Audiopod Heavy Walker

## Tactical information

* **Meet your maker**: The Audiopod is a Juggernaut of destruction on five legs. Lesser weapons simply fail to pass it's femtoengineered armor and shielding, while it's twin-linked lance cannons, dual tri-linked kinetic autocannons and three quad-linked hard-light repeaters ensure no ground target is safe. Other vehicles can meet a terrible fate beneath their clawed, synthetic muscle-powered feet or the mantis-like scythe limbs that spring from it when approached. It's also surprisingly mobile, its lengthy strides letting it cover an alarming amount of ground in short order even when it doesn't start literally galloping toward a chosen victim.

* **The sound of one hand clapping is death**: The Audiopod's deadliest weapon however, is it's ability to create a massive burst of sonic energy that deals cataclysmic damage to anything caught by it, enough to destroy most MBTs instantly and reduce all but the toughest infantry to bloody smears.

* **Your demise is postponed**: The Audiopod pays for its power by taking more to produce than any other tier 3 superheavy vehicle and not quite being worth its weight in apocalypse tanks or scythes in their dedicated roles. It is also helpless against aircraft, being unable to aim high enough to fire against them.

* **Annihilation Perfected**: The Audiopods that have seen the most action replace their lance cannons, kinetic autocannons, and hard-light guns with Electron disassociation burst cannons, Blackstar Weapons, and flayer orb casters, rendering all targets vulnerable; including aerial ones; and giving them a greater capacity to harm groups as well as greatly enhancing their firepower.

## Unit History

**Legion Security, Spartan National Security co., Janus Solutions Ltd., Oedipus Committee productions, etc.**

**Official Report To: Board of Classics, selected senior executives**

**Subject: Operation Arx, Anomalous incident**

"Two weeks ago a highly anomalous incident occurred in the middle of our conflict with African League forces over control of east Africa. I'm certain you're well aware that both corporate and African forces were destroyed in a substantial segment of the ongoing conflict over the Cental African Republic. We managed to piece together what happened from surviving recording instruments, but company property was found to be missing and there weren't as many corpses as the losses dictated should have been present."

"When our forces were trying to consolidate some gains after a large armor clash between our forces, our allies, and their forces and allies as part of the Operation Arx offensive, the anomalous forces decided to strike. The reports show a massive airborne raid with the anomalous forces being shot out of pods from racing ships while aerial forces were engaged by the phenomena known as foo-fighters suddenly proving to be a lot more than atmospheric disturbances. Soon, more air-forces started showing up *en masse*."

"In keeping with the top-secret policy for this kind of event, we switched to tactics usually used in case of a sudden "mechanical anomaly" or a surprise Chinese assault. Our forces got some casualties in, but the enemy started deploying large splayed quintapedal digitrade walkers. While most of the enemy equipment seemed to heavy on quality over quantity, these mechanical combatants went through us like Apocalypse tanks. A lot of the stuff was damn durable, they soaked up fire with astounding capability and the walkers' own tough hides were mated to some sort of shielding."

"It speaks to the professionalism of our legions that we managed to hold our ground. But the walkers gunned down infantry with rapid sweeps from some sort of spectrum weapon with kinetic force backing it while heavier targets got smacked with beams that literally eroded their armor as they melted and smashed through to soften them up for follow-up attacks from rapid-fire weapons that appear to be like our railguns. While lacking in air defense, they always kept close to air denial or superiority assets. Attempts at getting close usually ended up with getting stepped on or clawed open."

"Furthermore, whenever they had themselves in a position with hostiles in multiple directions at close range, they deployed a massive sonic pulse by raising a large cylinder usually kept hidden in it's body before rapidly forcing it back in. Data acquired showed that the pulse's shockwave maxed out the decibel counts as they made quick work of ground assets. The effects on infantry are quite understandably extremely messy. While seemingly unable to use their pings often, they proved more than sufficient in achieving breakthroughs while the anomalous hostiles went to work with acquiring salvage or prisoners."

"Luckily, the League forces were no better off than we were and likely actually suffered heavier casualties. So when the anomalous hostiles left, the overall situation was unchanged, though we both had to dip into some reserves. All our data on the incident is available for your review, as are the fragments or presumably carelessly discarded examples of anomalous technology such as what we presume are expended power cells we managed to pick up from the battlefield."

## The Audiopod

Most of the factions with global pull deploy what are often referred to as "super-heavy units" or at least something meant to counter them or can match them in one way or another. As far as ground units go, the Allies have the Assault striker, as well as the effective combination of the Assault Destroyer and Mirage Tank. The Soviets of course, have the mighty Apocalypse and it's anti-infantry brother in the Scythe. The Empire's King Onis and Devastator Tanks are rightly feared. India fields the devastating Rakshasa while the Sovereign striders of the Combine walk the battlefield like gods. The Abioye stands as the most fearsome of the African war-derricks used in large numbers as the Wasteland superheavy tanks roll through bases and infantry columns in the path of the contingent.

Chinese War-walkers, Guild Matthews tanks, the unbridled menace of the Overlord Tank, the Protectorate's colossal Obliterators, Executors and Hunter-killers. Others still have fielded their own attempts at these giants, such as the Overlord, the Aletheia's Hammers, Walids, Terminators, aging Mammoths, and other such vehicles all dwarf what some would assume would even be practical to field on the battlefield. The Ecumene is no different, with it's powerful Audiopods and Defilers. These continue to carry out the hall marks of Ecumenical design, emphasizing power and quality over quantity and ease of manufacture.

The Audiopod seen on Earth is merely one out of a very long succession of such walkers. With five modifiable joint legs, the Audiopod can walk with many sorts of gaits, but usually has two legs on the sides, two in the front and one in the back. On top of the behemoth is a heavy, powerful body equipped with three quad-linked hard-light cannons, two triple-linked kinetic autocannons, and one set of twin superheavy-lance cannons that give the machine the appearance of having tusks or horns, meant to ensure that any land dwelling target will know it's wrath. The famed pinger used by this walker is capable of shaping it's sound to avoid damaging friendly forces who, due to either having sound canceling gear or being mechanical aren't overly bothered by the noise.

On the battlefield, the Audiopod proves to be a devastating platform, though more cost-intensive than most of it's rivals and perhaps not quite as cost-efficient as the more truly dedicated superheavies. Though the constant, endless warfare in Mongolia and its surrounding lands is where the Audiopod easily sees the most usage against Earth forces, this ground-shaking titan of warfare is far from limited to endless battles between Aliens, Clones, Moles, Shadows, and Machines. Anywhere the Ecumene sees something of value that must be taken in spite of heavy resistance or when the data-collecting protocols demand a measure of responses to super-heavies in more controlled conditions then the internecine conflict between the Earth factions, the Audiopod can very well be seen sowing it's own brand of terror.