EMZ-31 Sea Panther

Type: Hermit Crab
Length: 9 meters
Height: 4.9 meters
Weight: 28.5 tons
Speed:
100 km/hr (land), 50 kts (sea)

Equipment:
Infra-Red Searchlight x2
12-Shot Missile Launcher
Sonar System
Dual 20m Beam Cannons
Particle Beam Cannon
3-Shot Torpedo Launcher

Armor Description:
The Sea Panther was developed as a multi-terrain heavy assault Zoid, and as such, the shell that covers the rear half of this Zoid is as tough as the armour of the Molga, although twice as thick, able to soak up weapons fire with relative ease. This armour is in three solid plates, and therefore there are few gaps to take advantage of in the armour shell. The front half of the Zoid is a different matter altogether. Extending out the front is the boxy cockpit and main support section, framed on either side by three crabby legs. This front part is armoured, but nowhere near as much as the armour shell. The armour on the front part is only comparative to that of the Saber Tiger. The good thing is that the structure of the Sea Panther, being what is effectively a brick with a few appendages, is in itself incredibly tough. Certainly, it'll take a long time, or a lucky explosive into the small gap between the shell and inner armour, to destroy this Zoid.

Mobility and Power Source:
Being a hermit crab, the Sea Panther is not exactly a poster boy for mobility. The Sea Panther can only achieve a lowly 100 km/h, because the way its legs are positioned means it has to drag itself around and it can only really move forward or in an awkward diagonal gait instead of being able to move sideways. The underside of the shell has some small Magnesser panels, just enough to reduce friction, and it is for this reason that the Sea Panther can continue to move even if it's lost four of its six legs, or even five whilst underwater. The power source for the Sea Panther is a heavy-accumulator type, designed to fuel the particle beam cannon on the topside. This is why the Sea Panther is so inefficient in other areas. The actual cruising speed of Sea Panther is a lowly 60 km/h, with 100 km/h being a max speed it can only maintain for small periods of time.

Weaponry and Equipment:

Infra-Red Searchlight x2
The "eyes" of the Sea Panther are two infra-red searchlights. They point forward, but can each rotate upwards and outwards 90 degrees, to cover a full 180 degree arc. Using special filters in the cockpit, these searchlights pick out any large amounts of infrared radiation they pass over, which usually means Zoids, although things that release large amounts of heat can also show up in the spotlights. These spotlights are excellent for use in the dark, or against Zoids that can hide in smoke or stealth shields. Being fiber-optic in nature, it's not as easy as one might think to disable them.

Twelve-Shot Missile Launcher
Located on the back of the Sea Panther, in a gap between the shell and the inner structure, is a pod that contains four rows of three missiles. These missiles are multi-purpose surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, sea-to-surface, sea-to-air or sea-to-sea missiles. By issuing a cloak of gas around them, the missiles are capable of working underwater, but leave telltale streams of bubbles behind them. The missiles are of standard strength and track via infrared, and take around a second to lock, and another second to reload. The missiles fire as coherent three-piece formations, meaning that all three missiles are fired at once, locked onto a single target.

Sonar System
Installed internally into the Sea Panther is a sonar system that uses sonic waves to build up a three-dimensional map of the world around it to a distance of five kilometres. This includes the locations of other Zoids, and the sonar system updates rapidly to provide a continuous feed of information about where Zoids can be found. Naturally, this system can only be used in the water.

Particle Beam Cannon
This medium-sized cannon on the back of the Sea Panther's shell is the real kicker, the gun that makes this Zoid an amphibious assault platform. Mounted on a 360-degree base, this cannon is almost omni-directional, but there is a 45 degree wedge of space to the rear-left of the Sea Panther that the Beam Cannon cannot fire on, due to the positioning of the torpedo launcher. The gun is a 288mm Charged Particle Cannon. As can be seen by that statement, this beam is not an all-consuming plasma wave that will annihilate anything in its way, it is a concentrated beam of intense plasma, capable of burning a hole straight through almost anything that gets in the way, to a distance of fifteen kilometres on land, and roughly two kilometres underwater. The weapon can punch straight through E-Shields, even those that are dual layered, and can melt almost any armour with relative ease, able to slag even Kong armour in the two seconds it fires for. Being so powerful it has a rather large energy drain, so it has a small particle fan installed on either side of the shell to assist with the charging. On land, this means it takes three seconds to prep the gun, whilst in the water it takes six seconds. Because of restrictive cooling periods, the gun can only fire for two seconds, and then requires ten seconds to cool and be ready to fire again on land. In the water, it only takes four seconds to cool, due to the water assistance. When firing the gun, the magnessers must be switched to the reverse setting, cementing the Sea Panther to wherever it is located. However, the cannon itself is fully capable of pivoting as much as it normally can, so watch out.

Three-Shot Torpedo Launcher
Mounted on the right-hand side of the Sea Panther's back is a large box divided into three sections. This is the Torpedo Launcher. Each of these three sections is a firing tube, meaning that up to three torpedos can be fired at once. The launcher contains six torpedos, and each torpedo is roughly twice as strong as a standard missile. The torpedos are for use underwater only, as firing them on the land, due to the topside location, means they will hit the Sea Panther. The torpedos follow their opponent with IR tracking, so they can be quite tenacious in cold waters. It takes two seconds to reload a torpedo tube. The box can rotate upwards ninety degrees to fire the torpedos straight up. Given that the Sea Panther does not actually swim but crawls along the seafloor, one can see why this would be useful.