Equestria Girls /0

by Bitt_Player

Chapter Thirteen - Sunset and Luna's Radical Reclamation Run

Author's Note:

OR: Twilight Sparkle's Fine Day For Science

"What's taking so long, anyway?" Sugarcoat flatly demanded of Twilight Sparkle, who was up to her elbows in a massive hole in her mysterious acquisition's thigh armor. The Zoid was old, rusted, and dirty, but Sugarcoat guessed the damage in question had been caused by a pulse laser. Probably a very powerful one, at that.

"This Zoid has a unique Organoid System that had to be recovered before I could even start working on the body," Twilight explained. "And a lot of the data was beyond repair, so I had to reprogram most of it based on guesswork. That's going to need extensive testing, as you might imagine."

"So how long will the body work take?" Sugarcoat asked. Normally she wasn't one to concern herself with what others spent their time on, but having seen the propellerhead's salvaged Zoid, Sugarcoat wanted it up and running for their inevitable showdown with Tirek's faction of the Chaos Union. Plus, Discord's plans seemed to hinge on the thing.

Twilight pulled a handful of burnt, corroded wiring from the hole in the Zoid's armor with disturbing ease, speaking to the severity of the damage. "Honestly, it might be faster to extract the Zoid Core and grow it from scratch. Even with the experimentation I'd need to get the chemical formula right, and the fact that I'd still need to use my hacked-together Organoid System. I'm not sure Discord could get me those kind of resources without drawing Tirek's attention, though. Or, well, the attention of his supporters. Tirek himself is kind of a brick, intellectually speaking."

"Just ask your brother." Sugarcoat applied her characteristic blunt-force advice-giving method. "He could probably talk Cinch into getting us what you need."

Twilight adjusted her glasses, blushing. "Oh. I didn't realize we could do that. She'd have to be discrete, wouldn't she? To avoid accusations of favoritism."

"Wouldn't be the first time she's had to get stuff to her people without anyone finding out," Sugarcoat said with a shrug. "Officially we bought all our Zoids, after all. Cinch knows how to make things fall off a Gustav."

---

It took Sunset Shimmer a few tries, but she managed to 'casually encounter' Luna in the hall outside her room.

"Luna, hey, there's something I want to talk to you about," Sunset said.

"Does it have to do with your repeated attempts to 'casually encounter' me?" Luna teased.

Blushing, Sunset replied, "okay, yeah."

"All right, let's hear it."

"I want to go with you. On your next salvage run."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I want to get a better idea of what you do. Besides, I hardly see you, even though we're on the same team."

"Hm. Well, if you want to run with me," Luna started entering her room's passcode. "There's something you should know. Come in."

Sunset felt a thrill run down her spine. Luna never let anyone in her room. While Sunset didn't think she was hiding anything earth-shattering, being allowed somewhere you weren't before always brings some excitement.

"I should warn you, this may get kind of weird."

"Weirder than Pinkie Pie's room?"

Luna paused to consider this question, which surprised Sunset. "Well, we'll see." The door slid open.

Almost every inch of the walls in Luna's room had been covered in corkboard. Red strings ran between pins, connecting news articles, archaeological reports, and pictures of Zoids and Zoid Cores. Some of these pictures had 'X's written on them in red marker, usually with notes such as 'Scrapped' or 'Beaten to it.' Sunset noticed a sketch of a Dark Horn with a black check mark and a smiley face. Easily the largest web of printouts took up the entirety of the wall opposite the door, centered on a drawing over Luna's bed: an outline of a Liger with a question mark in its center and several notes in scribbled cursive that looked to Sunset like performance specs. Next to it was a similar outline of a raptor-like Zoid Sunset couldn't identify, with few connections to anything else and 'Probably not' written under it.

"Not quite as weird as Pinkie's room," Sunset allowed after a moment's thought. "So, what's with the question mark Liger?"

"That, Sunset, is the Liger Zero."

"I thought that was... Luna, are you a legend chaser?" Sunset regarded Luna skeptically.

"And people saying it in that tone of voice is why I don't talk about it."

"Huh. I always thought you were more... practical, I guess. So, all those salvage runs have just been cover?"

"Only partially. Ruin salvaging and legend chasing require functionally the same skill set. As you know, I've gathered some fine salvage in my search."

"So... are we looking for Liger Zero this time?"

"If you still want to come, yes." Luna took a printout of a map from her printer, circled a location on it, then pinned it to an existing string on the Liger Zero's web. She then took a second copy of the map, circled the same spot, and handed it to Sunset.

"I don't know where this is." Sunset admitted, puzzling over the map.

"That's no surprise. It's on the Storm Continent, to the north. Other than a few frontier towns on its southern coast, people don't live there."

"Oh! I read about that place in school, it was the seat of the Guylos Empire. Never found out why they called it that."

"Back in the ancient days, there were frequent, continent-spanning thunderstorms there. That's no longer the case, but the name stuck."

"This is so cool! I can't wait!"

---

"Just hammering away at a base's Zoid bay doors is going to be a bad idea, they're built to withstand incredible abuse." Luna explained as she stopped the Gustav in front of the long-abandoned Guylos Empire facility, which was built into a sheer cliff face deep in a desert canyon. "Age notwithstanding, we're not going to be able to just blow those doors down."

"So how do we get in?" Sunset asked.

"First we grab that case of plastic explosive I picked up, then we find an entrance meant for humans."

"Oh, I see. Heh, I should've thought of that on my own."

"You'd be surprised at how few people realize how valuable explosives are in this line of work."

"Speaking of human-sized doors, there's one right in the middle of that big one."

"So there is. Help me with the bombs."

"On it!"

In very little time, Sunet and Luna set small explosive charges on the door's latch and hinges.

"These should be just enough of a pop to knock the door down," Luna said as she stuck wires into the clay-like wads of explosive. "But to be safe we're triggering them from the other side of the Gustav."

"That's probably the way to go," Sunset said, twisting the wires to the ends of a pair of larger cables.

Sunset dutifully walked to the Gustav's far side with Luna trailing behind, feeding cable out as she went. Safely ensconced behind the Zoid, Luna screwed the cables' spade terminals into a battery pack and flipped open the cover on the pack's single button.

"Want to make the door go pop?" Luna asked, offering Sunset the detonator.

"You know it!" Grinning, Sunset accepted the device and held a thumb over the button. "Three... two... one... bang!"

Whumph! Thud!

Luna looked around the Gustav at the door. "Absolutely flawless," she said. "Grab a flashlight and a respirator and let's see what we've got."

“Should we try to get the power on?” Sunset asked, opening the Gustav's hatch.

“I doubt this base’s generator still works, so we’d have to patch it through to the Gustav's alternator. That takes a lot of time, so let’s stick to the flashlights for now.” Luna replied.

“I see, we’ll make sure there’s something here worth the effort before we bother.”

“Exactly right. You’re a fast learner, Sunset Shimmer.”

"I do what I can," Sunset said, following Luna into the hangar.

A brief, flashlight-enabled scan of the hangar revealed that it was built to support a single Zoid, along with several weapons and what appeared to be modular armor panels. Side doors led to a small barracks room and a dining hall, neither of which contained anything of particular interest.

The powerful flashlights made it clear that the maroon-armored Zoid dominating the hangar was indeed a Liger. To Luna's delight, it was sleek and streamlined, and matched neither a Shield Liger nor Blade Liger in profile. It had no blades, although one of the wall-mounted weapon racks had sets of paired blades which appeared to be modular. When mounted on the Liger and extended for combat, as near as Sunset could work out the mechanism, one blade in each pair would be directly above its fellow.

"So... I guess we found Liger Zero after all, huh?" Sunset asked.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Luna said, smiling. "It might be a Shield Liger with some kind of full armor retrofit. Or another undiscovered Liger."

"So you're saying we might be looking at something amazing instead legendary."

Luna's smile grew wider. "When you put it like that, it's hard not to get excited. Let's get the power on and see if any of these computers still work."

Sunset's brow furrowed briefly, then her smile returned. "Because if they do we can find out exactly what this Zoid is. I see where you're going with this."

---

It didn't take long to bypass the hanger's generator and wire the power circuits to the Gustav, and soon enough the interior was as well-lit as one could expect for an ages-abandoned Zoid test facility. Sunset began fiddling with the computer terminals, and soon found one that actually powered on.

"Oh wow, check this out!" Sunset said. "I found some log files!"

"What do they say?" Luna asked.

"Okay, first off, this is indeed the Liger Zero, just like you thought!"

"Ha! I knew it was real!"

"Well, it's a Liger Zero."

"There's more than one?"

"The Helic Republic stole the first prototype and started using it in combat, so Guylos built this one: Liger Zero Empire! According to this their base performance was identical."

"So the Helic Republic's centuries of experience with Liger-class Zoids only helped them deploy it faster."

"And create some kind of armor modules I guess, but most of that info's corrupted. I think the parts on the walls are also a modular armor set."

"We might be able to recover the data at home. Let's get the Liger Zero Empire loaded, then we'll pull the hard drives from all these terminals -rumor has it the Zero had a unique Organoid System, I'm hoping one of these has a backup in case the Liger's hard drive is dead. Better load up all the stuff on the walls, too."

---

"Yes, yes. I know. Well, that is true," Twilight said into her pink cell phone. "Believe it or not, it is the least slow way of doing it. Trust me, I know. I know that too. Don't you worry, we'll have our Zoid. Roger that." With that, Twilight flipped the phone closed and looked up at the freshly delivered Zoid Core growth tank and vats of chemicals.

"So, the official story, if anyone asks, is that our 'parent company' wants us to test a new method for synthesizing Zoids from their Cores," Shining Armor said. "You better hop to it, Twily, that sounded like an unpleasant conversation."

"It could've been worse," Twilight said. "Discord isn't the most patient boss, but he understands that delays arise. Now, I need to pull some bits and pieces from the old chassis and test them with these chemicals to make sure I get the combination right, and then it's on to the real fun!"

"Fun? Well, if you say so."

"Oh, I most definitely say so."

---

"It's not any worse than the Diamond Dustfox was," Fluttershy told Sunset and Luna, respirator mask dangling from her neck. "I think it's better off, in fact. But some of the parts... well, we don't have replacements, and we're not likely to find any."

"I didn't even think of that," Sunset replied, slapping her forehead. "Of course no one makes parts for legendary Zoids that are supposed to not really exist."

"I think -think- I can modify Blade Liger parts to fit, but I'm not sure how well they'll work with the salvageable parts," Fluttershy said. "I'd prefer to regrow it from the Zoid Core, just to be sure. Luna, do you know someone who'd do that for us?"

"Let's do that in-house," Luna replied. "I want to dodge the rumor mill, if at all possible. We have most of the gear here, and I can get the chemicals."

Fluttershy tilted her head in thought. "I've never grown a Zoid before, but it was on the Zoid Battle Commission's Engineer Certification Test."

"How did you do on that test?" Sunset asked, slightly nervous.

"I got every question right." Fluttershy's face turned bright red as she confessed to her phenomenal success.

"Nice!"

"All right, it's settled," Luna said. "I'll get you the stuff and you'll grow us a brand new Liger Zero Empire."

"Um, well, if you're willing to trust me with that kind of responsibility..."

"I have total faith in you," Luna said. "And if you blow it, it'll be our little secret. In fact, let's keep this a secret anyway, even from the rest of the team."

"Why?"

"Like I said, I want to avoid any rumors. Between the three of us, some people on this team aren't the best at keeping things to themselves."

"Rarity?"

"And Pinkie Pie."

"We're still restoring those old hard drives, but it looks like Zero Empire did have a custom Organoid System," Sunset pointed out. "What should we do about that?"

"Leave it to me," Fluttershy replied. "If it doesn't come through all right, I can probably fill in the gaps."

"Really? I didn't know you were a programmer."

"I can't read hexadecimal or anything like that, but I know my way around an Organoid System."

"Is there anything you can't do, Fluttershy?"

"Quite a lot of things, but they're not related to my job. What should we do with the existing Liger Zero Empire once its Zoid Core is out?"

"Lock it up good and tight in one of the storage sheds," Luna said. "I have no idea if any of those detachable parts or weapons will grow with the base Zoid, so we may have to rebuild those anyway."

"And spare parts will be good to have on hand," Sunset pointed out. "Plus, secrecy."

"Set a new pass code on the warehouse." Luna patted Fluttershy's shoulder. "Shoot, how do we keep the team out of here while the Liger's growing?"

"The secondary hangers have enough space for a Zoid vat. If you move it while we're away for a match, no one will see. I can start as soon as we get back."

"Very true. You're quite clever, Fluttershy."

"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's avoiding attention."

"So, the next question is, who's going to be our Liger pilot?" Sunset asked.

"Come on, Sunset, you know the answer to that," Luna chided.

"... Rainbow Dash? She's a pretty good melee pilot."

"Rainbow Dash is a good air superiority pilot," Luna corrected. "Think back to our simulator tests, who was the best in melee combat?"

"Oh, well, that'd be... me." Sunset stared at Luna, then turned her gaze to Liger Zero. "Me?"

"Sunset, I have been trying to get you a Liger-class Zoid since before our first battle, and soon we'll have the best Liger that ever existed."

"But... but... it's... Luna. It's the Liger Zero!" Sunset was feeling light-headed, and assumed this was why she wasn't sure how long her hands had been shaking. "Is it really okay to give this majestic thing of beauty to a rookie like me?"

"Like I said, I've been wanting to put you in a Liger," Luna replied with a shrug. "You can make it work."

Fluttershy put a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Should I try to put in a Multisensor and shield generator?"

"I... w- uh- if the Zoid Core puts out that much power, go for it, I guess."

"I'm pretty sure it does, but we'll know for sure once it's up and running."

"Great! I'm gonna check with Celestia and see if we can get a match organized."

Comments

[Bitt_Player]

This thing took way too dang long to write, but it's written.

[WolfenaxDart]

9140279
All is forgiven.

[Night_Moon60606]

unless i am very much mistaken...there will soon be two Liger Zero running around...

[SonicStreak5344]

I just got the Zoid bug recently and I didn't know that there were Zoid crossover stories here on Fimfiction!

[SonicStreak5344]

Sunset gets the Liger Zero!!! Awesome! Something tells me that the Berserk Fury and the Liger Zero are going to cross paths soon! Sunset is just like Bit in way.

[WolfenaxDart]

9573918
I'm guessing that Fluttershy gets the fury.

[SonicStreak5344]

9595377
Maybe. We'll just have to find out.

[Bitt_Player]

9595377
9595633
I do have specific plans for the Berserk Fury, I'll give away right now that it does show up because I couldn't write a Zoids story without it. There are three plausible Fury pilots:
Fluttershy, for the irony of having the Queen of the Wallflowers in the most fight-happy Zoid that ever was. Plus, she might be able to keep its more rampant impulses reigned in.
Twilight Sparkle, because I haven't revealed just what that mystery Zoid she's refurbishing is yet, now have I? It's certainly something that Discord is willing to spend huge wads of cash to get onto the battlefield.
Vinyl Scratch, because it would fit right in with this thing she's got going with Sunset for her to get a Zoid built to fight the Liger Zero right after Sunset gets the Liger Zero. Plus it kinda-sorta matches her color scheme.
Those are the three that I considered having acquire the Berserk Fury. I decided which one to go with back when I was still outlining the plot, but I'll leave it a mystery for now. Also bear in mind that while Liger Zero Empire is in play, the Helic Republic's white-armored Liger Zero is still theoretically up for grabs.

[WolfenaxDart]

9597441
I have a reasonable guess on who the republic liger zero belongs to. I'm just being hopeful.

[SonicStreak5344]

9597441
Oh ok. I got a feeling that Sunset will make her debut soon. Also I never heard of the Blade Liger Empire before. It never appeared in the anime.

[Bitt_Player]

9598250
Liger Zero Empire only appeared as a model kit. In Japan, the kits came with booklets with information about the Zoid. The original Liger Zero and Berserk Fury prototypes were created by the Guylos Empire as part of an experiment in creating Zoids with advanced computer systems capable of thinking for themselves and cooperating with their pilots. Liger Zero was inspired by the Helic Republic's great success with the Shield Liger and Blade Liger, and was the Guylos Empire's first liger-type Zoid. The Berserk Fury was based on the Empire's own Genosaurer and Geno Breaker, and was intended as an anti-liger platform. Both were built to test the Conversion Armor System, although Liger Zero had only one CAS and the Fury had none.
Helic Republic agents stole the Liger Zero, but were unable to capture the Zero X CAS. The Republic was fascinated by the CAS concept and created the Jaeger, Schneider, and Panzer systems. Liger Zeroes entered limited production in the Republic, held back primarily by the immense financial costs involved in their deployment.
The Guylos Empire hastily built a new Liger Zero prototype, which they painted maroon and called Liger Zero Empire, which also entered production. Berserk Fury was slightly reworked to function specifically as an anti-Liger Zero Zoid, and also entered production. Zero Empire's Zero X CAS proved highly effective with its electron driver blades, and some time later Berserk Fury got a CAS of its own: The Storm Fury, which replaced the Fury's back unit with massive rocket thrusters that gave it the ability to fly. Storm Furies weren't exactly maneuverable enough to be true air superiority Zoids, but the ability to drop a cadre of Berserk Furies out of the sky proved both strategically and psychologically valuable to the Empire.

[SonicStreak5344]

9598354
Whoa! Talk about firepower!