HOME | DD

Description

Taro Scout Mech

drawn by wansworld.deviantart.com

The Japanese have been Earth’s leading experts on robotics since the heydays of the global electronic revolution that preceded the Second Great Depression. And they were the first to deploy true robots in war when China attacked their home islands. The mechs failed to repel the invaders, but they bought enough time for the evacuation ships to get away. The Japanese have since continued their robotics studies in New Japan and most successful mech designs deployed in America have at least some of their experts involved in the design process.

The Taro was built entirely in New Japan as part of the Army 2300 Project. The project’s goal was to revolutionize the American ground forces and finally bring a century of technological advancements together into a new generation of combat craft. The scout mech competition called for the smallest mech currently fielded by American Federal Armed Forces. It needed advanced sensors, onboard electronic countermeasures, and sufficient mobility to evade detection or escape those capable of finding it. It also needed to be able to be able to call fire in from distant artillery or orbital batteries while in hiding or on the move.

A dozen different American manufacturers submitted scout mech designs for the competition and they were first tested against a Machol, the scout mech they were expected to replace. Five of the designs failed to defeat the Machol in at least three out of five battles and were dismissed from the competition. The seven remaining designs engaged heavier and more powerful mechs, where five of them failed as expected. They also faced numerous vehicles in competitions ranging from simple destruction to a series of scouting and spotting tests. The final testing round was against each other.

The Taro was one of two designs that consistently won in every competition while other designs failed in some and excelled in others. It didn’t always win as spectacularly as other designs, but it had fewer equipment malfunctions, and a greater number of successes than all other competitors except the Hickok. The final test between the Taro and the Hickok pitted superior stealth systems against superior firepower. The Taro’s ability to blend into the terrain allowed it to escape detection long enough to sneak in behind its rival and shoot it in the back with a well-placed shot that destroyed the power core.

In an irony that was lost on very few people, the Army chose both the Taro and Hickok as design winners and placed an order for what they saw as the final design. They ordered the Hickok’s main weapon mated with the Taro, thereby giving both corporations a valuable military contract. That change delayed deployment of the completed design by nearly three years as the two companies fought over what compromises to make in the targeting and power systems. The Taro finally entered service in 2301 but continued software and hardware glitches forced many service crews to “downgrade” to the original Taro weapons array in order to avoid downchecking their machines. The two companies continued to blame each other for the problems until a white hat hacker broke into the two systems, stripped out the proprietary softwares, and developed a modular converter that translated between the Taro and the Hickok’s weapon.

The Taro became the primary American scout mech of The War, and improvements in the modular weapons mount made it an unpredictable enemy. They always mounted advanced targeting and detection systems, as well as advanced scrambling technologies to hack enemy systems. And their stealth systems made them far more difficult to find than other mechs. The Taro sports a limited, short-term flight capability, and its modular weapons mount can now operate weapons built by any of the major powers. The Taro was by far the most effective American scout mech of The War, and has continued in service to humanity to this day.

Description

Taro Scout Mech

drawn by wansworld.deviantart.com

The Japanese have been Earth’s leading experts on robotics since the heydays of the global electronic revolution that preceded the Second Great Depression. And they were the first to deploy true robots in war when China attacked their home islands. The mechs failed to repel the invaders, but they bought enough time for the evacuation ships to get away. The Japanese have since continued their robotics studies in New Japan and most successful mech designs deployed in America have at least some of their experts involved in the design process.

The Taro was built entirely in New Japan as part of the Army 2300 Project. The project’s goal was to revolutionize the American ground forces and finally bring a century of technological advancements together into a new generation of combat craft. The scout mech competition called for the smallest mech currently fielded by American Federal Armed Forces. It needed advanced sensors, onboard electronic countermeasures, and sufficient mobility to evade detection or escape those capable of finding it. It also needed to be able to be able to call fire in from distant artillery or orbital batteries while in hiding or on the move.

A dozen different American manufacturers submitted scout mech designs for the competition and they were first tested against a Machol, the scout mech they were expected to replace. Five of the designs failed to defeat the Machol in at least three out of five battles and were dismissed from the competition. The seven remaining designs engaged heavier and more powerful mechs, where five of them failed as expected. They also faced numerous vehicles in competitions ranging from simple destruction to a series of scouting and spotting tests. The final testing round was against each other.

The Taro was one of two designs that consistently won in every competition while other designs failed in some and excelled in others. It didn’t always win as spectacularly as other designs, but it had fewer equipment malfunctions, and a greater number of successes than all other competitors except the Hickok. The final test between the Taro and the Hickok pitted superior stealth systems against superior firepower. The Taro’s ability to blend into the terrain allowed it to escape detection long enough to sneak in behind its rival and shoot it in the back with a well-placed shot that destroyed the power core.

In an irony that was lost on very few people, the Army chose both the Taro and Hickok as design winners and placed an order for what they saw as the final design. They ordered the Hickok’s main weapon mated with the Taro, thereby giving both corporations a valuable military contract. That change delayed deployment of the completed design by nearly three years as the two companies fought over what compromises to make in the targeting and power systems. The Taro finally entered service in 2301 but continued software and hardware glitches forced many service crews to “downgrade” to the original Taro weapons array in order to avoid downchecking their machines. The two companies continued to blame each other for the problems until a white hat hacker broke into the two systems, stripped out the proprietary softwares, and developed a modular converter that translated between the Taro and the Hickok’s weapon.

The Taro became the primary American scout mech of The War, and improvements in the modular weapons mount made it an unpredictable enemy. They always mounted advanced targeting and detection systems, as well as advanced scrambling technologies to hack enemy systems. And their stealth systems made them far more difficult to find than other mechs. The Taro sports a limited, short-term flight capability, and its modular weapons mount can now operate weapons built by any of the major powers. The Taro was by far the most effective American scout mech of The War, and has continued in service to humanity to this day.