BL11 - Vehicles

The chamber was laid out like a huge wheel, with the lightstone ring in the center and three spokes leading off it. The Toa landed on those spokes and then moved in different directions to explore. Pohatu reached the wide end of a spoke first. As soon as his armored foot touched a certain plate in the floor, there was a sound of machinery humming. The next instant, Pohatu was looking at a metallic cocoon that had abruptly locked into place beside him, with sound and light coming through cracks in its shell. When it withdrew, it left in its place an impressively large crimson air vehicle, looking as new as if it had been assembled the day before. It was a technological marvel, practically radiating power even while sitting still. It bristled with weaponry and the advanced engine and sleek lines hinted at enormous speed.

Pohatu turned to see that Lewa and Kopaka had made similar discoveries. Of the other two vehicles, one was green and the other blue. Lewa, in particular, was delighted at the find. Tahu was more interested in the ring of lightstones, which had been mentioned in the keystone inscriptions.

“Okay, we may have been here before,” said Lewa, smiling. “But we never saw those. I would have ever-remembered.”

Gali crouched down and read the inscriptions carved beneath the vehicles. “Axalara T9… Jetrax T6… Rockoh T3. None of those names mean anything to me. How about the rest of you?”

“Why hide things like that in here?” wondered Onua. “Were we supposed to use them somehow?”

“Look at the weapons,” marveled Lewa. “Those are for fighting!”

“Could be,” agreed Pohatu. “Or maybe escape, if everything goes real wrong.”

Kopaka gave a sharp laugh. “If ‘everything goes real wrong,’ brother, there won’t be anywhere to escape to.”

[...]

“We have to take the vehicles and get out there,” Kopaka said to Tahu. “It’s the only way. Maybe we can buy enough time.”

Tahu looked into the eyes of the Toa of Ice, with whom he had frequently clashed over the past year. He saw the determination in them and knew he couldn’t talk Kopaka out of his plan. “I’ll go, too,” said the Toa of Fire.

“No,” said Kopaka. “If this doesn’t work, you will need to think of something else.” He turned to the other Toa. “Who wants to go for a ride?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” answered Lewa. “If I gave up a chance to fly-ride one of these beauties, Turaga Matau would never forgive me.”

“I’ll go,” offered Pohatu. “I’m no use in here. Besides, this place gives me the creeps.”

Lewa was already climbing into the cockpit of the largest craft, the red Axalara T9. “One question. How do we get these things out of here?”

“Well, this button says, ‘Launch,’” said Pohatu, seated in the Rockoh T3. “Maybe the wall opens or something.”

“Then we’d better go while there still is wall,” said Kopaka.

Before the question could be debated further, the figure of Antroz suddenly appeared, descending from the upper level. Following the sound of Kopaka’s voice and the power radiating from the Jetrax T6 that the Toa of Ice stood near, Antroz headed for the cockpit of that vehicle. He landed at the controls, and the instant he did so, beams of force shot from the console and into his mask. Suddenly, he felt at one with the ship. He could see what its scanners could see, react as fast as the ship’s systems could do.

With a shout of triumph, he launched the Jetrax. It surged forward, brushing against one of the lightstones as it did so. A spark flared, sending energy coursing through the ship and making its armor glow yellow. Then the Jetrax shot straight up through the hole leading to the upper level and right for the solid ceiling. Just as it was about the strike that barrier, the vehicle and its pilot shifted out of phase, becoming ghostly in appearance. The next instant, Antroz and the Jetrax T6 passed unharmed through the ceiling.

Antroz found himself in a bizarre series of metallic tunnels that wound and twisted for an impossible distance. His link to the ship made navigation easy, but he wondered just where these tunnels would lead to. Those questions were cut off by the discovery that Lewa and Pohatu were in pursuit, the Toa of Air in the Axalara T9 and the Toa of Stone in the Rockoh T3. Antroz laughed — they would catch him, all right, but they might not be very glad they did.

[...]

The three vehicles had emerged from the Codrex into Karda Nui.

“Look out, Brotherhood of Bats and Bugs!” shouted Lewa, knifing through the air in pursuit of Antroz. “Here comes Lewa, king of the sky!”

Lights began to dance in Lewa’s eyes. It took him a moment to realize that his mask had changed shape again, and the points of light he saw represented Makuta in flight. His Kanohi now had a built-in scanner feature, and that was not good news for his enemies.

Lewa spotted Bitil moving to intercept. The Toa of Air flipped a red lever on the cockpit console. The side panels of the ship dropped down, revealing two Midak Skyblasters. Lewa veered right and dove toward, firing light spheres at the Makuta. Bitil immediately summoned duplicates of himself from his past in an effort to outnumber and overwhelm the Toa.

“Yeah, I heard about that quick-trick you do,” Lewa yelled down at the crowd of Bitils. “You know, making doubles of yourself. Go ahead, I won’t worry-mind — just gives me more targets!”

As it turned out, Lewa had laughed a little too soon. Half the Bitils unleashed magnetic power that pinned the Axalara in place, while the other used laser vision to start shearing the vehicle’s armor off. Lewa’s air power was enough to blow some of the Makuta away, but the rest hung on and pressed their attack.

Pohatu saw what was happening. Steering his craft toward the battle, he rammed the Rockoh into the mob of identical Makuta, scattering them like pebbles in a rockslide.

Antroz had slowed the Jetrax to see what had happened to his pursuers. He was so engrossed in the battle that he did not realize until it was too late that Radiak had climbed on board the vehicle.


- BIONICLE Legends 11: The Final Battle, Chapters 4 and 5