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Chapter 2: Panzer Dragoon
Written by Lance Way
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Game Information:
Year: 1995
System: Sega Saturn
Genre: Rail Shooter
Creator: Team Andromeda
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Plot Synopsis:
Despite this being the first game in the series, the plot of Panzer Dragoon is set long after the events of Panzer Dragoon Zwei; overall, this story is the second part of the series' greater storyline.
It was roughly eighteen years after the events of Panzer Dragoon Zwei that the Sestren AI relocated the Heresy Program, the renegade entity that had been ejected from the Ancient Age data network. The Sestren AI once again responded by activating one of the world's ancient Towers, with the intention of annihilating the Heresy Program once and for all.
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| This particular Tower protruded from the ocean off the coast of the Empire's capital city, and it had recently been discovered by the Empire itself. The Tower's guardian - known as the Dark Dragon - was also awakened, although its place of slumber was far away; the terrible creature had a long journey ahead of it.
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Opening Sequence
Out in the endless wastelands of the world many humans have lived and still live as nomads, surviving by hunting the mutated monsters that roam the lands. Kyle Fluge was one such hunter, and one day while he and his companions were out riding in the desert, they were surprised to see an Imperial battleship pass over the canyon they were in.
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| They did not have much time to ponder why a ship would be flying alone in this area though, as they were soon attacked by a group of large, mutated sand mites called Burrowers. Determined to stop the last beast from escaping, Kyle followed it all the way to the canyon's end: where the entrance to an Ancient Age structure stood open, yawning out of the sandy rock that had consumed the ruin.
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| Venturing inside, Kyle found the ruins silent and inactive. He eventually stumbled across the carcass of the Burrower however, as the creature had been killed by an enormous pure-type monster. This beast crushed the Coolia that Kyle had been riding, and it pursued him into the ruins; unfortunately for Kyle, the monster was impervious to the relatively primitive hunter's weapons that he was carrying. Finding himself cornered by the beast, it seemed that Kyle was finished.
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| To Kyle's surprise though, he was saved at the last second when a collapse of rock from the ceiling crushed the monster to death. Looking up, Kyle saw two dragons dive through the hole blown in the ceiling; one of them was the dragon guided by the Heresy Program, and the other was the Dark Dragon, which was viciously pursuing it. The dragons' battle soon decimated the ruin complex, and Kyle was knocked unconscious during an enormous explosion.
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| When Kyle awoke, he found himself on a high plateau where the wall of the ruin had been blasted away; high above the plain beyond, the dragons were duelling in the open sky.
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| The dragon guided by the Heresy Program had a rider at this time, an individual known as the Sky Rider, although very little has ever been revealed about this mysterious character. As with all of the riders though, he was deeply motivated to help his dragon fulfil its purpose. Taking various pieces of evidence into account, it seems almost certain that the Sky Rider was a Drone, one of the humanoid bio-engineered creatures that were created long ago in the Ancient Age.
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| In the heat of battle the Sky Rider was distracted for one brief moment, and because of this he received a fatal laser blast through his chest: his adventure, whatever it had truly been, came to an end. The Dark Dragon flew away, heading ever onwards towards its destination: the Tower off the Imperial coastline.
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| The Sky Rider's dragon lowered itself onto the plateau before Kyle, and the wounded Sky Rider reached out his hand to the young hunter. In the same way that Lagi showed Lundi glimpses of the future at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, the Sky Rider imparted a psychic vision to Kyle, asking him to take his place, to prevent the Dark Dragon from returning to the Tower. The Sky Rider then fell to the dusty ground, lifeless; the dragon let out a piercing cry of sorrow.
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| Taking up the Sky Rider's ancient weapon, Kyle knew what he must do. Climbing aboard the creature's back, Kyle ascended into the clear sky, determined to help the dragon fulfil its mission.
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Episode 1
Beyond the parched desert lands a vast body of water opened up, and Kyle and the dragon flew out over the waves. Soon they found themselves passing through a mysterious sunken city, a sprawling ruin that continued to crumble into the waves even as they watched. The place was populated by various kinds of mutated monsters, strange species that had descended from the bio-engineered creatures of the Ancient Age.
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| Kyle and the dragon entered the flooded halls of a great ruined building, but without warning the structure was blasted apart by the Imperial battleship that Kyle had seen flying over the desert. Presumably the Empire was searching for the dragon, eager to harness the immense power that it represented; the ship violently attacked them, but, armed with the superior combat abilities of the dragon, Kyle was able to destroy the hostile ship and escape with his life.
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Episode 2
Over dry land again, the familiar desert of the world stretched out to the edge of vision. This arid region also swarmed with all manner of mutated monsters, including a species of enormous and ravenous sandworms.
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| It was in this desert that Kyle first caught up with the Dark Dragon, and the two dragons engaged in vicious combat amidst the writhing sandstorms. The Dark Dragon took many hits, but unfortunately it was able to boost away and vanish into the distance before Kyle and the dragon could really damage it; their mission was destined to continue.
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Episode 3
Kyle's pursuit took him through an Imperial excavation site in the depths of night; these excavations were the source of the Empire's technology, and they had sites like this one throughout the Continent. Floodlights picked out a multitude of Ancient Age ruins and relics embedded in the rock faces all around.
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| Upon sighting the dragon, the Empire again tried to take it down by force. This time Kyle was facing much more than just a single battleship though, as a small fleet was stationed at the site, and mounted artillery rained gunfire on the dragon as it passed. A massive Imperial combat vessel was also waiting for them there, a monstrosity that hovered through the air on helicopter-like engines and bounded along on massive hydraulic legs. After a considerable battle the dragon succeeded in downing the vessel, and with Imperial fighter ships still in close pursuit, the creature dived into the open mouth of the Ancient Age ruin itself.
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Episode 4
The ruin complex was a dark and ancient labyrinth; ageing machinery waited silently within its walls, and its passages and corridors stretched deep below the surface of the world. The Imperial fighter ships followed Kyle and the dragon for some time, swarming through the darkness and spraying gunfire at the pair. As Kyle descended further into the tunnels though, the pure-type monsters that the Ancients had left behind as sentinels began to awaken.
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| Deep below the surface, Kyle's presence disturbed an enormous flying guardian from the Ancient Age. The massive creature's armour was completely immune to his dragon's lasers, and Kyle had to rely on his own skill with the ancient handgun that he wielded in order to overcome this bio-engineered monstrosity. Soon after the battle, the Dark Dragon sped out of the shadows behind Kyle and his dragon; they rushed after the creature, reaching the end of the ruins and bursting into the sky above a vast forest.
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Episode 5
The verdant forest stretched out as far as the eye could see, from horizon to horizon. Kyle and the dragon were nearing the heart of the Empire now, and most of the Imperial fleet had been dispatched to intercept them and take them down.
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| Kyle had to fight his way through waves of small fighters and many larger airships above the trees, and the ordeal culminated in a confrontation with the flagship of the fleet itself, a vessel that was practically a flying fortress. Unfortunately for the Empire though, even this monstrous ship could not rival the power of the dragon; it could not stop the creature from continuing its quest.
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Episode 6
The last obstacle between the dragon and the Tower was the Imperial Capital itself; this city was the heart of the Empire, an overcrowded metropolis that stretched out along vast and murky waterways beneath a contaminated sky.
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| The Tower had become fully active by now, and the hordes of pure-type monsters that had slept within its walls for millennia had been unleashed. These creatures laid waste to the Imperial city, carrying out their ancient duty of reducing human populations by force. This bio-engineered army - along with the remnants of the Imperial fleet, and the Dark Dragon itself - fired upon Kyle from all sides as he sped down the waterways of the city.
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Last Episode
Kyle and his dragon did reach the Tower eventually, but they were just a little too late. The Dark Dragon was able to enter the structure, and the ancient monolith increased its power dramatically; the monster emerged with masses of armour and weaponry grafted onto its body, clearly ready to face Kyle and his dragon once and for all.
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| The dragons' battle raged beneath the brooding sky and above the boundless, darkened ocean. The Dark Dragon's lasers cut through the air around its foe but Kyle's shots and the dragon's lasers repeatedly hit home; the Dark Dragon's great armoured body eventually took so much damage that the armour crystallised, crumbling off into the dark waters to reveal the creature itself.
The Dark Dragon fought on, but Kyle and his dragon were ultimately able to defeat their nemesis. For a moment, the Dark Dragon hung in the air before them; swinging its great head close to Kyle's body it let out a screech of anger, then fell lifeless into the ocean.
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Ending Sequence
With all opposition eliminated, the dragon descended into the Tower itself. Kyle found himself sealed inside a protective sphere of energy, as Lundi was all those years ago; leaving him behind, the dragon went alone into the depths of the ancient structure. The resulting explosion of light and sound tore Kyle's consciousness away from him.
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| When Kyle awoke he found himself alone, laying on the edge of the ocean with the sound of the waves in his ears. The dragon was nowhere to be seen - but familiar footprints in the sand told him that it did bid farewell to its loyal rider.
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