Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ a tale of (now) three warriors ❯ decimus ( Chapter 1 )

Atop a wide, squat building a lone figure stood, waiting. He had been watching for quite some time the Gustav that rolled its way steadily towards the ruined city. It was not the Gustav alone that drew his interest, but rather it was the Shield Liger loaded on the trailer being drawn by the Gustav. Soon the transport reached the edge of the city. With a small smile, the figure turned to the innate Gunsniper that stood behind him. Quickly climbing into the cockpit, he made all the necessary preparations and waited, knowing that the Shield Liger pilot was doing the same. There was a twinkling in the early afternoon sky, and moments later a red-hot bolt slammed into the ground at the middle of the city, which had been specially cleared for the judge to landed. The judge emerged from within his capsule, and soon its familiar voice could be heard. Eventually came the message that the pilots had been waiting for.

"Battle mode zero nine nine two. Trey Wenner versus Robert Kalis. Area scanned. Battlefield set up. Ready…FIGHT!!"

At once Trey jolted his Gunsniper into action, walking it forward to near the edge of the building; switching to sniper mode, the Gunsniper turned around and readied the long-range rifle in its tail. Trey quickly locked on to Robert's still stationary Liger.

"Fool. He still doesn't know where I am. This will be too easy." Trey said, almost regretfully squeezing the trigger.

From inside his cockpit, Robert could easily see the flare from the end of Trey's rifle, and immediately activated his shield, the Shield Liger's defining feature. Trey gasped and Robert smiled as the heavy bullet stuck harmlessly into the energy shield.

"Don't be surprised. It can't be all that hard to spot a muzzle flash, and it's even easier to predict the first move of someone piloting a Gunsniper." Robert said through the intercom to Trey. With his shield still active, Robert broke his Liger into a run, and ran for the labyrinth of the city's centre.

"So, you want to play like that, huh?" Trey said to himself, switching back to his regular cockpit, "Little so you know that this is not a run-of-the-mill Gunsniper."

Looking around for a brief moment, the Gunsniper proceeded to run off the edge of the building, landing lightly before sprinting further into the city. Trey was not being false in saying that his zoid was not regular. The standard wrist mounted three barrelled machine guns had been replaced by a pair of lighter, single barrelled machine guns. The two multi shot upwards firing missile pods had been upgraded to fire faster barrages. The rear-facing thruster at the end of each missile pod was standard to the Gunsniper. In general, it was a fairly standard zoid. However, one day Trey happened across a set of blades for a Blade Liger. When he asked the parts store owner, he said that the blades had been custom built, but were too small for the buyer's tastes. Then Trey noticed that the blades might be able to fit his Gunsniper, and immediately got a bargain price for the rejected weapons. To Trey's delight, it was almost as if the blades and his Gunsniper were made for each other. That is what made his Gunsniper so different. Slowing his zoid to a steady walk, Trey kept on the lookout for his opponent.

As for Robert's Liger, it was a standard Shield Liger, complete with flank mounted pop out missile pods. The only modifications he had made were to replace the original triple cannon with a faster double barrelled shock cannon, and to add a Strike Laser Claw. A pair of close combat modified zoids, and a very interesting battle to ensue.

Robert spotted Trey first, and engaging his missile pods, he fired a quick volley at his opponent. Both the inaccuracy of the unprepared shots and Trey's quick dodging saved the Gunsniper from being shot down. Trey responded quickly, returning fire with his machine guns. The light shells grazed the Liger's armour, but did not do any significant damage. Robert activated the back mounted double beam gun, and fired at his opponent. Taking a couple of hits, Trey decided not to risk any further damage and sprinted away down a small side street. Immediately giving chase, Robert saw the ingenuity of Trey's plan as he found himself staring at the dangerous end of a long range rifle. Robert thanked himself for closing the missile pods as the Liger strained to the side, narrowly avoiding the shot. When he looked again, the Gunsniper was gone. Running to the end of the street into an open square, he saw his opponent's zoid, facing him. Robert pulled his Liger to a halt, and deactivated the beam gun. The two zoids faced off for what seemed an eternity. Then they ran at each other. Trey's Gunsniper unfolded its blades, while the Liger's claws glowed brilliantly. The pilots performed their rituals.

"Strike. LASER. CLAW!!!"

"BLADE ATTACK!!!"

Time froze as the two zoids struck each other, then the two of them completed their leaps. After a few moments, there was an explosion from the side of the Liger, and it collapsed. Closer inspection could spot that the Gunsniper had sustained damage to its leg, and only barely stood. It didn't matter. Trey had won. The judge decreed it.

"The battle is over. The battle is over. The winner is…Trey Wenner."

A few hours later, Trey and Robert encountered each other again, not in combat, but in a bar.

"Hey, Trey!" Robert called out.

Looking up from his drink, Trey saw his opponent, and welcomed him warmly. "Hey Robert. What's up?"

"Nothing much. Just thought I'd waltz along and say hi." Robert pulled up a chair and sat across the table from his fellow pilot. "Good battle today. Not everyone in a Gunsniper beats my Liger in close combat."

"Yeah I know. It was a coincidence that I found those blades. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah…Listen, lately I've been looking for people to join me. I plan to enter the team competition." Robert said, more or less awkwardly. "What do you say?"

"I hear that team pilots get paid more than Individual comp pilots."

"Yeah, I think so, but not by much."

"Who's going to lead? You or me?"

"Both of us."

Trey perked up at this. "What do you mean?"

"We'll fight alongside each other as equals."

"Hmm. Well, I can't see why not. I am getting bored of the Individual competition. But we are only two. Most teams are at least three strong."

"It shouldn't matter. The Flugal team is only two people, and they're going pretty well. So how about it?"

After a brief moment of thought, Trey stuck his hand out. "The Strike Team."

Robert shook his new comrade's hand firmly. They were on their way to the top.

Together, the Strike Team defeated every opponent who challenged them, and as their rank and money increased, their zoids, strangely, did not get upgraded. There was no real need. Until they challenged the Decimus Kong team. The team consisted of three PK type Iron Kongs, one with shoulder mounted gatling cannon, another with a shoulder mounted pulse rifle, and the leader with both weapons, one on each shoulder. All three had wrist mounted double barrelled beam guns and back mounted twin long cannons.

It took a combined blade attack and strike laser claw to take down the first zoid, but their victory was short lived as the other two hailed the Strike Team zoids with gatling fire. Trey and Robert decided to take on an Iron Kong each. In the end, Trey had to tackle the Iron Kong with the Gatling cannon alone. A lucky sniper shot disabled the big zoid's primary weapon, but with a hail of shells from the back mounted cannons, the Gunsniper's cliff edge perch disappeared, and the zoid slid down the escarpment. Deciding to take a different approach, Trey kicked his thrusters into action, and aimed a blade attack at the Iron Kong's vital spot. With insane reflexes, the Kong's arm shot out and caught the smaller zoid in mid flight. Aiming the gun on its other hand at the neck of Trey's zoid, it prepared to fire a crippling shot, when a hail of beam gun shells, shock cannon rounds and missiles slammed the Iron Kong. Trey's zoid tumbled from the disabled zoid's limp grip and rolled to a halt.

Robert, meanwhile, had to fight the leader of the team. Unfortunately for his Liger, the strike laser claw attack was not as successful as usual, and eventually the Iron Kong gained the upper hand over Robert. Seeing his team mate in trouble, he unloaded all he had into the other Iron Kong in a desperate attack to save Trey. It was this distraction that proved Robert's undoing. His direct opponent fired dozens of rounds into the flank of the Liger, and it slumped to the ground. Huge fists pummelled into the back of the collapsed Liger, eventually damaging armour plates to the point where they fell off, leaving the internals of the zoid vulnerable. The pilot of the Iron Kong did not stop there, attacking the exposed parts. Robert's command system had frozen long ago, but the crazed pilot continued with his relentless onslaught. Eventually the judge became tired of the pilot's insanity, and called the orbiting satellite and ordering the immediate disabling of the Iron Kong. Then an explosion erupted from the zoid's neck, and it toppled backwards. Trey's Gunsniper stood shakily twenty metres to the left of it, a thin wisp of smoke coming from the barrel of the rifle. This caused some confusion for the judge, but eventually he made the call.

"Battle over…The winner is: The Strike Team."

It was later revealed to all of the other pilots that the leader of the Decimus Kong team - the one that had all but destroyed Robert's Liger - had suffered from an epileptic fit, and lost control of both himself and his zoid.

The day after, at the Strike Team HQ, Robert looked sadly at his dying Liger.

"Well buddy, we've been through a lot together, but it looks as if the road ends here." Robert reminisced through all his previous battles, from his first ever to his first with Trey, to the fateful battle with the Decimus Kongs.

"Goodbye, my friend."

As Robert walked away, he could have sworn that he could hear the Liger's triumphant roar…

"So what happens now?" Trey asked, when he saw Robert next.

"Well, the Shield Liger is dead. I hate to admit it, but there's no possible way to fix him. So I've decided to upgrade to a Blade Liger."

"A new zoid, huh?" Trey asked quizzically.

"Yeah, I had plans for the Shield Liger's next upgrade, but come to think of it with the money that we've been winning, I can afford a custom Blade Liger with my share."

"So, you're just going to let the Shield Liger go, just like that?"

"Not quite. You see, every zoid has something called a Zoid Core. It's the heart of the zoid, if you will. While the Shield Liger might be irreparable, the zoid core is still active, with all its memories and personality intact…"

"Wait a second. Memories and personalty? While the Shield Liger was a good zoid, it wasn't an Ultimate X. It can't have a personality." Trey said.

"No! It isn't just the Ultimate X's that have memories. All zoids are alive, and all zoids are conscious of what they do. Sure, with regular zoids it's normally the pilot's skill but it's not just skill…" Robert slumped into a chair.

"It's risky. There's a chance that I'll kill the Liger for real if I don't do this right, but I'm going to try it anyway."

Nodding, Trey mumbled something about the Gustav and walked out of the room, leaving Robert alone again.

The next day, Trey walked into the zoid hanger, and was greeted with the sight of a grey Blade Liger. It was basically a regular Blade Liger, until Trey noticed the multi barrel Vulcan cannon mounted on its back. For some reason the new zoid was crouched down next to the trashed Shield Liger. Walking closer, Trey realised that Robert was sitting in the cockpit of the Shield Liger. A series of cables ran from the back of the Shield Liger's head to the back of the Blade Liger's head.

"Oh, Trey, I need you to watch the Blade Liger's screen for me. I'm not sure if this is working." Robert said to his team mate, not looking up from the screen in front of him.

"Yeah, sure thing." Trey replied, hopping into the new zoid's cockpit. "What am I looking for?"

"It'll look like a honeycomb in the bottom corner of the screen. When all the lines have lit up, give me a yell."

A little while later, Trey gave Robert the message he had been waiting for. "It's done!!"

Robert leapt out of the Shield Liger, looked at the screen himself and finished up the transfer. If all went well, Robert would soon be back in business.