Dragoon Battle Armour

**Key Features** | »Becker 20mm (water cooled)»Articulated steel claw»Clockwork-controlled, steam-powered hydraulics»Steam canister dispensers (on top of shoulders)»Monocle over vision slit (classy)

*"Who challenges me?"*

- Dragoon
## Tactical Analysis

* **Knight in armour:** Dragoons fill the role of infantry support in the Crusader branch of the Talon. While just as mobile as infantry, they are considerably larger, much more heavily armoured and to be honest, quite intimidating. And as a large, dangerous target, enemies often target the Dragoons first. Any fire directed at units behind a Dragoon will damage the Dragoon instead, allowing it to create mobile cover for frail infantry and serve as a meatshield for more vulnerable Talon forces.

* **Hail of lead:** With their heavy armament, Dragoons thus function as a crutch vehicle of sort; if Talon infantry are being overwhelmed by more numerous enemy infantry, Dragoons can rapidly turn the tide with their Beckers, as well as their steam canisters, which can prevent enemies from firing.

* **Jaws of steel:** The articulated claw arm of a Dragoon can send enemies sprawling backward with a swipe, and is also a Dragoon pilot's most useful tool for dismantling light vehicles and the like.

* **Even in death I still serve:** Dragoons veterans are equipped with heavier armaments. Critical parts of their chassis is reinforced, explosive mortars are attached to the top to provide extra firepower, their claw is replaced with a much deadlier buzzsaw, and their machine gun is upgraded to a rapid-fire grenade launcher and dispense medical kits for surrounding Talons.

## Operational History

Journal of an unknown Austrian soldier during World War I, the Serbian front, 1915:

*"What I am about to write is the most cruel thing I ever seen. My battalion and I were dispatched to the Serbian front. Mostly it was being force marched a kilometre one day, and the next day the Serbians pushed us from there. It continued day after day, week after week, month after month. It was like a hell on Earth. Every day one of my friends died, and from what I heard from other soldiers the same happened in the whole of Europe.*

*Well, I don't want to write about what was going on in Europe; probably everyone who will read this will know it themselves. I want to write about what happened that one day. I was alone in the forest after a large battle. I was lost, and I was searching for my battalion. To my surprise, when I came out of the forest and saw a battle. No, it wasn't battle, it was a massacre. I saw two parties, which definitely weren't Austrian or German soldiers, and some others who weren't Serbians. These two parties were fighting for a large shrine, and one of the sides was wiping out the other with weapons I never heard of.*

*This group consisted of armoured men armed with rifles, heavily armoured knights with large cannons and bipedal nine-foot large machines armed with autocannons and large melee weapons, all in black and silver colours. They mercilessly killed anyone from the other side, also wearing black clothes, along with symbols depicting a red hand.*

*These machines killed anyone that got in their way. Their machine guns tore through the ones in black and red, and when anyone got too close to one these machines, it would slam him down and stomped on him. It was a cruel battle.*

*The firing stopped and I watched, when mysterious figures went into the temple. Meanwhile those machines were looking for any survivors. The rest of their forces gathered all the corpses and took them to the temple. Soon, the figures left the temple and the knights pointed their guns on the temple and started firing on it.*

*The temple burst into a terrible inferno, even as the knights turned away to leave. I observed that scene, so shocked from it that I couldn't even move. The soldiers in black disappeared, and it took me ten minutes until I was could get a hold on myself. I was so afraid that I didn't look closely. After two days I found my battalion, but I haven't told them about that incident. I was sure they wouldn't believe me. The only place where I mentioned anything of the event is in this journal, and I don't want to talk about it anymore."*

Along with other Order walkers, **"Dragoon" Battle Walkers** were designed by a prodigy of the Forgemasters, Aperta Scriptum. These machines are eight-foot tall armoured suits, capable of carrying two weapons on its arms, from broadswords to small artillery such as 17 pounder guns. The Dragoon's Talon Steel armour plates would keep it safe from harm at any distance; at the time it was unthinkable that anything could penetrate its outer shell.

Parallels were quickly made to armoured knights, an analog that appealed greatly to the Templar order...

## Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Talon Steel Vehicle

 **Kill Reward** | 3200

 **DPS** | 10

 **DPS** | 30

 **DPS** | 50

 **DPS** | 150