HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a large combat transport that can fill role similar to the canon Juggernaut Tanks
- Image Source: DeviantArt, Sandcrawler by JBarrero link here
- Canon Link: Sandcrawler
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: RC-2 Miniguns, Abregado Combat Shield
- Manufacturer: Abregado Guild of Hammers, Metal Lords
- Model: Frigate-class Medium Landship
- Affiliation: Closed-Market, Metal Lords, FWC, GA, Firemane, ARGH
- Modularity: N/A
- Production: Minor
- Material: Duranium Armored Plates and Hull, Durasteel Interior, Inner Bronzium Decorations, Standard Vehicle Components
- Classification:: Threaded Tank/Sandcrawler
- Role: Troop and Cargo Transport
- Size: Large
- Weight: Heavy
- Minimum Crew: Team of 3 in the cockpit
- Optimal Crew: Team of 6 in the cockpit, along with a squad of gunners manning various gun emplacements
- Propulsion: Tracks
- Speed: Very Fast ~200 km/h
- Maneuverability: Very Low
- Armaments: Very Low Couple of frontal Heavy Laser Cannons, 6x RC-2 Miniguns (3 on each side)
- Defenses: Very High Thick Duranium Tank-Grade Armored Plates, Vehicle-Grade Abregado Combat Shield
- Squadron Count: Very Low: 4
- Passenger Capacity: 300 passengers or 600 drones
- Cargo Capacity: Extreme supplies and a squadron of vehicles for support
- Abregado Combat Shields- Vehicle variant of Abregado Combat Shield, able to take up to six anti-vehicle energy shots based on their intensity, deflect or slow down up to three physical anti-vehicle shots, and protect from electrical, ionic, and a single electromagnetic pulse attack.
- Armor Plates- Thick duranium tank-grade plates sitting on a strong duranium skeleton offer plenty of protection to the drone, and the ammunition it carries. The armor can even resist lightsabers to a degree, the weapons will still cut and pierce through it, but do so slowly due to its thickness and density. These plates are thicker and wider on its front limbs and around its barrel, creating cover for soldiers to hide behind.
- Transport Racks- These weaponized sandcrawlers come built with internal transport racks which have been used by Metal Lord and ARGH designs previously to move large numbers of drone soldiers collapsed down into compact form to occupy half the space needed compared to normal organic soldier.
- Climate Control- One of the special features of these vehicles, incorporated from older sandcrawler designs, are climate controls that keep atmosphere and temperature within the holds of these large transports as comfortable. This has been improved to extend not only to desert climates but those of harsh frozen worlds and even lava planets as well.
- Cargo Hold- These vehicles have been built with complex layering cargo hold layout, maximizing the usable surface area just as in the design of Metal Lord Space Hulk freighters, able to carry large amount of supplies or weapons to the front or between bases.
- Tough Armor- these landships are clad in tough Duranium armor tank-grade armor plates and further reinforced by Abregado Combat Shields which grant them further resistance against ionic and electrical attacks. As such they are very tough vehicles, able to take plenty of punishment before their hull is penetrated or they are otherwise disabled.
- Freighter- The biggest advantage of these vehicles are their ability to act as a troop and cargo transport, carrying large amount of soldiers, whether organic or mechanical, supplies and weaponry to back them, and even a squadron of smaller vehicles inside for support.
- High Speed- due to advanced threads and engines these sandcrawlers can reach top speeds comparable, and even succeeding, than the speed of other troop transports, like the Imperial and Republic Juggernaut tanks. Often these are used to close down distances between bases quickly or to charge down enemy positions, trenches especially, and ram through them to deploy their soldiers at or behind enemy lines.
- Climate Control- the advanced climate controls built into this vehicle's hold allows it to protect the soldiers and supplies inside from a variety of atmospheric effects and dangers, including heat from desert of lava planets, sand or ash storms, and the cold of frozen worlds, it could even be atmospherically sealed to prevent poisonous gases from seeping inside or travel through vacuum.
- Weak armament- compared to most vehicles its size this landship class has few armaments, its strongest weapons are a couple of heavy laser cannons, similar to those found on AT-AT walkers mounted on the front of the vehicle, supported by six RC-2 miniguns to act as mostly anti-infantry weapons mounted on swiveling ports on the vehicle's sides, three on each side, covering its flank. While the front and rear-most miniguns are able to cover the vehicle's front and rear to some extend, even with their fire the crawl's capability for bombardment and anti-armor fire especially at longer range is very limited. Most often these landships are deployed against fortifications and its heavy laser cannons used to demolish walls, emplacements, or trenches while the vehicle charges and rams its way through.
- Big profile- whether it is from side or viewing the machine from front, the landship is a very large target, from the side especially obviously, making it an easy target for long range bombardment, especially when coupled with the vehicle's low maneuverability.
- Low maneuverability- While the crawler can reach high speeds when moving forward, its maneuverability is very lacking, while it can make wide turns in open field very easily to adjust its course when moving between bases, any tight maneuvers in the field of battle, for example moving through streets of a city, would require it to slow down to a creeping crawl, making it an even easier target.
- Bulky- ironically enough one issue with this transport landship is to transport it, a problem encountered with the original counterparts of the landship. Due to the large bulky size special transports have to be created to ferry these vehicles on and off a planet, or they need to be transported down via corvettes or even larger ships. Their size needs to be also considered when dealing with terrain, making them less effective in urban environments, especially rocky mountains, or forests, especially when they can't just charge through knocking down buildings and trees out of their way.
Introduction: As the shadow of the so-called Great Galactic War begun to loom over the Core and even the powers that claimed to be neutral within the conflict there was more pressure for the Metal Lords to developed new technology that could back all their armies and eventually be assimilated into a standing standardized army, not just the feudal security forces they were fielding so far. Especial lack was in the field of armored vehicles for the faction as many of their military industrial companies fist focused on forming and outfitting their own personal armies before addressing their needs as a whole.
Description: One of the projects to address this lack of armored vehicles was development of a line of so-called landships, large multi-turreted tanks that moved around using tracks rather than legs, wheels, or repulsorlifts. The first of this line was the Frigate-class Medium Landship, also called the Crawler or Sandcrawler, due to its resemblance to the Jawa Sandcrawlers found on Tattooine and other planets, as it was heavily based upon those designs. Large and bulky the Frigate-class Landship move around using four different armored track modules underneath is heavily armored body, clad in thick duranium plates and hull, usually rust-bronze or steel-grey, often bearing markings or colors of a regiment or the Metal Lord the ship is serving under. These vehicles are further adorned by numerous turrets, two large ones bearing its heavy laser cannons on the front just below the cockpit viewport line, and three smaller ones on each side, with RC-2 minigun shatterguns mounted on swiveling ports to cover the vehicle's flanks as well as portions of its rear, front, and the skies above. There are also multiple viewing slots found throughout the sides of its body which could be opened from inside, providing an opening through which the soldiers inside could fire, there are also multiple doorways, the main one on the front through which the majority of soldiers can exit at once along with any vehicles held aboard and provide easy access to the crawler's cargo, but there's also a maintenance hatchway on the bottom of the crawler as well as a couple of smaller doorways on the back, usually locked and sealed securely to maintain air pressure inside.
Special Features: The special features aboard the crawler include the Abregado Combat Shield, which grants it another layer of protection and provides resistance against electronic and ionic attacks, especially thick armored plates fashioned out of strong duranium that make up the majority of its defensive capabilities due to the raw protection they provide, the automated transport racks within the crawlers which allow drone soldiers to be held aboard the machine in collapsed compacted state, allowing them to be transported while taking up only roughly half the space an organic group of the same size would take, the climate control aboard the crawler which protects the troops and cargo transported within from harsh weather or other dangerous atmospheric events, and finally, a prominent cargo hold which uses the same complex layout as seen in Space Hulk freighters, optimizing available surface area for cargo containers aboard in order to transport larger numbers of cargo than would be possible on standard haulers of that size.
Strengths: The biggest advantages of this design comes from its defensive capabilities, offering great protection to the troops and cargo held inside from the layer of strong, thick duranium armor it is clad in, further reinforced by its Abregado Combat Shields and from the high speed the crawler can reach as a result of advanced engines powering its multiple tracks, making it very useful at crossing through large distances between bases or fronts, and to charge down enemy emplacements. Another advantage comes form its large cargo hold and passenger capability, able to move 300 passengers or 600 drones, or a mix in between, as well as a squadron of smaller ships within to support the infantry, such as swoop bikes or special drones, as well all the munitions, weaponry, and supplies needed to support the forces carried with it. Moreover, the crawler is built with sophisticated climate control systems, allowing it to protect the soldiers and cargo on board from effects of hostile environments and extreme weather, even on lava or frozen planets.
Weaknesses: Every design has its flaws however, and when it comes to the crawlers, their main drawbacks come from relative lack of potent weaponry when compared to other designs of its size, or smaller. While the landship has multiple swiveling minigun turrets on its flanks, they are mostly anti-infantry and anti-aircraft weapons with only armaments capable of delivering stronger hits being two heavy laser cannons mounted on the front, as these weapons are slower firing its capability for bombardment, especially at larger distances is very limited and most often it is used to hit static targets like fortifications or trenches to clear way for the machine to push through or other forces to push in. Another drawback is lacking maneuverability in the crawler, with its tracks meant to really only correct pathway over large distances rather than maneuver around tight corners or in more claustrophobic environment, so while it can make wide turns just fine, any more immediate turns require it to slow down considerably into an almost literal crawl. This could with its size, and especially large profile, opens up the vehicle as an easy target, since it would not be able to barely move until its turning sequence is complete, and even then, it is rather difficult to miss such a large target. Finally, it is also a very bulky vehicle, making it only suitable in open environments, or those where it can just knock down and level any obstacles in its way, however it is ill advised to field the crawled within dense urban environments, forest planets, or especially rocky mountainous regions.
Conclusion: In conclusion, these medium landships, or weaponized sandcrawlers depending on how you look at it, excel as battering rams, troop and cargo transports, and just grabbing enemy attention. While they suffer in maneuverability, which further makes things problematic due to their large bulky sizes, they have the armor and thick hull to take on all but the most extreme cases of anti-armor bombardment.
