Antares

## Introduction

The **Antares** is a tier 2 heavy support vehicle fielded by General Ironside. It's a mobile energy shield generator that can create a force field sturdy enough to block all projectiles from penetrating it.

## Overview

Despite having proved itself to be a formidable weapon, the Elbrus Storm shares a weakness with all superweapons in that it cannot move. Thus all it takes is a few spy satellite scans for the United States and China to pinpoint their location and obliterate the launch sites before they have a chance to launch.

Since then, the GLA has adapted tactics to make their long ranged tactical weapons as mobile as possible and hide those that cannot be moved. Prince Kassad, an expert in the field of stealth and deception, utilized GPS jamming and camouflaging to hide his launch sites from sight. And intel indicates that he may have acquired MAZ-543P Tactical Erector Launchers for his Elbrus missiles, these mobile launching vehicles will be easier to hide and harder to trace and pinpoint. General Huchum also began to hide his launching facilities under unsuspecting civilian structures such as temples. He has also captured several long range howitzers from the Chinese military which he used to launch artillery strikes at enemy bases.

In order to counter this new and unpredictable threat, the United States Army has ordered the development of new platforms that can act as mobile substitutes for General Alexander's powerful but expensive and not always readily available SDI Cannons. General Townes utilized his laser technology to produce the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser, a powerful point defence weapon built on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). General Alexander on the other hand, came up with something similar but different, she also used the HEMTT as the chassis of her project, but instead of a laser or a particle beam cannon, she outfitted it with her new brainchild: the shield generator. Both units are currently undergoing field tests and evaluation under General Ironside.

The Antares is a mobile shield generator that has a futuristic design: a long, slim truck chassis with two cuboids on its ends and a rather unique apparatus that looks like a portal generator straight out of science fiction. It uses eight wheels to move and a spare tire is hung near the driver compartment as an emergency tyre replacement. It does not have an offensive weapon, instead, it has a beta-stage shield generator at its very center to create a big sphere of force field surrounding it. The force field is so powerful and sturdy that any solids and liquids cannot penetrate through it. Most of the time, the force field blocks out bullets, AT shells, artillery shells, small energy beams and ballistic missiles (SLBMs/ICBMs will vaporize alongside its contents when in contact with the field). Because the shield generator needs a hefty amount of power to create a force field and there is no space for extra batteries, the vehicle has to use its own engine as a power source to power the shield generator. However, this also means that the shield can only be used sparingly as using too much power from the sole battery will exhaust the electric-powered truck's power supply and render it undriveable, so the driver has to switch off the shield when it is not in use.

The Antares is designed to play a purely defensive role, it's objective is to project United States military assets from weapon strikes. When an enemy strike is detected inbound, the Antares will activate its shield module, generating a nigh-impenetrable energy barrier around itself. The shield it generates has a wide radius and is large enough cover important structures such as Strategy Centers, War Factories and superweapons. The Antares can use its shield while on the move,meaning a battalion of units can safely mount an offensive attack with Antares' force field being the emergency defense shield dispenser.

While the Antares is a highly useful unit against the occasional artillery barrages, it still has its limitations. Firstly, the Antares' shield module is quite power hungry and cannot maintain the shield for too long, and will power down 15 seconds after activation, and will take 2 minutes to recharge in order to be deployed again. And against weapons that deals heavily splash damage, the Antares' shield may not activate quickly enough, causing the splash damage to destroy the unit. Also, due to the complex nature of the Antares and limited availability for its parts, only 5 Antares units can be fielded at a time.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Shield activates automatically upon detecting a threat.
* Effective against offensive generals powers such as artillery barrages.
* Shield has a wide radius and can cover most buildings.
* Can move when shield's active.

Cons:

* Expensive ($3,000).
* Completely lacking in offensive capabilities, cannot even equip drones to defend itself.
* Only 5 can exist at a time.
* Particle Beam somehow can penetrate the shield.

## Trivia

* Antares, also known as Alpha Scorpii, is the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation and overall the 15th brightest star in the night sky.
* The unit is similar to Red Alert 3's Athena Cannon,albeit without Athena's orbital bombardment ability and its shield never gets smaller over time like Athena.
* Originally, the Antares was a unit exclusive to General Alexander, a couple of Antares units appear on General Alexander's challenge.