"Mr. Xaratan, we would like to have a few words with you about your recent disappearance."
"No." Kyne looked over his shoulder at the gaggle of reporters following him and his Team into the massive arena where the Iron Grave Cup was to be held. "We're here to kick some butt, not delve into my personal vendettas, eh?"
Jenny sighed softly. She knew where Kyne had gone, as did Hank, but Sirius was clueless. She leaned over and whispered "Stryker" into his ear. Sirius didn't flinch, but simply looked at Kyne. The boss-man returned his gaze coolly as the reporters drifted off to speak with other Teams about how they felt they would fare against the recent Royal Cup champions.
One Team they approached was the Stonecutters, a duo of pilots known for Gary Stuart's emulation of Rick Xaratan in his Guysack.
"So, Mr. Stuart, how does it feel knowing you'll be going up against the son of the legendary pilot, Rick Xaratan?"
Gary shrugged. "Ah, heck, Kyne's a legend in his own right. The man broke the Tyrant Saurers, after all."
Wyatt West had retired from zoid combat after the Royal Cup, leaving the Tyrant Saurers completely disbanded. Rumor had it that Kyne was courting several of their staff to come work for Dawnstar.
"And you, Miss Fisk? How do you think you'll do against Dawnstar, knowing your cousin is their new captain?"
Angela grinned. "Hank and I have always been good friends. 'Sides, it's not impossible for someone to take out a Gojulas Giga in a Leomaster."
"Just really, really, really improbable," Gary chuckled. "Hey, look. We gotta git. Our stuff's waiting for us to start the fight, y'know?"

Dawnstar would be fielding only three of its four pilots, in accordance with League Rules. Kyne Xaratan was sitting this one out, watching the fight from the elevated executive suites. The Xaratan fortune certainly helped, especially when compounded with the Dawnstar status. Sirius was the first to get his zoid ready and rolling, the big black, blue and chrome Iron Kong emerging from the underground hangar beneath the dusty arena floor into the bright sunlight. Jenny's Leomaster was close behind him, and Hank's Gojulas Giga was the last to climb the ramp. They were the first zoids out on the field, emerging to a packed arena full of screaming fans -- not just Dawnstar fans, mind you, but fans of all Teams involved and then some. The Tourney circuit had been slow of late, and people were desperate for some action.
"Hank, give them a good show. I expect the enemy will be ganging up on you, so use any means necessary to stomp them. Do it brutally; I want this to be a fight to remember," Kyne said over the headset he wore as he entered in the Team's data. They were all fighting without modifications.
"Roger that," Hank said around a cigar. Already a faint haze fogged the cockpit, so he turned on the air filters. He made sure the Gojulas was in the so-called Pursuit Mode, standing much like the Geno Saurers he so knew and loathed. "Jenny, cover Shirius'sh backshide. He can't corner like this bruiser can. You two gang up on the second-biggest zoid here. I'll take me the biggest bashtard to walk the arena."
"Roger that."
"Aye aye, boss-monkey-man!" Sirius crowed like a cocky ace. "Man, I'm wired. This is my first battle, y'know?"
"Keep your cool," Jenny advised. "Don't get excited."
"Unless you're Kyne," Hank interjected. "When that bashtard getsh excited, he turns a losing situation into a kickassh win."

"Dawnstar. Ugh." Gary sighed as his little grey Guysack scuttled out beside Angela's Leomaster. "I can't stand those arrogant pricks."
"So we'll take out Hank, first." Angela sized up the Giga. It was much larger than she'd imagined. "He'll probably have Jenny and Sirius working together to take down someone else, so watch it. They may decide to go after you."
"If they do, I dance la coucarocha!" Gary snapped his fingers and laughed at his bravado. "Yeah. I'm just gonna follow you around and distract them while they squish me like a little bug."
"You are a little bug."
"That would explain the squishies, yes." Gary nodded sagely. "Here's to hopin' we get someone other than those pricks to fight, though. It'd be a slaughter if it's just us."

((Two thangs: One, this takes place after 'The Other Half,' as I'm a lil' lazy on that RP right now. Two - is this in some big arena, or the Elemia Desert like it sez in the original topic?))

Disembarking from a battered primer-colored Gustav on the other end of the field was Team Sirocco. A few fans waved little signs with "GO IVY" or "SHELL SHOCKEM, AL!" on them, or the odd teal and khaki flag. The usual coalition of the disabled that followed Alex loyally around was divided - some were cheering extra hard while others looked frostily in his direction. He managed a crooked smile, knowing his words at the benefit had struck home.

Ivy, as usual, hammed it up for her modest group of fans, vaulting onto her Sinker and punching at the sky. A few raucous high school boys had a sign that said "WE <3 IVY;" she grinned and blew them a kiss. She winked a coal-black eye at a hovering camera before leaping to the ground with avian ease.

The two stood together, next to the Sinker's trailer and eyeing the three bruisers roaring their challenge across the arena. Their zoids suddenly felt a whole lot wimpier.

"Hm, look what Dawnstar's packing," Alex said.

"Think I haven't seen it, man? Eve's light. They've got enough nastiness there for four teams."

"Right."

"Hey, there's the Stonecutters. Wonder what poor old Gary's thinking in that bug of his?"

"Probably worried about his girlfriend. I hear she's a Sinker pilot."

"Not funny."

A reporter flashed her card at security and was allowed through the fence. She strode up to the two with cameraman in tow. "Hi," she said to all three. It came out hhheye, with that breathy cheesiness that only reporters can command. "This is Tricia Cavallone, reporting live from the arena. I'm standing next to Team Sirocco, two bright young students with a taste for combat!"

She turned to Ivy. "This is 'Ivy' Ivesdon," Cavallone told the camera, "one of the brightest of the bright. Tell me, hun, does it feel to be going up against Team Dawnstar, the winners of the Royal Cup? Have any brilliant plans for us?"

Ivy had somehow produced a stalk of wheat and stuck it in the corner of her mouth. "We gonna beet 'em," she said, pitching her voice to redneck proportions.

"Erm." Tricia, flushed, turned back to the camera with a rather embarrassed look on her face. Behind her, Ivy doubled over in a fit of silent laughter.

Tricia turned to Alex, Ivy having disappeared atop the Sinker to wave at her fans. "So, ah, Alex. I hear you have quite a bit of support from Zi's handicapped and disabled. How does your unique condition impair your battling ability?"

"It doesn't." Alex said, monotone. "Unless I let it."

Tricia possessed a remarkable amount of self control, most of which was in use at this moment. She turned back to her camera. "Well, that looks like some pearls of wisdom from the pilot of this oyster. We'll have to see how Sirocco does against the single most talented team around, so stay tuned, folks!" With that, she left.

Alex started for his zoid, noting Ivy roaring her engines for effect.

"Hope we can beat these monsters."

((Arena in the Elemia desert.))

"Good. Looks like Sirocco is here." Gary was in full combat mode now. This was deadly serious. "Hey, Angel."
"Yeah?" She looked worried. Hell, even Hank would be worried when going up against a full-fledged Zeta-class. Eve knew that Hank was a lunatic. She shuddered -- literally -- to think of what he'd do in a monster like the Giga.
Gary opened up communications with Sirocco. "Ivy. Alex. I think we need to blitz them. That Giga may be tough, but it's not strong enough to resist mortars. I think. I also think we need to pull a Diver."
A Diver, also known as a Rick, was the maneuver wherein an aerial zoid (such as the Sinker) swept low to pick up a ground zoid (such as the Guysack) and used it as a torpedo or paratrooper. In this particular instance, given how fragile the Guysack was, Gary was more interested in jumping onto the Giga's back and seeing what he could do from there. It was risky, but there'd be nothing Hank could do once Gary was there.

"Piece of cake." Hank grinned as he tamped out the ashes on the tip of his cigar. "One Thirty-two Shot Nuclear Core Cannon an' they're toast."
"Make it a good show, Hank, not a slaughter." Kyne shook his head. "Besides, we'd never get another fight with you using that beast, anyways. Not unless Vagrant or Bounty comes back."
"So what do you think they're planning on doing?" Jenny pushed her glasses up her nose, only to have them promptly slide back down again.
"They're going to blitz us," Hank replied. "That's the best chance they got. They hash it out between 'em and the winner's gonna go down. Thus, we stick with our original plan. Stonecutters're the bigger threat, so you two go after them. I'll handle Sirocco."
"Roger that."
"Aye, aye, boss-monkey!" Sirius cackled. "Those poor saps won't know what hit 'em!"

"I'm not so sure you want to be near that Giga's back, Gary," giggled Ivy over the comm. She was doing a few leisurely circuits of the arena for the crowd while the other teams arrived. "It's a mobile fortress, and we happen to have a siege zoid along for the ride."

((OOC: And you folks had better arrive. :P))

"Right," said Alex. "Repeated mortar strikes. I'm going to need some cover, most specifically from the Shield Liger. It's the cavalry, I'm the artillery. Not so good on my end."

"Kong's got its missiles and rocket bombs, no real threat to myself unless he gets a lucky hit inside the shell."

"Gentlemen -and Angel," said Ivy, pulling a long loop for the audience, "I think we've got a plan. As long as you keep Jen occupied, me and Gary can concentrate on the Kong. Between the two of us, we've got enough Safecrackers and other nastiness to cripple that beastie. Alex, I think you're on your own as far as that Giga is concerned."

"Thanks, Ive." Alex's voice carried the phonetic equivalent of a >_> face.

"But if you want a ride, I'll drop you off on that Kong's back. I duct taped an egg timer inside Alex's cockpit..."

"I was wondering who put that there...wait, no, not really."

"...to let us know the soonest that Kong's artillery missile can fire off. When you hear the 'ding,' do something defensive. Hightail it for the nearest Dawnstar zoid, take them with you. Whatever."

"Don't forget the Giga's superweapon."

"Eve's light, thanks for reminding me about that. For the love of all things sacred, you two, don't get hit by that. Alex will be pissing off the Giga more than anything, and luckily his shell will take a little while to burn through, if what I read about that monster was correct. Enjoy, Al!"

"You're just a ball of kindness today, B," Alex grinned halfheartedly.

((I'm thinking we wait for either Chris or Kit. If we get both, great, but I only want to wait a day or two more before we start the fight.))

"Al, you're gonna want to go for the legs. That's where more moving parts of the necessary nature are, and they're certainly vulnerable. They have an Achilles tendon that breaks like a twig if you hit it hard enough."
"Gary, what in the 'verse doesn't break if you hit it hard enough?"
"The rest of that bastard." Gary's pulse was racing. "And yeah, Ivy, I'm thinking I can do some damage on that thing's back. I go for the ZCC, and then I'm distracting Jenny and Serious-"
"-It's Sirius, hon-"
"-Whatever. Distracting Jenny and Delacroix from laying the hurt on you guys. I'll probably go down quick, so you won't have that long to make your moves. I don't think they'll use the Tactical Missile. It's not their style."
Angel nodded. "Right. Dawnstar likes to show their opponent up, not beat them with superweapons. That's the difference between them and Tyrant Saurers."
"Right. They got class." Gary cracked his knuckles nervously. He hoped it wasn't showing. "We're outgunned in this fight, so we'll have to fight using numbers on our side. If we keep them from selecting a proper target, then we can probably survive long enough to win this. Oh, and Al; don't count on your magnessors. They don't have anything solid to cling to." His Guysack drew a line in the dusty sand. "The bedrock's really far down. I checked 'cause this thing can burrow, y'know."

Kyne chuckled. "Y'know, I feel like the villain in a Saturday morning cartoon."
"You are the villain in a Shaturday morning cartoon," Hank retorted, grinning. "We're jus' waitin' on the Judgeman, now. With thish kind of firepower, we don' need t' have a plan."
"Meep." Jenny shook her head. "Bad plan, Craters."

Steve Walsch pulled out in his Gordos, wondering what woudl happen now, but he was ready. He was worried about Atta, but at the moment, there was nothign he oculd do.

He pulled up, and looked over the other teams already there, and realizing that most likely, he woudl get blown to smitherens as he was only a single zoid, but well, life was not always fair.

Ivy's laughter cut in over the comm. All frequencies. Then she switched back to the Sirocco/Stonecutter channel. "You, Master Gary, don't know much about reverse magnessers," she grinned, pulling a stunt known as a 'Hammerhead.' Her Sinker flew straight up in midair, bleeding off its velocity with engines off.

"That Malder is currently having rabid intercourse with the laws of physics," she lectured, as her stalled Sinker fell stomach-turningly off to the side. "It'll stick to Zi, all right, since the planet thinks it weighs a good few hundred tons more than it does. In layman's terms, at least. The calculations are a lot gnarlier, but you get the gist." A sound like a coconut striking a desk came over the comm - Ivy knocking her head on the mic for good luck.

Alex cut in, in favor of changing the subject to something that didn't make his head spin. "Actually, I'm thinking that the back is a better shot. If I can place a few mortars in the right spot, I may be able to blow out both hips at once. It's lucky for us that Hank's in 'pursuit' mode; it makes the Gojulas more structurally vulnerable from above."

"I'm still worried about that Giga's superweapon, though. I've been watching some of Hank's battles, and this seems exactly the sort of thing he'd use," Alex noted, watching Ivy's craft go tearing over the heads of the crowd. She was outfitted with the standard radome (no doubt gathering sensory feed on each one of them), her Safecrackers, and a set of sleek, anti-Zoid assault rifles. These were new, the result of a recent spending spree while he wasn't looking.

The Sinker drew his eye over a Gordos as it sped by, the large craft lumbering onto the field. Things had just gotten a bit more interesting with the addition of this bruiser.

((Chris, if you see this, just post and we'll work around your lateness. But that only applies if you get here before the second round; after that you're not able to make entry.
Remember, this is not Judgment. This is just the pilots' posts, I'm gonna post Judgment when everybody has gone.))

"Oh." Gary shrugged. "Hey, I pilot a 'Sack. I can't be expected to know everything about zoids."
"Don't forget Kyne's ego," Angel pointed out, ignoring Gary. "He's a showman at heart. You saw him in the Royal Cup; he carried through on pure ego alone. He'll be handing down orders not to use anything too brutal, mark my word."
"Right." Gary nodded. "Simply raping us with The Big Guns isn't going to provide a good show. Raping us in brutal melee combat is gonna have the rabid fans come screaming back for more."

Further conversation and greetings to the newcomer were interrupted by the Judgeman's capsule rocketing down. It was Judgeman 0042. The Judgeman deployed and read them their rights. After a brief moment, letting the cheering subside, it dropped the paddles. "Begin!"

Kyne smiled grimly as he leaned forward, face inches from the armorglass windows. He was alone in this executive suite, so he had to pour himself a whiskey on the rocks. "You know what to do, Hank. Win."
"Roger that, boss-man!" Hank's Giga roared its challenge as the massive beast lumbered towards Angel's Leomaster. She charged him with her shield up, absorbing the tracer fire from the Giga's pulse laser. The two zoids met in a resounding crash, hitting head-on at a relative speed well over four hundred kilometers per hour.
The Giga met the Leomaster with a head-butt, ramming the smaller and weaker zoid in the shoulder to avoid crushing the cockpit. Angel rolled with it, her Leomaster leaping backwards a little to absorb the force of the blow. She yelped as the whiplash sent her dinging her head off the dashboard and momentarily dazed.
"Angel!" Gary kicked his Guysack into overdrive, but he found Jenny's Leomaster a deadly shot. A pair of heavy beam cannons trained on his zoid, shearing through the paper-thin armor and into the delicate structure of the little bug in one impressive blow. The Guysack was far from out, though, as Gary dove under the sand in an attempt at preventing further damage to his zoid. "Sorry, guys, but I don't think I can be of much more use here." His voice was strangely flat as he spoke. He seemed disappointed that he'd taken this much this early.
Sirius lumbered up in his Iron Kong as Craters wrapped his jaws around the Leomaster's hindquarters. The Kong grabbed the Leomaster's beam cannons and ripped them off just a split second before Craters started worrying the Leomaster like a dog with a bone.

"Good God!" spat Ivy. "Hang in there, Angel! Alex, send that Giga some payback!"

"On it." The Malder's fire-control suite near-instantaneously picked out the best trajectory and speed to plant a mortar right on the Giga's back, above where the hips connected to the spine. It was a bit of a shallow angle, forty-five to fifty-five degrees from the horizontal, that would concentrate the blast force down into the pelvic and spinal region while keeping it away from Angel.

It was hard for pilots of artillery zoids to really explain the allure of The Shot, delivering that precise blow as if from the heavens. But Alex liked it, he realized, as the hatch clicked open. ZUMP went the magnetic launch system.

Fire one.

Ivy tore around and came in from Jenny's side with all guns blazing, arming and dropping the torpedoes into the side of the stationary Leomaster. "Pick on the small ones, huh?" she asked herself, gunning her engines instead of the comm. "Eat explosives!" she yelled as the Sinker buzzed ten meters overhead, the torpedoes landing a split-second later.

Fire three.

Alex had popped off his third shot, aimed at precisely the same spot, pleasantly glad that he was being ignored for once. If Dawnstar was going to ignore the artillery, they were going to pay for it. He kept an eye on all the Zoids on the monitors as Fire Four cycled into the launcher.

Ivy, meanwhile, was making low-altitude strafing runs on the Iron Kong, gunning away at its Achilles tendons with her assault rifles on burst-mode, and general constant fire from the beam repeaters. So that's how they got their reputation, she observed. Arrogant jerks who think double-teaming a Shield Liger with those unholy monstrosities -hey, is that a diVossi missile? Frell.- is fun.

"Hang on, Stonecutters!" she yelled, this time into the comm.

Steve brought his Gordos forward, bringing his rail guns to bear of the Giga Goujlas, while firing the side mounted beam guns at the Goujlas's hips.
Steve opened up a transmission to Team Dawnstar.
"Attention Giga Goujlas. I am opening fire."
Steve selected the railguns adn fired them, sending two high speed slugs towards the Giga's hips.

"Don;t gang up on Ligers."
After firing the railguns, both side guns continued to fire when they could as Steve turned the Gordos away form heading straight towards the goujlas, as he did not want them to get too close, the tail mounted beam guns opening fire on the Goujlas as well.
The anti air beam guns followed the sinker, firing when they could.
It's time to give payback for Atta.
Steve increased the Gordos speed to full, tryign to gain from space from the Goujlas, as well as give some room from the Sinker.

((Chris, the time to join in has officially elapsed. Sorry, kiddo.))

Kyne smiled grimly as he leaned forward, face inches from the armorglass windows. He was alone in this executive suite, so he had to pour himself a whiskey on the rocks. "You know what to do, Hank. Win."
"Roger that, boss-man!" Hank's Giga roared its challenge as the massive beast lumbered towards Angel's Leomaster. She charged him with her shield up, absorbing the tracer fire from the Giga's pulse laser. The two zoids met in a resounding crash, hitting head-on at a relative speed well over four hundred kilometers per hour.
Hank barely registered the railguns plowing into his armor, but the mortar did throw him off his stride enough to almost hit Angel square in the cockpit. The amazingly durable joints withstood the blast, though they weren't moving as smoothly as they were a moment ago.
"That's nice, ya pansy!" Craters crowed as the Giga withstood the tremendous damage the enemy was dishing into it. This truly was a fortress zoid! "Now when was that volley comin' in?"
The Giga met the Leomaster with a head-butt, ramming the smaller and weaker zoid in the shoulder to avoid crushing the cockpit. Angel rolled with it, her Leomaster leaping backwards a little to absorb the force of the blow. She yelped as the whiplash sent her dinging her head off the dashboard and momentarily dazed.
"Angel!" Gary kicked his Guysack into overdrive, but he found Jenny's Leomaster a deadly shot. A pair of heavy beam cannons trained on his zoid, shearing through the paper-thin armor and into the delicate structure of the little bug in one impressive blow. The Guysack was far from out, though, as Gary dove under the sand in an attempt at preventing further damage to his zoid. "Sorry, guys, but I don't think I can be of much more use here." His voice was strangely flat as he spoke. He seemed disappointed that he'd taken this much this early.
Jenny got as good as she gave, though. Ivy's assault blew off one of the heavy beam cannons and most of the armor on Jen's left flank.
"Thanks." Jenny quirked a smile at Ivy over the comms system.
Sirius lumbered up in his Iron Kong as Craters wrapped his jaws around the Leomaster's hindquarters. The Kong grabbed the Leomaster's beam cannons and ripped them off just a split second before Craters started worrying the Leomaster like a dog with a bone.

((Don't forget, this is just the pilots' posts. Just because it sounds like all your bases are belonging to Craters doesn't mean they are.))
Next Round . . .

The Leomaster fought back like a wildcat as the temporary allies assaulted the Gojulas Giga. Having recovered from her daze, with blood flowing freely from a superficial cut on her forehead, Angel frantically worked the controls to try picking a proper fight with Sirius. She managed to snag his zoid by the head with both claws during the frenetic melee, ripping it clean off when Hank pulled his head back, dragging her Leomaster with it.
"Momma had a baby an' it's head popped off!" Sirius laughed. He was one of those rare pilots who could laugh at his own misfortune, even as his zoid was one of the first ones disqualified from combat.
The Judgeman registered one loss for Sirius Delacroix and one win for Angel Fisk. Naturally, the Iron Kong's decapitated hulk remained on the field, providing excellent cover for those assaulting Fort Craters.
He seriously considered naming his zoid Fort Craters.
Naturally, Hank didn't like seeing his teammate go down. So even as the third mortar shattered his right hip, he engaged it.
"Oh, Hell no, Hank." Kyne knew what Craters was planning on doing the moment
"I'm gonna do it!" Hank crowed. "Engage the Thirty-Two Shot Nuclear Core Cannon!"
His Gojulas Giga slammed down the stabilizers and engaged all power conduits. It was going to need them. The zoid powered up, the air around it crackling with raw power.
Some distant part of Angel noticed that her hair was getting all frizzy. She sighed, figuring it was just going to be one of those days. She had no idea how right she was.
There was a flash of white-hot superheated plasma around the Giga's jaws as it clamped down on Angel's zoid, and then they sheared through her zoid like a hot knife through butter. Slag dripped out the corners of the Giga's mouth as it turned its head and dropped the half-molten remains of Angel's zoid, spewing plasmic devastation like a machinegun.
Alex's Malder was next. The little thing absorbed a good deal of punishment, sucking in a good six or seven shots before the Giga turned its wrath upon the field itself, spraying fire as it trained its fateful sights on the Gordos, hitting Jenny's Leomaster and Ivy's Sinker in a couple of good surprise shots. Hank knew all too well how fragile the Gordos could be if you hit it right -- he was pretty sure that was his old Gordos, too -- and so he hammered it in the shoulders and hips. Not that it really mattered; the Cannon would have gone through the armored back as easily as the unarmored joints. Hank didn't stop cackling as the weapon slowed to a halt, the Gojulas Giga slumping to the ground as its Core bled out. Emergency overrides kicked in and the big fortress zoid fell to the ground, registering a CSF.
Jenny swore explosively as her zoid suddenly developed a large furrow streaking from the tail to just beside the cockpit. She could feel the heat off that one.
"Waitaminute. You know how to swear?" Gary chuckled as his Guysack emerged below her zoid. "Oh, and by the way: Die." His Guysack punched up with all weapons, getting her Shield Liger in its soft squishies with frantic clawing motions and rapid jabbing with the stinger. He dove back beneath the surface of the arena as her zoid collapsed from his ambush combined with the previous damage from Ivy. "This boy's back in town!"
The Shield Liger was just suffering a temporary control lapse, not a full CSF. Jenny rebooted it quickly, and soon her zoid was playing Whack-A-Mole with Gary's Guysack as his little zoid scurried underneath the arena's floor. Once again, she made the mistake of staying stationary.
"Am I bleeding?" Angel touched her forehead. When she saw the blood, she scowled. "Hank, I'm gonna kick your ass."
"Yeah, you know it was cool." Craters grinned. "Betcha Kyne's hoppin' mad, though. Y'know, he told me not to use that thing. Probably has something to do with the repair costs. But you know me and big guns . . ."

Steve muttered to himself various unfaltering things about the Giga. He turned his Gordos so that he was facing the beast's mouth, then aimed both railguns at it, but did not fire. He lumbered at 20 kmph and fired off his left and right beam guns at the Goujlas distract it, trying not to hit the trapped Liger, although his antiair guns were still firing upwards, in a futile attempt to hit the Sinker.

Come on, open up. Steve has a couple of goodies for you.

Steve tensed the Giga shot down the footlocks, and he ground his zoid to a halt and ceased firing, and focused all his attention on the Giga. He knew what was coming, the Giga's superweapon. He aimed for the Giga's jaws, and once the Liger was clear, fired first hte left rail gun into the mouth, hoping to hit the pulse laser appertatus, then followed up with the second railgun, aiming the second one to hit the laser pulse gun as well.
Once he had done that, Steve turned his Gordos to move off, with the Giga on his right and then focused his reamining guns on the Giga, although the anti air guns were still reserved to take down the Sinker.

Fire five.

ZUMP.

Alex watched the monitors, noting the relaxed pace of this battle with a bit of relief. Well, as 'relaxed' as zoid battles could ever get. The fire-control suite constantly scrolled a set of changing coordinates over a small screen to his right:

<12.0928, 384.5398, 203.9823>
<13.2819, 385.0301, 201.5303>
<14.8462, 382.9775, 201.4287>
<13.7013, 382.2791, 204.1365>

...with a pulsing red dot on the back of a wireframe Giga Gojulas. One monitor over, he followed a birds' eye view of the battle, with white silhouettes taking the place of zoids in real-time. The laser multisensors then applied 'auras' around the little silhouettes to account for infrared emissions, noise generation and the like.

And as the second mortar began to cycle into his launcher, he noted the Giga's thermal signature skyrocketing.

Eve help us, Alex thought wryly, as he sealed the mortar hatch. So much for Fire Six.

"Ivy, that Giga's hot. Clear out of its frontal quarter."

Her reply came loud and clear -not warning her teammates, but "I knew that lunatic would use it!"

Figures.

Alex left the fire-control suite on standby, letting the numbers scroll up the little screen, as he took the controls. Outside, the BESAD Autocannon came to life, spinning up its barrels for a split second before Alex pulled the trigger, shooting for the Gordos' spinal array.

Meanwhile, Ivy was having her own difficulties. A constant tinktinktinktink on her hull meant one thing -antiaircraft fire. And she had a pretty good idea where it was coming from.

She pulled a wingover and dove for the ground, skimming low and fast at a good clip quicker than a Lightning Saix, carving a wide circle around the entire fight. Cheers erupted from the audience as the Sinker skimmed the sand, its tail obscured by a rooster tail of engine-blasted dust.

"Showoff," crackled Alex. In the background, the squalling of a high-caliber autocannon sounded over the muted roar of the Giga's plasma breath.

"You know it," she grinned, and gave one of those ever-present cackles. She abruptly pulled up and shunted her throttle forward, causing the Sinker to explode off the ground in a great plume of sand and dust. She rolled over, upside down, and reached for the Safecracker trigger, eyeing up the Gordos. Below her, Alex laid off his trigger, giving the autoguns a rest.

POW. Something nailed her right in the underbelly. A few warning lights came on, noting her of damage taken. That blasted Giga!

"Told you," said Alex. His autogun started up again.

"Can it," she said, cheesed at her own carelessness. She squeezed the trigger and took it out on the Gordos, making a strafing run involving firing two-thirds of her Safecracker payload (along with constant blasts from the autocannons, set to Burst mode) into Steve's great big metal fanny. Atop which those antiair guns were mounted.

The Leomaster fought back like a wildcat as the temporary allies assaulted the Gojulas Giga. Having recovered from her daze, with blood flowing freely from a superficial cut on her forehead, Angel frantically worked the controls to try picking a proper fight with Sirius. She managed to snag his zoid by the head with both claws during the frenetic melee, ripping it clean off when Hank pulled his head back, dragging her Leomaster with it.
"Momma had a baby an' it's head popped off!" Sirius laughed. He was one of those rare pilots who could laugh at his own misfortune, even as his zoid was one of the first ones disqualified from combat.
The Judgeman registered one loss for Sirius Delacroix and one win for Angel Fisk. Naturally, the Iron Kong's decapitated hulk remained on the field, providing excellent cover for those assaulting Fort Craters.
He seriously considered naming his zoid Fort Craters.
Naturally, Hank didn't like seeing his teammate go down. So even as the third mortar shattered his right hip, he engaged it.
"Oh, Hell no, Hank." Kyne knew what Craters was planning on doing the moment
"I'm gonna do it!" Hank crowed. "Engage the Thirty-Two Shot Nuclear Core Cannon!"
His Gojulas Giga slammed down the stabilizers and engaged all power conduits. It was going to need them. The zoid powered up, the air around it crackling with raw power.
Some distant part of Angel noticed that her hair was getting all frizzy. She sighed, figuring it was just going to be one of those days. She had no idea how right she was.
There was a flash of white-hot superheated plasma around the Giga's jaws as it clamped down on Angel's zoid, and then they sheared through her zoid like a hot knife through butter. Slag dripped out the corners of the Giga's mouth as it turned its head and dropped the half-molten remains of Angel's zoid, spewing plasmic devastation like a machinegun.
The Judgeman registered one loss for Angel Fisk and one win for Hank Fisk.
Alex's Malder was next. The little thing absorbed a good deal of punishment, sucking in a good six or seven shots before the Giga turned its wrath upon the field itself, spraying fire as it trained its fateful sights on the Gordos, hitting Jenny's Leomaster and Ivy's Sinker in a couple of good surprise shots. Hank knew all too well how fragile the Gordos could be if you hit it right -- he was pretty sure that was his old Gordos, too -- and so he hammered it in the shoulders and hips. Not that it really mattered; the Cannon would have gone through the armored back as easily as the unarmored joints. Hank didn't stop cackling as the weapon slowed to a halt, the Gojulas Giga slumping to the ground as its Core bled out. Emergency overrides kicked in and the big fortress zoid fell to the ground, registering a CSF.
Carrigan's Malder was toast. Resembling nothing so much as a big pile of slag with a few shaped armor pieces, only the cockpit and core were really intact. The sand around it was glass, but it, along with Walsch's Gordos, had done enough to stop the Giga in its tracks.
For you see, the Gojulas Giga didn't get off many shots to the Gordos. Craters managed to squeeze off two, but the damaged spinal array -- which lets the Giga vent excess heat -- combined with a one-two punch head-on from the Gordos's railguns which damn near blew off the bottom half of the Giga's head all resulted in the Gojulas Giga CSFing from damage as much as exhaustion. Even that beast can't manage to withstand all that concentrated firepower.
While the Judgeman registered one loss for Alexander Carrigan, it registered one win for Steve Walsch and Alexander Carrigan. A quickie review by the human judges had dictated that credit for the victory belonged to both of the gunbunny pilots.
Jenny swore explosively as her zoid suddenly developed a large furrow streaking from the tail to just beside the cockpit. She could feel the heat off that one.
"Waitaminute. You know how to swear?" Gary chuckled as his Guysack emerged below her zoid. "Oh, and by the way: Die." His Guysack punched up with all weapons, getting her Shield Liger in its soft squishies with frantic clawing motions and rapid jabbing with the stinger. He dove back beneath the surface of the arena as her zoid collapsed from his ambush combined with the previous damage from Ivy. "This boy's back in town!"
The Shield Liger was just suffering a temporary control lapse, not a full CSF. Jenny rebooted it quickly, and soon her zoid was playing Whack-A-Mole with Gary's Guysack as his little zoid scurried underneath the arena's floor. Once again, she made the mistake of staying stationary.
"Am I bleeding?" Angel touched her forehead. When she saw the blood, she scowled. "Hank, I'm gonna kick your ass."
"Yeah, you know it was cool." Craters grinned. "Betcha Kyne's hoppin' mad, though. Y'know, he told me not to use that thing. Probably has something to do with the repair costs. But you know me and big guns . . ."
Gary's reaction was slightly different. He was awed. Speechless, even, as he made tracks for the Gordos. The big bruiser was the biggest thing on the field, but he was in a unique position to take it out.
And then Ivy blew the big bastard to kingdom-come with a serious demonstration of gunship firepower. Gary could have cried. Here he was, a burrower, and the last remaining zoids were an aerial and a Leomaster. Granted, both were in serious condition, but then again, so was he.


Round Three. These are my moves only; not Judgment.

Jenny grinned as she tracked the Sinker. "Here's something you don't see every day." She put up her shield and brought the Heavy Beam Cannon in line. She slowed her breathing, letting the FCS guide her, letting her instincts take over. She knew that her problem was that she thought too much, never really took the shot. Well, now she was going to. Exhaling slowly, Jenny squeezed the trigger and discharged the beam through her shield, sending a lance of plasma across the field to impact Ivy's Sinker. Ignoring screaming alerts as her shield started to falter from the hole she'd poked in it, Jenny continued the barrage.
Gary was not impressed. He figured his best shot was Jenny winning their little duel, so he decided to add his popguns to the mix. Surfacing just enough to bring his tail up, he opened fire on her zoid with his only real ranged weapons. Before anybody could turn on him, though, he surfaced a little more.
He revealed his Safecrackers, his babies that he'd been saving for this entire battle.
Once Ivy went down, as she'd already suffered a good deal of damage from previous rounds, and Gary was sure he was safe, he fired them bad boys directly into Jenny's behind. They sank in all at once, detonating a moment later. Jenny's zoid exploded from the inside, the shield containing the blast for a bare second before its generators lost power.
"And that's the way the cookie crumbles," Gary said at last. "I think I pissed myself."

((Remember. This second part of the post is not the Judgment. It's just Dawnstar and Stonecutters' post, so don't think that your zoid died just because they said it did.))

"WHOO-hah! Score one for the Ivester!" cried a one Bronwyn Ivesdon as she came flying through the shrapnel and dust cloud that was Steve's Gordos.

Two enemies left. Two teams, actually, and both of them piloted ground zoids. Ivy knew how to fix that one. She pulled back on the stick and the Sinker climbed, hard. This not only exposed (relatively) fresh armor to whoever felt like shooting her, but it allowed her to pull a long loop up and over the battlefield, making her a complete freaking nightmare to hit from the ground. She aimed to come in from the back of the Leomaster.

Y'know, where the shield don't cover, she thought, flipping the setting on her assault rifles over to full auto. Yeah. Full freakin' auto.

That's when she saw a tail poking cheekily up from the ground. As her Sinker came around the three-quarters-done part of the loop, she tossed a Safecracker at where she figured the body would be. One javelin left.

Ivy came roaring in from the Leomaster's rear, cleanly staying behind it with the sort of maneuverability that makes ground zoid pilots want to find aerial zoid pilots in the parking lot post-match. With a baseball bat.

As Jenny undoubtedly tried to turn and face her, Ivy just let old Jen have it, right in the back, tearing into the half she'd blasted up earlier.

Like artillery zoids and The Shot, there's really no explaining The Strafing Run to anyone who can't break 400kph and, say, 25m altitude. The wind roaring around you, the chuggachugga of your anti-zoid class assault rifles joining that weird spacey pewpewpew of your accelerated beam cannons blasting out everything they've got. And through it all flies your last Safecracker Frelling ThankyaRickYerARealPal Javelin. Glorious. Hard not to cackle like an idiot when you're doing it.

Which, incidentally, Ivy did. I mean, winning the whole thing was nice and all, but racking up kills was way cooler. She aimed to off both Jen and Gary even if it got her shot down in the process.

Once Jen's Liger gave up the ghost, Ivy hunted around for any sign of the Guysack. And then, amiably, gave it everything she had for great justice.

"Your move, 'zig.'"

Here it was. The endgame. That part of the battle where everybody gave everything they had, where the fans were starting to foam at the mouth, where team managers were at the edge of their seats and contemplating what they were going to say to Craters about Nuclear Core Cannons and Why We Don't Use Them.
That went for Kyne, too.

As Ivy blew through the expanding debris cloud that used to be a Gordos, Jenny lined up her shot. She didn't hesitate before she took it, painting her target and squeezing off a round before Ivy started her loop.
Of course, it only hit for about half a second, and it was a glancing blow. Jenny's a good shot, but not that good. Armor sizzled and flew off, but the battered Sinker remained in the air.
"I've got a bad feeling about this . . ." Jenny murmured.
"No shit." Kyne leaned back in his chair. Dawnstar's first loss since he took the reins. At least it wasn't too bad; Hank had taken out three enemy zoids before he went down.
Jenny circled about as the Sinker came up behind her, but too many Safecrackers came at her at once. Gary, having realized what Ivy was about to do, took a Safecracker just as he fired off his own into the Leomaster's shield. Jenny's zoid blew up rather spectacularly, the concentrated blast slagging her entire Leomaster. The Core containment barely held on, and Jenny herself was nearly killed -- but the cockpit held, rather miraculously.
The Judgeman registered one win for Ivy, one loss for Gary.
And now for the final showdown between Gary Stuart and one of his idols, Ivy Iveson.
Let's back up here. The Sinker is a heavily-armored, slow, and rather agile hovercraft. It flies fairly well, but it's no Raynos. It's also been taking some serious abuse this entire time, so it's about three seconds away from calling it quits.
Gary's Guysack is a Guysack. 'Nuff said. It's already taken a HBC, so it's also in seriously bad condition.
The Sinker let off a Safecracker just as it suffered serious damage to the engines, falling out of the sky with a streamer of smoke tailing it. It hit hard, but Ivy was unhurt thanks to her cockpit's own safety systems.
Gary's Guysack was mostly underground when the Safecracker hit, so the audience was spared its rather unglorious end. All they saw was a gout of fire coming up from the tail.
The Judgeman took a full thirty seconds to figure out who was the winner. When he finally raised his paddles, nearly every heart in the stadium was in its throat.
"The winner is . . . Ivy Iveson and Team Sirocco! Gary Stuart and the Stonecutters take second. Best in Show goes to Hank "Craters" Fisk, and Best Sportsman goes to Steve Walsch. Congratulations on your battle, pilots, and as always, the ZBC will cover all repairs."
(I just did that 'cause I didn't feel like writing out repairs posts for five zoids.)

Team Record Adjustments:
Team Dawnstar: 1 Loss
Team Sirocco: 1 Win
Team Stonecutters: 1 Loss
Team SilverHammer: 1 Loss