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| RZ-033DV Skyshatter Hammerhead Type: Hammerhead Shark Total Length: 17 meters Total Height: 6.6 meters Weight: 75.4 metric tons Speed: Airborne 1120 kilometers per hour (without rockets) 311.11 meters per second Undersea 55 knots 28.29 meters per second Equipment Two-tube AZ Maneuver Missile Pod x2 AZ 30mm Hyper Beam Gun x2 AZ 30mm Double-Barreled Hyper Shock Gun x2 Four-tube AZ Maneuver Missile Container Ion Pulse Jet x2 Ion Booster x2 Water Cracker Onboard Water Storage System Hydrogen Rockets Focused Shield Generator Aerial Radar Armor Description: The Hammerhead was designed as a gunship to engage and destroy enemy vessels. As such, it has good speed, good firepower, and better armor. The Hammerhead has a durable structure designed to withstand the pressures of the deep ocean up to four hundred meters down. While this diving depth isn’t quite on par with the Warshark’s and Whale King’s, it’s more than enough to engage Sinkers and surfacing Whale Kings. If it takes too much damage, the Hammerhead would have serious issues with water getting to the armored ballast and air tanks, and as such the zoid has a decent coating of rather durable armor. It is a lightweight and durable metal, roughly as tough as the Shield and Blade Liger’s armor, but it's quite a bit thicker than on those Zoids. It has few gaps, and even those are simply areas of lesser coverage. The Hammerhead is essentially a flying, seagoing brick designed to chow down on Imperial Sinkers with its excellent variable-direction firepower and pursuit missiles. Mobility and Power Source Designed for long patrols, the Hammerhead is a rather languid swimmer and flyer. Rather than true ballast tanks, it has a powerful antigravity unit built into the internal structure that allow it to fly above and below the water’s surface. Antigravity is a more "pure" form of the basic flight principle behind magnessers and antigrav, and as such it doesn't have as many of the limitations of the magnesser systems. For one, it doesn't require an enormous wing area, simply a compact unit, and second, it can fly much higher than magnessers. Finally, since it's completely internal, it can operate like ballast underwater, whereas magnesser-powered aerials have trouble with too much moisture. It does, however, suck down a lot more power. - That said, the Hammerhead isn't the most agile thing in the sky, about on par with the Pteras. Make no mistake, its antigravity system makes it an excellent hovering gunship. It has a beefy enough core to handle the antigrav system with power to spare. Not that much power to spare, though. For its endurance, the Hammerhead's core doesn't handle "bursts" of power too well, and overzealous pilots can stall their zoid by getting to eager with the pulse cannons. Still, the Hammerhead can fight for ages otherwise, considering it has no real energy sappers besides those two. Stalling is somewhat catastrophic, though, as you're only kept in the air by that antigrav system. - The RZ-033DV isn't quite as agile as the normal Hammerhead with the water tanks filled. It is, however, faster than a Zabat out of hell. Much faster. Be careful with the shield - it's slightly energy-intensive, and too much besides flight, the shield, and the water cracker unit could result in a stall. It regains maneuverability as the tanks are drained. Equipment: Two-tube AZ Maneuver Missile Pod x2 One of each of these mounts in the armored pods to either side of the zoid’s head. They are protected by armored plates and fire high-powered missiles using line-of-sight locks above the water or sonar locks below – in either case, it takes about two seconds to acquire a lock. An advancement of certain torpedo designs, these missiles are capable of flying above or below the water’s surface thanks to the envelope of gasses the cone emits. The missiles’ speed is subsonic, barely breaking eight hundred kilometers an hour, but the two-staged warhead delivers an initial armor-piercing cone-shaped charge and then a charge roughly eight times the strength of a normal missile. They are designed for crippling heavily-armored targets, but are almost useless as pursuit weaponry thanks to their limited range of two kilometers. Each pod holds only two missiles, one per tube, and requires reloading at a base once expended. AZ 30mm Hyper Beam Gun x2 These weapons are the prime energy-drainers in the Hammerhead’s arsenal, being the Hammerhead's prime anti-Sinker weapons outside the missiles. Mounted on the undersides of the missile pods, able to turret forty degrees inboard and two-seventy degrees outboard, these guys fire high-penetration bolts of plasma sheathed in laser energy. The guns are quite accurate, able to tag a Sinker out to eight hundred meters thanks to their fire-control system, a smaller, less sophisticated version of a sniper system. They feature excellent performance in both air and water, and feature a rapid firing rate of ten beams per second, the better to tag the more agile Sinkers. AZ 30mm Double-Barreled Hyper Shock Gun x2 A smaller-caliber and longer-barreled version of the Blade Liger’s weapon, the Double-Barreled Hyper Shock Guns are mounted on the undersides of the fore fins. Unlike the previous two weapons, the Hyper Shock Guns are not very useful underwater thanks to the shell’s lack of hydrodynamics. They fire explosive shells at a rate of two shells a second per barrel, to a total of eight shells a second from both of the guns. The shells are very good at stripping armor but deal less damage against the less solid structure. They suffer reduced effectiveness against poly-weave armors while doing even more against solid plated armors like that of the Gojulas and Whale King. Four-tube AZ Maneuver Missile Container This weapon is more reminiscent of the cruise missiles on earth’s submarines than anything else. Mounted aft of the dorsal fin, two port and two starboard, they are hidden inside the structure of the zoid’s tail. The missiles fire at a seventy-five degree angle, just a few degrees from being vertical. These missiles are long-ranged cruise missiles, though not quite inter-continental. They have to be fired from above the surface, and achieve a maximum top speed of four thousand kilometers per hour within four seconds of launch. The missiles have a maximum effective range of three kilometers, requiring outside assistance beyond that distance. Despite superficial similarities, however, these are not tactical missiles. Their warheads are only half again as powerful as standard. The missiles also target enemy zoids based upon radar tracking, and feature terrain-hugging and intelligent heat-tracking features most other missiles would sigh wistfully to have. The missiles are highly maneuverable, making them good for smiting aerial targets. Not so good for other targets, thanks to their speed. Ion Pulse Jet x2 An ionic equivalent to the pulse laser, the pulsejets fire rapidly-repeating bursts of plasma guided by a magnetic field wedded to the chassis to generate thrust. It is by no means a stealthy method of generating power, but it gets the job done. Rumors of the Republic looking into altering the technology to make it run quietly underwater are completely unfounded and inquiries may or may not result in disappearance. Ion Booster x2 Overload the pulsejets and you get a speed boost enabling the Hammerhead to exceed its cruising speed of seven hundred kilometers an hour in the air or forty knots in the water. Activation also requires going into the Hammerhead’s more streamlined retracted mode, and can only be maintained for eighteen seconds or so before the zoid begins to tire. Onboard Water Storage System This adds a large pair of water tanks inside the belly of the Hammerhead, along with a large pelican-like scoop where a true hammerhead shark's mouth would be. The tanks serve to hold water before it can be funneled to the water cracker. The Hammerhead can open the maw to collect water when underwater or when flying low, or while underwater, it can simply open the valves to this system. The Hammerhead can also choose to start the battle with full or empty water tanks if it so chooses. Water Cracker This piece of machinery mounts behind the core and serves to split the water into its component elements. Due to its bulk, it occupies the space where the first two missile tubes used to be. It is almost completely inert, and won't explode or any of that nonsense if mishandled. It is active while the rockets are in use. Hydrogen Rockets 80% of the reason this thing's called the "Skyshatter Unit." Looking much like an extra pair of main engines mounted to the sides of the tail, these guys are the most noticeable part of the SSU. When active, they emit a truly enormous gout of white flame, complete with a large, thick cloud of steam behind them and a hellish roar. (Guaranteed to eradicate all chance of peace and quiet in the surrounding provinces or your money back.*) These things can push the Hammerhead to unheard of speeds, most of which are unheard of because everyone's too smart to try. Mach 5+ probably isn't out of their capability, but for your safety, try and limit it to the Mach 2-ish region. Maximum airspeed on full burn: Estimated at over Mach 5, but...it's really a bad idea. Trust me. Something like the Hammerhead really shouldn't be moving that fast. Maximum speed on full burn (nautical): Estimated at 200 knots or more. Much more. Recommended speed in air: No more than the Mach 2-ish region. Recommended speed in water: 120 knots or less, 90 knots at depths below 1,000 meters. Limit use to six second bursts to reduce the chance of sound damage to pilots and/or zoids. Focused Shield Generator All you the pilot needs to know is to keep it on "focused" mode past Mach 1. Trust us here at diVossi. It's simply a spike of force about five to ten meters off your bow, depending on your speed. Should you like to spread it into a true zeppelin-shaped shield, it won't hold up nearly as well as a Shield Liger's, nor will it protect anything past your midsection. Aerial Radar We've supplied you with a true aerial radar system so you can play with the big kids. Or keep track of that pesky Sinker that's been doing the same to you all along. It features the same capabilities and range as the Raynos' radar, except this one doesn't pack the hardware to transmit to your teammates. *Not really. |