Name: Dark Thrasher
Family: Triceratops
Registration Number: RZ-055-
Crew: 1-2
Height: 16.7 Meters
Length: 43.3 Meters
Weight: 214 Tons
Top Speed: 100kph
Weapons: Twin Shotguns, Twin Dual 4-Shot Missile Pod, Twin 60mm Machineguns, Quad 30mm AA Machineguns, Hardened Alloy ‘Popout’ Blades, Triple Hardened Alloy Horns
Special Abilities: 3D Doppler Radar, Particle Deflection Shield
The Mad Thunder was the pride of the Helic Republic- nearly invincible, heavily armored, and just nasty to fight. It essentially ended the war for the duration of its existence, and eliminated the Charged Particle Gun until fairly recently. Still, it was expensive, and very hard to build. So the Helic Republic set about designing a more cost effective version- something like what the Gorhecks is to the Gordos.
The end result was the Dark Thrasher, a weapon of destruction to rival that of the Gunblaster, Gordos, and Gojulas. While all three of those outgun it, the Dark Thrasher has the unique advantage of being more durable than any of them. Its armor matches that of the Gunblaster (with a bit of extra armor on the ‘shield’ part of its head), and it has a powerful Particle Deflection Shield to boot- move over, Gunblaster, the new King of Defense is here (for mass-produced zoids, anyway- the King Gojulas is still sitting pretty at the top). Furthermore, it matches the Gojulas and Gordos in firepower, touting the impressive ability to mount the Twin Republican Super Cannons.
In fact, that is the Dark Thrasher’s main advantage. As previously mentioned, it is not exactly matching the gunnery capabilities of the other big Republican zoids. Still, it can take more fire than them, and it doesn’t share the lack of big guns defending the sides and rear, making it very good at tearing apart swarms of smaller enemies. A number of modifications are available to help the Thrasher deal with any issues it may have with its guns.
Of course, it’s still a big boomer, and that means low speed and maneuverability. The Dark Thrasher tops out at 100kph, and can maneuver with a Dibison, but that’s about it. Of course, with its pivoting guns, it doesn’t really need to- even behind the Thrasher, you aren’t getting away from anything.
Weapons:
Twin Shotguns:
Mounted to the side of the Dark Thrasher’s head are two of its most fun weapons- a pair of double-barreled shotguns firing much larger buckshot, capable doing the same damage to Zoids that its smaller cousin does to animals. Needless to say, they’re best used at ranges less than 100 meters, where it’s fairly powerful and can blow away chunks of armor better than the Impact Cannons. At longer ranges, they specialize in AMD, blowing several missiles apart with a single shot. They are fixed in position (unique as the only guns on the Dark Thrasher to be fixed), and are semiautomatic.
Twin Dual 4-Shot Missile Pods:
Pretty much standard fair for Republican gunners is the Twin Dual 4-Shot Missile Pods. There are two groups of two missile pods on either side of the current Dark Thrasher, for a grand total of four. Each pod then contains 4 multipurpose missiles, for a total of 16. These give the Thrasher a lot of firepower in an alpha-strike, with a big boost in stopping power. The missiles they carry can also lock onto both ground and air targets, but have the standard 4.5 second lock time because of it. The pods themselves can also pivot incline up to 90 degrees, to allow them to better lock onto air targets.
Twin 60mm Machineguns:
Mounted to the back of the Dark Thrasher is a pair of 60mm Machineguns- the Helic Republic’s attempt to mimic the Hybrid Vulcan. All things considered, they did fairly well. The Twin 60mm Machineguns each spit out 30 shells per second- not bad, eh? Considering that their mount can pivot 360 degrees horizontally and 75 degrees vertically, it isn’t exactly easy to hide from these guns.
Quad 30mm AA Machineguns:
AA Cannons were old news- everybody had them. The Gojulas, the Red Horn, even the puny Godos carried a few. But nobody carried AA Machineguns- until the Dark Thrasher. Mounted in pairs to either side of the 60mm Machineguns (and thus, rotating with said Machineguns), these four AA Machineguns fire 20 shells per second that burst at a designated altitude, making life pure hell for anything in the skies. The fuses can also be turned off, for standard 30mm cannon shells. Whether or not this actually helps to take down aerials, no one can say (flak is already an area of effect weapon, putting more of it into the same place with an automatic weapon may be a moot point), but it most certainly helps against anything else you can aim this gun at.
Hardened Alloy ‘Popout’ Blades:
Mounted just behind the front legs of the Dark Thrasher are two small pods. Each pod is rather small, about the length of the standard gun barrel. However, these are no guns. Instead, they carry blades. Now, the Helic engineers may have overdosed on caffeine a few hundred times, but they’re not crazy. They knew there was no way in hell something moving at 100kph could execute a Blade Attack. So they didn’t even try. Anyway, when you deploy the Popout Blades, air is forced through the canister, deploying a 5 meter long blade straight out. This is not really an offensive weapon, but a defensive one. Many an Imperial Ice Blazer fell victim to these weapons- the Thrasher simply deployed them and let the Blazer take itself out. Aside from their usefulness at stopping enemy Blade Attacks, these are also fairly good at convincing melee-inclined enemies to attack elsewhere. However, you can only deploy them once. Then you have to go to your transport for special equipment to push them back in. Unfortunately, they cannot be charged. The equipment for that couldn’t fit inside the canister.
Triple Hardened Alloy Horns:
Okay, so they’re not the Mad Thunder’s Magnessor Drills. They’re still fairly potent, though. These are rather obvious weapons, mounted to the heavily armored ‘shield’ that makes up the face of the Dark Thrasher. The two horns located above the optics are each six meters long, while the ‘nose’ horn is only three meters long. Using them is quite simple: lower the head and charge the enemy. A direct hit at full speed (as low as that may be) will do considerable damage, not to mention leaving three rather large holes in the enemy. Of course, these weren’t really MEANT for offense, even though they quickly came to be used as such. They were meant to deter enemies from closing with the Thrasher. Still, one must admit, they are fairly potent weapons.
Special Abilities :
3D Doppler Radar:
Just so the Dark Thrasher always knows where you are, it has 3D Doppler Radar. This sensor system allows the Dark Thrasher to map out the terrain around it and find enemy Zoids more effectively. This system is reasonably basic, and doesn’t grant a targeting bonus. The sensors are spread out throughout the zoid, making them hard to destroy completely.
Particle Deflection Shield:
The Particle Deflection Shield is a very special shield, designed only to deflect charged particles (as the name might imply). It is the early ancestor of the Mad Thunder's Particle Absorption Shield. However, unlike said Absorption Shield, the Deflection Shield does not have infinite capacity to deflect CPGs. It can disperse up to 2 CPG strengths in charged particles. Furthermore, the name is a misnomer: it really disperse the charged particles, not deflects them. (Some pilots think that this shield will bounce the CPG back or something of that nature.) Secondly, this shield is completely and utterly useless against anything not a charged particle. Bullets, beam, rockets, mortars, ect. pass right through. Fortunately for the Dark Thrasher, that goes both ways. It can shoot out of the shield, no sweat. As a matter of fact, this is one step closer in the direction of the daddy Mad Thunder's shield because it is passively raised. The Dark Thrasher does have the capacity to lower said shield specifically for the purpose of firing the Soul Tap Cannon (which is a particle beam-based weapon), but otherwise, there's really no reason to.
