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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 12:38 am
4am, Soldiers moved in guard around their city's edge. Giga Gojulas, though a rare ZOID, could be spotted in pears at every post around the large Helic City. After the events with the Death Saurer and Stinger the Republic has held a tight security around it's boarders.
At the four corners stood one Ultrasaurous. They hardly ever moved, but were armed to the teeth with weapons larger than Most any ZOID that it could come up against. These were all specially built by Dr. Richard Fox himself.
The southern post was marked by the Ultrasaurous #3. The number pained almost invisibly on its hind right leg. The Gordos described in Cadet Tsuzume Matsuk's letter stod just outside of the post. Only Feet from the Ultrasaurous's gigantic tail. Its pilot, Lt. Dixon, Stood just outside his ZOIDS Cockpit looking up at the Stars.
Lt. Dixon was a noted soldier from Both battles with the Death Saurer. He was a man in his late 40's. Hair white from the stress of war. He had a nicely trimmed beard and mustache lined with both grey and white. This was a well built man, quite muscular and strong. Many people, who didn't know him, were afraid to even approach him. He wore the standard Republican uniform, only decorated with some distinct medals, one in particular that had a big G/F on it.
Every so often he would look at his clock than watch for his cadet of the horizon. When he saw nothing he would return to looking at the stars.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:16 am
Yes, they were gonna be just on time! "C'mon Raya, pick up the pace!" Tsuzume urged her shield liger. She was excited for her first mission, so much so that she'd headed out with her liger extra-early, hoping to get to the point described in her mission status letter on time.
Lt. Dixon... She knew the name, and what he looked like, but she'd never met him. It would be her first time. The Ultrasaurus loomed on the horizon. The Southern post. She was getting there, and just on time. "0355 Hours, Raya, good deal. We'll be there in just a few seconds!" The liger gave a light rumble in response, not wanting to be seen, if that mysterious zoid was around. Tsuzume had a small picture of it up on the display, only in a corner, so that it wouldn't block her view in a battle, but she would be able to compare.
She was ready- though not overly so. A little bit of nerves were creeping in; the cadet had only been in practice battles, not the real thing. Though, the fact that she would be doing this mission with a decorated war hero was definitely comforting. She could spot the Gordos before she could the lieutenant. She slowed her liger down as she approached to a walk, then a stop, unbuckled herself, and hopped down out of the cockpit.
Upon landing she immediately saluted him, as her training had taught her. "Lieutenant Dixon, Sir! Cadet Tsuzume Matsuki, reporting!" She thrust her hand from her forehead. He... was enough to make her nervous. She couldn't really tell from the cockpit of her liger, but face to face Lt. Dixon was a big guy. She stood at attention until further instruction- that's what cadets needed to do, after all.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:17 pm
The Lt. smiled as he saw the liger on the horizon early. This was a promising sign.
A tall one indeed, at nearly seven feet, he looked down to her salute and return it respectfully. "At ease Cadet."
"The General tells me that this is your first mission." He looked up at her Liger for a quick Moment. "And with that fine ZOID we shouldn't have a problem."
He extended his had for a hand shake. "Lt. Gary Dixon, and this here is Gary my long time partner Gordos." The old ZOID hummed.
Gary had always believed that before going on a co-op mission it was good to know who you were going with. And with the new cadet being five minutes early they had time to do so.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:55 pm
Tsuzume's posture relaxed as she was released from attention, for which she was grateful. "Thank you, Sir." She said, conveying her thankfulness.
"The General would be right! I'm excited, but kind of nervous too," she confided. "But I'm sure we'll do great!" There was that fire in her spirit. Raya gave a quiet growl of thanks too, at the compliment. The shield liger, it seemed, was itching for a good fight. Tsuzume returned the handshake, adding in a slight bow, keeping her eyes on the lieutenant until she took her hand back. She glanced up at the Gordos. The Zoid that would be by Raya's side, and this would be the pilot that would be by her own side. She felt very much more comfortable knowing that Lt. Dixon would be there to work with her, this would've been a lot more nerve-racking if she was on the mission by herself!
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:41 pm
" No need to be worried here." He gave her a pat on the back with his large bear hand. "Relax is the key. So is confidence, but I can see you know that one."
"now, the picture the General has given you was taken not far from this post actually." He pointed south. "We'll be starting our investigation over there. It was taken a year ago, but that is the spot it repeatedly appears in. And don't worry, if any surprise should come along Gary and I'll do everything in our power to ensure you a safe trip."
The guy acted as if they were already the best of friends. He had a fatherly charm about him. He would wait until his Cadet would jump into her ZOID before jumping in his own. It was gentleman, and he upheld those traditions.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:55 pm
"That's good to hear," the cadet said with a smile. She was already beginning to feel a bit better. Still, she knew that it was never smart to throw caution entirely to the wind. She listened to the mini-briefing he gave, nodding periodically with her brows furrowed thoughtfully. She must've heard similar information more than once, but it didn't matter. To her, she could never hear the information on this mission too many times.
In spite of his menacing appearance... Lt. Dixon was a really nice guy. Another case of "never judge a book by its cover." She smiled at the thought.
"Alright then! And Raya and I will watch your back, too," she said, determined. They would both get out of this mission in good shape, she wanted to make sure of it. She gave the lieutenant one more salute before pivoting and heading towards Raya, and making her way into the cockpit.
She shut the hatch and buckled in. "Well, buddy, here we go! You ready?" She asked of her liger, which booted up in response. The cockpit was alight, and that picture of the weird zoid popped up at the bottom, just where she'd left it. She prompted a quick system-status report- all systems go. She eased her shield liger towards the gordos and waited for him to get started. She set her own sights on that spot to the south. They'd take that zoid... They would! After all, she was a trained cadet in the Republican Army.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:21 am
Another com-link screen would appear on the opposite side of the strange ZOID picture. Lt. Dixon eased his ZOID forward.
"We'll probably going at a crawl compared to the speeds Sheild Liger can go, so enjoy the ride." He laughed. Gary have a high than low pitch growl, in a laugh.
---
The speed of the Gordos made this trip well over thirty minutes. The whole time scanners searching the ground for anything. Finally, a screen popped up showing a massive foot print. Three large toes like a tyrannosaur. This print also suggested that this ZOID had very large claws on its feet, just by how deep the ground was cut. This one looked to be no more than a day old. The Lt. Scratched his beard.
Not too far from the feet prints there here hand prints, knuckle prints actually. The print suggested that it had five fingers like an ape-like ZOID. Suggesting this thing stood like an ape, but walked like a tyrannosaurus.
"What do you make of that?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:32 am
"Alright, will do!" Tsuzume responded to the comm-linked Lt. Dixon. Raya seemed to be chomping at the bit to go, but Tsuzume held the liger back, keeping steady with the pace of the Gordos she was with. "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, Raya..." She said, keeping the zoid's systems scanning the ground. Raya found the prints at about the same time as Gary did, and they were enlarged on a section of the screen, even outlined just the slightest. The AI in this liger... Sure was awesome!
"Well I've never seen anything like that before..." Tsuzume said. "I would've guessed it was like a Rev Raptor or something... except for the fact that it seems to use four limbs to move..." Her brows furrowed with thought as she glanced from the prints to the image. "It kinda looks like it's using four limbs to support its weight in the picture... But the dust is kind of in the way, I can't tell for sure." She said simply. "Screenshot this, Raya," she told the AI, which she saw take note of the pictures. If nothing else, this information would make it back to base at the end of the mission.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:01 am
"far too large to be a rev. And the claws are two sharp to be a Gojulas... and the knuckles too sharp for an Iron Kong." He looked over the picture carefully, than the prints.
The Gordos followed along side them, careful not to step in any of them. The more they went on the less farther appart the prints were. Judging by the distance it was faster than his Gordos, but not much faster than a Giga Gojulas. This ZOID looked to be very heavy.
The tracks lead into a large crater of an explosion. Inside this crater stood a deceased command Wolf, torn in two. the core ripped out. The strange ZOID prints were all around the Command Wolf. The Wolves head crushed into a large hand print. Five long fingers, looking skeletal by how they curved. The tail looked to be bitten off by thin teeth. The neck of the ZOID was bent and twisted as if it were wet clay.
Luckily there were no registration numbers to this ZOID, it was a wild one. the Lt. Sighed in relief at that.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:05 pm
Tsuzume nodded, he was right... This seemed to be a mix of zoids, really. As she had thought before, this was the most bizarre thing she'd ever seen. She followed the tracks as well, trying to keep her pace even with the Gordos's. "Oh, the poor thing," Tsuzume said at the sight of the command wolf. While she didn't have one, the cadet was rather fond of command wolves, to see one this destroyed was almost heartwrenching.
"Who... or what could do something like this?" The answer was obvious, the zoid displayed at the bottom of the screen had done it. There was no other possibility, as far as she knew. She had the liger screenshot this sight too- the damage that the zoid belonging to those prints could do. Caution creeped back into her mind, should they run into this thing she wondered if they stood a chance. Given, this was only a command wolf that had been destroyed, Tsuzume with her shield liger could probably mutilate one pretty badly if they wanted... But it was still eerie, especially at this time of night.
"Whatever it is, it doesn't look like this wolf stood the slightest bit of a chance," she stated simply. Raya rumbled in agreement.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:23 pm
"No, this one looks like it was killed for its core." Lt. Dixon scanned the corps of the Command Wolf. "And its memory... they've all been torn out by sharp teeth."
Than, just as the sun was starting to show a bit more, the ZOID alert went off.
The Gordos hissed as it looked up to see that nasty silhouette against the rising sun. Lt. Dixon tried to clear the image it was receiving, but something was jamming the radar preventing any clear image.
The ZOID was quite a ways off. But even at that distance and with the very unclear picture the Gordos could get some estimate of its size. It was about the size of a Gojulas, maybe a little larger. Four eyes? Or maybe two large ones and flaming nostrils? It was very hard to make out.
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:34 am
"Do you think whatever it is has any long-range weapons? If everything was done by teeth..." Tsuzume said thoughtfully, looking at the picture and trying to discern anything. There would be no time for ponderings, though. The shield liger's sensors went off at the same time as the gordos's, she could hear it over the comm-link. The same image was enlarged from the horizon.
"Well hello there, beasty." Tsuzume said quietly, too quiet to be audible over the comm-link. Her expression had shown a quick bout of fear, but it had only lasted a few seconds, now replaced with a determined face. Like she'd thought to herself before: Herself, the lieutenant, and their two zoids were all gonna get out of this in one piece. (Well, four, really.) "Lt. Dixon, judging by that thing's prints earlier, it can book. It may be far off, but... I have a feeling that it knows where we are..." Especially since those lights were pointed right at them.
Their mission letter had said to investigate it- find out as much as they could, not destroy it, but if it came after her she would fight with everything she and her liger had. "I think the lower set of lights are the eyes- judging from this year-old picture. The others... I don't know, custom parts that have been added since then?" At any rate, Tsuzume needed to know one thing. "Lieutenant, we aren't going to attack it if it stays away, are we? I mean, I have no problem with that, just want to know..." She said, voice thankfully unwavering.
An after thought. "Raya, another screenshot of that thing," she commanded. The liger committed the image to memory. She eased the sticks a little, getting Raya in a ready-to-run position- whether that be towards the weird zoid or away from it. She gently put her thumb near the button that deployed the anti-zoid double-barreled gun, if it charged she'd fire a few rounds before activating her shield.
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:06 am
"If it does it doesn't seem to use them much..." Lt. Dixon eyed the wolf from his side view. He also noted the crater in which they were in, this was not here before.
"It might have an impact blast however. I'm convinced it created this crater."
The ZOID lowered its head, the small red glows leveling with the ground. The spines on its back flexing. Its hands laying flat on the ground with its arms spreading appart.
The sun hitting it just right revealed that it had several "holes" in the body, like a skeleton.
"I'm convinced its a bio ZOID. If so, that means we won't be able to penetrate its armor..." Lt. Dixon watched the ZOID carefully. "Hold your ZOID still, don't make any movements." He commanded.
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:24 am
"Yeah, I don't know how else this crater would get here." She agreed. Zoids making craters? Greaaat. She kept her eyes on the thing as it shifted. Being wary. "Yeah, won't move a gear," she said, keeping her hands perfectly steady on the controls.
"A bio zoid? Never heard of those..." She said quietly, as if it could hear her over the comm-link. But if they weren't able to penetrate its armor, they could have some serious trouble on their hands here. Sure, her shield liger had a shield, but... What did a gordos have that could help the lieutenant outrun that thing? They'd have to hope that it hadn't spotted them yet... Tsuzume watched the zoid, expecting it to begin lunging towards them, but really hoped it wouldn't. If Lt. Dixon was right, they'd stand no chance here, and she would not be happy to lose her partner here and now, just after she'd joined the army.
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:52 pm
"Bio Zoids have hell armor... they take the appearance of skelletons as far as I know. Hell armor can only be penetrated by Zi-metal, like the blade on a Mugan Liger."
He pressed another com link button and set out a signal to the base requesting urgent back up. All of it in code letting them know they have spotted the ZOID.
With a burst of light from between the ZOID's spines something was launched their way. A missile!
The lieutenant immediately begun to fire his cannons at the incoming missile. "FIRE!" He commanded Tsuzume. It must have been that kind of missile that created this crater. It seemed large enough by it's enormous size. It looked like a large shark flying through the air.
The gordos back up a bit. He had no choice Gordos had no hope of running.
The strange ZOID held it's posture.
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