Samehada Buster Mecha

**Key Features** | »» MX-24 "*Kanenobu*" plasma-cutter cannon»» Variable transformative frame»» Twin blade toes (splits for land usage)»» Auto sealing cockpit (w/ breathable liquid)»» Reinforced armoured headgear (w/ fake pilot body inside)

*"Hot blooded? No...**cold** blooded."*

- Samehada pilot
## Tactical Analysis

* **Oversized Oaf**: Samehada Buster Mecha are the mecha equivalents to Tankbusters and Jishin Buster Tanks. They are armed with a single plasma cutter cannon for superb anti-vehicle work, but their feet configuration makes them slow in moving, making usage of their weapon problematic.

* **Savvy Skater**: Over water, the Buster Mecha is at an advantage - it can 'skate' over the water far faster than it or indeed most mecha can walk over land. It also retains use of its cannon.

* **Deep-sea Danger**: When in water, the Buster Mecha can also transform into the Samehada Buster Submersible, becoming unattackable like other submarines except when surfacing or by special weapons. It can also use the plasma-cutter cannon to tear apart other submersibles and ships, though it is obviously limited to water in this mode.

* **Pragmatic Predator**: Those pilots who’ve experienced the harsh realities of war will make use of their dummy cockpits to feign death, only to spring up and attack when the enemy lets their guard down. Such pilots, with their common sense, are also issued wave-force guns specially adapted to work underwater.

## History

Though it may be starting to be displaced by other companies in the manufactoring and sales of military mecha, Tenzai has one advantage when it comes to mecha production over competitors such as Honda, Kanegawa, or Guervara; experience. As the premier maker of AI-assisted mecha designs for over twenty years and more, Tenzai has had the opportunity to learn much about how mecha can succeed...and how they can fail. After World War 3, for example, they were able to learn several new lessons, lessons that one design team decided were to be incorporated in their next full-scale mecha.

For one, the team noticed that most mecha designs seemed to have a crippling weakness in them, that both Tenzai and its competitors were guilty of: For in all of the designs made so far, each and every one of them had the pilot sit in the head section of the vehicle. Looking where the greatest losses were for the mecha divisions in the Empire, the designers found that nearly all of them were the result of trained Allied or Soviet snipers simply shooting the pilots out through the glass screens in the head - the same area that all of them were the most trained at aiming at. With mighty military machines brought down by simple infantry with sniper rifles, the designers decided to go against the grain, and changed the basic design they had so far. As dishonourable as it seemed, the cockpit was moved to the place where the armour was the thickest - the lower torso, above the pelvis (also the beginning of a new design trend). Secure in this area, the head area of the hypothetically named Buster Mecha was instead gven a fake compartment, with a fake infantry torso inside of it. Whenever it was shot out, the pilot would be notified, before cunningly pretending to be downed - all the more opportunity to prepare an ambush afterwards. Of course, this was seen as dishonourable by the designers of previous mecha designs - were the Buster Mecha designers actively wishing that the pilot should hide in the crotch of their own war machine, pretending to be dead to avoid being honourably killed in battle?

For another, though it seemed tantamount to madness to suggest the Imperial Navy was deficient in any way, the mecha legions had little to no serious ability to project their strength across water. While Tsunamis and Tengus could easily traverse the water, the recent seperation of the armour and mecha divisions meant that Tsunamis could not be relied on to aid the mecha legions in battle, and Mecha Tengus were armed with weaponry too weak to seriously take on larger ships and vehicles in the water. As such, the new mecha design was made to solve this - arming it with an upscaled plasma-cutter cannon modified from an old Buster Tank, the Tenzai workers put in an experimental foot design allowing the mecha to move over water using what amounted to enlarged skates. The mecha would be slower-moving over land, even slower than the designs of other companies, but sacrificing high speed for the ability to cross water - quickly too - was thought a small price to pay. Of course, this was also seen as a dishonourable move by the other mecha designers - did the designers expect the tentively renamed Nalu Buster Mecha to slow all the others down when on the move, then run away over water at the first sign of danger?

Finally, when putting the finishing touches on the design, the makers noticed one final idea - while the mecha was admittedly meant for giving additional amphibious abilities for the mecha divisions, it could also be used to plug a problem that the Imperial Navy faced as a whole - submarines. Except for the Yari Mini-Subs, which were really only scouting ships, there was no Imperial vessel that could adequately deal with submarines. Surface ships were torn apart in World War 3 by packs of Akulas with no way to retaliate until it was too late. As such, the designers decided to make a daring move - poring over the design and making changes here and there, they made the finally named **Samehada Buster Mecha** into a variable transforming mecha, capable of transforming into the similar Samehada Buster Submarine. It too would transform into a submarine, a dishonourable act perhaps but making it capable of taking on submarines and ships in the water too with equal ease. This, for the other designers, was the final straw - now not only was the mecha apparently meant to hide and run away from danger, but now it was built to transform into a sea-slinking, underwater hiding submarine?

By the time the designers unveiled the Samehada Buster Mecha and the Samehada Buster Submarine simultaneously, there was a number of betting pools going on for when or how fast the new Emperor would laugh and deny the design and its makers out of hand. It was much to their surprise, then, that after intense scrutiny of the design and questioning the makers about the purpose, that Emperor Kamina commended the Samehada designers for their foresight in developing a new and great improvement to the capabilities of the mecha divisions. Now, for all that their design may appear dishonourable and questionable on first glance, much like their infantry and tank counterparts the Samehada Buster Mecha is a respected addition to the Imperial military. Though most pilots tend to keep fighting even when their "head" is shot off, meaning that most of the time the pilots still die due to the enemy now aiming for the real cockpit (causing the designers to ask why they bothered to make the fake head if the pilots still choose to die “honorably”), though veterans tend to actually use their dummy cockpit for its intended use, realizing that while honour is grand, it's better to live and fight another day (especially against foes who has no honor at all), and also using the tactic of playing possum to give payback to enemies who did the same to them or others.

And around a few months after the Samehada unveiling, the scientists had found a way to make their Wave-Force weaponry waterproof and capable of firing underwater. But the materials and process to make it so meant that making a single cannon cost the equivalent amount to make three regular ones, so waterproofing most of the ones they had was seen as impractical. But they did find use of it by giving these cannons to Samehada pilots who showed common sense (as in pretending to die when the head is shot off), giving the pilot much-needed range, and hopefully incentivizing other pilots to actually use the dummy head.