Welcome!

[Brawn]

0992, open plains, 500 meters

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

[Aphrodite]

Venus Rochester, a ranked D free agent, piloting Helga the Heldigunner equipped with Light Gatling Cannons, operating out of the Hover Cargo.

[Kegger007]

Kil Gannon, Rank C, The Good The Bad The Ugly, piloting Gunslinger the Snipe Master, equipping the Flexible Booster Unit. The Talon Chargers are in the transport, which is a Hammer Kaiser, Moonshiner.

[Brawn]

Kegger first! Ready? Fight!

[Kegger007]

Gunslinger.

It had been some time since Kil had stepped into the cockpit of the Snipe Master. The last time he had, it was against the slow and armoured Sea Panther of Caitlyn Kestral's. This time it would be against the desert salamander, the Heldigunner.

And it's pilot Venus Rochester, a damsel known for playing cards on both sides of the playing field...if the rumours were to be entertained.

No time to play around with a loose cannon, he thumbed a few selector switches over before the match got underway, prepping the Snipe Master's mobility controls.

-----------------------

At battle's go, the Snipe Master activates the Stealth Shield, Radar Dispersal and IR Surpression maintained it's always active status as the Snipe Master quickly pivoted its Flexible Booster Unit, taking off and away from the Heldigunner.

Gunslinger got evasive, staying out of the Heldigunner's frontal firing arc and using its raptorine agility to the fullest, simply focusing on vanishing from Venus' field of vision and creating more distance.

Kil held his fire, all concentration was poured into stretching out the space between the two and staying out of Venus' frontal fields of fire, elusive and hidden...for now.

[Aphrodite]

Venus settled into Helga's cockpit, looking out across the open plains at today's target: Kil Gannon and his Sniper Master. She had asked around about her opponent because never before had she battled Mr. Gannon before. It would be imprudent to enter a fight without knowing anything about the enemy. Too bad asking around revealed very little about Kil; from what she garnered, Rochester was under the impression that she was up against a real-life cowboy. "Should be interesting, partner," she joked aloud, just as the judgebot called for the battle to begin.

She pushed the Heldigunner forward at its full speed in the direction that visual had last been had on the target, looking for prints left in the sand by the Sniper Master's huge feet that also functioned as foot locks. The machine guns and Gatling cannons fired away, hoping to land a ping on the raptor.

Rochester in a zig-zag motion. It was a strategy employed to spread damage, but today she was using it to increase the bits of raptor left floating in the air as she blasted away stealth paint. As soon as she had exposed enough of the target to see the Sniper Master, Venus began to also fire the Rifle Cluster. She aimed at the target's tail and at the back of its legs, depending not only on her radar but also on her naked vision.

[Brawn]

The Snipe Master, one of the stealthiest Zoids in existence, plays it's role almost perfectly as it turns tails and takes off to add distance between it and the Heldigunner. Venus would've been none the wiser if it weren't for one thing—the stream of fire from the Flexible Booster Unit.

It's like a guiding candle for the Heldigunner's weaponry as it charges forward, chasing the Snipe Master and unloading on it with everything it has. The machineguns and gatling cannons do a pretty good job of tagging the Snipe Master, even with it's evasive maneuvers.

The one thing that does work well for the Snipe Master are the evasive maneuvers taking place on both sides of the field, which more or less prevents the Heldigunner from hitting the Master with any reliable consistency throughout the round.

As the round ends the two are 635 meters apart with the Heldigunner facing the Snipe Master's brightly illuminated rear end.

Damages:

The Heldigunner is undamaged.

The Snipe Master's back, tail, and the back parts of it's legs are all at light+ damage overall. There are a few scattered spots running along the tail and lower back from the Heldi's other weapons which left behind moderate damage. The stealth field's integrity is still holding together, and is only being disrupted by the flare of the Flexible Booster Unit.

[Aphrodite]

Venus was doing something right, it would seem. A few pings here and a few pings there were leaving more and more of the raptor zoid visible. With the target becoming gradually more and more visible, Venus couldn't let this momentum escape her. She rotated the Anti-Air cannon with hopes that its firing arc would prove of some use; the Rifle Cluster began to pump out one shot per second, helping out the Machineguns and Medium Gatling Cannons and Anti-Air cannon as all guns shot at Kil's zoid - its legs were the primary target.

Helga continued to run forward. Whenever the floating bits of Snipe Master changed direction, she followed. Venus only entertained the weaving strategy when Gannon returned fire; Rochester was focusing on doing damage to the opponent, not sparing her own zoid's armor.

"If I can pull out a win over Kil Gannon, I'm moving up a rank." The thought was fluttering around in the dyed blue tresses of Venus, giving her encouragement as she continued to give chase to a zoid that was incredibly damned hard to see.

[Kegger007]

The Flexible Booster Unit flares one last time and out of existence as the Snipe Master jukes away, dashing away a little before locking down, the Snipe Master taking aim with its AZ144mm cannon lining up over top of the Heldigunner's shoulder.

He squeezed the trigger, five times in succession, stepping to the side between each shot to adjust for the angle of the moving Heldigunner and to place his shots for best damage. The mechanism reloaded between each blast with his steps, Kil's steady aim blowing apart the most available shoulder.

Once the shoulder was disabled, he moved on to the next available shoulder or hip, given the Heldigunner's positioning.

[Brawn]

Enthusiasm wells up inside of the Heldigunner's pilot, who is quite pleased at her success thus far in the match. She continues to fire, charging towards the Snipe Master continuously and pelting it with a significant amount of shelling.

Kil and his Snipe Master, however, are determined to make up for lost ground. After a final flare from the Flexible Booster Unit, he locks his Zoid into position and takes up the signature sniping position that serves as the Zoid's namesake.

As Kil settles into his own element the battle grows eerily simple.

The first shot rings out, striking it's target directly in the shoulder. Venus, though caught off guard, reacts accordingly, adding a little bit of weaving in her path towards the Snipe Master. When you're in a Heldigunner, maneuverability isn't something it's typically known for, and thusly, the second shell from the Snipe Master soon strikes the first, mere inches from the original shell's impact.

The Heldigunner boldly continues to traverse, continuing to fire, but finding it difficult to match her target with the Snipe Master now benefiting from the full effect of the Stealth Shield. The shimmer effect is still in play, but the Heldigunner pilot is realizing how brief it actually is.

However, as the third shot rings out, Venus gets a better idea of the Snipe Master's position, bringing her accuracy back up a notch. It helps that the Snipe Master is locked into position.

Kil's fourth shot is the "kil-shot;" it's the one that takes the shoulder offline, giving the Heldigunner a useless limb. There is astoundingly little surface damage to the limb, but this is a prime example of what snipers can do. Fortunately for Venus, the round ends before Kil has time for a fifth shot.

Positions: The Heldigunner is facing the general direction of the Snipe Master from 390 meters away.

Damages:

Heldigunner: Heavy+ to the shoulder. The limb is disabled. 15% decrease in speed/maneuverability.

Snipe Master: Moderate+ to the entire back of the Zoid. Medium- in a few spots along the lower back and along the sides of the tail.

Reverse order and continue.

[Kegger007]

Satisfied that he had deadened a limb on the Heldigunner, the footlocks released and the Snipe Master took off once more, this time on a path angling out of the Heldigunner's frontal firing arc. This had the bonus of forcing the beleaguered salamander to turn to follow, if Venus could even tell where he had disappeared to. He held the fire on his guns, and the Flexible Booster Unit remained silent for now. Gunslinger was going to be patient here, staying out of Venus' gun sights and coming around to present himself with the side of the Heldigunner from a distance.

Gunslinger stretched out the distance between the two zoids slightly as he did so as well, coming around until Kil achieved his desired firing position.

Then the footlocks came down, and back into longshot, the Snipe Master lining up the AZ144mm on the rear hip of the Heldigunner, planting a pair of rounds into it before raising the footlocks again and getting evasive, circling around and away once more.

[Aphrodite]

Venus continued to do her best to follow Gannon in his invisible zoid. Helga fired away with all that she had, following any shimmers spotted floating through the air hinting at the presence of the Snipe Master. Venus was pushing at her current full speed, focusing solely on following and tracking the target.

After two more seconds of this, the Heldigunner tumbled into the ground and continued forward. It burrowed in a straight light in the direction in which it had last pocked a mark on the opponent. After three seconds of burrowing, Helga popped back onto the surface.

Quickly, Venus was once again rapid-firing and trying to detect a shimmer that would snitch on Kil's position. Once she had it, she was sprinting for his zoid while never ceasing to fire.

[Brawn]

The Snipe Master's pilot shuts the eyes of it's opponent's Zoid yet again, leaving the Heldigunner's pilot blinded. Venus does her best to follow, but without sensors to guide her or any clues from the Snipe Master, the best she can do is continue forward across the plains, firing away into the heat of the day.

Roughly 3 seconds into the Snipe Master goes moves back into it's sniping position, but with its opponent underground, there's no target to aim at. Kil Gannon suddenly finds himself getting a taste of his own medicine, but it's all for naught as the Heldigunner surfaces a couple of seconds later.

Kil takes his shot and marks the Heldigunner's back accordingly, lodging a shell in the armor just beyond the neck. With only a second remaining Venus bursts forth from the ground and heads towards her new lead, only to take another shot from the sniper rifle for her troubles.

There's a lining to Venus' cloud, and while it's not quite silver, a half-second's worth of fire tags the Snipe Master before it disappears once again.

Positions: The Heldigunner is 300 meters away from the Snipe Master's last known position.

Damages:

Snipe Master: light-plus to the chest and lower torso.

Heldigunner: medium-minus to the upper back just beyond the neck, the second shot took residence in the disabled limb—nearly severing it and upping the decrease in performance to 20%

Reverse order and continue!

[Aphrodite]

When Venus hit the target once, she made sure to keep all fire aimed in that same direction. All guns rotated and fired so that any viable weaponry was working to put a hurting on Kil Gannon and his toy.

Meanwhile, Venus ran - or did her best to run - in an arc that only exposed her already dead limb. She did not want another leg being taken offline, and also wanted to protect Helga's neck from gunfire. As guns continued to fire and aim on wherever the Snipe had last been detected, Venus sprinted across the field at her full sleep.

[Kegger007]

Gunslinger dashes away and out of the Gunner's frontal firing, asserting another position a couple of seconds later from which it could fire, footlocks coming down and 144mm Sniper Cannon lining up on the previous damage it had already inflicted.

She wants to give me that spot I'll keep hammerin' it.

The Snipe Master began to hammer out round after round into the damage he had already left on the Heldigunner's limb and shoulder, planting rounds deeper and deeper into the body of the salamander. The rounds weren't only for disabling, they could also wreak havoc with the internals of the Zoid.

The Snipe Master slowly stepped away between shots, and adjusted his aim as needed, hammering out shot after shot. Eventually the Heldigunner's leg would be blown clean off and he would be planting fire into its chassis and internal workings. He made sure not to hit the "kill shot" so to speak and tag the poor beast's core.

[Brawn]

The Snipe Master utilizes it's stealth to move out from the Heldigunner's current rampage, finding a nice quiet spot two seconds into the round. At second three the first round fires off, not only taking the Heldigunner's leg right off, but cuing the female pilot in on the Snipe Master's position. This time, however, Venus makes much more minor changes to her path by choosing to keep her side facing the Sniper. With weapons that pivot, that's not a problem at all. The battle rages on as the Snipe Master continues to pop shells into the hole left behind by the leg, filling the internals with damage. That's not to say that the Snipe Master is getting off scott-free. It's just a lot harder to hit what you can't see. By the time the round ends, the Snipe Master is feeling worse than it has before, mainly due to the Heldigunner's persistence and her resolution to absorb what was coming.

Positions: The Heldigunner is 190 meters to the Snipe Master's north, approaching it in an arc.

Damages:

Heldigunner: the limb is completely severed - 25% decrease in speed, heavy-minus to the surrounding area, moderate-plus to the internals

Snipe Master: medium-minus overall to the entire backside of the Zoid - the optical camouflage is flickering every 2-3 seconds, medium-plus to the rifle - it may be prone to jamming

Reverse order and continue!

[Kegger007]

Ensuring the footlocks are up, Kil dashes the Snipe Master directly out of the Heldigunner's line of fire, knowing his Stealth field will begin to flicker more at any moment now. Still, a moment was all he needed to get clear just long enough to get a drop on that severely damaged portion.

Footlocks came down and he lined up shots with his AZ144mm rifle, looking to plow deep into the Heldigunner's severely damaged limb area and silence it once and for all.

Kil was wary however, for Venus going to ground. Losing visual contact with the Heldigunner he lifted the footlocks and dashed away with the Flexible Booster Unit flaring to add speed until he could again ascertain the Heldigunner's position.

In any case, after a few blasts with the AZ144mm rifle, the Snipe Master lifted the footlocks and turned around, now stepping away from the Heldigunner in reverse, peppering it with fire from the Flexible Booster Unit's cannons and his own stock frontal guns, tagging the already severely damaged 'gunner where he had planted his heavy rounds earlier.

[Kegger007]

EDIT:

Meeting the Heldigunner in melee, however unlikely, Kil aimed to dash around to its wounded side, gaining better position to blast his frontal guns directly into the damaged area and hug up to its side, digging claws into its side and pushing those back cannons away.

[Aphrodite]

Venus was stoic in her stratagem. She charged forward sans one arm and continued to allow her full arsenal to unload in the last place the sniping zoid had been detected last. Whenever a location on the whereabouts of Kil was discovered, Venus followed him unrelentingly with her firepower. The temptation to dive underground was strong, but Rochester decided it would be for the best to stay above ground and handle business.

[Brawn]

The stealth shield is indeed flickering, but it is still providing the Snipe Master with a significant degree of cover. Considering that the flickers are short-lived and far-spaced, Venus is still having a tough time figuring out just where Kil Gannon is, as well as where the next strike will come from.

The silence doesn't last long, as the Snipe Master takes aim and fires, having yet again achieved a clear shot on the damaged side, something that it can attribute to the Heldigunner's decreased maneuverability. Two shots in and the Heldigunner has a good bead on the Snipe Master. A second later and the Snipe Master is yet again under heavy fire. Two more seconds and a single shot later and the Heldigunner's eyes go dim - a sure sign of a Command System Freeze.

The battle is over!

The winner is Kil!

Damages:
Snipe Master: Heavy
Heldigunner: Heavy