Name: Active Shield Unit
Cost: $6,600
Weight: 10 Tons
Function: Defensive Supplement/Supporting Firepower
Mounts On: Hammer Rock, Helcat, Snipe Master, Spinosapper
Mount Location:
--On the Hammer Rock, the shield panels mount to either arm. The shield generator/transformer systems mount to the back, replacing the Quad Missile Array. The 40mm and 20mm Beam Cannons rest next to the neck on either shoulder (one of each caliber on each shoulder).
--On the Helcat, the shield panels mount either front hip, and the shield generator/transformer systems mount to the back of the Zoid. The 40mm Beam and 20mm Beam Cannons mount to either shoulder (one of each caliber on each shoulder).
----On the Snipe Master, and the Spinosapper, the shield panels mount either hip, and the shield generator/transformer systems mount to the back of the Zoid. The 40mm Beam and 20mm Beam Cannons mount to either wrist (one of each caliber on each wrist).
In Brief: The Active Shield Unit is a defensive and offensive supplement package that provides two hemispherical shields (together they cover the whole Zoid) along with two 40mm and two 20mm Beam Cannons to give a respectable boost to offensive power.

Weapon Type: Dual Beam Cannon Sets
Ammunition: 40mm & 20mm Pulsed Beams
Rate of Fire: Linked Semiautomatic

Description: The prolonged conflict between the Helic Republic and the Empire (be it the Zenebas, Guylos, or Neo-Zenebas Dynasty) was long and bloody, and over the centuries, resulted in the creation of some of the most innovative Zoid upgrades and modifications known to man. For the most part, these inventions in the fine art of war came from within the two combatants: the Helic engineering schools were legendary for their focus on mounting big guns on platforms half their size, whereas the Imperial academies produced minds who asserted that the base Zoid should be designed for a specific function, as opposed to the Helic philosophy of flexibility and adaptivity. However, they always needed modifications. It often wasn't until after the original manufacture of many Zoids that the Helic boys got that big gun-mounting just right, and the Imperial engineers quickly realized that absolute, rigid inflexibility led to lost battles.

However, while essentially every Zoid was designed by one faction or another, this was not so with modifications. Welcome to the year ZAC 2101, and enter the third party Zi-Arms corporation (Name ring a bell? They'll become caught up in the Three Tigers construction a while later), a conglomerate of manufacturers based in various independent "colonies". They announced their status as a neutral party in the great war, and sold munitions and manufactured goods to both sides of the conflict. Soon, Zi-Arms entered the modifications market, and concocted what they called the Customizable Parts or "CP" parts line, which was to consist of three of their newly designed modifications. Later on, with the planet under a unified flag, Zi-Arms would be nationalized by the ZBC and their parts line ballooned to more than 20 parts, then declared public domain.

Anyway, the second modification in their line is this: the Active Shield Unit, second only to the Flexible Booster Unit. A long, long time ago it was CP-2, and has since been demoted to CP-25 (for reasons that were largely bureaucratic, something having to do with chronology.) Now, we all know that the Extra Potential Parts line boasts an E-Shield, but they weren't the first people to come up with this idea. Zi-Arms beat them to the bottom line (as a matter of fact, the EP corporation hadn't even been founded at the time), and concocted a special shield set that could be used by a handful of Zoids. Each of the two shields in the Active Shield Unit is half the strength of your standard Shield Liger's E-Shield, each covering a hemisphere of the Zoid. They track shield strength separately, and if one goes down the other one stays up if it has the strength. On the downside, the ASU has some hefty equipment: if the back-mounted generators are destroyed, the shields go down (the guns can still fire). On the upside, this modification stacks with other E-Shields, including the EP part if you so choose to acquire it.

The ASU also adds two 40mm Beam Cannons and two 20mm Beam Cannons, in groups of two, each group having one gun of each caliber. They're fixed, semiautomatic, and have linked firing within the group. It was pretty much just thrown in because the Zi-Arms corporation wanted to show that this was indeed a military-purposed part, and because all of the Zoids it could be equipped with some kind of shoulder-mounted gun. But that's kind of a side-point: most pilots agree that it takes a back seat to the performance boost that the FBU provides.

The Zi-Arms corporation is long since dead now, and the Customizable Parts line is now public domain. If you want this modification, you can have it for not-very-much money. Enjoy.