Zoids: Chaotic Age Zero

Name: Scout Unit
Cost: $15,000
Weight: 3 Tons
Function: Sensor Supplement
Mounts On: All Zoids
Mount Location:
--Mounts internally to all Zoids. This part cannot be mounted with any other EP Part. This modification is permanent.
In Brief: The Scout Unit provides a vast array of sensors and observational equipment, allowing the equipped Zoid to find more or less anything it's looking for.

Description: The Extra Potential corporation was making a quiet killing on all of its parts. After all, why shouldn't it be? The EP parts line includes such marvels as a universal E-Shield, Sabre Rounds and a Pulse Amplifier, and a generalized Optical Stealth Shield, to name a few. Any of these can be particularly attractive to any pilot. Defense, offensive, powers of invisibility... yes, the EP parts line seemed to have it all (except for all of that stuff it didn't have). However, parts were sold left and right, which placated the higher-ups of the organization.

For a little while, anyway. But the siren call of profit can only be staved off for so long. Sooner, rather than later, these formerly placated executives began to hunger for liquid assets. They set their engineers to work, this time to develop a better version of the Basic Sensor Panel. That particular part had achieved limited market penetration in both the civilian and military spheres, but it wasn't powerful enough. It didn't do everything. "Do everything" was precisely what the executives wanted to make their engineers make the new part, the "Scout Unit" capable of. And make it do everything they did...

Few Zoids, if any, have a battery of sensors as extensive as that provided by the Scout Unit. First up is the stuff included on the Basic Sensor Panel - a very simple device: it's a set of sensors that mount to the equipped Zoid internally. The equipment is relatively simple: 3D Doppler Radar and IR Sensors, plus a few ol' fashioned video cameras. You get both of the former, plus the latter's benefit of giving you 360 degree visibility. This is less useful for the aquatic Zoids, but still useful for everyone. After we've left this rudimentary equipment behind, things get more interesting. First, no matter what mode of viewing you're in, you get an adjustable optical zoom, from 1X to 100X, entirely digital, of course.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. Thrown in with the Scout Unit are a plethora of sensors for all occasions: Low-Light Night-Vision, Ultraviolet Sensors, Motion Detectors (out to 200 meters), and a Heartbeat Sensor (also out to 200 meters, short-ranged aboveground sonar based). If that's not ridiculous enough as is, the Scout Unit has one, final, much-lobbied-for improvement above the Basic Sensor Panel: a Metal Detector. Capable of picking up less than a bottlecap's worth of metal at 500 meters, this mighty device is primarily used for avoiding landmines and finding burrowers. The picture is a bit fuzzy, and the Zoid in question should stand still to use it properly (heaven help you if you intend to use it in flight in an aerial Zoid), but it's there. If anyone you know happens to need an MRI, the metal detector can do the trick, too. Furthermore, the Scout Unit both records and can transmit all of this data to teammates.

The Ultimate X's have Core Tracking. Besides them, maybe a few Zoids, such as the Shadow Fox and its vaunted Multisensor or the Elephander Scout Mode can top the Scout Unit in terms of sensory ability, but pretty much no one else can. If you happen to own one of the other some-hundreds types of Zoids that does not have the ability to see anything, anywhere, anything, just buy away. It's a bit costly, but more importantly, its permanent. You should think carefully about whether this is the best EP part for you.