Designation: AD-01
Zoid(s) For: Gordos
Equipment Added: E-Shield Generator x14
Cost: 110,500

A modification designed to provide the Gordos with stunning defensive power, the Matrix Shield Network is an experimental design the Republic briefly considered for use in artillery units. The Republic eventually dropped the idea in NC 52 due to prohibitive expense in altering the existing Gordosaurs, which were rapidly being rendered obsolete by zoids such as the DiBison and Gojulas Giga. In the following years, they would not regain the resources needed to try advancing any high-cost low-yield projects. The Republic sold the prototypes and schematics of this and other projects to the Athenian Institute of Zoid Design and Technology.
AIZDAT put the project into cold storage until Hank “Craters” Fisk provisioned for continued advancement. Fronting the funds to refine the prototypes for use in ZBC combat, Hank figured a defensive measure of this caliber would be fairly impressive on the field.
He was right. The Institute used fourteen generators of the type commonly found on the King Liger – somewhat smaller than the Shield Liger’s, and also more energy-efficient for their output. The Gordos, after all, is a fairly sedate zoid incapable of putting out massive amounts of power. The Matrix installs on the GPS Magnetic Detectors, the dorsal plates. Installation prohibits use of the Gojulas Cannon Set and Long Tom Cannon. An additional computer core augments the Gordos’s processing power and lets it do some pretty neat tricks with those generators. The generators have four settings: Frontal, Omni-Directional, Group, and Barricade.
The Frontal setting calibrates the generators to create an envelope of energy around the front half of the Gordos, strongest in the front and reducing in power until they reach about halfway back, where the shields fade out. Unlike standard frontal shields, this is in triplicate; there are three layers, each as strong as a Shield Liger’s. Each layer requires that four generators be intact. Two are redundant, but after that the Gordos begins losing layers.
The Omni-Directional setting establishes an elliptical force shield around the entire Gordos. It is 130% the strength of the Shield Liger’s, with only one layer. This requires eight generators be active to function. The other six each supplement the eight, providing an additional 10% increase to raise the shield up to a total of approximately 230% the Shield Liger’s shield.

• Fourteen generators: 230% SL Standard
• Thirteen generators: 209% SL Standard
• Twelve generators: 190% SL Standard
• Eleven generators: 173% SL Standard
• Ten generators: 157% SL Standard
• Nine generators: 143% SL Standard
• Eight generators: 130% SL Standard
• With seven or fewer it fails.

The Group setting requires twelve of the fourteen shield generators be active in order to function. It projects a tremendous shield dome with a radius of thirty-six meters. This is the weakest setting for raw protection power, with a maximum defensive capability of 60% SL Standard. Streams of energy flowing out from the generators maintain the bubble, exhibiting the peculiar characteristic of flowing towards incoming missiles and zoids. In the area around the streams, roughly two meters across, the shield’s strength is a full 85% SL Standard. Activating the Group setting also prevents the GPS Magnetic Detectors from functioning, cutting the Gordos’s sensory systems down to backup radar and the other standard equipment found on all zoids. Unlike the other, instantly-formed shields, this requires a second or two to get up.
The Barricade setting is the most offensive of the four. Each requiring seven intact generators, the barricades are projected at the pilot’s direction. They are fed by the same energy streams that characterize the Group shield. The streams arc out and twitch about instantly at the pilot’s direction. They feed into a sort of ring with a flat dome in between the feeder tendrils, the dome achieving about 85% SL Standard on the outsides and decreasing to roughly 70% SL Standard in the center. Activation of this setting deactivates the GPS Magnetic Detectors, and raising and controlling the barricades is an energy-intensive procedure. They have an effective range of four hundred meters. Like other shields, they have a sort of material presence, giving them the ability to do a remote shield ram.