R-13A Cerberus

The R-13A Cerberus is one of the protagonists of the 1998 Shoot 'Em Up video game R-Type Delta. It is a powerful R-Craft created by an arms maker rivaling the Space Corps called Warrick Inc. Following an untimely fate, the fighter later becomes a hidden antagonist in R-Type Final.
==History==
===R-Type Delta===
At the time the Space Corps was designing and experimenting on the R-9A2 Delta, a rival arms maker called Warrick Inc. came up with plans to create a seemingly more powerful starfighter to rival that of the Corps. As a result, the arms group created the R-13A Cerberus, which concentrated on power rather than strategy.
As with the Delta (and another craft called the RX-10 Albatross), the Cerberus was still in its experimental stage by the time the Bydo Empire began to invade Earth by possessing the Moritz-G, a large orbiting defensive weapon that was prepared to attack the Earth. As a result, the Cerberus, alongside the Delta and the Albatross were sent into combat to potentially stop the invasion.
Eventually, all three crafts located the source of the Bydos in an alternate dimension. The three crafts managed to destroy the core, but in doing so caused a chain reaction that would suddenly destroy the dimension. While the R-9A2 Delta and the RX-10 Albatross manage to escape from the dimension in time, the R-13A Cerberus fails to do so and gets trapped in the dimension, leading to the craft to be presumably lost or destroyed as a result.
===R-Type Final===
Nineteen years later, the Space Corps sends a craft called the RX-12 Cross The Rubicon into the so-called "Bydo Forest". There it discovered the R-13A Cerberus, which was now under the influence of the Bydo Empire. The two crafts battled each other, with the Cross The Rubicon ending up victorious and destroying the "Forest Watchdog" in the process.
==Weapons==
Unlike most R-Crafts which use weapons for more strategic purposes, the R-13A Cerberus uses ones that focus on power over everything else.
* Vulcan Cannon - a standard, rapid-fire capable cannon that can eliminate most small Bydos easily.
* Lightning Wave Cannon - a unique and frighteningly versatile wave cannon variant. While it deals less damage that the other wave cannons, it makes up for it by being faster and able to home on enemy Bydos.
* Anchor Force - an usually aggressive Force mechanism that grapples onto larger Bydos and drains the life out of them using a set of forward-facing rods. Unlike most Force devices, the Anchor Force lacks a Vulcan shot to accompany it. When connected to the Cerberus, it allows the craft to fire a powerful laser. Depending on the color of the crystal the Cerberus obtains, the weapon will be one of the following:
** Shade Alpha (Red) - fires a steady, thin beam straightforward, leaving a shadowy trail behind it. In addition to the initial beam, the trail also deals damage. With the bit devices active, up to two additional, albeit smaller beams will also be fired.
** Search Beta (Blue) - fires a set of lasers that will track down enemy Bydos at up to 45 degrees upwards or downwards.
** Terminator Gamma (Yellow) - fires a beam that strafes at a 180 degree field of effect, starting down then traveling up.
* Delta Weapon: Hysteric Dawn - a unique weapon developed for the R-13A Cerberus, it allows the Cerberus to charge up a dosage gauge that when full and activated, creates a dimensional rift that destroys all enemies for a certain period of time.
* Photon Missile - deploys a single missile from the bottom of the Cerberus, the missile will then travel straightforward at an incredible speed.
* Round Bit Devices - the Round Bits act as a small, shield-like device that absorbs weaker enemy fire. They are indestructible so long as the Cerberus is not destroyed, but do not provide any firepower in most cases save for the AShade Alpha.
* Speed Up - when the Cerberus obtains a crystal with an "S" on it, it will increase is its overall speed by one unit for a maximum of five. One must be careful not to obtain too many, it will make the Cerberus harder to control.
==Gallery==
R13_Delta.png|The R-13A Cerberus in R-Type Delta
R-13A_Cerberus.jpg|The R-13A Cerberus in R-Type Final
R-13A.png|The R-13A Cerberus in R-Type Command
R-Type_Delta_R13_Cerberus_2.jpg
==See Also==
*R-13A Cerberus on Villains Wiki
==Navigation==
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