HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To develop a new drone specifically for transporting and deploying infantry
- Image Source: Google image search for canoptek spyders, link here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: Based on previous Herackles models, Utilizes Abregado Combat Shields, Aspis Shield Generators (Gained permission to use it from Firemane [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]), Flamers, Rotary Cannons-1, Rotary Cannons-2, and Mass Drivers-1
- Manufacturer: Abregado Guild of Hammers
- Model: Mechanized Autonomous Combat Unit- Armored Transport / Hover Spider Drones
- Affiliation: Closed Market, ARGH, Firemane, GA
- Modularity: Four different weaponry hard points on the top of the machine as well as a point for a small Aspis shield generator, due to the restrictions of the machine's power unit it can maintain either four RC-2 guns, 2 MD-1 or RC-1 guns, or 1 Aspis generator and 2 RC-2 guns.
- Production: Minor
- Material: Duranium Skeleton and internal hull, Durasteel Body Plates and Components, Electrum Internal Components, Asbestos Insulation Layer, Inner Copper Farraday Cage, Internal Duranium Protection Capsules, Durasteel transport racks and soft leather bound seating harnesses.
- Classification:: Droid Repulsorcraft
- Role: Troop Transport and Support
- Size: height ~5 meters, length ~20 meters, width ~10 meters
- Weight: 1 ton by itself, another 1.5 ton with passengers and cargo
- Minimum Crew: N/A, automated
- Optimal Crew: N/A, automated
- Propulsion: Repulsorlift
- Speed: 100 km/h Average
- Maneuverability: Average
- Armaments: between 2 and 4 RC-2 miniguns or 2 RC-1 or 2 MD-1 as overhead turrets
2 melee pincer claw with built in ARGH Flamers in each claw on front of the machine
- Defenses: High Durasteel vehicle grade armor plates, Duranium skeleton, vehicle variant of Abregado combat shield
- Squadron Count: 2
- Passenger Capacity: 30 passengers or 60 infantry drones carried in special transport racks
- Cargo Capacity: 1 metric ton
- 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.
- Aspis Shield Generators- A modification that replaces Abregado Combat Shield with an Aspis Shield Generator, creating a 50 meter bubble that protects from light orbital bombardment, aircraft strikes, and mortar fire.
- Built-In Communication Systems- Built in short and long range communications systems that allow the drones to exchange data with each other and their commanders almost instantly, also giving them capacity to speak with HK's voice, send text messages, voice recordings, and holo transmissions.
- Sensors and Trackers- Standard package of vehicle grade sensors and trackers to monitor how much weight the drone carries, its current speed, and cycle vision through heat, infrared, and standard as well as augmenting their aim with advanced tracking protocols.
- Armor Plates- Thick durasteel tank-grade plates sitting on a strong duranium skeleton offer plenty of protection to the drone, the troops, and the cargo 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.
- Droid Brain- Instead of a crew the drone is mechanized, giving it slightly better reaction than a crew would have as all of its systems are being coordinated at the same time.
- Versatile Weaponry- Rather than being outfitted with standard weaponry the machine has multiple hardpoints on which weaponry is attached, allowing them to be modified and adopted for the purpose of the mission before deployment depending on what purpose they are supposed to serve.
- Internal Coolants- internal cooling systems that minimize damage from overheating, whether caused by malfunction or technical issues, environmental damage for example heat from a lava planet's surface, or enemy fire based attacks like flamethrowers.
- Kill Switch, Tracking, and Self-Destruction- means of keeping the drones under control, a tracker to keep position of every drone connected to the same commander or command unit, kill switch to remotely deactivate it, and a self-destruction feature in case the machine is captured while still activated. Self-destruction overloads its power units, quickly turning them critical and causing an energy-based explosion, this explosion melts and disintegrates most of the droid's components, leaving behind only scorched metal husk of its skeleton and outer armor plates as well as damaging beings around it similar to a standard tank reactor exploding.
- Augmented Strength- Due to the large pincer claws and strong rotors the machine could easily pick most humanoids and even light vehicles up and throw them around the battlefield.
- Vacuum Sealed- The vital systems of the drone, its droid brain, memory core, processing center, et cetera, have been vacuum sealed within its inner structure, as a result the machine does not receive damage from liquids seeping inside and affecting these systems, for example submerging into water, rain, or napalm.
- Farraday Cage- a copper based defense against electrical and ionic attacks, however due to being built into walls of inner droid structure it only covers vital inner systems like memory core, power units, processing center, et cetera, the muscles and rotors of the droid can still be affected should other protections against such attacks fail.
- Transport Racks- Special transport racks which allow easy and convenient transportation of other drones and Abregado-made droids, they are suspended from the drone's belly and sit between its rows of ribs and side armor. Because the drones and droids fold themselves up into fetal position as they are loaded into the racks, more of them can be carried than conventional infantry.
- Seating Harnesses- The armored ribs of the drone as well as some transport racks can be converted into seats with safety harnesses that allow organic infantry to board the transportation drone and ride along inside it as well, however each organic passenger takes up twice as much space as a drone would.
- Underbelly Cargo Holder- There are also cargo container units on the drone's underbelly, allowing it to carry supplies, ammunition, and equipment with it to resupply troops on the front lines or bring relief to besieged areas of war torn planets.
- Tough Armor and Skeleton- the drone transport is outfitted with tough thick vehicle grade durasteel armor sitting on durable duranium skeleton, corresponding to armor of an armored personnel carrier these plates and skeleton can withstand limited heavy fire such as tank rounds, turbolaser, anti-vehicle shots, and even lightsabers to a reasonable degree. While a lightsaber can cut or pierce through it, it would do so slowly much like cutting through a thick door. On top of that they could be outfitted with additional layer of protection by having Abregado Combat Shields or Aspis Shield Generator installed.
- Versatile- Due to the hardpoint system the weaponry on each transport drone could be switched out before battle to change their configuration and prepare them more efficiently for upcoming battle, making them more versatile than vehicles with a set weapon loadout. The options include RC-1, heavy hypervelocity rotary cannon, RC-2, lighter anti-infantry version, MD-1, anti-armor mass driver cannon, and giving up two weapon hardpoints to have Combat Shields replaced with an Aspis Shield Generator able to protect multiple soldiers at the same time.
- Strong Melee- Because of the machine's large, strong pincers and built-in flamer systems it is a considerable opponent when engaged in melee. Even though his forelimbs seem large, they can move surprisingly quick, swiftly cutting and crushing through the ranks of enemies before them.
- Transport- the biggest strength of the drone comes from the ability to carry other drones, soldiers, and supplies during battle and deploying them quickly, increasing overall maneuverability of ARGH forces by phalanxes quickly being moved around on the underbellies of these drones.
- Average Speed- while it's not the slowest vehicle/droid out there, these transports are slower than smaller APCs, for example the Imperial Hover Transport of all. Still faster than a walking drone they can fulfill their purpose of moving phalanxes around the battlefield faster but they could be outrun and outmaneuvered by other vehicles.
- Drone- Like with Infantry Drones there is a problem of low intelligence controlling the drone's systems, this has been improved slightly to not be as crippling but there are still those signature pauses before following through with next orders and commands. The drone has been programmed to slow down and engage as soon as enemy fire is detected, immediately deploy the drones or soldiers when their combat shields are deactivated, and to prioritize over larger and more heavily armored targets, for example vehicles, over infantry.
- Limited Anchoring- as a repulsorcraft hovering above the ground the transportation drone finds it difficult to anchor themselves and stabilize with means like magnetic anchors or density projectors. While hovering is usually a boon, allowing him to fly over water and otherwise impassable terrain to a degree, it also means that the machine is more vulnerable to being thrown around and manipulated through telekinesis or being pushed back by shock-waves from explosions.
- Limited Electromagnetic Resistance- while the combat shields can absorb a single vehicle-sized electromagnetic pulse, making them more resistant to standard EMP grenades, after that further electromagnetic attacks can temporarily shut the drone down, causing it to fall to the ground and forcing the drones and soldiers to evacuate immediately if they can.
Introduction: As Abregado revised and further developed their drone and war droid models there came a need for a better battle transportations and deployments rather than the previously used dropships and shuttles as they could not get too close to active combat area due to enemy forces and anti-air emplacements interfering with landing and deployment protocols. The answer came in form of new transportation drone MACU-AT, Mechanized Autonomous Combat Unit- Armored Transport, also known as Hover Spiders, a repulsor based hovercraft drone usually deployed in small numbers, often black or grey in color.
Background and Technical Detail: The Armored Transport Drones are heavily based on the Herakles-class drone chassis, previously used by Abregado as construction drones transporting crafting supplies along with swarms of labor droids for manufacturing fortifications, settlement repairs, and fabrication of ships and stations in no gravity setting. The Hover Spiders are much bigger than the previous Herakles-class however, clad in stronger tank-grade armor, meant to transport ammunition and weaponry rather than durasteel construction plates and soldiers and war drones rather than construction droids. Much of the Hover Spider's systems, for example built-in communications, sensors and trackers, and Farraday cage protection are based on common standardized components used in current generation of ARGH drones and droids, the only real difference being that scanners and combat shields built into the drone are vehicle variants of their components, corresponding to the much bigger size than a standard infantry drone. Transition from construction drone into troop transport design came rather easy as the previous Herakles-class was a dedicated drone carrier, therefore it already had designed systems to support repulsorlifts, cargo containment, and transportation racks for smaller drones.
Aspis Shield: The transport drone could be potentially outfitted with an Aspis shield generator, usually installed into a building and meant to protect a single structure this generator could be housed on top of a drone chassis by using up the two major weaponry hardpoints, restricting the drone's load out only to two RC-2 miniguns, due to the potent power unit within the drone. Aspis shields were designed to protect against long range bombardment, for example from orbit, air strikes, and mortars, however since this is the smallest variant of the shields it can absorb only lighter versions of such bombardments and its range extends in a 50 meter radius. Also while usually these shields are housed within protected buildings, the generator is exposed on top of the drone, which means it could be potentially damaged and shut down by enemy units who get within range of firing at it without its shield interfering.
Transportation: One of the biggest strengths of this transport, and utility, is its ability to travel at maximum 100 km/h, while hovering above the ground. This allows it to quickly transport up to 60 drones or 30 organic or armored droid soldiers on the battlefield and quickly deploy them near the front lines even allowing them to travel over usually impassable terrain to a degree. However this ability to hover has been limited since the previous Herakles class due to the weight and size of the transport drone, while previous models could practically fly the larger Hover Spiders can only hover above the ground to limited altitudes. The transportation drones are also equipped with special automated racks into which drones and some droids can fold themselves to be transported more effectively, fitting up to 60 drones or droids like that, seats and seating harnesses built into the drone's side armor and portion of the racks which can transport up to 30 organic soldiers or droids incapable of utilizing the transportation racks, and cargo containment bay on its underbelly that can move around supplies, ammunition, and weaponry the soldier carried with them or additional equipment and ammunition.
Armor: The drones are outfitted with thick tank-grade vehicle armor built on a strong duranium skeleton designed to absorb high intensity shots, for example from a main tank cannon, a turbolaser, or anti-armor weaponry. This resistance does have its limits however as multiple shots or hits like that will eventually break through the armor and damage components beneath them and it strongly depends on the intensity of the weapon and from range it was shot, so how quickly the armor fails depends on case by case basis. On top of the thick tank armor the drones also carry either a combat Abregado shield or an Aspis shield generator to provide additional protection, whether from artillery and air strikes, or from electronic and ionic attacks, as granted by Abregado combat shields.
Other Strengths: Other strengths of the drone include augmented strength of its large limbs and their pincers, granting it unnatural strength that allows the machine to easily pick up, crush, and cut through most infantry soldiers and even light vehicles, while most assume these large metal limbs to be slow, they are much faster and nimble, often catching an unexpected and unprepared soldiers off guard. This melee capability is made further ferocious by flamers built into the pincers, allowing the machine to spew strings of burning napalm at its foes while in melee range. The drone's versatility also proves another edge against other personnel carriers, as its loadout is based on hard points on its back it can be modified before battle to suit a variety of roles. The weapons it can be outfitted with are a combinations of RC-1 and RC-2 anti-infantry velocity rotary cannons and miniguns, as well as MD-1 mass driver anti-armor cannons. Since the RC-1 and RC-2 are fast firing weapons mounted on its back, they can be actually used against enemy aircraft, with the drone's sensors and trackers allowing it to aim effectively even at fast moving targets, giving it some anti-air capability.
Lack of Anchoring: One of the major weaknesses of the drone is the lack of anchoring systems it could employ due to constant hovering. While most ARGH drones employ tricks like density projectors or magnetic anchors to steady themselves against shockwaves and telekinetic manipulations, the Hover Spiders cannot rely on such abilities, instead it is much more prone to being thrown around or pushed off course by attacks like that and explosions. The drone does employ gyro-stabilizing systems however, so even if it would be thrown on its back it could use its repulsorlifts to lift up and flip right back up, however such experience would be very uncomfortable to its passengers and could potentially cause blunt kinetic damage or cause whiplash.
Other Weaknesses: Other weaknesses of the drone includes its speed being rather average, while it is faster than an infantry soldier or perhaps even some tanks, it could still be outrunned and outmaneuvered by smaller or lighter repulsorcraft transports, for example the older Imperial Hover Transports. This is due to the weight of the drone and its size being much larger than most standard troops transports except perhaps behemoths like the Juggernauts. It also suffers from the same low intelligence as other drones, for example the recent MACU-ID, while this has been slightly improved in this case to make sure the transport drone prioritizes safety of its passengers and engages more armored and larger targets before switching to firing at the enemy infantry, the theory being that infantry transported by it could join the fight and engage them, it can still only follow one command or order at a time and there is a noticeable pause when it switches to the next order or loads another series of commands where it is left vulnerable. Like most machines it is also vulnerable to electromagnetic attacks, for example EMP grenades and anti-vehicle pulse weaponry, such devices could quickly deactivate its additional systems, for example the Aspis shield generator or weaponry, forcing them to be re-booted. While Abregado Combat shield does provide some protection against it, even extended protection against smaller handheld EMP grenades, this can only handle one anti-vehicle electromagnetic attack, leaving it vulnerable once more afterwards.
Conclusion/Summary: In conclusion, these drones are basically a larger version of the previous Herakles construction drones, able to carry up to 60 war drones, 30 organic personnel or more heavily armored war droids, along with complement of supplies, ammunition, or weaponry. While it does have thick vehicle-grade armor on a duranium skeleton, versatile weaponry that could be changed before deployment to suit a variety of roles, and capability to house such systems like Abregado Combat Shields or Aspis Shield Generators connected to its potent power source, it is also slower than most standard personnel carrier due to its weight and size, it can also be manipulated by kinetic force or telekinesis due to its limited hovering, and its weaponry and additional components are left vulnerable, especially to electromagnetic attacks, on its back.
