Six: Hello all to Zoid Nation. This story is brought to you by me.
Two: Here we get to see giant robots blow everything up. Won't it be great?
Six: Hey hey hey. You're supposed to be in a cell in the middle of the ocean after what you did.
Two: Oh come on, only like six people died. It's not that bad.
Six: YOU BLEW UP AN ISLAND. HOW IS THAT NOT BAD!?
Two: Hey, they asked for it, so... bye. (Runs off.)
Six: Get back here. (Runs after.)
edboy4926: Don't know for sure, but I have some ideas. Feel free to suggest any.
Zealswordsmen, Zyndium, and JackMatrix: Thank you.
hornofdesolation: I believe in genesis Zoids were originally created artificially, but I could be wrong. But for now I will go with that.
I would like to say I have watched genesis after last chapter to really understand the show better. It helped.
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Unnamed System
8:95 am
In the unnamed system half a dozen ships were gathered around the second planet in system. No one has given the system a name and no one was likely to give it one for decades, possible longer. All six of the ships looked a little run down, old, having scratches and wear on the hull. Five of them were mercenary ships built in some of the few starship factories in the terminus systems. The lone quarian ship was an old turian patrol frigate over 120 years old, the Iktomi.
Several comm buoys have been set up to allow communication with the extranet and contact individuals if need be.
Iktomi
"Thank you all for coming." Yoh spoke to the leaders and captains of the many different mercenary groups in the main control room. While not the best choses for something like this, he didn't have much chose in that regard. "Now I am sure you would all like to know what we are all doing here..." Looking around the room for a moment. "... and your payment." It was no doubt what all of them were looking forward to.
"Dam right we are. If the payments not good enough for the job, we're pulling out." Replied Malbia Tansis leader of the Talon mercenaries that were sent. A unique aspect about the Talons, is they are all turians. In recent years, the Talon mercenaries have become better organized, and better equipped. While not that large, their help would no doubt make it easier than without. She had orders to confirm the payment first, and ensure the payment met the work.
"I'm here mostly for the fight. I'm not really in the need for credits." Of course Wrex would be here for the fight, he's krogan. He's also the reason everyone else was here. "And another thing..." Taking a quick look at everyone but Yoh. "You all owe me, so even if the payments aren't good enough, you're staying." Daring anyone to say otherwise. No one did, but you could tell they weren't exactly happy about it.
Yoh put his hands up in a pleading motion, arms apart and palms facing them. "Easy, easy. I can assure you all that the payment" Looking at Malbia and the other leaders. "is good and you will like it. As for Wrex." Looking at said individual "The enemy you'll be fight is very strong. More will be explain in a few moments." Yoh quickly started typing out commands for the holo-table, wanting to move things along.
The table came to life shortly after and a blue hologram of an unknown creature, that reminded them all of varren, expect on two legs, appeared. Seeing as none of them had ever seen it before, and they were being shown it in the first place, it was what they were going to fight most likely. All of them being who they were, began to make guesses on what it could or could not do. You didn't get far in their profession without being able to see the strengths and weaknesses of enemies. From what they could see, it was built more for speed then power. Its small arms stated that they were more for support with its head, legs, and tail being its main means of attacking. As the thing didn't move other than spinning slowly in the center, they couldn't tell if it breathed or spit anything. They would put that thought to the side for later and keep their eyes and ears open. They were told to pack heavy fire and to expect powerful enemies, if this was the only enemy, then its hide was no doubt tough. Tough enough to shrug off low caliber rounds with ease and higher end ones will take a bit to put them down. No doubt they would be tougher to kill than krogan. Given the way it looks with its sharp claws and teeth; it was a predator.
Next to it a tank appeared, of what design, none were sure of. They took note of the fact that the tank was around a quarter the size of the creature... and then they begin to realize how much of a threat this thing was. It was massive in size, and was likely a threat to even tanks, if they got close. That information made them rethink their strategies on how to fight them.
Yoh spoke up "As you can already tell, that creature is what you'll be fighting."
Wrex had a grin on his face while he spoke "I expected a decent fight here, I didn't get that. I got a challenge, and a damn good one to." Laughing lightly. "I'm going to have a good time here." He leaned back in his chair, content.
"For you maybe." Taro said irritability, a salarian and leader of the Black Vanguard. They are a new mercenary group that started about a year ago that employ salarians, elcor, and even some quarians. They make use of drones and mechs for support, and each individual has several tech based attacks on their omni tool. Because they are new, many people weren't hiring them and they aren't that big. For these reasons, they put everything they had into this job, hoping the payout would be big enough to grow their organization. His voice was deeper than normal for Salarians and he was clearly agitated "But not for the rest of us." Wrex just shrugged it off, not caring.
Xaiy M'prini was an asari and leader of the Aquagarde. They make extensive use of biotics for support, and given that almost everyone has them, they can make regular use of them. That being said, they lack the means to reliably take out tanks and other heavily armor opponents. Instead preferring speed over power. "If we keep it at a distance, it shouldn't be too hard to kill them, even in groups." She thought for a moment while scratching her chin lightly. "Unless of course, it breathes something."
Yoh was quick to answer "And you would be right. It breathes fire, and it is quite powerful I will add. It is strong enough to melt tanks if given some time, and it is speculated that it is a form of plasma." That caused them to all blink. Acid was the most well-known type of breath attack, the rachni and thresher maw being two such examples. However, fire not so much. None of them could think of any creature that could breathe fire. Was it even possible for a biological creature to breathe fire? More importantly, could said fire melt tanks? Evidently Taro was curious enough to know, so he opened up his omni-tool and started to search the extranet to see what he could find. Xaiy leaned over to her right to see how he was doing, wanting to know herself. Wrex was more interested than ever, and Malbia was in disbelief, not believing such a creature could exist.
Malbia spoke in a tone of disbelief "You expect me to believe that that thing," gesturing to the creature "can breathe a fire hot enough that it can melt tanks. Not only that, it may be plasma?! I know for a fact that it isn't possible for any a biological creature to breathe such a fire!" It was absurd. Maybe if it was just ordinary fire, she would consider it to be true, but plasma?! The means to create and use it is difficult by even their standards, and for some no name creature to breathe it?! No, she did not believe it for one moment.
Taro looked up for a moment before looking at his omni tool and speaking in an even tone "Many biologists speculate if it is indeed possible for a biological organism to breathe fire and have many theories, many of which involve varies gases." He closed his omni tool at this time while looking at the creature. His eyes had a glint in them, and a small smile was on his face with a somewhat chipper tone "But all those creatures have one thing in common, and that is they are all natural born creatures, and this thing isn't." Pointing at said creature. That Malbia could believe.
Yoh was surprised, he didn't think anyone would get it that fast. "Y-yes, it is an artificial creature. More accurately, it's a biomechanical one." Taro blinked before going back to his omni tool to no doubt search up info about what biomechanical means. Xaiy, again looked over his shoulder, while Wrex looked up in thought. It was likely that he has some knowledge on it, and is trying to remember what it is. Given his age, it was possible he has some passing knowledge of it. Malbia was confused, not knowing about it at all. "Biomechanical is the combination of biological and mechanical research."
"Is it supposed to look like that then?" Inquired Malbia. That was something Xaiy was curious about as well.
Taro was the one to answer "Most likely culture made it that way." Omni tool gone. They nodded at that. One's culture shaped their people and their creations.
"Before we go any farther, why don't you explain everything you have on it. Numbers, strength, attacks, stuff like that." Questioned Wrex. Knowing such information would help them greatly in creating strategies to fight them.
Yoh nodded at this and began the explanation "These things, which we will call BA – 1 (Bio Animal – 1) for now, is made of a highly durable material that can survive shots from an old frigate that had the kinetic energy of roughly 9 kilotons of force. They have survived four shots from the frigate with a fifth needed to put them down for good." That was an eye opener.
'What are those things made of?' Passed through their minds.
"This armor material is one of our goals for this mission. Next, its speed is clocked at around 350 kph (kilometers per hour), this is a very high speed for anything land based. They have been seen making use of their claws, feet, tails, and teeth to great effect, along with two different fire based attacks. One is the traditional method used by flamethrowers, and the second is a condensed ball of fire, which they can fire at around 100 meters away, but does take a few seconds to charge. Third, these things have always been seen in groups. Finally, and by far the most important piece, they have one weakness I have found, their flamethrower. A well placed rocket in their mouth will destroy BA – 1. A side note, these things dissolve when killed, making recovery of samples from them near impossible. Any questions?"
All of them were quite for a while, coming to terms with what they heard. Malbia summed up their collective thoughts "The fuck is this thing? Is it even possible to create something like this?" The second question was directed at Taro, asking him for answers.
He was kind enough to open his omni tool to find said answers. While Taro was looking up the answers; Wrex, Malbia, and Xaiy began thinking up ways to fight these things.
It took over 10 minutes of searching before Taro closed his omni tool and spoke up "Let me start first by saying these creatures were created using unknown technology by an unknown species. Not everything we know can be used to explain them, nor will we be able to understand everything we find. The fact that they exist in the first place tells us the vastly different path they took compared to all other known cases of development." He stared at each individual, daring them to disagree with him. Malbia was annoyed, but didn't say anything. Wrex didn't care, and Xaiy just wanted to move things along. Yoh was actually curious about what Taro found, having not looked up the information himself.
Nodding to himself happily, he continued "I'll go in the order the information was provided by Yoh. First up, the armor. There is no direct comparison anywhere in known space, but will use known armor alloys for this."
"Wait a minute, wouldn't the comparison be the armor?" Questioned Xaiy.
"No, remember these things dissolve when killed. No armor out there does this, so the alloy must be partially organic to achieve such an affect. No such armor exists elsewhere. Now then, the strength of it. The closest would be what we use in our armors right now, titanium – 51 created by the Elcor a few centuries back. While decent, it isn't half as durable as what BA – 1 is using. However, they are rumors going around that the asari are creating a new armor for ships and will be released within the next two decades, but the strength of this armor is unknown at this time."
"H-how do you think it will compare to the BA – 1 armor-r?" It was Yoh who asked this time. He was a bit nervous, and within reason. If the new armor the asari are making is as good or better than the BA – 1 armor, then the mission would quickly become pointless.
Taro looked up for a moment before looking at Yoh and saying "Given known means of alloy creation, possible means of creation, and data on the protheans... it will most likely be around the 75 to 80 percent range. However, until the new armor is finished and we know more about it, we will never truly know."
'Keelah, this could be bad.'
Unknowing or uncaring of the internal turmoil of Yoh, Taro continued where he left off "Next, its speed. While high, fighters have higher max speeds, and many land vehicles have been created that go faster. However, the fastest land military vehicle is the Flowing Water used by the asari with a max speed of 260 kph. Quite impressive, but BA – 1 is larger, so there is that." Xaiy whistled at that, if it ran for whatever reason, they wouldn't be able to catch it on land without some special speed craft, or they could just use aircraft.
"Next, for their claws and other close range attacks, look into nature, no other explanation needed. Now for the fire. In 1942, the Batarian Hegemony created the P05-Tank, or Plasma Tank. It has two small flamethrowers in front and for the main gun, a, as you can guess, plasma cannon. The flamethrowers are no different than anyone else can get, nothing special about it, however, the plasma cannon is. By decreasing both the amount of armor to its thinnest possible and the element zero core by 20% plus making use of all space possible, they have a larger than normal reactor to power its systems. The plasma cannon can fire every 8 seconds with each shot reaching roughly 3500°F, however, there is only enough energy in the reactor for 10 shots before energy depletion. And before you ask if it's useful or not" seeing their eyes asking that "one shot is all that is needed in most cases. Because its plasma, kinetic barriers will only stop the shot from hitting, not the heat of the round. If it hits close enough to the main gun of an enemy tank, their gun will be damaged, making them unable to fight. There are also other areas that could be targeted, like the tracks."
"A little more than needed for that one Taro." Said person shrugged.
"You asked, I answered." A small smile in place. "I don't believe I need to explain the next one, but how are you sure that its mouth is so vulnerable?" Question Taro.
"That's easy actually." He clicked a few keys on his omni tool before the image on the table changed to a group of three BA – 1's with the center one roaring up at the camera and a few craters around. "The center one actually was hit right in the mouth moments later after this, and it died even thou it was hit only two times before this. They didn't pay much attention to this and brushed it off as it just being damaged beforehand. Granted, it was right when the new ones appeared, but it works."
"New ones...?" Xaiy asked slightly nervous. The BA – 1 were already troublesome, if there were more... she didn't want to think about it.
"Yea..." Yoh clicked a button and three new creatures appeared, the looked like a modify version of BA – 1 appeared, expect they had wings and were flying. They were colored blue and silver. "... expect these ones fly..." Xaiy slammed her head on the table, no doubt not liking them already. "... sorry."
Taro and Wrex were staring at it, while Malbia leaned back with her left hand covering her head. "Just tell us what to look out for so we move on..." after a moment's thought. "... and we're naming it BA – 2 aren't we?"
"Yes we are" referring to the name "and unfortunately... we don't have anything on it. The company packed up the moment it appeared, not wishing to test their luck with it. So, we can only go off what we know of BA – 1, and hope they apply to BA – 2, with the added bit of some of them having missiles." He pointed to the left most one.
"...and the possible power of the missiles...?"
"Are likely more powerful than ours, but that's a guess." Malbia slammed her head onto the table, while Xaiy tilted her head to see better. Taro and Wrex sat up straight.
"Any others?" Questioned Wrex.
"There isn't any more that I've seen, but there may be more. Zek didn't explore the planet very much when they came through here." All of them wished there wasn't anymore, but they didn't get their hopes up just in case.
Xaiy sat up straight as she said "So, we're fighting some crazy bullshit creature with powerful armor and a plasma cannon, and some flying version of it that has unknown missiles and their weakness we know of, is the plasma cannon. Anything else I'm missing?"
"That pretty much covers it actually."
"Greeaat... I hate my life."
"Don't worry, we'll be taking our time with this, and I already had scans taken place to get a rough number of how many there are." Yoh quickly checked his omni tool before saying "A little over 300, not too bad. We take things slow, fight them on our terms, and assuming no problems arise..." Doing quick math in his head. "and we'll be done within a year most likely. Nothing can go wrong."
They all stared at him. He jinxed them, they knew it. You never say 'nothing can go wrong' because something can always go wrong.
Malbia sat up about halfway and said in a bitter voice "Can we talk about our payment method now? I want to make sure we're getting a good enough one for fighting this." Waving at BA – 2.
"Well, I have several from which you can choose from to be your payment. One of them being the armor these things have. I'll leave it open it you to decide." Normally, you didn't leave it open for them to choose because they would have their payment be larger than needed, but in this cases, most of the options were okay. There was little way for them to backfire. Plus, since the job was likely to have some twists and turns, giving them options made it less likely for them to quit.
"That seems fair." The others nodded in agreement.
"Great." Yoh said happily while clapping his hands together. "We can begin operations shortly."
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And that's a wrap for this time. Not much happing expect explanations, but they were somewhat needed, sorry. Next time thou, action will happen, along with some surprises.
