Omg! Next week is exam week! Disaster! But I'll still update!
Thank you to Levells for being my first reviewer. Ty for the typo check! I hope you'll find the rest of my story just as likeable!
To Randomcat23: Thank you. Realism is what I aim for... to the point where I'd sit around for hours studying Wikipedia then interviewing my military family members for facts and figures. I should totally get a life.
To Arwigirl: Hurruh another Aussie! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! Darkened-Storm is an Australian zoids writer too! I'm not the only one. And about your brain teaser... hmmm... I think Karl has a bit of an Indiana Jones relationship with his hat. He'd put his hand under a descending stone door to grab it. Personally I think it'd be a safer bet to kidnap Thomas for a ransom, because Karl would trade his life for Thomas... but he'd kill for his hat.
To Darkened-Storm: Since you know where this is going you know when to start feeling sorry for the readers. Buahahahah! I'm evil and you know it! The only reason there wasn't any typos last chap was because Levells beat you to it.
Oy Vey! Look at all them reviews! I feel so loved! I promise you guys I'll never rest on my laurels and continue onwards to improve my storytelling ability!
The title picture I drew for this fanfic is linked on my profile page. Please take a look for a visual on Ren and the Diablo Tiger.
Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids or any of the characters in relation.
Thanks to DuskStarDragon, Darkrad and Darkened-Storm for Beta-ing my work. Love you DDD!
Darkened-Storm's fic is Zoids: Rebirth Century, another fic based around a failed assassination attempt lol.
Affinity
Chapter 10: Interception
Startled awake by his pager Karl rolled out of bed and scrambled to find his shirt. He overslept, unheard of!
A quick glance out the window confirmed to him that night had indeed fallen. He sighed and began getting dressed; it seemed that of recent they've taken to becoming nocturnal. He headed for his ensuite bathroom to freshen up.
After the Spark Liger had been secured they formulated a plan to seize the Marauding Tiger. However there had been one unexpected twist of events. Van had test piloted the Liger all the way back to base as a trial. Although his skill with Ligers was without compare, it was evident that even he couldn't master the Spark Liger's foreign controls and surge timing immediately. If they were to allow time for Van to train, they might as well have hooked him up to a simulator and wait for the Republican Spark Ligers to arrive. Although, the problem got sorted out quite quickly soon after, in the worst way possible.
Karl paused in front of his mirror to straighten his collar and frowned. He was still groggy from lack of sleep, and stressed. Very stressed. Because the one person he did not want involved in this spoke out.
"I'll do it." A quiet voiced pipped up from the back of the conference room.
Everyone turned to the small figure standing by the door way. Serenity looked tired from lack of sleep but bore an expression of determination on her face.
Herman cocked an eyebrow. "With all due respect, do you even know how to pilot a Spark Liger?"
"I do."
Herman's expression set in a frown in a blink of an eye. Thomas looked stony but said nothing.
Serenity glanced once at Karl's expression of horror and gave him a wry smile.
"I am the pilot of the Spark Liger you found with the Iron Kong."
Van, only just catching on, exclaimed, "Wait a minute! You're-! You-"
Serenity averted eye contact.
In an instant, before anyone could make a move, or so much as an exclamation, Karl stood between her and the rest of the company.
"I trust her." Was the only thing he managed to say.
A moment of silence lapsed. Nobody knew what to say to that. She had just admitted to his attempted murder, yet he did not even bat an eyelid.
"I trust her too."
Everyone turned their surprised gazes to Thomas who flushed and rubbed his neck awkwardly.
"I mean... Karl trusts her, and although she might have tried to kill him, he already knew and..." His rambling trailed off.
"Ok then, if you two say so I'll trust her too." Van announced brightly. He was never the most judgemental character.
Herman was less convinced, and at that moment, he felt like the only practical person in the room.
"Just a minute. Colonel Schubaltz. I can't comment about your sudden affinity for recklessness but you're not just gambling one life right now. Lieutenant Flyheight is under my command and I cannot submit him to the same risk you're willing to take. Furthermore the Spark Liger is officially Republic property so I can't just let-"
"Oh stuff a sock in it Herman."
Herman spluttered with indignity as Moonbay elbowed her way into the conversation.
"I highly doubt that you strong soldier boys can't handle one delicate little girl. And besides," with a wink to Karl. "I think Schubaltz might know her better than you think."
Those that caught on to the hint sniggered or started with shock, to those that didn't (Namely Van and Fiona) just nodded in agreement.
Although it was a strange note to end a discussion, it was agreed upon that she would pilot the Spark Liger against the Diablo Tiger. Karl never got to express his opposition to that idea. He never agreed to let her pilot that darned thing.
He now stood in front of his mirror, forehead pressed against the glass. He was falling apart, there was too many things on his mind, coupled with lack of sleep. Now he doesn't even know how he's going to face the others after Moonbay's shocking proclamation. He's too old for her, he knows that. Society knows that.
...
This wasn't the time to think about that.
Karl straightened up and smoothed out his hair.
There was a job to be done now.
He picked up his pager and read the message. [Diablo 70 minutes from Labyrinth]
That was their cue to mobilise. Unbelievable that he was the one to be late.
Without another thought he dashed for the hanger.
They had mobilised from the hanger fifteen minutes late. Thankfully this wasn't because of Karl. Apparently Van and Irvine couldn't be bothered dragging their own carcasses out of bed; as a result Karl got to save face.
Everybody looked fatigued as they headed for the zoids. It was evident that another prospect of an all nighter was not in accordance with their Circadian rhythm. This was a factor he'd have to take into account. High fatigue means a higher chance of making mistakes, although he couldn't stop everyone else from making errors, he could at least keep himself in check by being aware of his own limitations.
Karl tightened his grip on his Zaber Fang's accelerators. He's fighting with a fast and manoeuvrable Tiger type zoid this time around. It wasn't as heavily armoured as his Kong, nor did it pack as much fire power, but it will fare well in one aspect the Kong would not, an aspect that was crucial to the mission. That was running away.
Karl was to act as decoy along with Van, both of whom would attempt to goad the Diablo into chasing them. Since Van piloted the Blade Liger, a unique Liger type that excelled in close range, Van had to be the one that risks close ventures. If either one of them ever got into the deep end, it was Thomas and Irvine's job to draw the Tiger away. The Dibison and the Lightning Saix were to be stationed at the top of the cliffs and shoot at the Diablo if it ever got too close to one of the ground pilots.
All this was just a ploy, because the most important and most dangerous role went to Serenity. Her only instructions were, "when you see a chance, stun it."
With a small sigh of resignation Karl tapped the rim of his hat, there was little point in worrying now. If he didn't want his fears to come to pass, he would have to focus.
And pray the others would too.
If one was to look at the situation from another angle, they might have considered the irony amusing. Because at that moment, the Diablo Tiger was not the only dangerous thing heading towards Ariona.
Tired of hunting and disabling the remanent Republican Sleeper Zoids for the Empire, a lone mercenary headed to the chasm. He had picked up the distress signal as he was heading back to a bounty lodge to claim some of his recent kills. Not from the kindness of his heart nor for the prospect of a reward did he decide to head towards the signal origin, but for being utterly bored mindless from the lack of any real challenge.
His cold grey eyes stared straight forward as he sped towards the signal. No one was foolish enough to try to attack him anyway. His power and skills were legendary in Zi. Not only that, next to the Deathsaurer, his zoid likely to be the strongest zoid to have been ever created.
No man with half a brain would attack him.
And he was right, no man would attack him.
But it wasn't a man who attacked him.
Without so much as a warning, he was barrelled over with so much force he could have sworn the Death Stinger got a hold of him again. The left side of his chassis sustained some heavy damage, but not enough to immobilize him.
With a curse he swerved his zoid around to face his attacker, just in time to meet the fangs and claws of a Tiger type zoid he had never encountered before.
Stepping down on his side booster he barely avoided that attack. The Tiger zoid landed on all fours and coiled into a strike position. Before it so much as moved a paw a bright red tail collided with its head and sent it sprawling. It writhed a bit and got back up and was met with a hail of blaster fire. To the mercenary's annoyance the strange zoid turned tail and ran. As it fled it seemed to melt into the background.
Optical camouflage.
That would have been a good tactic if it didn't leave footprints the size of an automobile.
There was no way he was letting this one get away.
With a sneer of contempt he called his organoid.
Raven needs his sport, and this little kitty cat was going to give it to him.
The strike force assembled on the steep cliffs of Ariona Chasm. Just below in the tangles of rough stone was a large distress beacon. It had been dropped off half an hour prior by a Whale King Fortress ship. It gave out a pulse periodically in a great magnitude so that traces of it could be picked up many miles away. The Whale King hovered above using its radar to scan the land and report on the Diablo Tiger's position.
This was the only reason they weren't left like fools, to scratch their heads in wonder as to why the Diablo Tiger never shown up.
"Colonel Schubaltz. The Diablo just diverged on path." The radio within Karl's Zaber Fang buzzed.
Karl snapped out of his stupor.
"What? What happened?"
"We're not sure, but the radar confirms that there is something in pursuit of it. We're cross checking the energy signature just to be sure."
Who the hell would chase the Diablo Tiger?
Wait, scratch that.
Who the hell could make the Diablo flee from them?
He wasn't going to wait around.
"Guardian Force, move out. We're engaging target out in the open."
It was one of those reckless decisions most people would never believe the good Colonel was capable of making. In all honesty he didn't think this was a wise decision either, but he believed in his own skills and the skills of his companions.
The strike force fanned out as they moved out into the desert plains.
Karl's sharp eyes picked out moving lights in the dark distance. He alerted his group to this and adjusted his direction and momentum. He saw a bright flash light up the deserts cape and the familiar sounds of a discharging cannon. With a lurch Karl realised who the pursuer was.
Without missing a beat, Karl opened a communications channel with Raven. He was mildly surprised when he actually got through.
"Yeah what do you want?" The young man asked gruffly without even looking at the screen.
"This is Colonel Schubaltz of the Guardian Force. We request that you stand down immediately!"
This elicited a slight glance from Raven, but he just sneered in his ever so non-compliable manner and shut the coms. Karl really didn't expect any results from reasoning with Raven, but one could hope.
"I'll keep him busy then Schubaltz!" Van messaged and broke formation. Karl didn't even get a chance to object.
Van turned his boosters on and drew level with Raven. Karl's Zaber Fang had no chance of keeping up with the Blade Liger's speed.
Without warning the Lightning Saix bolted past.
With a blanch of disbelief, Karl watched on as his battle formation was torn asunder by the reckless hotheads. His orders for Irvine to return was largely ignored as he watched the Lightning Saix cut the Geno Breaker off and the Blade Liger began to engage it in what looked like a wrestling match.
Karl stared on appalled... This was NOT what they were supposed to be doing. Their mission was to capture the rogue zoid, now Karl was down to half his force because three idiots were too busy catching up rather than do anything productive.
There was no other choice, at this point, Karl could only improvise.
Casting his eyes around for the Diablo Tiger, he discovered to his horror that he had lost sight of it. Karl quickly consulted his radar. He was perplexed; the only blips on it were the Guardian Force and the Geno Breaker. How could the Diablo have gotten out of sensor range so quickly?
Just one moment of distraction his cost him his credibility as a commander.
He stopped his Tiger in front of the three pilots, now playing three-way jousting, head in his hands. He was feeling like the biggest idiot. Behind him the Dibison and the Spark Liger halted, evidently confused to what was happening.
This was not possible, current technology can't accelerate any zoid to that speed.
How is this Possi-?
"Karl! Watch out!"
If it weren't for Thomas' warning, Karl would be the one lying on the desert sand in pieces. But as it is, his lightning quick reflexes carried him just out of dangers reach as the sand kicked up around him in a fury, heading straight for Raven.
It was by blind misfortune that Raven had been too busy enjoying shooting Van's shield to pieces to notice the invisible juggernaut headed straight for him. Just at the last moment, Raven made a slight shift around just as the Diablo Tiger flashed into existence and tore its claws into the Geno Breaker. Raven's quick reflexes saved his life as he turned just enough for his shield to cover his side. There was nothing he could do as the Diablo tiger tore the entire left shield piece off, claws and all. Raven quickly turned on his boosters and sidestepped out of harms reach, but the Diablo would have none of it. It lunged straight for Raven, before the pilot could even set his zoid down.
This was not to be the end of the young pilot however. With total disregard for his own safety (or just complete ignorance of the dangers) Van intercepted the Tiger in mid leap. They both crashed to the ground.
This was the opportunity.
"Ren! Stun it! Stun it now!"
Karl dashed forward, Serenity following after a moment's hesitation.
The Diablo Tiger rose and turned snarling in an almost confused fashion. It turned tail and attempted to flee. Before it could get its optical camouflage up, a barrage of gunfire rained down upon it. It was not so fast to react as the pilots had been and could only cringe as the bullets, calculated to miss, blasted craters around it. Karl was in range now, he was not going to give it a moment's reprieve. Using his Gatling gun, Karl caught the Diablo's attention.
Karl had expected the Diablo to chase him, but to his surprise, it just stood in place, taking the abuse with its back arched like a cornered cat.
It mattered not, Serenity closed in behind it, the fangs of the Spark Liger alit with a huge surge of electricity. This is it.
Or so he thought.
Without warning, the Geno Breaker ploughed into the unmoving Tiger, taking it out of Serenity's reach. Raven in his fit of fury threw the zoid to the ground like a rag doll and stepped on it crushing its hydraulics.
The Diablo Tiger writhed helplessly, crying its alarm as the Geno Breaker powered up its charged particle cannon.
Van threw his shields up, dashing in, hoping to make it in time.
But it was never to be.
In what could be the second most reckless thing he's done in his whole life, Karl threw his zoid at the head of the Geno Breaker at its unshielded left side just as the cannon fired. The resulting blast sent searing shockwaves through the Zaber Fang and disabled the command system immediately.
The proximity of the redirected Charged particle cannon melted the claws on the Geno Breaker's right side.
Raven was not pleased, to put it mildly. It seems the world was against him.
However before he could so much as move, his command system experienced a sudden shutdown as electricity surged through his zoid. A yellow liger was perched upon the back of his zoid, its fangs sunk into the chassis.
Caught with his back turned...
Indeed the world was against him.
Thirty meters away, the lightly toasted Colonel shared the exact same thought.
A/N: Oh Karl, don't be so dramatic. The world's not against you, the world loves you! That's why it has to inflict as much pain on you as possible! Nothing builds character like pain and suffering! =D
-Pilot Data-
This section was created for the sole purpose of comparing zoid Pilots, however keep in mind that the details are based on the game Zoid Legacy and within that game pilot's growth are solely dependent on the player. Thus only their speciality shall be observed.
Pilot: Raven
Gender: Male
Organoid: Shadow
Speciality:
Lvl 3 Geno type pilot
Lvl 3 Tiger type pilot
Multi-fire level 2 (Allows Raven to fire three guns at once)
Ultra reaction lvl 1 (Well look at that, Raven's slower than Karl)
Particle Gun Expert + 30%
Enduring shots + 20% (Bonus evasion to firearms)
Good Grappler +20% (Bonus points to close combat accuracy)
Lvl 3 Fury type pilot (Yet again, this confuses me)
Note: Yes Raven is geared for combat of every sort. And yes, he definitely is an awesome pilot. His reaction time may fall just under Karl's, but his ability to fire three guns at once that makes him more awesome at actually damaging enemies. Raven's bonus to his Charged particle cannon's accuracy is just the icing on the cake. However the one most confusing thing in his stats is that he's a Fury pilot. Just like Karl, that Zoid just doesn't belong there. In fact, Raven's entire zoid mastery list is much similar to Karl's, only Raven has a higher mastery of all of them (and doesn't have to put up with that shoddy Gorilla zoid).
-Zoid Data-
This section was created to give readers some idea of the power comparison of each zoid mentioned in the fiction. After all, not everyone has the privilege of having an entire zoid encyclopaedia at one's beck and call.
Geno breaker
Alliance: Imperial
Pilot: Raven
Weight: 137.5t
Speed: 345km/h
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
Front Round Shield - +70 defence, +80 armour.
X Breaker - 250
Focused Particle Cannon - 300
Laser Blade - 250
Hyper Claw -200
Armour defence: 100
Note: What can I say, this zoid was made to bash skulls in. Every single one of its armaments were made to deal the maximum damage it can. The focused particle cannon is able to deal piercing damage to more than one opponent. The only drawback of this zoid is that it only has one fixed firing weapon. For a pilot such as Raven who has the ability to fire three weapons at once, this zoid just doesn't cater to his needs. Now if Raven got his hands on the Geno Flame... well its good bye existence as we know it.
Note also, that the Geno only has one shooting weapon on it, knowing Raven and his multi fire ability he'd probably install a few more fast fire armaments for good measure.
Blade Liger
Alliance: Republic
Pilot: Van Flyheight
Weight: 124.0t
Speed: 305km/h
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
Shock Cannon - 140
Electron Shield - 200 damage worth of shielding
Laser Blade - 220
Armour defence: 50
Note: The Blade Liger... is not as glorious as it appeared on TV. It's definitely stomped on by the Geno Breaker. The only reason it could be as epic as it was in the series is because of Zeke who, when fused, heals the zoid, increases hit points, generator output and weapons attack power.
But it is still infinitely better than the Zoids Listed below.
Dibison
Alliance: Republic
Pilot: Thomas Richard Schubaltz
Weight: 230t
Speed: 130km/h
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
8- Missile - 85
3- Accelerated shock cannon - 140
Megalo Max - 230
Crusher Horn - 180
Armour defence: 50
Note: Okay well the Blade Liger is infinitely better than all the zoids listed below except this one. Thomas definitely has the best zoid out of the entire Guardian Force. Look at its power! Plus the Megalo Max and the Missiles are made to target large blocks of enemy. The only problem is the Megalo Max requires ridiculous amounts of energy to use, especially when considering how low its generator output is.
Lightning Saix
Alliance: Imperial
Pilot: Irvine
Weight: 65.0t
Speed: 325km/h
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
Pulse Laser - 110
Double Vulcan cannon - 55
Killer Fang - 130
Armour defence: 34
Note: Umm what can I say? This zoid is shocking compared to the other stuff the empire came up with (the good stuff, not the mass produced trash like the Molgas). And for the supposed fastest zoid of the series, it's just slower than the Geno Breaker, still, that's its only redeeming quality...
Zaber Fang (Schubaltz Series)
Alliance: Imperial
Pilot: Karl Lichten Schubaltz
Weight: 78.0t
Speed: 240km/h
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
Triple Shock Gun - 120
Beam Cannon - 60
Beam Gatling - 90
Killer Sabre - 160
Note: Karl does seem to be cursed with unworthy zoids. Karl's skill demands it! Give him a good zoid for heaven's sake! What is this? A handicap?
But still... it's better than Irvine's Saix.
Fun fact – Next time you guys go past the Zoid model isle, take a look at the box-art for the Zaber Fang SS (I don't know if this is unique to the Japanese box-art or if it's on the American one too). At the foot of the Zaber Fang you can see the emperor standing to inspect his troops. At the head of the troops is Karl Schubaltz, kneeling on one knee with his left hand crossed against his chest. At least that's what I see when I look at it, it could be fangirl-induced hallucinations, will be much obliged if someone could confirm. If the model was available in Australia I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Just for that picture!