The Mobile Artillery Assault Walker is a very large mobile weapon designed to be able to provide artillery support, as well as heavy anti-starship defense in one, relatively small, mobile package. Designed in YE 32, it represents the largest Mecha built by Origin Industries at the time.
The MAAW is both an exercise in impractical practicality, and heavy one-upmanship. With the introduction of the heavily defended and very powerful Ravager and the anti-starship capable Render Mecha employed by the Mishhu, Origin sought to create something that could trump both machines, as well as hold a practical value to prospective buyers; namely the major nations' star militaries.
The result was a huge, expensive, powerful behemoth that was barely fast enough to be called mobile, but managed to do its job quite well. Although somewhat limited in use by its size, preliminary tests showed that a properly utilized MAAW was able to not only hold its own against other, smaller Mecha, but also harass starships, all simultaneously. While it’s obvious lack of speed or self-flight capability gave it weaknesses, the sheer size and amount of armor and artillery it was capable of holding made it more than a formidable opponent for Mecha, Power armors, aerospace craft, and starships alike.
The MAAW is a heavy, mobile artillery piece, made to provide heavy support on the ground, as well as to give a form of easy protection against starcraft. Its large size alone gives it a type of protection most other types of vehicles can only dream of, although it does also give it the disadvantage of making it a huge target. Capable of destroying just about anything that needs something big to destroy it; the MAAW is a large, niche weapon that has a few other uses, which can hopefully keep it from the obscurity of becoming nothing more than an oddity born of desperation.
Frame Mode | |
---|---|
Ground speed(Walking) | 20 MPH |
Ground Speed(thruster-assisted) | 75 MPH |
Zero Atmosphere | .1c |
Armor Mode | |
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Hover | 150 MPH |
Flight | Mach 2 |
Zero Atmosphere | .25c |
See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system.
The cockpit of the MAAW, due to its large size, is rather spacious for a Mechanized walker, and contains three stations, one for the pilot, one for the main weapons officer, and an auxiliary seat to be used for various different positions, such as dedicated communications, secondary weapons control, or engineering.
The Multi-purpose compartment, usually shortened to 'Multi', is a compartment within the MAAW that allows crew some modicum of space when time allows. It has three bench seats built into the walls, which may be used as beds, arranged around a central table, which can be used for a variety of purposes. The walls contain lockers above the bench seats, and underneath the seats themselves are storage compartments. Near the door into the cockpit is a small kitchenette that allows for food and beverage preparation.
The MAAW holds Two Powered armor suits, generally Impulse Powered Armor. These are kept in special air-locked compartments, one on each side of the torso, allowing the armors to disembark the MAAW while it is in use. Each compartment has storage containing equipment for servicing and outfitting the Powered Armors.
The MAAW has four cut down LGSCs on its back, for anti starship usage. Due to their cut down nature, their damage potential and ranges are decreased.1)
Due to this weapon's size and bulk, it is fairly slow firing, each barrel only pushing out one round every five seconds. This is fine, however, because the MAAW only carries 100 of each type of round. Depending on the mission, however, the composition of the ammunition load may change, but the total ammunition capacity is always 200 rounds.
The OI-V9-W3600 Heavy Pulse Laser Vulcan is an anti mecha laser Vulcan, located in the right arm.
ROF: 900 RPM Power: Tier 7
Mounted on the front of the MAAW's lower legs are large-capacity missile launchers, which fire OI-Z3 Missiles. Each leg holds 3 launchers, and each launcher has 9 tubes, and each tube holds 12 missiles, giving the MAAW a total of 648 missiles.
Each of the MAAW's shoulders holds four of these, two on the fronts, and two on the backs, helping to give the MAAW all around point-defense protection against things such as projectiles and powered armor. When not in use, the Phased lasers are covered by armored panels, to protect the lenses.
Power: Tier 4, Light Anti-Armor
For maximum protection, the hull and framework is made out of Nerimium, with many interior components made of Durandium Alloy to save on weight. To further save on weight, any non-essential parts, as well as much of the cockpit, is made from high-quality carbon fiber paneling. Despite all the effort to save weight, however, the MAAW remains extremely massive and very, very heavy.
The MAAW has a standard life support system, with a pressurized cockpit, oxygen scrubbers, and a temperature-humidity regulation system. The MAAW also has an inertia control system to keep the g-forces on its pilots to a minimum.
The MAAW has two types of shields, electromagnetic and gravitic, layered with each other. Each shield is generated from two tandem generator pairs within the frame. The two shield systems work in concert, allowing the frame to survive large amounts of damage
TheElectromagnetic shield generators and Gravitic shield generators create a powerful field, which hugs close to the frame like a tight bubble, not quite conformal, but not quite a bubble.
For power generation, the MAAW uses two very large IAPD's, which serve both as power generation and as secondary propulsion.
In case of Aether cancelling, the IAPD's fuel reserves can power the MAAW for up to four hours of operation, so long as the thrusters are not used to speed up movement.
The MAAW uses a Pawn computer suite for all its computing, sensor, and communications needs.
Legs: The MAAW is propelled via hydraulically and mechanically operated legs, which have heavy redundancy in their systems to lessen the chances of a catastrophic failure. These legs are heavily armored, and easily capable of supporting the MAAW's enormous bulk. In the case of a catastrophic failure, the legs lock in the standing position, keeping the Mecha from falling over when problems arise. The large feet evenly distribute the weight over a larger surface area, as well as are able to magnetically clamp to metal surfaces such as starship hulls.
Thrusters: The IAPD thrusters help to propel the craft on land by pushing upwards and forwards, easing some of the weight off of the legs, while simultaneously pushing the Mecha forward, this results in a much higher speed than the legs alone could accomplish.
The MAAW has specially designed forearms that serve both as gun-arms and as normal arms. The armor of the arm is capable of moving forward, covering the guns and allowing the MAAW to have fully operational hands, giving it the ability to pick things up or even to utilize handheld weapons (naturally these weapons must be very large.)
unfinished and Unapproved