Sky Tyrant: Overview

A large-scale anti-air platform that acts as the primary AA drone within Glacier's escort force. The twin flak cannons can be swapped out with cannon to expand the Sky Tyrant's deployment possibilities.

Varith informed us that the max crew of Glacier would be around 7000 legionnaires, which introduced one or two problems. Practically speaking, we couldn't ask the Security Legion to maintain constant patrols and escort forces for the fortress around the clock, in addition to their other responsibilities. Nor could we have the Armored Legion provide the drivers and vehicles for such an extended period of time as this would involve the Mechanical Legion working nonstop to keep them running.

You end up with a snowball effect of shit details and burnt-out legionnaires because Varith can't figure out how to design hallways that aren't at least twenty meters tall.

Now since Varith is mentally retarded in more ways than I'm willing to count out, and because shit rolls into my front yard anytime someone else's incompetence flares up, it became my problem to fix.

The answer for this was to develop numerous drone platforms to act as Glacier's escort, ones that would require infrequent maintenance and could operate 24/7 without any of that pesky "rest" nonsense. It's here that we arrive at the creation of the Sky Tyrant series.

As part of the escort force, we designed the Sky Tyrant to handle anti-air responsibilities while the Attack Dogs handled the ground. Navigation was easy enough; we would simply link them in with the ARS Swarm and let the Wisps provide up to date terrain data and recon info for the Sky Tyrant to work through. While they do extensively coordinate with each other, each drone is more than capable of handling themselves with minimal support.

Then came the next hurdle known as the Administrative Legion finance department.

During testing at Frostfall we were able to knock out 100/100 airborne targets with pinpoint accuracy through the usage of large, high-capacity missile racks. A hundred armored airborne targets mind you, which the Sky Tyrant prototype dropped out of the air in a matter of seconds. All seemed well in our minds.

That was until I distinctly remember one day receiving a message from Iza after expense reports were posted, which read “You'd better hope you don't enter my line of sight for the next week.”. Which was fine with me, as it was a great excuse to assemble a barricade in front of my door so I could focus for once without being interrupted.

We needed the same level of efficiency and offensive capabilities without reducing the entire organization to a cost savings diet of dry bread crusts and slightly humid air. The best compromise ended up being a set of twin barreled plasmatic flak cannons.

When we ran a new test after fabricating and fitting the new weapons, our results were 80/100 targets downed within the same time limit. However the cost for plasmatic flak shells was miniscule in comparison to a small arsenal of missiles, and we planned to have more than one of these walking beside Glacier so fine, I figured that’d have to do.

Our final step was integrating the Gray Conduits and ensuring they were trained to allow for high mobility and force negation of any incoming projectiles. Should the drone run into any situation where it becomes stuck, immobile or otherwise incapacitated, it can adjust its gravity scale as needed. In addition to this, the Sky Tyrant series can match pace with Glacier in the event it needs to run or enter a full-bore sprint. Ideally, we never want to be in such a situation.

Our final design included secondary missile racks that took way too much goddamn time to justify, and one of the first entries in the Gun-Link series that'd allow us to easily swap weapon loadouts between various systems. To date I've seen these things punch holes through wraiths, turn Juna fighter craft into a fine paste and at one point the ARS Swarm glitched the hell out and a Sky Tyrant tackled a Mantle Worm. Now that I think of it, I've also seen them use their cannons on flying bird like creatures no larger than your average sparrow. Might want to revisit the targeting priority code before it lights up a fruit fly next.

I'd say in terms of the role it was created to fulfill, the Sky Tyrant series is beyond adequate for defending Glacier whether day or night. Or whatever that planet's equivalent is.

This is the part where I demand Iza approve funding equivalent to the numerous hours of claimed overtime I just saved her. If you want those gauntlets for Klein done anytime soon, it'd help to stop being a miserly bitch that shoots down every single cost projection that crosses your desk.
_{My shit attitude with you is the reason legionnaires aren’t eating rice and beans seven days a week you fuckwit. – Iza}

- FrW Dr. Acris Baddarick