((This is that jungle battle. It takes place some three days after the first MMU, in game-time. Which means they're all over with by now. Thusly, free entry for all!))

Kyne hummed an old tune as he drove his Gustav to the port. He was to meet up with Hank there, and then load onto a Whale King to make the trip down to Athens. Something about a battle involving one of the Athenian Ghost Recon Gunsnipers.
At least, that's what they told the pilots, anyways.
"'Ey, Kyne!" Hank hailed Kyne over the Gustav's communications systems. It was audio and visual feed. "'Ow many pilots we got comin'?"
"Oh, a few. Most of the active pilots in the Imperial League, actually." Kyne shrugged.
"Jenny?"
"I'm soloing it."
Hank nodded. "Ah. She's still in the hospital, eh?"
"School, actually." Kyne absently sent his necessary codes to the port security; they let him through. "That time of year, after all."
Hank nodded, chuckling. He was in a different Gustav, some three hundred meters away. His was already loaded into the Whale King. It still had that new-car smell. "Well, it's just a sponsored Tourney. Not like you'll really be needin' allies."
Kyne smiled, saying nothing as he drove through the security checkpoints. The Whale King stood dry-docked, aft loading ramp extended. Orange traffic cones led from the security checkpoint to the ramp. There were surprisingly few guards in sight.
Then again, this was a ZBC Great Whale King. Not many people were stupid enough to try hijacking one of these puppies.

Matt stretched and snapped his briefcase shut, locking it tightly. There were a lot of legal cdocuments in there he couldn't afford to lose. He'd get back to work on them once on the flight to the Eastern Continent, but right now it was time to load his luggage.

He picked up his bag and moved to the loading area, watching as several Zoids were being loaded onto the giant Whale King he and the rest of Team Vagrant were catching to make it to the tournament. Then he shrugged, rubbed his eyes once more, and threw the bag he had onto a conveyor belt, which moved into gloomy darkness through a door.

That done, Matthew moved to where two of the other members of the team were standing, father and daughter together. It looked rather strange to Matthew, as Blaine was a very heavyset sort of fellow, while Natalie was waifish and slim. They couldn't really have been more different from this distance. They seemed to be discussing something, and Matthew moved closer to see if he could hear.

"-ddy! That's what we have John for! He'll be doing the strategy for this tournament..." pointed out Natalie objectively, and was met with a soft growl.

"You don't understand. The rumors are that we'll be fighting a very stealthy sniper Zoid. And that we'll be in a jungle. I've had experience with these things before, as I was in the war, and I did recon. I know how to hide and how to find those who do hide. I just think it'd be better if I handled the team tactics for this battle..."

Matthew wandered away again, only vaguely interested. He knew that one way or another, he'd be following orders from someone, and it didn't really matter to him who it was. But speaking of their strategist... where was John? Matthew looked around the area of the airport they were in idley, noting that John was nowhere to be seen.

((Please pardon my errors. School computer used for the making of this post >.<))
Team Pointy Darkness found their way to the Whale King. Their Zoids were getting loaded onto the Whale King. The three pilots walked a little ways in front of Chris, who was carrying four small but heavy bags. The twins were exicited about their first trip to Athens. Hughes just grinned as the two just figured out where they were going first after the battle. Chris soon caught up to Hughes.
"Their first time going to Athens?"
He nodded as Chris tossed him a couple bags. Hughes almost fell over from the weight.
"You've been there before, Hughes?"
"My aunt live there and I stayed with her and her kids for a few years."
Chris nodded and they ran to catch up to the twins.

"I don't understand," Liam commented through his comm as he continued to check through the systems on his Gun Sniper. "You say that the Trillistani are big into the mythos of one powerful warrior versus the multitude. Wouldn't they just comission the biggest, most powerful Zoid they could and have the battle in an open arena space?"

"No, no," Tamar chuckled. As usual, she had preflighted her Redler hours before and had activated her smoke trail as she cut graceful figures in the darkening sky. "As a race, we don't at all appreciate the mindless guns-blazing combat. The most important thing is... blah, there's not a good translation for it. The closest is 'style', but it goes beyond that. How you defeat your opponent. How you make him cower in fear and then eliminate him in a way that both humiliates him and brings honor to you. The aura of this fight in a darkened jungle against a stealthed Zoid that could be anywhere? It's just perfect. You can't get any better than this."

Liam nodded. He thought he understood. "So what can we expect?"

"The pilot won't be using his main weapon exclusively, however powerful it might be. He won't fight like a fixed gun emplacement, because there's no... style... in it. We can expect full use of the thing's stealth capabilities to hunt us down one at a time. Of course, if he could pull off a shot that could cripple two Zoids at once, he'd do it in a heartbeat. That would be very... egh, styled."

"Stylish," Liam snickered, "although somehow I don't think that's a word that should be applying here."

"Any ideas for what we should do, boss?" Jan asked, the DiBison trotting up to stop alongside the Gun Sniper.

"If we could defoliate the ring and trap him in the middle, that would negate a lot of his stealth," Liam replied thoughtfully. "Tamar, how easily could you do that with your plasma lances?"

"Very," Tamar answered without hesitation. "These things burn hot. It'll make me the world's biggest target, though, and I can't take much punishment in this thing."

"I'll take care of it," Jan answered. "Although I'm going to have to be careful... if Leomaster cannons can penetrate the array on this thing, I'll bet that whatever it's toting can, too."

Liam almost laughed at the contrite note in Jan's voice. "No need to be beating yourself up over that, still. I think that one caught us all by surprise..."

The comm beeped, and Liam pulled up the message. "Graaah! Another delay! All right folks, go ahead and standby your Zoids. Might as well get out and stretch your legs while you have the chance..."

Liam powered his systems down to standby level and clambered down the hand- and footholds in the Gun Sniper's armor, glancing around to see if any other pilots had yet arrived at the battle site.

Mark drove the gustav to the awaiting ABC whale king, while listening to Atta go over what they knew about the big bad they would face and some possible tactics.

"So, have some kind of cloaked zoid in a dense forest with a high powered energy weapon. It might be long ranged, but the dense trees would help to conceal us and possibly protect, unless the energy weapon could cut right through the tree, and most likely it is packing additional weaponary as well. "

"True, Atta . The forest migth allow us to track it, at least at first before our fire devastes the area. Teamwork will between the players migth help to defeat it, since it has the Ghost unit and a high powered energy weapon. If its a slow fire unit, a tight group could be useful, but we don;t know what else it will be packing"

"Affrimative. Also, good chance that the dense forest will hinder or weapons fire and will make it harder to detect the Big Bag before it is too late. Beleive that our best bet would be to organiz all teams into a unit to help get the big bad. To defeat it, will need to first find it then destroy it."

"Sorry Atta, we are here. Closing channel." That said, MArk closed the channel to Atta as the gustav apprached the Whale King that would brign them to the battle field. After loading both zoids, MArk headed ot the passenger sectin, while in teh zoid section, Atta continued to work on strategies and also go over items.

"Mitch let's go! we are going to be late!" Kraig yelled out of the gustav cockpit. Everything was loaded and ready to go except Mitch. Inside Mitch was quickly finshing up packing as he grabbed his gear and ran outside.

"What's all the crap for?"Kraig asked laughing a bit. Mitch came running into the gustav and throwing the stuff down. "I figured it will be a long trip so I packed a lot of stuff." Mitch stated takeing a seat in the passenger seat, catching his breath.

Kraig pulled out and started for the battle field, it would be a long trip, but hopefully the payoff will be worth it. "So...Mitch wanna last more than a few seconds this time?" Kraig asked with the most serious of faces. "Hey! I told you I tried my best. Give me a break." "Well listen. This one will be a lot more difficult. We will need your sensors to find the big bad. God only knows what they have equpped on that thing." Kraig said pulling the gustav to a stop. "I know, I know. We are there can we just start this thing?"

Kyne pulled his laptop out of the Gustav's overhead compartment, electronically calling up the schedule. Their departure time had been pushed back another hour.
Apparently, the core team's crew chief had showed up to work hammered. They discovered this as he was attempting to jump-start the Great Whale King's house-sized zoid core by urinating on it. The other guy was on his way.
Kyne sighed softly. He consoled himself with the fact that the drunken crew chief was going to lose his genitalia as well as his rank, then popped open the Gustav's driver-side door. Folding up his laptop and tucking it under his arm, he followed the green lines at the sides of the corridor. White usually led to sick bay, green to the passenger lounge. He vaguely recalled red as being weapons, or maybe bridge. He didn't see the blue line that led to dorms.
Several minutes later, Kyne stepped into the mostly-empty lounge. Most of the pilots were busy tuning up their machines in the hangar. Kyne had free time because he didn't bother with the ZBC-sanctioned mechanics; he cut time and money by having Vincent do it.
That, and Kyne was very familiar with the fact that he was more likely to cause several vital things on the Leomaster to simultaneously explode than actually tune anything. He just plain didn't enjoy being in the middle of a rapidly-expanding cloud of superheated plasma. Monoatomic vapor was just not Kyne's favorite state of matter.
Setting down at a tabel, Kyne opened up his laptop once more. He was arranging a new makeup for Dawnstar, communicating with a handful of prospective pilots over e-mail.
Most of the pilots he was interested already had managers, and thus he couldn't easily get. A few, though, were new. Rookie pilots. They wouldn't have managers, and they'd be easy to get and use.
Kyne scrolled down his short list of e-mails, pausing at one of them. It was from a pilot who called herself Angel. He called it up, reading the text within.
I'm going to be at the Cronus Cup. I've already loaded onto the Whale King - there's about six or so other pilots here. Two Teams, if I gather correctly. I've considered your offer, and I think I will join Dawnstar, if you haven't already gotten someone better.
The cursor hovered over the 'Reply' button as Kyne considered. Like any good manager, he kept his eyes on the rookies as well as the free agents. But he also knew that buying up only rookie pilots wasn't going to go over well, regardless of how good they were. They simply didn't have the experience needed to be as effective in battle.
Then again, she could be the next Bit Cloud. Kyne clicked the 'Reply' button, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. Yes, I think this Sponsored Tournament will be an excellent opportunity for me to see how you perform in combat.

After at last recieving word of the final boarding time, Liam, Tamar and Jan all loaded up their Zoids. Tamar was still muttering under her breath at the incompetent who had begun to tether and secure her Redler by the plasma lances. What an idiot...

Liam glanced in one of the lounges on the GWK as they made their way along and saw Kyne Xataran absorbed with writing something on his computer. He smiled and continued on his way, knowing better than to interrupt the Dawnstar pilot in the middle of something important.

"Here we are," Tamar announced, stepping inside one of the rooms. She fingered the material on the seats. "Oooh, cushy. This must be a new one..."

"Rest while you can, people," Liam instructed them. "We won't get much sleep once we're on the ground against the Big Bad."

Liam took his own advice and curled up in one of the seats, soon falling fast asleep. Tamar sat next to him, humming contentedly to herself, while Jan made his way over to a flat surface and began dealing himself a hand of solitaire.

The engines of the GWK spooled up briefly, although the great craft did not move. Vaguely Liam registered this before falling into deeper sleep... Preflight... not long before we go, then...

Kyne's gaze flickered up at the Bounty pilots. He inclined his head slightly as he continued with his work, checking up with several sites he was watching. He scrolled down one of the forums he frequented, checking for new posts.
None that really interested him. There was one about some kid messaging himself and having a conversation. A clear sign that there needed to be stricter enforcement on those Darwinian Laws.
As he clicked off, preparing to close the laptop, Kyne noticed that Angel had replied to his e-mail. She'd sent her pilot codes.
Kyne smiled thinly as he logged onto the ZBC's main site. Clicking through Leagues to the Teams page, he skipped down through the thinly-veiled ad block to reach the parts he was interested in. Logging in under Dawnstar's account in the Imperial League, he proceeded to engage himself in the task of entering Angelica Fisk as Dawnstar's newest pilot.
It occured to him about two steps in that she was probably related to Hank. Somehow, that made him feel a thin trickle of fear.

John glanced down at the envelope in his hand, and then up at the man who had given it to him. The man was walking away, nothing more than a plaid sweater and slacks disappearing into the crowd. John glanced back down at the envelope, and decided he'd read it on the plane. Speaking of which... John turned and began to walk at a fairly fast clip towards the boarding gate, eager to be on his way.

Meanwhile, Blaine was sitting in first class, drinking champagne. Being a ZBC executive had advantages, it seemed. He smiled and flicked through a few administrative papers he had. Local teams, members of local leagues, that sort of thing. He oversaw those more minor teams, and watched for talent that could be impressive on the international track. Flicking through a few papers, he sighed, rather bored. Luckily, he was rescued from his dull work by Matthew, who slipped into the seat beside him.

Matthew was wearing an immaculately pressed black business suit with a pale blue shirt and a black tie. In his hand he held his briefcase, which he laid down on his lap and flicked open. Out of it he pulled a few pieces of paper. At first Blaine thought they were legal papers, but then he realized they were something much different. They were ZBC forms and bulletins, detailing a lot of data.

"Blaine, I need to speak to you for a moment." Matthew's voice was grim and serious, and it immediately made the soldier in Blaine tingle. He nodded to show he was listening, and Matt continued, his olive face slick with a pale sheen of sweat.

"Look... I've been doing some legal work for a few ZBC executives who... performed a few misdemeanours. They promised me a few favours, and just yesterday I got a few pages of data on what this Zoid is we'll be facing."

Matthew looked rather grim, and Blaine tapped the armrest, looking unperturbed, but ready for bad news. After a moment, Matthew continued.

"There have been rumors floating that it was going to be a sniper Zoid. Well... it is. It's a Snipe Master, heavily modified.... It posesses an increadibly powerful invisible-light sniper rifle, instead of the normal one. I'm talking serious firepower here. This is the sort of firepower that can tear through shields and puncture armour in a single shot. It's so powerful that the Snipe Master even has special high-capacity energy generators mounted on its back, just to power the damn thing. Not to mention that the Ghost Unit it will be using is the full military version."

Matt pulled a piece of paper from the briefcase and placed it on his lap. It was a map of the area they were to fight in. He tapped the forest that made up most of the area.

"This is yet more bad news. The forest we're fighting in is in an area of land that has a very high metal content. All the plants have iron and various other metals inside them, and this severely limits the effectiveness of sensors. Even when it is not using the Ghost Unit, our sensors will have a tough time finding it."

Matthew paused, before pulling one more sheet out of his briefcase, and then handed it to Blaine, muttering one thing before leaving.

"Apparently John has more than one Zoid registered to him... this one is in the impound at the moment. Something he hasn't told us..."

Blaine looked down at the data sheet and his eyes narrowed imperceptably. The Zoid in impound was a highly-customized Gun Sniper. One that John had never mentioned before.

The Storm Riders arrived and loaded up their zoids. The three team mates wandered around the ABC's GWK looking at the other teams. A few of them they'd seen before others he had merely heard of. Hero and Vincent went their own ways to find something to occupy their time. Kesshi walked up to the door of one of the many lounges on the GWK and peared in through the small window in the door for a look see. The image of a Kyne and a few others filled his gaze. He didn't know to much about Kyne except that he was a good pilot and the son of some famous guy. An idea came to Kesshi as he watched the man.

"Perhaps I could get him to do a 1 on 1 with me so i can see how good he is..."

After all what did he have to lose? Nothing! If he lost then he'd learn some lesson from that battle and if he won he'd gain money.

He walked through the door and stared at Kyne as he sat down at the same table as him.

"Hello."

When the younger man sat down at the table, Kyne had a couple immediate impulses. One led to actions that would ultimately require bail money. The other didn't.
"Can I help you?" Kyne watched Kesshi from over the top of the laptop. He minimized a couple windows on the screen, ones that held sensitive information. He was almost done registering Angel onto his team. He just had to process her zoid and arrange for its purchase.

"So tell me again why we're entering this Coronis cup?" Jeremy asked as he drove up the ramp of the Great Whale King. As the Gustav finally entered, the three pilots and manager of Team Midnight watch could see several identical transports inside with several people tending to their zoids. Amy lightly chuckled at the question from the backseat of the Gustav. Her fingers danced about the keyboard, her attention seemingly focused on the screen and it's contents.

"One Jeremy, it's Cronus not Coronis. And we're doing it because we just happened to have the spare time." She stopped typing, placing her finger on the screen of her laptop and traced her finger on the string of words on the screen as to keep her place as she read. "Do you think this battle will have anything to do with the mythical god, Cronus?"

"Nah, I think it's just a title." Kizuna spoke softly, but loud enough for everyone in the Gustav to hear her. "Besides, I don't think a lot of these big bads were deeply associated with the names given to them." Jeremy parked the Gustav in one of the areas designated by the workers. The hood of the transport zoid slowly opened up, allowing it's occupants to exit and head for each of their respective zoids.

"Oy, Dr. Kiseki!" Jeremy called out towards the older woman as he watched Kizuna and Amy enter the two rectangular transports attached to the Gustav to check on their zoids.

"Dr. Isayama, Jeremy don't call me by my first name." The old woman chuckled, she looked to be about 5'5" sporting Greyish Brown shoulder length hair, wearing a thin white turtleneck sweater and a black cotton skirt that just went a little past her knees.

"Yeah, anyway why don't you head off to the passenger lounge while we take a few minutes to check on our zoids?" Jeremy didn't bother waiting for an answer as he ran off to the first zoid transport to check on his Hammer Rock to see if everything was okay. "Meet you there in a bit!"

Kiseki Isayama sighed, asked one of the nearest crew workers for directions and headed off to the passenger's lounge.

"You're Kyne right? I'm Kesshi, Kesshi Kuruado. You've probably never heard of me since i'm a little new, but uh anyway.... When this is all done and over with how about we zoid battle?"

He stares hard at Kyne tapping his fingers on the table as he waits.

Kyne cocked an eyebrow. Kesshi staring was a little creepy. Just a little bit. He waited a few moments, considering his response before answering. "I don't see any reason why that would be impossible," he replied eventually. "Which Team are you on, again?"

Kesshi took a deep breath and in a low voice said the words, "The Storm Riders." Just barely loud enough for Kyne to hear. His team's record wasn't exactly the best around and they weren't know for winning. He was a little ashamed of them.

((Hero, you're not to bring a character into play without having passed their bio through Apps, first. Unless you're working on the bio and just about have it done, or Kesshi is one of your other characters re-named for less rule-breaking name-swiping.))

Kyne had the grace not to chuckle. While he'd never been up against the Storm Riders personally, he did see their one and only match. Cascading system failures were their friends. "It comes from running with the Clouds. The line really went downhill after Bit."

"Yeah...."

He continued to watch Xyne for a minute before speaking. He had a lot more experience than himself. He'd have to watch him in the upcoming battle perhaps he'd learn something about his techniques and battle strategies. He wasn't quite sure if he was up to the task of taking Xyne down though.

He leans back relaxing a little bit.

"Well Xyne, are you as good as they say?"

"Kyne. My name does not begin with a zee nor an ex." Kyne resumed processing Angel's application. He thought for a moment on her stated zoid preferences. He continued speaking almost absently. "And that would depend upon whom 'they' are."

((Double-post and a mindfuck, bitches. My, my language has gotten rather fuggin' profane as of late. Dammit.))

The Great Whale King put into port after a seven-hour journey across the ocean. The Republican Whale Kings were already in port, though they had not yet begun to debark. There were already dozens of Athenian and Trillstan pilots already at the docks, as well as press crews and several ZBC dignitaries.
It had the look of being an event somewhat larger than a usual sponsored tournament.
“Flightsuits, boys.” Kyne turned to Hank and Larry. “You’re about to walk out into the middle of the Royal Cup’s opening ceremonies.”

Kesshi stood up from the table and walked off to find his teammates and head to the cerimony.

"Later Kyne...."

John walked idly down the aisle of the Whale King, glancing out of the window at a largte sign written in the Trillian tongue. He read it, absorbed the information and continued walking without batting an eyelid. Somewhere along the way he managed to swipe an apple. Munching on it absently, John wandered up to where the other three were sitting in First Class.

"Hey guys. The welcoming committee for the Royal Cup's here to greet us. Look nice." With that little tip, John wandered back off, deep in his own thoughts. Nat and Matthew looked at each other, and then Nat spoke to him, momentarily forgeting he'd sold her Gordos without her permission.

"John's jetlagged. This is the Cronus Cup. Isn't it?" she asked with a slight tremor in her voice. Matthew pondered a moment, and then slid up the cover on the window they were seated by.

WELCOME TO ATHENS, HOME OF THE GALA NC ROYAL CUP! a banner proudly declared. Matthew and Nat looked at each other again, and then rushed to get changed into something more formal.

((I'm writing up the ceremony, and I'll have a sniper kill anybody who steps outside the GWK before I'm done. I swear I'll do it.))

"You think we're on the right Whale King?" Jeremy mumbled to the others, looking out a Window along with his two teammates. "I mean, we could've made a huge mistake and there was actually another Great Whale King hidden behind this one when we went on!" Although he was half joking, he still had a nervous tone in his voice as he spoke. Having never had been a battle outside of practice, he had every right to be nervous.

"Jeremy calm down, I'm pretty sure that they'll explain what's going on soon enough.." Kizuna's voice was soothing to his ears as she put a hand on his shoulder, motioning for them to go to the Passenger's lobby for a place to sit.

Standing in a crowd in front of a raised stage, the pilots could see a podium in front of three banners. The podium held the ZBC's three silver letter insignia on a plaque in front. The ZBC's CEO, a tall and imposing middle-aged man by the name of Jack Dekain, stood behind the podium. The three banners each held one continent, the Central, Western, and Eastern, and each of the continents had the local government's emblem emblazoned over it.
As the top pilot in the ZBC's Imperial League, Wyatt West had a prime position on the stage. He sat in a row of chairs in front of the Western Continent's banner, between the League's director, Sarah Toben, and the mayor of Athens, Jhim Dougan. He looked splendid in the black, rusty red, and gold Tyrant Saurers flightsuit. Wyatt's eyes roamed the crowds, picking out a few pilots he recognized from the recent incident at the Excelsior Royale. He recognized Kizuna Hakumei, though he quickly snapped his attention back to the podium once the CEO started speaking.
"By now, many of you have already figured out that this is a little larger than a normal sponsored tournament." Dekain smiled thinly. "In fact, this is the Royal Cup Tournament. You, the pilots of the ZBC's three branches, are now here to separate the wheat from the chaff. You will engage in weeks of grueling competition. Only the strongest pilots and teams will make it through to the final showdown. You will each be dropped off in differing locations throughout the continental Cronus and left to battle against those people around you. You will not be allowed access to any repair stations, save for after each segment of the Tournament. Happy hunting, gentlemen. May the best pilots take the Cup."
While the pilots and press clapped, Dekain relinquished the podium to the top Athenian pilot, Jaina Smyth. She was surprisingly young for her rank, only in her mid-twenties. "You will each drive to the coordinates we are transmitting to your Team Managers' e-mail accounts. Once we have given the order to go, you will roam freely. Your goal is to defeat at least two opponent teams before time runs out on the first round. From there we will deploy teams of mechanics to repair your zoids. After that, the those teams that gain five additional victories will be allowed entrance into the final rounds. Losing a match means you lose everything. Good luck, folks; you're going to need it."

((I'll post necessary data in the Newsreel. Contact me about your location information. RP and battles will take place each in separate threads for each team, and yes, you will be going up against mostly NPC pilots. NPC pilots I control.))