Ladies and gentlemen, the battle that follows is the deciding factor in a bet between yours truly, Solaris, and the challenger Zero Numerous. Pride rides on the line, folks! Should he win, I will be forced to allow his bio to pass through Apps untouched and publically apologize to Chris (Silberner Falkestern) for having chewed her out for bringing Zero to the site. Should I win, he'll have to go back and do everything I've told him to do on his App, just like everybody else. I've got nothing to lose, folks; he's got everything to gain.
Yeah, I know. I'm actually rootin' for the kid.

Battlemode: 0992. Terrain: Open Plains. Distance: 500m.

I will be using Kyne Xaratan in this battle. He'll be piloting a Shield Liger.

Nameless NPC, piloting a Saber Tiger.

And boy, am I gonna enjoy this.

[[And yes, I did most of this like Jules']]

P:\\Subroutine "Order" initiated.
You have just entered room "process13052969281500217723."
Kiyomizu Kitsune: Higher roll shall go first.
Kiyomizu Kitsune: Nameless piloting standard issue Saber Tiger.
OnlineHost: Kiyomizu Kitsune rolled 2 6-sided dice: 6 1
Kiyomizu Kitsune: Kyne Xaratan piloting a standard issue Shield Liger.
OnlineHost: Kiyomizu Kitsune rolled 2 6-sided dice: 5 2
Kiyomizu Kitsune: Order determined, Kyne goes first.
P:\\Ending Subroutine.

PILOTS! Battlemode 0992, Open fields, standard distance... Ready?

FIGHT!

(*cough* Just a bit of a correction, as your rolls turned out to be the same thing, Mia.)

P:\\ERROR - Re-initiate subroutine "Order."
P:\\Subroutine "Order" initiated.
You have just entered room "process09148932789073."
Chronosboy: Higher roll shall go first.
Chronosboy: Callsign: Zero Numerous -
OnlineHost: Chronosboy rolled 2 6-sided dice: 2 6
Chronosboy: Callsign: Solaris -
OnlineHost: Chronosboy rolled 2 6-sided dice: 6 6
Chronosboy: *BEEP* Order determined; Kyne Xaratan shall post first.
P:\\Ending subroutine.

...Now fight!

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." Kyne's Liger started swaying back and forth in the feline version of a drunken stagger. Through the entire round, he only moved roughly forwards, covering about ten meters as the crow flies. His goal with this was not to avoid taking fire altogether, but simply to spread it around. He wasn't entirely defensive this time around, though. Naw. He toggled a missile lock on the Saber Tiger, letting all sixteen of them fly at the Tiger in a storm o' boomshines. His AMD beams fired non-stop, sweeping across the field as a sort of offensive defense.

The green-colored Saber Tiger kicked left as the dark-blue Shield Liger began swaying and stepping. The feline-esque feet of the green Zoid kicking out at each turn, sending it zig-zagging as it half-ran half-hopped toward the Shield Liger. It's AEZ strafed blue-green beam shots across the path of the oncoming missiles, firing off a total of eight rounds toward the missiles. The Saber Tiger leaped hard left as the Shield Liger brought up it's AMDs, the shots sweeping across the field as the Saber Tiger moved, doing it's best to keep a forward movement but not wanting to put itself in danger.

The Shield Liger brought up its AMD beam guns, immediately keying the Tiger off to jump hard left. It landed a split-second later and began charging forwards, kicking off the ground in a zig-zag motion. The problem, however, with this maneuver is that it's quite predictable, especially since most pilots have seen this sort of thing before.

((Except when Bit Cloud was doing it back in the day. That boy had luck following him around like an STD.))

In addition, due to the five hundred meter starting distance, the Saber Tiger wasn't really moving a whole lot in Kyne's crosshairs. However, the crosshairs themselves were moving thanks to the Liger's drunken, irregular stagger, and coupled with the inefficient targeting computers on the Liger's missiles, it took nearly the entire round to achieve a lock.

The reticule did go green, though, and Kyne let fly with his Liger's missiles just then. The Tiger began to target them with his back-mounted cannons, but missiles move pretty quick, and before he could get too many shots off (which missed the missiles, BTW, thanks to the extreme difficulty in targeting individual missiles coming at you) fourteen of them plowed into the front of his Zoid, knocking it right off its stride as the Tiger found a goodly chunk of its armor removed. The Tiger hit the dirt and nearly faceplanted, the simulator jerking Zero around realistically and dazing him somewhat.

Damages and positions:

Shield Liger: Kyne isn't noticing any performance decreases, though he heard a few loud pops nearby during the course of the Tiger's fire. He's about 150 meters from the Saber Tiger, facing it headon.

Saber Tiger: Other than the barrage of missiles knocking his Zoid straight off its stride and causing a near-faceplant right into the dirt, Zero isn't noticing any performance decreases on his Zoid. He's pretty confident his armor's not holding up too well on the frontal quarter, though. His Zoid is chestfirst into the ground 150 meters from the Liger, front limbs swept back from the fall.

Other than that, order is reversed, please continue.

OOC: I would like to say I had never fired at the Shield Liger, I fired at his missiles, so if I missed, they would have went into the sky. I said it pretty clearly in my last post, but whatever, I'll roll with it.


The Saber Tiger's back arched as it's tail went up, much like a real cat's, which brought the TEZ20mm to bear on the Shield Liger's chest and upper legs, firing off two shots from both guns for a grand total of four. The Tiger's front legs kicked forward as it finished firing, the Saber Tiger's missile pod flipping open as the Zoid kicked left, heading in a long sweep around the Shield Liger's left side. The cockpit of the Saber Tiger stayed trained on the Shield Liger as it's missile launcher prepped for target lock. All three of the missiles fired off toward the Shield Liger's legs.

Kyne was taken aback at the other pilot's apparent inability to fight. He had expected better than this. This . . . this was an insult!
An insult not to be tolerated.
The Liger raced towards the Saber Tiger, AMD fire focusing on the missile pod. The Liger's shock cannon joined in pretty shortly as the distance closed in, but that was mostly just a 'if I get lucky' maneuver. The real focus was getting in close and getting in fast.
"Your mistake was thinking yourself my equal." At about three meters' distance, the Liger ducked down and tackled the Tiger at full speed. The two bounce off each other, but Kyne's still got plans. He activates the shield a split second after initial impact, locking the two together at a rather close range.
"You once said that I have to earn the right to call myself an Ace." Kyne continued his monologue as he moved on to the second stage of his plan with best speed. His Liger's right forepaw slammed into the side of the Tiger's head, and a half a second later the right was back on the floor and the left slammed into the side of the Tiger's head. He released the shield as the Liger took half a step back, readying to pounce.
"You, my friend, have to earn the right to challenge my supremacy." The Liger pounced on the Saber Tiger, stiff-arming it in the cowl just above the Tiger's neck, driving the claws deep into the Zoid Control Conduit with all ninety tons of metallic feline behind them.

((Your move was more than clear, Zero, as your error was in its execution. Firing at missiles coming directly from a Shield Liger's missile pods means you're more than likely firing at the Liger itself. There's no mention of any arcing nonsense in their bio.))

The Saber Tiger did indeed pull off its maneuver, but the real question left buzzing in the judge's head is why he'd waste the time going through all that for four dinky little popgun shots at his enemy. The Tiger's back isn't really very flexible, as with most Zoids, but its stubby little tail was able to come up just enough to crack off one second's worth of fire towards the Shield Liger.

The trouble, as the Saber Tiger's pilot discovered, was in recovering from that. He had to bring his back at a high angle to the ground, shoving upwards with the hind legs. All in all, a very inefficient (though not without a smidge of creativity) maneuver. So as Kyne started his slightly arrogant supervillan-esque monologue, charging the Tiger, Zero found it a bit difficult to get out of such an awkward position. He was still getting to his feet as the Liger came barreling in, AMD firing, and scored a duo of hits with the shock cannon directly on the Tiger's chest and left foreleg.

Impact was a bitch for both Zoids, as three meters is almost nonexistent when you're going something on the order of seventy per second. The Liger slammed harshly into the lighter Tiger's shoulder in its attemped tackle, and Kyne had just enough sense to pause his monologue and whack the shield button. Immediately, the Liger's shield came up and locked the two Zoids together, preventing the Tiger from moving and burning a smooth line into the Tiger's armor in the traditional zeppelin shape of the shield.

The Liger committed a bit of a mistake just then when it tried to play a little dirty. While roughing up the pilot is allowed (within reason) the Liger got a bit overzealous with its maneuver, and ended up standing up on its hind legs somewhat, reminiscent of a bear. The reason for this mostly is that this was the only real way the Liger could feasibly pull off its dual head-paw thing. The first knocked Zero around a bit, but since his plan all along was to scoot off to the Liger's left, this gave him a chance to do so, and the second paw slammed into his Tiger's left shoulder.

Damages and positions:

Shield Liger: 40 meters behind the Saber Tiger, at its seven o'clock position. The machine's still performing dandy, though, as Kyne hasn't noticed any performance hits.

Saber Tiger: 40 meters behind the Shield Liger, also at its seven. Presently, it's racing forwards at 240 kph, though there seems something a bit "off" in its stride for the pilot's liking. When it first accelerated, as well, there was a nasty lag in the left leg's stride. Whether that was a mechanical problem or simply the Liger's paw knocking into it is as of yet undetermined. The missiles have just a little bit more to go before they finish locking.

"Hrm. That's what I get for trying that trick in a simulator." Kyne turns around, bringing the Saber Tiger into his targeting reticle. "Now, what was that about teaching someone humility? You arrogant fool. You don't even know how to pilot that zoid, much less take me down." As he spoke, he hammered the enemy with his impact cannons, focusing the AMD fire on the back. After about two seconds he gave chase again, accelerating up to top speed to close in. "Run, run, run as fast as you can." He focused on piloting, of course. Kyne watched the Saber Tiger's center of mass, waiting for it to try something. The second it did, he'd be on it like ugly on an ape. Kyne's zoid was a helluvalot heavier, and he knew how to use that weight for a weapon.
Once he started closing in, the real fun began. "Oh, and kid? That thing's mainstay is melee, not ranged combat. Hell, if you hadn't been quite so stupid, you probably could've killed me by now." Aiming for its center of mass, Kyne ceased fire, raised his shield, and shield-rammed the Tiger. He maneuvered to keep the shield pressing into it, using his superior weight to buffet the smaller feline around. "I hope to God you're stupid enough to pounce."

The Tiger had expected retribution, and before the Shield Liger was even capable of being it's guns to bear on the Tiger, it used the lag time in it's left leg to barrel roll, kicking out with it's right before kicking out with it's left at an odd angle, which sent the Zoid in a tight circle along it's back like a real cat. Which would have sent the Shield Liger barreling forward at top speed while the Saber Tiger was well off to it's left side. The Saber Tiger brought the Shock Cannons to bear just infront of the Shield Liger's head, which at it's current speed, would send the rounds into the Liger's left front paw. The Shock Cannon fired off three rounds as the Small-Bore 20mm blazed gun fire toward the Liger's front foot, which would have brought the gun-fire's end hit into the Liger's side. The Tiger pilot practically smiled as the missiles completed their lock and fired, three red hot lines streaking toward the Tiger's weakly protected rear legs.

The judge calculated for a split-second, bringing up its onboard databank that looked suspisciously like the Internet from ancient Earth.

Merely a coincidence, of course.

This is what it found for a barrel roll. Just so everyone knew. Now, picture a standard-model Saber Tiger attempting to do that. The Saber Tiger is a cat. It's very flexible. It is, however, not an organic housecat, and simply didn't have the sort of flexibility needed to really pull this one off. And, well, especially not one that's damaged like it is.

The Tiger kicked off with its right leg, then at about a 45-degree angle to the ground, attempted to kick off with its left. The left leg collapsed under it as a stabilizer motor blew out, and the Tiger's rotatinal inertia carried the thing straight over. As the Liger came around, firing its impact cannon, the Saber Tiger crashed bodily over onto its shoulder, crashing harshly onto its back just as the missiles finished their locking and blinked "ARMED."

As one can assume, things went pear-shaped for the Tiger just then. In his haste to fire the missiles, Zero ended up blasting his back completely apart as the missiles were crushed outright. Even Kyne's assault was briefly given pause as a fiery glow erupted out the sides of the Tiger's back, the stricken Zoid continuing its roll before it slammed onto its right side like something from a Hollywood movie.

The Liger, charging forward, shield-rammed the dazed Tiger a second and a half later. The ram plowed into the Tiger's rear and blasted-apart back, and torqued the Tiger around as the Liger kept plowing forwards. Slowly, very slowly, the stricken Tiger began to pass through the Liger's shield, centimeter by centimeter. Of course, what made it through wasn't in very good shape. The crackling blue electromagnetic matrix burned away nearly everything but the basest, heaviest internal structure, leaving armor, wires, and conduits alike as dripping, molten slag from being driven forcefully through the shield.

Damages and positions:

Shield Liger: No real performance hits. Its shield is holding fine, but the chunk of metal getting plowed through it is sapping its power as it burns the offending Tiger away.

Saber Tiger: Definitely in a bad way. The left foreleg is simply not responding any more, and from his vantage point, our hero can see smoke drifting from a series of stabilizer caps on the leg. The Tiger's systems are blinking red, indicating the pain his Zoid is in, limiting its reaction time. The back-mounted cannons and both shoulder guns are most assuredly offline or worse, and the severe fall and jolt has left Zero somewhat dazed in his cockpit.

Order is reversed, please continue. Any questions, please IM me at Chronosboy.

The simulator gave pause for a brief instant, as one of the pilots had simply called it quits. The machine intelligence simply called an end to the battle right then and there. The smoke and fire and heat faded from both cockpits, replaced by a blank white screen. The consoles all retracted back into a default configuration, ready to redeploy into that of any known Zoid.

The hatches popped with a hiss of precision hydraulics, and one pilot departed in a huff. The other emerged, and the machine declared...

...the battle is over...the battle is over!

The winner is KYNE XARATAN!

((Please add $500 to your funds, Kyne.))