying its rapid streams of the bullets on its belts all across the Zenebas troops. Zenebas troops right next to Helios quickly got shot and their bodies began to topple on Helios.

"Ah, dammit, spread OUT!!!!!"

_BLAM!_

A single shell pierced right through Helios' left arm. "_AARGHHHH!!!! I'M HIT!!!! I'M F****** HIT!!!!!!_"

He collapsed on the ground, the impact sending dirt into his nostrils as he felt his arm go numb. An oozing and warm liquid was beginning to flow down his arm though it gave him no comfort from the chilling sensation that began to go over his body. _Oh my…is this….death?_ It seemed as though he was sinking into the abyss. All he could hear were the muffled screams of his fellow soldiers, and the rain that battered into every object like a bullet.

He felt a warm hand go over his right arm that still gripped the laser rifle. "Sir!" he heard a young voice ask, "Are you OK?"

Water from the man's helmet began to drip onto Helios' already wet face. The young man gripped Helios' hand tightly, "I'm Private Breton of the 4th Medic Division! Are you alright?"

Helios felt, briefly for a moment there that he was going to smack the man, "Are you out of your f****** mind!!!" he shrieked, "Of course I'M NOT OK!!!!"

"Alright, sir, I'm going to try to ply the bullet out, k?" the man asked, attempting a soothing voice that did not seem to work.

"What the…hell no! I-" But before Helios could act against it, the man had drawn a pair of tweezers from his medical kit and a shot of morphine which he injected into Helios' arm. The painkiller automatically had its effect, leaving Helios in a momentary state of peace and drowsiness as Breton began to reach deep into his bicep for the bullet.

What seemed like an hour passed before Breton pulled out the long, golden shell and then began to wrap his arm in gauze. "It's ok, sir, I got it out!!" the soldier shrieked. Just right at the moment he clipped the makeshift bandage, another machine-gunner got him square in the chest and his blood sprayed all over Helios as the body toppled onto the sand, sending a pool of red liquid to surround him.

The morphine's effect was beginning to wear off when Helios pulled himself together. _Ah crap, that boy…I'll remember him. But for now._

Forcing his vision to remain focused, he glanced ahead, narrowing his eyes tightly and could see that about six soldiers had made it to the beachhead. _The Zoids will make it, definitely…but we might not._

With all the effort in Zi, Helios let go of the rifle and placed his hands on the sand and pushed himself up. Dust, blood, and water dripped from his armor as he shakily grabbed the laser rifle again and stood awkwardly on his feet. The expanse between his position and the beachhead suddenly seemed a hell lot further than it was a few minutes ago.

Though his left hand still hurt and it now hung, limp like a dangling thread, Helios forced himself onwards, first walking unsteadily before breaking into a jog.

"Now or never," he muttered to himself and finally broke into a run.

The backpack and pouches seemed to weigh a ton as he lugged them across the battlefield. The laser rifle wore on his fingers and the heavy combat boots tore down his feet. Even the helmet seemed to be adding more to the weight. All across the beach he could see, even in the cloud of the rain, the soldiers of the Zenebas Empire getting shot by constant enemy mortars and machine-gun fire.

_The face of war…I recognize it._

In a final attempt and feat of strength, Helios hurled himself forwards and crash landed on the beachhead, sending dust in his comrades' faces and invocating a few profanities along the way. His heavy breath filled the ongoing battle around and his fingers weakly grabbed on the sand. _I made it. _Then, _I told him so. I told him it was ridiculous._


	3. Chapter Three

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+10, 0610 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

_Oh damn…_Westing thought, deep in his head, _This is kinda….wild. _Of course it was a strategic failure in Zenebas' part, assuming that there would be infantry retaliation but luckily the Helics had chosen only to use armored forces. On the other hand though, the new Zoids of the Zenebas were easily overpowering the Helic armored forces and several soldiers had already made it to the natural beachhead.

Westing sat in his seat, his fingers and face sweaty as he slowly maneuvered the crosshair on the wide orange screen of the canopy and locked onto crowds of enemy soldiers who were getting shot down faster than hell. He pressed the trigger…and the huge particle cannon sent a wave of energy right towards a crowd of soldiers and letting loose a stunning explosion that hurdled the sand in the air.

A Wardick was beginning to approach his Cannon Tortoise's entrenched position in the sand but and was too close for a particle cannon assault, which would have resulted in exploding recoil.

The two Cannon Tortoises next to Westing's were already targeting it with their smaller automatic guns towards the Wardick but the fish Zoid had already begun burrowing and was now tunneling in the soft sand beneath. _Ah, dammit. _

A tense silence filled the three Cannon Tortoises for a moment as they wondered where the coelacanth would emerge next…Westing kept full attention now on the ground beneath, hoping for a faint trace…even the slightest tremor to reveal the Zoid's position before…..

_KA-BOOM!!_

The Wardick emerged from the sands in the trench, right in between Westing and the Tortoise next to him before landing its jaws right on the other Tortoise's head. Westing watched in horror as the sharp, powerful jaws bit through the canopy and deep into the pilot within it while he could do nothing but watch, as the Cannon Tortoise could not move within the trench. _Oh lord….no…._

The pilot pulled his controls back as the Wardick shifted and then began to tunnel back in the sand before Westing even registered the whole situation. _Oh no….I might be next. _

Westing gripped his controls hard. Perspiration poured down his face and suddenly he felt nauseous. _Damn it, bring yourself together…this is why the others make fun of you, you're setting a poor example for the human race as ambassadors…_He closed his eyes tightly and his eyebrows arched, _I think Lt. Colonel Luffia puts a little bit too much trust in me. Please don't tell me I'm next….please…don-_

Again the Wardick emerged from the sands, this time jetting itself all the way up to the air. In a Zoid-maneuvering feat that only a professional pilot could manage, he shifted the levers and arched the Zoid around, directing his jaws right at the enemy and opened it before pulling the trigger, sending a shockwave of sound.

_A sonic blaster?!_ Westing screamed silently in his mind, remembering it from the lessons on armor-based arsenal he had learned back in the earlier days of the academy.

The shrieking sound was so powerful that even within the encased canopy of his Zoid, Westing could still hear the cacophony of monstrous sounds that when directed upon the Tortoise, shattered the canopy into a thousand fragments which fell and ripped the pilot within aside. "_**AAAAIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!**_"

"I have to get out of here…." Westing mumbled to himself as he unclasped his helmet and wiped sweat off his brow, "Before I'm next!"

Lightly, he tapped the console of the Tortoise, "Sorry." The Tortoise seemed to respond with a low grunt as Westing unlatched the canopy and it slid open. Flicking a switch on the edge of a cockpit, a zipline began to descend down to the ground below and Westing pushed his weight upon it and grabbed it while lowering himself to the sandy trench below.

His pilot-suit's boots crunched on the trench floor and the wet mud began to puddle around them. The rain beat down heavily on his now soaking hair and he dropped his helmet, attempting to cut down on the weight. Unbuttoning a leather pocket that dangled from his belt, he pulled out a conventional sidearm pistol and double-checked its cartridge before setting the safety lock off and cocking the semi-automatic weapon one time.

_Faster. Come on, faster. _The silent conscience within his head reminded him. The sounds of the battlefield were deafening, almost as bad as that sonic weapon as the rain fogged his vision. Westing walked ahead towards the trench ladder and placed one foot on the first rail before heaving himself up as he began to ascend the ladder.

Time seemed to go on forever. _A psychological mirage of battle…_Westing added, trying to disrupt his thoughts from the incoming Wardick. He was so close….there were about four more rails up the 7-foot ladder.

Just at the moment, the Wardick burst from the sand again, and this time since he was outside the cockpit, a riptide of sand burst all over Westing. Westing's cry was muffled as his nostrils, suit, mouth and eyes clogged with sand while the wet and brown material soaked his whole attire and rocked his dangle on the ladder.

The impact was so strong that Westing felt his shoulder dislocate as he lost his grip on the ladder and soon began falling down. The sand and muck covered his whole vision, draping a curtain of darkness over it.

He heard brief sounds…the crunching of his cockpit, the swift yet thunderous motions of the Wardick…the cataclysmic event that was occurring, and the crunch of his leg bone as he cracked down to the trench below, the soggy mud breaking his fault.

_I knew something bad was going to happen…dammit, I knew it!_

Slowly, Westing's disoriented mind began to fade and his eyes began to shut while the wave of dust rolled over his cheeks. His fingers grazed against the muddy sand and he gripped it tightly. In his mind he heard an old voice reciting the age-old motto of the Republic.

_Peace in the Republic…and peace on Zi…_

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+20, 0620 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

As Helios adjusted his helmet while he laid on the sand at the barbed beachhead, he marveled at the mist of death that surrounded the battlefield. _A mere twenty minutes and the dead bodies that litter the beach come in the hundreds! We did not predict that there would only be armored forces to counter but as for that, our Zoids are actually doing rather well against the enemy._

Wiping aside the water that dripped from his helmet and with the aid of the moonlight, he could make a single Dimetrodon spraying its sulphuric acid sprayer across the artillery cannons on the low cliffs that were beginning to retreat. _And yet war itself has many faces. _Turning his head around, Helios could also see a single Seapanther unit who had collapsed in a trench and so quickly exited the Zoid and began to crawl out the trench, only to be pinned down by enemy gunfire.

Helios grabbed the sleeve of the soldier next to him, "What are our orders so far?"

"Wait, sir!" the soldier replied as he unbuttoned the haversack and pulled out a small portable radio with a faded Zenebas logo painted on it. Setting the radio down on the sand, the soldier plugged in a set of headphones and placed them on his ears before retracting a satellite radar antenna and began to fiddle with the knobs.

Helios waited impatiently, biting his lips in agitation as the soldier's eyes furrowed in concentration.

"Uh-huh, I understand, sir." The soldier said into the phone's mic. He then took off the headphones and slung them on his neck.

"Well?" Helios asked, "What did they say?"

"Wait here until our Zoids manage to take down all enemy resistance or if they retreat before starting up the second phase."

"So what, we just wait here?"

"Yes, sir."

Helios let out a flustered breath as he gripped the laser rifle tightly. _Damn it, we're sitting ducks here. What if the machine-gunners…or even the snipers decide to head out of the pillbox and start shooting at us! They can get us from that angle…_Again; he wiped water off before looking around at the disastrous battlefield. _That Seapanther there…_

"Cover me, soldier, I'm going into that Seapanther over there," Helios told the soldier as he pointed a finger towards the entrenched Zoid.

The soldier stared back at him, eyes wide as though he was saying, 'Alright, I'm going to commit suicide, here's my will.'

Before the man could even respond, Helios dropped his laser rifle and with his head down in the rain, began to run towards the Zoid. His clothes were soaked with rain but luckily, they were made of waterproof material so only the exterior of the fabric was wet. He quickly made his way to the edge of the trench and eagerly gripped the railing of the ladder down.

Taking two steps at his time, his mind went back to something his father Sharia had once said…_Take one step at a time, but three in a battle._ The warning seemed to be put to effect in this situation.

His feet made contact with the mucky basin of the trench and quickly though steadily, made his way across the littered spades, ammunition, and even the half-buried body of a Republic soldier covered in mud. Helios continued his path, soon arrived to a deep section of the trench where the Seapanther resided ahead…the section had shin-deep mud that Helios had to push himself with hard force to even advance slightly.

_Dammit, this s*** is slowing myself considerably. _Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists tightly, Helios waded his way across the muck before it began to rise even higher to waist level as he tripped down to an even lower basin.

"Ah, f***!" he swore as the muck spurted all across his suit and frace, "F***** s***."

His foot hit something hard on the ground beneath, _Must be the Zenebas soldier, _and he pondered over for a moment whether he should take the man's dog tags before deciding against it and continued to push himself forward ahead. The basin then began to slope up and the muck began to drip of his clothing as he made his way to comfortable ankle-deep mud though his clothing was now soaked with muck that the rain failed to wash away.

_Yes, _Helios thought as he saw the zipline, _the man left it down._

Grabbing the triple-layer nylon wire, he flicked a switch with his foot and the wire began to zip back upwards into the cockpit. He crawled in as the mud dripped all over the consoles and he strapped the harness on. _Pity I don't have a pilot helmet. _Helios only had minimum sessions of Zoid training though utilized them in several battles he had taken place in. The Seapanther was a little different though with its cockpit one of those older 'clamshell' types.

The hatch slid down across the bar of red neon that raised up to Helios' knees as the console panels lit up and the cameras on the 'Panther's 'eyes' connected to the screen in the cockpit and the holographic crosshair appeared on the screen. Helios looked down to check the Zoid's arsenal.

The EMZ-31 had a reasonable armament library…its main weapon was a high-precision 88mm beam rifle along with a six-tube missile launcher with two salvos each. The beam rifle had already taken up 23% of its energy cartridge. Along with that was a secondary armament, a two-salvo set of twelve missile pod launchers. _A reasonable load-out, indeed._

_How do I get out of this trench before I become a sitting duck? _Helios wandered as he glanced at the panels for an idea. Firing the beam rifle for recoil was definitely a big no-no. But then again, what choice did he have?

_I hope this isn't another ridiculous idea…_Helios thought; _I've had enough of those. _Remembering that the Seapanther could retract into the armored shell, he pulled back the levers as the 'Panther drew back its limbs, the cockpit reversing and covering the missile pod launchers. Next, Helios then aimed the beam rifle carefully a few meters above the ground of the trench level.

_RATTARATTARATTA!!!_

The sound of machine-gun fire surprised Helios and he glanced up. A machine-gunner was firing his rounds onto the Seapanther! _I have to react fast before one of those shells cut into the already weakened metal of the cockpit…_Whispering a silent prayer, Helios did a final check and lowered the beam's output before pulling the trigger.

A sizzle of yellow energy hit the dirt with a shuddering force…Helios quickly increased the beam rifle's output and the impact was significant enough to propel the hermit crab into the air, letting loose a volley of shattered rock and dust across the trench as the Seapanther burst out and left a crater in its wake.

"Ah, f***," Helios swore as his (luckily shielded) head banged onto the edge of the confined and claustrophobic cockpit wall. The 'Panther came to a stop in the sand and in the corner of his eye, Helios could see the other members of the 1st Army Division cheering him on and raising their weapons and arms in the air in delight. _Action…and reaction. _Another quote from his father.

_The enemy fire is considerably lessening, _and Helios wondered if they were retreating. Pressing the levers, he pushed the body of the 'Panther out of its shell and began to let the limbs of the Zoid crawl towards the beachhead. A single artillery shell whizzed past the Zoid while several machine-gun bullets grazed the side but still Helios kept moving to the beachhead where he finally landed and soldiers began to crawl onto the Zoid's body.

Helios looked around, slightly bemused. _Well, who's up for a free ride? _He noticed the soldier who had the radio crawl up to his cockpit and began to knock on it.

Helios flicked the switch and rain began to pour onto his already muddy cockpit. "What is it, soldier?" he asked the man who stood, his hands gripping the edges of the canopy.

"Sir," the man began, "Reports state that ground forces are retreating…their air force seems to be playing the defensive now."

_Ah, _Helios noted in his head, _They're afraid that if our air force pushes forward, bombing may ensue…a good strategy but unfortunately their armies are about to be overthrown. _"Thank you, soldier for the inform."

The soldier responded with a brief nod as he pushed the canopy down and the clasps connected and let the cockpit shut.

Helios gripped the controls at an even tighter clench now. Across the battlefield he could see that several Dimetrodons were already beginning to walk up the airfield and the other Seapanthers were now unloading their arsenal of missiles and missile pods all across the air base where Republic pilots were beginning to scatter wildly. _Well, that take cares of that. I suppose we now have to advance further into the jungle…first, we have to rendezvous._

He looked out to the soldiers who were crouching on the armor of his 'Panther. _This would count as mechanized infantry. _With that, he thrust his Zoid forward and in the distance, could see now more clearly, the hills that branched out from the jungles beneath.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+30, 0630 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base, within a trench**

Westing Aaus opened his eyes. A sharp and distinct pain shot up his left arm…a dislocated shoulder. Westing grits his teeth. _Where am I? Oh, right…Bareshia…the trench….oh lord, the Wardick….crap…._He tried to move his right leg but it felt numb, clearly sprained and buried under a few layers of mud.

The rain pattered on his face, letting for awhile at least, a cooling sensation to coat him. The full moon ahead could be seen as the palm trees in the distance beat with the rain. Forcing his neck to turn, Westing looked to the side and could see several Zenebas Zoids were already beginning to pass by. _What? We lost?_

_We are about to venture into a zone unknown, boy._

What? He turned his head around, his neck craning with agony. Who was talking? And yet…why did that voice sound so distinct?

_We are the ambassadors of our planet, we are the representatives and we must set a good impression upon any interstellar life we encounter. No conflict shall ever rise between us and them, but instead the unity of hopefully, a universal commonwealth be formed._

How amusing. There was already a conflict involving humans here on Zi. So much for that…and then it hit him. He recognized the voice. His uncle!

_We shall aid them, and they us. A whole universe of peace is what we desire…but it needs to begin from the planet. We have not done that…still Earth is in conflict and it is for that that we are fleeing from our home planet for a home not our own. Consider it a sleepover to another planet until the conflict on Earth settles. Until the raging tempest, the blowing cyclone decides to stop…_

Closing his eyes, Westing remembered his uncle. He was the only family relative Westing had as they boarded the Global 3. Earth was in a world civil war at that time…it was a horrible time apparently though he could not remember, being around eight during the time the war reached its peak. The Global 3 was only one of the seventeen Global ships of the fleet which had each taken a different jump through star systems until the Global 3 lost its track after the first eighteen point nine seven light years.

Every day, his uncle would educate him on what was about to happen. What they were here from. He took no chance to hide the war with a lighter shade but instead revealed the full blackness towards Westing…he showed the young boy the whole blackness of the universe.

_Perhaps that is the source of my bitterness. _Westing thought.

With the hyperjump…he had aged about three years before the malfunction and subsequent crash on Zi. Sixteen out of a hundred and thirty one passengers had died, Westing recalled. _About eighty-eight percent survived at least._

_Think less of the past…and more on the future._

Westing's mind felt a little delusional now. Was his uncle right? Why was he pondering about life before the crash landing when he should be thinking of how the hell he should get to the other Republican forces? Yes, of course his uncle was right. His uncle was always right.

Grunting, Westing rolled himself to the sides and lifted himself up with both arms and the dislocated joint snapped back into place, "F***!" _Oh my, I swore._

He then grabbed the side of the trench, his fingers digging into the solid rocks that hid within the dirt and the muck and pushed him up while limping on his good leg. When he was right about to attempt hopping on one foot, a hand emerged from the mud with a soft burst and grabbed his shin.

"Whoa!" Westing cried, surprised as he looked down.

Focusing through the haze of the rain, he could make out the rough outline of what appeared to be a man's shape. Crouching down and taking the pain, he pushed aside the wet slops of mud and wiped it off the man's buried face. A sharp gasp exhaled from the man's lips and he coughed violently. Gripping Westing's sleeve tightly, he began to pull himself up through the mud while Westing aided him.

The Helic soldier coughed out some mud and shivered in the freezing cold but other than that seemed in good shape. Wiping off more mud on his face, he turned to Westing and explained, "Ah, ar-cough-artillery command, a shock wave sent me toppling here."

"You ok?" Westing offered.

The soldier glanced down, "Better than you are. I'm Private Eiden, come on, I'll help you out."

Though his arms weakly shuddered in the cold, Eiden was able to raise himself up the ladder and piggy-backed Westing up. Westing felt slightly awkward, being carried by somebody else but Eiden quickly dropped him in exhaustion when they had reached out of the trench.

While catching his breath, Eiden said, "Come on, I know the way to a close Helic outpost…hopefully the Empire hasn't got there yet…"

Westing arched his body upwards. Well, wasn't it just his luck. Eiden bent down and took Westing's arm and slung him over his shoulder while digging into his pocket for a paracompass which he unveiled. Sliding it open, he held it in the air.

"Hmm…the magnetic pull in the jungle isn't affecting the compass, I don't think," Eiden analyzed, "And since there's no lightning, I'm pretty sure its right so I know which way we're headed."

"That's good to hear," Westing managed weakly before Eiden then abruptly pulled them towards the jungle.

"Come on, let's head off."

"Sure, no problem," Westing replied and his head, added: _Thanks, uncle._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+40, 0640 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X 1.5, Y 2.3)**

Helios had met up with two more Brachios units to form a small squadron to take down an outpost. The soldier with the radio opened the cockpit once more, much to Helios' irritation as the rain still managed to cut through the thick and dense foliage of the jungle trees ahead.

"Sir, command has just informed all teams of enemy outpost positions. The one closest to us is about three miles off north-east." The soldier informed him as he charted the position on a mud-stained map.

"Hmm, alright, relay this to the other two squads."

The soldier went off to talk to another soldier who was relaxing on the porthole of the Brachios next to Helios' 'Panther as he slid the clamshell shut while the men outside chattered, glad to have avoided death as an atmosphere of relaxation began to drift amongst them.

The windscreen showed Helios that the terrain was now changing. The gathering of leaves on the rock faded away for a misty swamp which featured huge mangrove trees whose roots limited some Zoid movement and murky waters which reached about halfway up the Sea Panther. Perfect environment for the three amphibious Zoids, by any means.

_This certainly is a nice change…considering the rain doesn't affect us anymore._ Helios thought, trying to see the brighter side for a change though he had to adjust the optics' brightness a few settings higher to cut through the mist.

The Brachios units turned their headlights on to cut through the fog and illuminate the way for Helios and he could sense that the men were now starting to tense up…this was the perfect spot for an enemy ambush and being out in the open in such an….almost blind environment was probably not that good of an idea.

The cockpit hatch got a knocking sound and Helios grumbled softly to himself as it slid open. There it was, radio man again.

"Sir, radar's not working in this mist so the men are just a bit uncomfortable with being on the outside of the Zoid."

"Well, what do they propose?"

"They want to wade in the water, sir."

"But it'll go up to their f***** neck!"

"Exactly sir," the man reasoned, "It'll be good camouflage."

Helios swore a little to himself before replying, "Fine, fair enough, let them."

"Thank you, sir," then the soldier added, "Oh, and one more thing, there's a magnetic pull, a Lorentz force with the power of around 1.7 Tesla in this jungle sir, it's affecting our compasses. You might want to adjust the settings of the beam rifle."

Helios nodded at this proposal and gave a grudging thanks before the soldier smiled and began to shut the cockpit. Right before he did, Helios asked, "What's your name?"

"1st Class Lieutenant Bobby Marsely, sir," the man replied before fully shutting the cockpit.

Helios reclined back in his seat as he tapped on the keyboard to adjust the beam rifle's power. _Stupid swamp and stupid magnetic pull._ His mind wandered off for a moment. _Marsely…a queer name, that one._

The Seapanther and the Brachios waded off further into the swamp as several soldiers began to plop into the waters as though this was a mere summer vacation…not a full-blown battle.


	4. Chapter Four

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+55, 0655 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X 3.4, Y 4.8)**

The rain was beginning to fade away…only the remains of the sky's tears still dripped from the palm trees above. And yet…as the evening turned into the shadowed night, a blackness began to creep up over the whole bay of Bareshia and the only source of light was the single circular…that shone with a dazzling and pure white, the moon which hung from the clouds above and provided a guiding light to the people in the jungle beneath…well, most of them at least.

All three Zoid units had their own headlights that literally blasted the darkness with their striking beams of illumination, special 26 million candelas powered lamp that were mounted on the Zoids, a by-product of human technology brought over from Earth. Several soldiers had decided to take a more defensive and hidden approach by sliding off the exterior armor of the Zoids and into the waters where their brown helmets kept them camouflaged in the murky waters of the swamp and their flashlights shone the way through the interconnected 'lakes' of mangrove waters.

_What the f*** is wrong with this damned mist? _Helios cursed in his head as he sat back in relaxed composure on his rather uncomfortable cockpit seat within the Seapanther. To worsen it was the bloody magnetic pull and they now had to rely on the traditional cartographic recreations of the area via satellite imagery. It was true enough that the headlights of both his 'Panther and the two Brachios' that followed them cut through the fog, along with the torches of the troops but still….the fog seemed the cloud everywhere where light did not shine through…a blind spot, or more a likely sot for an enemy ambush to occur and the words of Sharia came back to Helios, _A soldier who cannot see the whole battlefield is a man who does not see the other sides of the argument and only his own. _

From the monitor on his cockpit, Helios could barely make out the outlines of his hidden soldiers…some had even decided to put some leaves and foliage on their helmets. The tense atmosphere had just raised up another notch in the darkness….even the Brachios units had chosen to bend their limbs to submerge themselves further in the swamp waters. _Any damn enemy could pop out of here while we're strolling through this motherf****** misty place…hell if there's a sniper up there, ready to shoot someone down._

As though his comment had triggered an idea in Fate's mind, high in the canopy of the jungle in a small hammock made from military-issue armor netting, two Helic scouts perched there. One soldier had a Helic-issue sniper rifle gripped tightly in his hand while the other soldier had a makeshift sling that hung from his neck and in it was a radio. The second soldier quickly plugged a set of headphones in and placed them on his ears before twisting the knobs and establishing a connection.

"Connection secure. Message encoded." The radio's female-like voice stated bluntly.

"Eagle Watch 4 to base, repeat, Eagle Watch 4 to base," the soldier called into the mike of the headphones, "We've located a squadron of enemy units advancing towards your location."

There was a brief pause over the intercom until the coordinator at the other end replied, "Copy that. How many?"

"Two of the new Zoids, sir…they appear to be based on Brachiosaurus-type wild Zoids, sir. There's also a single crab sort of Zoid," the soldier continued, "Sending coordinates right now."

Again, another pause in the conversation as the soldier typed on the radio's keypad and the coordinates were sent across the line. "Alright, coordinates received," the coordinator confirmed, "No infantry?"

The soldier tapped the sniper lightly on the arm, "Check with your scope if there are any soldiers."

"Alright," the sniper replied and wielded the precision rifle down below before closing a single eye and peering into the scope. Using the knob built into the handle for quick and efficient optics, he slowly zoomed the crosshair towards the swamp below and silently looked around carefully for any tatter tale signs of enemy infantry. Even in the darkness, the special nightvision scope could pick out any traces of movement. _There has to be some…or else or those troops on the beach would be wasted. There!_ He quickly turned the rifle a little while his comrade asked him if there were any soldiers. The sniper zoomed in a little further more. _Huh? No…I don't see any soldiers…._

Putting the rifle down, he turned to the radioman, "Nope, don't see any sign of them."

"We don't see any infantry." The radioman concluded into the mike.

"Alright then, roger that. Wait until about preferably…twenty or so minutes from right now, then radio-in again for an aerial pick-up by one of our helicopters. I'll send the details regarding the LZ now."

"Roger that, Eagle Watch 4 out."

The radioman took the headphones off and shut the radio's connection. "Strange, isn't it…" he began, "There should be some infantry."

"Maybe they're at the beach waiting for reinforcements?" the sniper suggested.

"Could be…"

The sniper let the conversation hang there and leaned on the netting that composed of the hammock. Placing his fingers on the pouch that dangled from his belt, he unbuckled it and took out a water canister which he began to drink from. The water felt good…far better than the raging rainstorm that had taken the island earlier… After capping the canister back and slipping it into his pouch, he looked down and glanced at the waterproof digital watch, it's neon glow light flashing in the darkness of the jungle. _Eighteen more minutes._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+1.10, 0710 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Dallas Triangle Base**

The final Whale Kaiser landed on the beach of the now abandoned Dallas Triangle Base…the once impenetrable 'Atlantic Wall' of the Helic Republic's military…until now. The huge Kaiser warship was bruised and battered, the sides of the thick armor clearly dented by incoming warheads. The huge mouth of the ship slid open as reinforcement Zoids began to pour out. Most of the reinforcement composed of Iguan units and the occasional Helcat.

Two Storches and three Saicurtis Zoid units had already landed on the beach. Colonel Sing got out of the cockpit of a Storch and was escorted by the pilots of the other Zoids, all of them soldiers in the Zenebas Air Force. Out of a Kaiser came Sergeant Dust and Brigadier Sergeant Pound. The two men walked up to Sing and her men as they gathered in the sand.

"Status report?" Dust began.

"We're not holding out well, sir," Sing replied, "Their Raynos units are dealing heavy casualties on our slower Saicurtis units…they've even managed to get an effective Salamander rolling out now. Sir, I'm requesting either reinforcements or at least partial retreat for the air force…we won't be able to hold out much longer."

"But neither will they…" Dust muttered.

"Sir, you might want to look at this," Pound said as he unrolled a sheet of paper with printed coordinates and sketchy satellite imagery printed on it, "The lookout on my Kaiser determined that the 'Lics aerial units always retreated to what appears to be a landing pad cleverly hidden on the side of the hill facing the mainland…our blind spot."

Dust's beady little eyes glanced down and frowned in frustration, "Hmm…interesting. We should strike that base soon…no doubt that's a reserve backup if the Dallas Triangle was broken through. We should consider that top priority, prepare to get a-" He paused for a moment. "Wait, where's Ross?"

"He already headed in with a large squadron into the jungle, aiming for a munitions base down in the outcrops of the mountain, sir." Sing informed.

Dust swore briefly before letting out a breath. He dug a cigarette and lighter out from his pouch, lit the cigarette and began to smoke on it. Taking a deep breath, he placed the stick off before letting out a poof of nicotine into the air.

"You're going to kill yourself with that, sir." Sing remarked.

Dust eyed her for a moment with an irritated stare before continuing, "Sing, get your reserves to pull back. Let them think we're going to bomb their places…I doubt they know we've sent mechanized infantry out there. Pound, I want you to take the Kaisers and circulate the peninsula with them and some of our dreadnoughts. When we give the signal, I want you to blast the mountain to hell to give us cover fire as we ascend it."

"And what about you, sir?" Pound asked.

"Me and the ground reinforcements will salvage the base for useful ammunition and provisions…and maybe finding some abandoned Zoids, painted Zenebas colors on them and then setting off to the jungle towards the outcrops where hopefully Ross has managed to destroy that base before sending out a signal for a major rendezvous to the other separate squadrons. Then, I want you, Sing, to launch your air forces for aerial support and then Pound, your guns come in, clear?"

"Roger that sir," the two officers said.

"Good soldiers," Dust replied as he walked up to the pilots who were gathering and talking to one another, "All of you! Get your asses into the base for some useful s***. Find any still-living soldiers, we need some POWs." The men quickly put down their flasks of rum and began loading their firearms as they huddled together in groups of three or so as they entered the pillboxes and doors of the airfield base.

"You think this'll work?" Pound asked Sing.

"This is only half of the mission…the main point is the reclamation of the Zenebas capital," Sing replied.

Pound looked around…saw the dead and scattered bodies of brave soldiers whose dissected pieces littered the beach, letting a crimson wave to bloody the sand that even in the darkness of the evening, could still be seen. "I mean…do you think this was worth it? All to recapture lost land?"

Sing gave a brief questioning glance to Pound. The hard-as-nails soldier had rarely been this moral before…perhaps war does this to you sometimes.

"No…I don't think it was worth it at all."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+1.17, 0717 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates unknown)**

Even though Eiden was carrying the brunt of the load, Westing still felt sore. His arms and shoulders ached as he limped across the crinkled leaves that scattered the forest floor. It was probably only seven, though here on Zi the second moon had already risen and it appeared more like how nightfall would appear back on Earth. They had been walking for a long time now, with their paracompass completely useless with the strong magnetic force that was pulling down in the jungle. Each time Westing's foot lightly tapped on something, a sharp ache would jerk up his leg. _This is almost like walking in hell…_

"You alright?" Eiden asked, his face still coated with muck from the trench.

"Yeah…thanks," Westing replied drily. His lips, his skin, his throat and even his tongue felt dry. Their water canisters had been finished fifteen minutes ago. Walking in the forest for forty-five minutes tended to have this effect on people.

"I'm surprised you even managed to get up on the trench," Eiden commented.

"Hmm…" Westing replied wistfully, his ears still resounding with his uncle's voice, "…I wonder how too, myself. Here, I can walk now."

He tried to loosen his grip across Eiden's shoulder but Eiden tightly grabbed his arm, "No, let me aid you, it's the least I can do for you digging me out of the dirt." He replied as he wiped off a smear of mud.

"Actually you burst out on me like a zombie."

"A what?"

"Never mind…it's a-" Westing began.

"Are you human?" Eiden asked.

"Y-Yeah…" Westing replied, a little embarrassed.

Abruptly, Eiden stopped. Westing looked at the man as they stood there, huddled awkwardly in the forest. Eiden's face was now bland…his expression unreadable and yet, as Westing analyzed a little deeper into the man's complexion he could see a darker emotion in there…one he did not recognize but revealed through the pressure that was being placed on Eiden's lips to hide his gritting teeth. "Um, you ok?" Westing offered.

Eiden took a deep breath before continuing to walk. Westing was lugged along and he limply followed, puzzled by the man's sudden change in attitude. Finally, Eiden took the initiative and asked a question, "How was life back on Earth?"

Westing thought that the question was asked rather forcefully but chose not to state it out. "Much more different than here."

"How so?"

"For starters…we don't have such huge-scale wars…" Westing replied, saying it in a cautious manner."

"You do not have conflicts? That's unlikely." Eiden said, turning his head to Westing in a cocked manner.

"Sorry, I meant we didn't have such huge-scale wars before…usually between a few countries or so…"

"Countries?"

"Tribes, you would call it." Westing explained, "Not until much later before every nation, or tribe decided to go against one another in something we call the World Civil War."

"Is that not like our current Helic-Zenebas war?"

"No…this is a war of two distinct tribes related to one another, a war that began with a difference in visions for the planet." Westing began, "The World Civil War is just a mass-murder for the planet's dying resources."

"Huh?"

Westing sighed, "See, we can't evolve things from organic material like how you guys did with the wild Zoids. We don't have the same philosophy that you have of living in small settlements, small villages. In my world, a single 'settlement' alone would take up this whole peninsula!"

Eiden seemed utterly puzzled before prodding, "Go on."

"We don't have that much natural terrain as your planet…not anymore," Westing continued, "Our materials for building don't come from the planet's minerals…we use the trees and stuff like that. You guys are mostly vegetarian, only eating wild Zoids that can't be transformed into war machine but us…nearly every animal on our planet is in one culture or another, edible."

"You all believe in a single religion, your god and goddess is the First Moon and the Second Moon…we have over a hundred religions in our planet…we have so many cultures and traditions…it's so contradictory and during the point of desperation, when our planet was dying, and we had nothing to eat we turned to one another.

"Did you become…cannibals?"

Westing stared at him blankly for a moment before laughing. His loud and obnoxious laughter filled the jungle. Eiden stared back at him, apparently a little insulted before asking, "What?"

Westing had to calm himself down before he could reply, "Sorry, it's a human expression that means we attacked one another…not ate one another…"

Eiden nodded, apparently satisfied but Westing was not done, "The nations came to a standstill, finally and the religious groups decided to hold for a moment. It was decided that our planet was so ravaged by wars that we had to find a new home. Your planet has only taken a few conflicts, this being the first war. Earth has taken more than a thousand battles that have shaken the whole planet to its core. We had to find a new Earth and so seventeen interstellar ships were launched from our home planet and light-jumped to different star systems across the galaxy in search for a new home. Our ship, the Global 3 had an engine failure and so we had to make an emergency crash landing here on your planet…and so, you know the rest of the story."

Eiden did not reply at the moment, his head focused in deep thought, "And I thought we Zoidians were savage people compared to the humans and yet…"

"See, the difference is," Westing said, "Between us humans and you Zoidians…is the fact that not all of us are soldiers of war. Not all of us know how to fight. Our home, our society is one of peace. You live in a brutal planet, this one…where the settlements are so far away that help is hard to find."

"Are you saying Zi is a horrible world?" Eiden asked, his tone reaching a crescendo as rage filled him.

"No," Westing reasoned, "I'm just saying that not all of our kind are warrior people…look, we left our world to look for a new world…but we, the more unfortunate ones of the Global 3. We did not find a new world…merely a new war."

The two of them continued to walk in silence through the jungle. Neither of them spoke anything as they waded into a swampy marsh that reached up to their thighs. Reeds blew lightly in the wind and Westing could make out the loose rock and muck at the bottom of the swamp. The trees that hung across them appeared to be mangled, casting disturbing shadows across them in the moonlight. The waters of the swamp crept through his pilot suit's non water-resistant fabric and chilled the skin of the human…and yet also calmed and cooled his body down. After several more minutes, again Eiden decided to pick the conversation up once more.

"I did not want this war either," he began, "I was of the Sound Tribe. Inn the earlier days before I was born the tribe was under the leader Abilast Gheragon. He agreed to unite with the other forty-nine tribes under Helic Muroa to form the Republic. I was born after Helic II and Zenebas Muroa split into the Helic Republic and the Zenebas Empire. The east and the west. I was born in ZAC 2012, a few years before the Global 3's crash. It was around ZAC 2033 before I was enlisted to the Republic military. I actually did not want to fight…but then again, what choice did I have?"

"The sooner either Helic II or Zenebas dies, the better for all of us." Eiden concluded bitterly.

Westing was a little taken aback…this man had chosen to reveal himself so quickly… "It is a stupid war, though," he added, "A fight because two nations have ideological differences. Like the USSR and the Nazi…"

"The what?"

"Two nations back on Earth. The Nazi's leader, Adolf Hitler, had an issue with the order of government in the USSR, or the Soviet Union." Westing explained.

"Yet another leader who forces his people to war for his own personal issues." Eiden analyzed.

"I guess Earth and Zi aren't so different after all."

Eiden's lips broke into a smile, "I guess you're right."

"I didn't want to come here….I never asked for it," Westing said with a hint of sadness, "But I guess I have to make do with what I have now and at least help the Republic."

"You're….right, I suppose."

"I'm not usually this optimistic."

The two men chuckled, sharing a soft bond of brotherhood. Brothers, both from different planets in the same war. Fighting a war they'd never understand.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+1.30, 0730 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (ccordinates X -2, Y 7.6)**

The Dimetrodon's vents twisted to another angle and air jetted out as the Zoid spun back before open firing its 20mm laser guns at the Command Wolf ahead who quickly leapt out of the way to avoid the earth-shattering beam that swayed across the Zoid and smashed into the hard floor of the ground.

_Stupid magnetic pull…_Ross cursed and he began to tap furiously on his console to adjust the polarity of the laser guns as the Command Wolf began to charge at him. Quickly, Ross sped the Dimetrodon behind a loose piece of debris to buy him some time as he finished adjusting the energy weapons in his arsenal. _I'm not worried…_Ross told himself as he smiled lightly, _With the gunner on that Wolf dead, he's completely reliant on his melee weaponry…another foolish feat of engineering by the 'Lics…_Using the debris as a barricade, he nudged it towards the Wolf with a bend of his Zoid's head before letting loose a volley of energy beams.

The Wolf continued to speed right at him, as though starting a banzai charge but barely made half the distance before the beams ripped right through the Command Wolf's feet, effectively immobilizing the Zoid which began to crash to the jungle floor, the cockpit shattering in the process. _Surely the pilot would not be able to survive that. Now that that's been taken care of…_Ross again opened the console panel and began to type, activating his sensory jamming systems. _A new form of warfare…the humans call it 'electronic warfare….' I have to get that satellite up there._

The screen buzzed a bright green before a red flash and a huge sign which read 'SATELITE DISABLED' appeared on the screen. _Now that all the satellites are destroyed, they won't be able to call for backup._ He gazed across the base. His Dimetrodon was outside the main building…lots of early artillery support by the hidden Seapanthers further off had taken out a majority of the base's aerial support capabilities and cannon towers before the electronic jamming of the Dimetrodon had worked to their advantage by concealing them from satellites and radar, using the darkness of the evening to charge and blast through the gates while the Seapanthers had continued to blow the base apart.

With the Wolf down, the battle was almost over. He could see several of his soldiers capture POWs and resources being collected from the base. This particular base was huge but with Ross' ingenious strategy, had been taken down with low friendly casualties. Flanking was easy with less trees and vegetation around…it was an open piece of land directly at the foot of the mountain. Up ahead he could make out the treacherous and jagged steps of the huge hill.

"Sir!" a pilot of a Brachios cried through his cockpit, "We have incoming bogeys, about 36 of them in our direction!"

Ross glanced down on his panel and opened his satellite systems before rolling his eyes, "Calm down, soldier. They're on our side."

Several heads turned towards the jungle behind them as Iguans broke through the thick vegetation. On the ground, two Helcats uncloaked their cloaking devices and sleekly walked pass the base's broken debris. But the single Zoid that made Ross' jaw drop by about 3 meters was a huge Red Horn that paraded through the 10-meter tall trees of the jungle. "Sir?"

"Status report, Ross," Dust asked from within his Red Horn cockpit.

"Uh, yessir," Ross replied before glancing down at his typed-in statistics, "We've taken only about three KIA casualties, one being killed in a machine-gun outpost we took down on the way here. About four are wounded and only one majorly wounded. The whole base is taken down, we've recovered about one hundred and five pounds of provisions, about ninety tons of ammunition and twenty-five POWs."

"Not that great, Ross…but good enough," Dust responded and then opened the intercom to an Iguan unit next to him, "Bring the seriously wounded man back to the Kaiser…I want him to receive full medical treatment."

"Roger that, sir," the soldier replied as he descended from his clamshell cockpit.

"If I may ask, sir," Ross began, "How did you attain a Red Horn? Such an old unit from the 20s?"

"Ah…just like the ace Gambino, I earned my position from this particular Horn," Dust replied as he fondly tapped the Red Horn's console. The Red Horn let out a loose growl that sounded like a sheepish grin.

Ross' eyes grew large as he stared down at the Horn. Its red paint was slightly scratched and rust had gathered in several joints…there was even a faded Zenebas insignia…clearly it was an old Zoid, "You used to pilot this Zoid?"

Dust chuckled, "Yes, in those days when I was a Private." He slid the cockpit open and began to descend from is cockpit's zipline. Ross opened his Dimetrodon's cockpit too and walked down from the detachable ladder. The two soldiers dropped down to the floor of the jungle.

Three hours later, the two were gathered in an unaffected block of the base. From the crackled glass of the window, Dust could make out wounded POWs being shot. He turned away, quickly. The room was barren and empty…dead from years of aging, its floor cracked, the wallpaper stripped aside to reveal the ancient brickwork. "You know," Dust began and then took a sip of coffee before setting it back down on the table, "Back in my day…there was one battle that resulted in me being promoted two ranks above to your current rank…that one battle with my Red Horn will always be imprinted in my memory."

Ross smiled…the reminiscing and the old stories of Abel Dust's glorious career always drew crowds of eager men…Dust was known to tell of his younger days, entertaining his men in the gloomiest of situations. "Go on, commander."

Dust squeezed eagerly into his seat before continuing, "You know what my enemy was? It was around ZAC 2030…right when the small skirmishes became a full-blown war. At that time, the Gojulas was unbeatable. Yup, the Gojulas was my enemy in that single epic skirmish. The first…and the last time I ever met the Gojulas in battle. I hope I never do…that Zoid alone…it's a sign of Republican power. Back in my day, it shook the soldiers of Zenebas to their core. If there was a Gojulas, you got the hell away from the battlefield no matter how high your chances. Even when the Red Horn was deployed…still, the Zenebas soldiers struggled with that damn scary dinosaur until the Iron Kong came later on. Anyways, me and my group of soldiers…about six of us were patrolling in the Northern Deserts…Zenebas territory close to Nyx. There we met a single Goju with the new Godos units. Three of us had Red Horns…we killed all the Godos units but damn…"

"Its double-barreled heavy machine-guns sent shells striking all across our units; we evaded but couldn't seem to get near that huge thing while avoiding the bullets. In the end…" Dust leaned closer to the table right across to Ross and stared at him, "Do you know how I beat the Goju?"

Ross knew what was coming…the great climax of the story. He smiled before replying, "Go on, tell me sir. I know it's killing you."

He stared even closer to Ross, his eye focused directly on Ross' pupil, "I didn't."

He fell back in his chair and began to laugh loudly, his chuckling so rumbling that even the table shook and the coffee swirled. Ross smiled for a moment…and then burst open too. Surely if he had told this story in front of the soldiers, they would have burst open in laughter too. Dust wiped tears from his eyes and struggled to continue as he clutched his belly, "I didn't get promoted two ranks for that….just joking….but I was awarded a Medal of Bravery for holding up until reinforcements came and the Goju was forced to retreat. Lucky me, I guess."

The two stopped laughing and stared out at the gloomy night. The amusement had returned to its previous state…the heavy air of death lingered in the evening sky. "I wonder when my luck will run out…" Dust whispered.

Ross glanced at his commander in surprise. The man was slowly changing, it appeared. "So, sir…we have less than half an hour to pull this off…I've already got reports from a couple ten squads or so of successful destruction of major outposts."

"Get a signal out there," Dust replied, back in business mode, "I want all squads to rendezvous here before we set up to the mountain there."

"Up the mountain?" Ross asked in shock, recalling the jagged peaks, "Sir, that's madness…"

"Behind the face of the mountain that we're facing….the side that faces the mainland and isn't open to our eyes is what we believe is a huge hangar where their air force are deploying their aerial Zoids. Their air force is superior to ours…we have to destroy it to let Sing's division begin aerial bombing to clear up any leftover Republic forces that our ground troops haven't covered," Dust explained, "Send the signal out now, Pound should be ready for covering fire within a few minutes with his dreadnoughts. Also, send another encrypted message to HQ that we've finished phase one but need at least another hour or two before the Special Forces move in to retake the capital."

"Roger that," Ross replied and stood up. Before he exited the room he turned around and said, "You should tell that story to the troops sometime. Not every suicidal mission ends badly."

Dust only smiled faintly as Ross exited the room. _I hope he's right. I hope we can get our land back._ He closed his eyes.

_I hope you were right, brother…when you said that a man's land is truly his castle._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+1.35, 0735 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X 3., Y 6.9)**

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Helios' eyes abruptly opened. The sound was coming from someone knocking on his cockpit. Bobby. _F*** that irritating shrimp…_Helios thought as he yawned and opened the cockpit before shouting, "WHAT?"

Bobby's annoying little smile lit up, "Sorry sir, did I disturb your beauty sleep?" He paused for a moment as Helios controlled himself from mangling his throat before continuing, "I just got a message…directly from Ross sir himself, sir." Helios wave of tiredness was suddenly shattered and he pushed himself to seat properly in his cockpit, "What?"

"The encrypted message said that we all, as in every single squadron, **every single **one to re-gather in a rocky outcrop. The coordinates were included." Bobby explained.

"Why?"

"They never said. Apparently Dust sir is there too…"

_What the hell was going on? They were almost halfway there and now they wanted to make a detour all the way to the mountain. Well…it wasn't that far. Perhaps a half an hour at least to reach to that location but still…_ "Alright then, we're changing position, tell everybody we're getting our asses over to the location."

"Roger and relay," Bobby replied before smiling and shutting the cockpit down.

Helios banged back on his seat again. _Dammit…here we go again. Why am I always in the middle of all these battles? _The omnipresent voice of Sharia came back to him again, _Never go against your orders…just memorize the exact words…and think your way…around it._

Helios smiled as he remembered a human story someone had once told him. Was it true? He'd never know. _When you can't break a Wall of Jericho…you walk around it._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+1.36, 0736 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X 3.4, Y 4.8)**

"Alright, it's time, radio the helicopter now…" The sniper told the radioman as the two sat crouched on the netted canvas that slung from the trees above.

"Come on, we have to get down and head to the LZ." The radioman replied. The sniper nodded and he clicked a latched mechanism that began letting loose a rope. Putting on a pair of gloves to reduce friction, the sniper then slid down the rope before being followed by the radioman whose radio slung from his shoulder and clicked and clacked as they descended the 12-foot tree.

Halfway down the huge piece of flora, they heard two voices calling out to them. The sniper glanced down. _What….two soldiers! Helic soldiers!_

"Oi!" he called, signaling the radioman, "There are two friendlies down there!" The radioman looked down and saw Westing and Eiden flailing their arms in the air. The sniper slid down even further, followed by the radioman as Westing and Eiden began to run, or rather limp up to them. The sniper was first to land on the forest floor and he turned to the two, "How did y'all get here?"

The radioman shortly landed before glancing and then recognizing Westing, "Hey, space boy!" Westing's eyebrows tensed, "Um, hey Dote."

"Got in a nasty situation, eh?" Dote asked as he stared at Westing's broken foot.

"Shut up," the sniper commanded Dote before shaking both Eiden's and Westing's hands, "I'm Acting Commander Arbis Voter, we're on our way to be picked up by a helicopter to the mountain hangar."

"Great to hear that!" Eiden cried, "We were stuck in the trenches just when the Zenebas were moving in."

"Did you see any soldiers?" Dote asked eagerly.

"Yeah…we saw some soldiers moving in I think…" Westing replied drily.

Arbis placed a hand on his forehead and bit his lip, "No reinforcements?"

"Not that we know of," Eiden answered.

"Alright then, come on let's go to the LZ now." Arbis concluded.

The four men then again, began to walk though only three of them could properly walk. The last one, the black sheep of the three Zoidians glanced up to Zi's first moon and in his mind, whispered. _The Lord is good._


	5. Chapter Five

**Author's Note: **If you like action scenes, I hate to disappoint you but there's little battle in this particular chapter. The main focus of the chapter is to fully flesh out each character's history and reasons for fighting before the final climax in Chapter 6. (and perhaps Chapter 7, too) If you like interesting and in-depth conversations and discussions in the style of Frank Herbert's Dune, you'll enjoy this. =P

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.00, 0800 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Peak, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1399 ft above sea level**

Evening faded away to bring night into the sky. High above the central mountain of Bareshia Bay was the mountain known as Round's Peak. It was to its north-eastern end, the side facing the mainland where the Helic Republic's mountain hangar was stationed. Circling a few feet above the hangar's helipad was a 'StuGERRA'-class helicopter of the Republican military. Within the Stu were Acting Commander Arbis Voter, 1st Class Privates Dote Smith, Eiden Black, and Westing Aaus. Along with them was the pilot of the helicopter, Captain Defi Arladus.

Westing glanced down at his foot. Apparently Arbis was a good medic too and took an advanced medi-kit from the 'copter's inventory and after wrapping it with some bandages and painkiller, used an emergency foot brace that was supplied in the medikit. Westing could now walk. As the helicopter approached the helipad, Arladus opened an intercom connection with the helipad's ground control and spoke into the mike, "This is Pickup 9 to Helipad, repeat, Pickup 9 to Helipad, do you copy?"

"This is Helipad. We copy you, Pickup 9, over." The ground coordinator responded, "Do you have the package?"

"Eagle Watch 4 is secure…" Arladus spoke into the mike before adding, "We've also retrieved two other friendlies who were wandering in the forest, survivors of the first wave of the enemy assault."

"What do they know about the Zenebas fleet?" the man asked.

"Nothing at all." Arladus replied. It was a pity that several outposts were destroyed…now, only this mountain hangar alone would stand in the way of the Zenebas Empire. This was the only remaining Republican outpost with communication access to the mainland's headquarters…the original Zenebas castle. Republican satellites had been taken down a few months prior so coordination across the island was difficult, mainly reliant on portable radios and other forms of conventional communication. Plus, the mountain hangar also stored majority of the air force's power, a necessary power to maintain to prevent the enemies from wiping off their ground infantry.

"It seems we're fighting a losing battle…" Eiden bluntly muttered.

"You're just like space boy, you're so p-" Dote began before Arbis smacked him on the back. "Sorry," he added sheepishly.

"I agree, Eiden," Arbis responded, "If the Zenebas forces manage to get up the mountain and destroy this base…our last hope…then it's over. We're being counter-attacked."

"And don't forget their new Zoids…I've never seen such things before." Westing added.

"It was back in 2040, I think that Zenebas fled to Nyx…the cursed place." Eiden muttered.

"Come to think about it, I recall that Guylos of the Earth Tribe left the Central Continent for Nyx too…" Arbis whispered, "Perhaps Zenebas has made a union with Guylos. We thought that it was over…until a few months ago when Zenebas made his grand comeback," he added spitefully.

A few Republican ground control officers, dressed in neon yellow that was visible in the darkness of the night opened the hangar door and turned on the helipad's lights. The huge H in the center of the pad became brightly illuminated as the officers drew guide batons that shone through the night sky. Arladus cautiously spun the helicopter around before driving it towards the helipad. The loud beating of the wings resounded, even in the cockpit as the machine descended, its landing wheels gracing the floor tightly with a screeching noise as ground control began to latch cables onto the braking 'copter.

"I bet you the Empire already knows where we are with all those damn satellites they have over the Continent." Arladus commented to no one in particular.

The others mumbled in agreement as they took off their headphones and the ground officers slid open the doors of the 'copter for the four soldiers. "What do we have here?" a stout little man asked, "Hello, I'm Senior Captain Regis Gray of Helic ground control here on Round's Peak." The man introduced himself. Arbis shook the hand of the man before bringing a hand towards Westing and placed a gloved hand on his shoulder, "This is 1st Class Private Westing Aaus, a Zoid pilot."

Gray's eyes rose in glee, "A Zoid pilot? Great, we need more of those. See, we're deploying Zoids a few meters beneath in camping locations to retaliate any enemies ascending from down below. If the Empire's stupid enough to launch an aerial assault, or 88mm AA guns and air force will be able to crush them."

Arbis nodded in agreement and then pointed a finger towards Eiden, "This is Eiden Black, of the same rank as Aaus. He is an infantry soldier specializing in artillery command." Gray smiled at Eiden and said, "Good, you can man one of the 88s."

He then turned to Arbis, "You and dote need to file a report to Deputy Commander Chagrin Tefloadus." He gave a little smile towards Eiden and Westing, "A strange name, isn't it?" He turned back to Arbis and glanced slightly at Dote, "Your report must include your full reconnaissance mission duration, equipment, what you saw," he turned an eye towards Eiden and Westing again, "And what you've found and brought back."

"Roger that," Arbis smiled, "I'll leave them to you," he concluded and gave a small pat on Westing's back before Dote trailed after him as they continued into the hangar. Gray then turned to the two, "Now I know you two are exhausted but you must come with me so you know your positions right away…battle could come at any time." His eye turned to Westing's cast, "And you, we'll get a look at that later."

While introductions had went on, Westing was instead focusing his attention to the busy hangar around him. Contrary to the darkness in the jungle outside, the white-washed walls of the hangar had dazzling halogen lights in every corner and huge alarm sirens. The ground control workers worked the panels and shut the luminous helipad lights and illuminated 'H' and they all wore their neon suits and soon began to work on the Stu's fuel tanks. Around the hangar were dozens of walkways, all clearly labeled. A sign told Westing this was the 'Vehicle' hangar…the name was suitable as the ground of the hangar composed of several more helicopters, fighter jets, tanks and even APCs. Workers ran around, carrying huge ballast oxygen tanks and huge shells that rolled on the paneled floor.

"I'll send in a report to the Deputy Tefloadus about your presence," Gray said to Eiden and Westing as another man, dressed in an open soldier uniform walked in. The man's blue-dyed hair slung wildly over his face and in his mouth was a cigarette. Gray looked back towards the man and angrily swiped the cigarette from his mouth before throwing it down and crushing it, "How many times do I have to tell you there will be no smoking in this base!"

The man replied with a billow of smoke into Gray, who began to choke before turning to Eiden and Westing. "I heard reports of a soldier specializing in artillery…" the man began, "I'm Senior Captain Ropolus Ano, that's spelled R-O-P-O, not R-O-P-E." Gray glared at the man with an almost malevolent rage before composing himself and turning to Eiden, "Please follow Ro-PO-lus to artillery command."

Eiden nodded uneasily as Ropolus slung a hand across Eiden's shoulder and led him out of the hangar. Gray sighed and then turned to Westing, "Alright, you follow me to the Zoids hangar."

Westing merely nodded as Gray led him out of a yellow door labeled 'EXIT' and into a long corridor. _The whole complex seemed to have a feeling of claustrophobia_, Westing noted, _there are no windows to the outside since the base is encaved in rock and secrecy. _Gray led him to another turn before they arrived at an elevator to the left where Gray slid the doors open with the slide of a card.

The card-sliding console bleeped green for a moment as the doors of the elevator slid open and the two walked in. The elevator was a plain monochromatic color, reminding Westing of Earth elevators. Gray pressed a button and a meter to the side began to rotate and click as they descended to level 'EEE.'

They stood next to one another, neither of them bothering to make any conversation. Westing recalled Eiden's words. _We're fighting a losing battle. Perhaps he is right. With the Dallas Triangle down and our communication cut, we're now separated from one another. So much for divide and conquer. United we stand…divide…well, we fall I guess._

When the meter finally clicked to Level EEE, the gray doors slid open and Gray (no pun intended) first exited the elevator before being followed by Westing. His body was sore like hell, his muscles aching as his cast clicked on the metal floor. The first sight of the hangar above him was an impact on Westing's every sense.

The Zoids hangar was far-by the largest hangar that Westing had every witnessed. It was huge, its titanium walls labeled and pipework and cables dangled from every nook and cranny. The commotion, heightened with the weighing battle was even worse than the Dallas Triangle, workers raced around with service carts and yet some still found time to mop the floors of the base. There were still some traces of rocks within the hangar's walls. At least six walkways were circled around the single cloister that Westing stood in. The center itself too, was massive with huge walls that resembled toilet cubicles holding Zoids of all shapes and sizes. Westing's eyes went from here to there as he analyzed every single corner of the Zoids hangar.

He could make out most of them were the Godos units, with workers going up cherry-picker trucks to load shells into the Godos machine-guns. They were most common of the bunch and along with them were several older Guysaks. Westing noted a single Guysak whose pincers had been fitted instead with mine detectors. There was even a close to obsolete Bigasaur Zoid whose extended neck and tails were latched on with safety harnesses. Below the Bigasaur were the members of the air force, crowds of Pteras and the new Raynos units. Grey directed him with a wave of a hand towards the inner section of the hangar. Westing obediently followed and there inside, another jolt of shock went up his body.

The central section held three mighty Republican Zoids…three Gojulas units. Each one was huge, towering the workers that scrambled around it appear to be ants. The massive jaws of the Zoids glimmered in the halogen lamps of the hangar while workers climbed up and down its wide torso, loading 104mm shells into their rapid-fire machine-guns. A single cable was plugged into one's tail, recharging the compact fusion reactor in its tail's laser guns while a plasma battery was being slotted into the STA beam cannons of another. There was even a Forest Gojulas, painted with green camouflage applier.

"Sorry, boy," Gray chuckled as he caught Westing's gaping stare, "You ain't going to be piloting any of those."

Westing hid a look of dejection by pretending to analyze the ceiling of the compound. Grey led him further into the compound and there, Westing saw a Zoid he had never seen before.

It was huge…perhaps not as gigantic as the Gojulas itself or even the Bigasaur but it definitely dwarfed most common Republican Zoids like the Command Wolfs or the Guysak. Its 'mane' constituted or several angled plates…Westing could make out a joint in its mane and the whole Zoid was painted an awe-inspiring bright blue. A single dual-beam cannon was mounted on its back while its slender tail too, had a double-barelled beam gun.

"What is that?" Westing managed.

"A new Zoid," Gray replied with a smile only a proud father could give, "Just designed a few months ago…it's one of the thirteen ones recently manufactured and transferred to bases across the Continent. Mass-production should be following up soon and hopefully will turn the tide of this Second War around; it's the pinnacle of Republican technology, boy." Gray boasted.

"What's it called?" Westing asked.

"It's called the 'Shield Liger,'" Westing declared, "The wild Zoid used was that of the Liger species, its chassis and design is greatly influenced by the all-famous Zenebas Sabre Tiger." Westing recalled the fearsome blood-red tiger Zoid…the Republic soldiers had a name for that thing, "the crimson beast."

"The name comes from a new technology we've developed. Termed an E-Shield, it creates a positronic field barrier that disrupts both physical and energy-based projectiles. The shield's power is supplied from a sub-secondary fusion reactor within the Zoid and only has an operational limit of half an hour at max before a fifteen minute recharge. You can tap it into the Zoid's main core though it'll lower the machine's speed dramatically."

Westing winced at the way he called the Shield Liger a 'machine' as he continued, "Will this thing be used?"

"It's still in a prototype stage, so we don't want to risk a malfunction." Gray explained, "Preliminary tests showed that the E-Shield was known to falter if the Zoid was pushed beyond the 200 km/h limit though its thrusters can go up to 250. That can be dangerous in the middle of the combat and plus, maneuvering the Zoid alone is a feat that requires the utmost steady gyroscopic talents of professional Zoid aces."

Westing nodded as Gray led him pass the Shield Liger…Westing through one more gaze at the Liger. _A chance to go against the enemy…a hope. Finally, we have something to cling on to if all else fails._

"You, on the other hand, will be piloting this Command Wolf." Gray instructed and pointed to a white Wolf. Westing glanced up and analyzed it. There was a number messily painted on it. 244. Platoon 2, Squad 4, Zoid #4.

"I'll be in a squad?" Westing questioned.

"We have two platoons on standby for enemy counter-attacks, each one consisting of four squads and each having four Zoids," Gray paused for a moment as his brain did some mathematical calculations, "Thirty-two, if I'm not mistaken in total." Westing nodded in response before throwing in another query, "Who will be my gunner for this Wolf?"

"Ah, since you will be encamped and perform an ambush assault, we will be re-fitting the double-barreled beam cannon with a modified sniper mount. You can operate the firearm from your cockpit."

"Come on now, I want to show you where you'll be stationed a few meters beneath…your hiding location." Gray instructed. Westing took one last final glance at the Command Wolf…there was nothing for a moment…and then Gray heard it, a growl?

_What does it mean? Good luck? Or maybe let me go? Man never did tame the wolf…but here it is, bound in chains…stripped of its free will. It's no longer a sentient being if it can't do what it want…no longer a living creature._

Westing paused as a troubled thought dawned over him.

_It's no longer a living creature. It's a robot now._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.10, 0810 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -5, Y 5.9) 1890 ft above sea level**

_Damn it, _Sing thought as she twisted her handle and expertly veered the Reddra to a 180 degree flip before reacting with counter-fire towards the speedy Raynos. Sing was glad she had ordered her technicians to outfit her unit with twin machine-guns and missile launchers or else she'd be at a complete disadvantage with her Reddra only possessing melee weaponry whereas the Raynos completely owned in ranged weaponry.

_The pilot's smart, I'll give him that…_Sing mused as her Reddra did another sharp turn, _He knows my strength in melee combat and is so putting on a dogfight tactic, using spinning tricks and corners to avoid me and continually circle around me, using his ranged armaments to his advantage…like a satellite that orbits around a planet. _Her canopy briefly caught the reflection of the moon and she gazed up for the fraction of a second, admiring the red-dust of the First Moon. _When night falls is the only time both moons are seen._

Sing stepped on the pedal, rocketing the Reddra forward towards the Raynos at a full charge while continually spinning full 360 revolutions, keeping it up with steady machine-gun fire and creating a gatling vortex of shells. The Raynos spun around the bullets, managing to avoid most shells but some managed to graze the underside of its fuselage. _At this rate, I'll run out of ammunition soon, with only one autoloading cartridge left._

The Raynos began to reverse, continuing its 'orbit' around the Reddra but this time choosing to take an offensive advantage. Locking onto the dragon Zoid, the pilot released a volley of AGM homing missiles The Raynos was now flying at top speed, Mach 3.3. _Pass the sound barrier…_Sing thought in her head as she tried to burst the missiles at a far range by steadily twisting her verniers so her Zoid reversed and shooting at them with machine-gun fire.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

The massive explosions, destruction of several missiles in that salvo soon ended with a clack that told Sing she only hard one cartridge remaining. The autoload mechanism slid and the final two cartridges were slipped in before the latches clasped onto them. Sing closed her eyes. _Come on…_ Around her, she saw her comrades facing off against the enemy…selfless soldiers who fought for their country…who only obeyed orders but never questioned them. She remembered what Helios had said. _Morale is the soldier's mother. _Perhaps that's it…the families at home that cheer them on, the moving speeches of political leaders, and the hordes of children that adored them when they paraded around.

_But I bet no soldier comes to war wanting to kill, _Sing thought angrily as her Reddra spun with unrelentless fury to avoid the missiles. A single one managed to smash into her Zoid's feet, sending splinters everywhere and the subsequent impact shook the Reddra to revolt over and over again as smoke trailed from its mangled limb.

The Raynos used this moment to its advantage, closing in on the spinning Reddra as it began to pound on it with its Vulcan and triple-beam cannons. The bullets blasted themselves, pounding themselves deep into the armor of the Reddra as it began to crack. Inside the cockpit, Sing struggled as she tried to pull the eject lever in the cockpit. _Ah, this thing's jammed! Dammit!_

The Reddra continued to plummet, the thrusters doing little to stop it from its descent towards the ground below. _I can't maneuver it at this momentum…_Sing thought as she grit her teeth from the G fore that pulled on her. A single shell cracked through the glass of the Reddra and smashed through her thigh, with the giant bullet ripping her whole thigh off and spraying blood onto the orange canopy.

"_**AEEIIIRGGHHHHH!!!!!**_" she shrieked in excruciating agony as her fingers weakly groped the controls.

The Reddra continued to plummet as bullets slowly tore its wings and limbs one by one. It finally came to a crashing stop on the jungle ground as the Raynos did a loop after its dive and flew back into the aerial battle. Her last thought was this…

_I was the mother of my division…the morale-provider….and now without me, will they go on?_

Her mind faded slowly…as blackness began to cloud her vision, blending in with the night sky and the First Moon that now seemed far…too far.

_A pity…if I had defeated that Raynos…I would have been an ace._

And somewhere, a deep voice in her head told her that that would have been one more life taken away by her…one more to add to her guilt list. Perhaps it was better this way.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.15, 0815 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Foot, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) **

Helios temper had risen to so high a notch that if anyone angered him, he would have smacked them right in the face, then in the testicles. He exited the muck-filled cockpit of the Seapanther, wiped more crap off his body before advancing through the crowds of soldiers who backed away from him. The sight of the shattered base did not interest him, let alone the commander's Red Horn which stayed stationary in a corner. The moment he had entered, somebody had told him to walk up to some building for a meeting with the commander. _At this time? When I should be getting some rest? Gosh, I don't care about what we're going to f***** do next; I care about some damn rest!_

The building which the soldier had directed him too was right ahead and quickly, he slammed the door open. What he found gripped his heart tightly. _What the hell was going on?_

There was a small table, and both Dust and Ross sat on their chairs, sipping on bottles of beer. It was a Zenebas honor code that no senior COs drinks alcohol in the middle of tactical operations for a clear mind, both Ross and Dust knew that. And yet, both of them were here, calmly indulging in the alcoholic beverage. Then again, Helios knew something was not quite right. He did not receive the usual greeting that he would have gotten…but rather an ominous silence. _A bad omen._

Dust took another swig before placing it down and letting out a heavy breath, "Hey there, Worthington."

"Um…hello sir," Helios began awkwardly, "Where's Brigadier Sergeant Pound and Colonel Sing?"

Dust sighed…apparently trying to choke something out before Ross took over, "Helios…Austin's going to bombard the bay from his ship but…Sing's dead."

The final word…the adjective that described death rung in the ears of Helios. He weakly gripped the sides of the walls tightly as he tried to compose himself. _Colonel Sing is…dead? She was so good with her Zoid…no one could beat her…she was almost an ace, was awarded a Medal of Airborne Bravery…so can't f****** die! _"I'm sorry, Helios," Dust offered while Ross merely looked to the ground below. The three stood there, wearily in a moment of silence. A moment of respect. _A moment of emptiness. Hollow. How many friends have to die for this f***** war to end? Oh Second Moon, why…_

Sharia's words filled his mind and composed him…_When you stand upon a rocky cliff, who is concerned of a single grain of sand that falters and falls from the cliff above? The cliff is the hanging edge of war…and every man, every woman is a grain of sand right on the tip that if an impact shakes and one us falls…there will only be a few concerned. _"How…" Helios choked and began to cough, "How did she…die?"

"She was killed in an aerial battle…they were no match for the superior Helic Zoids…" Dust whispered, "Those 'Lic bastards."

_Murder is hardly murder in war. Dammit, war or not murder is still f***** murder!! _Helios took one step forward and fell limply, like a ragdoll to the floor. Ross and Dust watched in pity as Helios effortlessly dragged his body to a corner of the room and placed his knees on his chest, feeling the soothing war that did little to comfort the ache in his chest as he wrapped his hands around his knees. Helios began to cry.

Even in the commotion of the base…if one really focused…one could hear the mourning for a fallen soldier. "Why would he cry for her…" a soldier asked, "She's not his friend or anything…" "Yeah, I don't get it…" another added. "Are you sure it's him?" "Nah, it can't be." And yet, the soldiers of the 1st Aviation Division sat there too, and some did, actually cry. Some battle-hardened veterans, their cold hearts encased in ice did mourn for the death of their commander...for now they had no leader. Without her…they had no mother. _Morale is the soldier's mother._

Dust sighed, letting out a whisk of grief before walking over to the crying soldier, now his walls removed, reducing him to a boy and wrapped an arm over Helios' shoulder, "its ok, my boy…" Ross watched, feeling a little awkward and stared on the ground. A passive silence filled the room, the kind of nothingness reserved only for funerals…only interrupted by the hushed cries of Helios.

It would be a few minutes later before Helios had calmed down and sat on the ground, his back lying on the wall. Dust was back in his chair as he studied Helios. The boy that he once knew was now a man. Dust could see the curves in the man's set jaw. He coughed a little before venturing a question that resembled a statement more, "Do you remember the days back in Tal-Ahaddi?"

Ross smiled. But Helios' face remained impassive, unreadable. "Yes…the good old days," Ross added, "The days before the war came."

The statement lingered in the air for a second and when Helios did not say anything, Dust took another slurp from his beer and continued, "What was the name of the educational facility I taught in?"

"The one that me and Sing went to?" Ross asked, his voice carefully attempting to say the late woman's name with caution, "Retghyuflerry..."

"Ah, Ret Flerry, we use to call it I remember," Dust said, his voice laced with a tone of reminiscence. He turned to Helios, "I remember those days, Helios, the days when you were a boy."

Helios did not reply but his canines went deeper into his lips. "You were in Ret Flerry too, and your dad, Sharia just joined the Zenebas Military. I remember that…I was good friends with your father." Dust coughed a little before adding, "I recall a quote he gave into one lecture that I had attended: "_Heroes die. But legends liver forever._"

"He also said that no matter how heroic and valorous soldier are viewed as, they are still killers in the end," Helios added, a hard edge in his ironic voice, "And the little children, the ones who adore us, perhaps, will admit it when we're gone."

Not one of them said a word after that. Helios continued, his face a pale white that stared off into nothingness, the pupils of his eyes seemingly consuming everything in its darkness and the streaming moonlight merely illuminated his spectral appearance. Ross was fiddling with his hair, his body's position clearly not at ease while Dust leaned back and took another swig, another sign of his failing mental health.

"You used to look up to your father." Dust muttered bluntly.

"He was a killer like I am now," Helios replied sharply, his voice taking on a deadly sting.

Dust paused, as though pondering for a moment before resuming the conversation, "You're right, we all are…we're all killers. But we had a choice, correct? We could make the decision whether we wanted to join the military. We knew the costs, the prices, and the fact that it would make us cold-blooded killers!"

"I didn't have a choice…" Helios countered, "My father wanted me to become one…he died fighting a stupid cause. And anyways, when I was ready the war was reaching its peak when people were forced to be conscripted into the damn military…"

"**Sing** had a choice."

Again…that deathly monotony in the room. No one said a word again and Ross wondered if Dust had said the right thing. Then, again Dust began, "You're right about that…you're right we're killers, and you're right that we fight for a stupid course. A thousand soldiers die each your and there's no major recognition…no awareness of the man or any memorial given by our great Emperor. But Sing made that choice herself…not because of Sharia's persuasion that I gave into; she wanted to do it, not for her Emperor…but for her people. How would you like to be oppressed and conquered by the Helics? To be out casted because we're not one of them?"

He pointed out to the window across and towards the peaks pointing skywards that littered the mountain face, "May I remind you that Tal-Ahaddi is just a few kilometers away from our Zenebas castle? Do you remember the village we grew up in? Ross and Sing, the two students of Ret Flerry where I was a professor of Western Languages! The village where your father Sharia and mother Ptolos bore you…where your mother passed away when your father went to war…where you held many happy memories and sad memories. Doesn't this matter…is this anything to you?"

"I'm sure you'll recall the days of horror we went through during our retreat to the godforsaken Nyx…the days of acid rain and the blood-red sky…living on the Guylos trenches…we did not go all the way them for new Zoids just to come back and be beaten again. No, we came back to take what's rightfully ours…our home. A man's land…is his castle."

Dust stopped…and let out a tired breath. He placed a gloved palm on his face. Ross continued to bore a hole through the ground but he could tell…that speech had made an impact on Helios. Helios now sat, his facial barriers broken and the torn face of regret and grief written all over his face.

"Look…we need to get some rest for awhile…a few hours or so before I fill you in on our plan…" Dust said as he got up. He clinked the empty bottle of beer on the table and slid the chair in. Taking one last sigh, he began to walk towards the door of the room.

"Sir…" Helios managed. Dust stopped, his ears lighting up. "That last quote…what you said about the castle…that wasn't from my father."

Dust sighed. Ever the intuitive one, this Helios. "You are right, that quote is not from your father Sharia. It is from my brother, Kane Dust."

"Kane…" Helios' memories searched the libraries of his experiences, "My father served under him in the military, right?"

"Yes…he was quite old by that time but he told me why he was fighting this war. That was the reason itself."

"How…how did he die? Was he killed in service like my father?"

Dust coughed and spat on the floor. Helios stared at the puddle of saliva that wobbled on the rocky surface and Dust replied, "My brother did not go down so glorious a way like your father…my brother shot himself a day before I joined the military."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.40, 0840 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Peak, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1392 ft above sea level**

If you were perhaps even thousand miles from the lane where Westing walked, surely you would have heard an ominous clanking sound. This rather irritating reverberating came from a combat cast that was strapped on Westing's broken arm. The cast was made of a special lightweight metal that secured the broken join with internal gauze and bandages that still enabled the wearer to freely operate his leg.

He had just woken up from the bunk that he shared with Eiden whose bed was made up. Westing strolled down the walkway wearing the noisy cast, its heel guard battering against the steel floor.

A maintenance worker passed by him and Westing eagerly tapped the man on the shoulder, "Um, excuse me, do you know where the exit to the camping position is?"

Ten minutes later when he had found himself through the winding maze that constituted of the base he exited a small sliding tunnel which he crawled through, feeling the combat cast dragging the wire netting around the tunnel. Moonlight pierced through his eyes as his weary body exited the small hole and he pushed himself up. He'd gotten a good forty minutes of rest and despite the short break, his body felt rejuvenated. Glancing around from such high a location, he found himself staring down the rocky outcrop to the Bareshia Jungle beneath. The trees of the jungle were so thick, they covered nearly everything under them…Westing couldn't even make out their Helic outposts which were most likely, by now occupied. Far, far ahead, he could shape out the loose tangible shape of the desert.

"Great view, eh?" a voice asked.

Even without turning his head around, Westing could tell that it was Eiden who sat on a rock face. On the cliff of the edge they stood on were several rope ladders that led beneath to the camping position, a couloir with dug-in caves that the Command Wolves, their bodies hidden in cloaking canvas crouched. All the way down on the face of the mountain, jagged gendarmes stood out like side peaks. A further collection of chutes to the left were where artillery cannons were kept, cleverly angled downwards with an angling mechanism and several securing cables. High above them, the helipad was already deploying several Double Sworders for reconnaissance duty.

"Are you ready for any sudden attack?" Eiden questioned.

Westing sighed. It seemed as though Eiden was wishing for a death, the way he spoke it. He replied with a controlled cadence, "No…are you?"

"Far from it," Eiden replied, smiling in relief, "The anxiety's killing me."

"I don't understand why we can't just evacuate?" Westing asked.

"Well first of all, the top brass don't want the Zenebas castle being recaptured," Eiden explained, "And plus, conquering of the Bareshia Bay will not only give them an ideal strategic headquarter position but it'll significantly lower our aerial and naval forces."

"Fair enough," Westing concluded.

Though Westing was prepared to let the discussion be dropped at this point, Eiden lengthened the conversation by asking yet another question, "So what Zoid will you be piloting?"

"A modified Command Wolf," Westing replied blandly.

Eiden chuckled, "Were you expecting something slightly different?"

"A Shield Liger wouldn't be so bad…"

"Ah, yes er… the Shield Liger," Eiden said shakily, trying to cover his lack of knowledge regarding Zoid types with a façade, "The um…Liger-type Zoid."

Westing smiled at the futile bluff, "Nice try, 'zoidologist,' it's a new Zoid."

Eiden's eyes rose in shock, "They've developed a new Zoid?"

"Yeah…according to Ac. Captain Grey, it apparently has a new technology that creates energy barriers…it's unstable, though."

"Wow…." Eiden said while rubbing his chin, "They have so many geniuses in this Republic…"

"Actually, it's genii." Westing corrected.

Eiden rolled his eyes as Westing smiled smugly at his superior intellect. The two sat back on their rock faces and gazed to the moonlit sky above. Countless thousands of stars littered the skies. _Like bullets that pierce a Zoid's armor. _Westing compared glumly. He turned towards Eiden…Eiden seemed to be staring up there, searching for something. His eyes darted from here to there…all across the night sky. Westing chose not to mention anything and just like Eiden, though perhaps in a more peaceful way, lay back on the hard stone and enjoyed the view.

"I….have a question," Eiden proposed.

Westing caught a slight control over his tone and replied with an equally casual manner, "Another one?"

"On the Global 3….were there some um….." Eiden asked softly.

Immediately, Westing knew what Eiden was talking about. The long journey of the many years of hypertravel took its toll and several of the more senior passengers aboard the Global 3. Over twenty people had suffered from cerebral hypoxia, better known as oxygen deprivation syndrome or ODS…a disease where the brain lacks oxygen…resulting in violent seizures most of the time. But why was Eiden asking about this all of a sudden.

"When…" Westing began, then exchanged it for a more relaxed delivery, "When you're travelling in space for too long, sometimes you don't get enough oxygen. I myself had my 12th birthday on the Global 3. When we don't get enough oxygen…you start acting violent." _Wait…didn't some people who suffered ODS began to murder people who were brought to Tal-Ahaddi?_

"Alright…" Eiden replied, his answer barely a whisper.

"Why'd you ask?" Westing pressed. When Eiden chose not to reply, he asked another question, "Where do you come from?"

"Where?" Eiden asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Like, which village?" Westing asked.

"Tal-Ahaddi," Eiden answered with a grim smile, "Where the Global 3 landed a few hundred meters from."

"Ah, yes…" Westing recalled now, "Some had chosen to go over to the Zenebas settlement of Tyrus, right? That's because they had better resources there but the people of Tal-Ahaddi welcomed us much better."

"Did you go to Tal-Ahaddi when you crash-landed?"

"Yeah…my uncle thought it would be…appropriate," Westing said, "I recall that several people went all violent in the village, right?"

A dark shade went across Eiden's face and with a chilling tone of resentment, he said, "One of those humans killed my mother and a close relative…"

Shock filled Westing's head. _I remember…my uncle told me…he never hid anything from me. He always told me. _He turned around to face Eiden who now buried his hands in his palms and the soldier's voice cracked as he continued, "My dad went on a suicide charge against the capital of Guygalos…with their Zoid armament, they barely passed the second village from Ahaddi before getting shot down by Helic soldiers."

"Oh…" Westing said in a hushed tone, "I'm, um…sorry…."

"I don't blame the Helic soldiers though, I used to…" Eiden continued, "It was only later that I learned they were interfering with Helic defensive operations with their little jihad. But I don't blame my father either…who I blame….are those humans."

Westing chose to softly reply, "But it wasn't their fault."

To his surprise, Eiden didn't get wild and angry. Instead, the soldier replied in an equally soft voice, "That may be true…but who else is there to blame? God?"

Westing looked down, gazing at the ground. He slipped his hand into a pouch and pulled out a chain that strung around a bronze cross. Eiden stared at it for a moment, his curiosity sparked as he asked, "What is that?"

"A symbol," Westing answered, "A symbol of God that gives me strength…because I know He will never give me anything I can't handle." Eiden was silent for a moment…apparently wondering and considering this before Westing continued, "That's a quotation from a wise saint named Mother Teresa."

"Your planet has female saints?" Eiden asked, puzzled.

Westing smiled, "And your planet has female soldiers. Well, at least more than ours."

Eiden smiled too, "Another bond both our planets share." They both nodded, silent in mutual agreement as they stared to the stars that seemed to wipe across the sky. Westing felt that his body was focusing each and every part, every minutiae of his body to the sky and observing the stars above.

"You see that," Eiden said, interrupting Westing's train of thought as he pointed to a huge star, "That's the star Ageramus. Astrologers say it's about to die and change into a supernova."

Westing rolled his eyeballs, "You mean a black hole."

"Yeah, that," Eiden continued, ignoring Westing's correction, "Same thing. And that star? That's the star Prozen…its name is 'the bringer of death' in Ancient Zoidian."

Westing nodded eager to learn from his new teacher. Eiden then pointed to yet another star, "That? It's not a star. That's a Zenebas satellite code-named Abr East." Westing nodded, slightly impressed at the observation and commented, "Your perceiving skills are dutifully noted."

Eiden smiled back, happy for the attention. "Come on," he said, "We should head back, Operation time is about to begin." Westing did a slight tilt of his head and got up while Eiden then aided by pulling him up. He placed a hand gently on Westing's shoulder.

"Promise you won't die, brother?" Eiden asked solemnly.

Westing looked closely in the man's eyes and saw a reflection…the two were so close…so similar.

"I promise."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.50, 0850 hours**

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Foot, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9)**

Rest had done little to aid Helios. His sleep merely re-played memories of the days back in Tal-Ahaddi….happy memories that he had hidden deep in his mind…re-awakened only when his father Sharia called him. His body was both physically and mentally sore but he ignored the symptoms, instead choosing to stay awake in the briefing by Dust. By the time Helios' focus really pulled it together, Dust was done and dropped the chalk to the ground beneath.

"We all clear?" Dust asked.

"Yes, sir," the troops that gathered in an abandoned complex all replied unanimously.

"All right then, report to your respective squadrons, #1-8 with me, #9-14 with Worthington and #15-20 with Ross." Dust ordered and the soldiers began to scatter to the Zoids that were now neatly parked next to one another in their respective squadrons. He then began to pack his sack and reminded Ross to inform Pound that mission time was ten minutes from now. Ross then left and then the only man who still stayed in the hall was Helios, dark circles that ellipsed around his bloodshot eyes.

"Commander…" Helios began in a husky voice. Dust did little to acknowledge him but Helios pursued, "I want to pilot the Sabre Tiger unit."

Dust was stunned but quickly hid his suddenly stiff body…_How did he find out about the Sabre Tiger? It was supposed to be kept under the tree canvas and yet…?_ "Sorry, but that model barely works. The motors all don't run well and plus we haven't got any cartridges loaded into the Zoid."

"Don't give me that bull****," Helios snarled, "I already entered the Zoid, it has two ammo clips, each with over 600 rounds…that's more than enough. The Zoid core is in top shape…the records show that the model has only participated in one skirmish and it was built last f****** month."

Dust again, was shocked. How was this boy, no this man so observant and capable? Helios took no time to stop his barrage and asked, "Why did you hide the Sabre Tiger? It's nothing special…"

"Since the air force was cut down…it was supposed to be for Sing!" Dust barked back.

It was Helios' turn to back away. _Sing's Zoid? _His verbal assault had come to a standstill…he stood there, unaware of the world around him as his mind tried to come up with a persuasive sentence but could not. Dust turned his back on Helios and continued to gather some food and drink into his haversack. Finally, Helios asked again, "Then let me pilot the Zoid…the Sabre Tiger, in honor of Sing."

"There is no f****** honor in piloting a dead soldier's Zoid," Dust spat, "What the-"

"She would have wanted that." Helios shot back.

Dust glanced down. It was true; Sing had always had a soft spot for Helios. They used to play together in the backyard early at seven when she was on her way to Rey. She would share her books with the young Helios who was about thirteen at the time. She would call him 'Sunny' from the human legend of the Greek god. Even Ross was there but he didn't share the relationship that Sing had with Helios…one of true, mutual understanding. Not many friendships had that sort of understanding.

"Fine," Dust replied with a grumble, "Tell that to Ross, he'll start her up."

Helios was about to return a 'yes sir' but another observation hit him, "You referred to the Zoid as a 'her.'"

"So?" Dust asked.

"You usually refer to them as 'it.'" Helios fired back.

Dust blinked once. Then twice. Helios was right…he usually did.

"That Sabre Tiger is special; it's the child of Sing who never met her." Dust said, smiling sheepishly at his tacky crack.

The atmosphere lightened and Helios smiled too, though his was weary. _His smile is that of a soldier who's seen many battles indeed. _Dust noted. "All right then, you're right." Helios replied.

"You know what, let's give **her** a name." Dust added.

"What?" Helios asked, utterly confused.

"How about Sunny?"


	6. Chapter Six

"**Peace in the Republic…peace on Zi"-** _from the Helic Republic Convention of Freedom_

"**My enemy is the Emperor's enemy"-** _from the Soldier's Creed of Zenebas_

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+2.56, 0856 hours**

**Off the coast of Bareshia Bay, location unspecified**

**Aboard Whale Kaiser I of the Zenebas Imperial Navy**

"Alright then," Pound replied as he prepared to place the phone down, "Roger."

He placed the phone back down…_Really, a phone? What an archaic device…_The Brigadier Colonel continued to pace across the planning room, waiting ever so patiently for mission time to begin. Just when darkness really had its hold over the sky and when the two moons shone at their fullest. Not in midnight like most thought…but rather at nine o' clock when the stars began to fade back into space and the curtain is drawn in an even tighter manner.

The message had already been relayed to all the other Whale Kaisers and dreadnought battleships that were now beginning to drift apart into their positions. Several leftovers of the 1st Aerial Division had been relocated to carrier ships where stock Storches and Saicurtis Zoid units were stored. _That would be a final assault…a bombing if we have no choice but to retreat. Who knows what they have up there ready for us? Chances are they probably know of our mission, even without satellites._

The dreadnoughts would take care of the naval gun bombing on the mountain…since the base was shielded by the layers of rock, they would have to fire a few meters above the base to smash down on the Helic troops stationed a few meters lower…hopefully the boulders would then be stuck in the Helic-dug crevasses and would not tumble upon the advancing Zenebas troops who would shortly head up once the bombing begins. The conventional shells would not have the velocity to hit the mountain at such a mind-boggling distance so lightweight FMJ rounds and missiles would be utilized. If the enemy chose to retaliate by deploying their air force upon the ships, the Whale Kaisers would return fire with their AA guns.

Pound looked at his watch. A mere four minutes before mission time would begin. He picked the phone up and began to dial.

"Hello?" a troubled voice at the end of the line.

"Is Contingency T ready?" Pound asked softly.

"Yes…sir…it's ready." The man replied, his voice shaky.

"Good…be prepared to activate the contingency if I send the signal. Immediately." Pound ordered.

There was silence at the other end… a short one before the man coughed awkwardly and replied in a hushed tone that was laced with a voice of a man who was about to meet death, "Yes sir."

Pound placed the phone down as the man hung up. On his desk was a folder with block letters printed on it… "**Contingency T: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY" **Beneath it was a small text that was typed as: "_Plan B_."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.15, 0915 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1142 ft above sea level**

Helios placed his pilot helmet on and clipped the clasps from the nape of his suit's neck to its edges. Placing his finger on the side of the helmet, he flicked the intercom switch which automatically began to connect with the command frequency. Over hundred and thirty meters around Round's Mountain, Dust turned his intercom switch on too and a connection was shortly established. Helios then tapped a little on his console panel to cancel out some static.

"The connection's really poor here," Helios commented as he continued to tap.

"You needn't remind me," Helios replied, agreeing, "The haze is so strong that I can't connect to the naval force."

"With Brigadier Sergeant Pound?" Helios asked, remembering to keep the conversation formal during operation time, "I thought the connection was supposed to get better as we get higher up."

"Apparently there's a strong electromagnetic fluctuation here…" Dust noted, "There are rumors going on about these strange phenomenons coming from new technology that we got from Guylos."

Helios shuddered, "Nyx, nothing good ever comes out of there."

"There are apparently traces of a strange concotion on our Zoid's armor, residue from some kind of omnipresent vaporous form, a bright green substance that seems to have negative effects on cells." Dust added.

Helios let out a soft _hmm_ before concluding, "Alright then, sir, what's holding up the Brigadier Sergeant's bombing?"

As if responding to his question, a massive barrage of twenty FMJ shells burst from the naval cannons of the dreadnought ships that were beginning to surround the whole of the Bareshia Bay. Several of those shells missed, but more found their mark up there where the clouds blocked Helios' vision. He could well expect that the rounds would shatter with tungsten filaments that would rip apart the unfortunate soldiers and Zoids of the enemy who were not killed in the initial blast. Another disturbing form of weaponry introduced by the humans of Earth.

The explosions rocked the whole mountain, sending chunks of the natural structure to crash onto the internal trenches the 'Lics had built like stalactites. The constant booming of the smashing rounds sent waves of sound through the auricles of the Zenebas soldiers down below and Helios was glad that he was encased in a cockpit. His Sabre Tiger though, or rather 'Sunny' as Dust had fondly named it was apparently not in the least perturbed as it continued to roar as Helios made the Zoid advance further.

The three squadrons, one commanded by him, and the remaining two led by Ross and Dust himself were advancing through different sections of the mountain. Both he and Ross had control over six men while eight men went under Dust, a significant total of twenty-men, more than the average assault force of sixteen Zoids. The idea was to charge in, hopefully destroying all the enemy armor and a significant portion of the enemy's base before the second wave consisting of almost fifty soldiers and twenty Zoids to advance and enter the base, effectively wiping the inhabitants inside out. The second wave was currently positioned around 980 feet above sea on standby.

Round's Mountain had an elevation of about 13000 feet or so with the enemy base helipad's position being 1398 feet or so and the base taking around two-hundred and fifty more feet of height within the mountain itself. According to aerial scouts, they reported that artillery and enemy Zoids had already been deployed 1392 feet, a few feet only beneath the helipad and had hidden caverns and soldiers and cannons mounted on the trenches built at the ridges of the huge mountain.

_No aerial power is a significant low point for us…if the helipad isn't badly damaged by Pound's ships, we could easily be taken over by sharpshooting aerial Zoids. _Helios noted, and then reminded himself again with one of his father's axioms, _One factor alone changes the whole equation. Similarly, a single change in an army, the lack of a single soldier, no supporting fire, or a shortage of weaponry could lead to disastrous results on the outcome of the battle._

The terrain of the mountain wasn't in their favor either. It was much easier for the Zoids that were entrenched to fire down below then it is for ascending Zoids to both take cover in the harsh and shaky ground while trying to return fire. Of course, they had the upper hand of more powerful Zoids but with most of them being Guylos conscripts, the enemy veterans probably had the upper hand. But then again, once they got close, the tight quarters of mountainous combat came to their advantage with most of their Zoids having melee armaments loaded into their arsenal.

His Sabre Tiger, though having an impressive ranged loadout, was also coupled with its strike claws, AZ triple-barreled shock cannon and the notorious 'Killer Sabre' teeth of the Zoid. The other six men of his squadron all had powerful close-quarter Zoids too. Four of them had the agile Iguan, with a crusher vice and an impact gun. The two other Dimetrodons, while did not sport any form of melee weapon other than teeth, held an advantage with its guerilla style SSM missile pods and its sulfuric acid sprayer, a new innovative technology that was inspired by the flamethrowers of Guylos technology. _Let us take the fight to them…_

The bombing from the dreadnoughts shook the mountain to its core but barely affected the momentum of the ascending of the six Zoids. Helios was rather proud that they had made it up this far, passing the one thousand feet barrier while the other two squadrons were still lumbering under the eight hundred feet line, though Helios could probably cut some slack for the Red Horn in Dust's team and the two Black Rhimos units under Ross' command.

Smoke billowed in the air above them, seemingly blocking out the clouds. There would be the occasional fountain of sand that would descend upon them though they did little but rattle the cockpit monotonously with little pebbles and stones or make a thin sheet of olive sand across the back of their Zoids.

"Come on, team!" Helios urged through the intercom, "Let's send the f****** base back to hell!!!"

"Yeah!!!" another soldier cried and the seven men rode on the bravado of the team, cheering each other on. A brief smile touched Helios' lips and he suddenly felt as though he was one of those senior commanders who smiled ever once in a while when the two moons were up. _Perhaps Sing's death has changed me…perhaps it has made me wiser…_Again, Sharia came to his aid, _That that don't kill you, only makes you stronger._

To make matters worst for their ascent was the darkness of the night sky. As if the evening moon of eight wasn't bad enough, the black blanket of the nine o' clock sky literally hid the whole island in darkness. The only little sources of illumination came from the carved trenches above where the soldiers were and the outcrop posts that they had made. Helios turned his head slightly and could see the wide expanse of the jungle, the trees gently swaying in a breeze and far off at the ocean, could make out the dreadnoughts and Whale Kaisers, their runways lit with guide-lights and their sights armed with built-in nightvision.

_A pity we don't have that liberty…_Helios thought sullenly, _That would certainly be better than relying on the lighting of the Zoid and its, no, her armaments. _Each of their Zoid's weapons and back had twenty-four million candela lamps that shone through the darkness, lighting up the cockpit's monitor for the pilot to aim inside. Of course, the downside to this was that they would probably have to recharge the lamps every hour or so, if the mission took that long.

On his monitor, he could make out a ledge and so ignited the Tiger's thrusters, letting the Zoid leap freely into the air before landing on the stone with a roar that might have been, 'cats always land on all fours.'

Helios had to admit that he was a little surprised at the ferocity of the Zoid and the sheer power within the hydraulics of its shins…surely no Helic Zoid could even come close to competing with this powerful feline…even the Gojulas would be outmatched, though that was a job left mostly to the equally intimidating Iron Kong. He glanced at the built-in topographical map and the on his console.

"Hurry up!" Helios urged to the other members of his squadron, "We're only at 1300 plus feet, we need to get higher!!"

"Sir!" one Iguan-piloting soldier cried as he jump-jetted his Zoid into the air, "If I may say so, this mission is suicidal!"

"What makes you say that?!" Helios demanded over the rocketing explosions of falling debris created by the many naval cannons and the MLRS launchers that were being loaded and fired, "Well?"

"Well, sir..." the soldier began, increasing his voice into a rising crescendo to be heard, "How are we suppose to take the enemy at such shaky terrain while they're comfortably nestled with long-range artillery?"

"Yeah, we're so screwed," another soldier added.

"This is FUBAR." One more contributed.

The intercom went silent. The only sound that was heard was the ever constant smashing of the naval forces' rounds. Even Helios found himself bewildered by the soldier's statement. Finally, the first soldier broke the silence abruptly, "What the f*** is FUBAR?!"

"It's a human expression," the soldier who said it replied, "It stands for F***** Up Beyond All Recognition!"

The other soldiers took this in for a moment before finally breaking into laughter. Helios too, found the moment rather incredulous. Since their arrival, even with only so little of humankind, their culture had managed to make a profound impact on both their technology…and their linguistics. The complicated word structure of the original Ancient Zoidian language had been replaced in 2030 in Zi's educational system on both sides due to its simple structure. Only older soldiers still knew of Ancient Zoidian.

Helios shifted the controls and the gyroscopic devices of the Zoid's torso slightly, tilting its fuselage as the thrusters released their air, sending the Sabre Tiger 'Sunny' to leap in the air before gracefully landing on another ledge. Helios could almost feel the boring stares of approval from his fellow men and resisted a smirk.

_That would be something I would have done as a Private…but now, no longer._

Behind him, two Iguans burst into the air while the Dimetrodons slowly lagged behind. Helios anxiously stole another look at his topographical map. The current elevation of their squadron was listed as exactly 1356 feet. He then turned his head away from the distraction of the battle and to the night sky. The blue moons painted its color, making a light hue of it across the stars. _Sing…it meant blue in Zoidian…_

Even without closing his eyes he could still picture…Sing in her Reddra spinning through the air and open-firing at the enemy with both a casual and yet strictly responsible demeanor. More often than usual, a ballad his father had both wrote and sung to him as a child came back to him again:

_Sweet little child,_

_Keep those eyes closed._

_Keep looking forward, and never look back._

_Because even if the battle's over,_

_The war is still not._

_And if someone passes,_

_She still is not gone._

_So sweet little child,_

_Close your eyes tightly,_

_And think of the sweeter days._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.16, 0916 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1397 ft above sea level**

He was fully dressed, though had told his subordinate that he was vomiting and feeling a little drowsy, cautiously adding that he would give him charge of his company while he was recuperating and that he'd return in awhile. But the truth was that he wasn't sick at all, far from that.

The man's armor shingled as he slowly paced around his cabin. His helmet was nestled on the bed, right on the pillow. The grey hair on the man's head and goatee was becoming increasingly obvious and the parched skin of the man, covered with huge boils and blackheads only increased the man's image of a retired veteran. _It was years ago when I lost the race._

Arbis sighed as he strolled sluggishly to his bed and propped himself on it. How long ago was it? Perhaps fourteen years or so…when he was still in his early thirties. When he was a man of trust, a man of combat, a soldier. Now, he was far from that. His abrupt failure came when he was given command, promoted and on his first mission while piloting an Iron Kong MKII Limited, failed at a strategic point which led to the death of nine lives.

_Nine people died…and I got out alive. _Hate mail was so enormous that he was eventually demoted and unceremoniously kicked out of the military, leaving him to be an ordinary civilian in the village of Shad-Ai. But knowledge of his espionage skills had came out late 2041, and he was soon re-assigned with a completely new identity and inserted into the Helic Military as a mole, a spy for the Empire while they prepared their great comeback from Nyx.

_Used by the very people I used to serve so loyally. _By traditional Imperial law, he was now a tool, a _saudirakken_. He was now of no worth and due to bringing shame to the Empire, was now considered expendable. If the families of those men did not retort, perhaps he'd still be a soldier today. _Perhaps._

Arbis pushed himself up, his body feeling weak. He had found love in the Helic Military but knew that ultimately, he would be the one to end this. Sliding open the combination locked drawer next to his bed, he pulled it out. Inside was a canister, a rectangular package wrapped in manila paper, and a revolver. Arbis' lanky fingers gingerly grasped the canister.

Flipping the cover open, he took out two lime green pills and swallowed them without water. Immediately, a cooling sensation that felt like water running over his skin invaded his body. The pills were the _Beilischmech _drug, the liquid residue that was left from the Deochalcum mines of Nyx, its effect granting immediate relief though there were negative effects of health on the body and the ever-luring threat of addiction.

Sighing, Arbis slid the canister back down and threw it back into the drawer. There was a slight _ping _before it came to a stop. _Will I be able to do it? Will I be able to cut out all this love, betray them in the end if I'm told to do so?_ His eyes wearily eyed the revolver. He picked the ancient firearm up. Releasing the sliding barrel, he peered inside. There was only one shell left. _Will I be able to do so?_

He looked at the revolver, his eyes literally gorging holes into it before he threw the firearm back into the drawer with a disgusted expression.

But that expression was not for the weapon of destruction, no. It was for himself…that he was so lowly, so weak, that he could not kill himself.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.20, 0920 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1395 ft above sea level**

_How fast was this battle going?_ Westing thought as he hid in a dirty trench along with several other soldiers who huddled closely together, clasping the latches of their helmets on. _At least I have a more durable pilot helmet…but really, it's only been twenty minutes before reports of enemy advancement and suddenly…well, they're pretty smart people I expect._

Westing, and all the other men of this particular outpost had assumed that the enemy wouldn't come for sometime and through nightvision binoculars, had already seen the enemy ships…but they never guessed that those ships had the ability to hurdle rounds this far ahead. He had been idling around, patiently waiting for the technicians to load the beam cartridges of his sniping device before a sudden explosion overhead them showered the soldiers beneath with debris and killing a single technician.

Westing had instinctively ducked into the trench, his scalp narrowly missing a lodged artillery cannon and had landed, caked in dirt, next to the artillery men. Eiden was at the other side of the mountain, so he wasn't one of these. Right now, he sat, his legs and hands cramped in the tight location while trembling, hoping another round did not send more huge chunks of rock raining upon them.

He could still see the dead body of the man, the rock lodged into his abdomen as the sand that spread with a thick layer over the man's carcass was mixed with his own blood. Westing winced slightly and looked away. The tense expressions of all the soldiers told him that they were all impatient for something to happen. Well, preferably that the enemy wouldn't fire another round.

Too soon their wish was called, as another hundred or so round were sent spraying right through the night sky and blasted onto the mountain's peak above them, the impact shuddering the whole of it.

_Are they crazy? Are they trying to bring us down with them? _Again he cursed himself for not informing Luffia of his thought…because that was exactly what happened. _Perhaps even the smallest hint would have greatly shifted the outcome of the battle…but then again, it might have not. Then again, he might not have believed me. _Westing shook his head to clear out all these negative thoughts before shouts of the soldiers next to him told him to stop waving sand in their faces.

"Sorry…" Westing offered sheepishly but this apology was cut out by a violent shell that smashed right into the helipad on their right. "Oh my."

All the soldiers stared at the collision, their mouths dropping in open shock as the rock burst around the pad which was now reduced to a couple of falling shards of metal. The girders that once strongly held it tore apart, bringing the whole structure down in a haze of sand, dust, flames of metal. Westing could even make out a single soldier squirming violently while falling in the midst of all the debris.

_Our strongest piece of power…our air force, has been completely cut down. Dammit, the damage of that single shell, it could bring our whole army down!!! _Westing thought frantically as he hyperventilated.

"Come!" one soldier cried as he urged the others, "We have to get the hell into the cavern!!!" No one else followed the single lone wolf, who threw himself out of the trench and began to run around the pieces of broken rock and loose sand.

Before anything else registered, he heard the faint whizzing of a shell several meters above them rock into the ledge that hung over their Zoids. _BOOM_ went the round and slowly, cascading rock began to break off from the mountainside and bring a miniature meteor shower down onto the Zoids. The other soldiers gaped, open-mouthed at the one single foolish trooper who ran before getting a single rock that burst open both itself and his head in a bloody mess.

A single soldier turned away before throwing up, his vomit melting in with the dirt of the ground. The putrid odor did little to peel Westing's eyes away as a single, much larger jagged rock brought itself down on one of the Command Wolves, his Command Wolf.

There was a loud crack as it tore through the cannon, sending pieces of black titanium flailing everywhere while Westing, the soldiers and the other three pilots ducked in the trench. Sparks of electricity flashed across them as it pierced through the Zoid's core who began to howl in something reminiscent of agony and its fuselage bent like a lever before its body was torn apart into two. The rock then smashed into the ground before toppling like a stunned top, sending another tremor to the soldiers.

More rocks rattled on the other Wolves, but none with so much damage other than one more whose whole head was pulled off and sent falling from the edge. A small boulder had managed to burst one of the miniature night lamps that they had set up to identify their position before concealing themselves. Westing felt his body shudder as the glass shattered.

The dust began to clear up and the bombing stopped for a moment while the next round was being loaded. A tense silence began to enter the Helic soldiers and no one said a word for a moment. Just a moment.

"What the f****** hell do we do now?!!!" one screamed with a mixture of fear and outraged.

The soldier who had vomited shakily steadied himself with an arm to the side of the trench spoke out as he wiped some phlegm off his lips, "We stay here before one of us gets blown to bits."

"But we can't stay here the whole damn time!" A pilot put in.

"Does anybody have a communicator?" one more soldier proposed.

A series of mumbled 'no's' filled the trench before Westing realized that he had a satellite phone within his haversack. It was hardly a communicator, but was still, even without the aid of a satellite, able to tap into local frequencies. It didn't exactly fill the diverse role of a communicator but would have to do. He reached into his sack and pulled the oil black device out, "I have a satellite phone."

The soldier next to him snatched the phone from him, his dust-laced fingers gripping the intercom tightly. Extending the antenna, he began to type on the console pad, attempting to achieve a connection with local frequencies. The other pilots and soldiers sat prone and crouched in a tense silence while dust, rock, soil, and sand washed all over them and blinding their visions every few seconds while the shells of the dreadnoughts resounded in the trenches like firecrackers.

_Like the fourth of July…_Westing thought, his mind wondering back to one of the age-old 'dictum sabbathia,' a term that was coined for holidays that were no longer celebrated. Days of independence for nations were non-existent with the world uniting after the world civil war along with the elimination of the dispute between religions, leading to the end of religious occasions into dictum sabbathia like Christmas or Ramadan.

"Well?" one soldier demanded while he fingered anxiously with the laser-projector plasma pistol that slung from his ammo vest, "Are you getting a connection?"

The soldier who patiently waited for a reception glanced down and sighed before answering, "There's too much interference."

"Maybe you can connect to a local radio line?" Westing suggested.

"Let me try that," the soldier shouted over the explosions above them as he then frantically tapped the phone, completely aware of the eleven or so eager pupils that stared at him and his shaking hand.

While the man continued to wait for a reception, Westing began to look around for a more proper armament. Chances are that they probably weren't going to get the hell out of here anytime soon so a weapon would be useful, even if aerial recon did say that there were no infantry units. His fingers ran through the piles of soil that covered random objects ranging from keys to Rubik cubes, just another invention of human introduction or as the Zoidians called it in their ancient language, "_Reverential _inventions."

Off course, he still had his laser pistol but that firearm was only loaded with a single 5-round battery, a standard in a Zoid pilot's arsenal. Pushing aside clumps of dirt while the others threw glances at him, he hit hard metal and began to pull out a plasma rifle submerged in dirt. Wiping off some access soil he glanced at the little screen on the sights of the rifle, listing the remaining energy left in the compact fusion reactor, a total of forty-eight rounds. _Not too many and I don't have spare FRs so it'll have to do._

Just at that moment, the man using the satellite phone called out, "I've established a connection!"

Even in the wake of destruction, the soldiers still managed to lug their bodies over to the man, even Westing, whose combat cast dug deeply into the fabric of his double-layer nylon boot. "What is it?" he managed.

"It's just a local line…maybe it's…" the soldier paused, his face turning a ghostly white as he glanced at the satellite phone before quickly banging the off switch in a quick smash.

"What?!" another soldier asked, a little disturbed.

"Dammit…" the soldier with the phone whispered, "I connected to a Zenebas line! There's the number prefix '32' on it! That's a Zenebas call code!!!"

"What, so you think they'll be able to trace the call via satellite to our location?" another one added, clearly realizing the distress of the situation.

"They might find it easier to come after us rather than circling around the whole damn mountain, searching for our squadrons." Another one reasoned.

"Oh f***…" the first one whispered again as he threw the satellite phone down as though it was cursed, "But they might not…"

"What's their goal? To get to the apex?" the second one added.

"They're probably trying to get to our hangar base on Round's Peak…" Westing pointed out.

"Anyways, we better get out of here…" yet another soldier pointed out.

"But that's abandoning our post!" the second soldier argued.

"There's nothing we can do here!" the third soldier countered, "All our artillery and Zoids are damaged, if we go further along the trench line, we might meet another post in need of support."

"Yeah, he's right," the fourth one put in, "Our entrenchments go around this whole mountain, I'm sure another line down there would need us. But walking around these unsteady paths with shells rocketing everywhere in the night sky isn't particularly a smart thing to do."

"I've got a flashlight," the third one pitched in and switched the beam of light on.

"All right then, we should head down the trench…" the first one concluded.

Westing felt his stomach churn a little. _I wonder how Eiden is doing…and all the rest, Arbis, Dote…he managed to survive, I was a little surprised. What of Luffia? And perhaps Gray or Rol-la-whatever too?_ Descending a trench was the last thing the guide book told you to do, let alone a measure of desperation. Sure, they'd be able to navigate but what if a shell found their mark? A sudden encounter with a Zoid squadron? Loose rock damaged from a previous hit or splintered wood? Anything could happen! He shook his head again. There was no point in searching for the infinite paths of an event. A single change in the equation could change it all.

He gripped the cross pendant that dangled from his neck tightly, the symbol reflecting from the navy blue illumination of the twin moons.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.30, 0930 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1415 ft above sea level**

_KA-BOOM!!!_

The single impact of the encamped Command Wolf's sniping device sent a violet ray of energy towards a crevasse, sending the rock into shards that backfired on the Zenebas Zoids around them. Automatically, the Zenebas Zoids shone the mounted lamps of their Zoids to the origin of the ray.

Dust wasn't so close to the impact, but could still feel the rattling sounds of the debris colliding with the armor of his Zoid and the waves of decibels that followed after the explosion. Surveying the damage, he saw that they had suffered a rather costly casualty, an Iguan whose tail had been torn right off. Taking a brief moment to locate the enemy, he could count a trench a few meters overhead them with two Command Wolves and four artillery cannons.

"Take cover under the boulders!" Dust ordered and the Zoids of his squadron scrambled under the fallen debris for some protection against the enemy Zoids who had once again begun to target them while the soldiers in the artillery field guns standing their ground, knowing that firing at this range could bring the whole side of the mountain scrambling down.

In one Command Wolf, painted with a barely detectable faint blue, the pilot placed on the special targeting sights onto his head and manually zoomed in the scope with the nightvision on. The green and faintly bleeping crosshair set its sights on a boulder where another Iguan lay, crouched. Right before he pulled the trigger, Dust saw where the Wolf was aiming and pulled his Horn out from behind the boulder.

The air around the Zoid crackled as the Red Horn unleashed its AZ linear cannon, sending three streams of pure raw energy into the rock beneath the encampments of the Zoids. The shot was calculated though partly a guess at the location as the rock around it shattered, sending the Command Wolf to descend down.

"Make way!" Dust cried out over the intercom.

His men followed and quickly veered their Zoids away from the tumbling rock and the spinning Command Wolf whose limbs were being torn apart, its armor chipping off as it rolled down, pass the Zenebas Zoids and breaking through rock to fall off the edge of the cliff.

Dust smiled but barely had enough time to rejoice as the other Command Wolf let the sniping device to rain down on him, sending a jolting impact on the side of his Horn and rocketing the Zoid to its left.

"F***!" Dust swore as he shifted the balance and managed to keep his Horn steady on all four feet before returning fire with its two SSM pods. Just at that moment, the Zenebas Zoids emerged from behind their hiding spots and opened fire at the soldiers and their artillery with machine-gun fire that automatically tore them.

The Wolf leaped into the air to another ledge, narrowly avoiding the impact of the three missile pods. Right at that moment, Dust ignited the thrusters and sped the Red Horn towards the falling Wolf who was about to land on the ledge. "DIE!!!!" Dust screamed in his cockpit.

The crasher horn, similar to its name, crashed directly into the fuselage of the Wolf, ramming its internal systems apart and sending a jolt of electricity across the Zoid before it limply fell to the floor, a few cords and tubes still dangling from the Red Horn's crasher horn.

"Whoo!" one soldier cheered.

Dust let out a weak sigh of resentment. _Every time I lose someone…it seems as though it's harder to kill one more time. Just one more time is what I keep telling myself but…_ He ignored the bustling mixture of jumbled conclusions in his skull and focused on the sight above him. Dead bodies of the soldiers dangled from the shattered crevices in the trench while the artillery howitzers remained in their position.

Looking at the topographical map, he told his men, "Come on, we're only at around one thousand four-hundred feet."

The men sighed and grumbled as they continued along the pathway, narrowly avoiding steep ledges and taking wide roads littered with fallen debris, their only source of illumination their powerful lamps. _Every step in this terrain at nighttime is deadly…we should have chosen the next morning or perhaps even dawn to scale this mountain but the Imperial Council wants the Special Forces to re-secure the castle as soon as possible…we're risking ourselves for them…_ Dust mentally whined.

War raged all across them and the explosions clouded their worsening vision. At least at their current location, the side facing the eastern section of the ocean, the moonlit sky rained down upon them, giving a somewhat better view, even with the aid of nightvision optics installed into the visors of their Zoids. Dust looked down on his panel and began to tap on the screen. The radio began to run its software in an attempt to search for the specific connection to Ross' Dimetrodon. At first there was nothing but a steady crackle that enveloped Dust's helmet's headphones, and then the distinctly calm voice of Ross cut through the line.

"Yes, sir?" Ross began.

"Hey, Ross," Dust replied, easily dropping the formal tone, "Anything on your side?"

"We've dispatched two enemy encampments, teach," Ross announced, also dropping the formality, "My position is currently at about 1560 feet, sir and we should be arriving near the top breach at around 1900 feet plus where the final enemy defenses should be stationed before we call in the support team."

"Can we connect with them?" Dust asked, "I can't establish a connection with Pound though. If we can't…that means we won't get the reserve air support."

"Yeah, I just tried," Ross answered, "We can, but about Pound I'm not too sure."

"Alright, that's ok then…oh, and Ross?"

"Yes sir?" Ross asked, returning to his formal state.

"Don't get killed out there will ya?"

There was a tense and quiet silence that filled the intercom before Ross finally replied.

"Yes sir, you can count on that."

Again another silence filled over the line. Dust thought for a moment whether he should cut the connection. _The man hasn't had time to grieve yet…hell, none of us has. Not me, not Worthington…_

"Hey," Dust began, struggling to maintain a calm tone, "When we get back, when we take that big boat home…we're going to hold a proper funeral for Sing at Tal-Ahaddi, alright?"

"Ahaddi is Helic territory now," Ross muttered bitterly.

"F*** them, we're going to have our damn memorial there whether those 'Lics like it or not, alright?"

Again Ross did not reply at an instant. But finally, after a soft sigh that Dust heard over the intercom, Ross answered, "Alright. We'll do that."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.40, 0940 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1898 ft above sea level**

_Where did these Zoids come from? _Helios wondered as he pressed hard on the cockpit's right pedal, sending the Sabre Tiger over to the right with an agile leap and narrowly avoiding a Double Sworder's light machine-guns. _If there are Zoids that were not stationed here slowly appearing…that means that they must come from somewhere else…an entry to a hangar in the base…_Helios concluded.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a single beam of fire from a Guysak that emerged from the dust of its smoke dispensers. The Sabre Tiger thrust into the air as the beam came into contact with the rock, sending it splintering with a boom. The bombing with the naval ships had stopped though clearly they would soon resume. Helios turned his eye to the side…two Double Sworders, a Guysak, and three Godos units had been deployed. Hardly a match but looking closer at the ground…

_Soldiers! They're using these Zoids to cover reinforcement troops that are entering the trenches…but where is the entrance to the hangar or runway? _

Helios pushed the countless theories and possibilities that met at a nexus out of his head as he locked the crosshair onto the Guysak and gripped the trigger tightly. He held the button as the AZ laser machine-gun sent rapid bursts of fire into the weak armor of the scorpion Zoid, easily ripping off chunks of its defenses and shredding the sting tail off before the pilot could react. Helios' Iguans had already begun with a severe impact gun barrage against the slightly outnumbered counterpart Godos units. Two of them were automatically shot down while the final one managed to land a few beam shots into the armor of a single Iguan.

The trail of soldiers, each one of their faces registering fear were racing across the trench as the dust and the rock of the Zoid skirmish exploded around them. Several of them got caved-in with shots that ignited close to the trench they trailed in or were shredded with nearby shrapnel. Helios winced a little as he dodged the fire of a Double Sworder who was flying into the air. _They're on a suicide mission here…no way they can manage to let all the soldiers get away…but I'm sure they'll try._

A Dimetrodon's sulfuric acid sprayer's blast caught a wing of the Sworder who began to descend, making it easy meat for the Iguans who open-fired at it. The last Sworder attempted to retreat by jettisoning away before Helios used Sunny's SSM Pods to ram them into the Sworder, effectively blowing it up in the air. _No one likes a sore coward in war._

Helios tapped the console of the Tiger, "Good job, Sunny…" He felt a little awkward, talking to what was considered a mechanical object by some. _But this Zoid, this Zoid is special. This was supposed to be Sing's Zoid. _The Sabre Tiger let out a loose growl of approval before three soldiers hurled themselves out of the trench and began to fire at them with their futile plasma rifles, attempting to damage the massive Zoids. _Are they crazy? _Helios thought, _they should know that they can't do anything and yet…_

He looked down through his monitor and shone his lamp on the rushing cannon fodder, blinding them briefly. _Should we kill them? That doesn't seem right…but they're still the enemy. _His mind went back to when Sharia had curled him into a small ball on his lap and had told him, _the man who fights weakly is the champion of injustice. _Was this not injustice? But then…the 'Soldier's Creed' of the Zenebas Empire crept slowly into his head:

"_I am a soldier of Zenebas,_

_My courage, loyalty, and self-sacrificing unbounded._

_My second loyalty is to the nation,_

_My first to the Emperor._

_I vow to serve my country,_

_No matter what the purpose._

_And no matter what the cost,_

_To serve my Emperor._

_To protect the people,_

_And to protect my comrades._

_The enemy must be killed._

_The enemy is my nation's enemy._

_My enemy is my Emperor's enemy."_

Helios pressed the trigger tightly.

The small-bore AZ laser gun let loose its fire down upon the soldiers who were about to do a banzai charge, the huge half-meter rounds tearing the bodies of the brave men into shreds while the other soldiers continued to run, complete shock and pain on their faces. Before his men could react, Helios commanded in a stern tone, "Never mind, leave them be…it'll be over for them soon anyways."

He could hear the distinct gasps of some of his men as he ordered them to literally let the soldiers run away. _The words of the Creed are probably running through their heads right now. 'The enemy must be killed.' F*** that._

The six Zoids, one Dimetrodon which had been killed earlier on by a combination of three sniper Command Wolf shots waited patiently, their huge shadows cast by the moonlight enveloping the tiny soldiers beneath the lumbering colossuses who ran onwards in the trench. It took a full five minutes for the remaining line to finally run through but the final soldier turned around, nodded briefly towards them before continuing.

No smiles touched Helios' lips as he asked harshly over the intercom line, "Which way they first appeared, anyone remembers?"

There was a brief muttering of debate across the squadron before one man, the Dimetrodon pilot finally said, "Off the right corner, pass that ledge over there," he indicated by pointing his Zoid's nose towards the direction.

"Good man," Helios replied before continuing, "Alright team, come on, we have to get a move on this quickly. It's going to be ten soon."

He jerked the controls forward and Sunny leapt into the air before being followed by speeding Iguans and the single Dimetrodon who slowly lumbered behind across the ledge. Their view was slightly distorted but also a little improved since part of the Second Moon rained down upon their position. There was a brief whizzing through the air heard at the other side of the mountain…before shells rammed far ahead, letting loose another volley of crackles and bursts.

Helios glanced up and the falling debris…_This is damn f***** up. _Suddenly, he spotted a winged object soaring in the air. _What the f***….that's…_ Zooming in his crosshair and his Tiger's optics, he stared at the object which was soon accompanied by two of the same kind…_ I recognize the silhouette, those are Pteras units!_

Sweat poured down Helios' forehead and was absorbed by the perspiration fibers in his suit. Not from the revelation…but more from the escalating tension of the battle. _Do my men not realize it? Moons, the tide is turning towards us as this battle continues to reach its boiling point. _He looked at where the Pteras units were emerging from. Just around the corner and clearly from where the Dimetrodon pilot had roughly pointed out to.

"Sir?" one soldier broke in as the squadron made their way across the ledges, using the moonlight to their advantage.

"What is it?" Helios asked through the open intercom.

"Weren't those Pteras units?" the soldier asked again, his voice slightly unsteady.

"Yes." Helios bluntly replied, his voice a controlled cadence.

"Where did they come from? We destroyed the helipad runway right? The reports came from Sergeant Dust himself!"

"That's what we're about to find out…" Helios concluded.

"Sir, if they have another way of deploying their Zoids, that means that…"

"That's enough, soldier!!" Helios barked, his voice laced with snarling anger.

No more conversation was made for the duration of the journey over sounds of smashing rounds and battle before they finally climbed over a loose outcrop of rocks, beneath them where a sand basin lay. It was around ten minutes when they finally arrived and carefully concealed beneath the boulders with the Dimetrodon's advanced systems hiding them from all radar systems except satellite ones, they observed.

The sand basin cleared open along with the rock wall that surrounded it. Immediately, Helios could tell that they had added a fifth layer to the outer wall to make a bogey structure to conceal a sliding hatch that opened three hangars with internal runways where Pteras units were being deployed. Helios watched with a mixture of awe and admiration as three Pteras units launched from these hatches.

The sand basin also held another hatch and the sand could be seen sifting into special vents that would later, exhale the sand back up to conceal the hatch. Barely shifting Sunny's head, Helios could make out the railings of a deployment lift carrying Godos units up to the dirt for the Zoid to continue.

The lift rumbled a little. _Whatever this is…it sure is a big Zoid._ The lift seemed to be a little unsteady as it shook and trembled before arriving right on top, its latches clipping on to the lift to secure it. Glow sirens soundlessly flickered on the lift and the DANGER sings flashed brightly. Right on it was a sight that Helios would never forget.

The orange canopy of the lumbering Zoid glowered under the moonlight like a lit kerosene lamp that reflected off the glass barrier. The silver metallic armor glistened while the pale blue Supercannons that were mounted on its back protruded, bringing a sense of shock and fear throughout the ranks of the Zenebas Empire. It was a Republican symbol of power…a Gojulas.

_F***! They have Gojulas units here! Let alone a MKII model armed with those damn weapons…that can f****** murder the armor of the Iron Kong with two shots alone… _Fear crept up the spine of Helios as he gripped the controls tightly.

Beneath them on the basin the Gojulas began to stomp, its feet sending weak tremors across the rock of the mountain as dust rained upon it. The lift shifted downwards to pick up the next Zoid and the vents did their work, shifting the sand across the lift to conceal it. _Smart 'Lics, _Helios thought, _So that's how this section escaped satellite cameras. Not only is it concealed every time a Zoid is deployed but the location in a basin is highly ignored by the officials. _

Once the Gojulas had gone off, Helios whispered through the intercom silently, "Stay here. The next Zoid that comes out, we're going to shoot the f****** thing to hell before entering the base. Once we're in there, we destroy all the Zoids before anymore can come out to turn the tide of the battle."

No one said anything for a hushed moment. Then, "WHAT THE F***?"

"Don't you need sanction from the Sergeant?" another one pressed.

"F*** the f****** sanction," Helios retorted bitterly, "We're going to let our s*** loose in there so shut the f*** up and wait."

Grumbling, the soldiers reluctantly took their positions and trained their crosshairs on the basin beneath…hoping that they would not be uncovered from their carefully selected spots.


	7. Chapter Seven

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+3.45, 0945 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2.9, Y 7.9) 1597 ft above sea level**

The instance a single beam shot was fired, Eiden Black hurled himself deep behind the cover of the trench and the artillery cannon. Sand exploded wildly around them, violently deafening Eiden temporarily as he pursed his lips, not wanting his teeth to be knocked out. His vision was blurred for several minutes as the soldiers around him that ran for cover appeared blurred…slightly distorted perceptions.

_I can't see anything…_Eiden's knees crunched on the ground as his fingers fumbled in the dirt for his fallen helmet. _Wait, it's getting clearer now…here, I have it. _He placed the helmet over his head as the dirt that collected in it washed over his face. _What's that…? Oh, the lamp…it's gone off. Where did the shot come from? The enemy? _Eiden grabbed the sides of the trench and pulled himself up.

Glancing across the edge of the trench and towards unsteady ledges beneath he could make out about two Black Rhimos units who were letting loose beam fire. Eiden quickly took cover beneath the trench again with his fellow soldiers, slipping the nightvision goggles on and setting them to fire mode. He then crawled over, staining his knee padding with soil as he reached for the plasma rifle he had left there and loaded in a single FR, or fusion reactor cartridge onto its butt with a clack.

Eiden briefly checked the illuminated emerald screen on its stock. _23 shots, which will be sufficient._ He then turned to the frightened soldier next to him and asked, "Aren't we going to do anything?"

"Well…" the man said as he struggled to stop the chattering of his teeth, "HQ told us to hold out for a short time while they send out some air support. Word has it that Raynos units have already been deployed at the western parts…so-"

"So we just sit here and hope we don't get shot?" Eiden cut in.

"It's not that…" the soldier replied, clearly stunned, "But if we try to load the cannons we might get shot…" Dirt rained upon them again as the energy blast connected with the trench with an astounding boom.

Eiden stared down at the dirt. The soldier was right. They could only wait it out. Then, another soldier approached them, crawling slowly on the dirt and said to the man, "You're an f****** asshole."

The soldier whose face was first covered in fear now had his face completely bleached white. He looked as though he had just got verbally slapped. The man who had crawled over then turned to Eiden and said, "Let's f****** send those 'zenebastards' back to their Nyx s***hole!"

There were a few cries of encouragement around the trench that managed to even overcome to rocketing of the continuous fire of the Black Rhimos units that sent jolts throughout the whole trench system. Men began to scramble wildly in the dirt for the 25mm shells while fire teams were formed as they clambered to their artillery cannons and people began dropping the rounds in before sealing the canisters of the cannons shut.

"FIRE!!!" one soldier screamed at the top of his lungs.

Throughout the whole trench, men pulled at their levers which sent the ignition mechanism to work, sending shells that recoiled the gun at such a stunning force and sending toppling rounds to the ledges below.

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

The rounds smacked themselves into the hard rock beneath the Rhinoceros-type Zoids and sent chipped off stone flailing madly as the Rhimos units attempted to steady themselves. Eiden smiled as he saw one round blew a Rhimos' shoulder armor apart and sent the gigantic machine toppling in the air and towards Round's Foot. His eyes screened the whole ledge. The other Black Rhimos was retreating as they prepared another round of artillery fire.

He strained as his eyes attempted to search further into the darkness of the ledges. Men around him were beginning to set their plasma grenades on fire and were throwing them to both light the way and set the Zoids on fire. Eiden set the nightvision goggles' zooming qualities at a higher rate. _Wait…damnit, they have reinforcements!!!_

"Everybody, they _have re-ins!!!!!!_" Eiden hollered at the top of his voice, "_THEY HAVE RE-INS!!!_"

Immediately all the soldiers turned to him. Then without any forewarning another shot blasted from a new Zoid reinforcement and the shells smashed through the dense fiber-supported layers of the trench, sending a huge blast that ran through the whole trench as Eiden's body was thrown back with such a thick force that he could hear his bones crack and grate against one another amidst the resounding cacophony of bullet rounds being fired and reloaded.

"Ah…f***…." Eiden whispered.

Pain shot through him as the dust rained all over him. It went into his fiber clothing, coated his rifle, and soaked into his mouth, nostrils, eyeballs and ears. Caking his hair and slowly burying his body, Eiden coughed wildly, feeling agony with every motion.

_I can feel it….oh Moons the pain…my feet…do I still have feet? Oh no…I can't feel them…my hands? I- _Eiden struggled to move his fingers. They would not respond. _Why I can't see no…vision blurry like eyes are all….dammit I can't think even…straight. Moons…_

Around him he could hear soldiers screaming, their voices a high shrilling scream of fear that they had never made before. The sounds of naval and Zoid bombing…cold shells propelled from weapons of mass destruction as the dirt slowly caked and covered his whole body. He gripped the dirt tightly with his hands. _Ah, I can feel it. Yes, I can feel my hands. The dirt. The soil. The ground of my home planet…Zi. _

He remembered what Westing had said. _We are tribes of warriorhood. When did it all start? When did every man, woman, and child of Zi learn how to wield a weapon? If we all did not, this would not have occurred. None of this. But then again…if not for this, I would not have met a brother I never had. A brother of another world. Even in the darkest of nights, there is always a small light, no matter how insignificant, still shining._

Then, _in my moment of death I sound like an f****** philosopher._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.07, 1007 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1911 ft above sea level**

The men had managed to make it through the whole trench line, narrowly avoiding enemy fire and Zoid assaults by cleverly staying to the sides of the trench in prone crawls. They had reached around 1600 plus feet before some men could go no further along the steep and sluggish terrain of the mountain ledges, let alone guided by a single kerosene lamp. It was then decided that seven men would go on up two-hundred more feet to the basin lift and find reinforcements.

Westing was one of those men and at around 1700 plus feet, they had uncovered a dead infantry squadron and along with them, other than several pounds of ammunition and provisions, a mountain APC. The seven men had then crawled into the boxy armored vehicle specially designed for driving up the rugged terrain. A single man took up the machine-gunner position on the roof while two men sat up-front and Westing and the three others took the side flaps of the vehicle to open fire at enemy troops.

There was no conversation made with the seven soldiers. Westing knew it was because though it was true it offered them a faster speed of getting to the base and protection from infantry but how were they going to conceal themselves from a Zoid attack right now? The bright green color scheme of the vehicle would stand out in the darkness along with the headlights of the APC.

_I wonder how Eiden is doing. Artillery command down low right? I remember hearing that Arbis was sick…Dote can go to hell for all I care. _Westing's eyes bulged. _Wow…this few hours have changed me._

He could feel the toll that it had taken on him. Even with the combat cast on, he could still feel the throbbing pain in his shin. Getting knocked out six hours ago, barely making it back to base two hours later and getting limited medical attention and rest before kicking into battle just an hour ago. Amazing he wasn't dead yet.

The tension began to waver as they arrived closer, the topography meter on the vehicle's console indicating that they were about 1900 plus feet on Round's Mountain. Though the air that blew in through the ventilation systems sent chills through everyone, conversation began to seep in slowly and comfortably.

The soldier who sat next to Westing offered his hand, "Hey, I'm Odin Blue."

Westing was stunned for several semiseconds before he shook the hand and replied with a grateful smile, "Hey, I'm Westing."

Odin paused for a second…then he asked, "Hey, are you human."

Again, Westing was stunned. _How could this guy tell? _"Um…yeah…."

"Ah…" Odin replied with a little smile and a twinkle in his eyes, "I could tell from your accent. Hey, I'm human too."

"You mean you were from the Global 3 crash too?" Westing asked, his eyes widening. _Whoa, another human! Another human to talk to?_

"Actually no, I am one of the only six human survivors during the Harvest Event."

Westing thought for a moment. Harvest was a natural satellite of the planet Lagithia of Zi's galaxy which had gone out of orbit, slowly descending into the atmosphere of Zi. During ZAC 2029 the Zoidians discovered that it was crashing onto to Zi and of the few human inhabitants on the planet who had settled there from the ship Global 5. A rescue mission was held but after that…shady events covered up the mysterious destruction of the moon and the only survival of six human beings.

"The Harvest Event? I recall that…" Westing said, though his expression was that of a little bewildered individual.

"You should have been to Harvest!" Odin continued, his voice barely continuing his excitement, "The whole place there are like the rice fields of Earth!"

"Really?" Westing asked as images of sloping paddies streamed through his cranium, "I recall…I visited Asia once, the hills of rice crops."

"Yes, like that!" Odin said, "Just like our beautiful Earth…there were rich crops to harvest, sweet and sour fruits…oh my, I miss our hamburgers."

"Those are definitely better than the spiced canaries we eat here…" Westing whispered lowly with disgust.

"Yeah," Odin replied with a slight laugh, "And all that turmez herbs and coriolis water with the sago…" He faked a shudder.

Westing laughed at his reaction, "Did you ever try those Chinese takeaways? The chicken noodles and er the…_char siew_, I think you call it."

"Yeah! The chicken, right? I miss those too…they'd give those little baked stuff…"

"The dumplings? Oh, I miss those too." Westing replied, feeling his lips wet with saliva.

The two let a brief silence fall over them as the other soldiers continued their own conversations with one another. Even the machine-gunner had come down from his spot and had joined the fun. _Finally, another one of my kind…someone I can confide to._

"Harvest was a peaceful place…" Odin began again, "It was like Earth fifty years back…and definitely not like Zi."

Westing sighed a little. He knew where this man was coming from. "I know…Zi's a…"

"A harsh place to live…" Odin interrupted. He paused again for a moment as though re-thinking memories, reminiscing before continuing, "I hated it here when I first came. It was stupid at first, running from one damn village to another as we ran from the Zenebas. We finally relented and joined this army."

"It's not much different from home…" Westing whispered, a bitter tone of resentment falling from his tongue.

"Were you there? During the world's civil war?" Odin asked.

Westing wrapped his arms around his body as the chilling wind slowly seeped through the fabric material of his suit. "Yeah, I was there…I remember it…it was in Britannia, you know Brit?"

"Yeah, go on," Odin pushed, fully knowing the new United Kingdom capital.

"It was there that we suffered a bombing from the Marxists…one of the many nuclear ones. Down at Lanchester…my mom didn't make it out of this one. My uncle took me in after that."

Odin looked down. Then, he opened his mouth too, "There was this one time…when we were passing by this refugee camp when this group of parents came up to me shrieking in Afrikaans for me to take their little girl…" He closed his eyes and silently gripped his fingers.

"Then a bombing came, a napalm one…sending the whole camp burning." Odin's voice cracked at this point, "We barely made it out alive and I saw…oh Lord, I saw the little girl crying, half her body slowly burning."

Westing shuddered as the man looked at him with haunted eyes, his pupils now sunk with moisture and Westing could make out Odin's sagging eyelids…years of suffering gone through. "She wasn't running…s-she was just sitting there burning! I wished I had taken here…but now…"

Odin cradled himself in his arms, "Then wh-when we went to Harves-st….I thought we would find peace and then back here again…" He began sniffing and rubbing the tears from his eyes, "I should have shot myself years ago."

Westing did not know how to reply. Was he suppose to comfort the poor man…he hardly knew how to. _And here I am…thinking that my life is horrible when someone else suffered more than I did. It's better to be thrown in Hell than to be kicked to Heaven for a few seconds before letting all that you cared for…and cherished to be ripped from you… _Gently, Westing put a hand on Odin's arm. Odin looked up…his sharp eyes glancing straight ahead towards Westing. He smiled.

"Xie xie."

"Huh?" Westing asked, feeling the sensation of amusement returning.

"That's Chinese."

Ten minutes later, the rugged vehicle drove over its final ledge to arrive at the base entrance. The second hangar connection throughout the whole mountain other than the one at the basin. Originally, Round's Foot too, had another entrance to the base but that section went under an emergency shutdown when notice of approaching Zenebas units came to the top. Westing could feel his body slightly jittery with an aura of both anticipation of fear. _Imagine what the head will say if he finds out we've been driving around in a damn car that could probably reveal this hangar's location. That is, if the satellites don't find us first._

The driver immediately shut the headlights of the vehicle, sending the whole car within to a blanket of darkness. The doors and hatches were slid open as the men slowly crawled out one by one. Westing's combat boots hit the ground and he could make out the clink of his combat cast. They had parked the vehicle right in the small erg, where the second door to the hangars was hidden within the polymer fakes of the rocks.

The rock slid aside and the men all turned around, slightly caught off guard as the door opened and a man dressed in black armor came out. _Special Forces? _Westing thought as he signaled them to enter. The soldiers all looked at one another, shrugged and followed after the man, entering the hangar.

"What the hell are SFs doing here?" Westing asked Odin.

"Probably monitoring the situation," Odin replied, "You know these people…they all serve the brass."

The tunnel that they were in were lit brightly with candles, giving it a rather ancient feel before a sealed metal door unlocked its seven bolts and the SF guard scanned his hand on a palm lock that it slid open, allowing all seven men to enter the bustling activity of the hangar.

Westing could make out several men and women, all zipping up their pilot suits and clipping on their helmets struggling to enter Zoids that were being half-deployed through lift ramps. Technicians struggled with their carts, plugging in battery power to more Zoids and re-fueling fighter jets. There was not a single soul who did not have anything to do in fact the air of tension that was so high that even the Special Forces were helping them to ready the Zoids.

Odin walked up to a single man who held a clipboard and was seemingly in charge. "Listen, we have about twenty men being stranded down there in a trench…their post has been-"

"Listen kid," the man said as he strolled away from Odin, "We don't have time for that. Go around and find a Zoid you can be commissioned to. You and those guys, we need all the fight we can get."

With that, he rudely stomped off, leaving Odin dangling there. Odin turned around, "What do we do now?" he asked, directing his question to the six men.

Westing glanced around. They were all sore, weakened, and tired. Strolling over four-hundred feet did have this kinda effect on you. Odin suddenly felt himself in the de facto position of leader and so announced, "Come on, we're gonna get some food and then get into some Zoids…there's nothing else we can do for them."

Westing looked down. _I suppose you have to be cynical in war, after all…Odin's right._ He branched off from the group and turned to his left to where a man in a cart was passing out food parcels. As he was doing this, he saw a metal door being sealed slowly. But out of the corner of his eye he could make out…something.

_The Shield Liger?_

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.10, 1010 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1898 ft above sea level**

_There it is…my gateway…._Helios silently thought from his hidden position as a single Command Wolf was slowly lifted from the ramp as the ventilators cleared the sand of the basin. _Now all I need to do is fire that damn thing and go down the lift. Once I go down, the others can follow._

"Ready, team?" Helios ordered, more than asked, "One…two…"

The radio crackled and a voice suddenly came on, "Helios, what the f*** are you doing?!"

Helios cursed. Dammit, how did he know? "Um…I'm doing what I'm supposing to?"

"Don't give me that bulls***, boy," Dust snarled, clearly pissed off, "Why the hell is your signal traced over fifty meters off your original course to the helipad?"

Helios sighed, "Look, I've found another entrance into the hangar…it's a sand basin, look I'll send the coordinates both to you and Ross."

Dust was silent for a moment. Helios glared at the intercom and turned back to the basin's lift. It was still there and the Wolf had not moved. Hopefully making preliminary check-ups. "So you were going to go in there without a sanction?" Dust accused.

"Er…no, I was just about to send the coordinates to y'all…" Helios lied.

"Shut the f*** up," Dust muttered, "Ok, I've got them…I'll be coming soon…" Helios could hear the crackle over the intercom as Dust let out a sigh of relief and whispered softly, barely audible into the intercom, "I…just don't want you to die."

"You're supposed to be the soldier who knows that all friends in war are only temporary…" Helios threw back with a surprisingly harsh voice but Dust had already cut the intercom line. Helios made a depressed groan before tapping the console of the cockpit, "Come on, Sunny."

He opened the line to his men who were most definitely waiting in awkward silence, "Fire that muthaf*****!!!"

Hollers from his soldiers resounded in a stunning roar as the Iguans aimed their laser guns at the gunner on the Wolf, smashing to pieces with their rounds while the Dimetrodon and Sunny pounced down on the Wolf, Helios ripping the neck of the Zoid off with Sunny's saberteeth while the Dimetrodon smashed its head with its foot, letting a resounding crush ensue.

Helios could hear the men cheer but knew there was no time, "After me, y'all follow!" he shouted as he pounced onto the lift and it began to descend automatically. _I don't think they've noticed me._ Behind him, Helios could hear the Iguans activating their jump-jets as they flew above the lift and prepared to descend too while the Dimetrodon stayed on top as a lookout and to signal Dust's squadron.

As the elevator descended, thoughts ran through Helios' head. _We're going to make a hell of a distraction down there…I assume that there'll be no ready Zoids…hopefully Dust comes soon…._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.12, 1012 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1898 ft above sea level**

Each round that burst from the enemy rocked the hangar. Westing scrambled for cover as the Iguan marched around the hangar, throwing its impact gun in every crevice of the whole damned base. Westing gripped the edge of a technician's cart and slid himself underneath it as the Iguan stomped through the hangar. _Like a damn Godzilla…_ Westing thought, slightly bemused as he took cover behind a Bigasaur foot.

Another Iguan emerged, letting its impact gun ram the walls of the base. _How did they find us….?_ Westing thought as the shells ripped through the armor of the Zoids while several dead bodies littered the whole base. _Was it our fault? Or was it those damned satellites? _

Throwing the thoughts out of his head, he quickly dashed along with two other men, armed with plasma rifles as the impact gun of one of the Iguans launched its impact gun upon the Bigasaur whose weak frame began to creak and shatter. The Iguan slowly sprayed with its weapon, slowly picking out running men and sending sparks bursting everywhere. The man next to Westing got his arm shot off and he began to limp while shrieking.

A single bullet cracked against one of the halogen lamps on top of the base, sending that area into a hushed darkness. The metal of the hangar creaked again as the Iguans let loose their fire across the whole atrium, severely destroying several Zoids. Westing crouched in the 'dark zone' next to a vent entrance, gripping his plasma rifle tightly and checking the FR cartridge's remaining power.

"Move, move the f***!" the man who stayed prone next to him cried.

"Where?!" Westing asked, his voice laced with confusion and fear.

"Into the f***** vent!" the man cried, "They've cut those systems down, the damned _bastards_..."

Westing grimaced. He knew that ventilation systems didn't tend to smell good but redolence was the last thing on his mind as he was the first one to hurtle himself into the vent. _Where else can we go? Maybe we can head up to the vents on top of the mountain? _The scent that invaded his nostrils sent a shock wave through his whole brain but he gritted his teeth and pushed himself forward resisting the urge to twist his hands in the confined space to close his nose.

The sounds of the assault faded further into the distance as he continued his crawl. The thumping back told him that other men were coming from behind him. He could also hear a single man ordering people around, "Spread out, spread out!"

Westing obeyed this order and pushed his shoulder-crawl to the right as he arrived at a junction in the vent. Sweat poured down his forehead and he wondered if he should take off his helmet's straps as he crawled but Westing decided against it. The plasma rifle had been dumped before he even entered the vent. _It's freaking claustrophobic in here…_Westing thought feverishly as the heat of the battle and the vent seeped through him.

_KA-BOOM!!!!!!_

The umpteenth explosion that Westing heard today rung in the vents, sending the noisy sound about six-thousand decibels higher as the heat of the vent began to rise. Westing could feel the clasps break and the vent's structure slowly breaking down. "Oh, Lord, no no no!!!" Fire began to blast into the vent's walls though did not go into Westing's path.

The heat was turned up a few notches as Westing struggled to crawl further on, hoping his weight did not pull down the broken section of the ventilation tunnel. _Someone shot the vents! Smart bastard! _He could feel his grimy fingers pouring perspiration onto the edges of the walls that he pushed in. Soil from the trenches still gathered underneath his nails.

A crack suddenly came and the vent's clasps snapped with an ear-piercing groan of metal as the latch broke and Westing fell down along with the vent. "AARGH!!!!" Westing cried as the tunnel rumbled and his body clanked within it. Then a shuddering cracking sound came again and Westing realized that the vent tunnel had clattered onto solid ground. He gripped his head tightly. _Oh Lord, good thing I'd put the helmet on…or else…_ His fingers contacted blood and his breath became heavy. _Should I go out? What if there's someone there._

Westing pushed himself forward, grimacing against the pain that surged through his whole body. _I can't even believe I'm still alive. _He reached the end of the vent, where light from the ceiling blazed through. Alas he crawled out and examined himself.

There were bruises all across his skin and his muscles felt twisted and slightly sprained. It was good that the combat cast had only been slightly dented. _Erh….my whole body feels like hell…._ Sweating, he pushed himself up with his shaky arms and looked at the ceiling. There was light everywhere…but there were no enemy Zoids. _Why? _Looking up at where the vent tunnel once was, he found his answer.

_Wait…I'm in another hangar, right next to the one where I first was…so a shot that came from there must have ripped the whole vent system that ran through all the hangars down. _Westing spat some blood from his head and took off his helmet, running his hand through his hair that was caked with blood. He pushed himself up and looked around.

He was on a walkway, and the huge and crumpled vent tunnel was on it, every corner bent and mauled. _Wow…I made it out. _A pool of blood was at the end of the shattered vent…_Another man…he did not make it like me. _Westing walked over to the man. He quickly turned before vomiting. _Oh, f***!_

The yellow bile poured from his throat as Westing sweatily gripped his stomach, feeling a wave of nausea coming over him. _That guy…he wasn't wearing a helmet…oh Lord, his head! _The pool of vomit mixed with the blood, making a disturbing yellow oil-like substance as Westing limped onwards to the walkway and broke down to his knees. _I can't do this anymore…_

Looking ahead from the walkway, Westing made out a faint blue object in the distance. Like parallel lines. _Oh my, I'm seeing things it's…._ Westing smacked his cheek. _Focus! _His blurred vision slowly came back and he finally came into focus. _Blue lines…it's…_ Westing pulled himself up and stumbled back again and stared in awe.

The 'blue lines' were actually the shoulder armor of a Zoid…the Shield Liger! From this close, Westing could make out the true majesty of the Zoid. The sleek black armor, clearly a new Zoid that just rolled out of the factory. But why wasn't there anyone else in the hangar? Westing silently jogged over to the head of the Zoid and saw that the orange cockpit was open. _Perhaps they were afraid it wasn't perfected yet?_

Westing pushed himself over the railing of the walkway, nearly crushing his crotch and he stepped into the cockpit before sliding the orange canopy down. _What the f*** am I doing? Oh, I'm swearing again. _He hit his sore head lightly then winced in pain before pulling the start lever. A hum sounded and Westing smiled. _Good, the core's working. _He glanced at the console monitor. All its armaments were loaded, though the shock cannon only had two salvos. There was something new though, a bright little orange meter to the side that had the letter 'E' beneath it. _I expect that is the meter for the E-Shield's power?_

The Shield Liger let out a roar as Westing tested the Zoid for several moments. It certainly had a lot of power; he could almost feel the hydraulics pumping all their motors into the motion of the Liger. Again, he asked himself. _What am I doing?_ But he ignored that little conscience in his head and for some reason that he'd never understand, pressed the pedal and smashed through the hangar's walls to meet the enemy.

_There's no way I'm going to die here. I promised._

The barriers of the wall that separated the Liger's hangar from the other hangars and atriums shattered under the Liger's ferocious power and Westing felt the energy and adrenaline that surged through him as the shards of metal and pipes burst around the Liger, grazing Westing's canopy. The Liger landed on all fours, baring its teeth like a wild animal while the Iguans turned around in shock and all the Helic soldiers stood, gasping with hope.

Westing could make out a single Zenebas soldier manning the lift pad which was about to go up. _More reinforcements? Hell, no…_ He cocked the Liger's head slightly and from the darkness…saw another Zoid of equal prowess emerged. _A Sabre Tiger? Oh no… _The Tiger Zoid growled at him and shifted its armaments slightly as though furrowing itself for battle. His right eye turned back to the lift pad. It was still going higher. He pressed a bright blue button on the console with the letter E written on it.

Westing had a grin on his face when the Zoid reacted…its 'mane' split up as powerful pumps lifted them forward, making a star-like shape as they briefly glowed with an aquamarine hue and a net-like energy barrier began to project itself over the Liger before the visible positrons scattered across them. Without another thought, he stamped on the pedal and sent the Shield Liger rocking towards the Sabre Tiger with such a force that Westing could feel the impact of the g-force.

The two Zoids smashed into one another, the E-Shield ripping into the Tiger's chassis as the crashed onto the rising lift ramp. The gears shuddered as the lift went up and the Iguans merely stared in shock, not reacting whatsoever as the ramp quickly rose at full power, the sides of the Tiger and the Liger sending sparks and bruises across the walls of the ramps tunnel. The lift creaked with power and smashed right on top as the two Zoids let go of one another and landed on all fours off the limp, facing one another.

_Back on the mountain again…_ Westing thought as the two moons glowered with his E-Shield, sending a somewhat spectral glare across the whole mountain. Then, suddenly a huge boom resounded across the night sky. Both the Sabre Tiger's pilot and Westing looked up and saw that the Republic had deployed their aerial Zoids and were starting to bomb upon the mountain's Zenebas forces.

Westing turned his attention back to the Sabre Tiger…its emerald eyes pierced directly ahead to Westing as he shut the E-Shield down and prepared its laser claws. Then, the moment of peace ended and the two cats lunged at one another, baring their teeth and claws as they collided with a smack that could be heard throughout the whole mountain.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.15, 1015 hours**

**Off the coast of Bareshia Bay, location unspecified**

**Aboard Whale Kaiser I of the Zenebas Imperial Navy**

Pound glared in shock through the porthole of his Whale Kaiser. It was unbelievable! The 'Lics had managed to deploy their aerial Zoids through that damned basin entrance and was beginning to do devastating damage to the Zenebas Zoids below. The naval bombing via the dreadnoughts did little to stop just that and the AA guns of the Kaisers were ineffective at this range. Everything was going wrong!

_No, dammit it can't end like this…_ Pound though as he grabbed his hair tightly, _My whole career can't conclude like this…if the top brass wants the castle, they're gonna get their damn castle._

Pacing over to the periscope, he zoomed the device further to Round's Mountain and could make out a slight shimmer of a blue object. Then suddenly a ray of light spun from that blue object and it began to attack a Zenebas Zoid while the two battled it out. Pound could have thrown up in fear right there and then. _They've perfected it? No, impossible! Argh, no no no!!!!_

He knew what he'd have to do now. This was the exact purpose of Contingency T…if the new Zoid managed get out or loose. They'd now have to use their mole, their _saudirakken_. He picked up the archaic phone and dialed once again to the only line it connected to and spoke into it, "Begin T."

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.17, 1017 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 8.1) 1919 ft above sea level**

The E-Shield was an unfair advantage, true, but it was a useful advantage. Westing took another feint by the Sabre Tiger with his E-Shield, sending the blaze of light that shone whenever anything came into contact with it. _You made me use it…_he taunted the Sabre Tiger in his head, _or maybe I just wanna. _He pressed the pedal forward and could see the Tiger backing away as the E-Shield missed it and smashed to the ground.

The Sabre Tiger came to its stop and fired back with its laser cannons that ricocheted to different directions as it came to contact with the E-Shield. Westing took the impact as it shuddered the cockpit and glanced down at the meter. _How long does this thing last? It's already turning yellow. _Westing ignored it and fired one salvo of his three-barreled shock cannon as the rounds came into contact with the Sabre Tiger's cannons that were mounted on its back, sending them splintering everywhere while the Tiger roared in anger and lunged again.

_It's a one on one duel…_ Westing thought amusingly when the Tiger suddenly jumped over the E-Shield and landed behind him, turning around and firing its guns onto the Liger's unprotected back. Westing cried out as the armor chipped off and the cockpit shook violently, banging Westing's already injured head across the cockpit and sending streaks of blood across the monitor.

The Shield Liger immediately stood there, as though in a paused position as the Sabre Tiger took this opportunity and sunk its teeth onto the Liger's side. Metal parts creaked and groaned as the sharp fangs broke through. Inside the Shield Liger's cockpit, there were several warning lights going off but none of them got into Westing's dazed mind.

_Blood…red everywhere across this whole cockpit. _He grabbed his face with his hands, feeling the crimson blood pouring from his fingers and the blood that wallowed in his mouth. What could he do now? Westing did not know.

He let his hands go, stared at the canopy's reflection of himself and screamed.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.18, 1018 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 7.9) 1397 ft above sea level**

Arbis nodded to no one in particular and silenced the satellite phone. Immediately, he opened a hatch in the corner of his room that led to the incinerator of the base and threw the phone in it. He watched with no expression on his face as sweat poured down the bridge of his nose and he watched the flames consume the phone…calls that no one would ever remember…no one would ever here.

He had already been ordered…the Liger was out…and now they had to destroy it. The explosive was the only way. He downed several pills and wiped perspiration of his forehead as he silently gripped the manila package tightly. Tearing the manila wrapping off, inside, he found a black rectangular cuboid box with only a red sticker saying: WARNING. _Was this right? What other choice did he have…now I'm referring myself as he…I am thinking of the future._

He slid open a panel on the side of the box and flicked the switch there. Then, he placed it down on his bed and propped himself on there, in his hand gripping the revolver. _Only seven seconds. _Taking a deep breath, he put the barrel of the revolver to his head and closed his eyes.

_In the future…history will remember me as the man who belonged to neither side. History will remember me as the coward._

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.17, 1017 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 8.1) 1919 ft above sea level**

Though the explosion came from nearly seven-hundred feet under, Helios could feel the horrible power of that raw explosive that exploded from beneath in the enemy base. Immediately the rocks of the mountain broke apart as fire exploded from them and burning men, women, and Zoids fell off the mountain with every titanic tremor that rocked the place to its core.

The naval bombing added to the stunning extravaganza of death and noise as Helios pushed the fallen Liger down and stomped on it. The canopy cracked slightly as Helios crushed the feet of the Zoid and began to venomously rip out shreds and tubes from the Liger's internal systems. Ignoring the stunning explosions, he pried all the layers of technology aside until he found what he wanted…the Zoid Core. The Sabre Tiger smashed its teeth into it.

Right then, a blaze of green energy erupted right beside the fallen Shield Liger and smashed the rocks of the mountain to hell as Helios quickly turned Sunny around to face it. Then, from right ahead him on the basin another green burst of energy appeared, clearly from within the mountain and Helios knew what had just happened. _Oh Moons…someone set off an f****** deochalcum bomb! How did the 'Lics get it?!!!!_

His last thought was his vision slowly changing from the bleeping and fading core of the Liger to the night sky ahead where the green aura blazed across the Moons like an aurora. A piece of the Liger clinked to the ground and then the final explosion happened…the Deochalcum bomb unleashed its full power.

**ZAC 2042, March 18****th**

**D-Day D+4.25, 1025 hours **

**Bareshia Bay, Helic Territory of the Central Continent**

**Round's Mountain, Bareshia Jungle (coordinates X -2, Y 8.1) 1919 ft above sea level**

Helios screamed in pain as he pushed himself out of the crushed Tiger's cockpit. Sunny was dead now. He could feel his wet eyes pouring tears but he ignored it…not knowing whether it was from sadness or the sheer agony. Helios got himself on ground again. _Moons…the ground burns…the aftereffects of deochalcum…_ He forced himself to look around. Every ounce of ground, the vegetation, the rock, the soil had all been burned and toxic smoke lifted from the blazed mountain towards the air.

Helios winced and pushed himself up. There were still small flames everywhere. He looked back at the carcass of Sunny. The Tiger's whole body had been ripped in two, the other half buried in dirt. He turned to the opposite direction and found the Shield Liger…its head completely taken off from the impact. Though he could not look down, he knew what the other people would be going through…immense destruction and decay. Looking up at the air, he found several Helic Zoids flying to the air…retreating…_ Smart assholes, now you know its better to regroup back at our castle than stand around here…you've lost the war…_

But was the Liger's pilot still alive? If he was safe in the confines of his cockpit surely…Helios shook his head wildly, feeling the ache of his muscles and the stains of blood that covered his whole attire. _What am I thinking? Why do I even care? _He reached into his pocket all pulled out a pistol. _Is Dust alive? Ross? What of Pound? And Bobby? This is all the 'Lics fault…all theirs…_

He shakily walked towards the Liger's head, still feeling the effect of shell-shock and his vision slightly blurred in the moonlight. The naval bombing had stopped…perhaps they too, were wondering what was going on. Helios knew it was only a matter of time before they sent their reserve air forces to investigate while the 'Lics ran off. _Cowards._

When Helios arrived at the cockpit, he could almost feel his gut rumble. The sight was gruesome, the once bright orange canopy now painted with the demonic red of blood. His fingers still shaking, he gripped the latches of the Liger's cockpit, feeling the heat of it eating through his skin. Helios ignored it and pushed. Using all his strength, he managed to lift the cockpit.

Inside, Helios found blood splattering every console, coating itself on every available surface. The man inside brought fear into Helios' gut. _Did I do this? _The blood had turned a disturbing red and there were clear shards of orange glass from the canopy protruding from his chest. The harness had already been unstrapped, which meant that the man had already awoken. The man let out a stuttering cry as his eyes caught Helios' eyes.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

Helios pointed the pistol to the man. The man stared back. His face was an unreadable expression…perhaps even serene, and Helios found himself confused before the man replied, "Go ahead, shoot…it doesn't matter anyways."

Helios paused. The man wanted to die. What kind of man did? _Perhaps he believes he's done enough in his life…that he's finished his purpose…_ Then, Helios looked at the blood around the cockpit, what he'd done. Helios turned his attention away and dropped the pistol. It clacked on the floor. He looked around…the burned soil, the smoke that choked his breath and the blurred images of the ships far off. And in the sky, the two glowing moons of Zi that shone and gave guidance in the night.

_Murder is hardly murder in war. _Helios turned his attention back to the man and said, "You're right, it doesn't matter anyways…"

He dropped to the soil and sat next to the bleeding man…both of them staring serenely into the night sky. For that one moment…not caring about the outcome of the battle, not worried about the enemy or dying…when they'd lost all hope. The man groaned as he turned his neck to face Helios. Helios stared back at him. There was a moment of connection between the two…both of them soldiers. Men of war.

The man coughed as he struggled to speak. "I-I-I'm Westing…" the man whispered.

Helios stopped. Then he smiled and replied, "I'm Helios."


	8. Epilogue

The man's face, hell his whole body was bruised and burned. There were cuts, aches and scratches everywhere. Still though, he was fully dressed in his military coat…though all his medals were stripped. Around his arm was a sling and the people in the courtroom kept their attention on him…there was an aura around him…one of guilt and horror…a man who'd seen too much.

Ahead of the man was a judge who sat on a chair, his expression one of boredom. He toyed with his wig and straightened his robes before asking the man with a tired voice, "What do you plead?"

A look of irritation flashed on the man's face but he steely replied, "I plead guilty."

The judge's face did not changed but he banged down upon the board table with his hammer, sending a click across the whole room. Men and women that were in the court all stared at him in shock, stunned by his reply. He kept his face straight; his eyes glaring at the judge with such malevolence that people shuddered at his appearance. The man opened his lips, and that cold voice spoke, "I plead guilty. But I am not."

The judge rolled his eyes and banged down on the table with the hammer once again, "You, Helios Worthington will now be sentenced to Ard-Oa Penitentiary for two counts of violation against the Soldier's Creed of Zenebas."

Two heavily-armored guards walked up to Helios' position and gripped his arm, one especially clutching his slung arm in a cast. No expression of pain registered on Helios' face. He kept his glare trained on the judge for a moment before casting his eyes away and abiding with the guards. They led him through the long walkway towards the exit where the people or stared at him…_The opposite of a wedding…a bride led by two bridegrooms where no flowers are thrown and no clapping resounds. _

The large doors opened…holding for a mere four seconds before they clacked with a final lock.

_**Helios Worthington was sentenced to Ard-Oa where he remained until his death in ZAC 2095 at the age of eighty-one under Regent Gunther Prozen's order that all inhabitants of penitentiaries be slaughtered to cut down costs of the nation. He was buried with no military honors and was executed by a firing squad.**_

Westing breathed in deeply. The desert air came through his nostrils. _What a wonderful sensation. _He walked through the gates of the ancient village of Tal-Ahaddi. It seemed somewhat familiar to him. He passed by children playing with a top and street-vendors peddling their carts around and offering different fruits and vegetation to happy mothers who strolled around with their baskets.

He smiled. A scene of peace. Where he first came years ago. In his hand, he held two bouquets of fresh ixoras bundled together. The smell of oil reached his nostrils as he walked around a Zoids parts shop and he grimaced, blocking out darker memories. More larger buildings surrounded this section of Tal-Ahaddi, a church hall…a schoolhouse and even a miniature playground. But neither of these were Westing's destination. He walked past all these building's towards Ahaddi's cemetery…where all people born here would be buried.

He arrived at the gates of the cemetery, its metal doors clinking as he opened it. There were rows and rows of tombstones…yet another culture introduced by the humans. Each one had names of people….thousands of names of dead people who had once lived lives in the village or were born here. Westing sighed as he made out two people dressed in coats further off in the distance, obviously paying their respects too.

He headed for the ninth row and walked in. There, he came to his uncle's grave. On it was inscribed 'ARIEN AAUS.' Westing dropped one bundle of ixoras on Arien's grave, hoping his uncle could hear him. In a soft voice that no one heard on that day, he whispered, "Thank you."

Westing then strolled off to another grave, carrying the remaining bundle of ixora. As he walked towards the second grave, he could see that the two men in coats were approaching him. The two parties stopped as they realized that their graves were exactly next to one another's. Westing looked up at the first men…a bushy beard and a torn face while the other one had a slimmer composure though equally bruised. He offered to start the conversation.

"Hey, visiting?" Westing asked cautiously.

The older man smiled, "Yeah..." He dropped his bundle of fragrant roses. Westing did the same with his ixoras, "You live here?"

"Yes," Westing replied before adding an awkward, "You?"

"I used to teach here…" He pointed to the schoolhouse, "Right there."

Westing smiled, "Ret Flerry?"

The man returned the smile, "Yup, good ol' Ret Flerry."

Westing shook hands with both the older man and the slimmer one before parting their own ways. Their flowers, still cold with dew lay on their graves. The two tombstones had one thing in common though…that probably no one would guess. They had these words inscribed on them:

_TABITHIA SING_ and _EIDEN BLACK_

_**Westing Aaus managed to survive but was kept in a humane POW camp before his liberation by Republican soldiers. He had to take three surgeries to remove glass pieces, slight plastic surgery for reconstruction of his mutilated face and had four fingers amputated. After his liberation, he was termed unfit for combat and so resigned from the Helic Military, choosing instead to return to his homeplace of Tal-Ahaddi where he took up the job as a local policemen and married to a Zoidian woman, where they had two boys together. **_

_**D Day would eventually be known as though successful, one of the most costly amphibious invasions in Zenebas history, undisputed even by the assaults of the First Helic-Guylos War. Only seventeen Republic participating soldiers survived the aftermath of the assault. Only one still lives today.**_


End file.
