LandMates of the Principality of Near Earth Orbitals

After the initial Blitzkreig of Spider Mechs saw considerable success, the large scale military production of LandMates by AEGIS with assistance from the POSEIDON Corporation truly demonstrated the combat superiority of the LandMate ACPA over the Orbital's Spider-mech in urban warfare.

Not one to be outdone technologically, the Principality immediately began development and production of their own line of LandMates using what they learned from fighting groundside. These NEO LandMates are notable for their larger size on average than Earth Federation models, and reliance on Beam Weapons.

Through an enormous research budget, the Principality also has a slight advantage in their models incorporating Cybernetic interface for control instead of the traditional Master/Slave body control interface more commonly used. NEO LandMates are able to more efficiently boost the reflexes of the pilot using neural interface, actually allowing them up to a +3 bonus.

A downside to the NEO Landmate is it's large size. While still able to perfom house to house sweep and clear missions, it is too bulky to maneuver easily in most narrow corridors and bogs down inside structures. This isn't to say that Earth's LandMates don't occasionally encounteer the same problem, especially in the European and North African theaters where centuries-old buildings, made before standardized building codes, allow for extremely narrow corridors. But for the most part the Federation's 'Mates have a slight advantage still in urban conflict.

Shown in this section are 5 NEO Landmates, breifly described from the Ace "Angel Arms" Unit from Side 3. These are five of the top fighters in NEO LandMate warfare with dozens of confirmed kills. Brief Descritpions of the Pilots are included as well, mostly because I had the pictures anyway so why not.

In case you're interested, these LandMates come from a later (post-appleseed) work of Shirow's called "GUNDRESS" which is an anime OVA released in the early nineties. It mostly blows goats but if you want to see some landmates in action I will happily burn you a bootleg dvd.

The "ANGEL ARMS" Unit

Like the Black Tri-Stars Mech unit of the Principality of Near Earth Orbitals, the "Angel Arms" unit is an elite military squad deployed on special missions. Thier background is in private mercenary/vigilante work. At one time they served as a special missions group for police divisions who didnt have the money to pay for a full-time ESWAT team. They ran counter-cyborg missions and genrally filled the place of an ESWAT unit in a number of colonies. When the One year war broke out they were granted immunuty and pardon from all prosecution for former crimes and civil suits accrued by collateral damage on their missions, and allowed to form a semi-autonomous combat unit in the service of Velouria Chrysylophax's Earth Attack Force. When the Spider-Mech services began to decline in favor, the "Angel Arms" unit came to the fore as an elite combat team and a fantastic counter to Earth's AP Team strategem.

Led by Kay Young, they have dozens of enemy kills to their credit and are starting to really make a name for themselves. It is rumoured that they sometimes act as personal bodyguards to Velouria Chrysylophax and they do have past experience in protection and extraction missions. (See the GUNDRESS anime OVA for more details)

The Speed Model "Kumgun"

Named after Korean Palace Guards, the Kumgun is a 'Mate built mostly for speed. Rapid Assault is it's forte while it's armor isless than that of the pure military model "Nocture" It is built from a modified civilian design originally created for a short-lived sport of obstacle course racing very similar to BMX racing in the Americas in the late 20th century. In the images you'll see the capacitor pods attached to the back above the hips. These are solely for the beam-weapons and provide power during engagements. They are extremely high-efficiency and crafted with pure Orbital manufacturing and technology though not as fragile as one might think. The image shown here is in the coloration scheme of Ace pilot Kay Young. Normal units are entirely stealth-black. This 'Mate is over nine feet tall or approximately three meters.

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Here is the original sketch, also useful for if you capture one and want to apply your own unit's colors in photoshop or something. I can provide a 1200 dpi image if you need it.

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The Pilot of this unit is Kay Young, Team Leader and a good professional soldier. She hails originally from Side 6 but joined the Principality because of her belief in Contolism. Her family having been Ereists for many generations. She is shown here in her customer Datasuit. Note the difference in orbital datasuits from Earth Federation suits. Orbital manufacturing is able to create materials in zero gravity that offer less neural resistance and thus can be bulkier and still transmit effective control data. Kay is about 5'9'' and her suit is large as well

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The Military Model

This model is purely Milspec. The first NEO LandMate to roll off the lines after the Spidermech. It is heavily armored, featrues multiple external weapon mounts, has excellent response time and is an all-around solid design based on Olympus' Guges LandMate technology. It has thus far served the Principality quite admirably in ground conflict and will see standard use for years to come.

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Here's the base sketch without the color for a better view of the construction

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Marcia Nocture is the pilot of this standard unit. She has been upgrading this standard chasis for years, resulting in a highly customized 'Mate. She is a soldier who constantly trains, constantly works-out, constantly strives to improve her strength and reaction time. She is a born Colony-girl and the subject of moderate Eugenic engineering in the womb. She is as strong and fast as a high-end bioroid. Her one nod to her femininity is her long hair, other than that she is pure Soldier, which is unusual for someone from her upper-class background. She does have a bit of a snobbish personality

The Recon Model

Featuring Hermes technology true flight, this small, reasonable stealthy model is a great battlefield asset. It's detection and reconnaissance technology is the best that can possibly be packed into a LandMate. With it's full satellite uplinks to C&C and extremely long range communication suite it is an Electronic Warfare , ECM and ECCM juggernaut. It packs high powered jamming technology, every kind of comm equipement currently available and a pretty fair weapon capabilty as well, though limited to hand-held arms only and no shoulder mount or heavy weapons. It's painting lasers are fantastic with excellent range. All in all it is a solid NEO unit.

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The paint scheme shown here is Michelle Truffeun's own incredibly overconfident white and orange. Many of these units pack chameleon armor or at least a camo paint scheme. Michelle is such an ace pilot at Reconnaissance that she just paints her unit in her favorite colors and relies and skill and tech to keep her from being targeted. What's unsettling is that often she's completely successful.

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Michelle Truffeun is born of emmigre parents from Earth. She completely eschews Contolism but is sympathetic to Ereism. She is non-confrontational and fairly gregarious in person. She can come off very 'girlie' if not downright immature, however her netrunning skills are top-quality military.

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The Amphibious Assault "Bullfrog" Model

Designed as a replacement for the "Beetle-Spider" Amphibious spider-mech, these units are fairly quick underwater though incapable of matching the depths the Beetle-Spider could attain. Sometimes piloted by full conversion marine cyborgs, these units are horrors for naval vessels. Often deployed by submarine of camouflaged landing ships disguised as commercial vessels, these rapis assault units tear into the hulls of warships below the waterline or just swarm up the sides with thier hand spikes ( designed after the heel spike cybernetic option ) punching little holes in the hull as they scramble up. The rear of the unit sports seven propulsion veniers capable of moving the unit underwater as fast as any non-hydrofoil vessel. Thier active and passive sonar domes seen on the shoulder are of top-notch capability.

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The model shown above is Silvia Nambu's 'Shark' paint scheme. Standard issue models are typically battleship grey, dark blue, black or blue-green. Below is the original sketch in case you'd care to apply your own color scheme.

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Silvia is a tall girl at Six feet. Of Hispanic descent, she is a citizen of the Texas colony and a bit of a big sister to the other girls of the unit. She is trained in the Yoroikumiuchi school of Kobojutsu grappling and manipulation arts. And can seriously fuck-up an enemy landmate with limb disabling maneuvers. In high school, she was also a promising swimsuit model though a bit small-breasted and that was YEARS ago.

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The Stealth Model

This is a really highly classified top secret model. Only a few even exist and all incorporate the very latest in LandMate technology. These units are all designed for cybernetic interface and do not use the Master/Slave, datasuit technology of nearly all other LandMates. They incorporate chameleon armor and have no paint scheme. The chameleon defaults to black and grey when inactive, as shown here. This 'Mate is well armored, strong, fast and extremely stealthy when it needs to be. A match for the Guges D which can sneak up on a combat Cyborg with enhanced hearing in the right terrain. ( see the Applesseed manga ) It uses a multiple neural interface scheme which unfortunately reduces the troopers attractiveness by requiring five interface plugs be installed making them look a bit like character from 'The Matrix', one in the neck, one on each arm and one on each thigh. However the suit has the most up to day reflexes and boost technology known to man.

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The outer armor design is extremely smooth and simplified, like stealth aircraft of the late 20th Century. Because of it's chameleon armor it can only use and mount expensive, specially desinged weaponry and often relies on melee weapons such as hypervibrational mono-whips, retractable claws or built in lasers.

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Alissa Dolce is the Angel Arms unit commando/recon teammate. She is of Italian descent and about 5'7". She is a heavily augmented human with neuralwear, reflex boosterware and cyberoptic vision and hearing. She is seen here in the special neural datasuit designed for Stealth Units. She has the highly peculiar habit of smoking which is nearly unheard of in Orbital citizens.

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