The Oxen Multipurpose Mecha is a general-use machine developed and manufactured by Osman Heavy Industries for internal and domestic use, as well as foreign export.

The company's flagship project, the Oxen is designed to be affordable, cheap to produce and easy to modify and maintain. It's construction, while not firmly rooted in either “old fashioned” methods of robotics or contemporary, instead combines the two, inspired in part by the OI-M3-1A Gekido, which had been observed in use on planet Planet Osman.

Most of the motive power in the Oxen comes from high power servomotors as well as some pneumatics, but wrapped around the internal “skeleton” frame of the mecha are high power artificial muscles, interlaced with strands of Liquid Ally. Around this is wrapped another layer of Liquid Ally, forming what looks like a skin over the muscles.

This inner frame design allows the Liquid Ally devices to perform repairs as needed to the machine, which keeps maintenance costs low as well as allow the operator to perform fast repairs after malfunctions or breakdowns. This fact is a major selling point of the Oxen.

As stated earlier, the Oxen is incredibly easy as well as cheap to maintain and repair thanks to the built in Liquid Ally components. It's also affordable at a civilian and small business scale, which makes it easier to sell.

It is also able to be outfitted for most noncombat tasks, such as infrastructure construction, shipbuilding and breaking, mining and lastly it can also be outfitted with Osman Heavy brand equipment or aftermarket devices to allow it to serve in civil protection roles.

Some downsides to the Oxen are that while it can serve in most industrial roles, it will never outperform a dedicated piece of equipment or platform at any job. It simply was not designed to excel in any one task.

The Oxen began initial designs shortly after Osman Heavy Industries was founded, and began mass production in early YE 40. It made enough sales to support the company for a year in local sales to small companies as well as to the Skyguard for construction purposes.

The Oxen, compared to other mecha fielded in the vicinity of 188604, is rather unusual. Its boxy construction and rather stocky stature are distinctive, but are expected to be characteristic of other products from Osman Heavy Industries. Its arms are slightly longer than that of an average humanoid, and were designed this way to allow greater use of tools than a craft built perfectly to proportion with an average human-like creature.

• Organization: Osman Heavy Industries, Exodus Fleet, Buyers
• Type: Multipurpose
• Class: OH-M1-1a
• Designer: Osman Heavy Industries
• Manufacturer: Osman Heavy Industries
• Production: Mass
• Price: 22,000 KS

• Crew: 1 pilot.
• Maximum Capacity: 1 pilot
• Passenger Capacity: One

• Width: 5 meters.
• Length: 2 meters.
• Height: 7.1 meters.
• Mass: 13 tons.

• Ground speed:
• Running: 90 KPH
• Skimming: 200 KPH
• Air speed:
• In atmosphere: 700 kph
• Zero atmosphere: .2 C

The Oxen is not FTL capable without aftermarket equipment.

See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system.\

Tier 7, lightly armored. Tier 7 shield.

The cockpit of the Oxen is spartan, with a full body harness tucked away above the pilot, instrumentation on the front of the console. There are viewscreens on the left and right of the cockpit's interior, and the main forward monitor (which is located on the inside of the main hatch) has a smaller rear viewscreen above it. Pedals rest below the console, and two joysticks atop it. The entire console and seat assembly can slide forward to allow boarding.

The Oxen is boarded by either climbing into the seat from a gantry, which slides out from the cockpit after the main hatch opens, or by riding up a mechanically retracting line with a stirrup on the end of it, which allows the pilot to enter and exit the craft without a gantry.

Most of the systems that the Oxen uses are open source parts whose blueprints were acquired from local freespacers and the USO itself.

While the Oxen is unarmored, its chassis is made with 5 cm thick durandium, which makes it fairly sturdy. However, it is not built for any kind of harsh combat and will fail after a few hits from most weaponry made to take out armored vehicles, let alone other mecha.

While the Oxen does not have actual shields, because it works in close proximity to unprotected organic beings, it does have shielding systems. Emitters on each of the forearms of the machine can emit both electromagnetic and gravitic shielding within a two meter radius to form shield discs (tier 7) that act as arm mounted traditional shields.

The Oxen is powered by a single open source hyperspace tap generator which is fully hooked up to a coolant system for optimal operation.

The Oxen's propulsion system is provided by a Gravity Augmented Ram Drive which is piped to the various thrusters on the back of the machine.

The Oxen is equipped with an optical sensor inside its head, hidden behind a visor. It also has a small radar array located within the head.

There is a secondary optical sensor embedded in the top of the chest, just above the entry hatch.

Computing power is provided by a cluster of scale datapads inside the console block.

Additional equipment is availible from Osman Heavy Industries.

Alex Hart created this article on 2018/03/01 07:34.

Jack Pine FM approved this article on 2018/03/04 08:45.