Welcome to Gaia! ::

The tensions between the nations had reached its peak. The only thing that was required for it all to spill over was one kicker. One little thing that would break everything out into a new world war. It had been building up and begging to happen. That one little thing that would send the whole world into chaos again.

Then they did it. Zenebas Empire set out on a project to create an animal-shaped robot for the perfect fighting machine. They had all of their best scientists working on the project to make it work. To make it better. To make it kill.
Little did they know that once they perfected their manned weapon of mass destruction that they would achieve the thing that the world had been holding its breath for. The next world war.

The neighboring countries scrambled desperately to copy the technology as fast as they humanly could. They had all found a single model to perfect the wiring and everything as such, and they designed separate models after that to be mass produced within many "Top secret" factories across their nation. They were desperately attempting to be the defensive, it just took them some time to figure out who exactly the offensive was going to be.

Many referred to these creatures that they were creating as, "Zoids," for that was the top-secret name that had seemingly leaked out to the public. Leaving their marks upon the great machines, each nation had an identification letter before the common Z, as to prevent mass friendly-fire. Such as, the Empire had their mark, EZ and the Republic dubbed their?s RZ. These Zoids were the beginning and end to a war that raged for 12 years. Many men and women died, and just the same, many of these Zoids Were left in pieces littering the landscape.
Once the world lay spent trying to lick its collective wounds and declare themselves righteous in their actions, the Zoids that were left merely seemed to... Disappear. They were not disassembled, or even hidden away, but rather put in a sort of stasis within a capsule that repaired them. New technology that was found during the time of war.

These Zoids were still battling machines, and slowly as high bidders began to buy them, they were mass produced once more. Pilots with the Empire and Republic were trained how to wield them to their best abilities, and they were a great deal what new-age entertainment became. People would watch, fascinated, at the battles that would be wrought between the machines, root for their favorites, and always boo their opponents. It became like football with giant machines.
Slowly the craze died down, but the true machines did not. The pilots became their own entity. Their own community. They still battled with one another, but not for fans, but for rank. Rank within their teams. Within their community. Rank within the Zoids to bring honor to the machine that they had learned to wield as a competent fighter.