Okay, this is Mercenary Pen here, and first I'd like to address a minor
piece of criticism from Devil Dog- Hey dude, you the son of an army officer
or something knowing all that? However, no matter how valid your knowledge
might be there's just a little something that needs spelling out here- I my
be using what appear to be army ranks but I'm using an air force chain of
command for the most part. To clear things up I shall now use the term
squadron instead of squad.
Now, on with the story dudes.
Chapter Two:
Colonel Zack Casage was in his office, idly reading through one of the many reports that occupied his daily routine. This war, he thought to himself, would at least do him some good, giving him both a greater chance of promotion and also getting him out from behind his desk every once in a while and onto the battlefield. He ran his hand across his tanned forehead, wiping away the sweat that had accumulated beneath his close-cropped white Mohawk.
At that point a knock sounded on the door to his office, with a Lieutenant entering the room quickly when Colonel Casage ordered his entry.
"Colonel, s-s-sir," stuttered the Lieutenant, "Major Lester reports that he has reached an agreement with prisoner #38471."
"Go on," the Colonel replied amiably, sensing that he had just won a battle of sorts.
"The prisoner is willing to assist our research and development department in exchange for a lifetime supply of instant noodles and the life of one particular enemy soldier, name of Leena Toros."
"Have our intelligence specialists found the warrior in question?" asked Colonel Casage.
"I-I don't know sir, do you want me to check up on that sir?" asked the Lieutenant.
"Do that," replied the Colonel, and report back to me when they've dug up the information, and tell intelligence that they have my authorisation to use all necessary resources up to clearance level 8."
"Y-y-yes sir," stammered the Lieutenant who backed hurriedly out of the colonel's office, anxious to be away from this reputedly capricious commander.
Meanwhile, on the base of the Omicron Company, the troops had been rallied for their simulator exercise. Once they had been separated into four groups the preparations had become that much easier, with the Captain and each of the Lieutenants running their squadron through the drill to get the simulator system set up.
Soon, each squadron had moved their zoids into one of four simulator hangars, taking huge cables from the standardised simulator modules and plugging them into the ports that had been installed the week before in the bellies of their zoids. They were ready for the first, and perhaps the most inventive, training exercise that they would ever face.
Soon, the four squadrons were all ready, the warriors waiting, many of them tense for battle, inside the simulator modules to which their zoids had been connected, and then it began.
Brady Cryer found himself on a desert island, around him the other four zoids of his squad stood in the sand or on the shoals that surrounded the island. Aside from his command wolf, his squadron consisted of a Genobreaker, jet black instead of the usual red, under the command of the mysterious Rene Sysen; the flame-red form of the Phoenix-series stormsworder whose pilot, Marcus Savirioth, had distinguished himself in military service to the empire before the war; the huge form of Philip Logan's Neo-Warshark, and finally, hovering above him, was the serpentine form of the Hellfire Drake, its wings, often concealed extended to their full span, its pilot, Antonio Darker making a last check on the combat systems of this one of a kind zoid.
"Right people," Brady said over the intercom, "the rest of you are to go onto the offensive, I would join you but my command wolf can't swim, fly or hover, so I'll stay back at base camp to defend it. Remember, we only need to capture the enemy flag before they capture ours to win, time is of the essence here, don't get drawn into a slugging match if you can help it."
With that said, the other four zoids of his squadron were underway, and watching them for a moment, Brady set his zoid's sensors for a ten mile proximity alarm, then slipped a book out of his pocket and continued reading it.
Meanwhile, on another desert island, about one hundred miles away, or at least one hundred simulated miles away, Ari Dayton surveyed her own troops from the cockpit of her simulated Raynos, on the sand beneath her stood both the Liger-like form of "Tony" Dracker's Griffin, marred only by the wings and Gun pods that demonstrated the main differences between it and say, a shield Liger; and also the saurian form of Gavin Wilkinson's Rev Raptor X-alpha, a rare model of Rev Raptor which was a hybrid of the basic Rev Raptor and Gunsniper designs, using the arsenals and capabilities of each to overcome the weaknesses of the other. Meanwhile, already beginning to circle the island, Ricardo Delmondo, or Jaws as his friends and enemies alike referred to him, would prove useful for reconnaissance duty in his Warshark, and the aquiline form of the Falcyon, flown by one of its co- developers, Fritz Falke, would prove invaluable in mounting an airborne assault on the enemy bastion to capture their flag.
Setting both the Rev Raptor and the Warshark to defence duties, Lieutenant Dayton took point in the formation formed by the rest of her unit, the Falcyon on her left flank while the Griffin, freshly launched from the ground, took up position on her right hand side. With that done, her troops moved out, accelerating to the high airspeeds that they hoped would get them through the enemy defences, whoever they were facing on this occasion.
A short while later, Ari Dayton spotted something on her radar screen, heading towards them at such breakneck speed that it could only be an enemy air unit, then it was joined by two other radar signatures, both skimming barely above the waves. Suddenly they were in visual range, a red stormsworder, a black Genobreaker, and a serpentine zoid like nothing she had seen before.
"This is group leader to assault group," her voice sounded over the comm system, break and attack, focus on the low altitude targets, the stormsworder is mine."
This order was greeted by the immediate response of her two wingmen, who dove to begin their attack runs.
Tony Dracker heard the command, and thought to himself, this was the chance he had been waiting for, his chance to test the new armour of the Griffin in battle against a charged particle cannon- without hesitation he angled the Liger-like zoid downwards, to meet the fury of a Genobreaker head on, as he took up position before his adversary of chance, his finger stabbed down on the fire button, releasing a brutal hail of fire from his gun-pods and also from the triple shock-cannon mounted on his zoid's belly, if he achieved nothing else he hoped to make his opponent mad. Before his very eyes, the eyes of the Genobreaker seemed to glow a malevolent shade of crimson, and within seconds, the mighty zoid had opened its gaping maw to reveal the mighty particle cannon that lay within, which, charged with the luminescent charge of about a terawatt of raw energy, would spell the doom of almost any zoid. Tony Dracker continued his onslaught, remaining in front of his target despite the grounds that would cause any sane pilot to run in abject terror, maintaining his withering barrage of firepower- suddenly, the charged particle cannon fired, engulfing the Griffin in light, until the beam shut off, to reveal the defiant form of the griffin, barely damaged by even the ultimate assault of the Genobreaker.
Meanwhile, in the skies above them, the Stormsworder banked, leaving Ari Dayton's Raynos in hot pursuit, struggling to keep up with the phoenix-type stormsworder as it engaged the afterburners that would push it beyond the comfortable Mach 3 that a Raynos could ordinarily manage, forcing Ari to activate the Afterburners of her own zoid to keep pace with the zoid in front of her, once more she wished that her organoid, Ty, could have helped her out on this one, but the simulator didn't permit one, and that was that. The G-forces of each and every turn wrenching at her gut and throat alike, she followed the lightning-quick zoid in front of her, copying every move it made in a seemingly futile attempt to remain behind it, finally, she fired, punching half a dozen shots, out of the twenty five or more that she fired, straight into the stormsworder's rear fuselage and right wing, just as the missile-lock warning device in the console of her own zoid began to flash red and wail loudly, sure enough, her adversary, during his plummet to the ocean beneath, had launched all four of his missiles, hoping to take his opponent with him. With a last burst of strength Ari began to fight with her control yokes once again, alternately pulling and pushing on the troublesome controls, sending her zoid into a series of mad loops and convulsions in an attempt to outsmart the missiles that were heading for her, and with some success, the first missile impacting as it hit the water, the second straying into her guns for just long enough for her to shoot it down, and the third slamming into the stormsworder that had launched it, but finally the fourth hit, freezing her command system and sending her too, plummeting into the simulated ocean beneath.
Fritz Falke skimmed the sea surface on his final approach to the serpentine Hellfire Drake, his zoid spitting twin volleys of laser bolts that converged on his target faster than he did, however the Hellfire Drake was now turning ponderously to face its new attacker, bringing to bear its weapons on the agile zoid that was harassing it, then it opened fire with its own pulse laser cannons equal in both number and power to those of the wheeling Falcyon, then it dived into the water, beyond the reach of the arsenal of the Falcyon, or so its pilot, Antonio Darker, thought. Fritz wheeled around to attack again, quickly changing weapons as he adjusted to the new tactical situation, finally dropping torpedoes and depth charges into the sea beneath as he skimmed overhead, before moving on to assist the Griffin in its campaign against the Geno Breaker.
Tony Dracker was faring poorly, once his opponent had adjusted to the minimised damage that her charged particle cannon was able to wreak upon him, she had switched to other methods, launching the mighty grapnel claws of her zoid at the seemingly implacable Griffin, then retracting them and slowly crushing the various appendages and limbs of the Griffin, damaging legs, wings, gun-pods, tail, in short, anything it could get at with its claws, all the while holding the Griffin with at least one claw in such a way that it could not fight back, for while the Ultimium alloy of the Griffin (and a select few other zoids) was able to withstand energy weapons with little difficulty, it was weaker by far than most armour against the actions of melee weapons such as blades and claws. Just as Tony was beginning to give up hope, however, the Geno Breaker was rocked by missile fire from behind as the Falcyon sped towards it, firing both missiles and pulse lasers at the back of the deadly Geno breaker, wearing the beginnings of holes in the armour that covered the back of its mighty opponent, damaging the intake system for the Geno Breaker's charged particle cannon. Abruptly the Geno Breaker whipped around to face its new adversary, relaxing its grip upon the Griffin for just long enough for Tony Dracker to pull his wounded limping zoid free of the deadly embrace of its adversary. Taking every advantage he could from this respite, Tony Dracker remembered the goal of their mission, to capture the enemy flag without getting wiped out, and to do it before their own flag was captured, and so he turned from the battlefield to face his objective once again, thankful that the speed and agility of the Falcyon had fully occupied his adversary's attention.
Meanwhile, beneath the waves, the Hellfire Drake and the Neo-Warshark continued on towards their target, their flank speeds, although nowhere near as fast as those of flying zoids, being enough to get them there both quickly and undetected.
Fritz banked, his zoid barely evading the deadly onslaught of the Geno Breaker, wheeling around for yet another pass at the Geno Breaker's charged particle intake systems, finally rupturing them with his final conventional bomb, only to stray into the path of the Geno Breaker's full body cannon as it charged up regardless of the lack of regulation to its charging, and finally, with an intensity rarely seen, the Geno Breaker fired, the sheer force of the blast engulfing the mouth of the Geno Breaker itself, burning out the zoid's control systems. Both zoids were wrecked, and all because Rene had refused to use lesser weapons against her adversary.
Brady awoke with a start, the proximity alert that he had set was shrieking like something demon-possessed- he hadn't meant to fall asleep while reading, it had just happened, and now he was paying for his lack of concentration- still, at least he had positioned his zoid right beside the enemy flag. He saw his target gliding in towards him, that's the Griffin, it belongs to, who was it again, Tracker or Crackers or some such. Looks pretty heavily damaged though, must have had a run-in with my forces, but does that mean that my units are out of the battle or that he escaped? These and a myriad of other thoughts whirled through Brady's head as the Griffin began its final approach to the isle where its ultimate goal stood.
After what seemed like an age of deliberation, Brady armed the missile pod mounted on the back of his Command Wolf, letting fly a volley of three of his eight missiles at the oncoming zoid, enough, he thought, to finish his opponent off, but no, the Griffin just opened fire with its belly-mounted triple shock cannon, its only undamaged weapon, destroying the missiles which, designed for use against surface targets were neither designed to easily lock on to airborne targets, nor to evade aerial barrages while seeking out airborne targets. Crap, thought Brady, now he's too close for my missiles to lock on to him, I'll have to take him down the hard way. With that, Brady deactivated the clamps holding his missile pod onto the back of his zoid, just firing the remaining five missiles on a basic ballistic trajectory, as much so that the pod didn't get blown up with the missiles inside while the Griffin and Command Wolf fought at close quarters, destroying them both. Luckily the missiles weren't the only weapon that his Command Wolf had to offer him, and with that he brought the lupine zoid to a crouch, its body slanting upwards to the head at about a thirty degree angle or so, bringing the chest-mounted machine guns of his Wolf to bear on the incoming zoid, let him try and blow these out of the sky, he thought, opening fire with the paired machine guns, watching as the 240 rounds per minute from each gun impacted against the Griffin, some of them penetrating existing cracks in the zoid's once tough armour while others bounced off the remaining plating, doing little or no damage. But then, plummeting to earth where its command system was slowly giving up the ghost, the Griffin launched another six shells from its belly-cannon, taking the Command Wolf with it.
But then, something inexplicable happened, the simulation ended. Surely the naval units under Lt. Cryer's command hadn't had time to reach their target and vanquish its defences, had they?
Then, as he left the simulator, his defeated team-mates swamped him with triumphant grins upon their faces, demanding to know how he had managed to land his falling zoid with one foot on top of the enemy flag. He had won the mission.
Phew, I'm very sorry that this particular chapter has taken quite this long to write, but here it is folks. Any problems with the way I've used your characters, just write it down in a review and I'll be happy to do something about it.
Also, and this is to Devil Dog specifically, you didn't write your arsenal down for Brady's Command Wolf, so if you aren't happy for me to modify it, and perhaps Brady's zoid to suit the occasion, with upgrades/evolutions/arsenal changeover, say now or hold your peace for the rest of eternity.
Anyhow y'all, MP signing off.
Now, on with the story dudes.
Chapter Two:
Colonel Zack Casage was in his office, idly reading through one of the many reports that occupied his daily routine. This war, he thought to himself, would at least do him some good, giving him both a greater chance of promotion and also getting him out from behind his desk every once in a while and onto the battlefield. He ran his hand across his tanned forehead, wiping away the sweat that had accumulated beneath his close-cropped white Mohawk.
At that point a knock sounded on the door to his office, with a Lieutenant entering the room quickly when Colonel Casage ordered his entry.
"Colonel, s-s-sir," stuttered the Lieutenant, "Major Lester reports that he has reached an agreement with prisoner #38471."
"Go on," the Colonel replied amiably, sensing that he had just won a battle of sorts.
"The prisoner is willing to assist our research and development department in exchange for a lifetime supply of instant noodles and the life of one particular enemy soldier, name of Leena Toros."
"Have our intelligence specialists found the warrior in question?" asked Colonel Casage.
"I-I don't know sir, do you want me to check up on that sir?" asked the Lieutenant.
"Do that," replied the Colonel, and report back to me when they've dug up the information, and tell intelligence that they have my authorisation to use all necessary resources up to clearance level 8."
"Y-y-yes sir," stammered the Lieutenant who backed hurriedly out of the colonel's office, anxious to be away from this reputedly capricious commander.
Meanwhile, on the base of the Omicron Company, the troops had been rallied for their simulator exercise. Once they had been separated into four groups the preparations had become that much easier, with the Captain and each of the Lieutenants running their squadron through the drill to get the simulator system set up.
Soon, each squadron had moved their zoids into one of four simulator hangars, taking huge cables from the standardised simulator modules and plugging them into the ports that had been installed the week before in the bellies of their zoids. They were ready for the first, and perhaps the most inventive, training exercise that they would ever face.
Soon, the four squadrons were all ready, the warriors waiting, many of them tense for battle, inside the simulator modules to which their zoids had been connected, and then it began.
Brady Cryer found himself on a desert island, around him the other four zoids of his squad stood in the sand or on the shoals that surrounded the island. Aside from his command wolf, his squadron consisted of a Genobreaker, jet black instead of the usual red, under the command of the mysterious Rene Sysen; the flame-red form of the Phoenix-series stormsworder whose pilot, Marcus Savirioth, had distinguished himself in military service to the empire before the war; the huge form of Philip Logan's Neo-Warshark, and finally, hovering above him, was the serpentine form of the Hellfire Drake, its wings, often concealed extended to their full span, its pilot, Antonio Darker making a last check on the combat systems of this one of a kind zoid.
"Right people," Brady said over the intercom, "the rest of you are to go onto the offensive, I would join you but my command wolf can't swim, fly or hover, so I'll stay back at base camp to defend it. Remember, we only need to capture the enemy flag before they capture ours to win, time is of the essence here, don't get drawn into a slugging match if you can help it."
With that said, the other four zoids of his squadron were underway, and watching them for a moment, Brady set his zoid's sensors for a ten mile proximity alarm, then slipped a book out of his pocket and continued reading it.
Meanwhile, on another desert island, about one hundred miles away, or at least one hundred simulated miles away, Ari Dayton surveyed her own troops from the cockpit of her simulated Raynos, on the sand beneath her stood both the Liger-like form of "Tony" Dracker's Griffin, marred only by the wings and Gun pods that demonstrated the main differences between it and say, a shield Liger; and also the saurian form of Gavin Wilkinson's Rev Raptor X-alpha, a rare model of Rev Raptor which was a hybrid of the basic Rev Raptor and Gunsniper designs, using the arsenals and capabilities of each to overcome the weaknesses of the other. Meanwhile, already beginning to circle the island, Ricardo Delmondo, or Jaws as his friends and enemies alike referred to him, would prove useful for reconnaissance duty in his Warshark, and the aquiline form of the Falcyon, flown by one of its co- developers, Fritz Falke, would prove invaluable in mounting an airborne assault on the enemy bastion to capture their flag.
Setting both the Rev Raptor and the Warshark to defence duties, Lieutenant Dayton took point in the formation formed by the rest of her unit, the Falcyon on her left flank while the Griffin, freshly launched from the ground, took up position on her right hand side. With that done, her troops moved out, accelerating to the high airspeeds that they hoped would get them through the enemy defences, whoever they were facing on this occasion.
A short while later, Ari Dayton spotted something on her radar screen, heading towards them at such breakneck speed that it could only be an enemy air unit, then it was joined by two other radar signatures, both skimming barely above the waves. Suddenly they were in visual range, a red stormsworder, a black Genobreaker, and a serpentine zoid like nothing she had seen before.
"This is group leader to assault group," her voice sounded over the comm system, break and attack, focus on the low altitude targets, the stormsworder is mine."
This order was greeted by the immediate response of her two wingmen, who dove to begin their attack runs.
Tony Dracker heard the command, and thought to himself, this was the chance he had been waiting for, his chance to test the new armour of the Griffin in battle against a charged particle cannon- without hesitation he angled the Liger-like zoid downwards, to meet the fury of a Genobreaker head on, as he took up position before his adversary of chance, his finger stabbed down on the fire button, releasing a brutal hail of fire from his gun-pods and also from the triple shock-cannon mounted on his zoid's belly, if he achieved nothing else he hoped to make his opponent mad. Before his very eyes, the eyes of the Genobreaker seemed to glow a malevolent shade of crimson, and within seconds, the mighty zoid had opened its gaping maw to reveal the mighty particle cannon that lay within, which, charged with the luminescent charge of about a terawatt of raw energy, would spell the doom of almost any zoid. Tony Dracker continued his onslaught, remaining in front of his target despite the grounds that would cause any sane pilot to run in abject terror, maintaining his withering barrage of firepower- suddenly, the charged particle cannon fired, engulfing the Griffin in light, until the beam shut off, to reveal the defiant form of the griffin, barely damaged by even the ultimate assault of the Genobreaker.
Meanwhile, in the skies above them, the Stormsworder banked, leaving Ari Dayton's Raynos in hot pursuit, struggling to keep up with the phoenix-type stormsworder as it engaged the afterburners that would push it beyond the comfortable Mach 3 that a Raynos could ordinarily manage, forcing Ari to activate the Afterburners of her own zoid to keep pace with the zoid in front of her, once more she wished that her organoid, Ty, could have helped her out on this one, but the simulator didn't permit one, and that was that. The G-forces of each and every turn wrenching at her gut and throat alike, she followed the lightning-quick zoid in front of her, copying every move it made in a seemingly futile attempt to remain behind it, finally, she fired, punching half a dozen shots, out of the twenty five or more that she fired, straight into the stormsworder's rear fuselage and right wing, just as the missile-lock warning device in the console of her own zoid began to flash red and wail loudly, sure enough, her adversary, during his plummet to the ocean beneath, had launched all four of his missiles, hoping to take his opponent with him. With a last burst of strength Ari began to fight with her control yokes once again, alternately pulling and pushing on the troublesome controls, sending her zoid into a series of mad loops and convulsions in an attempt to outsmart the missiles that were heading for her, and with some success, the first missile impacting as it hit the water, the second straying into her guns for just long enough for her to shoot it down, and the third slamming into the stormsworder that had launched it, but finally the fourth hit, freezing her command system and sending her too, plummeting into the simulated ocean beneath.
Fritz Falke skimmed the sea surface on his final approach to the serpentine Hellfire Drake, his zoid spitting twin volleys of laser bolts that converged on his target faster than he did, however the Hellfire Drake was now turning ponderously to face its new attacker, bringing to bear its weapons on the agile zoid that was harassing it, then it opened fire with its own pulse laser cannons equal in both number and power to those of the wheeling Falcyon, then it dived into the water, beyond the reach of the arsenal of the Falcyon, or so its pilot, Antonio Darker, thought. Fritz wheeled around to attack again, quickly changing weapons as he adjusted to the new tactical situation, finally dropping torpedoes and depth charges into the sea beneath as he skimmed overhead, before moving on to assist the Griffin in its campaign against the Geno Breaker.
Tony Dracker was faring poorly, once his opponent had adjusted to the minimised damage that her charged particle cannon was able to wreak upon him, she had switched to other methods, launching the mighty grapnel claws of her zoid at the seemingly implacable Griffin, then retracting them and slowly crushing the various appendages and limbs of the Griffin, damaging legs, wings, gun-pods, tail, in short, anything it could get at with its claws, all the while holding the Griffin with at least one claw in such a way that it could not fight back, for while the Ultimium alloy of the Griffin (and a select few other zoids) was able to withstand energy weapons with little difficulty, it was weaker by far than most armour against the actions of melee weapons such as blades and claws. Just as Tony was beginning to give up hope, however, the Geno Breaker was rocked by missile fire from behind as the Falcyon sped towards it, firing both missiles and pulse lasers at the back of the deadly Geno breaker, wearing the beginnings of holes in the armour that covered the back of its mighty opponent, damaging the intake system for the Geno Breaker's charged particle cannon. Abruptly the Geno Breaker whipped around to face its new adversary, relaxing its grip upon the Griffin for just long enough for Tony Dracker to pull his wounded limping zoid free of the deadly embrace of its adversary. Taking every advantage he could from this respite, Tony Dracker remembered the goal of their mission, to capture the enemy flag without getting wiped out, and to do it before their own flag was captured, and so he turned from the battlefield to face his objective once again, thankful that the speed and agility of the Falcyon had fully occupied his adversary's attention.
Meanwhile, beneath the waves, the Hellfire Drake and the Neo-Warshark continued on towards their target, their flank speeds, although nowhere near as fast as those of flying zoids, being enough to get them there both quickly and undetected.
Fritz banked, his zoid barely evading the deadly onslaught of the Geno Breaker, wheeling around for yet another pass at the Geno Breaker's charged particle intake systems, finally rupturing them with his final conventional bomb, only to stray into the path of the Geno Breaker's full body cannon as it charged up regardless of the lack of regulation to its charging, and finally, with an intensity rarely seen, the Geno Breaker fired, the sheer force of the blast engulfing the mouth of the Geno Breaker itself, burning out the zoid's control systems. Both zoids were wrecked, and all because Rene had refused to use lesser weapons against her adversary.
Brady awoke with a start, the proximity alert that he had set was shrieking like something demon-possessed- he hadn't meant to fall asleep while reading, it had just happened, and now he was paying for his lack of concentration- still, at least he had positioned his zoid right beside the enemy flag. He saw his target gliding in towards him, that's the Griffin, it belongs to, who was it again, Tracker or Crackers or some such. Looks pretty heavily damaged though, must have had a run-in with my forces, but does that mean that my units are out of the battle or that he escaped? These and a myriad of other thoughts whirled through Brady's head as the Griffin began its final approach to the isle where its ultimate goal stood.
After what seemed like an age of deliberation, Brady armed the missile pod mounted on the back of his Command Wolf, letting fly a volley of three of his eight missiles at the oncoming zoid, enough, he thought, to finish his opponent off, but no, the Griffin just opened fire with its belly-mounted triple shock cannon, its only undamaged weapon, destroying the missiles which, designed for use against surface targets were neither designed to easily lock on to airborne targets, nor to evade aerial barrages while seeking out airborne targets. Crap, thought Brady, now he's too close for my missiles to lock on to him, I'll have to take him down the hard way. With that, Brady deactivated the clamps holding his missile pod onto the back of his zoid, just firing the remaining five missiles on a basic ballistic trajectory, as much so that the pod didn't get blown up with the missiles inside while the Griffin and Command Wolf fought at close quarters, destroying them both. Luckily the missiles weren't the only weapon that his Command Wolf had to offer him, and with that he brought the lupine zoid to a crouch, its body slanting upwards to the head at about a thirty degree angle or so, bringing the chest-mounted machine guns of his Wolf to bear on the incoming zoid, let him try and blow these out of the sky, he thought, opening fire with the paired machine guns, watching as the 240 rounds per minute from each gun impacted against the Griffin, some of them penetrating existing cracks in the zoid's once tough armour while others bounced off the remaining plating, doing little or no damage. But then, plummeting to earth where its command system was slowly giving up the ghost, the Griffin launched another six shells from its belly-cannon, taking the Command Wolf with it.
But then, something inexplicable happened, the simulation ended. Surely the naval units under Lt. Cryer's command hadn't had time to reach their target and vanquish its defences, had they?
Then, as he left the simulator, his defeated team-mates swamped him with triumphant grins upon their faces, demanding to know how he had managed to land his falling zoid with one foot on top of the enemy flag. He had won the mission.
Phew, I'm very sorry that this particular chapter has taken quite this long to write, but here it is folks. Any problems with the way I've used your characters, just write it down in a review and I'll be happy to do something about it.
Also, and this is to Devil Dog specifically, you didn't write your arsenal down for Brady's Command Wolf, so if you aren't happy for me to modify it, and perhaps Brady's zoid to suit the occasion, with upgrades/evolutions/arsenal changeover, say now or hold your peace for the rest of eternity.
Anyhow y'all, MP signing off.