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The early morning sun sparkled off the dew like white-hot sparks as a monster stomped past. With dull navy scales and fiery orange eyes, it slunk through a short copse of trees, frightening small animals as it went. Long sail plates rattled on the thing's back, from the base of its neck to the base of its tail, dark copper and inscribed with various hieroglyphs that seemed to have run off the spines in places. Crossing into a clearing (and scaring some deer to boot) it paused for a moment, as if it had forgotten what it had gone there to do. It remembered soon enough though, and planted its feet to stand tall and scream dramatically at the sky. The sound rang across the landscape for several seconds, before the director hopped out of the camera crew's jeep screaming "Cut!"
The 'monster' lowered its head, and its skull seemed to split open around the top, the seam disguised cleverly with a ridged brow and the exaggerated scale pattern. Moira had to say she was impressed: the special effects team had really outdone themselves this time. Shame she never really had the opportunity to appreciate it when it was in motion - had to be a pretty spectacular sight.
She strolled over to the jeep in time to hear the tail-end of a conversation: "... with Moira, we'll get some nice shots in before the end of the day." He looked up with something of a startled expression when he noticed that she was standing behind the open door of the jeep, looking through the window. He recovered it pretty well though.
"Ah, speak of the devil. Moira, if you go with the camera guys we'd like to get some photographs of Serravyrn before we go today."
Moira gave him a grin and a thumbs-up before she turned to go back to the Spino Sapper, "Gotcha!"
Soon enough, the Zoid was thundering through the forest again, after the vehicle where the camera crew balanced with their kit. Moira lowered the Spino's head so that it was almost level with the vehicle, and her monster opened its jaws wide for a snarling screech. It was completely pointless, of course: photographs couldn't carry sound, but to hell with that - if nothing else, it was great fun. Not for the first time, Moira reflected on how great her job was. Sure, she could barely survive on the wage they were paying her, but somehow getting to play with a life-size action figure made it completely worthwhile. And besides, things were looking up - she'd finally found somewhere to battle that'd pay her more than just enough to keep her zoid sort-of maintained.
After a little while of chasing the jeep and making the zoid roar, a message came through that the photographer wanted to do some still shots. That was fine, although as Moira looked around the area where they'd stopped, she noticed that they were by a road. And not just a country road - an honest-to-goodness highway. One that was... Oddly deserted. Well, that wasn't so unusual, Moira supposed. Highway or not, they were still solidly in the middle of nowhere. And besides, the photographer would only want a few pictures here. They'd be long gone before anybody showed up to make it a problem. Probably.
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The 'monster' lowered its head, and its skull seemed to split open around the top, the seam disguised cleverly with a ridged brow and the exaggerated scale pattern. Moira had to say she was impressed: the special effects team had really outdone themselves this time. Shame she never really had the opportunity to appreciate it when it was in motion - had to be a pretty spectacular sight.
She strolled over to the jeep in time to hear the tail-end of a conversation: "... with Moira, we'll get some nice shots in before the end of the day." He looked up with something of a startled expression when he noticed that she was standing behind the open door of the jeep, looking through the window. He recovered it pretty well though.
"Ah, speak of the devil. Moira, if you go with the camera guys we'd like to get some photographs of Serravyrn before we go today."
Moira gave him a grin and a thumbs-up before she turned to go back to the Spino Sapper, "Gotcha!"
Soon enough, the Zoid was thundering through the forest again, after the vehicle where the camera crew balanced with their kit. Moira lowered the Spino's head so that it was almost level with the vehicle, and her monster opened its jaws wide for a snarling screech. It was completely pointless, of course: photographs couldn't carry sound, but to hell with that - if nothing else, it was great fun. Not for the first time, Moira reflected on how great her job was. Sure, she could barely survive on the wage they were paying her, but somehow getting to play with a life-size action figure made it completely worthwhile. And besides, things were looking up - she'd finally found somewhere to battle that'd pay her more than just enough to keep her zoid sort-of maintained.
After a little while of chasing the jeep and making the zoid roar, a message came through that the photographer wanted to do some still shots. That was fine, although as Moira looked around the area where they'd stopped, she noticed that they were by a road. And not just a country road - an honest-to-goodness highway. One that was... Oddly deserted. Well, that wasn't so unusual, Moira supposed. Highway or not, they were still solidly in the middle of nowhere. And besides, the photographer would only want a few pictures here. They'd be long gone before anybody showed up to make it a problem. Probably.
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