0992, open plains, 500 meters.

State your name, rank, team, transport, and Zoid along with modifications.

el Toro Rojo of the Tribe, Rank C. Piloting Willow the Shadow Fox with no modifications out of the Tribe's Hammer Kaiser.

Naota Kess, Free Agent, Rank D. Piloting Saint the unmodded Lightning Saix from Rollin Thunder the Gustav.



-RP-
Naota stepped out of the Gustav, and breathed deep. The sandy plain stretched out as far as he could see. Small tufts of grass poked up here and there. Naota stretched and walked back to the first trailer, and began to undo the straps holding Saint to the trailer. The sun was high, and a slight breeze blew. Once finished, he climbed into the cockpit, and Saint gave a short growl, then stepped off the trailer. The Saix was all business, just like Naota. They gazed out on the horizon, and saw the other pilot's transport, a hammer Kaiser, just a speck where the brown met the blue sky.

"You ready Saint? This is gonna be a tough one." Naota started doing the preliminary checks. Saint growled low in reply. This was to be a battle of firsts. Their first battle against a Shadow Fox, as well as the first against this pilot. Not to mention, the first official ZBC Battle they would be in. The pilot, El Toro, was one he hadn't heard of, even though he was pretty well up on current pilots. Prelim checks finished, Naota cracked his neck, and walked to the starting point. He pulled his headphones onto his ears and said "Lets add another stripe." Saint seemed to chuckle, and Naota turned up the music. The bass washed over him as he thought about strategies. The stealth would be a big problem, but he had an idea. Now to see if it would work.
-end rp-

Naota first.

Ready? Fight!

The words had barely left the judge bot's mouth when the Saix 80 mm lightning cannon starting firing. Then he became a blueorange blur, running full bore, at the fox. The boosters activated, soon followed by the overboost, pushing Saint to 600 kmh. Even though even a semblance of accuracy was pretty much a joke at this speed, Naota kept firing the cannon, aiming for the front knees, and if it presented itself, the gatling gun. Loss of mobility, or weaponry was an advantage in his book. Or maybe an even draw with that stealth system.

At 50 meters the overboost is shut off, and the claws slide out with a threatening shink. They hit the left front leg, aiming for the shoulder or knee joint, hoping to sever the limb. The boosters shut off and the Saix gets to the left side of the Fox. He kicks on the boosters again, and slams into the slightly larger, yet oddly lighter zoid, hoping to push it off balance. After the slam they hug up against the Fox's side and rip into the back of the front leg, with claws, teeth, and 20mm machine guns. He keeps this position as long as possible, to keep the Fox from getting a good angle on him. If the leg is disable, the Saix hits the side, tearing into the armor, while the 80mm blasts the gatling gun. The tail, and net are avoided at all costs. illegals avoided.

Toro wasn't sure what it was about the Shadow Fox, but he took a strange liking to it without ever stepping foot in its cockpit. It was one of those intangible things. Something about the zoid just felt right.

His opponent today was a trialist for his team. It had taken some convincing from the rest of the Tribe that some new members might not be such a bad idea, but here he was, ready to welcome new blood... if they put on a good show.

Today, Toro would be testing a lot of things. His gut instinct on zoid selection, his new zoid, his opponent... and his patience for multitude of stealth systems the Fox had to offer.

The battle began with the Fox making a quick leap to the left. Toro quickly toggled on the Stealth Shield, Footprint Sweepers, Silencer, and IR Suppression - quickly followed by the IR sensors and Multisensor. The last piece of equipment wouldn't be useful immediatly, but at least it would be ready when the time was right.

Stealth and sensors active, Toro's next step was a leap to the right, activation of smoke dischargers, and backpedaling into the growing smoke cloud, altering his angle now and then to spread smoke. With the limited rotation of the Saix's guns, he sought to sidestep quickly out of the line of fire.

Toro waited with an itchy trigger finger but kept the Fox's gun silent.

As soon as the Saix appeared on the Fox's multisensor, he took action. The dischargers shut off and he ran out of his cloud, relying on the stealth shield to mask his approach and the cloud to serve as bait. The Fox arced around until he was coming up on the rear of the Saix, at which point Toro finally opened fire with the AZ Gatling, taking aim for the Saix's knee.

At that point, Toro pushed the limits of his zoid's agility to stay behind the Saix, hoping that at such high speeds he'd be able to hold his own. He spent the rest of the round blasting up that knee, hoping to lead the Saix charging right into his smoke cloud. Once they made it back into the smoke, he activated the dischargers again, hopefully adding to his cover and his opponent's confusion.

The Lightning Saix almost immediately goes for broke by opening fire with it's Lightning Beam Cannons. The Overboost quickly kicks in, shunting the Saix's speed up to a record-setting 600 kph. The first few shots from the Lightning Beam Cannon catch the Fox's front, but the Shadow Fox quickly fades from view, adding another layer of suppression with each passing millisecond.

With such high speeds, the Shadow Fox doesn't get as much time as it would have needed to set up it's decoy. The onset of the smoke briefly draws the Saix's fire once more, but the Fox soon springs into action as the Saix breaks into the range of it's multi sensor less than two seconds into the round.

While the smoke cloud is a good deal smaller than intended, it's enough to fool the Saix, who's pilot recently discovered his inability to deactivate the Overboost until it has run it's entire six-second course. This results in the Saix plowing right into the Shadow Fox's cloud and then on out the back, nearly dispersing the smoke with such tremendous speeds.

Sensing that he's in the clear, el Toro springs the trap and opens fire on the rear of the Zoid, spraying fire more across the Saix's entire rear than only it's knee. The remainder of the round is spent with the Fox quickly loosing ground to the Saix, who by now has realized that it's overshot it's target a bit, and is trying to pull back around for another pass.

Positions: The Lightning Saix is at the Shadow Fox's 10 o'clock position, 250 meters away.

Damages:

Shadow Fox: Localized moderate damage across the right shoulder, with a couple streaks along the upper back as well. Moderate minus to the chest.

Lightning Saix: Overboost will be recharged in nine seconds. Moderate+ to medium- across the rear legs below the shoulders.

Reverse order and continue.

With stealth still active, Toro continues pumping fire into the Saix's legs - sticking with a rear-leg joint and switching to a front-leg joint once the rear leg was less available. The Saix may edge the Fox out in the agility department, but Toro had one thing going for him here - a rotating weapon. With that in mind, he worked hard to stay to the Saix's rear - and consequently, out of its limited firing lane, arcing out as wide as he needed to and rotating the Gatling to keep up fire on the Saix's legs.

It was still early in the battle and while Toro liked his odds in melee, he wasn't a gambling man - he'd rather take out a leg before engaging up close. To that end, he spent the round playing the keep-away-and-shoot card.

His gun only went silent once the Saix managed to get its own guns on him - at that point, Toro ceased fire and focused all his efforts on dodging and getting back to that sweet spot where the Saix's guns couldn't hit, relying on the various stealth systems and fleet-footed nature of his zoid to vanish from sight and pull away before getting tackled or shot to bits.

The vulcan gun pounded a staccato beat on the Saix legs, the sound much louder than Naota had expected. "This is probably gonna hurt. But I gotta do something, before the El Toro pulls a houdini." They suddenly hit the brakes, claws gouging the dirt, a small cloud floating around their feet. Naota jerked foward in his harness, the belts cutting into his chest. Before hitting a dead stop, he directed the Saix in a swift, tight turn and opened fire with all guns at the fox's last position.

the Saix starts running again, and hits about 340 kph, still blasting away at the front legs, weaving to keep the returning fire damage down. He keeps on the fox as best as he can, but still giving the tail wide berth, as well as smoke clouds. If melee is reached the Saix keeps up tight on the fox's side and tears at the back of the front legs, with claws, teeth and guns. If things start to go bad, they leap away from the fox and run, at full boost, out to 300 meters or so.

illegals avoided

Taken from the battling guide:

"Illegal Maneuvers: Some moves just aren't acceptable, usually due to pilot endangerment. This list is made in the interest of keeping Zoids and pilots safe during battle, and any move listed here is considered illegal in a sanctioned battle. Attempting to do these moves will result in instant disqualification.

Editing Posts: You cannot, under any circumstances, edit an existing post you've made in an arena battle. If you have a problem with your move, you must make a second post to make the edit; just start it with 'EDIT:' and write your change/addition. Edits can only be made if you were the last poster; if anyone has posted after you, you can no longer make an edit. This is the format for AIM battles as well, just without the board post. Add in another comment with the 'EDIT:' start, and don't edit after someone else sends their move. "

With that being said, I have no choice but to disqualify Naota from the battle.

The battle is over!

Bree wins!

Damages: Both Zoids will need Moderate repairs.