The Gustav came to a grinding halt, stopping in the middle of the desert. It was an average sort of sandy desert with dunes and the like. Blaine smiled, figuring it'd play to their advantage. Given the conditions, his team's Panzer would overheat all the more quickly while the Redhorn would have trouble preventing itself from sinking into the sand somewhat. With the terms of the fight, that wasn't exactly a bad thing.

"You all read up on the Zoids you'll be using? Cause I want to see some flawless fighting out there. Flawless you hear me? Our spending sprees have given this enemy team the big advantage in terms of hardware capabilities, so we'll have to exceed them in terms of quality and skill of piloting," ordered Blaine as he disengaged the Gustav's magnetic trailers. The Lightning Saix leapt from the first trailer, bounding around a bit before settling. From the second trailer thudded the heavy Redhorn, resplendant in its multitude of guns. From the third, John worked with the AI of his Panzer, accomplishing a small bounce off the trailer and onto the sand, which it immediately sank to its ankles in.

Finally, from the fourth trailer leapt a black bullet, a spiky, deadly flash. it soared up into the air, jumping the amazing distance over the first three trailers and the Gustav itself, gracefully touching down on the sand with a lot less impact that it should have with such a jump. It swung to face the Gustav as it had been commanded to and leveled its cockpit with the Gustav's own. Blaine hopped from the Gustav's cockpit, jumping into the Snipe Mikado's cockpit. The Zoids immediately began a scan for the opposing team and upon locating them headed towards them. They'd meet in the center of the field, trade the Zoids as they'd planned, and move backwards a distance before the fight began.

The Gustav had stopped soon after reaching a nice distance away from the center of the battlefield. Silberner's Zadka Saurer jumped off of the first trailer and turned around as Hughes' Heldigunner and Siren's Hound Soldier got off their trailers. Chris and his new spiffy Shadow Fox were the last to jump off of their trailers and walk over towards the others, having some difficulty due to pilot obliviousness. Siren noticed it.

"Chris, stop trying to force the Shadow Fox so hard. It's a light Zoid that you don't have to pilot like a Redhorn."

Chris loosened up on the controls and the Fox smoothly walked up to the Hound Soldier.

"Thanks Siren."

"No problem," she said calmly. "Alright, let's go meet up with the other team."

All four Zoids raced off towards the other team.

Team Vagrant approached the halfway mark and slowed to a halt as they exited from their Zoids. Wehn the other team arrived and the swap was made Natalie hopped into the Hound Soldier, while Matthew immediately went for the Zadka Saurer. Preferring some levels of finesse, John and Blaine jumped into the cockpits of the Shadowfox and Heldigunner respectively. All four pilots started trying to get a feel for the Zoids as they piloted them back, to around 250 meters from the middle point. Then they waited for the judge to arrive.

Pointy Darkness got to the midway point and got out of their Zoids carefully. They then went over to the other Zoids and got in, Silberner in the Panzer, Siren in the Saix, Chris in the Redhorn, and Hughes in the Snipe Mikado. Hughes was the first to move away from the center of the battlefield, the pointy sniper Zoid speeding off. Siren followed it, with Silberner and Chris leading up the rear. Then they faced their opponents and waitied for the judge.

Without much warning, the judge capsule comes screaming down like meteor, crashing into the sand and sending up an impressive dustcloud. There's some clicking and whirring, and a screech of rusted metal. When the dust clears, the judgebot is finally visible - and just as rusty looking as it sounds. The number code 2833 was barely visible amongst the rust - but it was there.

More earsplitting screeches were rendered as the judgebot turned from side to side, and even more as it started flailing its paddled arms.

"The area within a seven-mile radius is a deisgnat- screeeeeeech -oid battlefield. Only competitors and personnel have authori- screeeeeeech -thers must leave the area at once!"

The judgebot paused, seemingly wincing at the noise of its own body.

"Pilo- screeeeeeech -ame, team, class, and Zoid with modifications!"

Blaine winced at the horrible noises the Judge was making, then transmitted the team's data.

[Blaine Fraiser, Team Vagrant, Class D, Heldigunner w/ HKT-010 Burrowing Sniper MKII]

[Matthew Galloway, Team Vagrant, Class E, Zadka Saurer]

[John Simmons, Team Vagrant, Class D, Shadowfox]

[Natalie Fraiser, Team Vagrant, Class E, Brickdog the Hound Soldier w/ SS-04 Surtespear]

[Silberner Falkestern, Pointy Darkness, Class D, Liger Zero Panzer]

[Siren Falkestern, Pointy Darkness, Class E, Lightning Saix with SS-08 and XP-04]

[Hughes Rivera, Pointy Darkness, Class E, Snipe Mikado]

[Chris Allanset, Pointy Darkness, Class D, Redhorn with CP-03]

The judge made a series of clicking and whirring noises, slowly moving its creaking arms.

"Approved! Area scanned.. Battl- screeeeech -et up.. Ready? FIGH- screeeeech!"

((Bah! Sorry Sol. Seven-day week rehersal schedule for the past 3 weeks has not been good to me. And as a reference, I'm not referencing any of the Zoid bios for this battle, to give it more of a 'they have no idea what they're piloting' feel.))

Team Vagrant broke into their attack, each one having a specific target in mind. John started the attack, piloting the shiny new Shadowfox. It handled a lot differently to his old Gunsniper, and had a lot less guns too. But he'd survive.

John activated the Multisensors and sped towards the Snipe Mikado. It was gonna be tough to find if it decided to hide, but the Shadowfox was about the only Zoid on their team that could even begin to compare to its agility. Using the Multisensors to gain as good a lock as he could, John decided to soak the area of the Mikado in laser gunfire, the vulcan focusing mostly on the chest of the Mikado. Using the omnidirectional capability of the vulcan, he dodged and juked in a wholly random pattern that was very different to a standard zigzag while keeping the gunfire focused on the mikado. When he closed in enough, the SLCs flared to life and he began to maul the poor thing.

Blaine scuttled away to a safer position and began to burrow into the ground, just far enough to utilize the powerful sniper rifle of the Heldigunner. Now he regretted so heavily modifying the team Zoids, and buying such good ones. The target was the Liger Zero Panzer. Using the sniper rifle and sniping equipment, Blaine sought to remove the stabilizer cap on the top of the front left leg. With the Panzer's great weight, he hoped it'd be good enough to disable the Panzer pretty thoroughly.

Inside the cockpit of the Zadka Saurer, Matthew felt something different to his normal trepidation while in the Horn. It was an entirely different ballgame. He grasped the controls and fired up the beast. Fine sand? A curse to the heavy Zoids, but his boosters countered that. The hot environment would also play against the Panzer, and the Mikado, which would have trouble concealing itself against the background without raising its own temperature dangerously high. Blaine had picked the environment specifically to capitalize on the weakness of their own Zoids.

The Zadka roared to life, strafing and juking and alternating speeds as Matthew felt it necessary. It zoomed towards its target, the Red Horn, while the napalm mortars swivelled to track another dangerous target. The mortar cannons bombarded the Panzer as best they could, letting it feel the melty goodness. Meanwhile, the 44mm Laser Gun opened up on the hide of the Red Horn and all the SAM Missiles also began to lock against the Horn. When they were ready they fired in a blaze of glory. As that happened, Matt spun and engaged the Longshot mode in midair, still strafing, cutting the boosters halfway through its preparation process. It slammed to the ground and a pair of sniper shells were hurled towards the Red Horn with very little time to really aim for any focus points.

So that left Nat and her Brickdog. Sighing, she engaged the boosters and charged at the Dark Saix. This was a game known as Chicken. She charged straight for it, firing off all her guns and flipping the lances out. The missiles were also engaging locks. Pretty simple strategy really. Missiles lock, they fire. The lances hit, they dispurse burning flames. All the while the guns fire.

((Sol, this is all your fault. Wanting me to join the Bleach RP and then creating Magic and Mecha.))

Silberner felt like a child in a candy store. She almost didn't know what to shoot off first, but then she saw it. It was the missile controls. She activated the Advanced Missile Targeting System and locked onto the Zadka Saurer, Heldigunner, Hound Soldier, and Shadowfox. When it was done doing so, Silberner let loose with every single missile on the big bad kitty and laughed.

Siren and Hughes had a plan. The Saix rushed forward with the Mikado right behind it. They were heading towards the Hound Soldier. Right before the two Zoids would've hit, Siren jerked the Saix to the right and Hughes jumped into the air, attempting to land on the Hound's back and put down its anchors.

Chris moved along as fast as possible, watching the Shadowfox. He didn't like the sleek little Zoid and wanted to shoot it to make himself feel better. He aimed his CP-03 at the Fox and fired all while aiming his missiles towards the Zadka Saurer and firing.

((As part of an effort to get active again, I can take this one. Judgment will be done later today, if that suits everyone.))

The battlefield explodes into a flurry of action right off the bat, as the pilots in this odd match begin testing the capabilities of their Zoids. John goes for simplicity, activating the radar and sensing equipment in his ears while running evasively towards the Snipe Mikado. His 30mm omnivulcan is spitting out high-penetration rounds at a commendable rate -- however, there's something in the way of that. Namely, the Darkeign Saix, which soaks up most of the fire intended for the Snipe Mikado. Mind you, this is probably a good thing because all of the Mikado's active stealth systems remained firmly offline. New Zoids are fun like that. As a coincidence, the Hound Soldier ends up running more or less along the same path as the Shadow Fox, guns blazing as the missiles begin lock and lances flip down. We'll come back to that part of the battlefield in a moment.

Meanwhile, the Sniper-Heldi scurries away mostly unmolested and begins digging in enough to bring that massive gun to bear, while Matt in the Zakda Saurer begins to weave in towards the horn, the napalm mortars splashing in and around the Liger Zero Panzer. Although they're not as accurate as they would have been without the massive multitasking... they don't really have to be. A few mortars into the round, and the Panzer is covered in a fair bit of flaming goo. For the time being, the cockpit is reasonably non-cooking, and so Silberner goes "glee" and locates the button for the Advanced Missile Tracking System.

So about four seconds into the fight... everything begins to go to hell in a way that makes the avid fans of Zoid battles giggle on their couches at home.

Cut first to the Red Horn and Zakda Saurer. Chris had been firing the CP-03 nonstop, which causes the Horn to make that high-to-low whining shutdown noise that pilots learn to hate. It skids to a stop even as the first wave of StA missiles rains in on its position. Granted, Matt's target lock was kind of shaky since they're not designed for that sort of work, but a stationary target is God's gift to homing missiles. Before he can get off the second launch, however, Silberner gets the "gleee!" target tone that indicates the advanced missile system is ready for launch. AZ homing micromissiles streak out all over the place, smacking each one of the four targets in turn with eight 'splodies. This is ALSO about the time that the Hound Soldier fires off ITS missiles. For a moment, it seems like the entire battlefield is consumed in missile trails and explosions, for a very neat visual effect.

The Zakda Saurer makes out pretty well. Its eight micromissiles blow huge chunks of armor out of the front, but its structure is pretty well untouched as far as any of the observers or damage monitors can figure, and it continues its laser/mortar fire unhindered as the next wave of missiles loads up. The Heldigunner takes eight direct hits to the sniper cannon, blowing apart the loading mechanism and skewing its initial shot to fly somewhere off into the distance. The cannon itself can probably still function at at least 90% efficiency for one more shot -- better make it count. Nat's missiles threw the Lightning Saix just as it was dodging to the side, causing it to skid out before micromissiles rain down on the Hound Soldier and the Shadow Fox. Although the Hound Soldier really doesn't lose anything of consequence, the laser vulcan gun of the Shadow Fox gives a tortured whine as the barrels stick in place, cutting the rate of fire to one-fourth. All of this happens the moment before the Snipe Mikado give a leap to get on the back of the BrickDog -- succeeding, but combined with the staggering impact of the missiles, taking the Hound off its feet for a skid through the desert sand.

And John? That's about when he comes in with both SLCs, plowing into both Zoids with screams of rent structure and little trails of vaporized metal from the strike laser claws' bite. All three Zoids are tangled up in a most amusing way.

--DAMAGES--

Team Vagrant

Zakda Saurer: You're obviously missing a fair bit of armor from the front -- how much isn't exactly known. Structure diagnostics look sound all over. Second wave of missiles is about a second from properly loading, and you've got a solid lock on the stationary Horn. One wave of StA missiles expended.

Shadow Fox: No structural stress warnings from the front legs yet, but that collision can't have done them too much good. The Laser Vulcan Gun seems frozen with one barrel in firing position, but as far as you were able to tell is still firing at full intensity, albeit at reduced rate. You probably took some additional abalation to the back and left side, from missiles and CP-03 fire, although how much is anyone's guess.

Heldigunner: The loading mechanism for the cannon is reporting nonfuctional, but you've got your second round chambered and a good shot at the Panzer, assuming some other bastard doesn't screw up your shot.

Hound Soldier: Structural stress warnings to both front legs at moderate. The skid probably didn't do your armor the most good, and your lances are stuck at least somewhat in the desert sand... then again, it's sand. Missiles expended. Probably a fair bit of damage to your back, also. There's an SLC stuck somewhere in the back of your neck, but it seems to have missed vital things, for now.

Team Pointy Darkness

Liger Zero Panzer: You're not getting any warnings of excess damage yet, that's some strong armor plating. Of greater worry is the heat -- it must be over 110 degrees F in the cockpit, and the heat scale is showing mid- to upper-yellow. It's ticking upwards at a worrying rate that suggests it's not coming back down soon, either. One wave of all AZ missiles expended, next volley will be ready a second into the next round. Be careful, though, because that napalm is beginning to cover a fair portion of the Panzer's surface.

Snipe Mikado: Serious structure warnings for the entire left hip and leg, and it looks like you may see some actuator failures in the hip area as well, where the SLC is currently lodged. Some scattered incidental damage to the left side from a few AZ vulcan rounds, but it's small potatoes.

Red Horn: No frickin' idea what your damage is, since all your diagnostics are offline until the Zoid reboots in about a second. The missiles have definitely hit you, though.

Lightning Saix: Moderate structure warning to the right leg, and it's responding kind of slowly -- you may have unregistered actuator damage from the way it was jammed up. Your system's also registering structural damage throughout your frontal half from those AZ vulcan rounds, though how much is uncertain.

--POSITIONS--

I hate you all.


The Red Horn and Zakda Saurer are nose-to-nose at about 100m distance. The Liger Zero Panzer is 150m behind and 50m to the left of the Red Horn. Heldigunner is 550m away from and facing the Liger Zero Panzer. 50m to the left of the Panzer and 225m in front of it is the trainwreck consisting of the Hound, Fox and Mikado. Off to the side about 75m away is the Lightning Saix, which is getting back to its paws.

--CONTINUE!--

Addendum: Missed part of Matt's move. The Zakda Saurer is actually 180m in front of the Red Horn, rear facing it and locked down. Thank the missile-distraction for not having yet gotten off a shot.

Further Addendum: The Hound Soldier does not, in fact, have missiles. *hates on MMM* So the Lightning Saix did not skid out, so the only damage is that previously noted as having come from the AZ vulcan. Assume that the Saix sat there and laughed as everyone else skidded and collided. Position for it is more or less the same.