- Zoids

While most of this series is printed as a comic, the first volume or two are in a story book format. Since large images take up quite a bit we'll just post the pictures with the text below it. The comic is riddled with typos.

- Book Contents

In this story ZOIDS The Legend of Heroic Combat when you hear this ..... turn the page Let us begin now.

"I am the Namer, Guardian of the Names of Power." Before your world even existed, my people were an ancient race. Now, they are gone and only I remain, keeper of my people's history.

Across the endless tracts of space have I travelled, to return to the planet of my birth....ZOIDSTAR.

    Though my people perished long ago and their cities were buried by the shifting sands, the machines remain. It is these that have brought me here to perform the last act of the ZOIDARYAN race: The giving of the Names of Power.

    When my race was young and had an interest in the affairs of the Galaxy, they built the machines. Mightly engines of destruction which gave the power of life and death over the other creatures in the Galaxy.

    The ZOIDARYANS turned their gaze outwards and laid waste to a thousand star systems with their machines... their ZOIDS.

    But ruling a Galaxy was not enough for the ZOIDARYANS. It was not the conquest, but the battles they enjoyed. And though all intelligent life trembled in the shadow of the ZOIDS, my people battled on, machine against machine, ZOIDARYAN against ZOIDARYAN, in the further pursuit of Glory.

    ZOIDARYAN lives were needlessly sacrificed to the god of battle and the race dwindled in number until the Elders outlawed the ZOID duels.

    But they couldn't outlaw the ZOIDARYAN love of combat. The ZOIDARYAN pilots of the giant war-machines were replaced by androids and thus the heroic combat could continue without threat to ZOIDARYAN life.

    Too late came the order. Too late to save a once mighty race from extinction... and now, only I remain. Only I, and the ZOIDS.

    And though my people created the ZOIDS, I have no power to control them. For the war-machines have become the living embodiment of the ZOIDARYAN thirst for combat, with lives and wills of their own. They exist only to fight, ensure that their heroic combat lasts for all eternity. Now I stand on the sand-blasted surface of a world I used to call Home, high on a rock, scanning the horizon for some sign of movement, knowing that out there, behind the sandclouds, lurk the deadliest war-machines in the Universe.

    "Ah, it begins." I hear the unmistakable sound of an approaching ZOID and I turn to gaze at the scuttling machine. Its bulky armoured body is supported on eight slender legs. Its guns point directly at me. But I feel no fear.

    This creature is fast. So fast even my eyes find it hard to follow. I have seen this creature before. It is the quickest of* all ZOIDS. For the first time I open my mouth to utter this creature's NAME OF POWER.

    "You are SPIDERZOID. Let all beware your matchless speed and deadly firepower."

    The machine neither moves nor speaks. It is as if we both sense the sighing winds of ZOIDSTAR. Then the quiet is shattered by the arrival of one more powerful than SPIDERZOID.

    This machine walks on two legs. Its guns spray death across the landscape, though again, I do not fear for my own safety, for it is SPIDERZOID who is the target, I speak another NAME OF POWER.

    "TROOPERZOID. Invincible soldier of the ZOID infantry, Master of Destruction, Dealer of Death."

    The machines charge at each other and lock in heroic combat, their computer brains seething with hatred, though they know not the reason for their emnity. It is a dance of devastation, a panorama of violence. I have no taste for this. I have seen too much already. I turn my gaze out over ZOIDSTAR's boiling seas. But even here, the ZOIDS hold sway. From beneath the waves, a sleek head rises into the sky. Creaeted to rule the oceans of ZOIDSTAR, this war-machine serves as the eyes of the ZOIDS. I bestow the NAME OF POWER.

    "HYDRAZOID. Tireless swimmer of the waterworlds of the outer gulfs, none can escape your gaze." Devastating though these machines may be, they are the least powerful of their kind.

    Stronger and more savage are the POWERZOIDS, giant machines whose very passing can topple mountains. Even now, a POWERZOID approaches, its long neck snaking this way and that, but the POWERZOID moves forward steadily. This is a creature of brute power. Its own strength is protection enough for most enemies. It carries no sensitive scanning equipment. It has no need for caution. I speak the name of POWER.

    "The Giant ZRK. All that stand in his path must perish."

    ZRK pauses, and turns his gaze upon me. Compared to the strength of this creature, my own power is nothing. Then it speaks and my blood turns to ice. The voice I hear has no warmth, no spark of emotion.

    "Stand aside, Namer. Your time is done. I am Master of ZOIDSTAR now."

    This creature stands over me, gloating, supremely confident of its own invincibility, making its deadliest mistake. For, no matter how powerful the Giant ZRK may be, there is sure to be one stronger or more cunning than he.

And there is! Unknown to ZRK, there is another POWERZOID nearby. With ZRK's attention on me, I probe with my mind into the distance to discover the nature of this new POWERZOID. I feel energy, I feel thunder. There is power beyond imagining. This must be the strongest ZOID of all. Thus I utter the ultimate NAME OF POWER.

    "ZOIDZILLA. Monarch of Machines."

    But ZRK hears my words too late. Before he can defend himself, ZOIDZILLA has opened fire. A withering blast of lasers bites deep into the metal flesh of the Giant ZRK. ZRK recovers and fires back. The carnage has begun again.

    Everything takes second place to the Way of the Warrior. Smoke and dust hang heavy over the battlefield. The sounds of combat fill the air. So it has been. So it will be, until one ZOID stands victorious over all.

    But the ways of destiny are strange indeed. Though it seems as though the ZOIDS must battle among themselves for all eternity, Fate provides them with an escape, in the shape of their deadliest foes; the RED ZOIDS.

    I remember, how I, the Namer, last of the ZOIDARYANS, stood witness over the birth of the RED ZOIDS. I was returning to ZOIDSTAR, the ZOIDS under my command were in need of repairs and fuel. We never completed our journey. Our ship made a forced landing on ZOIDSTAR'S BLUE MOON. I nearly perished in the crash.

    The BLUE MOON was a world vastly different to ZOIDSTAR. Cold, airless, uninhabited. To survive, the ZOIDS changed. Where the first ZOIDS were cold creatures of metal, the ZOIDS of the BLUE MOON adapted to their new environment. Their bodies now generated heat. Their blue shells became red. And these ZOIDS did not battle among themselves, but cast around in search of others to turn into creatures like themselves. Thus they became RED ZOIDS, terrible metal monsters whos only driving force was the defeat of the BLU ZOIDS and the destruction of all life in the Galaxy.

    Now I am a silent participant in the first meeting between the BLUE and RED ZOIDS. But it is the war-machine SPIDERZOID who first discovers the existtence of the RED ZOIDS wheen he is attacked by HELLRUNNER!

HELLRUNNER. Famed among the ZOIDS for his speed of attack and withdrawal. Few ZOIDS can match the swiftness of his attack. Few except for SPIDERZOID, fastest of all ZOIDS.

SPIDERZOIDS returns the fire, shattering HELLRUNNER's legs beneath him. And before HELLRUNNER can even hit the ground, SPIDERZOID is moving, speeding away to warn the rest of the BLUE ZOIDS of this strange new menace.

    "ZRK! TROOPERZOID! SCORPOZOID! The RED ZOIDS are coming. We must unite our forces to defeat them!

    It is ZRK who replies. "I am the invincible ZRK. Only the MIGHTY ZOIDZILLA can stand against me. I will fight these RED ZOIDS."

    But as ZRK turns to face his new foes, the sound of a laser blast rings out. ZRK takes a direct hit to his head, his android pilot is dislodged and he is completely immobilised. It is a dark day for the BLUE ZOIDS when one of their champions is so easily defeated.

    Only on among the RED ZOIDS has the ifrepower to secure ZRK's destruction in one shot.

    "REDHORN THE TERRIBLE. Imperial leader of the RED ZOIDS."

    For the BLUE ZOIDS, there is no escape. They must stand and fight as the war-machines o REDHORN stream to attack.

    And though REDHORN is powerful enough by himself, there is another whose presence may well turn the tide of the battle against the BLUE ZOIDS.

    "The Traitor, MAMMOTH the DESTROYER" -- once a BLUE ZOID, now a follower of REDHORN -- brings his terrible power to bear on his former allies.

    The BLUE ZOIDS have only one hope now. Their leader, Mighty ZOIDZILLA must join the fray. For only through ZOIDZILLA's matchless strength can the BLUE ZOIDS hope to survive.

It is the never ending battle between RED and BLUE ZOIDS. It has been waged for centuries. It rages still, with no end in sight...

"I, the Namer, Last of the ZOIDARYANS, Guardian of the Names of Power, Keeper of the Legend of Heroic Combat, Have Spoken."