Mech Combat

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Shozen heavy industries delivers a new mech in the form of the Desperado. This Agile Medium mech packs a few unique armaments and a Bounce Jet.

Desperado Tech File
Manufacturer : Shozen Heavy Industries
Model : DS-960
Weight: 55 Tons
Frame: Carbon-polytanium Composites
Armor: Laminated Polytanium
Powerplant: Higgs-Grayson TT-4700
Radiator: Jentu 45HD
Primary Actuators: Tayoka Mobility Systems A21
Top speed: 120 KPH

The engineers at Shozen Heavy Industries have been working round the clock with their latest effort to make a name for themselves in the mech market. Following the lukewarm reception of the Zealot the team at Shozen got straight to work with a new project. S.H.I. was looking to maximize fire power, mobility, and cost effectiveness for modern military forces with the Desperado.

The design borrowed heavily from elements of the Zealot that were combat proven, with heavier armoring on the lateral surfaces of the mech, as well as reinforced armor across the shoulders. To improve its battle field survivability the legs and right and left torso sections have been further reinforced with reactive armor sections. The silhouette of the Desperado is very upright with a digi-grade leg design for improved shock absorption. Unlike the tank with legs design of the Zealot the Desperado will give the pilot a commanding view of the battle field with a sensor head mounted on an extendable boom.

The carbon polytanium composite frame is surprisingly light for the size of the machine. Due to the well engineered bracing in the main load bearing areas of the frame, it handles the weight of the laminated polytanium very well. Because of the trade off for superstructure weight versus armor mass, while the Desperado can take a decent pounding for its size, once your armor is breached the day can get bad really quickly. This is not a machine meant to stand toe to toe with assaults to see who falls down first, but is better suited as heavy scout or command platform.

The Desperado is very agile, with an impressive 240 degree range of torso action independent of the sensor head allowing a talented pilot to effectively shoot and pilot with a full view of any obstacles. This is combined with a respectable 120Kph of rated top speed, although given the way the drive system purred, in the hands of a good mechanic, you should be able to crank out a good 10 or 20 more KPH from the TMS A21’s. To top off this mobile death maker, there is a high boost, low burn jump thruster.
Without the sustained thrust of a standard jump jet the Desperado tends to hop or bounce across the battlefield. But the lack of sustained thrust also means that the fuel cells needed for the booster are much smaller, allowing more weight to be devoted to armor and ammunition.

The stock weapons on the Desperado are teeth rattling and bone shaking. The RATLR-3-33’s throw a punishing barrage of 33 millimeter tungsten magnesium rounds. Each pull of the trigger will unleash a large volley of slugs. Our target slab was torn up in fairly quick order and the melted slag was hot for hours. These triple barreled death dealers are not alone. Mounted to either side of the jump booster is a pair of short range mortars, but these are not typical. The ammunition has been replaced with a multiple munitions warhead. Packed inside the shell are multiple shaped charges. At a preset distance from the ground the warhead bursts, sending a spray of armor piercing spikes into anyone or anything unlucky enough to be caught in the cone. The weapons development team at Shozen Heavy Industries gave them the eloquent designation of SMMW-24SC. The test pilots call them Rainmakers. Personally watching them in action I find that unless you’re talking a biblical rain of fire that the nickname sells them short. While I do not recommend being on the deadly end of any weapons, this one is especially unfriendly. Next time you need a religious experience, fire one of these babies at the roof of a bunker with a meter of reinforced ferrocrete and a 5 centimeter steel plate. Looking at the results, in my case 13 cleanly bored holes in the roof and small puddles of cooling steel, copper, and ferrocrete on the floor will make you thank god you were not under those guns.

Overall the Desperado performed well in our field tests. It can fit a variety of combat roles easily. It has the capacity to mount a decent range of weapons for adapting to the battlefield, and the primary systems are very easy to access and maintain. The only downsides we can see are that its stock weapons will keep you tied to a supply depot in an extended engagement, and any armor blow through is going to quickly make a bad day worse. The Desperado may not be pretty, but in it’s own rough way it is charming, just like every good bandit should be.

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Created By: Bellimora Bunny on 16-Jun-2014, 09:20:07

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