The Search for Ball Zero (31 page)

view he could see the drones flying into
formation, one at a time as the gamer chimp touched them to his
Stacker.

The gamer chimp was concentrating and yelled
over his shoulder,”Okay, get ready.”

Tony crept the warstore he was piloting up
to the side of the hill. Close enough

so they could see over the hill top and
watch the other warstore. From the other side of the valley the
gamer chimp’s drone wall flew over the hill and into view of the
enemy warstore. In front of the Tribe’s warstore Lemmy’s Jeep sped
over the hill, filled with armor clad chimps and Gorillas, he
stayed in the cover of trees.

“
Don’t get seen first!”
Tony yelled to Lemmy through the Stacker. Lemmy’s Jeep adjusted its
path, staying in the trees a bit longer.

The gamer chimp’s drone wall was in plain
view of the other warstore, Tony

wondered why it wasn’t reacting. It just
kept driving straight. “Maybe this isn’t going to work.” Tony
thought and started thinking about plan B. “If that thing starts
targeting

Lemmy we have to save them. Get ready to
nuke that fucking thing Bob.”

“
Yea mon.”

For a second the warstore looked like it was
turning left towards Lemmy, but then it made a hard right, facing
the drone wall. “Now Lemmy. Go go!” Tony yelled into the Stacker.
Lemmy’s Jeep turned out of the trees and made a straight line for
the warstore, speeding out into the field in front of it. The Jeep
was out in open view now, although the warstore was facing the
other way.

The warstore shot its machine guns at the
drone wall, taking many of them out. Then it released a drone wall
of its own.

All of a sudden Tony heard music blaring
from one of the Stackers. It was from Lemmy’s. Tony could see Lemmy
pulling out a giant ghetto blaster and placing it on the hood.
“Know Your Enemy”, by Rage went on. The Jeep’s occupants went
crazy. Some started hanging off the side of the Jeep, one of em
flashed devil horns into the Stacker. Tony looked out the main
window at the Jeep, It was bouncing with monkeys and primates.

“
What the fuck are
they..”Tony said.

Bob interrupted,”Rockin mon. Dey be War
Rockn!”

Perry laughed and sat up to get a better
view, “Go you fuckin crazy monkeys!”

Lemmy’s Jeep blasted Know Your Enemy as loud
as it possibly could, with a

little mosh pit in his back seat. They
closed in on the rear of the warstore.

The wartsore unleashed it’s arsenal at the
toy drone wall, annihilating them all

and obliterating the entire hillside. Tony
looked to the gamer chimp Stacker, it was black. He grimaced. Then
focused on Lemmy’s Jeep as it reached the warstore, rocking out to
Rage.

Lemmy did one of his famous drifting turns,
the Tribe on the back leaning so the Jeep didn’t flip. He nailed
the turn perfectly, sliding right up next to the giant tank treads
of the warstore. His Jeep sprayed a rooster tail. Without any
hesitation the entire clown car of the Jeep exited, jumping onto
the moving gears of the tank treads. Within seconds they were half
way up the warstore. Know Your Enemy was only half way through.

Lemmy looked into the Stacker, “Payload
delivered.”

“
We go mon?”

“
No not yet. We don’t want
to damage that warstore if we don’t have to.” Tony

replied.

Inside the warstore, the Captain was yelling
at a supervisor,”What do you mean

it was a fake drone wall?!” He pointed to
his guards, they rushed across the cockpit and carried the
supervisor away, kicking and screaming.

The supervisor pleaded.”No wait! It was
real!”

The Captain let out an exhausted sounding
sigh. “I’m surrounded by fucking idiots.” Then he stood up and
began walking away. Clicking.

“
Um, Captain?” The new
supervisor said.

The clicking stopped, and the Captain slowly
turned around. He slowly looked

up, his face saying “This better be
good.”

The new supervisor didn’t say a word, just
put his screen up on the main screen. It was a live feed from a
camera on top of the warstore, it looked down at dozens of
different sized Primates, Chimps and Monkeys climbing up the
warstore. They were wearing medieval helmets, carrying swords and
other various medieval weapons.

“
What the?” The Captain
questioned.

Two spider monkeys zipped by the doorway
behind him. He spun around. Light filled the hallway outside of the
cockpit, then it became darkness. The Captain’s guards ran to the
doorway and opened fire down the hallway. There was the rapid fire
cracking of their semi-automatic rifles, clinging and clanging of
bullets hitting metal, then a crowd of the Tribe tumbled onto the
guards and began hacking them to pieces.

King stepped over them and entered the
cockpit first. He was all business, but

he had to do a double take when he saw the
Captain. “I kill you before!” He said and swung a morning star. He
was holding the chain half way up so it was a quick swing with a
short, overhead arc. It smashed the front of the Captain’s head,
metal crushing into the skull’s meaty center. He said nothing and
flopped to the floor, the morning star fell with him, embedded into
his skull.

The rest of the crew was trying to scramble
for the exits. The armor clad Tribe stood in the doorway, a phalanx
of swords, spears and axes, poking at anyone who tried to leave.
They awaited their alpha’s decision.

“
Let go.” King said. The
Tribe members slowly moved out of the way and the warstore crew
members scooted through as soon as they could fit. A few of them
apologized as they left.

King went up to a specific station, the one
Tony taught him to. He fiddled with

the screen and in the original warstore,
King’s face flashed on the main screen.

They now had two warstores.

Tony was happy to see King’s face. He stood
up smiling, looked over at Bob

and yelled, “Yes!” Then did a little raise
the roof-type of dance. L and Janis came in from the office.

“
You meant to do that?”
Perry asked.

“
It was our plan.” Tony
replied.

L asked,”The plan worked? They took the
warstore?”
“
Yep” Tony answered.

“
Da Art of War mon!” Bob
slid his head back and forth, rubbing his necklace book.

Tony said,”We were like water... Adapted to
the situation, knew our enemy.

used our strengths.” He explained their
thinking,”These fucking warstores are so specialized. They’re
basically built to take out the military. We saw it destroy the US
military twice with no losses. They never planned on gorillas with
spider monkeys. Also like The Art of War, we won a battle without
fighting.”
“
Dat wall tho mon.” Bob added.

“
Yea!” Tony added also.
“That fake drone wall was amazing. Cuz these

warstores aren’t vulnerable to infantry,
they have like six anti-personnel machine guns. But that
distraction countered those perfectly. I think that was L’s idea,
right?” She nodded.

“
It was all the
distraction Lemmy and King needed.” Tony continued. Then he
paused,”Bob, you have your own warstore now.” Bob smiled and Tony
set course for their new warstore.

Two chimps were killed by the guards, those
were their only losses. Bob got situated in his new pilot seat.
They divided the crew, it was the Humans, Janis, Moon and a few
other chimps on the “old” warstore. Bob, King, Slash and the
majority of the Tribe jumped on the new one. Lemmy kept a few on
his scout Jeep.

The two warstores rode off into the
sunset.

They drove for almost an hour. Tony and Bob
trading little warstore piloting

tips as they learned on the fly.

L took Bob’s seat as the gunner. Tony
explained it quickly, it was very user

friendly; on the bottom of the screen you
select different weapons, then point the reticle and press the big
red “Fire” button.

“
It’s like a videogame.” L
said.

“
Yea.” Perry said, then
continued like he was the voice over in a movie

trailer,”But if you die in the game, you
die in real life!” They all laughed.

“
But it’s true, so don’t
miss.” Tony said.

They drove for a few minutes in silence, no
one paying too much attention until L noticed something.

“
There it is.” She said in
awe.

Everyone looked up and saw the Elohssa
headquarters in the distance. It grew

out of the horizon and jaggedly up into the
sky. It reached so high that you could not see the top. The rumors
that it went all the way to space may have been true. It poked
through the dark cloud ceiling in a vortex-like swirling hole,
complete with flashes of forked lightning. It looked and felt evil,
even from this far away. A cross between the Half Life 2 Citadel
and The Dark Tower.

They drove a few miles closer and stopped on
top of a hill that gave them a view

of the base of the tower and surrounding
area.

Bob’s eyes widened,”Oh shit mon.”

In a movie, very dark ominous music would
play as the view was revealed. To

their dismay, at the base of the building
they saw a bunch of patrolling warstores, gates, checkpoints,
search lights, everything you’d expect at a top notch evil company
headquarters. It was an intimidatingly scary sight and at first
everyone subconsciously held their breath for a few moments. Inside
Tony’s mind he thought about how it looked like the perfect last
level of a video game, the big, epic, final boss fight.

“
Scary.” L thought out
loud.

Perry kind of wanted to make a joke about
the rainbow dildos, but awe overtook his comedy and instead he
said,”It does remind me of a Death Star.”

Tactics ran through Tony’s mind: Attack from
the top of the hills, separate and

flank, charge together, maybe snipe and pull
some to them, stealth.

“
I move up. Stay here.”
Bob said, whispering. Bob’s warstore slid around the

west of the tower, staying behind the cover
of the hill.
“
What’s the gameplan?” Tony whispered
back, not sure why he was whispering.

There was no reply. Tony looked over at
Perry and L. “Bob?” He asked. Nothing. They watched as Bob’s
warstore made its way alongside the hill and then stopped. Tony
then looked to the Stacker that Lemmy was on, it was black.

All the Humans were fixated on the main
screen, watching the Tribe’s warstore. Lemmy’s Jeep pulled up and a
few of the Tribe jumped off and climbed onto the warstore.

Perry’s eyes were wide and still, the screen
view reflected off of them, “What are those monkeys up to?”

“
Bob?” Tony asked again,
this time with urgency and not whispering. “What are you
doing?”

Bob’s warstore rotated. It was now facing
the tower.

Tony looked at L and Perry and they all
shrugged. Tony rubbed his eyes with

his hands, thinking.

Bob’s warstore accelerated, it started
climbing the hill towards the tower.

“
Bob!” Tony
yelled.

The Tribe’s warstore finally responded, Bob
and King’s face in view. King looked into the camera, “We go in
building. We save brothers.” Their warstore crested the hill and
headed down into the valley. They were heading straight towards the
building, right towards the patrolling warstores.

“
Whaaat?!” Tony yelled. He
looked back and forth quickly and rubbed his eyes

thinking again. He was still thinking, but
began moving their warstore into a better vantage point. “I don’t
know what the fuck they’re doing, but give them cover fire if they
need it L.” She wasn’t thinking about that and refocused on her
screen. He yelled over to her. “That button on the side zooms in,
you may need it from this far away.” She found it and began zooming
in on the warstore nearest to Bob’s.

Two Elohssa warstores began changing course
towards Bob’s. They saw him. Within seconds they were firing at
each other. L shot the main cannon and missed bad, the shell
exploding short of its target. Perry ran over and looked over her
shoulder. The main cannon was so big, when it reloaded, everyone in
the warstore could feel it.

“
Try the tank turrets.”
Tony advised.

L fired the tank turrets, the enemy warstore
moved out of the way and it missed.

“
Scoot over!” Perry yelled
impatiently.

L held out her arm and blocked him,”Hang
on!”

On the main screen Bob hit one of the enemy
warstores with a main cannon

blast, direct hit, right in the middle of
the chest. The shell exploded and ripped a hole in the armor of the
giant beast, but it kept coming, billowing fire from it’s chest.
The damaged warstore returned fire, main cannon to the chest of
Bob’s warstore.

“
Ohh!” Perry and Tony both
yelled, L was fixated on her screen. Bob’s

warstore was on fire, some Tribe members
fell off it’s shoulders dead. Perry pushed at

L’s arm. “They're dieing L!”

“
Hang on!” She yelled
again. Then with her eyes squinting at her screen she hit the fire
button. The cockpit of the 2nd enemy warstore zoomed in on her
screen. The shell flew in a high velocity, low, perfect arc and
smashed into the warstore cockpit with an explosion. L quickly
mashed the “Fire” button, trying to cash in on her winning aim. The
three other tank turrets fired in rapid succession with low but
deep whooping sounds. A second later the three shells ate into the
warstore with successively deeper explosions. The entire section of
the warstore that used to be its cockpit was a burning black mess.
The warstore stopped moving.