#scumbrigands

[oshlet]

Lohan-Scott ‘Spitting Cobra’ used by the Korst Collective to bolster their firepower and provide additional strategic mobility to their foot soldiers. Not as fast, agile or durable as light mechs, Cobras make up for these shortcomings with their lower cost and ability to mount especially powerful weaponry. Spitting Cobras are a form of direct command robot, in which a human operator controls the machine through a neural link. Due to its quadrupedal form, operators either need special training in its operation or a gene-mod allowing the brain to rapidly adjust to different body types. While gene mods are uncommon, alt-body compatibility is widely used by those who do possess them.

[oshlet]

Flatfoot pattern Quadruped of the Paladins of Cerise. The Paladins are a brigand force operating within Sond with ties to the old Monarchist regime, specifically the Noble family of Cerise. Although no nobles are part of the organisation, its led by the more fanatical elements of the Cerisan personal army.

The flatfoot itself is an older design, mostly carried by its heavy armament and thick armour (In this case a rotary autocannon in the main turret). Its also heavy, sluggish and requires a crew of three to operate properly rather than the single man machines other brigands and S-11 itself uses.

While mostly unmodified aside from applying general advances in servo technology to to legs, the Paladin flatfoot does have a notable deviation from the standard issue in the pair of clearance saws on the front. Sond’s thick undergrowth is a nightmare for wider-footprint vehicles to traverse, so being able to hew through tougher stretches of forest is vital for the machines to remain effective.

[oshlet]

A Korst Collective LCM-1 of Provisional Company 44, pinned by heavy autocannon fire, and trying to get a bead on its attacker before its cover is torn to pieces.

Luckily for the mech, much of the Flora of Sond is exceptionally hardy, being introduced via in Inv-Flo (Invasive Flora) program: A pre-schism terraforming program making use of specially crafted plant life to land and propagate across a planet in preparation for human colonisation. Although effective, the program was suspended after the 8th planet due to the difficulty of actually building anything on a planet with such durable, fast-growing plant-life.

Because of this quirk of biology, much of the population of Sond still live in the castle-cities of the old monarchy, allowing brigands like the KC to operate relatively freely in the thick wildlands.

[oshlet]

I forgot to post! Ahhh!

The Korst Collective and Paladins of Cerise square off in the thick Sond rainforests, with a mix of light mechs, quadrupeds, GEVs and mechanised infantry. While relatively evenly matched in terms of numbers and technology in totality, the Paladins have some especially experienced soldiers among them, veterans of the Monarchist War.

The Korst Collective’s saving grace is their possession of pirated LCM-1 schematics. While not any more durable, or possessing any more advanced weapons than other mechs used on Sond, the LCM-1 is faster, more agile and stronger. In firefights this is a small edge, but in close combat, the true potential of the machine is unveiled. 

[oshlet]

Korst Collective ‘Swamper’ amphibious mech, Developed from the system 11 ‘Aquaman’ submersible mech. After System-11′s victory in the war against the Sond monarchists and the subsequent fragmentation as various factions broke away, caches of system 11 materiel were left unattended to be uncovered and pressed into brigand forces.

The Korst Collective upgraded the already impressive aquaman unit by swapping out pressure resistant joints and plating with thicker armour, adding a pair of reflective smoke grenade launchers and replacing the more compact diving weapons with a massive mech-grade shotgun.

[oshlet]

Back to Sond! This time in the northern regions usually referred to as the coldswamps. Home to a host of grimy amphibians and fish, as well as one of the main Korst Collective bases. S-11, with their new ‘Man MK2s rolling off the production line, deploy to this region to root the brigand menace out.

Unfortunately, the new MK2 is still finnicky, and the tolerances aren’t quite up to the harsh and pervasive muck of the coldswamps, nor are they quite prepared for the massive Korst Collective ‘Swamper’ mechs, built specially for the terrain.

With its gun jammed and discarded, and its wrist-mounted plasma gun failing to cripple the swamper, the purple S-11 machine is forced to close to melee range. Although its strength and mobility is impressive, its hampered by the mire beneath it, and has to content with the sheer weight of its opponent, which shatters the left arm of the ‘Man with a single swipe.

[oshlet]

Korst Collective LCM equipped with a particle cannon and ERACS (External Reactor And Capacitor System). The ERACS (also known as ‘shrimptail’ among troops and engineers, alongside other, more vulgar names) provides the necessary energy to fire powerful directed energy weapons like particle cannons. It can be hooked on to the LCM’s back if mobility is required, while still providing enough power to fire lower energy particle beams. Full deployment which immobilises the mech is required to fire at full power, however.

[oshlet]

Korst Collective ‘Hornblower’ Hybrid GEV/Aircraft. The design originates, like many within System 11, from the Sond/S-11 war, being essentially a scaled down version of the ‘Messenger’ assault carrier with a modular lower section allowing it to act in a wide variety of roles. In modern times, Hornblowers are used by S-11, the KC and many other brigand groups.

This particular specimen has been tooled as an endurance gunship, with a broadside cannon array and a secondary capacitor in its modular section to improve the power of the nose-mounted tactical laser.