Directorate Officer
Image Source: I modified an image of Spartan Game's Terran Alliance APC concept art
Intent: To create a modern APC for the Republic Army
Development Thread: None
Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
Model: LLV-1 Myrmidon Armored Personnel Carrier
Affiliation: Galactic Republic
Modularity: Internal cargo bay
Production: Mass
Material: Ferroceramic plating, Alusteel frame and underbody, various common motor vehicle parts
Role: Armored Personnel Carrier, Armored Transport
Height: 2.5 meters
Length: 7 meters
Width: 3 meters
Weight: 12 tons
Minimum Crew: 1 (Driver)
Optimal Crew: 2 (Driver, Commander/Gunner)
Propulsion: Wheels
Top Speed: 175 kph
Armaments (mounted in same turret):
1 knockoff copy of MM-s3 Grenade Launcher
1 Light Repeating Blaster
Squadron Count: 4
Passenger Capacity: 9 fully equipped infantry or other equivalent
Cargo Capacity: 1 LLT-5 Firewind Automated Emplacement, various personal equipment and small spare parts
Misc. Equipment:
-reinforced bumpers
-Power winch (as seen on front bumper)
-environmentally sealed cabin
-Trailer hitch
Strengths:
-Fast
-Economical
Weaknesses:
-weak weaponry
-not as adept as dealing with terrain compared to walkers or repulsorcraft
-Vehicle must significantly slow down to safely make turns
Description: The LLV-1 Myrmidon Armored Personnel Carrier is designed to carry a squad of Republic infantry and their support equipment into battle and then support them with mobile weapons fire. In order to make the carrier widespread across the Republic, much of the design is focused on making it affordable yet rugged, and for this, the Myrmidon turns to fuse many older technologies into an effective, economical platform.
The core of the chassis design is actually based on the prodigious and ancient KDY HavW Juggernaut series, but scaled down from a reinforced platoon to only a single squad of soldiers. While Lucerne Labs have not been able to fully replicate the Juggernaut’s 200 kph top speed with the Myrmidon, the carrier’s speed is still relatively fast, allowing it to speed through battlefields to deliver its troops to vital spots and generally outrun anything that can easily destroy it (which is most ground vehicles, and many heavily armed troops). Still, the Myrmidon rarely nears its top speed because of terrain, and the need for slower speeds to safely make turns and other maneuvers. While the drive train and engines are similar to the Juggernaut, the wheels are not. Each is self-inflating, incorporates run-flat design features, and beadlocks (all features found on the real-life Stryker APC) making the Myrmidon more adaptable to rough terrain than its predecessors, though it is still far inferior in transversing rough terrain compared to repulsorcraft or even walkers. Rather than run on a generator, the motor of the Myrmidon runs on a Hydrogen-Oxygen Fuel cell, which makes it relatively cheap to run, albeit it does not provide the long-term power like many contemporary generators do. This limits the Myrmidon’s range to 500 kilometers before refueling and also does not allow the vehicle to use any power hungry weapons. Consequently, it is not unusual for Myrmidon’s on long-range missions to pull trailers behind them carrying extra fuel, though this severely hampers their speed and maneuverability. This trailer hitch can also be used to pull other trailers, which are usually simple cargo trailers carrying extra supplies or being improvised to quickly ferry people around. But typically, every attempt is made to carry things internally first in order to better protect it.
The Myrmidon uses a durable alusteel frame armored with ferroceramic plates to provide reasonable protection against most light to medium weapons, such as light blaster cannons and typical hand-held grenades. All of windows of the Myrmidon are made out of ceraglass, which provides similarly adequate, but not stellar, protection against most handheld weapons. The Myrmidon is not a tank however, and cannot stand up against heavier weapons carried by most tanks or starfighters, or anti-tank weapons. Its best defense in those cases is either its escorts, or to simply get out of harm’s way. As part of that philosophy, the Myrmidon has reinforced front and rear bumpers, which allow the Myrmidon to push through light obstacles that might otherwise be in its way (such as crates, barrels, smaller civilian vehicles, thin sheet metal, etc), though it cannot be expected to go through duracrete walls or barriers or to ram and damage most combat vehicles. If it would attempt such a maneuver, the Myrmidon would almost certainly be much more heavily damaged than its target. For obstacles that too large or strong to move with its bumper, such as felled trees laying across roads, the Myrmidon can sometimes move them with its bumper-mounted power winch. This winch can also be use to pull other Myrmidons and vehicles out when they get stuck in mud, snow drifts, and other similar predicaments. Because the Myrmidon is expected to be deployed across the galaxy, the APC also sports a environmentally sealed crew cabin and an environmentally sealed passenger/cargo bay, allowing the APC to operate in vacuum and up to Type IV atmospheres. Consequently, the Myrmidon sports a miniaturized life support system commonly found on starfighters. People and cargo exit the Myrmidon through a pair of doors located at the rear of the vehicle.
The Myrmidon sports a remotely operated turret just behind the driver and vehicle commander’s seats, which the vehicle commander operates. It contains two weapons, a light repeating blaster and a grenade launcher designed to provide squad level fire support to its passengers once they dismount. The light repeating blaster (like the Blastech T-21 stormtroopers carried) defends the vehicle against enemy infantry and incoming projectiles, such as incoming proton torpedoes. It is utterly ineffective against the lightest combat vehicles aside from perhaps a speeder bike or swoop. The grenade launcher, a copy of the venerable Merr-Sonn MM-s3, typically fires fragmentation grenades to assault enemy positions or target clumps of enemy infantry. The weapons’ barrels are linked, which do not allow them to move independently of each other. This makes it more cost-effective and simple, but also limits flexibility of the weapon systems, often forcing embattled Myrmidon commanders to make some hard choices.
While the Myrmidon is not as flashy as a speeder bike or as powerful as a tank, it’s the workhouse that keeps the Republic Army moving, bringing troops and supplies up to battle front. Myrmidon’s are generally cheap enough that they’re commonly found even on Republic worlds without a strong military presence, sometimes seeing use as riot vehicles or local SWAT team transports. This is in keeping with its ancestry of the HavW Juggernaut series, which often found itself just as often serving in local defense units as with mainstream militaries. In the mainstream Republic army, Myrmidons typically operate in groups of four, making up a single mechanized infantry platoon.
