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Chapter 1: Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Written by Lance Way
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Game Information:
Year: 1996
System: Sega Saturn
Genre: Rail Shooter
Creator: Team Andromeda
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Plot Synopsis:
Although Panzer Dragoon Zwei is the second game in the series, its storyline is set before the events depicted in the first Panzer Dragoon game...
Opening Sequence
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| There existed many quiet, independent villages out in the wastelands of the Frontier, and the young man called Jean Jacque Lundi was a resident of one of them. A major source of his village's livelihood was the breeding of Coolias; these creatures were one of the few kinds of mutated monster that could be tamed by humans, and they were consequently used throughout the Frontier as riding animals and beasts of burden.
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| The village had been troubled for some time by strange mutations in its young Coolia pups though, as occasionally a pup would be born with a glowing green light in its throat. The superstitious villagers genuinely feared this light, believing it to be a bad omen; they had thus been putting all Coolias born with this mutation to death. |
 
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| Lundi saw this killing as cruel, however. When a mutant Coolia pup was born into his care, he chose not to destroy it, but instead he hid it away from the other villagers. His Coolia also had another abnormal mutation, one which particularly enthralled him: the Coolia, which he named Lagi, had a pair of wings.
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| Completely unknown to Lundi, this Coolia had become the host of the Heresy Program, the renegade entity that had been ejected out of the ancient Sestren data network into the physical world. The unique mutations in Lagi's body were the Heresy Program's doing; they were also just the start of an intended growth process.
A year passed.
The Empire was once again expanding its lands by invading other nations, and its current goal was to conquer the Meccania Federation, a large nation-state whose borders were not far from Lundi's village.
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| The Empire discovered that an enormous airship from the Ancient Age had recently appeared in this region; its origins were a complete mystery to them, though. As they moved against the Meccania Federation, the Imperials sent some of their battleships out to investigate the vessel, always eager to acquire new and more powerful technologies.
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| The Empire was quite unaware of the true nature of this "ancient ship", though. The vessel - which would later be named Shelcoof - was in fact a flying Tower, one of the global regulators created by the Ancients. Shelcoof's reactivation was the work of the Sestren AI, which had detected the Heresy Program in the Coolia that Lundi had been raising; it knew that the creature had to be destroyed before it could become a threat.
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In the months that had passed, Lagi had grown to adulthood; because of his wings though, he looked more akin to the image of the legendary dragon than a grown Coolia. This was no coincidence: the dragon was the ultimate bio-engineered creature created by the Ancients, and it was the physical form that the Heresy Program was striving towards as it manipulated Lagi's genetics.
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| One evening, Lundi was out with Lagi in the secrecy of the hills beyond his village; Lundi was attempting to teach Lagi to use his wings to fly, as he had often tried to do. This time however, it seemed as if he might succeed - clumsily, Lagi's wings managed to lift him off the ground for a brief moment. Lundi did not have a chance to celebrate though, as without warning a blinding flash of light engulfed his field of vision.
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| When the light cleared, Lundi looked down upon the ruins of his village. The place where he had lived for so long now burned beneath him, with the immense form of Shelcoof hovering slowly overhead; the village had been annihilated by the destructive force of the flying Tower.
As if in anger, Lagi finally revealed what the ominous light in his throat signified, and he breathed forth a volley of lasers that spiralled through the air towards the departing Tower. The beams faded in the spaces between Lagi and the great craft, but their implication was clear: Lagi was a dragon now, ready to set out on the mission that the Heresy Program had given him.
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| The dragon and its rider were alone; together they descended towards the ruins of the village, both seeking the destruction of the flying Tower.
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Episode 1
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| Night had closed in by the time the pair reached the bottom of the slopes, and near the entrance to the wasted village Lundi noticed a gun from the Ancient Age lying in the dust; he picked it up as he and Lagi passed, knowing that he would need a weapon for the battle to come.
With volleys from this gun and bursts of lasers, the pair fought their way through the lesser pure-type monsters that Shelcoof had unleashed. It seemed that there were no survivors to be found in the village however, as only scorched ruins and lingering fires remained.
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| The pair fought their way towards Shelcoof itself - Lagi desiring to fulfil the mission that had been given to him, and Lundi desiring only vengeance. Shelcoof was equipped to protect itself against greater things than Lagi, though; as the pair at last neared the flying Tower they were confronted by the dragon that was its protector. This creature, known only as the Guardian Dragon, was one of the most immensely powerful bio-engineered creatures that the Ancients had ever crafted. It was clear that Lagi would be no match for it, and the pair wisely fled the battlefield.
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Episode 2
An outpost of the Meccania Federation was located in the canyons beyond the village, and as Lundi and Lagi travelled through this area they found themselves in the middle of the Empire's planned invasion. The pair were fired upon from all sides as they passed through the chaos of the war zone, and Lundi and Lagi had to destroy many Imperial ships in order to escape with their lives.
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| The pair succeeded in descending from the mountain canyons to the wasteland beyond, but there they were confronted by an enormous Imperial battleship. Lagi's power did not fail him though, and he came out of the battle victorious; not only that, but when all was safe he underwent a physical metamorphosis, subtly changing his shape and becoming more powerful. This was only the first of many transformations that Lagi would undergo in the time to come, and he would become a more powerful kind of dragon with each successive change.
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Episode 3
Believing that they were being chased by an approaching squadron of Imperial ships, Lundi took Lagi on a detour through a vast and verdant forest. The Empire was really pursuing Shelcoof however, blinded by the unimaginable power that it represented. The forest was not the safe alternative that Lundi had hoped for either, as it swarmed with Imperial fighter ships and the hordes of pure-type monsters that Shelcoof had released as it passed.
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| The enormous worm-like mutated monsters that dwelled in the forest burrowed out of the earth and the undergrowth to attack the dragon, and a massive pure-type monster called a Golia gave chase to Lundi and Lagi, presenting the greatest threat that they had faced so far. Finally managing to destroy the creature, the pair escaped into the mouth of a ruined structure from the Ancient Age.
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Episode 4
The endless tunnels and passageways of the ruin complex led ever downwards, their twisting course taking Lundi and Lagi deep beneath the earth. Most floors of the structure were deep in water, and the pure-type monsters that the Ancients had left behind as sentinels thousands of years ago still guarded this flooded labyrinth. The pure-types awoke and gave chase as the pair flew past, spitting lasers at the intruders that had disturbed their slumber.
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| In the depths of the ruins Lundi and Lagi found an unimaginably vast chamber, a room that cradled a lake between its ancient walls. It was here that they disturbed the greater guardian of the ruins, a hideous pure-type monstrosity that lurked beneath the dark waters; only after a great struggle were they able to escape the ruins with their lives.
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Episode 5
The ruins led all the way to the great inland sea of Georgius, where Lundi and Lagi again caught sight of Shelcoof. Gliding over the strange crystalline formations that littered the surface of the water, the pair relentlessly pursued the flying Tower as it moved ever onwards.
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| Legions of pure-type monsters had been deployed by the Tower as it passed, and one by one they rose out of the icy waters to attack the dragon. Lagi's powers had grown considerably though, and the pair successfully battled their way to the flying Tower itself.
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Episode 6
In the ensuing battle Lagi swooped over, inside and around the enormous craft, annihilating the swarms of pure-type monsters that populated it. Drawing close to the front of the vessel, the pair were even able to destroy half of Shelcoof's main Float Engines.
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| The flying Tower was an immensely powerful and well-defended structure though, and it would clearly take more and greater force to really bring it down. Lundi and Lagi also had a more immediate concern, as the Guardian Dragon had disappeared into a cocoon-like pod on Shelcoof's underside; they laid siege to the pod, and even as they were forcibly breaking the Guardian Dragon out it spewed waves of lasers at them.
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Last Episode
The Guardian Dragon that emerged from the pod was almost a different creature entirely, as Shelcoof had augmented it with massive amounts of armour and weaponry, clearly in an attempt to annihilate Lundi and Lagi. As the Guardian Dragon readied itself for battle, Lagi also underwent one last metamorphosis of his own; he took on the physical form that would one day be called the Solo Wing, the ultimate form of the dragon.
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| The final battle took place above the open sea, with the morning sun piercing through the thick clouds. The Guardian Dragon was immensely powerful, and it unleashed laser and missile weapons of all kinds at the pair, even resorting to physically ramming Lagi with its massive armour-plated body. Despite all its enhancements though, the Guardian Dragon could not match what Lagi had become. The ancient monster fought on even after its armour had crumbled away, and in the end it could not help but be destroyed; the Guardian Dragon fell into the waves before exploding in a cascade of light.
Ending Sequence
With the Guardian Dragon eliminated, Lagi could finally attempt to destroy Shelcoof itself. He encased Lundi in a sphere of protective energy and ascended into the flying Tower, leaving him behind.
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| Many strange visions and revelations washed over Lundi while he was in the energy bubble. It seemed that the dragon had some limited powers of prophecy, and it was able to give its rider a few brief glimpses of what would come to pass in later days.
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| The nature of the dragon was finally revealed to Lundi; he understood its desire to destroy the Towers, because the dragon also revealed to him what they truly were. He understood now why the Towers were created, saw that they were instruments of oppression made to subdue the peoples of the world. Lundi understood that their destruction was essential in order for humankind to be truly free.
When Lundi returned to consciousness he found himself sitting on the dusty land once more, with the immense form of Shelcoof looming wrecked and broken before his eyes. Lundi ventured into the ruined vessel, hoping to find Lagi still alive; the inside of the immense craft was a labyrinth of corridors and enormous, echoing chambers through which he walked on and on, listening to the absolute silence of the fallen Tower.
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| In time, Lundi found the dragon that had been his friend. Lagi's body was cold and lifeless, exhausted from the effort of destroying the Tower: but Lundi knew that Lagi was not as dead as that still form implied.
In a vast chamber at Shelcoof's heart, Lundi had already seen the truth. As he stood alone in the endless spaces between those walls, his gaze had been drawn to something: a massive engraving of a dragon that was mounted high on the ancient wall, an artefact known by some as a dragon crest. As Lundi watched, the throat of the carven dragon began to glow with the same beautiful green light that had once dwelled within Lagi's throat.
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| Lundi knew that the spirit of his friend lived on, that it resided safely within that artefact. Lagi slumbered, peaceful and at rest: waiting for the far-off day when he would return to the sky.
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