Calling all heroes!, [Site-Wide Event, Hero Side]

[Jessica Starr]

A gun sniper stopped dead on a dune as the winds blast across the sands. Several Kilometers in either direction she could only see sand, sand and some rare rocks. A thick tan tarp was tied around the gun sniper's main body blocking most of the sand from getting in and acted as a weak camouflage. The sun started to rise just to the east and it's rays pierced the dying sand storm.

Within the Gun Sniper's cockpit a rapid clicking could be heard as a message was written. "In position. Keep down. Be evil." Jessica pulled her glasses off and Violet spent a minute coding the message before sending it in a long range burst. She was forced to wait a few minutes more before getting the response. "Fine."

"Idiot, well, he's either going to get himself killed or in too deep way too early." Jessica said to Violet. The gun sniper brought up a map showing they where three kilometers away from a single fixed set of coordinates. "I know, I know. We have several hours till noon. We can take our time crossing that distance."

Violet gave a low growl and started off fallowing a set path in the sands to the coordinates on the news paper article. The gun sniper didn't seem to believe that this was in fact happening, but Jessica decided it's best to find out first hand rather then read about it.

"Violet, what do you think the chances are this is just some big hoax?" The gun sniper gave a firm growl and a roar. "So, you'd bet that it's a Hoax too wouldn't you? Well, at least James took that bet. Well, keep an eye out. If this is a trap I don't want to be caught in it. Especially since both sides practically broadcast their intents." The gun sniper stopped dead on the coordinates with four hours to spare and started to wait patiently. Jessica listened to soft music and let herself rest while the gun sniper turns it's head keeping an eye out for others to appear.

[Sylvan]

A sound could be heard, it was like an object was falling. In fact, an object WAS falling. A big, shiny, sparkly, lens-flarey, object at that.

From the sky it fell. Light shot off the object quickly as it reflected the intense desert sun. Had the beams of light not been perfectly straight, they may have been mistaken for lightning. They danced, arced, and eventually got in the eyes of anyone unfortunate enough to be within a 10,000km radius of the foil-coated object. Well. . . Anyone not wearing sunglasses that is.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

A deafening roar came out of the unidentified-falling-object. It was a man, or rather, it was a LOUD man. It was:

"WITNESS! THE FIRST SITE-WIDE DEPLOYMENT OF THE GREAT, TABAZ, THE INVINCIBLE!!!!"

He spoke in something other than maniacal laughter. As he did so, the fourth wall shook, taking a beating that only Tabaz could inflict. Because, that's who had shown up. 400m above the ground, the voice shouted out.


"THOSE WHO HAVE ARRIVED!!!! THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES HEROES!!! THOSE WHO ARE YET TO COME!!!!"

300m.

"THE PROTECTOR OF THE VAST DESERT WELCOMES YOU!!!! THE VAST WASTELAND SPREAD BENEATH A STORM OF SWORDS!!!!! THE GREAT DUNES RACE BELOW A MIGHTY ROAR OF ENGINES!!!!"

200m.

"THIS IS OUR HOME!!! THE BLUE PLANET ZI!!!! WE WILL PROTECT IT!!!!"

100m.

"THIS IS!!!!!!! TABAZ THE-"

0m.

"INVINCIBLE!!!!!!"

A massive explosion sounded out. Not too far away from a certain gun sniper. Dust mushroom-clouded as the metallic object smashed face-first into the ground. It took several moments for the dust to settle. When it did, a lone Zabat stood in the middle of the crater, unharmed.

"AND HIS MIGHTY STORM Zabat SWORDER!!!!!!!!"

Maybe the falling object had not been a zoid, but a microphone. Maybe, the object had cleared all the dust that had buried Tabaz's Zoid. Maybe, the reason Tabaz had not been seen as of late, was because he had bogged his Zoid. Just Maybe. . .

Either that, or he really was invincible =/

[Slax]

"THERE HE IS!!!"

"RRAAAAAHH!"

Slax's Gravity Bison was storming through the desert at well above maximum speed. As such, a massive dust ploom was being kicked up in his wake. He had been on the run from the military and was taking a long, winding route through the desert sands, so as to avoid search parties. He had been mostly successful, but before he completed his journey, had simply dropped everything and ran. His Zoid, the blue Gravity Bison, had been heavily damaged, but thanks to his organoid, Pacis, it was as good as new.

But the odd thing was, Slax hadn't entered the desert with his organoid, rather, Pacis had found him of his own volition. The birdlike creature had been flying through the desert when it had stumbled across Tabaz (if stumbled was the "appropriate" word) and promptly sought out his owner.

You see, Slax had a grudge against this fellow, and was hell-bent on keeping it. When Pacis had delivered him the news, he had used the organoid to heal his damaged Bison, given his team mate, Jack, his replacement Zoid, the Elephander, and had gotten the imperial officer (also a team mate) Ziris to create a paper trail to revoke the search warrant on his head (which was entirely accidental anyway). Then he had took off at maximum speed to intercept the man with the throat of steel.

And he had *finally* caught up. It had already been several days since Slax had set out alone, and the lack of proper sleep was making him a little bit... Crazy. When his eyes gazed over the unmistakable Zabat he wasted no time in lunging at his target.

Quite Literally.

With a bellow, a screech and a yell, the Gravity Bison planted its feet into the ground and started to skid to a halt. Meanwhile, the Organoid de-fused with the Zoid's core and opened up its chest cavity, taking in the human pilot before ejecting from the Zoid at high speed. In midair, Pacis' chest flung open once more, sending Slax flying through the air, straight at, and indeed onto Tabaz's Zoid. Well, nearly anyway. He skipped like a stone on a pond and bounced right off, crashing in a heap into a dune nearby.

As the dust cleared, there stood Slax, perfectly upright, his cape draped over his whole body aside from one section on his left side, where one outstretched arm parted the green fabric. At the end of this arm was a pointing finger, held dead straight at the glittering Zabat. His dark hair fall flat over his eyes, but he did not brush it aside, he gazed through it intently and opened his mouth.

"YOU!!" "What are YOU doing here!?" he bellowed.

You see, Slax was completely oblivious to the news bulletins, fliers and articles, and had no idea that a gathering was going on here.

((After this introduction, I'll probably have Slax quiet down and do very little, since I may not have time to RP him excessively. Also this is an apology to Amino and Aeolus, who I left hanging that desert RP, I simply couldn't get that RP to work, add to that my lack of time and I just had to drop it. Sorry. I could pick it up again, but only if you really want me to.))

[Tethis Aresis]

"...is it just me, or was there an explosion at the meeting point?"

"It's not just you."

"Right then. Can we squeeze any more speed out of you there, Helios?"

"I'm already going to be shitting coolant for a week, what more do you want, Tethis? An engraved fucking invitation to this meeting?"

"By Zi, did I pick up a snarky Zoid- is that a Zabat wearing foil?"

Ugliest Storm Sworder I've ever seen. Right after Helios.

"You shut it, dragon boy. Nobody asked you to steal my frame."

You just had to love talkative, rude Zoids. It had been like this the entire way from the Ethan Mountains. Tethis was enjoying a bit of banter, while Helios seemed to be really going at it with Aereos. The joys of co-inhabiting one Storm Sworder, Tethis reasoned, mind still a little distracted by the urgency of this message. What the heck was going on?

I mean, really. He considered himself a good guy, and hey, he was Helic military now. True, he wasn't assigned or anything, but he was still official and all that. Maybe this'd be a chance to show some higher ups what he was made of, make himself a bit of a name, and get some cool Zoids or some money out of it. Yes. Money for more of those friggin' expensive flying Zoids he loved to collect.

If nothing went wrong, anyways. Things went wrong with Tethis around.

[Clint Unknown]

~"Borderline, dead inside,
I don't mind, falling to pieces"~

From a distance a purple liger stood almost still, with only its massive tail swinging from sided to side. The Liger Zero Souga gazed at the other Zoids at a distance. The Glowy redness of its eyes seemed like they were screaming for motion. Fixed on destroying everything in its path...

A light snarl escaped from inside its mouth

~"Count me in, violent, let's begin,
feeding the sickness"~

A flicker came from inside the cockpit of this masculine, yet purpled beast. A small light rose from its origin, and a cigarette was placed on top of the flame. With an inhale, the flame quickly burned up the paper and meat in the middle.

"Calm down Livinston. We don't know if they're the right people. got ta do things professional. Remember what Iv taught you?"


~"How do I, simplify, dislocate,
the enemy's on the way"~


I still feel uneasy about all of this. Ripping apart that sparkly Zabat would clench my thirst some.

Clint Unknown sat in the cockpit of the Liger Zero Souga. Focused on his assignment that smacked him in the face a day ago, Clint unknown, or Star, was ready to test his abilities with a squad of uncanny zoiders.

Clint didn't replied back to Livingston's remark. But the Liger didn't take any offense to it.

You are really an unknown soldier...

As music played in the cockpit Clint was calmer than ever. War music. His kind by Breaking Benjamin.

[Aeolus]

"Good Zi, that explosion was MASSIVE!!"

Stationed atop a high dune was a tall, brooding figure whose dark armor absorbed the light of the radiant sun. A vulcan gun sat at rest upon his back and his bright red eyes gazed out from a sleekly figured head. The sun's rays ran along dark emerald trim, an appearance not typical for a Shadow Fox yet giving the Zoid a less obvious appearance, less likely to stand out against the black than the normal golden fringe.

Within the cockpit, a snowy-haired young man watched with the utmost fascination and muted horror while his eyes reflected the mushroom-shaped aftermath of a climactic entrance. The landscape seemed to bear two different impressions in those eyes, for his left eye was green and his right was crimson, both strikingly bright in the lighting. His mouth hung open with awe and he had forgotten his grip on the controls. His fingers hung loosely around them, subdued by the fantastic scene they had just witnessed.

Aeolus snapped back to attention and an almost determined graveness returned to his expression. Through the Shadow Fox's monitors, he could tell that a fair number of Zoids were already amassed for this meeting and wondered if this really was such a great deal. Granted, the poster had piqued his interest, but nevertheless...

He and his partner Zoid, Mischief, took count of who or what were there. A Gun Sniper, a Zabat covered in foil whose pilot had so dramatically greeted all those within transmission range, a Gravity Bison, a Storm Sworder, and a Liger Zero Souga. That last one appeared to be surveying the meeting from a distance as well. They watched the charging Gravity Bison with mild interest, then glanced over to the Gun Sniper to see if it had sustained any damage.

Aeolus sucked his breath in and let out a great, heavy sigh. It'd be impolite just to stand here!

"Let's go greet them, Mischief."

Quietly, the Shadow Fox yawped and took down the dune, loping for where most interested persons appeared to be gathering. Aeolus needed not to direct Mischief there manually, so he sat in that cockpit and wondered what exactly this was all about. He had to cancel on a job with his friend and everything too. So this had better be good.

[Taison Brodoc]

"We're almost there, Mai Tai. Maybe a minute"

The sky blue Shield Liger Commander, aptly named Sorairo, and its pilot, the one-and-only Taison, blazed out of the horizon, heading westward towards the meeting place. He relatively relaxed, knowing that he didn't feel like he was heading into something he regretted. Seemed like a normal day, actually.

The Liger exhaled slightly, "Where's Riku, anyway? It's not like her-"

"What was that?"

"Where'sRikuanyway? It'snotlikehimtomisssomethinglikethis?" Knowing she nearly made a mistake, Sorairo double-timed her speech.

"Umm..." He rubbed his chin, feeling the small, just-forming bumps. "I think he went to a new arcade opening or somethin'. I left the note at my base by accident."

The male looked to his left, and on the floor laid a newspaper he snatched the other day, when he and Rikku -or should I say 'Riku'- were in New Helic City.

'I wonder who this Maximillian Raincloud dude is? And why we're meeting in the middle of the desert? Why does this feel so-"

Feeling Sorairo slow, he looked up...and the strangest thing happened. You see, seeing a falling zoid is bad enough. And being in the vicinity is even worse...

But seeing a falling zoid, while being in the vicinity, AND it's covered in some reflective material that blinds you when you look at it....is ridiculous.

Unless you're Taison Brodoc himself, to which it was nothing but painful. Feeling a hammer-like throb behind his eyes, he began seeing flashing circles, sliding through the chromatic scale. It was like looking into a ton of crumpled foil and chrome. As he struggled to see again, a thud shook the foundation, and sent a maelstrom of sand and wind, which agitated Sorairo.

"Geez! What the hell, man?!" Shaking his head, he caught a glimpse of the time.

8:01 AM, or in other words, too early for nonsense.

"Hey Mai Tai...we're heeeeeeeeeeeee-re!"

The shielding raised, and, with minorly distorted vision and all, he saw a few new faces and only one familiar person...and their Shadow Fox.

He raised his arm to defend his eyes from stray sand particles (which are in abundance in a desert), 'Aeolus...and Mischief.'

[Jessica Starr]

Jessica screamed and jumped at the sound of another. "Attack!" She snagged the controls and looked around rapidly in the cockpit till she was able to hear Tabaz's full introduction. "Oh, god, please tell me he's the enemy." Violet nods in agreement and as Tabaz crashed into the sands the gun sniper marked his blip on the map as an enemy.

Violet growled and the twin machine guns primed and was ready to fire except the safeties where on and stopped her from shooting up the zabat, however when the dust settled the gun sniper only growled as Jessica was shaking her head. "You're an idiot Tabaz! God what did you put on your zabat? Is that... foil?!"

She was shocked at someone would do that much less another was dropped onto the zabat and bounced off to land in the dunes and skid next to Violet's claws. "Correction. You're an idiot. The Zabat pilot is insane." She said over an open coms and finally she decided to calm down. "Now, are you alive down there?"

Violet would growl looking at the others. She was marking everything as potential enemies for a bit or at least the most outlandish ones. The others potential friends especially as one she recognized a familiar signal from someone she met recently. The blip on the radar read 'Aeolus?' as Violet wasn't sure. "Aeolus, please tell me that you're really here and not a mistaken blip on the radar." She was expecting Zeru or Sylvan to be here too.

"Now I'm just going ask this. Who here is here cause of the news paper? Does anyone know what's going on at midnight later on today in another location? Cause I'm here to meet this, Raincloud man." Jessica said to everyone as she tried to calm herself down. She was still alert ready to fight at any moment.

[Remorame Narakoen]

“Well, this is the spot coming up just ahead... Man I hate this desert!” Remorame blew a raspberry as she pushed on the controls, forcing her distinctively green Gun Sniper into a full-pelt run, minus the boosters of course. She had been in Travel Plaza attending to her job when the newspaper article had come out, and latched onto the first opportunity to get out and about as soon as it had arisen – work had exploded with a new popularity since her last 'adventure', demanding all of her time, and now she was just sick of fixing every busted Zoid which happened to be dragged in.

And lets face it, there's a lot of busted Zoids in the middle of the desert.

On the other hand, she was now starting to regret the decision. For some mysterious reason, Taisha had completely refused to bring her and the Gun Sniper out here, claiming that “the 'Admin Gods' demanded it be so”. Now she was stuck legging it.

“Riiiggghht....” Remorame rolled her eyes, completely unawares of the fourth wall shaking about her as the thought went through her head. Her perception was further thrown off guard when an alarm sounded, and a map of the region popped up on the screen in front of her, the location of the woman and her Zoid shown on the map as well as the destination co-ordinates blaring right in front of them.

“And there is the spot,” a single radar blip notified to them that there was at least someone else there. Remorame was about to remark just this to herself when another radar blip appeared subtlety, accompanied with something else which was absolutely NOT subtle.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

“DEYAAHH! MY EARS!!”

Both pilot and Zoid yelled out and doubled over, clutching their heads, and Gunner skidding to an awkward stop and sending sand in every which direction imaginable. The Zoid straightened up and watched events unfold, however Remorame – knowing full well that attempting to turn off the intercom would not work - kept her ears blocked up as best she could for the entirety of Tabaz' monologue (which of course, had absolutely no effect whatsoever.)

When it finally seemed that all was quiet, she reluctantly pulled the fingers out of her eardrums and risked a glance, to find a massive crater in the sand right in front of her, the legendary tinfoil STORM Zabat SWORDER right in the center of it. There was also another Gun Sniper exactly on the opposite side of hole, betraying that somehow the insane pilot had managed to crater his Zoid exactly between the two snipers.

The mechanic sighed.

“Okay, I'll admit, he knows how to make an entrance. But oh gawd! Why him!?”

Hey! That's another Gun Sniper!

The 'other Gun Sniper', lacking a Wild Weasal Unit like her own one which had just been brave enough to speak up, and much more vibrantly coloured, was flailing about and growling at everything in sight. Remorame took a mental note to keep an eye on them, but just as quickly dismissed it. Frankly, should they decide to attack, her own Zoid could easily rip them apart in seconds with one well-placed Full Burst.

And as if things hadn't gotten crazy enough, the massive bulk of a DiBison – Wait no, Gravity Bison – suddenly came barreling off the lip of the impact crater, causing Remorame to yell out and back Gunner up despite the fact she was well out of range of any melee attack. The Zoid came skidding to a halt, and the obvious flash of light which signified an Organoid launched the pilot straight into the Zabat's face.

“The Hell?! What sort of idiot would do that!??” she gawked, blinked, and finally recomposed herself, as she eventually pieced together the fact that she knew exactly what kind of idiot would do that sort of thing. As Slax ricocheted off the Zoid and landed, green cloak a-flying even though there was no wind in the hole to keep it aloft, Gunner literally facepalmed.

Well, at least there would be a decent show to keep them entertained during the wait?

[Amino]

Amino had been shopping for some groceries with his sister in the city when he had found the newspaper article to come here to help fight off evil. He thought it'd be a great way to have an adventure. He also felt like having some fun with Saber, his Berserk Fury.

As soon as Amino found the article, he left his sister with all the groceries and ran back to Saber who was parked just outside the city. He yelled up at Saber to open the canopy and lower his head. Ss soon as he got close enough he jumped up into the cockpit and closed the canopy. He punched in the coordinates of the meeting spot and went full blast in the direction of the Elemia Desert. He went full blast though the desert.

Saber was absolutely clueless about what was going on, and he never liked going places when he had no clue where he was going. "Amino, where are we going now?" "There's this meeting thing going on, we're going on some type of adventure thing..." "Oh alright, works for me.. haha"

As they approached the meeting spot, a few blips started showing up on the radar, and soon, they were visible in ftont of Amino. Soon after, Amino and Saber heard maybe the most horrible sounding sound they have every heard in their lives. Aminio clamped his ears so hard that he felt as if he was going to crush his head. Saber's boosters deactivated and he spun out of control.

After the sound stopped, Saber regained control, and the boosters came back online. Amino stopped crushing his head between his hands and cut the boosters, and pulled the controls back a little to stop Saber. Amino and Saber looked around for a second and then Amino checked to make sure he was in the right place.

When Amino turned Saber around though, he then saw the other people here for the meeting. "Aright, so I guess we are in the right place. but what in the hell was that noise?" "Don't ask me, I thought my circuits were gonna fry when I heard it."

Amino saw a Gravity Bison, a Zabat, 2 Gun Snipers, a Shield Liger, and a Shadow Fox. he felt this was going to be real fun, especially since he recognized the Bison.

[Bryan Pandion]

And then there was Philippe. Blissfully unaware, around half a kilometer away.

THIS IS HALLOWEEN, THIS IS HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY MAKE A SCENE

Near asleep in the cockpit of his Kentro, the long haired pilot was totally absorbed in the sounds of Marilyn Manson. He had been there an hour or two now, awaiting the arrival of the other pilots answering the call.

I AM THE ONE HIDING UNDER YOUR BED. TEETH GROUND SHARP AND EYES GLOWING RED.

Quite at peace in the brutal rasping sounds of This Is Halloween, Philippe was in a relatively good mood, glad to be out of the streets of the large cities of Zi, fighting for something good.

I AM THE ONE HIDING UNDER YOUR STAIRS. FINGERS LIKE SNAKES AND-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!

"Oh, no." Without opening his eyes, Philippe gave a soft groan. The story of Tabaz had been well known in the time Philippe had spent in the Marines. Supposedly 'Invincible,' Tabaz had become a joking nickname for those few cocky men with little talent to back it up. Philippe bumped the volume on his in-cockpit speakers to the maximum, but try as he might, he couldn't black out the tirade and explosion. Emerging from his meditation, Philippe piloted his Bio Zoid towards the meeting point.

[Tigersight]

Liger slowly stumbled across the last stretch of his ridiculous journey. He had received word of a gathering of heroes in the Elemia Desert to fight off some huge impending evil from Tigersight yesterday. So, he had to blaze his way all the way across the continent of Delpoi, collapse on a ship to Europa, and sprint across another, larger continent just to get there in time.

So, he stumbled his way through the desert, alone. There was no way he was pulling his pilot out of school for an indefinite period of time, to trek across the world and possibly fight off the forces of evil. That just wasn't the kind of thing a sophomore in high school was supposed to do, you know?

Anyway, he stumbled toward the meeting point, marked on his radar. He was still a few hundred kilometers away, and he felt like he could barely go any further to get there. Then out of nowhere, a light blasted into his eyes like a strobe light set on "super ultra high speed" from high in the sky. He yelled and collapsed to the ground, unable to keep his balance in his state. "What-

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"AAAHH!!! My ears!!!!! Liger screamed, as the sound pounded him into the ground. The insane man screaming to the heavens finished his introduction, as he blew a good sized hole in the desert, or at least that's what it sounded like to Liger. He got back to his feet and hopped forward to stand on the crest of the next dune.

A bison type zoid charged some zoid so shiny it looked like it was made of diamonds or glass, and Liger couldn't even make the type. It charged from the opposite side of the shiny zoid from where Liger was. A bright flash came from an organoid as it defused from the Bison. The organoid flew on past the shiny zoid, and the bison stopped short. He could not make out anything else from the distance, no matter how much he tried focusing the image.

He could also make out two two gun snipers because they stood on either side of the action and each contrasted the light brown desert sand. On the left stood a dark purple one, and a bright green one on the other side.
He could not tell what else was going on and the radar didn't go nearly far enough. He was still about three or four hundred kilometers away. He started walking to get a bit closer.

[Emily Cirano]

~I sure hope we can make this quick.~

"You know she's not gonna let us back in," Alfred grumbled, slumping lower in his seat with a glance up to the sky, to where the black organoid was floating along. Obsidian snorted sourly, a cloud of smoke wafting out her nose. "At least not until we've somehow managed to scare everyone away."

~Oh fffft. Like she can't get that nasty Liger or that stupid boyfriend of hers to do it,~ the organoid growled derisively, the end of her wings giving a light flick to propel her further into the air. While this earned nothing but a sigh from Alfred, it managed to elicit a chuckle from his mostly silent Rayse Tiger. Midna loped lazily along through the sand, sunlight glinting off her black and grey frame. The pale white glow of her panels was washed out by the stronger light, though her yellow eye shone with a bright, sharp gleam.

Rebmemer eht tsal emit taht deneppah?

"Oh don't remind me," Alfred whuffed, while Midna chuckled again and Obsidian made a bewildered - sounding noise. "And we had to clean up all the mess, too. That was so awful,"

~I do wish you wouldn't do that,~ Obsidian whined from above.

"Do what?"

Ehs sehsiw ehs dluoc kaeps owt segaugnal.

"Oh, that. What, feeling left out up there?" The organoid made a FFFFFF sound, snapping her jaws down at the Tiger's head. The Rayse clicked her fangs back, slowing down to a gentle padding gait as other Zoids began to make themselves known in her radar range.

Roughly twenty minutes earlier, Emily had learned that a great deal of Zoids was gathering for some odd reason on her collective doorstep. This situation had to be remedied, but in a presumably peaceful manner this time. Thus Alfred went soaring out the hangar door with a sore rear and the edict that he was not to return until he had persuaded the end of the world to go occur somewhere else. Not that the base wasn't incredibly well defended and bristling with large pointy things as-is, but y'know. Pacifism and whatnot.

Which brings us to the here and now. Midna trotted up a dune and was treated to a wide variety of Zoids coming together. Obsidian swooped down to perch on the Tiger's ear, looking over the scene with a grimace. ~Whatever is this lot doing out h - ~

Something like a small meteor impacted the earth not too far away, washing over the Rayse with a wave of sand. When the dust settled, Midna looked rather like the world's largest sand sculpture. After a moment, Obsidian picked herself up out of the space between the armor where she had fallen and gave several dry coughs, shaking her wings to rid them of grit. A gentle tug on the controls from Alfred prompted Midna to shake furiously and throw off the sand, watching it leak out from her joints.

The Zoidian himself was looking like he was on the verge of having a migraine. "Oh dear Eve, it's that yelling guy."

~What? -ptoo!- Oh hell. Where's Abby when you need him?~ Obsidian groused, glaring at the Zabat grounded into the ground. Then there were more yelling people, various other Zoids coming closer, and Alfred just...facepalmed.

"I wonder if we can just go to Tom's until this is over," he mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

~Oh sure, why not. You can help him nail Kevlar to the windows.~

[Dalen]

“We’re going to be late!”

“No we’re not. Besides, I’m not the one that’s paranoid about being seen by you know who. This is as fast as I can burrow!” The Zoid was irritated that her pilot was taking such ridiculous precautions. She was going to make a remark about his lack of courage, but held back. She enjoyed taunting her puny companion, but even she could tell that Dalen was visibly shaken from their last encounter with Cade and attempted to tone down her attitude. Her pilot had gotten her repaired not too long ago after the incident; the patchwork of new armor still needed a good paintjob and her actuators could use some more fine tuning. Still, she was glad they were putting distance behind them, because she was a little wary as well, though she would never admit it to the human.

Dalen was indeed concerned for his wellbeing. That was why he came in answer to this odd notice. Surely he would be safe in the vicinity of other do-gooders; well, no guarantees, this was Cade after all. Dalen was brought back to the present by a loud ear shattering transmission from an open channel followed immediately by a slight bump in the ride. It just sounded like someone yelling, but who would do such a thing; perhaps a message was receiving interference from their subterranean traverse?

“Did you feel that?”

“I felt something, but I definitely heard that.”

“Let’s surface here and see what we’re heading into. We’re almost there.” Obsidian slowed her pace and headed up until they stopped with her tinted cockpit clearing the surface of the dry sand. Dalen was half expecting to be staring into the twin barrels of his adversary’s Cannonfort, but to his relief, his eyes were treated to the sight of a multitude of Zoids gathering around a small impact crater; a cloud of disturbed sand was still settling around the area.

“This would actually be a great opportunity for someone to eliminate all of us with a single giant blast. With so many of them moving towards that area, though, I’m sure it must be safe enough… right? ”

“You said it, not me.” With that Obsidian slid out from beneath the sand and approached to see what all the commotion was about.

[Timber Okami]

[This is just my character post, not the next part of the story.]


A bright blue blob of something or other padded over the desert sands, the sheer amount of blue and the heat from the desert sands distorting the form of the Zoid. It wasn't too hard to make out the blocky head and body of a Shield Liger, though.

"Who's bright idea was it to do this in the middle of the day?"

I dunno, but whoever it was, they are stupid,

Blade looked to his shoulder, and saw the black and gunmetal muzzle of his Organoid poking around from the seat behind him. It was only the tip of Maelstrom's nose, but he poked the Organoid back to his seat on Celia's lap.

Maelstrom, the black wolf Organoid, huffed and slumped back against his fellow copilot. Way too hot outside for this, he grumbled, curling up against the Manticore and resting his head on the console next to them.

The Guardian Force pilot was mildly curious and mildly suspicious about this whole thing, but kept any such thoughts to himself. They were just going to check it out, nothing more. Which is why Blade had brought Celia and her Shield Liger along, so they could get in a little more piloting practice.

He didn't figure that anything bad was going to happen. And even if it did... he still had Maelstrom.

So when he heard a sudden WHAM, he only tilted his head a little and looked around. No gunfire, he figured, and the plume of sand was... up ahead.

At the coordinates.

"I'm almost wishing I would have brought Raider," he sighed quietly to himself, chuckling. Didn't sound mad, just... rethinking his brilliant plans for the day. Best made plans of mice and men, you know...

[Razor]

It was not exactly what he'd expected to do today. Sure, he'd heard news of this mysterious bulletin that had been posted for both supposed heroes and villains, but he'd thrown his metaphorical rocks down those paths before and had believed them as much as anyone else would have believed that Eve had gone skipping down the road earlier that week with a basket of eggs. Which was probably something he would have at least thought about before disbelieving, one could never be too sure about those types of things. So to say he was...peeved to be out here, in the middle of the desert, watching the bloop on the radar of numerous other Zoids all approaching the set destination would have been an obvious statement. Which led to why he was out here. As a member of the Guardian Force, he had an obligation to the people of Zi. That and Zeke had been acting like a giddy school girl to maybe have something exciting to do again considering how long it had been since they'd had a real threat on their hands. Not that this was one, but Van Flyheight could darn well sulk if he wanted too.

His dark gaze stayed on the radar, eying the various other numbers that was accumulating, only partially interested in the numbers that climbed as they started to get ever closer to their destination. A part of him wanted to open the communication link and listen to see what everyone else thought of this silly endeavor, but another part was partially afraid of just what he'd be finding from them. What if he was surrounded by a collection of crazies? As energetic as he could be, to suddenly realize he was alone in the almost common sense thought frame he was in would have been frightening. Still...his fingers tapped over the controls and, after another moment of hesitation, released the mute button. Only to hear some psychopath ranting about how he was invincible.

Oh god.

A sigh left him and he felt the Blade Liger give an amused hum to his fear of the situation, which was only echoed, albeit more quietly, by Zeke atop the Zoids head. A glare was sent to the panel in front of him as he slouched in the cockpit, unable to voice his frustration. "Really? C'mon, this has got to be some sort of idiotic way to get a bunch of us together and then...I don't know, nothing happen. That doesn't sound like much fun to me."

Afraid? The rare, quiet voice Zeke gave was filled with amusement and Van huffed. "No, I just think this could be nothing. Or, worse, a trap."

It's fine. Van paused, waiting to see if that was going to be it and when Zeke only gave a growl to the Liger, the Guardian Force pilot looked away from the panel before him to outside the cockpit. There were more Zoids here then he'd thought there would be. Maybe that whole surrounded by crazy people thing was going to be a possibility after all. On top of the Blade Liger, Zeke pushed himself to stand, giving a roar of greeting to the others. Just because Mister Flyheight was being a baby didn't mean Zeke was going to be rude and standoffish.

[Celia Cacciatori]

Celia felt...odd.

It had seemed like forever since she had been outside--really outside. She had started to forget that Zi was a desert in the proper, broiling, sandy-sense, rather than one of cold and snow and ice that liked to grow on her when she was asleep and lock up her joints.

Looking outside through the tinted canopy, the sky seemed very blue; no clouds.

Being out somewhere strange was a little worrying, though. She wasn't...very good at piloting. Which was an understatement, in her opinion.

But with Maelstrom using her as a couch, she didn't have to try and fail at piloting right now. The Organoid's weight was only a distant pressure on her cybernetic limbs--whereas if they had been living, organic ones, some blood flow would have been cut off by now.

And, he didn't mind her scratching his ears like a dog. And he didn't mind her claws, either, which meant she wouldn't hurt him accidentally.

Celia looked up and around when Blade started to speak, noticing little blobs of color beyond the reinforced glass. Other Zoids. The optic in place of her left eye churned a little, and zoomed in to try and see--but then she had the disorienting problem of seeing both at a normal level and a magnified one at once. She stopped that silliness before it gave her a headache.

The plume of sand grabbed her attention away from the other Zoids, anyway.

"Maybe it's an orbital drop satellite? And we're supposed to fight while it records what we're doing and a little man inside it yells things?"

Then Celia blinked, not fully understanding what she herself just said. Where had that idea come from?

She did hear what Blade said, though, and pinned her antennae back with a little stab of sadness.

"...but I would have scratched his paint." Her voice seemed like it was trying at humor, though it was a little too quiet and meek to carry the point across.

[Timber Okami]

So who thinks this is a trap, raise your hand?

Anyone who just raised their hand would be correct.

"Son of a -. Who the hell is that loud guy?"

"Who cares. He gets the cannon first,"

"Is it time yet?"

"Just about..."

So while all the hero folk who had gotten here early had plenty of time to socialize or talk or get irritated at their fellow man, time continued ticking on. And on.

Till finally.

12:00 PM.

For whatever bizarre reason, a weird kind of silence descended over everyone. Nobody else had approached them for about a half an hour now.

But the desert sands started to kick up, as did a faint hum of something. Anyone aerial inclined would recognize them as... flight engines. Massive ones. But the sand was starting to kick up all around the amassed group, making it hard to pinpoint the flight engines from blowing dust.

Tethis (Sorry man, godmoding your character for the sake of the story), since he was the only one still in the air, had a much better view then anyone on the ground, and would be the first to see the monster. He saw a flash of black, purple and pink before there were suddenly teeth trying to take a chunk out of his Storm Sworder.

The Gilvader screeched around its huge knife teeth, taking a second out of harassing the Storm Sworder to turn on the group on the ground with its huge gun array. While a full out spam on everyone would surely make some holes and cripple some of the smaller Zoids, it was the wing guns that adjusted, right on Tabaz in the middle.

"Hey man, fire the disabler first," one of the other voices reminded the Gilvader pilot as he got ready to fire. "Right, right,"

Down on the ground, the sand only got thicker, but if anyone would look up they'd see the monster flapping above before they'd ever see what was around them.

Anyone with more environment monitors then an average Zoid would notice a sudden build up in electrical current coming from the point of the meeting before a shockwave of electromagnetic energy shot out in a pulse that made all the Organoids present drop like a sack of potatoes. All the Zoids fizzled for a second before their Pulse Guards kicked on and they all went back to normal. Though, all the radar systems seemed to be malfunctioning slightly.

And we're not even to the worst part yet!

Back up with the Gilvader, it took aim at Tabaz and loosed... a single shot. It thundered with a boom that would give Van a flashback and a shiver down his spine.

The Gravity Cannon.

The (much smaller then the Ultra's) Gravity Cannon Shell whistled through the air and towards the center of the grouping, right at the coordinates... right at Tabaz. Upon impact with the sand or a very unlucky Zabat, the field exploded outwards into a 100 meter (diameter!) gravity field that would crush anything within the range. It lasted for about ten seconds before fading out and leaving a giant, messy crater in its place.

Not only was there a Gilvader suddenly attacking them, but there were other things moving around them, if their fritzy radars weren't lying. Alfred, Taison, Van, Dalen, and Jessica would get a nasty surprise when suddenly there was razor teeth, heat charged claws, of thermic beams flying around them as a Brastle descended on each person from the sandstorm.

There were more shapes moving in the dust, guns raising from their backs and other weapons preparing.

Alright, heroes. Someone is trying to kill you! You gonna let that happen, or what?


--


All Organoids are out until I say otherwise, just in case that wasn't clear. Visibility is crap beyond a few Zoid lengths, radars (stock standard ones) are on the fritz too. (Specialty ones still work)

We are having fun here, so keep that in mind~ I can't actually kill anyone, so at least try not to be a godmoding/powerplaying twit, alright? Also, if you're a jerk I will cripple your Zoid and you will not like that.

Enemy Force: The Gilvader, Brastle Tiger x5, Descat x9 [x10 with Siler]

You guys can control the Descats, but the Brastles and the Gilvy are mine. Just don't take them down too easily, and if I see that happening I'll yank them back under my control. Either way, this is the one and only phase that I can guarantee that you guys will not fail.

But you can get hurt pretty bad if you don't play your cards right.

Good luck.

[Sylvan]

"AHAHAHAA, TO THE SKIES, MY STORM Zab-BLARGHARG!!"

Foil crunched and twisted, a brief flash of light was all that remained under the silvery coating. The thin film of metal, was being made much thinner at the bottom of the localised black hole.

"VERY WELL! YOU DECLARE YOURSELF A FOE TO THE GREAT TABAZ, THE INVINCIBLE!!!! WITNESS THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF ALMIGHTYNESS!!!"

That's right. Even as the foil was being crushed to oblivion, Tabaz still yelled at the top of his lungs. Yet he was not defying the laws of physics. (yet). His Zoid flew only meters above the black hole, boosters in full thrust. Yet there was something different about it. The foil was gone. However, the tinsel, paper mache and paint still remained. In the nick of time, Tabaz's Zoid had shot up vertically. The foil had ripped off in the sudden acceleration, and a few decoy flares were what made up the "explosion" that had consumed his previous armour.

"PREPARE YOURSELF, THE GREAT TABAZ THE INVINCIBLE HAS CHALLENGED YOU TO A DUEL OF THE SKIES!!!! THIS GREAT DESERT, THIS MAGNIFICENT PLANET ZI, WE SHALL PROTECT IT!!!!! YOUR EFFORTS TO PROVOKE THE DEFENDER OF THE DESERT HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL!!!!! PREPARE TO FACE THE WRATH OF STORMS! THE SPEED OF SWORDS! THE SILENCING OF STEALTH! LET MY SHOW YOU THE STRENGTH OF THE MIGHTY STORM Zabat SWORDER STEALTH Normal TYPE!!!!! "

Strangely, living up to its name, the Zoid was stealthed. Although this was because of the previous EM pulse, and had nothing to do with Tabaz's own actions.

((OOC: was going to write more. But really big shyt just hit the fan IRL. I gotta go. Hopefully there is enough there to go off.))

[Slax]

Slax was just standing there, waiting for a reply, or rather, ignorantly mouthing off at his sworn nemesis while the others were arriving, after all, he wasn't here for them, he was just here by coincidence. But after what seemed like hours of blasting his mouth off without Tabaz even noticing, he got fed up and grabbed the daggers sheathed in his belt. These weapons were his pride and joy. While he was only a mediocre Zoid pilot and at best a passable tactician, his skills with the daggers were something he could boast about- if he ever did any boasting, or for that matter, if he ever used them.

But it didn't matter how good his hand-to-hand combat abilities were, since as he pulled the weapons out, a psychic voice screeched in his head.
SLAX! STOP! We've got bigger things to worry about!
"huh?"

Was all he managed to say, briefly looking around and noticing the dozen-odd Zoids standing around him, before he was grabbed by the shoulders and yanked into the air. His organoid, after de-fusion, had simply circled around the meeting place, using it's stealth abilities to not attract any attention, while scoping the place out. But as it had flown around it had seen the thing coming, the big, nasty, horribly powerful thing coming. And it had taken no time in grabbing Slax and literally throwing him at his Zoid.

"HEY! What's the big idea Pacis?"

"... Oh."

Slax's gusto vanished and he turned a bit pale as he glanced backward and saw the incoming Zoid. In a panicked scramble, he jumped back into the still-open cockpit and grabbed the reigns, closing the Zoid's hatch just as the onslaught started. The attack was amazing, a small glowing sphere of something he had never personally witnessed, but had researched in great detail. The Gravity Cannon. A Black Hole.

Wide-eyed, he immediately focused and brought himself to attention, calling Pacis with his mind-link to the organoid.

"Quickly, Pacis, Fusion, we'll need it!"

"... Pacis?"

There was no response, he tugged at the controls, only to see that they too were acting up, until Bison's inbuilt safeguard kicked in and settled the Zoid back down. As soon as he had control back, he hit the shield, putting it up to protect himself against the shockwave generated by the oncoming attacks.

It held, as thankfully, nothing appeared to be directly target at him, or else he would have been vaporised for sure. It had surely lost some energy, but he didn't know how much, as he was far more interested in finding his organoid. In an almost panicked search, he kept looking at the now-inexplicably-dead radar but could not see his Organoid. Presumably, it had crashed into the sand and buried itself, but either way, Slax was forced to bring himself to focus on the enemy(s) at hand. There was alot of them, and alot of allies as well. Who was which, he could not be sure.

So he did the one thing he was known for.

"MEGALOMAX!!

His Zoid's guns blazed to life with their trademark golden glow, as they aligned and raised themselves skyward. He wasn't actually aiming *at* the Gilvader, his attacks were too slow and short-ranged to hit anything that was airborne (besides, he didn't even know it was a Gilvader at this stage), rather he was just adjusting the arc of his guns so that they would split at the highest point possible, thus ensuring his attack would achieve maximum spread.

You see, he wasn't aiming *at* anything at all. He was actually just using his attack to light up the desert. The radiant glow of the golden beams would surely give off enough light, if only momentarily, for everyone else to see their enemies and pick out a target. If he hit someone or thing, well that was their bad luck (or his good luck), but he highly doubted he would hit anything with this kid of spread.

An old proverb rang in his head. "A hero is someone who is afraid to run away..." He smirked. "...That either makes me a hero or a moron, and if I survive this, I guess I'll know which one it is then." He said to himself with a grin, he wasn't confident, he never was, but when someone is running purely of courage, how can they do anything but smile in the face of overwhelming defeat? And courage was the one thing that would make the impossible, possible. "And guns. Courage and guns." Slax thought as his attack blazed outward.

______________________________________________________
Too long? Short version:

Got in Zoid, fired megalomax, maximum spread, unaimed, as a light source to invrease everyone else's visibility

[Remorame Narakoen]

As more people slowly showed up, Remorame began to back away from the hole about ten metres in case it gave way and decided to landslide her and her Zoid into the pit with Tabaz and Slax. Considering the former’s well-known motor-mouth, that was a place she certainly did no want to be, despite his uncharacteristic quietness in response to the human glued to his cockpit. While she had to admit she was curious as to what beef Slax may have with the insane pilot, she didn’t want to subject her ears to anymore torture if she could help it, and instead set to scouting out what other people were showing up and if anyone else she knew was here.

There was the tinfoil covered Zabat and Slax’s Gravity Bison of course, so she fiddled with the console to change their plots on the radar from yellow to green (Tabaz’s one much more reluctantly, seeing as she was used to being dragged into Taisha’s duels with him rather than actually allying with him). There was also the purple Gun Sniper across the hole, a Shadow Fox which was making its way over and a Shield Liger whose pilot apparently knew them and was ignoring everyone else. Once again Remorame set the radar to recognising them as allies.

“Might as well keep at it: there doesn’t appear to be much else to do!” she chuckled to herself and sped up the rate at which she was changing the colour of the dots, merely for the purpose of seeing how quickly she could: That real Storm Sworder she kept catching glimpses off every now and then, a Berserk Fuhrer whom had been hit as hard as she had by Tabaz’s yelling, a Bio Kentro, a Rayse Tiger, a Blade Liger and another Shield Liger. There was another three blips on the very edge of her radar as well, but their distance was a tad suspicious so she left them in the unsure yellow colour.

“Done!” faking pride in the accomplishment of the somewhat mundane task, the mechanic/Zoid pilot leant back in her seat to wait out the (oddly uneventful) last few minutes before the arranged time.

When said time ticked around and nothing happened, Remorame’s suspicions were sent on the fritz. Frowning, she joined a public intercom channel and broadcasted to all within the range of her radar system.

“Um... Isn’t something meant to happen now?”

Then it did: a distinctly red dot blasted it’s way onto the radar at such a speed that it blurred.

“WHAT IN THE-!?” with no time to think, Remorame jerked the controls backwards and upwards as the world seemed to explode around them, sand flying up everywhere as some darned massive guns began blasting everything to smithereens. Gunner was able to barely avoid the initial barrage by jumping back due to his pilot’s frightened reflex reaction, and as she realised they were under attack, she instinctively did what was always the first part of her battle strategy: get to long range!

She once again pulled on the controls, however this time she simultaneously stomped down on a peddle. The Gun Sniper jumped and spun about in midair, the Ion Boosters roaring to life and propelling it further away from the targeted sight. And just in damned time too.

What happened next Remorame couldn’t begin to describe. All she knew as that something caught them while still off the ground and slammed them hard. The woman was thrown back into her seat, yelling out in surprise. Next thing she knew, there was a massive CRASH and everything blacked out.

===

What had in fact happened, was that the Gravity Cannon’s Planatalasite Shell had impacted while she was in the air, yet still within the radius of everything which would have been compacted into individual atoms. As the zone of anti-gravity had expanded, it had very suddenly come up under and crashed into the Gun Sniper, propelling them into the distance in the very much the same way the initial Gravity Cannon tests done by the Ultrasaurus in the ocean had done with the seawater.

And so it was that Gunner became the first Gun Sniper in Zi’s history to fly.

zOMGdWTFtBBQ!!!???! D: D: D:

Van Flyheight and Zeke were soon treated to the spectacular view of the flailing Zoid zipping straight over their heads and into the distance. On the other hand, the Brastle Tiger charging them would more than likely take attention off the comical sight very quickly.

===

Remorame coughed a number of times, her vision dancing with little stars and fading in and out of blackness as she recovered from very nearly slamming her head into the control unit. Good thing she had been wearing her harness, as that was possibly the only thing which had saved her from either a particularly nasty concussion in the best case scenario, or in the worst case, a caved-in skull.

“Oh jeezsh.... What the heck happened?” she stared rather dopily at the displays in front of her, not exactly absorbing the fact that she had been flung a good kilometre or two – out of range of even her RADOME-improved (and hence still functioning) radar systems – or the damage report indicating that Gunner had landed on his side, crushing the right hand gun-arm of the Wild Weasel Unit.

She took a moment to pant and recompose, and as her brain started working again the instrument’s displays started to actually have meaning.

“Got attacked by... something... Gotta help... The other-Oh WOW, now THAT’S how you get range!” upon noticing the empty radar display, Remorame’s lethargy almost instantly subsided and she glanced out of the cockpit to find that the place she had previously been standing was now far in the distance, causing her to exclaim the humorous remark despite the gravity of the situation. The sounds of battle were but a faint ringing in her ears.

Or was that just a ringing in her ears? Oh well.

Even with the grogginess gone, the process of piloting Gunner back onto his feet was done with shaking limbs and winces whenever she had to move her chest. When the Zoid was finally righted again, she couldn’t help but groan at the thought of the massive bruises which would have been left by her harness/seatbelt. But even that failed in comparison to the sight she beheld.

Holy crumbs a GILVADAR?!

===

Okay, I’m gonna be doing the TL;DR OOC summery thing, makes this feel like a classic judged battle from way back when, lol.

Jumped in surprise from gunfire and got slingshotted over the horizon by Gravity Cannon.
Provided comedy relief with antics.
Remo got knocked about the cockpit and bruised – she’s probably even bleeding a bit, but she doesn’t know yet.
The right hand of my WWU is crumpled up and out of commission.
Gunner got back up and did the Zoid equivalent of emptying his bowels in fright. There are now nuts and bolts strewn about his feet.

Now I can’t exactly do anything until I know what... Van, Delan and Taison are doing, because I’m guessing that they’re the ones closest the where I got thrown so they’d be the ones who’ll get my support fire first.

I’m also looking for feedback on that post: I want to know what people thought of it in terms of trying to avoid Mary-Sue/Godmodism. Cause let’s face it: Remo was right in the firing line of that Gravity Cannon, she wasn’t going to get out of it unscathed.

[Siler Wildwind]

The Elemia Desert was like any true desert: hot, sandy, arid, and a general pain in the but as sand got into the joints of zoids, Siler himself had been born in prairies, seas of green grass which had an odor to it that registered home. Here in the desert, it was dunes of sand which rose like mountains. It wasn't a particularly cheery place at all to be.

There were two zoids traversing the desert. One was Garm; the blood-red, battle-loving Whitz Wolf. Garm didn't employ his boosters at the moment, running at a regular pace with merely the power in his legs. Flying above was Foamy, the recently purchased Savinga with matching colors to Garm. Foamy circled overhead in the air within distance to keep communication, an advanced scout for the party.

Inside Garm was Siler Wildwind. The recently-introduced Blue Unicorn was returning from the Wind Colony, where he had purchased Foamy. Siler could have gotten a Savinga anywhere, but he needed a specific one to be able to fuse with Garm into a Whitz Tiger. It took research into Garm's production to find his counterpart, and the research led Siler and Garm to the Wind Colony, where the found and bought Foamy. Now they were on their way back to New Helic City, back to base for assignment.

The first warning of the impending battle was from Foamy, in a chittery-voice, going "Yo boss, there's something rea-lly big on the horizon in the air, and I mean REALLY BIG!"
Siler was always annoyed by the way Foamy talked: a nervous stutter that he was sure was going to drive him insane. "What is REALLY BIG suppose to-"
BOOM!
The impact of the miniature black hole set off a shockwave that they heard kilometers away. Siler couldn't register the weapon that did it, but it could not be good. Either way, they needed to get closer to see what was going on.
As Siler started to prepare, Garm asked "are you sure now is the time to try it out? We've only fused once, and that was not under battle conditions; not only do we have to adjust, but you will be getting use to a new zoid as well."
Siler knew that Garm had a point, but that blast..."I don't think we have a choice" answered Siler. "I definitely do not like what I just heard, and we have to use it at some point, so we might as well start now." When Garm didn't give another word, Siler put in the final sequence and shouted "FUZORS COMBINE!"

Garm hit on the Whitz Boosters and leaped into the air under the sun. Meanwhile, Foamy completely disassembled as his pieces accelerated towards Garm, as if magnetically attracted to the Whitz Wolf. The plates attached to his face while the blades joined to his cannons. When the tiger landed, the new Zoid, the Whitz Tiger, roared into the sky.

The Whitz Tiger fired the Whitz Boosters, now accelerating it to 340 kilometers per hour. As the Whitz Tiger passed over the final dune, the chaos of the situation came to Siler's eyes. The various zoids on the ground were all most likely piloted by skilled pilots who were indeed threatening, but the eyes definitely went to the Gilvader. Siler had no idea what it was and could only gawk at the leviathan of a zoid in front of him. Bad move.

The Descat slammed into the side of the Whitz Tiger in a flurry of claws and teeth. The two felines rolled in the sand from the collision caused by the Descat, with the Descat ending up seemingly pinning the Whitz Tiger from the surprise ambush. While the Descat had not had time to charge its Electron Claws, the Electron Bite Fangs began to charge as the Descat prepared to apply the finishing stroke. The Whitz Tiger, however, threw the lighter Descat off as it's ass flung up and it kicked with its hind legs, sending the Descat into the sand. The Whitz Tiger rolled onto its feet as the Descat rose up from the ground. Both felines snarled at each other, squaring themselves up for the fight.

[Jessica Starr]

Violet and Jessica had fumed over the insanity of a pair of pilots before finally deciding to tone the situation out. Her coms where turned down and her music came back on over everyone. Violet moved some giving the two a wider berth to see just who was around. Seeing another gun sniper made her feel good, but she seemed to be the only one who covered her zoid in some loose tarp. She let her eyes close and relax till the time ticks off to the final minutes.

The soft relaxing music was allowing Jessica to relax before static fills the air of the cockpit. The EM wave that knocked out her radar also messed with the music program, leaving her alert. The sands kicking up around her, whipping at the protective tarp that wrapped around the gun sniper. "Looks like something is going on." She pushed the controls forward and gave a sharp tug on a small leaver. Several small sharp pops sounds a second before the heavy boom of the Gravity Shell drowns it out.

Violet roared as Jessica hit the button for the boosters. They burn off as the gun sniper runs forward the rush of sand from the Gravity Well, was lit up by a burning tarp as it flies off like a discarded cloak into the center of the black hole. Now the shiny armor of the gun sniper was cloaked in only the shadow of The Gilvader. Jessica gave a single look up to the behemoth and she laughed loudly over the open coms directing it at the zoid and anyone who'd listen.

"Hello Mr Raincloud, I bet you couldn't help but to rain down on our little parade." She said almost cockily before noticing the Brastle Tiger now charging at her. "Oh look, we got a few wild rain drops trying to turn into a flood. All right you wanna be heros! Lets burst that Raincloud and let the sun shine down!"

After she gave her attempt at a rallying cry for everyone she glared at the Brastle Tiger that was getting closer. She pulled at the controls bringing the manual targeting reticles at the brastle tiger's shape even the cockpit if she had to. She started to fire both of her machine guns and her beam cannon without waiting for a lock on. The radar problem made getting a good lock for her missiles difficult.

[Tethis Aresis]

There was... it was a blur. Moving too fast for him to see. It was black and had some pink and purple on it somewhere. Whatever it was, it was fast. Not as fast as him right now, but damn that thing could move.

"...say... what was-"

CRUNCH!

Something'd just nicked his left wing! It had to be that flying Zoid!

Tethis hooked his Storm Sworder around to the left just in time to avoid the teeth again, hearing it crunch - before the gigantic aerial battle platform turned its guns on the ground Zoids. There were a hell of a lot of them and- holy shit that was a fierce crackle of energy.

"Hey, Aereos, something's just shorted. Get on that, will ya? ...hey, Aereos?"

No response.

"Damnit!"

A thunderous roar of a shell whizzed past, but Tethis didn't notice. No organoid so he was now slower than this thing, sand was flying, he could barely see for shit, and there was a giant Zoid bearing down on him somewhere. Probably still behind him- behind!

Tethis cut all speed to Helios' engines, letting himself float backwards as the head laser blade activated, trying to drop just enough that the Gilvader, with its insane speeds would have no choice but to overshoot and fly over Tethis, meaning it'd run into the laser blade and have a nice gash in its underside. Not much, but it'd be a start.

[Tigersight]

The meeting time was coming up, and Liger was almost there. He only had about 100 kilometers left to cover and about an hour and a half left. He finally decided to lie down for an hour to recover his strength.

When the timer went off, he felt much better especially knowing that he would be on time. He stood up and picked up the pace, running about half-speed. He was still a bit tired, and he'd ran more slowly than he wanted to without realizing it.

The meeting was in ten minutes and he was farther away than he should be. He still had about 11 or 12 kilometers to go. "Of course." he huffed, "oh whatever. I don't think they'll care if I'm a few minutes late."

He capped another dune and paused. He noticed something. Like before, he could see all of the zoids attending. (Even though he couldn't make most of them out) That struck him as odd. Most of the desert was flat, but it was covered in dunes. If the area was flat here, the dunes should have blocked his view of a few zoids at least. So, he quickly surveyed the land. He found that the whole area was shaped like a shallow bowl. The incline was slight, but from far away, it showed. Also, the only really flat area was the kilometer or so directly around the meeting point. A bowl shaped area with a dip not noticeable to those in it... It was suspicious, and put him on guard. Probably not a good idea to go to a meeting of heroes and act guarded and suspicious, he thought. "Good thing I'm showing up late," he said to himself with a slightly bitter chuckle.

He was about 5 kilometers away when the meeting was about to start. He checked the time, 11:58. He still ran at half-speed, not wanting to use too much energy, or get there too early, he added. He still held onto his suspicions. He started seeing glimpses of movement on the other side of the bowl. Most of it was hidden behind dunes, even from this height. So, everyone at the meeting spot is oblivious to it, he noted. He tried not to flinch, much less look, when he realized that if this was a trap, they would come from all sides. That meant that if he was being followed. He cut power to all of the cockpit control systems and diverted all of the excess power to combat systems. Part of him realized that he might be acting paranoid, but that was trampled by his logical, if sometimes overly cautious side.

He made sure not to fall into a more combat ready lope. Nothing showed up on his radar, which either meant that they were cloaked, or making sure to stay out of radar range. The glimpses of movement he caught on the other side told him that it was probably the latter, but he didn't rule out rule out camouflage. He scanned as far behind him as he could without moving his head. He watched for any movement on his rear and a little while out on his side, to confirm that they were coming from all sides. He thought he caught a few glimpses, but he couldn't tell because everything was so blurred from looking so far back. He kept going, as the last seconds passed until the meeting.

The time of the meeting came. It came so fast he barely even saw it. A monstrosity seemed to materialize out of thin air. It made a pass at the only flying zoid, and seemed to do some damage. "Oh my god," he gasped in disbelief. He thought this might be a trap, but a Gilvander?! He checked his radar. There they were; three red dots appeared on his flank, closing in fast. The Gilvander turned from its aerial attack and fired. Even over two kilometers away, Liger felt the sharp tug as a miniature black hole appeared in front of him. Liger dug his claws into the ground. Refusing to go any closer. The dots on his radar closed in to 500 meters, then vanished. In that instant, his systems started shorting out. He immediately activated the pulse guard, bringing them back online. The radar was rendered useless by the pulse, at least for the time being, so he cut power to it, and used that to power the pulse guard in case someone decided to try that trick again. Huge amounts of sand were thrown into the air, along with that neon green gun sniper he saw before. The gun sniper seemed to fly all the way over the horizon.

Next, the Gilvander loosed a volley of fire down on everything in the immediate area. Liger was lucky enough to not have to worry about that. Glad I took my time, I might just have some kind of advantage. As the sand started descending, turning sight into a joke, everything became rather quiet around him. He knew that three zoids were still closing in on him, so he listened for their footsteps. If they were having the same problems seeing as him, he might be able to get the drop on them. Then again, their radars might still be working, because they were ready for that EM pulse. He turned around quickly, trying to soften his footfalls in the sand. He lowered into a crouch, waiting to hear his enemies.


======
(I know, that was really long)
TL;DR

Liger sleeps, then runs the rest of the way.
Notices the whole area is shaped like a bowl.
Gets suspicious of a trap.
Sees enemies sneaking up on the meeting point.
Watches the Gilvander do stuff.
Waits to surprise the 3 enemies behind him.

[Aeolus]

((Summarized version: Ran away, turned on optical stealth, and now running blindly while firing vulcan rounds at the Gilvader.))

Mischief and Aeolus had been content to watch the goings-on around them. Neither of them knew much about the Tabaz guy, but at the very least they were both entertained by the interactions around them, all the while vaguely recognizing one of the Gun Snipers in the area as well as a Shield Liger. Then again, most Shield Ligers were blue or some other Republican theme...

They'd been happy enough until a screech startled the two.

Mischief swung around, the motion jolting Aeolus in the cockpit and making him a bit dizzy for a moment. When his eyes refocused he took a glance at the radar. So many Zoids had joined them, yet the sheer amount of blips did not hide the newcomer. The cockpit lurched as Mischief swung his head up to see what was cloaking the sky in darkness.

Aeolus and the Shadow Fox gawped as a monstrous figure nearly tore the group's Storm Sworder to bits. The pilot sighed as the Storm Sworder appeared to elude the worst of the attack, but when the cockpit around him rattled and the lights flickered, Aeolus knew he ought to be worried. He held tight to the controls while he called Mischief's name, expecting a response. The Shadow Fox only emitted a low and almost breathless yelp.

Mischief staggered once his Pulse Guard was on. Back in control, he lifted his head in something of a daze, optics focused on the Gilvader. Mischief seemed very certain that the shockwave had come from their guest. It took Aeolus a moment to pick up on this, but he did nevertheless, and he shrank down in the cockpit with an almost ill look.

The Gilvader's cannons were adjusting their aim. Mischief snickered motionlessly, focused entirely on that small gesture while his pilot seemed unable to notice.

"Mischief, hey! Are you all right?" said Aeolus worriedly.

And then a thunderous boom rocked the desert, at which Mischief immediately yanked away, jarring his partner once more with the sudden motion. Aeolus felt the breath fly out of his lungs, but training told him to collect himself immediately and take the controls. He pushed forward and felt the Shadow Fox accelerate with it. There was another tremor which made Aeolus glance back, and Mischief turned his head to imitate the motion. The pilot's voice went up in a loud cry:

"...Great Gilvader we're all gonna DIIIIIEEEE!"

Mischief did nothing except lope further on, his eyes on the sands once again. Now was probably the perfect time to remind himself exactly why he hated the desert.

When the gravity field had subsided, Mischief whirled around and skidded backward to a stop. Aeolus, with a heart thudding heavily in his chest (what was worse, 52 Diloforce or a GILVADER?), scanned the environment nervously for another attack. The radar was acting up and they hardly had a good visual through this storm of sand...

Aeolus swallowed his fears and glanced up to what was blotting out the sky. "W-well, until we get a better idea of who's on our side..." His fingers nimbly danced across the console, activating the vulcan gun that was sitting so quietly on the Shadow Fox's back, and the turret lifted up and aligned its aim.

Mischief cloaked himself under optical stealth as he began to fire at the Gilvader, running blindly along the sands.

[Celia Cacciatori]

For some peculiar reason, Celia felt the urge to raise her hand. So, she did.

As if cued by the movement, sand suddenly gusted up from where it had been stacked in drifts on the ground, and made everything all murky and full of grit. Celia blinked, and glanced around in bewilderment.

Something was buzzing up over her head, and she looked up in time to see giant black wings passing overhead. There was a prickling, static-y noise, a growing, whining sound that seemed to itch from inside her head--and then the pulse released.

Now, Celia wasn't an Organoid--but she did have just enough electronics wired to her brain via her replacement spine for the frequencies to take root.

The focused EMP seared across her brain like a very real and very painful wave of electricity, causing some nerves to fire randomly and others to simply go dark. Her limbs stiffened all at once, she managed to voice a little squeak--and then began to spasm and twitch uncontrollably. Her living eye was blank of emotion, and the optic seemed to be glitching out with video grain and squares of dead pixels. Celia's claws scrabbled on Maelstrom's back--and then went still when the initial burst passed.

Her eyes were open and staring, her face blank; slumped in the back seat like a dead thing.


{....critical error UnexpectedStopException;
return 0;



Reinitializing...}



She started to breathe again. Her optic flickered to glowing life.

Celia blinked, and looked around rather blearily, confused and disoriented. Her vision seemed unfocused, and one half was in proper colors--the other side was all blue with dancing orange and red and gold and white things on it.

"....wha...happened? Where..." She was quiet, but the confusion in her voice was obvious. The Manticore was largely oblivious to the battle around them, isolated and cut off in the Shield Liger's cockpit. Sound recognition had apparently not returned quite yet.

---

tl;dr

Celia has a BSOD.

[Bryan Pandion]

"Oh, Son of a Bitch."

Still a bit off from the meeting point, Philippe had a peculiar vantage point for The End of The World. Not quite in the midst of the catastrophe, yet not far away enough to be a spectator, he had a first hand view of the massive destruction. Until things went even more to Hell, and he couldn't see anything. Relying solely on his Bio Radar, Philippe was immediately confused. Amorphous masses of green and yellow swirled around, obscured by the massive cloud of sand. Feeling totally helpless, Philippe struggled to maintain calm, when the Megalomax streaked through the area, lighting up the terrain. And suddenly...

DESCAT.

The enemy lunged at the front left flank of the Bio Kentro, chomping at the neck. Lunging, the Kentro threw a shoulder into the Descat, throwing it back wards. Backing up a few paces, the Kentro fired two Lances at the Descat, aiming to embed them in the chest. A rushed shot, however, caused them both to glance off the armor, digging trenches and forcing the shock cannon offline. Before this impact, however, two shock cannon rounds smashed into the left shoulder, weakening the armor. The Descat, now devoid of weaponry that could seriously damage the bio Zoid, took another lunge, biting with Electron Fangs. Ready, this time, Philippe discharged the right lance at the last moment, and drove the weapon through the Descat's body.

[Dalen]

The comm picked up some chatter as they neared the crowd. It would seem that some of them were familiar with each other; this was a good sign. With so many of them here, this must be a pretty large operation in the making. He hoped there was no major evil plot in the works. He remembered a number of years back when the second coming of the Death Saurer seemed to be the end of civilization.

It was not that he would not help if that was the case again, but it would definitely be nerve-wracking. Dalen was waiting for a pause in the conversation before introducing himself when the radar showed a large bleep moving into range at high speed. “The more the merrier I suppose. I’m just glad we’re all on the same side…”

Just then, he thought he heard a slight fizzle sound, followed instantly, by the shutdown of all systems. He could feel his Heldigunner lowering her head as if asleep; a quick glance around told him that other Zoids were under the same influence as they were all slouching. “Umm, Obsidian?” With a quick auto-reboot, the lizard Zoid was up and running again. “What just happened…”

A massive explosion could be seen, felt and heard right in front of him. Dalen was horrified to recognize it as a blast from a large gravity cannon; its destructive form was distinct even though the sand it kicked up was obscuring his view. He seriously hoped no one was caught inside it. “What was that about this not being a trap?”

The radar was filled with static interference so he Dalen switched it to infrared, which was a little clearer. This was a worst case scenario. They were under attack, visibility was poor, and he did not know who, among the throng of Zoids here, was the enemy. Some unidentified heat signatures showed up at the edge of the radar to the rear, and they were running hot, very hot.

“Not now. We need to mark our targets; we don’t want to fire on any friendlies.” Simultaneously, the radar picked up new Zoids rushing towards the crowd while a previously identified bison type Zoid fired a burst skyward. Then, what looked like red tentacles on the infrared radar screen reached out for them from the Zoids on their six.

“Too late, Meathead!” Obsidian twisted to face the immediate threat, and then hopped rearward several meters; a maneuver that would have been difficult to perform had Dalen not sold the damaged cannonry unit for repair money. They were about to find out if the loss in firepower was worth the gain in mobility. The pilot, who was unaccustomed to such sudden movements by his normally weighed down Zoid, was dazed for a moment before pulling himself together to activate the shield for additional protection against the incoming fire.

EDIT: TL;DR
Witnesses gravity blast -> Switches to HSR -> Sees incoming bogeys-> Twists to face brastles and hops back -> Activates shield

[Timber Okami]

[Character Post~]


Blade snapped his head up to look around as the sandstorm started up in earnest, cutting their visibility to crap. It was about the same second that Maelstrom just went limp and Celia spazzed out, and the Shield Liger's systems hiccuped.

(Way too much for me to worry about at once.)

Blade, in a surprising action that was almost completely unlike his normal attitude, wrenched Aegis (The Shield Liger) back and away from the explosion and other things he had heard. There had been a dome of light and lots of noise off ahead of them, and while he was worried about everyone else around, he was far more worried about Celia and Maelstrom. He knew the Organoid was unconscious but fine otherwise, but hadn't heard Celia move in a few seconds.

So he plowed the Shield Liger in a direction he figured was away from all the fighting, only for a Descat to suddenly come yowling into his vision and take a swipe at them. On impulse, he hit the shield control, and the panels popped up, blue shield flickering on and knocking the Descat back.

As Aegis was running away from the Descat now, he heard Celia behind him. "Celia, you alright?" he asked, daring a glance over his shoulder to see if she was alright.

And that Descat was still following them. Fabulous.


--


TL;DR: Blade runs the hell away from a Descat. He's in a stock standard Shield Liger and part of his brain just shut down, what did you expect him to do?

[Taison Brodoc]

Well, as more time elapsed and more people came into range, Taison felt as if maybe, just MAYBE...this seemed too good to be true. I mean, sure, a lot of heroes of differing size, shape, and color turned out to save Zi from impending doom via villians...and that was all well and good and whatever...but he genuinely felt as if there was a trap brewing. Of course, this should have occured to him earlier, but better late than never, right?

Right?

Anyway, trying to push that out of his mind, he spent some down time, talking a little to Sorairo, then a little to a couple of friends in Aeolus and Amino, wandering around in the mean time. Killing time, as he had come accustomed to in the last few weeks.

Until 11:59 AM.

Taison was laying on the cockpit's floor at this point, probably a couple of minutes away from naptime. "About time. This better be worth it."

Uncharacteristically, the Shield Liger made no comment. In fact, all she did was lean forward, almost as if she was ready to pounce on anything that moved.

"What's wrong?"

"...Taison...I have a bad feeling right now."

Yeah...there must be something up if Sorairo doesn't refer to her pilot as Mai Tai. But, as desperately as Taison wanted to console the zoid, 2 things stopped him: his own suspicion, and the atmosphere seemingly tensing up around him.

Noon.

The sand began whipping up into a sandstorm. effectively cutting his vision to the range of slim and none. The teen hopped up and placed himself back in the seat, but that did nothing for betering the sight. Somewhat instinctively, his eyes drew upward, and a shiver of freezing prickles rolled up his spinal cord, gazing at the colussus silohoutte of whatever. The next instance, screens on the console began flickering and the Commander rocked back, then forward weakly.

Safe to say that it was a trap.

"What the? Sorairo?"

No response.

"SORAIRO?!" He roared, voice somewhat breaking from fear.

The screens came back to full power, save for the scatterbrained scrambled radar screen; a good sign.

"H-huh? What's goin' on?"

"Snap outta it. We have a situation." That shadow resonated in his mind, but he shook it off -to a certain extent as least.

"Got'cha." The Liger turned around, boosters roaring, and made haste, Taison changing his weapons display with the same haste. After clearing what he considered enough space, the pilot blindfired directly behind him a couple of rounds. Over his shoulder, he saw a black mass of darkness, and luminary tendrils within it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TL;DR? Hurr u go!
A lot of time spending in the beginning. Then all hell breaks loose. They run the other way, boosters on, firing Pile MG right behind him, and prepping himself for trouble.

[Amino]

"OH SHII-"

Amino immediately turned off the boosters and yanked the controls back and Saber made an immediate halt. Both of the them were absolutely speechless as a whole 100m area was just taken out, and a HUGE Gilvader came out of nowhere and dropped down Brastle Tigers and Descats.

Amino was only happy about the fact that he wasn't in the area that was hit by the Gravity Cannon. He even thanks to the unknown person who made the huge, disabling noise (who happened to be Tabaz "The Invincible,") Which slowed down Saber, thus not allowing Amino and Saber to make it to the meeting point.

Amino watched the Gilvader in awe, as he had never seen a zoid this big and powerful. He was just stunned. He started to think of things to do, to possibly help the people under attack by the Brastle Tigers and Descats, but all he could think of doing was using his CPC, which would possibly hit the people he was trying to help as well. So he activated his Buster Claws' cannons and went in full speed while shooting, ready to disable the cannons and claw some zoids to death when needed.

[Timber Okami]

So the heroes weren't going to go down without a fight? Fine with them. All the Zoids were piloted, with well trained plots, who know how to fight to kill. That's right, these pilots had once been on the battling circuit, but when that all shut down, they had to go somewhere, right? Looks like they were trained for a much more gruesome past time...

All the pilots shouted plans back and fourth to each other, watching the Zoids who were running around with their fully functional, advanced radars. Had to take down the most threatening Zoids first... so the two Brastles that weren't engaged were going to have new targets now. Maybe.

The Gilvader hissed, watching the bright silver Zoid slow down and drop back for it. The pilot pulled the controls back himself, pulling the massive Zoid away from the slicing blade. The Gilvader snarled and jabbed his paw down at the Sworder as it passed, though, trying to knock it out of the air or crush the cockpit. It pulled the claw back up, only to notice that a digit was missing. Well, at least the damage wasn't worse.

There was no way that the Shadow Fox's vulcan beams were going to make it up that high into the sky, so the Gilvy swooped around and flew at the ground, trying to buffer as many people as it could with a shockwave, who weren't engaged with an enemy.

The Bison lit up the area with the beams, which provided some illumination for a short time. It made it easier for everyone to see the Descats moving through the sand, coordinating with each other and going after various people.

The first Brastle, the one going after Jessica, charged right for her. The Gunsniper opened fire, but the Tiger just plowed right into it. Its claws and teeth charged up with heat as the bullets chipped the armor away, and the belly cannon made a few messy holes in the Brastle's chest. But suddenly the Tiger was upon her, jaws gaping wide to bite on anything it could, using the Tiger's weight to try and barrel the other Zoid over onto its back, and rip open its belly to get at the core to destroy.

The second Brastle, the one going after Dalen, wasn't quite as fierce. A paw slammed into the spot where the Heldigunner had been, but the Zoid stayed put, contemplating the lizard and its shield. The pilot must have just gotten sick of waiting, for the back hackles opened up, drawing in heat from the desert and loosing bright burning red beams in an arc straight up and then at the Heldigunner.

Brastle number three, the one following Taison, slowed down and jumped to the side when he saw the pile machineguns start to move, but luckily they didn't pivot very far with the beam cannons in the way. The Tiger backed off a little bit, waiting to see what he did, before charging again with a roar.


[Taison, the PMG's don't pivot unless the side arms of the Shield Liger, with the big beam cannons, are down. And even then, they certainly don't turn all the way around. xD Prolly only 90 degrees left and right. I didn't have the Brastle attack ya this time because you prolly didn't know better, so yeah.

Everything else is pretty self explanatory, but if there's any questions, ask in the Site News thread thing. Also, there is no set number of Descats anymore, just assume there is a lot of them.]

[Aeolus]

Howling sand, screaming metal, intermittent muzzle flashes. Aeolus had never been embroiled in a conflict as intense as this. The conditions terrified him, for the radar was still on the fritz and there was a grim acknowledgment that they could all easily be exterminated by another shot of the Gilvader's Gravity Cannon (if it had another shot, something he knew nothing of). It sickened Aeolus to even look at the battle, but as the Gilvader swept past and he clung to the controls for dear life, he knew there was no turning back.

He kept a firm grip and his eyes steady on the monitor. Although the pilot was somewhat trained to withstand conditions as horrible as these, Mischief was far better suited to withstanding them. The Shadow Fox only crouched down a smidgen and peered critically through the wall of sand that had been kicked up. He and Aeolus glanced a form in the distance, but they did not know what it was —

Until the area was lit up by a megalomax.

Aeolus and Mischief raised their heads as one. There was a Brastle Tiger tearing down at a Gun Sniper, and something tugged at Aeolus to help. Intuition? One did not require Zoidian blood to listen to his guts. He assumed right there, whether it was by reasoning or by sheer guesswork, that the Brastle Tiger was their foe.

Mischief sprang forward and engaged his turret gun. The Shadow Fox fired off vulcan rounds at the Brastle Tiger harassing Jessica and Violet, approaching the two with great rapidity while Aeolus kept an eye out for other hostile figures.

[Tigersight]

Sand continued to swirl through the field as Liger readied to pounce on the hidden attackers. He finally heard them approach. They were running slower now, but still in his direction. They were side by side. He didn't held completely still, waiting for them to come into range.

They were somewhere between 50 and 100 meters away, judging by his hearing. He slid his particle intake system open slightly and began to charge his Strike Laser Claw attack very slowly. They began slowing down, and he could tell they were withing attack range. He hoped their radars wouldn't give his next move away and leaped. He jumped straight for the one in the center. He could practically feel where it was. He drew his claw back and closed the last few meters.

The three enemies seemed to dissolve into being in front of him. As soon as he saw his target, he struck. The center Descat reacted instantly, dodging backward and causing Liger to miss. Crap. Liger already had his guns leveled, and rapidly fired off six rounds from his shock cannon, causing it to overheat temporarily. His tail cannon was aimed left. He fired rounds one after another, aiming for the front half of the other Descat. While the first two Descats were occupied, the one to the right took the opportunity to attack. It lunged at Liger, fangs barred and already crackling with electricity.

Liger knew what to do, drawing away from the Descat and putting his weight onto his left side. He funneled all of the laser charge from his claws into his front left claw. He waited until the last moment, before his enemy hit him, and swung around slashing at the throat of the Descat. His aim was true, and his claws slid easily through the neck of the other feline. One down. He shifted his stabilizers and continued turning to get out of the way of the falling body. He spun all the way back around and ducked, sliding in behind his new cover.

And just in time too; the other two Cats bombarded the area with gunfire. Explosions blasted the ground on both sides and he turned perpendicular to the his cover, since it wouldn't cover his whole body lengthwise. In full cover, he pulled up a damage report. The lower armor on his back right leg had some shrapnel in it, unimportant. A round had clipped the top covering of left booster, meh. Oh, there was a chip in an actuator in his lower left leg in the back, and there was quite a dent in the armor at the top of that leg. That Descat must have hit it falling, he realized, kicking the Descat. Overall, that went amazingly. He waited until they realized he had cover and the first round of fire abated.

===========

TL;DR
Liger SLC's at the middle Descat and misses
Shoots 6 shock cannon rounds at the middle Descat
Shoots a few tail cannon rounds at the left Descat
Right Descat attacks with Electron fangs(doesn't hit)
Liger SLC's its neck and it's out
left descat falls and puts a big dent in Liger's back left leg's top armor
Liger takes cover behind dead Descat
Other two Descats open fire
They can't hit him in cover

Damages:
Dented top back-left leg armor
Chip in actuator in lower back-left leg

[Tethis Aresis]

Oh by Zi- clang!

The Storm Sworder bucked downwards considerably as the Gilvader claw smashed into the right wing. Tethis' deft piloting skills had avoided a major cockpit collision, and now he had to stop his Zoid from going into a flat spin and ploughing belly-first into the ground. He wrestled with the controls, fighting for survival; airbrakes on, flaps active, struggling to hold Helios in the air...

It took him a few seconds, but the Storm Sworder levelled out a hundred feet above the ground, then took off quickly to gain some ore altitude.

"Hey, watch it, dumbass!" called that mechanical beast, who had an inactive Organoid clinging to its core.

"Not my friggin' fault we have a Gilvader on our ass!"

And that Gilvader needed to be dealt with. Fortunately for Tethis, that opportunity would come; while it was busy swooping down on its next pass, it managed to get itself into the Storm Sworder's sights. Toggling the weapons to the ATA missile pods, Tethis grinned as he flew right in behind and above the Gilvader; not only did he have the thing in a good position as it screamed across the land, he now had gravity on his side to give the missiles that little bit more acceleration as they tore a chunk out of their new foe.

He depressed the firing studs once, and two diamond-studded lances of flame jetted out from the Sworder's body, once from each pod, as the air-to-air missiles homed in at rapid speeds towards their target.

[Taison Brodoc]

((Whoops! *laughs uncomfortably* Well, lets hope i dont mess this one up.))

With the Beam Cannons and Pile Machine Gun blocking the sight of vision so much, Taison directed his Liger to go a little further out, then turned towards the way he came. Saying he couldn't see much would be a grave understatement, but what he could see was a mass of shadows, one of which broke away from the rest.

"I seriously dislike -no, hate- traps. What about you, Sorairo?"

The Liger growled a soft agreement, and instinctively charged, arcing to her left. The closer they retured to whence they began however, the more and more the identity of the opponent became clear: A Brastle Tiger. The Tiger of Meltyd00m was just on the outside of his layed out path, seemingly ready to attack. Good thing too, because, now that the Machine Guns were pointed forward again, Sorairo was ready to fight as well. Luckily, for the both of them, this was NOT their first time facing a Brastle, but for extra measure, the Heat Vision Scopes did activate, allowing the Liger and her pilot to clearly see if the Brastle tried to gather any thermal energy. Good timing too, because the Brastle's crew -i.e. 2 Descats- were firing their Charger Beam Cannons, which let off a LOT of heat. Deciding that stopping would be deadly, the shield deployed and took the hits, the subsequently dropped. Running a little longer, Sorairo finally turned around, now positioned behind the enemy but in the overcast of the titan, she began a sweeping blitz of shots onto the hind quarters of the Tiger and the midsection of the Cats, who were now turning. Although there was no way to really see what had happened to the Meltyd00m Tiger, the Descats took it pretty hard.

Now...it's their turn to move on the offensive...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TL;DR?(Jeez i hope this works)

Shieldy runs out a little further, then turns and runs towards the backs of the Tigah and Kittiez
Activated Heat Vision
Activated Shield to take 2 CBC shots, then dropped it
Arrives behind opponents, and OPENZ FIYAH

Damages:
SLCommander: Shield down to 80% (i guess)
Descat1(just left of BTiger): Fore and Hind Right Leg damages. H.R.Leg may break from stress; Mobility down 15%
Descat2(left of Descat1): Hind Right Leg damage
BTiger: Je ne sais pas.

Positions:
SLCommander: Behind Brastle and both Descats, currently idle
Descat1: Somewhat hobbling towards SLComm.
Descat2: Running towards SLComm.
BTiger: Je ne sais pas.

[Jessica Starr]

Violet roared a vile sounding roar as the left leg coiled a bit more before the right pushed off. The gunsniper skidded in the sand before jumping side ways. The claws of the brastle tiger raked the shoulder armor and part of the leg armor. The gun sniper's left leg hit the sand as the booster on that side cut off.

Violet skidded in the sand as it spun around, the other booster cutting off now. The right leg damaged sagged as the trio of reticles once again hover over the brastle tiger. The rapid fire weapons started to fire as the gun sniper pushed off after the zoid.

The sight of incoming fire made Jessica's head turn to the side quickly. Seeing it was coming from a canine looking zoid the gun sniper pilot laughed at her good luck. Now if only the radar would return. Jessica's aim pulled to the side trying to heard the brastle tiger right into the rounds from Aeolus.

"Come on!" Jessica yelled at the radar as it refused to give her a good rocket lock. "You stupid-" Outside the cockpit sands whipped around as Violet roared with Jessica's yelling.

---------
Summary
Jessica jumps side ways at the last second, which was a second too late and got raked along the right side. The leg and arm of the gun sniper sustained a scar along the side that didn't cripple the limbs but reduced their mobility.

She didn't run after the brastle after spinning around like a spanish matador. Then violet shot at the brastle from behind trying to continue the assault now joined in by aeolus.

[Dalen]

Through the newly generated shield, Dalen saw a Brastle Tiger pounce through the dust and strike the very ground where they were standing just a second before. “I’m glad we got out of the way, but that was way too close.” Almost face to face, the Tiger’s gleaming teeth and radiant eyes were an intimidating sight; crimson thermic beams arching through the air above turning windswept sand into a drizzle of molten glass only succeeded in adding dramatic effect to its presence. “It’s not attacking?” Dalen knew the Zoid had a multitude of potent melee weapons at its disposal. He did not know what it or its pilot was waiting for, but he had to take action if they were going to make it through this situation.

Staying put would only leave more time for the Feline to contemplate a plan to demolish them. Turning to run would leave them exposed as most of the Heldigunner’s weapons were locked in forward firing arcs. Dropping the shield to fire their weapons or dive into the sand would mean turning off the shield leaving them completely open. Even a single volley from the shock cannons could cause serious damage. That only left one thing to do.

Dalen hit the boosters; it was a good thing he did, as the Brastle chose that moment to stop hesitating and added more firepower straight up into the sky. Whoever the blast was intended for, he did not intend to stick around to find out. Obsidian accelerated quickly ahead, causing Dalen to sink back into his seat. Instead of ramming the larger Zoid, he steered the Lizard slightly to the left so that they would just skim by their opponent’s right.

The instant Obsidian’s torso passed the Tiger’s head, Dalen deactivated the shield and started the smoke dischargers. On her own accord, the Heldigunner fired her AA machinegun at the taller Zoid as they passed. Dalen was trying to put some distance between them so they would have more space to work with, but this was a risky maneuver. The Brastle was an incredibly fast Zoid and Dalen could only hope that the cover of smoke would buy them some time. He did not know if the Cat Zoid had a working radar system to track them with, but looking at his own HSR, there was nothing but red blotches and streaks darting about.

--------------------
Summary:
- Dalen gets to see the Tiger up close and personal
- Decides on a plan of action
- Boosts and skims by the Brastle's right side
- Turns off shield, activates smoke dischargers when Heldi's torso passes Feline's head
- Fires AA Machinegun
- Trying to put some distance between them

[Timber Okami]

Something quite curious and somewhat alarming happened to Tigersight, and the Descat that he took down. As the red cat went into a Command System Freeze, the cockpit exploded spectacularly. The pilots fighting for their lives would hear a scream of agony over the broadband as it happened, hearing the last seconds of the man's life.

The biggest target, the Gilvader, hissed at the bogey that it had behind it. Lucky for the giant Zoid, it was well prepared for anything and everything. Not so lucky for poor Tethis. The sleek Zoid glanced back, getting alerted to the missile lock that Tethis was lucky enough to get even with the interference, and the Gilvy almost seemed to smirk...

Flaps on the Zoid's shoulders opened, and bright fluttering bits of something came out...and drew the target lock away from the Gilvader as it swooped away and back up into the sky, the missiles exploding harmlessly in the air. The massive Zoid looped back around, climbing into the sky and away from the Sworder, glancing at the ground occasionally.

Seeing the Shield Liger Commander running for them, the Brastle Tiger bellowed and charged back, claws charging with heat. The side blades flipped out and charged, right as the Shield Liger passed... the pilot or Tiger couldn't tell if they hit, but the Tiger whipped around by sinking the charged claw into the sand and charging back at the heavily gunned cat. It took to the air, in a great leap over the shots that riddled the Descats, but only got the Tiger's legs and lower torso. Hitting the ground heavily, the charged claws and side blades flipped back in and deactivated, and the shoulder flaps opened, all in the same motion. They quickly charged some standard beams, and opened fire on the Shield Liger in front of them with the six arcing shots.

The Brastle fighting Jessica (And soon, Aeolus), slammed the heavy paw into the ground and skidded to face the Sniper as the velociraptor did the same. The bullet riddled armor smoked a little bit, and the Tiger screeched at the Sniper before gunfire started to riddle its sides from another source. Seeing it ganged up on by two Zoids, both with rapid firing weapons, the Zoid hunkered down, and all the flaps on its body opened, even as armor chipped away and it started to reach critical mass.

It exploded. Figuratively and literally. Bright hot red beams arced up and around, even as the Brastle Tiger exploded, another pilot's scream filtering through the air as the attack continued through. Now, the full Thermic Burst was descending on the area around the Tiger, once again lighting the whole area up bright... and now there was hot screaming death coming down for Aeolus and Jessica. Better think fast.

...because, behind them, the other two Brastle Tigers suddenly appeared, roaring and charging for them. Great, they had just gotten rid of one, and now had two more to deal with? And the beams from the first? Not a lucky day for them.

The blast was indeed intended for the Heldigunner, the red arcing beams heading for the black and green lizard as it started to move. The big black and red Tiger roared and turned after the Heldigunner, the gunfire riddling its body as it raised a paw and tried to slam it down on the 'gunner's tail to get it to stop. Either way, the cat pointed its Shock Cannon at the lizard and cut loose, trying to blast that annoying machinegun off of the base of its tail. It could follow the Heldigunner, and maybe Dalen would realize that the smoke wasn't really helping his cause any... the Tiger could still see them.

The fritzy radars gave a few hiccups, starting to work a little bit better, but still not at full strength. That might be suddenly forgotten, though, when the Gilvader above turned on everyone below, and cut loose a screetch. Taking a line on Tethis, the Zoid hissed and the sky split with another Gravity Cannon shell being launched out from the wing cannons. If Tethis cared to pay attention, he'd notice that it was the next barrel over from the last one. Maybe this detail was important... maybe it wasn't.

Either way, bigger problems to deal with now...


[Just so the important details are clear here: As soon as any of the enemy Descats CSF, their cockpits explode. The Brastle's whole bodies explode when they CSF.

Four Brastles and a Gilvader left, along with the Descats. One Brastle with Taison, one with Dalen, and the last two just found Jessica and Aeolus.

You guys can decide where the Gravity Cannon shell hits and thus what happens with that. Again, it's not *really* supposed to hit anyone, just meant to scare. Yeah, they're trying to kill you guys, but I'm certainly not.]

[Tigersight]

((Ack, that changes the last bit of my last post, but oh well.))

One last indicator popped up on Liger's damage list. The explosion from the cockpit of the Descat had damaged his front left claw; part of it was melted from the heat. He cut power to that claw because he didn't want to laser charge it when it was damaged. The incoming fire from the two other Descats ceased.

Liger didn't waste any time. He sprung over the Descat, firing the boosters at max power. He didn't open the stabilizers though, because he didn't want them getting shot off. The Descats started shooting once they saw him. He moved fast enough they mostly missed and could not lock on. Still, quite a few of rounds bounced off his armor. The Descats were directly ahead, fanned out on both sides. He was closer to the one on the right. So, he swung straight for that one, firing the double barrel shock cannons directly at the chest, then spread three shots to the right, because it was more likely to dodge that way. He swung his tail cannon around, firing at the other Descat's left side. Hopefully, he had damaged the legs with his first few rounds and wouldn't be able to dodge.

The Descat in front dodged to the right, just as Liger hoped. Two of the rounds missed, but the last one struck cleanly into its chest. The armor was crushed, and its shock cannon was destroyed. It flinched and stopped firing, but it was still on its feet. The other cat dodged nimbly out of the way, having predicted Liger's attack. It fired off a round, striking Liger in the hind leg on the left side. The armor covering the lower half of his leg crumpled, rendering it nearly useless.

=============
TL;DR

Liger jumps over dead cat
Gets shot up by other cats
Shoots the right one in the chest
Misses the left one
Left Descat shoots Liger in the back-left leg

Damages:
Liger-
Melted front left claw
Dents and nicks all over armor
Destroyed back-left leg lower armor

Descat L-
None

Descat R-
Chest armor destroyed
Shock cannon destroyed

Positions

Descat L- 9 meters away on left side

Descat R- 5 meters away in front

[Slax]

All hell had broken loose. People were blowing other people up, people were blowing themselves up, and people were being blow up, and Slax hadn't even started spamming yet!

You see, after flashing his Megalomax around, Slax was quite simply waiting for his guns to cool. Other people were self-destructing, but that certainly wasn't a trend he wanted to follow. Instead, he about faced and turned back to the blast crater where Tabaz had once been. While he could see some scraps of tinfoil littering the ground, he basically couldn't care less about the obnoxious pilot, who, fortunately, could not be seen right now. Instead, he was looking for Pacis, his organoid. Knocked unconscious by the same blast that had disrupted his (slowly recovering) radar, Pacis had cut out mid-flight and crashed into a sand dune, his sharp wing blades deftly slicing through the sand and burying the organoid somewhere on the battlefield.

Since the megalomax had shown him that the situation was both far too chaotic and nowhere near as life-threatening (to him directly, though it sure would be if the other pilots couldn't take their targets) for him to start blasting away indiscriminately (as Slax still hadn't put "friend or foe" recognition codes into his computer). Instead, he was retracing his steps, trying to find where Pacis had crash-landed.

"WHY IS THERE SO MUCH TINSEL!?"

The search was exasperating, a metallic object in the desert should be easy to see, but that Tabaz bloke had littered the area with tinsel, foil, chaff grenades and who-knows-what else. It just made Slax want to explode the guy even more.

The search had brought him back to the edge of the crater, which was pretty fortunate, really, since the Gilvader had at that moment fired another earth-rending, zoid-pounding, shell of oblivion. (hope this isn't too powerplay-ey) The fortunate bit was that it was actually trying to kill someone, so it inevitably wasn't aiming at the spot where it had just shot -it wouldn't make sense to pound someone to oblivion and then shoot at their ashes- it would be a waste of ammo.

Slax was hit by the shockwave from behind, and while his mammoth Zoid barely flinched, inside the cockpit, Slax himself was thrown forward by the force of the blast.

"Tch! Just you wait, you'll get what's coming to ya!"

Though Slax had said this out loud, he knew his Zoid had no way of even scratching that oversized, overspeedy, overpowered and, most importantly, flying, Zoid. His ground-based arsenals simply were not up to the task, and his only AA weapons were so small in calibre, he could probably aim for the cockpit without fear of killing the pilot, let alone actually do any damage to the Zoid's armour.

No, instead, he was doing the smart thing; look for his 'noid, let his guns cool, his shield recharge and hope his radar came online. If anyone identified themselves as friendly, he would no doubt start to blast away, but Pacis took priority for the time being.

Recovering from the console-faceplant that had been induced by the gravity cannon's second shot, Slax looked down once more. And there was a stroke of luck, the gravity cannon's shockwave had blown away the tinsel, as well as some of the upper sand layers, revealing his heavier Organoid, still unconscious, lying at his Zoid's feet.

He glanced both ways, thought that he was safe for the next one, maybe two seconds and popped the hatch. He lowered Bison's head, leapt out of his Zoid, grabbed the just-under-fifty-kilo organoid and heaved it back into the cockpit as quickly as he could.

==========================================
Summary:
Slax looked for his organoid, returned to the edge of the original crater, found Pacis (after the gravity cannon shell was fired, somewhere behind him), got out of the cockpit, grabbed the noid and jumped back in. Oh, and prayed he wasn't blown to bits in the meantime.

[Aeolus]

Aeolus instinctively yanked on the controls when the Brastle exploded, craning his head back and his partner imitating the motion as they skidded to a stop. Another few nimble yanks and Mischief was scrambling to get out of the way. The Shadow Fox loped away from a beam that had descended behind him and frantically went this way and that to elude the beams raining down, Aeolus driven by adrenaline and a desire to not die.

He couldn't hear anything on the radar over the chaos, but Aeolus glanced at it a few times and noticed that it was beginning to even out. He realized there was an enemy on their tail. As Mischief sprinted on, he mirrored Aeolus's movement of glancing over his shoulder and caught a visual of a hostile figure charging them. This did not bode well. The pilot concernedly glanced in the direction where he thought he could see Violet before quickly handling the controls again, trying to coerce the Brastle into following right behind the Shadow Fox.

He let out a cry as they ran into a beam that grazed their right side, blinding the pilot from that side for a moment, the impact rocking the Zoid. Mischief made no such vocalization and pressed onward.

Aeolus hoped that Mischief hadn't taken any further damage while he wasn't looking. When he'd run long enough for the Brastle to be (hopefully) behind him, Aeolus activated the smoke dischargers. Inky darkness flooded the immediate area behind Mischief. The pilot then wasted no time in employing the AZ Electromagnetic Net Gun. The panels of Mischief's tail parted and the electromagnetic net flew backward, hopefully leaping onto the Brastle from the darkness.

===

Running around death beams, sustained damage to right side. Running away from Brastle Tiger.
Activated smoke dischargers and then electromagnetic net in attempt to catch Brastle.
Assume Aeolus is running away from the gravity shell I kinda forgot about that detail.

[Sylvan]

"ROAR INTO THE SKIES MY MIGHTY STORM Zabat SWORDER STEALTH Normal TYPE!!! LET YOUR PRESENCE BE FELT, WHERE IT CANNOT BE SEEN!!!!!!!"

Tabaz's booster blasted hotly into life, sending his Zoid blasting up towards the Gilvader. But surely, even he wouldn't attack such a foe without a plan ... .... ... ... Ironically, this was true. He was charging the foe, but DID have a plan.

"THE ENEMY DOESN'T THINK I HAVE ANY WEAPONS!!! SO THEY'LL THINK I'M CHARGING IN UNARMED!!! BUT, TABAZ, THE INVINCIBLE, IS ARMED WITH MORE THAN JUST WEAPONS! TABAZ SHALL OVERCOME THE ODDS! GUTS OVER GUNS!!!!! I'LL SLAM INTO THE ENEMY WITH MY ENGINE BLOCK, AND TRUST MY VALIANT PARTNER TO USE THEIR HOT-BLOOD TO STAY IN THE AIR!!!! HOT AIR RISES, AND SO MUST HOT-BLOOD!!!!!!!! TAKE THIS! TABAZ SUPER ULTIMATE MOVE X-PLUS!!!".

Tabaz flew up towards the Gilvader, releasing his drop bomb when nearby. Banking away, he let the bomb approach using momentum. No such thing as a "lock" for Tabaz. He was basically throwing a bomb at it. His bomb raced up, as the Gravity cannon shell raced down. Tabaz had fluked his trajectory such that he was not in the path of the shell.

Maybe it was unfortunate for Tabaz... But since he insisted on blasting his "plan" out over every comm frequency. Even with this radio interference going around, it was 99.9999% likely that everyone could hear him loud and clear. . . well, loud at least. Clear wasn't one of Tabaz's best traits.

TL;DR:


((OOC: don't worry. I'm certainly not going to make a habit of drawing pictures....))

[Remorame Narakoen]

Still coming to terms with the ambush, Remorame was a tad slow to stop boggling at the massive flying gunship Zoid which was the Gilvader and come to terms with the fact that a ground attack was also happening at the same time. As such, it wasn’t until the Megalomax had well and truly faded and a number of Thermic Bursts were firing up into the air that she finally began to act.

“Okay, this is NOT good! I’ve gotta help those guys out!” now that she had recovered from the initial shock, it really was no surprise that they were under attack: the ‘advert’ couldn’t have been more obvious than it had been made. That, and simply put, despite the relative peacetime there were still forces on Zi which would want to take out those supposed ‘heroes’ in the world, what set-up could have been better?

Opening a window in the cockpit display in order to zoom in on the chaos, Remo began scanning the battlefield... Only to find that it was almost impossible to penetrate through all the sand being kicked up by the Gilvader with optical systems alone. The pilot growled in frustration, as the reality that she might not be able to help began to set it.

Then.

“Oh yeah... I have heat vision! How could I forget!”

Closing the windows and hitting a few buttons, Remorame leant backwards as her seat in the cockpit lifted and flattened out before spinning about in place, bringing her into the ‘prone pilot’ cockpit used to operate the Sniper Rifle and scope. Simultaneously Gunner jumped around on the spot to face his tail towards the dust cloud and began furiously working his feet into the sand. The loose soil of the desert was not a good anchor using the toe-locks alone, so it wasn’t until the Gun Sniper was almost knee-deep in sand that the tail segments lifted and extended to reveal the Zoid-murdering super-gun.

Remorame smiled with satisfaction as she activated the heat vision scope, producing an almost perfect image of the area in all its technicolour glory. She could make out the impact site of the gravity cannon: a large area of the orange and red as the compacted sand slowly cooled down with multiple streaks of white to red where Thermic Bursts had landed and turned the silicon into glass. Zooming in enough, she could even identify different Zoids amongst the yellow and green of the unaffected ground.

Including a number which hadn’t been there before.

“Wait, what? Brastle Tigers? Where’d they come from?” the fact that the Brastles - as well as the forms of some sort of Zoid she hadn’t seen before – were seemingly attacking everyone else who she already knew were allies was more than enough to tell her who she should be firing at.

“Right! I’ve got sixteen shots, better make use of them!”

Heart-rate increasing as the fact that someone’s life might depend on her sunk in, Remo began to hastily scan the scene with the heat-vision scope and fixate it on the first Zoid she came across. It appeared to be a Shield Liger, though with A LOT of extra heavy weaponry, and it was charging straight at one of the Brastles. Unable to aim effectively while they were moving so erratically, Remo did what all snipers did and waited, hanging from her harness and holding onto the gun-like control interface with the light from the screen reflecting off her face. Then the perfect opportunity arrived.

The two cats zipped pasted each other, her target spinning around by digging a claw into the sand and leaping into the air. As soon as it landed, the hatches flipped open and the hips, back and shoulders of the Zoid’s image flared an angry red with heat.

“Gotcha!”

She went to pull the trigger, only to have the entire screen exploding into a brilliant bright white.

The sniper yelled out and covered her eyes, only opening them again when the light was no longer shining right through her eyelids. She proceeded to stare blankly at the screen, nothing left but the red and orange blotches which signified shrapnel where the tiger had once been.

Remorame didn’t get a chance to recompose herself, red streaks instead filling the screen as super-heated death rained down from above her allies. Cursing in frustration, she grabbed the controls again and instead directed the scope elsewhere; hopefully to find somewhere she could get a better shot.

The fact that their adversaries used heat-based weapons was not as helpful as she had initially thought.

What she came across next caused her to fire off a shell almost immediately: another Brastle Tiger right on top of the much more recognisable shape of a Heldigunner. She couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, only that the Zoids were close together, that the Brastle’s shock cannon was heating up rapidly, and that it was stupid to move while firing an inaccurate shack cannon.

One 144mm sniper shell of doom is now hurtling towards the Brastle Tiger’s back where the guns for the Thermic Burst are flipped down at over the speed of sound.


((lol at the drawing xD))

[Dalen]

As they were scooting along past the Tiger, a swipe of the claw just missed the barrel of the AA gun, but came down upon the Lizard’s lengthy tail leaving a deep gash for each of the four claws. “Ow!”

”What is it?”

“That cat just…” Her answer was cut short as three shock cannon rounds tore into her armor. The first one picked a spot just aft of the back weapon’s mount, severing the rear right hose from its connection port, thus reducing energy input to the cannon. The second landed just below the first; squarely into the thigh of the leg, warping the frame. The third hit the base of the tail, just shy of the machinegun, but damaged its turret mechanism nonetheless. Together the impact of the three blasts caused Obsidian’s rear to skid. Attempting to regain control Dalen cut the boosters and throttle leaving the lizard stopped almost in the opposite direction, facing the Brastle again through a cloud of thick smoke.

”Well that did NOT go the way I wanted.” Even though he sat a Zoid body’s length away from the blasts, Dalen’s ears were ringing from sound that was transferred through vibrations of the superstructure. He then realized that part of the noise he was hearing was some guy yelling through the comm unit. ”If this is some kind of attack meant to disorient pilots, it’s working.” Though he dearly wanted to shut off the racket, there was no time as he became aware that his Heldigunner was open to attack by the fanged feline before them.

Grabbing the controls, Dalen was going to execute a maneuver when he was surprised by the sound of a familiar thunderous detonation; partially surprised because he thought he was still temporarily deafened and more surprised because if his hearing was indeed impaired, why did the gravity blast seem much louder than it did the last time.

A quick 180 glance gave no clues as to its location. Suddenly, the Heldigunner started running, but came to an abrupt stop. Her legs were pumping, digging into the soft surface, but they were not going anywhere. “Tail’s caught, my tail’s caught!”

”Oooh…” With his Zoid stuck, Dalen found himself in a similar, yet worse situation than he was in just moments before. Unable to think of anything intelligent to save their skins, he just pulled triggers firing all five of Obsidian’s forward facing beam cannons at the Tiger before a blanket of darkness swept over the cockpit from behind.

((No doubt that drawing will be studied in military academies for many years to come :) ))
--------------------
Summary:
- Brastle's paw comes down putting 4 slits into Lizard's tail
- Lizard takes much damage on the rear from shock cannon volley
- Swerves almost 180 from the attack and comes to stop
- Tail gets caught in gravity cannon crushing zone behind them
- Fires all five beam cannons at Tiger
- Wave of sand caused by gravity blast's initial expansion covers lizard

[Tethis Aresis]

"To hell with you and your chaff launcher!"

This guy is getting on my nerves. If Aereos isn't going to wake up any time soon, I'll do this myself!

The Storm Sworder heeled around, just in time to see some gigantic idiot drop a bomb on an aerial target. Tethis was almost praying that the Gilvader would defeat that... whatever the hell it was. Seriously, that wasn't cool. In fact, that was probably the most idiotic move that he'd ever seen, and hopefully he'd never have to see it again.

So he was going to have to drop the Gilvader on his own. Tethis knew how to beat chaff; it relied on duping radar into thinking there was a second target. Fortunately, missiles had more advanced sensor packages than your average Zoid. The solution? Dumb-fire your warheads before they got locks. Sure, it'd fly in a straight line, but hell, you'd beat chaff alright.

Instead, however, they were just going to unload. The two concealed twin pulse repeaters showed their faces, and four streams of energy fire shot forth from the cannons. They wanted to tear a hole, or five, or ten, into that Gilvader. Slow it down. Hit its wings. Do whatever - and make sure that gigantic cannon couldn't fire again. And speaking of that gigantic cannon- shit, there it was again!

But wait. It fired from the second-

...hmmm.

Tethis tried to walk his fire over the Zoids' wings, trying to shut them both down. If this worked, he'd save a lot of lives.

[Timber Okami]

[Alright, things start getting good now...]


The Gilvader now had two targets to deal with, one of them yelling at the top of his lungs about something or other. The pilot, a female aerial ace, wrinkled her nose at the link and nearly shut it off, but paused and tuned it a little to the Zabat's frequency. "What is he doing..."

That brought her full attention to the Zabat... which she realized was not a Storm Sworder. Was this guy on drugs or something? There wasn't an engine block on it; that was a bom-

Oh.

She cursed and wrenched the controls as quickly as she could, considering the Zoid she was using, and the Gilvader turned and started back into the air. The bomb whizzed past its head as it ascended again, but she was so focused on the bomb of the Zabat, that she only noticed the Sworder again when the beams started ripping into the Gilvader's wing base and the Zoid screeched. Feeling the gunfire hammer the Zoid, tracing its way over to the other guns on the other wing, she wrenched the Zoid to the side again, letting the shots make a messy line of damage down its side.

"Man, I told him he shoulda sent more flying Zoids," she growled, though her own Zoid was still going strong, almost shrugging off the shots despite its wing smoking. They could still fly, for now. Taking a second, she looked over the comlinks, surprised that one of them was static. She personally knew all the Brastle pilots, but none of the Descat pilots. So, their comlinks weren't up. Frowning, she turned the Zoid to power away from the other two, giving her a second to look down at the battlefield and see the smoking remains of one of the Brastle's on the ground. Then she saw the headless Descat.

And she continued watching, safe for a few mintues...

What she didn't notice was an indicator flashing, telling her that the standard radar systems were back up and running again.


The Tiger after Aeolus hissed, not bothering with the melee weapons and instead taking potshots at the Fox with the Shock Cannon, despite how innacurate it was. A few shells could cripple one of the Fox's legs, and then it would be game over. The pilot knew that the other Sniper was busy with one of his buddies, so he didn't have to watch his back.

The pair roared in surprise when the smoke and net suddenly reached them, and it stopped the Brastle in its tracks as it shocked and tripped the tiger up. Not really panicked, but wanting to get out of the net, the pilot hit all the weapon controls, getting the Tiger charged up with heat in tooth and claw, with hackles flipping over even as things started to lock up from the electricity, and it fought to get out of the net.


[Jessica didn't post, so her Brastle does nothing...]


[Remo, I couldn't tell if you took a shot at the Brastle fighting Taison, but that's how I'm taking it for sake of simplicity and things turning around this turn.]


The Brastle about ready to rip Taison a new one when a sniper bullet made a messy hole right through the neck of it... well enough damage to send the Zoid into a Command System Freeze and cause it to blow up completely, sending hot beams and shrapnel in all directions.


Another shell felled the Brastle getting ready to deal the final strike against Dalen. The Tiger, seeing the Heldigunner in a bad spot, went to charge up its Thermic weaponry, taking the shots to some damage, but not enough to take it out... on its own. The built up heat and power in its body, getting ready to cut loose, coupled with the messy impact of the sniper bullet made Brastle number four explode... that only left one Tiger.


"What the? Son of a..."

The Gilvader pilot was dumbfounded. Her friends, comrades, gone. "I can't believe he'd..." she stopped, looking down at the radar. The EMP pulse had run out. Which meant...

"Man, none of these people better have Organoids," she mumbled, turning the behemoth Zoid she was piloting back towards the two fliers she had to deal with, and deciding to just cut loose with all of its neck and chest weapons at the Sworder, or at least try. She'd gotten the thought in her mind that if the Zoid she was in was going to CSF... well. She didn't think about that.


[Radar and Organoids can start recovering now. Two Brastle (one in Aeolus's net, the other fighting Jessica), one Gilvader left. Hopefully things turning around will make it easier to post. If you wanna RP taking out a Descat, go for it. Start mowing things down now, guys.]

[Slax]

Slax shook his head in his cockpit, dusting out the impact of the shockwave from his head, and stared into the blank eyes of his organoid. A faint flash of light made a narrow smile -or was that a wide smirk?- appear on his face. He briefly closed his eyes and focused on his Organoid.

"Pacis..."

He heard a faint "coo" sound, as the peacock Zoid responded. It was back up and running. Well, not running. Not yet anyway. Pacis was simply not unconscious, but was as yet not fully awake either. But it was probably only a matter of time.

And this was why Slax had smirked -or smiled? the wry expression was hard to define- he figured now he could fight without worrying himself about recurring damage, Pacis could heal most injuries, and his armour could take enough of a pummelling to ward him off while the noid recovered.

So all that was left was for...

"Ah-ha! Explosion time!!"

...the radar to come back online, which, as you could probably tell, had just occurred.

With the radar now on, Slax's IFF (friend-or-foe) system was picking up all the people who had tagged him as an ally. And those Descats hadn't. And that's why he was so excited. He had something to shoot. He pointed his guns at the as-yet non-friendly Zoids.

"O.K.!!! Time for some Over Kill!!"

He squeezed both triggers and let all hell break loose. Even with only a mediocre aim, the fact that there were 20 assault cannons firing in rapid succession over terrain that offered little to no cover meant that he was going to inflict carnage. His shock cannons also sounded, as they rang out repeatedly, blasting away at the desert sand. The Descats were probably too far away to actually be hit with these guns, but the point was to simply raise a smokescreen, so that anything he didn't hit would have a hard time shooting back. Slax didn't need to aim, the Descats on the other hand, did.

And a few shots did scream out of the smoke as his prey tried to fight back, but the shells simply zipped through the air nearby, blasting the ground beside and behind him. some came very close to hitting him, but his Zoid's thick armour was able to effectively absorb the splash damage, Bison's enormous weight kept it from being knocked off it's feet.

So in the end, the only thing that stopped Slax from continuing his unholy barrage was the fact that if he went on, his guns would probably overheat. He couldn't be sure of how many Descats he got -at least one, but possibly no more than that. Alas, smokescreens and only vague use of radar was not the best method for confirming kills. Especially when the enemy was blasted by THAT much ammo. Oh well. He had bigger things to worry about. Like the Gilvader noticing him and blowing him to kingdom come.

Slax shrugged as he thought to himself, "if it's targeting me, it's not targeting something that can actually hurt it. I guess that's a kind of positive, right?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Summary:
Slax lets loose an attack with all shock and assault cannons, targeting at least one Descat at medium-long range. He takes it out, while taking some splash damage himself, which does damage to outer layers of armour, before he destroys the descat.

[Jessica Starr]

When the brastle tiger exploded so close to Violet the gun sniper was knocked to it's side. The time it took for the gun sniper to stand while several gears and precious inner workings started to overheat. Jessica looked around the cockpit blindly, her glasses knocked off and she was going deaf from the warning tone of the intense heat.

"Damn it!" She hit one of the buttons to mute the tone even as violet struggled to move the gun sniper had several internal warnings as the gun sniper tried to run clumsily in the sand. She noticed one brastle tiger looking at the remains of another. "Didn't I blow you up?"

Violet turned and stood still for a bit as the rocket pods opened. Seconds passed before her target noticed her trying to get a lock. "Lock on you stupid roc-!" She heard the tone and in her rage she slammed her fist onto the launch button. All sixteen rockets fired at the tiger.

Violet's internal thermometer was already high when the missiles fired it didn't help at all. "I hate the desert! I hate zabats! I hate those brastle tigers! AND! I hate the heat!" She screamed in the cockpit so only Violet could hear. The paint of her zoid turned black in some spots, parts of her armor started to glow red, the guns registered damage and to make matters worse she couldn't read the prompts in her cockpit without her glasses. "And where are my glasses!"

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[sorry for that delay. couldn't think of my post. Now I can]

Summary!

The exploding brastle knocked Violet over and the heat started to mess with her internal and external parts. After getting to her feet violet locked on one brastle tiger and just fired the rockets. Jess is kinda losing it thanks to the heat and some frustration.

Violet's Status: Machine guns and beam cannon: Damaged. Rocket pods: Empty. Tail rifle: unknown. Mobility limited due to the heat.