Zoids: Armory Team

Written by: Something Awesome

This is a disclaimer:

My friend and I actually started writing these in play format about five or six years ago. Neither of us owns Zoids or any related copyrights, nor do we own any actual Zoids. Damn. As such, this is completely unofficial and we do not intend to use this to make money. Subsequent chapters will follow and this disclaimer will be assumed to apply to them. Thanks for your time.

- Something Awesome

One: Formation

Planet Zi, one year after the disbanding of Blitz team. A young man with long blonde hair strode through a large betting hall, a different Zoid battle taking place on each of five screens surrounding a round counter in the center. He shivered slightly; the climate controls being set too low for someone in black short sleeves, blue jeans, and an orange vest. He looked up and saw a sixth screen displaying odds for a battle that would take place within about five minutes. The man walked to the counter under the screen and pulled out a couple dozen credits and placed them on the countertop. "Put it on the Skyfire Team."

The bet-taker counted the money, appearing unimpressed, and asked simply, "Name?"

"Dan Bryant."

Dan then walked over to one of the few unoccupied tables in the room and sat down in a cushioned chair. He sighed as he put his feet up, the heavy black boots making a soft thud as they landed on the table, and looked up at the screen. This was insane; he used to be able to place huge bets on long-shot teams and still come out with more money than he started. Now his luck and his money supply were starting to run out and he was restricted to small bets on the likely winner. He sighed and said quietly, "If my luck keeps up, I'll have to sell my Command Wolf." That was a laugh, selling his home and transportation, and likely his only possession, not counting a couple sets of clothes.

Another young man sat at the table, this one a little shorter and younger than Dan with medium-length brown hair. He wore a light-blue shirt with some sort of slogan in black underneath a dark-blue jacket. "Did I hear you say you had a Zoid?"

"Didn't your mommy teach you not to talk to strangers?"

"Ouch," the new arrival said sarcastically. His face straightened and he said, "I just thought you might want in on a promising new team, but if you aren't interested…"

"I never said that." Dan replied quickly, trying not to lose his only chance at a steady paycheck, a place to live, and a way to garner some respect. These could all be his if he said yes and all he'd have to do would be to blow apart some Zoids, granted he played his cards right now. "Sure, I'll come along if the offer is on the table. What class are you starting in?" New teams had to take a test to see how well they would perform and then be placed in a class based on how well they did.

"I knew you couldn't resist. Well, we're gonna shoot for 'C,' but I don't know if we're gonna make it."

Dan started to get a very nasty taste in his mouth. Just my goddamn luck. He sighed, defeated, and asked, "Who else is in the team?"

"So far it's just me and this guy Shaun Larson." Grand; a washed-up has-been would be joining a couple of nobodies and they still needed a spare pilot.

"Who else are you gonna get for a pilot?"

"You don't know anyone?"

Dan looked at the other pilot incredulously. He stared right back, his face full to bursting with sincerity. Dan tilted his head back and sighed deeply, not believing he was about to do this. "Well, there is this woman I know, and she's got plenty of battle experience, but…"

"Yes?"

Dan shook his head. "It's nothing." The other pilot smirked knowingly at him, provoking another incredulous glance.

"I can read people, you know," He ventured. "And with you it's pretty easy." Dan was slightly insulted at that remark but was also worried…how much could this guy read into his last couple remarks? "You were hesitant to add something about that woman, but I won't go into it. If you don't want her on the team, though, I won't push you."

"No," Dan replied quickly. "You guys need to get a little better than a shaky C-rank and I know she can help."

"All right," the other pilot said. Looking over his shoulder, he yelled to a large man in the crowd, "Shaun! C'mere, we've got a pilot!"

The man who was presumably Shaun walked over to Dan. Shaun was built large, though not blubbery in the slightest, with short black hair and he displayed a presence relatively small for a man his size. He wore a pale yellow shirt and a roughed-up pair of khakis. "This guy, Mark?"

"Oh, yeah," Mark said, blushing as he realized he had forgotten to introduce himself. "I'm Mark Sanders. Nice to meet you." He glanced over his shoulder at a fresh round of cheers and groans. "Huh, Skyfire won. No surprise there."

Dan cheered and pumped his fists. "Pardon me for a minute," he said, heading toward the betting counter.

"And here's some more good news," Mark said to Shaun. "That guy, Dan, he knows this other pilot, and he says she's really good."

"Whatever help we can get works, I guess."

Dan returned from the betting counter, counting out a small bundle of credits and smiling. "Well," he began, "It looks like my luck's finally turning around."

A large sliding door slammed shut after a two-second interval of openness, almost mirroring the rage felt by the activator of the door's close button, a bright-eyed woman with medium-length dark red hair. Dan bit his lip, insult having successfully been added to injury. Mark let a smug smirk slide across his face. "Knew it," the younger pilot said.

"Jeez," Dan said, "I never knew Leena could hold a grudge that long."

"No way," Shaun interjected suddenly. "You and Leena Toros used to be something?" Though there was more awe than amusement in Shaun's remark, Dan still gritted his teeth.

Mark pressed the call button near the door. "Could the other two of us come in?" After a response failed to be uttered, Mark added, "I promise we'll leave Dan outside." The door slid open almost insultingly quickly. Shaun and Mark walked into the large complex, Mark apologizing, "Sorry, I stick to my word."

Within was a large garage with a couple of Zoids, including a Gun Sniper and a Shadowfox. However, the most eye-catching mech in the garage was a large, white, tiger-like Zoid Mark recognized almost instantly as the Liger Zero. "Over here," Leena said from a doorway on the other side of the garage. After Shaun and Mark made their way over to her, she said, "Sorry about the way I behaved out there. What did you guys want?"

"Well," Mark began, nervous of the potential nuclear explosion waiting at the other end of his sentence, "Shaun and I were forming a team, and Dan agreed to be on it, and he said you'd be a great addition to it. We need a fourth pilot."

"Find it somewhere else," Leena said stubbornly. "I don't want anything to do with him."

Mark sighed. This was probably going to be a difficult venture, but it could pay off, given a little (or in this case, a lot of) persistence. "Leena, what can we do so that you'll reconsider? You have tons of resources and skill; we really could use your help." Leena appeared to think and didn't respond. "Leena?"

"Nothing."

Mark was stunned. This certainly came clean out of nowhere. "Pardon?"

"You don't have to do anything," Leena replied. "If it means that much to you guys, I'll do it."

"And Dan?"

"I'll find a way to deal with him."

Mark and Shaun were elated. Such remarks as "Thank you" and "You won't regret this" flew at Leena like machine gun fire.

"Of course," Leena added, "you'll also have to deal with my father."

The next day at breakfast, Mark and Shaun had come to realize what having to deal with Leena's father meant. Dr. Steve Toros was a nice man, well intentioned and all, but they found he could be annoying.

"All right, team, we have three days of practice until we need to register, so we need to get to work," Dr. Toros said after a simple breakfast. "What do we have to work with?"

Dan dejectedly replied, "A Gyzak, a Command Wolf, a Gun Sniper, and a Dark Horn, and only the Command Wolf and the Gun Sniper are in combat condition."

The doctor wasn't fazed. "Well," he said, "Two of you will get to work on the Zoids that need fixing and the other two can start practicing."

"But what about the other Zoids in your garage?" Shaun complained. "Why can't we use those instead?"

"Because you have no feel for the Zoids or their controls yet," Dr. Toros replied loudly. "If you take them into the exam with only three days' practice, we'll get 'D' for sure." He then adjourned the team to get ready for their assigned tasks for the day: Dan and Leena were to practice and Matt and Shaun were to work on the Zoids.

Down in the garage, Mark leaned on the front of his Gyzak's cockpit, facing Leena. "I hope I'm not pressing too far, but what happened between you and Dan?"

Leena sighed. "Well, we used to be something, of course, and he's a nice guy and all, but he's a reckless gambler. And the problem was that he was winning a lot and attracting a lot of attention."

"You mean, like, attention?"

"Yeah," she looked up in thought quickly. "He was just letting it go to his head and he didn't appreciate me like he once had…"

"And so you broke up with him," Mark finished. After Leena nodded, Mark added, "I get the picture. I'm sorry I had to delve like that; I'm just naturally curious, I can't help it much." There was a pause. "Well, I've gotta get going," he said, giving a quick wave good-bye and grabbing a tool box, heading over to help Shaun work on the Dark Horn.

The training simulator was huge, bigger than any Dan had ever seen, and he had been on some fairly wealthy teams. The silver tiles that made up the walls, floor, and ceiling were easily forty square feet each. He guessed that the room on the whole was probably eight acres. Well, now he knew what Dr. Toros had been building all those years.

There was something odd about the floor tiles. They were plain silver at a passing glance, but upon further examination Dan discovered that they were cross-hatched with thin yellow lines, so closely that there must've been hundreds of thousands of little cross-sections on each tile.

His Command Wolf stood on one side of the gargantuan room, and Dan could only assume that the Gun Sniper was waiting at the other end. Considering who the pilot of the Gun Sniper was, he was not looking forward to this first session.

Dan pulled a small remote from the pocket of his faded blue jeans and pressed three buttons. The Command Wolf hummed to life and lowered its head to the floor. The hatch on the top of its head lifted free and swung forward on a hinge, and Dan climbed inside. At the press of two more buttons, the hatch closed and the Command Wolf assumed an upright battle stance.

Suddenly, a group of the small tiles rose up to form a mound, which quickly seemed to grow grass all over it. This happened with many other groups of tiles to varying degrees of height and steepness. Dr. Toros'…Wait…what did I call him? Dan thought. Oh yeah, Doc! Doc's voice issued from the speakers in the Command Wolf's cockpit as an image of him appeared to Dan's left. "Like it? It's one of the most state-of-the-art training simulators on the continent!"

"It leaves an impression, if you'll excuse the pun."

Doc chuckled a bit, and then activated a series of green lights all around the arena, a signal for the battle to start. Dan lowered his Command Wolf near to the ground, behind the mounds, making it nearly invisible to Leena across the room. The Zoid navigated the maze of hills, making his way across the simulator until it came to an area completely devoid of the hills that marked much of the rest of the room. The Command Wolf jumped back into them, just dodging a hail of simulated rockets from the Gun Sniper. Simulated or not, getting hit like that would end the simulation and Dan would come out the loser.

Fortunately, Dan saw from which direction the projectiles had come from and decided that Leena wouldn't stick around there for long. He did, however, have to guess as to where she would head to. Dan took a guess and headed the way Leena had been going when she pulled the trigger. He was rewarded with another barrage that confirmed his suspicions; he continued on in the same direction. After a short while of dodging behind hills, Dan figured he was close to the Gun Sniper, so he readied the Command Wolf's cannons and ascended a medium-sized hill.

Much to Dan's dismay, the Gun Sniper was nowhere in sight. He wheeled the Command Wolf around just to find himself staring at the Gun Sniper, its arsenal fully exposed and ready to be loosed. He quickly fired two shots from his cannon, but they came a split second after Leena had fired her extensive weaponry. The instant one of the simulated rockets contacted the small of the Command Wolf's back, the simulated images faded and the tiles lined back up on the floor.

In the garage after the fight, Leena appeared extensively euphoric, leftover adrenaline fueling her victory gesticulations. Dan merely sulked; bracing himself for what he knew was going to come sooner or later. Looking over, Shaun yelled from above the bowels of the Dark Horn, "Lemme guess…" Before he could finish, Dan sternly raised his fist over his head, then raised his middle finger above his fist. "Yep," he said to Mark. "You owe me ten credits."

"Damn it," Mark swore. He sighed, then replied, "Double or nothing on who can get this piss of a bolt off the turbine?"

"No way! You're holding the best ratchet in the set!"

Mark swore again. He took ten credits out of his pocket and folded them over the turbine blades. Then, he took a wire in each hand and held them dangerously close together. "You want the credits now?"

"Mark, it's just ten credits! Fork it the hell over!" Dan ordered irritably. The young pilot dropped the wires and began to chip away at some of the grease that had accumulated on the piss of a bolt. Shaun cautiously reached over and plucked the credits from the blades.

The next day saw a stalemate between Dan and Leena in the simulator, this time in a flatter environment with the surroundings and friction altered to resemble those provided by a barren field. On the third day, the once-decrepit Dark Horn was completely functional and Shaun was sent into the simulator against Dan in the same barren environment. Dan emerged victorious, but not after a vicious battle with several near-misses on Shaun's part. This big guy was a much better marksman than Dan gave him credit for. Mark had been more than a little happy after that battle, being fifteen credits richer on a bet with Doc.

The morning of the exam saw Shaun, Dan, and Leena in a free-for-all in a foggy environment in the simulator designed not only to test the pilots' skills, but also to test Mark's skills as a strategist. He emerged spectacularly, relaying information to each Zoid individually and somehow keeping track of the movements of all three combatants. Leena would use this information to eliminate Shaun early on in the fight, but Dan eventually outmaneuvered her and hit her squarely with a cannon shot. It was his turn to gloat, and in the post-simulation meeting, gloat he did.

"I ran right around you and you didn't see it coming, did you Leena?"

"Um…Dan?" Mark tried to get out.

"Dan, shut up!" Leena shot back. "It was a fluke! Mark was giving you more information than to me anyway!"

"I tried to give everyone equal airtime, but -"

"See? I won fair and square! Besides," he said nothing more, but stuck his tongue out like a child at her. Leena, as if to restrain herself from strangling Dan, stormed off, leaving in her wake grumbled oaths directed at Dan that would make a pirate faint in shock.

Mark glared quickly at Dan and said, "Nice work. Piss off our best pilot without six hours until the contest. You're an experienced pilot; you should know what happens because of that." He then ran off after Leena, hoping she didn't get too far away, otherwise, finding her might prove impossible.

Dan did know the consequences of this: there would be some serious dissention in the ranks that could tear the team apart during the exam. By now, however, he knew Mark well enough that he was sure the young pilot would likely remedy this situation quickly.

Mark uttered every clichéd condolence he could think of, any little phrase that came to mind that might make Leena less upset. He and Leena were in Leena's room in the team hallway, close enough so Mark had found her easily, but far enough away that Leena was a safe distance away from Dan. Mark sighed. If this is the sort of thing I'm gonna have to do often, the results better be worth it. Mark pondered the situation a minute and said, "Just put up with him until the exams are over, then you can punch his face in."

That afternoon saw the Dark Horn, Gun Sniper, and Command Wolf loaded into the large snail-like transport Doc kept around and set off for the nearest Zoid Battle Association agency. There, Doc picked up the necessary paperwork, but was stuck when it came to the first question, which read simply, "Team Name:"

"Guys," Doc said urgently. "We never decided on a team name!"

"How about the Armory Team?" Shaun suggested.

Mark wasn't aware that Shaun even knew that word. "Why?" he queried.

"Because," Shaun replied, "someday we'll have enough Zoids that we'll have an armory!" Though everyone else seemed to realize Shaun was joking, Doc wrote "Armory Team" on the line, filled out the rest of the paperwork, and handed it in.

The next several minutes saw Dan and Shaun talk, joke, and grab-ass with each other and saw Leena seethe at Dan after periods of conversation about strategy with Mark and her father. A neatly dressed official, a woman with short beige hair, called out, "Test number 5062, Armory Team, your exam will begin now.

Fifteen minutes later, the Armory Team's Zoids were deployed and their pilots were staring at their competitors, a Lightning Saix, an Iron Kong, and a Red Raptor. In his cockpit, Dan sighed, as did Leena in hers. They both knew what was coming: a well-rounded Zoid as well as a speedy Zoid and a slow, strong Zoid were at the other end of the battlefield on autopilots set to average B-level difficulty. How well or how poorly the team did against these average pilots would determine their initial ranking.

In the Dark Horn, Shaun calmly wiped some of the sweat from his palms, his knuckles white around the controls before the battle even started. Mark was sweating copiously and his heart pounded in his chest. He pulled up the specs for each of the Armory Team's Zoids and a map of the battlefield. Finally, he verified that each of the transmission channels were fully functional. None too soon, as the white module that contained one of the official judge robots plowed into the ground. It rose slowly, making these among the longest five seconds of Mark's and Shaun's lives.

In its classic voice, grand and emotionless at the same time, the judge stated, "This is an official qualification exam sanctioned by the Zoid Battle Commission. All unauthorized personnel within a five-mile radius are to clear the area. Battle mode one-zero-zero-zero. The Armory Team versus the Proctors Team. Ready…FIGHT!"

The Lightning Saichs immediately sped towards the Armory Team. Sensing this, Mark, almost without thinking, said, "Everyone, backs in, Shaun up front!" The Command Wolf and the Gun Sniper immediately backed up against each other behind the Dark Horn. It looked like they pulled it off right…there would be no blind spots, so anyone could see the Lightning Saichs approaching though Shaun could still focus on the other two enemies. The maneuver was novice at best, but Mark assumed the proctors were testing the team's basic skills and would ramp up the difficulty later.

The Lightning Saichs withdrew, though while it was retreating, Shaun took a quick potshot at it. Oddly, the blast clipped the Zoid's front right leg, tripping it for a moment. "They were just toying with us," Dan said. "It's gonna get tougher. No doubt." As if on cue, a laser blast from the Red Raptor struck the ground near the Command Wolf. "Scatter!"

"Hold it!" Mark interrupted. "Shaun, start firing your cannon! Leena, Dan, give him some cover!" The team followed Mark's orders, Shaun making shots that were landing just shy of the Red Raptor, Dan taking shots at the Lightning Saichs, and Leena staring down the Iron Kong, daring it to move.

The Iron Kong made the first move to break the stalemate, bringing a sniper rifle down over its shoulder. Leena immediately took off, but the Iron Kong didn't keep her in its sights, instead turning the opposite way to Shaun. "Damn it!" Mark swore. "Leena, stay on the Iron Kong!"

Leena responded, swiveling the Gun Sniper in the Iron Kong's direction and loosed two missiles just before the Iron Kong fired its rifle. This hasty fire on Leena's part missed the Iron Kong, but the resulting explosion was enough to rock it so the blast didn't hit any vital portions of the Dark Horn, just clipping the right rear ankle. Shaun wheeled his Zoid's cannon to the Iron Kong and launched three quick shots at the off-balance Zoid. The first shot grazed its right arm, the second its chest, and the third its left foot, though the third was redundant as the second shot tore through the Iron Kong's inner workings, crippling it.

Mark pumped his fists and silently gasped a cheer for a second, then immediately turned his attention back to the battle. Looking at the battle map, he could make out only one Zoid on the proctors' side. Where was the Lightning Saichs?

That question was answered promptly as the Dark Horn's leg was cut off by the Lightning Saichs' razor-sharp claws. It then turned on the Gun Sniper, but took a shot in the small of its back from the Command Wolf before it could do any more damage. As the Lightning Saichs tried to get up, its feet were shot out by the Command Wolf. At this lull, Doc quickly assessed the damage to the Dark Horn and Mark paused briefly to congratulate Dan on his close-range marksmanship. "One left," Dan said. "Leena, you want to do the honors?"

Wordlessly, the Gun Sniper sped off toward the Red Raptor. Mark grabbed his hair and yelled, "No! Go together!" At this cue, Dan sped after Leena, but the Gun Sniper took two lucky hits in the leg from the Red Raptor before the Command Wolf could get within a feasible firing distance. The Gun Sniper landed hard, Leena watching the Command Wolf speed by and pump five rounds into the Red Raptor. As it fell, the fifth felled Zoid in this battle, the judge spread its arms wide, yelling, "Battle over! Battle over!" It dropped its arms as it continued, "The winner is…the Armory Team!" It raised its left hand. "Collect your damaged equipment and your results will be posted in the agency lobby.

A half-hour later, Doc, Mark, Leena, and Shaun stood in the agency lobby celebrating the Armory Team's admittance into the B-rank league while Dan was nursing the repercussions from his comments toward Leena the previous day.

That night, Mark lay awake in his bed in the team's headquarters and sighed. "What the hell have I just gotten myself into?" He chuckled softly. "Scratch that. I doubt I want to know." He, along with Shaun, would learn quickly, however, what this new venture would entail.