((I'm going ahead and posting in the interest of Hurrying Things Up. Replace references to King Liger with Gun Sniper if the blasted thing's not approved.))

"Tamar, got anything up there yet?"

A moment's silence, then a voice crackled back across Liam's comm. "Not yet. Either we're pretty far away, still, or they're being unusually quiet.

Liam nodded. "Well, be careful up there. Jan, got anything on terrain for us?"

"Looks like it," the old veteran replied. "There's a river gorge about a klick east-northeast of our position. Radar's giving me a pretty good picture -- plenty of cubbyholes and places to shell the enemy. Also, it'll be difficult for them to get across the gorge."

"It will be for us, too," Liam reminded him. "All right, Team. Adjust your course and we'll see how it looks."

As he guided the King Liger around, Liam could hardly supress a bubble of excitement, of almost childish glee. This is it! This is really it! I'm fighting in the Royal Cup! It's like a dream... Only, of course, in dreams your butt didn't get tired from sitting in the cockpit of a Zoid all day long.

Liam toggled up the holographic heads-up-display, noting with pleasure that the information piped through by Jan's radar array was giving him a substantially clearer picture and better information than he normally would have. Unless there's a bloody Raynos out there, I think we'll have one of the best pictures of the playing area of any team, he thought with a nod.

"Contacts," Tamar called out. "Inconclusive, but they're closing on the river gorge too."

"I see 'em," Liam confirmed. "Orders, boss?"

Liam frowned, thinking. "Looks like they're making for the gorge, too... either to use it as a shortcut or hole up. Tamar, at current rates of speed will they beat us to it?"

A pause. "I don't think so," Tamar answered, chuckling. "If you two could push those slow-moving behemoths a little, we'll make it first for sure."

"Hah," Liam snorted, pushing the throttle up to 250 kph and weaving around natural obstacles.

Jan maintained a slightly more sedate pace, taking time to use his radar to map out the river gorge. Of particular note was anything that could provide cover for his DiBison.

And Tamar cut a figure-eight double loop in the sky. Because she could.

"Sure thing. I'll get right on it."
A young woman's face appeared on-screen. The pilots might've recognized her as Jaina Smythe. "Reaper's Bounty, your opponent in the first round will be the Republic team Ironsides. A Judge Capsule is on its way. Bear in mind that you're going by Athenian League rules here. G'luck - there're pretty good odds on you. Don't get knocked out this early."

Liam chuckled. Good odds on Reaper's Bounty... he wouldn't have believed it a month earlier.

"We'll try our best, thanks," Liam transmitted back. "Send the capsule on down."

The team began to take up positions...

...and as it did, Tamar squinted at the horizon. Was that an aerial contact? If so... Tamar grinned. She hadn't had a good dogfight in, well, forever to be honest. That Pteras really hadn't been much sport.

Judge Capsule 2102 rocketed down to the ground, landing on the gorge's banks. It deployed, the Judgeman raising his paddles as he announced the battle. "The Imperial Team Reaper's Bounty versus the Republic Team Ironsides. All participants will halt as they deliver their data."

Ironsides' data flashed over through the Judge and into the Bounty Gustav.

• Captain: Disney Thompson, Class C, Hammerhead, no modifications.
• Jenny Olson, Class D, Gorhecks, TW-01 Ontos modification.
• Heinrich Rickman, Class C, Raynos, no modifications.

"Bloody wonderful," Liam snarled. It seemed that someone had picked a team to precisely counter what he had been going to do...

Oh, well. That was just sometimes the way it went.

He uploaded the team data...

--Liam Alexander piloting King Liger, no mods
--Jan Yaylor piloting DiBison, no mods
--Tamar Alexander piloting Storch, no mods

...and then it was time to fight.

---

Tamar cranked the Storch up and away to the right, feeding power into the engines to gain precious altitude. After about two seconds she rolled over and dove for the gorge, strafing the Gorhecks' radar spines with AZ88mm shots. She fully expected that the Raynos would be coming in on her tail any time now...

...and here we go! With a whoop, Tamar pulled up the Storch, cutting thrust so that it stalled. As it plunged back down towards the gorge she fed power into the engines, bringing her speed up before pulling up so hard that the structure groaned in protest and little silver spots danced in her vision. She knew that the Raynos pilot couldn't try anything as aggressive or risk crashing, so she took the reprieve to maneuver around and do her best to get behind the fighter, switching the Storch's cannons to AZ30mm and opening up with a combined thirty rounds per second.

---

Sure enough, the radar spines were futzing with the King Liger's cockpit equipment and generally making life difficult. Fortunately, Liam had the answer.

He popped up over the edge of the bank just enough to show his head and the mounted machine-cannons, firing at the spines in a constant barrage of 40mm cannonfire at automatic rates. Liam knew that the Gorhecks would have a really hard time getting a good shot at him with such a low target profile -- and being hammered around by cannon fire wouldn't help, either. His targets were the spines on the back.

As soon as they were done enough to stop jamming, Liam switched his target to the Hammerhead. With the restoration of radar, he was able to keep track of inbound projectiles from the Hammerhead and arched the tail and its beam needleguns over his shoulder. He used their immense rate of fire and the tail's flexibility to do his best to shoot down any hostile missiles, making sure of course not to hit his teammates. The 40mm machinecannons pounded away at the Hammerhead, aimed for the most handy legal part to avoid difficulties of multitasking too many specific targets.

---

Keeping the DiBison out of sight of the other Zoids as best he could, Jan opened up with a chain-linked continuous barrage of mortar shells on the Gorhecks' last known position. Accuracy wasn't going to be the best until he got his radar back, but with a thirty-meter blast radius, it really didn't need to be...

Once radar came back, Jan continued the bombardment, not stopping until the Gorhecks was history. He continued to transmit data to teammates and do his best to stay undamaged for now. There would be at least one fight after this one before any repairs or reloads, and his teammates would need him.

The Gorhecks stood on the far edge of the gorge, hammering out fire at the King Liger. She trained her fire on the zoid's lower half, aiming for the legs rather than the torso. Maximum damage in minimum time.
This little Gorhecks came under serious fire. Shelled by the DiBison, shot at by the King Liger, and strafed by the Storch, the little tank quickly withered under the assault.
Unfortunately for Tamar, she discovered something icky. The Raynos chased her zoid about the sky, peeling off and grabbing altitude when she went into the gorge. Flitting through the gash in the ground, weaving down the pathway, she almost ran into the Hammerhead. The larger, tougher gunship greeted her zoid with a few rounds from its hyper shock cannons and pulsers. Tamar pulled up, narrowly avoiding crashing into the Hammerhead. The gunship didn't follow her, instead keeping down inside the gorge for cover.

Rank Adjustment:
Jenny Olson - +1 Loss
Liam Alexander - +1 Win

"Jan! Shell the Hammerhead!"

Jan nodded. "On it, boss. Cover me."

The DiBison galumphed to the top of the bank behind which it had been hiding, opening up with a mean volley of mortars down into the gorge, careful to make sure that the position was stable enough to support the weight of his Zoid and the tremors from mortar shock even if the Hammerhead were to structurally weaken it some. Jan fired one complete bank of mortars, then another, then the third, hoping that at least the first volley would catch the Hammerhead off-guard and show it why hiding had not been such a good idea. He added in the AZ208mm shock cannon for the duration of the round as well, figuring that the high-explosive shells might, just might, make it to the Hammerhead with the assistance of gravity. Even two or three lucky hits would result in some severe armor strippage.

---

Liam, meanwhile, jumped clear of the bank and skidded down the steep slopes of the gorge, firing a wild spray of 40mm machinecannon fire and pinprick laser blasts from the beam needlegun on his tail. The aim of the volley was only partly to damage the enemy Zoid -- it was also to create a huge diversion and light show to distract the Hammerhead pilot long enough for Jan's mortars to do their work, as well as to catch any missiles that the 'Head might fire.

In a few seconds, Liam had finished his skid and plunged into the river with a great spray of flying water. In this section, at least, the river only came up to the Zoid's belly. His fire was now far more directed, hammering at the most damaged part of the sharklike enemy that he could hit with the machinecannons and beam needlegun. However, he always kept his eye on the DiBison-enhanced radar HUD in his cockpit, looking for the telltale red pinpricks of inbound hostile missiles and shifting the King Liger's weapons to blowing them out of the sky.

---

As she climbed out of the gorge, Tamar discovered that the Raynos had peeled off to gain altitude -- thus exposing its tail to her. With a grin she fed power into the engines, opening up with the Storch's cannons on AZ30mm. She also began locking the Baby Bird missile... not that she intended to fire it, mind you, but if the Raynos had a missile lock warning system, it would give the pilot something else to think about and make her job of sticking on the thing's tail and filling it full of laser blasts that much easier. Tamar continued her pursuit of the Raynos as tenaciously as she could, using the Storch's tighter turning circle and marginally faster response to help her and only breaking off if it was getting too close to its Hammerhead buddy.

The Raynos certainly had ideas of its own. Zipping about, it let the Storch hit it, then made a couple of passes. Each time the Storch evaded, until the third time.
The Raynos feinted, pretending to go for another gunshot. Instead, it flared out and snatched the smaller zoid with its talons, having figured Tamar's favored dodge strategem.
The two spiraled downward, locked and clawing at each other like some crazed Ligers. Each attempted to maneuver the other. It seemed deadlocked, clear up until someone intervened.
They would never forgive the Hammerhead pilot for that.
A trio of cruise missiles smote the Raynos in the back, knocking away the Storch as a fireball consumed the larger aerial. Tamar scraped her belly on the ground, then booked it lest the Hammerhead shoot again.
Firing its missiles gave the Hammerhead away. The DiBison opened fire, catching the Hammerhead in a hailstorm of death. It disappeared into the gorge, but the Judgeman did not call it a kill just yet.

Rank Adjustment:
Tamar - +1 Win
Hammerhead - +1 Loss

Tamar's comm crackled. "Tamar, Jan here. I need some better target info on that damaged Hammerhead. Could you get up there and give me visual guidance?"

With a laugh, Tamar sent her Storch into an Immelman turn over the gorge to gain some altitude. "You got it. Let's see here..."

Using her position on high to peer down into the gorge, Tamar called out directions as the DiBison fed mortar rounds down into the gorge, looking to finish off the Hammerhead. She was alert for a missile lock, ready to take evasive maneuvers to shake any incoming warheads, but otherwise she concentrated on acting as Jan's spotter.

--

Jan, for his part, simply grinned and continued chain-firing mortars at the rate of three per second, arcing up before plunging back down into the gorge. He made full use of the DiBison's terrain-mapping radar and Tamar's callouts to catch the stubborn Hammerhead and finish what he'd started. The impact cannon continued to fire, sending its steady rain of high explosives plunging down into the gorge as well.

--

Liam knew better than to go rushing into the stream of explody doom that was being unleashed on the Hammerhead, so he instead waited where he was, watching for the telltale blips of missiles being lauched at Tamar. She was practically begging for them, flying stunts over the gorge like that... and so when he saw a launch, he used the DiBison-enhanced radar HUD of the King Liger to target the missiles as accurately as he could and sent a stream of 40mm machinecannon shells and beam needlegun shots at them, using the high rates of fire to bring them down. All the while, he was careful to NOT hit Tamar, because he'd had enough of scuffling with her, thank you very much...