Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Update an old artillery vehicle.
Image Source: Here. One must imagine it with three pods rather than two.
Canon Link: N/A.
Permissions: Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here. CD-X Cryptologic Key available for Firemane per this contract thread.
Primary Source: Typhoon.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Firemane Industries.
Affiliation: Firemane Industries, and approved buyers only.
Market Status: Closed-Market
Model: FM-MRL Mk2
Modularity: Limited. Pods can fire rockets or different forms of guided missiles; secondary weapon can be replaced with equivalent; vehicle upgrade kits can be added or replaced.
Production: Minor
Material: Durasteel, Agrinium, electronics, standard vehicle components, weapons sensors and targeting computers etc.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Classification: Armoured, self-propelled, multiple rocket launcher.
Role: Artillery.
Size: Average
Weight: Average
Armaments: Very High
- Can use either dumb firing rockets or guided Deathstrike Concussion Missiles (Model 2). Rockets are cheaper and easier to reload and better for carpet bombing, missiles are better for aimed strikes and also hitting air. It has 3x pods with 16 rockets or 8 missiles each.
- 1x Skate Mounted Gun-Shielded RC-2 Shattergun Rotary Cannon or equivalent weapon such as an Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon.
- Light Armour Plating
- Cap Drain and De-Ionizer Module
- ECM Module
- Basic Deflector Shield
- ACS-404 Active Protection System
Speed Rating: High
Propulsion: Repulsorlift
Minimum Crew: 1
Optimal Crew: 3
Passenger Capacity: N/A
Cargo Capacity: Small
SPECIAL FEATURES
- ACS-406 Remote Operated Weapon System (Skate Mounts).
- Highly accurate Deathstrike missiles can be used either for ground or air targets.
- The Typhoon Mk2 possesses modular pods that can be loaded with dumb firing rockets or guided Deathstrike missiles.
- Hardened and armoured underneath both to prevent the speed flipping the vehicle, but also to resist attacks from below.
- Rear escape hatch.
- Probe droid dispenser.
- ACS-405 Enhanced Vehicle Sensor Suite
- Damage Control Systems
- Packaged CN-15 Camouflage Netting (used to cover an inactive vehicle)
- On-Board Fire Control/Targeting Systems
- IFF Circuitry
- Communicator with strong encryption. Targeting link has this powerful encryption to prevent slicing.
- Boom. With a payload consisting of a large number of rockets or Deathstrike missiles, the Typhoon has impressive firepower and is able to rain down destruction upon the enemy. It is ideal for deep supporting and close supporting fire. The rockets are used for suppression and saturation bombardment, and the Deathstrikes for guided high penetration. The Deathstrikes are also good for anti-air purposes.
- Shoot and scoot. For a vehicle of its size and weight, the Typhoon is quite fast. It can bombard a target, then quickly move away from the location from where the salvoes were fired in order to evade counter-battery fire, reload, hide and then strike again from a different location. Repulsorlifts allow it to traverse water and other difficult terrain.
- While its primary role is attacking ground targets, it can also be used in an anti-air role.
- Fast. Repulsorlift propulsion enhances the Typhoon's speed, enabling it to move over the ground quicker. Moreover, the vehicle is amphibious. As it hovers over the surface, the Typhoon can cross over water, mud or any flat surface impassible to wheeled vehicles.
- The Typhoon requires support. It is designed to bombard and shatter heavy enemies from afar, but not deal with them up close. Aside from its main armament, it has an anti-personnel weapon, but that's it. Light infantry that can sneak up on it and use demolitions such as satchel charges are a problem. The same applies to light vehicles that can evade its devastating barrage.
- Though it can move over water, rubble and other difficult ground, the Typhoon cannot go everywhere. Like all repulsor or other vehicles, th struggles in heavy or broken terrain. Very rocky slopes, dense forest aor city streets limit its speed and access.
- Having rockets and Deathstrikes gives the Typhoon a lot of versatility, but although any of the pods can be equipped with either payload, these types cannot be changed mid battle.
- Lightly armoured and thus vulnerable to dedicated counterfire.
The Typhoon Mk1 was designed and first utilised during Siobhan Kerrigan's brief term as Omega Protectorate Exarch. It was conceived as part of a rearmaments programme to bolster the Protectorate's defences and increase its elite unit's firepower. The Typhoon was meant to be a support vehicle that could provide artillery support by delivering a barrage of rocket fire against enemy forces. This could prove devastating against static defences as well as advancing enemy columns.
The Typhoon was first deployed during the Battle of Gehenna, where it proved crucial against Bando Gora beasts and demon war engines. Omega Pyre troopers coined the sobriquet Kerrigan's Organ both due to their former commander's battering ram tactics and the sound of the weapon's rocket motors. The Typhoon would serve the Protectorate and later Firemane well in several campaigns. However, continuous technological advancement made it necessary to upgrade the design. As a result, Firemane commissioned the Typhoon Mk2. The new vehicle shares most of the core traits of the original. Like its parent model, it is an armoured, self-propelled rocket launcher.
Firemane is able to deploy the Typhoon Mk2 in significant numbers and sell it to clients. For a corporation, Firemane is capable of fielding a large, well-trained army. However, its forces are obviously less numerous than those of an interstellar government. It is not cost-effective for a corporation, even one that has adopted many of the functions of a state, to try and amass an army as large as that of a galactic empire. Instead, Firemane focuses on speed, firepower, training and professionalism rather than numbers.
This makes artillery important since it is a way to compensate for smaller numbers. To put it plainly, it gives elite groups lots of bang at comparatively low cost. The Typhoon Mk2 is capable of carrying out saturation bombardments, blanketing an area with rockets, but is also able to execute more precise bombardments through the use of guided Deathstrike concussion missiles. The rockets are good grid square removers, while the Deathstrikes provide high guided penetration. Informally, Firemane artillerists have nicknamed the Typhoon the 'finger of the goddess' because one launcher has the potential to sanitise a grid square. This is approximately the size of a fingertip on a normal map. With inbuilt countermeasures and moving at supersonic speeds, the Deathstrike can avoid many enemy countermeasures. It is also a serious threat for Force-Users because it detonates on impact. HE warheads can be replaced with ion or penetration rounds. However, since these have to be equipped before battle they are only used for specific missions.
In contrast to the tracked Mk1, the Mk2 uses repulsorlift propulsion. A hover vehicle is faster than a conventional wheeled or tracked transport and better at traversing difficult terrain such as water, mud and rubble. In combat, the Typhoon operates in squadrons. Multiple Typhoon squadrons - usually three - form a battery. Several of the vehicles fire their payload in a brief but intense sequence, then redeploy rapidly before being located and subjected to counter-battery fire. This is an application of the shoot and scoot principle. The Typhoons are spread out individually and kept hidden until needed. When the deployment order is given, they move into position and launch their payload. Once they have expended their payload, they pull back to a prearranged location to reload then to a different hiding spot. The launcher can rotate, aim and aim independently of the vehicle. Rockets and missiles can be fired singly or in volleys.
The Typhoon is supposed to bombard enemies from afar and thus struggles against enemies up close. For this reason, it must be protected against ambushes as well as fast vehiceles that manage to evade its battery. However, due to the use of Deathstrikes missiles it can double as a decent anti-air vehicle, too. The vehicle has below average defences. Its armour is decent enough and it has some additional gadgets to enhance its protection, but it should not be on the wrong side of the main cannon of a tank, or expose itself to infantry throwing satchel charges or shooting anti-tank missiles at it. But then artillery is not supposed to be deployed in the middle of combat. Packaged camouflage-netting is used to conceal an inactive vehicle.
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