The Iron Bible

- Fan Book EX Vol. 1 [Gojulas Giga]

ZAC 1957
    King Helic Muroa unites the Central Continent. The same year, an eldest son, Helic II, is born to the king.

ZAC 1959
    A second son, Zenebas, is born to King Helic.

ZAC 1978
    King Helic dies. The Central Continent is divided into a Republic that makes Helic II its President and an Empire that accepts Zenebas as Emperor.

ZAC 1980
    The Central Continent War breaks out between the Republic and the Empire.

ZAC 2029
    A pioneer ship from Earth, the Globally III, crash-lands on the Central Continent.

ZAC 2030~
    The war intensifies due to the introduction of Earthling technology.

ZAC 2051
    The Zenebas Empire collapses. The same year, having absorbed the defeated Zenebas remnants, the Dark Continent's Guylos Empire proclaims war on the Helic Republic.

ZAC 2056
    A huge comet approaches. The Grand Catastrophe of Planet Zi.

ZAC 2099
    After more than 40 years have passed, the Guylos Empire once again proclaims war on the Helic Republic.

ZAC 2102
    Prozen, an orphan of the deceased Emperor Zenebas, causes a rebellion in the Guylos Empire capital and performs a suicide bombing, taking with him the main forces of both the Guylos and Helic armies. The same year, Prozen's son Wolff Muroa takes control of the Central Continent. The Neo Zenebas Empire is founded.

    And then, three years flowed by--.

    ZAC 2105, autumn

    The Central Continent of Delpoi

    Three years since the collapse of the Helic Republic. On the Central Continent of Delpoi (at least on the surface), peaceful days continued. This was because the Neo Zenebas Empire had taken such lenient occupation measures, one would not think they were an invading army.

    The dissolution of parliament. The dismantling of the army. The Empire's demands were basically just these two points. The terror of the Republic citizens changed into relief, and that relief watered down their will to resist their new rulers.

    The fact that the Emperor leading Neo Zenebas was Wolff Muroa was also a cause for the Empire's rule being smooth. He was a blood relative of the hero king, Helic Muroa the First. This fact had a special significance for all those living on the Central Continent. "The Muroa family are our traditional rulers."

    Even now that a century had passed since the establishment of republicanism, more than a few of the populace thought this.

    The citizens also had a fear of the Guylos Empire on the Dark Continent of Nyx. As soon as their wounds from the previous great war had healed, they were sure to bare their fangs at the Central Continent once again. The severity of the occupation measures of Guylos, being a different race, would be incomparable to those of Neo Zenebas. And now that the Republic army had collapsed, the only ones they could rely on were the Neo Zenebas army.

    ZAC 2105, autumn. These various factors continued to make the Neo Zenebas Empire's system of control of the Central Continent firmer day by day.

    Delpoi, Central Mountain Range

    A Helic Republic Army Position

    The wind rushing down from the summit was piercingly cold. On his regular patrol, Republic Army Second Lieutenant Steve Bone hurriedly slid into the cockpit of his beloved Konig Wolf.

    He was on a mountainside in the Central Mountain Range, where high mountains in the 7000 metre to 9000 metre class stood in rows. The arrival of winter was early. Tonight or tomorrow, they would get snow. The snow that they were eagerly awaiting. If it piled up, they would be able to evade the inquiring eyes of the Neo Zenebas Empire Army, at least until spring.

    There was a secret base of the Helic Republic Army here. One of the military positions that had numbered more than 100 three years ago. But now, there wouldn't even be 30 that had survived. In contrast to their lenient occupation measures, the Empire Army had been performing a thorough mopping-up operation against the Republic Army's remaining forces. In the battles over these three years, the Republic Army had not won a single time. If they were discovered, it was all over, and they were struck down one-sidedly.

    The Dark Spiner. It was that demonic electronic warfare Zoid's fault. Ally Zoids were driven completely mad by its Jamming Waves, and were defeated without even being able to fight.

    However.... If they could hold out until spring, they would complete "it". The last hope left to the Republic Army, that new giant Zoid....

    The Assassin From Neo Zenebas
    Raid Of The Stealth Stinger

    It happened when Steve Bone finished his regular patrol and turned his beloved machine towards the base. The Konig's usually light movements suddenly became heavy. A dull sensation, as though a foreign object was caught between the control stick and the drive system. He remembered this piloting feeling. It was the same sensation as in the operation to recover the fallen Republic capital three years ago.

    At that time, he had been piloting another Konig. The strategy had been to pierce the flank of the enemy Armoured Division's main force, as a member of the High-Speed Force. However, with the enemy force before his eyes, the Konig's movements had suddenly slowed. There were Dark Spiners in the enemy force. Just as it entered their jamming area, the Konig started to totter like a drunk man.

    The high-speed Zoids that had lost their manoeuvrability amounted to less than practice targets. After that, Diloforce and Demantis units gushed forth in terrible amounts and showered them with blows. The force was annihilated in an instant. There were also a considerable number of his comrades who were attacked by allies controlled by Jamming Waves.

    "I did well to survive," he thought. In exchange, Steve had tasted the deepest disgrace for a Zoid pilot, that of abandoning his beloved machine and escaping.

    It was a bitter memory. But he didn't have time to be flooded with sentimentality. The enemy was drawing near.

    What's more, it was the worst kind, a mopping-up force containing Dark Spiners. He had to notify the base immediately.

    Steve cut the power to his beloved machine and jumped down from the cockpit. He couldn't even use the communicator. All he could rely on were his own feet. He ran as though crawling along the rugged footholds. However, he was 5000 metres above ground level. His breathing rose immediately. From behind Steve approached footsteps that sounded like earth tremors. He instantly hid himself in a rocky area. The enemy force calmly advanced right beside him. As he gazed at its majestic appearance, Steve's sense of despair deepened further.

    It wasn't just Dark Spiners. There was even a Death Stinger. It was a monster loaded with the Organoid System, the legacy of Planet Zi's ancient super-civilisation. The Empire Army had now succeeded in completely analysing and mass-producing this system, which gave combat Zoids terrifying life energy, agility and fighting instincts. The one before his eyes was a Stealth Stinger, a mass-produced machine with its stealth abilities and armour strengthened in exchange for its Charged Particle Cannon being removed. There were also Sack Stingers, mass production-type small-scale machines with the incubation of their Zoid Cores eliminated. They numbered around 100. All of them were united with a jet black colouring. It was the "Black Dragoon".

    A combat force led by Genius Deldaros, rumoured to be the Empire Army's strongest Zoid pilot.

    A tiny smile floated on Steve's lips. Apparently when poor conditions piled up this much, people instead laughed.

    Once again, Steve began to run as if crawling. Towards the base where his comrades awaited. Towards a battlefield where certain death lay in store.......

    Gojulas The Ogre Sets Out!

    The sound of intense gunfire pierced Steve's ears. The battle had already begun.

    --Hurry.

    He felt impatient. He couldn't imagine the base had long. He wouldn't want to be late, and then end up being the only survivor. --Gyaooooon......

    Suddenly, the roar of a Zoid rang out, mingled with the gunfire. A roar unique to Tyrannosaurus-type giant Zoids, with gravity and shrillness overlapped. There shouldn't have been any Tyranno-type Zoids in the Black Dragoon. So what was it?

    As he climbed over a slightly elevated patch of rocks, Steve's field of view suddenly opened up. A gigantic beast was there.

    It was Gojulas The Ogre. The Republic Army's experimental Organoid machine. Its level of perfection was so low that it did not compare to the Empire's Organoids. Other than a pilot chosen by the Ogre itself (what's more, apparently he was a mercenary rather than a regular soldier), nobody could operate it. However, it had power said to be ten times that of a normal Gojulas.

    The Dark Spiner's Jamming Waves were powerless against the Ogre, which moved only by its fighting instincts and its mental link with the mercenary.

    Its back to the base, the Ogre stood alone in the path of the Empire force. 100 to 1. Such a hopeless situation cheered up this machine beast of unparalleled rage all the more.

    The Ogre moved. With a rush, it sprang upon a Dark Spiner. Its huge jaws tore off the Spiner's head in one attack. Continuing on, it assaulted the second Spiner. At the same time, its large-calibre cannons fired at a separate Spiner, at point blank range. The Spiner was blown away like a tattered cloth.

    It was a good move. The Ogre was narrowing its aim to the Dark Spiners only. If the Spiners were gone, the base defense force could send out their Zoids too.

    There were seven Spiners in all. It had already defeated three. It began to challenge the fourth.

    Of course, the damage to the Ogre was also enormous. The Sack Stingers jumped at it one after another, and hurled concentrated gunfire at it. This was attack power one would not expect from a small-scale Zoid. The Ogre's armour crumpled, split open and flew away. But even so, the Ogre never faltered. The life energy characteristic of Organoids self-repaired its metal cells instantly, so they did not amount to fatal wounds.

    Five, six machines.

    One to go.

    At that moment, the ground split open and a huge tail appeared. On the tip was a blade. It pierced the Ogre's belly. It was the Stealth Stinger driven by Genius Deldaros. Using the final Spiner as a lure, it had concealed itself under the ground and lain in wait for the Ogre to charge in.

    The Ogre's movements slowed. It was clear that it had taken damage to its Zoid Core. It could not self-recover.

    As the Stealth Stinger tried to crawl underground again, the Ogre tried to tear off its blade with both arms. But its power was falling. Stopping the Stinger was all that it could do.

    The Ogre's Do-or-Die Defensive Battle!

    Disregarding the two machines, which were unable to move in their entangled state, the remaining Dark Spiner and a group of Sack Stingers rushed into the base.

    At this point, Steve had returned to the base and was staring up at the giant Zoid that stood towering in the hangar. The Gojulas Giga, a new machine based on Giganotosaurus, a large carnivorous dinosaur surpassing Tyrannosaurus. Steve and the other Republic soldiers had been ordered to personally blow up this Zoid that should have been their trump card for the counteroffensive operation. The Giga was already 90 percent complete. But the Jamming Wave interception circuits that were meant to be installed within its armour were unfinished. Without the circuits, it would just be manipulated by the Spiner and stolen away. That alone, they had to avoid.

But to make it self-destruct without even sending it out once was a mission he could not bear as a Zoid pilot. The battle three years ago, where he had abandoned his beloved machine and run away, was revived in his mind.

    He ground his molars. Carrying the explosives, he slipped into the Giga's cockpit. This was so that he could press the detonation switch the moment the enemy tried to steal it. That way, he could at least take one or two machines with him. He couldn't think of anything else he could do for the Giga.

    The sound of a strong impact ran through him. The barrier wall of the hangar had been destroyed. Predicting that the enemy would leap in, Steve couldn't believe his eyes. The Ogre was standing there. While its Zoid Core had been completely pierced, it had wrenched off the final Spiner's head and was standing firm.

    "The Ogre...."

    Throwing aside the detonator, Steve fired up the Giga's engines.

    Gojulas Giga Stands!

    The Gojulas Giga started up. Smashing the arms holding its body in place, it slowly advanced. As though it had seen things through, the Ogre collapsed. It had defeated the final Spiner for them by turning its back on the Stealth Stinger, fully prepared to bear fatal wounds to its core.

    There was little damage to the cockpit. There was a possibility the pilot was alive. That alone was a relief.

    The Giga advanced further, to the front room of the hangar. Its ally Zoids had been destroyed without setting out. Everything moving was an enemy. Matching the Giga's advance, they retreated steadily.

    It left the base and did a visual check of the enemies. There were still 70 to 80 machines. At the front was the Stealth Stinger. There was a gap as distant as heaven and earth between Genius and Steve, in status and in skill as a Zoid pilot. Even so, Steve had no fear, to the point where even he thought it strange. The Gojulas was a Zoid that changed the fighting spirit and anger of its pilot into power. In that case, there was no way he would lose right now.

    --Syaaaa...

    A group of Sack Stingers brandished their claws and sprang upon him.

    --Intercept them. With the tail...

    The Giga's long tail bent around. At the same time, the rocket boosters built into the tail automatically ignited. The mass of heavy metal flew at overwhelming speed. With that one swing, the Sack Stingers were literally turned to dust. They didn't have the self-repair abilities of an Organoid in the slightest. It was complete destruction.

Fight to the Death!! Gojulas Giga vs. Stealth Stinger

    A rain of machine-gun fire came from left and right. It didn't leave a single scratch on the Giga's heavy titanium-alloy armour. It swung its tail in the opposite direction. With that, another five or six Sack Stingers were scattered away together. It was enough destructive power to make Steve himself, the one piloting it, tremble.

    The Sack Stingers drew back quickly. The enemy was unsettled. Now was his chance to win. The Giga moved to pursue them. Right in front of its nose, the Stealth Stinger cut through the group and leaped in towards it. In came the Laser Scissors on its tail that had brought down the Ogre.

    The Giga dodged, by a hair's breadth. The armour on its shoulder was sliced away.

    The Giga's fangs flashed. They missed. The Stinger had already moved around behind it. It was fast. The Giga hurled its tail around. It missed again. The Stinger had hidden underground. What were these moves?

    When he dug into the ground, Genius was confident of victory. Just in this back-and-forth, he had seen all of the Giga's moves. He would wait like this for the Giga to approach within a certain-kill distance, then drive his Laser Scissors into it. Then it would be over.

    One minute. Two minutes. As the time slowly passed, Genius calmly watched the surface radar.

    --There it is!

    The Stinger's tail thrust out through the surface. Genius could see the scene of the Giga's core being pierced deeply. However, the tail that should have been a certain kill cut through empty air.

    "!?"

    For the first time, Genius was perturbed. The Giga had moved at a speed far exceeding his predictions. It was unthinkable. This was not the movement of a giant Zoid.

    Pursuit Mode. By changing into a high-speed combat form, the Giga displayed mobility and manoeuvrability on par with a medium-scale Zoid. This was the Giga's greatest secret.

    The Giga's foot attacked the Stinger. This time it could not evade. Its super-heavy armour was trampled through easily.

    "Dammit."

    Genius tumbled out of the cockpit. At the same time, the Sack Stingers all fired their Smoke Dischargers at once. A violent smokescreen rose up. And when it cleared, the Black Dragoon had completely disappeared. It was a brilliant withdrawal.

As he was being shaken around on the back of a Sack Stinger, Genius Deldaros was smiling. His first defeat as a Zoid pilot. A chance meeting with a strong enemy that he ought to risk his life to defeat. He was smiling as if this was an unbearable joy. A flake of snow brushed his cheek. Winter had now arrived in the Central Mountain Range.

    The snow gradually covered the deep wounds that the Republic Army base had borne.

    In the tumultuous hangar, Steve Bone was looking up at the Giga he had just come down from. For the time being, they had overcome today's crisis. But the Republic's "tomorrow" depended upon whether or not they could mass-produce the Giga by spring.

    They would have to hurry. Steve stepped forward into the swirl of bellows from the mechanics.