Contender Strider

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## Tactical Analysis

* **I Could'a Been A Contender:** The primary vehicular artillery system of the Humanitarian Guard, the **Contender Strider** operates as a highly mobile walker that uses three rotating gun barrels to fire shells at a high rate into enemy formations. Though the shells don't pack much of a punch, the walker design allows the Contender unprecedented mobility for an artillery platform, vastly superior to the Continental Husky platform.

* **Knock'em Out:** In addition to the conventional shells, the Contender can also switch to gas canisters filled with a disorienting gas, holding enemy units in place until the effects wear off, unable to fire or defend themselves.

* **Glass Jaw:** As a support piece, the Contender is made to stay to the rear and lob shells at the enemy. In a straight fight, the Contender's life is measured in minutes.

* **One-Two Punch:** Newer shells are starting to be distributed to Contender crews, equipped with additional bomblets, these new shells releases six smaller versions of the shell for greater area of effect.

## Background

*"The POWER of BALLISTICS!"*

-Contender pilot
It is said that infantry are the kings of the battlefield, without which any advance, battle, or war would be lost. It can equally be said, however, that if infantry are the kings then it is the artillery that are the queens of battle: immeasurably powerful machines of war capable of bombarding and cracking even the most fortified of positions miles away from position. With enough artillery, there is no position that cannot be taken, no spot that cannot be converted to ruins and glass, no army that cannot be obliterated. All this power, however, comes at a cost. Artillery tend to be more lightly armored than their peers, slower to move and turn, more vulnerable in a close-in fight, and combined with their power make a tempting target for those who find themselves on the wrong side of them.

The S13 Contender Artillery Strider was an attempt to overcome the vulnerabilities of the Technocratic artillery discovered during the Revolutions and afterwards. M6 Harneys and M100 Huskies provided the basis of the Technocratic artillery divisions up until 1967, and had shown their effectiveness in combat against both loyalist members of their former national armies as well as the resistance forces left behind in the aftermath of the Technate's formation. This, however, meant that they were the first target for any group seeking reprisal: resistance fighters were trained to identify the shape of the SPGs from a distance and focus their RPG-7 fire on the vulnerable areas, rush into touching distance and clamber up to drop grenades in the hatches, or expend entire platoons of men to take one over for themselves. With guerilla fighting slowly but surely whittling down their remaining supplies of available vehicles, the Technate needed to find an alternate artillery system.
It was the Herrero Walker Compound that first came up with the idea of taking existing light artillery guns and installing them into a walker chassis, under the vision of 'stacking wider, not taller'. By taking a lower calibre gun and mounting it on a faster but more fragile mode of transportation , so the train of thought went, the Technate could quickly and cheaply build a great number of quick-moving artillery guns that needed a minimum of support in order to operate in the rugged conditions of South and Central America. They would be less susceptible to enemy counterfire or takeover due to the legged gyroscopic propulsion system granting them the ability to quickly maneuver to different locations if they suspected detection. Their lighter nature meant that more could be produced for less materials, and that if one was captured it would be less of a loss for the army commanding them.
The one major problem with the Contenders became clear when the first twenty produced were attached to the command of Supervisor Henrietta Cantara, at the time engaged in flushing out a suspected resistance group found set up inside an unusually large bunker-like tank near the northern stretch of the Amazon rainforest. Having been placed in reserve while forward Weasels and Resolutions investigated the fortified vehicle, the Contenders were suddenly notified and given the order to fire on the tank - which had abruptly come to life and started firing on the Supervisor's forces. The new artillery walkers sprang into action at once: gunners calculated angles and sent shells screaming into the jungle and pilots kept the vehicles on the move, only pausing occasionally to radio for contact and allow the gunners to fire again. By all accounts, it was a textbook perfect enactment of the assigned orders and tactics taught to the Contender crews.

Unfortunately, as was reported back by Cantara, the light guns of the Contenders had failed to have any effect whatsoever on the retreating tank, merely bouncing off the hull of the strange vehicle as it continued deeper and deeper into the jungle. Even a direct hit on what was assumed to be the engine block failed to stop or slow the tank down, and it was only via the heroic sacrifice of Explorer Samuel Beefjack and the entire 12th Linebreaker force that the vehicle and its crew of resistance fighters could be taken down at all. In her notes, Henrietta noted her immense disappointment at the failure of the Contenders: *"Perhaps if we still had M100 support, or even a group of Harneys, we might have managed to avoid the loss of so many of my brave comrades. The walkers failed to directly inflict any notable damage on the target fortification, and indirectly were responsible for deaths of the initial investigation teams who relied on them for support in times of crisis. If twenty could not dent a tank plate, then even a thousand could not hope to breach a fortress under siege."*

The Contender was shelved for a time, and only recently came back into the ranks of the Mobile Guard with a re-examination of the design and its intended usage as a tool of war. It was determined by several Supervisors who had previously held artillery positions that the Contender's envisioned usage had been misplaced: while initially believed to be a fast mobile replacement for existing heavy artillery, the Contender in truth would be more ideal for light artillery support, suppressing and barraging enemy armor and infantry in order for heavier tanks and artillery systems to capture or engage them. Once its tactics had been revised, subsequent war games showed positive signs, and the Contender was reinstated as an active design.

Since its initial construction in 1967, the Contender has gone through changes and shifts over the years, much like the other designs created by Herrero. The 40mm cannon was eventually augmented with two more, as one was of limited effectiveness against even the surplus WW2-era tanks prized by resistance groups. Along with standard HE and DSS shells, a special chemical munitions casing was also developed in order to quickly spread nonlethal but horrific gas into the field from range - nicknamed "Niebla Naranja", or Orange Fog, said gas was readily visible as a thick low-hanging orange cloud that quickly created blood-filled ulcers on the skin and open areas of individuals it swept over, which were not only highly sensitive but easy to burst. Though it wouldn't kill on its own, the sight of fellow soldiers spraying their weapons and clothing with fresh blood every time they moved or fired has been found to have a negative effect on one's willingness to fight. Finally, a second pair of legs were installed into the chassis, though they are usually kept tucked up and folded away when moving: this came about after several pilot head injuries and embarrassing footage of Contenders toppling over when firing their guns on uneven ground.