The Bionic Death Knights' Gustav rolled up and a Snipe Master and Leoblaze walked out from two of the trailers. Hikari, the Snipe Master pilot, turned to the Gustav.

"Kage, you have to stay out of this batlle. Kaze, let's go. Who're we up against?"

"Team Vagrants, didn't have time to look up info on them, boss."

"Forget it. Try your best and don't ruin your Zoid."

"Right!"

On the other side of the desert, a similar Gustav rolled up, with two ZOids standing on the back. It ground to a halt, and the driver of the Gustav hopped out. He walked to the Gun Sniper on the first trailer and climbed in, as a second person emerged from the Gustav, looking at the other Gustav in the distance.

"So... We're fighting the team with the crazy name?" he asked as he climbed into his Red Horn's cockpit. It mobilized and stomped off the trailer, getting into position beside the Sniper.

"Yep, that'd be it. Now all we gotta do is wait for the judge."

The terrain was a featureless dune sea, covered in crawling sand dunes as tall as a man. The sand was deep, a trap to slow and stall a heavy zoid. The Gustavs were broad enough to avoid sinking, but a zoid's paws would find a much different fate.
The Judgeman's capsule came rocketing down, kicking up a cloud of dust. The growing wind picked up the cloud, carrying it to the south. As the Judgeman accepted the data and relayed information back to the Teams, the wind rapidly picked up to a full-blown scouring sandstorm.
"The Battlemode is 0980. The Team Vagrant," the right red paddle went up, "against the Bionic Death Knights." The green paddle went up. "The area within thirty kilometers has been designated off-limits to all but the Teams and their support staff. Go back. It is decidedly unsafe IN THE LAND OF THE SMASHY ROBOTS!"
The Judgeman twitched and spasmed. It threw both arms down, giving the signal to make with the smashy. Visibility was still currently fairly good.

Matthew grimaced as the battle began, activating his radar and the composite sensor unit. He brought his gatling gun to bear on the enemy Snipe Master and flipped his Attack Booster Unit into thruster mode, to push his Horn forward at 220km/h. He headed in a line towards the Snipe Master, firing the Beam Gatling Unit for the first two seconds of the battle. He rotated it on its mount to make sure he kept the Snipe Master in his line of fire. At the same time, he was attempting to get a lock with the missiles inside the pods on the gatling unit and linear cannon.

After two seconds of firing, Matthew broke off firing the CP-03, and began to use the ABU more strategically, turning off one thruster or the other to increase the turning ability of the Horn, so it could keep a bead on the Snipe Master. During this time, Matthew decided to test out some of the other weapons on his Zoid, rotating the 80mm AA Beam Cannon to fire upon the Snipe Master. The cannon fired for two seconds, before the Gatling Unit joined in once more, and both weapons fired as Matthew danced with his ABU for the remaining two seconds.

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Meanwhile, Blaine gruffly began flipping switches inside the Gun Sniper, activating the Multi-Blade Sensor Antennae and raising the Rectennae Targeting Dish. Using this combination of sensors, Blaine began to lock his missiles onto the Snipe Master and the Leoblaze at the same time, splitting the targeting for the 80 missiles evenly between the two Zoids. At the same time he was doing this, Blaine moved to face the Leoblaze, keeping it in front of him through judicious use of the boosters, though leaving them time to recharge if needed. He aimed towards the Leoblaze and peppered it with fire from the AZ40mm gatling guns and the AZ80mm Cannon, and occasionally throwing in a few shots from the Wild Weasel Unit, choosing cannons at random to fire.

Once the missiles were all locked and ready, the Sniper stopped and let its fury loose. All four boxes opened up and two waves of missiles launched themselves out, the first at the Leo Blaze, the second at the Snipe Master. Each WWU missile box fired 16 missiles in the first wave, along with 8 missiles from the normal Gun Sniper boxes.

Blaine then decided to do something very stupid... he swung around and attempted to go into Longshot Mode. Yes, with a Wild Weasel Unit.

The Snipe Master turned and dove into the nearest sand dune, wiggling down in an attempt to escape fire. While in the sand dune, it stuck the tip of its tail out of the dune facing the enemy and went down into Longshot Mode.

"Kaze, let's play your favorite game, Let's Be Bait for the Big Zoids."

The Leoblaze's pilot paled as his little E-Shield went up and the little lion type leapt forwards onto a dune before dashing forwards at 200kmh. When fire got to close to him, Kaze jumped into the air and then continued on his mad dash towards the much bigger Zoids.

Already the storm was picking up, and visibility was just plain shot. Clouds of sand and dust quickly broiled over the field, sending noisy echoes across the zoids' radars. The Red Horn's all-weather antennae oscilated their frequencies, adjusting their position to try and find something that works. They were able to pick up the faintest signals, sending the coordinates to the cockpit. They highlighted what seemed to be a wall of dust and sand.
The radar pointed to the Leoblaze and its shield. The little energy shield constantly annihilated the sand that hit it, sending out an unending stream of electromagnetic radiation from radar waves to infrared all the way on up to X-rays. The radars noted the minute blue shift. The Leoblaze was approaching. The Snipe Master was even fainter, too faint for the radars to pick up at this range.
The Red Horn sent data to the Gunsniper as it took off. The boosters alternated their thrust, sending the jet-powered Horn slogging through the sand at speeds approaching its normal pace. The beam gatling laid out a spray of fire, while the missiles of both zoids toggled a lock on the Leoblaze.
That poor little Leoblaze really had no idea what was going on. While the enemy, and even its ally, had sensors to try and pick up the other zoids, it had nothing. The pilot just charged blindly on ahead, unaware of what was about to happen to him.
The Snipe had a vague idea. Diving into the sand, it drew the Leoblaze's attention with its unusual maneuver. The Leoblaze paused to look back. It received a rain of some fifty-odd missiles.
The Leoblaze was in fragments. The area around it was glass. The blast actually blew back the sandstorm for a good thirty meters, though nobody but Kaze no Baka could appreciate it.
This gave Kaze a real good look at the parts of his zoid scattered across a roughly ten meter radius. The core was breached, emergency safeties shutting it down before it leaked too much hard radiation.

Damage and Positions:
Red Horn -- Roughly three hundred meters away from the Snipe Master. It's expended its missiles.
Gunsniper -- Starting position. Has spent forty-eight missiles, the pods are reloading. It's also sunk up to its ankle joints in the sand.
Snipe Master -- On the ground, slowly sinking into the sand. Its top half is still showing, leaving it peculiarly vulnerable to attack.

Rank Adjustment:
Kaze no Baka: +1 Loss
Blaine Frasier: +1 Win

Watching the little pieces of Leoblaze scatter accros the sand, Matt smiled grimly, and turned towards where the Snipe Master had been when he'd last sighted it. He flipped the Attack Booster Unit forward, and began to fire the Pulse Beam Canons contained within, at the same time firing his Beam Gattling Unit in what roughly equated to a thirty degree arc, with the place the Snipe Master had last been sighted at the center.

While the Beam Gattling Unit is firing, the AA Dual Beam Cannon brings itself to bear on the ground, and begins to fire in concert with the BGU, and for the hell of it, Matthew threw in the Linear Cannon. At this range it would be pointless, but he hoped for a lucky hit. From the moment he'd come within 200 meters of the starting position of the Snipe Master, he began to fire the Tri-Barrelled Grenade Launcher too, just for the 'splody fun of it.

After two seconds of firing the BGU, Matt left it to cool for two seconds while to other weapons continued firing, and then, resumed firing in that same arc pattern as before.

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Sweat ran down Blaine's neck as he nervously pulled his Gun Sniper free of the sand. Piloting the Gun Sniper was bringing back bad memories, and his left leg was beginning to ache dully.

"Lock the missiles, pull the trigger. Lock the missiles, pull the trigger. Lock the missiles, pull the trigger..." repeated Blaine, almost like a mantra, looking intensely focused on not thinking about the past, and just trying to pilot the Zoid. Sweat rolled down his face and neck, staining his top, but Blaine didn't even notice.

Blaine pushed the Gun Sniper into a strange run, moving at top speed towards the Red Horn, and then using the bulk of the Red Horn to hide behind, thus slowing to the same speed as the Red Horn, and keeping about fifty meters behind. Because they were so close, Blaine was hoping that even in the sandstorm, their combined sensors might be able to pick something up. When the Red Horn finally stopped, the Gun Sniper kept running, but then performed a boost-assisted jump to the left to land beside the Red Horn and began firing the 180mm and 144mm cannons as fast as possible.

Alright. I know I'm jumping the gun by an hour or so, but Chris has already stated she's forfeiting the battle.
I'm none too thrilled about that.

Total Rank Adjustment:
Bionic Death Knights - +1 Loss
Kaze no Baka - + 1 Loss
Team Vagrant - + 1 Win
Blaine Frasier - + 1 Win

Repairs:
Red Horn - None
Gunsniper - Light (reloading the missiles)
Snipe Master - Light
Leoblaze - Overhaul

Each participating pilot earns 1,750 credits for this match.