Name: War Shark (aka “Wardick”)
Alignment: Guylos Empire
Family: Coelacanth
Registration Number: EZ-40
Crew: 1
Height: 4.3 Meters
Length: 17.0 Meters
Weight: 32.2 Tons
Top Speed: 70 kph (above ground), 80 kph (sand), 130 knots/241 kph (water)
Weapons: 40mm Pulse Laser Cannon, Dual 80mm Beam Cannons, Torpedo Launcher Array, Hardened Alloy Teeth.
Special Abilities: Swimming, Burrowing.
Level: 3
The War Shark was created by the Guylos Empire to give then decisive naval superiority over the Helic Republic. It worked, as the War Shark was one of the most advanced dedicated naval Zoids deployed at the time, and remained the top fish in the sea until the arrival of the Hammer Head. In addition to naval capabilities, the War Shark can walk on dry land and burrow in soft sand, giving it the ability to take beachheads. However, the War Shark is a shark at heart, and does its absolute best in the water.
The War Shark has good, thick armor for its level and class, but this armor only protects the tail, head, boosters, and fins of the’ Shark. The entire midsection is exposed to fire, and can easily be punctured. This can be a deadly weakness underwater, when a single breach can something sink an entire vessel. To make up for this, the War Shark has extremely good agility and maneuverability underwater and under sand, in both of which it can swim and act like a Shark. It’s not uncommon to see War Sharks jumping through sand as though they were waves.
One of the War Shark’s main disadvantage out of the water is its lack of speed. It’s actually faster burrowed in sand than it is walking, and it’s unarmored midsection becomes another easy target when it can’t maneuver quickly. However, it’s heavily armored head allows it be used as a battering ram, and it has enough weapons to compensate for its lapse in speed.
Weapons:
40mm Pulse Laser Cannon:
The War Shark has a singe 40mm Pulse Laser Cannon fixed inside its mouth. The ‘Shark’s jaws must obviously be open to use the 40mm Laser Cannon, but when they are, it really can sting. The Pulse Laser Cannon is capable of putting out a full 20 shots each second, making it reasonably powerful, and not a weapon to take lightly. Also, these weapons work underwater, but under no conditions should they be used underground.
Dual 80mm Beam Cannons:
The War Shark has two 80mm semiautomatic beam cannons, one mounted to each of the ‘Shark’s two massive boosters. They’re fixed facing forwards, but can fire underwater. Don’t fire them underground; they’re not designed to.
Torpedo Launcher Array:
The War Shark’s main weapon underwater is the array of torpedo tubes, each covered by armor plates, the Zoid has in its back. When they’re needed, each of those tubes opens up and reveals a torpedo. The torpedo tube, if flooded, can then fire its torpedo into the water, which will lock onto the nearest underwater target that doesn’t respond to its IFF signature. It will then use active sonar to chase that target to the ends of the world, until it either hits something or is destroyed. Torpedoes are relatively slow, but armored, so they can be tricky to destroy. The War Shark has no fewer than 8 torpedo tubes in total, with each capable of reloading once from the Zoid’s internal stores. (Reloading takes roughly 3 seconds.) Each torpedo also has 1.5 times the explosive power of a standard anti-ground missile, so they can be devastating against other aquatic Zoids. Using these out of the water is essentially impossible.
Hardened Alloy Teeth:
For all of its biting needs, the War Shark has two rows of very sharp and pointy teeth, very shark-like. They can bite through damned near anything... like armor, structure, ect. Underwater, where they’re good at making hull breaches, these teeth can be deadly.
Special Abilities:
Swimming:
Once a shark, always a shark. Whether you’re giant or made of metal, or can swim through sand, or both, you’re still a shark. The War Shark itself has good maneuverability underwater, as well as the rather fast underwater speed of 130 knots. Note that the War Shark is fully compartmentalized, and, if its hull is breached, can usually seal a nearby bulkhead and stop the breach from sinking the ship. Also note that the War Shark’s crush depth is roughly 600 meters, shallower than that of the Hammerhead.
Burrowing:
The War Shark has the rather odd ability to burrow through sand, if at the slow speed of 80 kph. The War Shark, despite being slow in the sand, is known for its limited ability to treat the sand like waves, and leap out of the sand every so often in a rather acrobatic display. Sanctioned battling regulations limit the War Shark to staying burrowed for no longer than 12 seconds total in any one battle, but all’s still fair in war. Also, anything thicker than sand is simply too tough for the War Shark to breach.
Available Modifications:
