[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[AndrewJTalon]

The reason Jaune isn't as great a warrior as the rest of his family is he somehow threw off their curse and is actually financially responsible.

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Artoria married into the family and so some Albion financial sensibility got into the family line at last.

 

[SharkCultist]

The reason Jaune isn't as great a warrior as the rest of his family is he somehow threw off their curse and is actually financially responsible.

Click to shrink...

He doesn't spend stupid amounts of money on shifting mechanisms, untested tech, and high yield explosive ammo.

Which naturally means he's not doing as much damage but it also means he doesn't have to live paycheck to paycheck and a diet of nothing but canned beans.

 

[RustedSands]

Artoria married into the family and so some Albion financial sensibility got into the family line at last.

Click to shrink...

Nah. She left all the finances to Merlin, surprisingly enough it was the one area he took absolutely seriously.

Shirou was the head of finances in the family but he kinda.....gave up when it came to his kids and their family. Budgeting for Artoria's appetite was tough enough.

 

[CountvonBarnOwl]

Editor von BarnOwl here: Typing this out took way longer than I had expected, or anticipated.

oh Great Count of Hoots and Barns, this humble peasant comes to you on bended knee with a request.

we humbly ask for a "Ruby reacts to The Guns from Helldivers"

... that or her reaction to this gun:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2hsGZSVG4E

Click to shrink...

I will oblige this eventually.

And I had an idea as to how in the shower for the stage this morning. Set during the timeskip-montage in the Atlas arc, Whitley takes Ruby to the Atlas Arms & Munitions Museum (or should it be Atlas Museum of Arms & Munitions?). After the canon - largely - plays out in the way that it has, she needs to be in a big building surrounded by very little besides not cursed guns. Count is not sure if Ruby is the type of girl to automatically deem a gun as cursed just because it is a bullpup. Though Helldivers does have its a couple cursed guns, so there will be room for some funny moments. Point is: I think I conjured a scenario in which Ruby can react to guns (cursed and otherwise) not already in RWBY canon.

And the 1911 is either something Whitley would get Ruby in lieu of, or along with, a set of earrings as a gift, or the kind of gun Ruby would buy as a birthday present for a kid.

Been rewatching Ghost in the Shell: SAC. It's still amazing, one of the best animes ever made. But it did make me think about the possibilities of the scifi/fantasy police procedural in the world of Remnant. Now, naturally there are two problems:

1: RWBY wasn't written like that, it was more of a shonen battle school kind of anime which rarely has speculative fiction elements that explore the world itself.

2: CRWBY wasn't intelligent enough to write anything like that. Hell, I think an episode of GiTS:SAC would leave no impact on them-It would be like a dog barking at flashing lights. Or their heads would explode.

So here's three ideas for mysteries/speculative fiction ideas to explore in Remnant, that could be interesting. Concepts that might be possible in-universe. And could be part of plots for RWBY, JNPR, or others to solve. Heck, a good old fashioned noir PI story with Qrow could work too.

1: A person with an unregistered Semblance is able to transfer their age into others, to allow themselves to stay young-But the cost gets higher and higher as they get older. The Vale City police find a number of people who died of old age, despite being in their 20s and 30s according to their records. So the Vale PD (Perhaps their Specialist division for cases like this) is assigned to find who's committing these murders.

2: Healing Dust transfers Aura from one person to another to a limited extent, which helps with healing and improves people's lives. Black market and street level versions of Healing Dust is also manufactured, which is not up to the same standards but is something the poor and desperate would need. You could also use Healing Dust to target Aura at the brain's pleasure centers, causing euphoria-Essentially a drug. Poor quality Healing Dust can also transfer aspects of the soul to others-Memories in particular. Dust Junkies might get the memories of the user. Which has all sorts of possibilities for stories.

3: There is a terrorist group called the Aurae: They feel that those with powerful Auras have been blessed by the gods and are destined to rule over the rest of Remnant's population. That they are superior and deserve to be the rulers of mankind and faunus alike. They recruit powerful Aura users, often Hunters who were blacklisted, ex-Atlas Aura unlocked soldiers, criminals, bandits, etc. They are very survival of the fittest oriented, and tend to launch terrorist attacks to demonstrate the weakness of non-Aura empowered individuals. The Vytal Tournament has several potential targets over the course of the festival, so security would be tight. They might also be used by Cinder for her plans.

What do you think?

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#1 sounds especially interesting to me. Attempting to track down a target of variable appearance would be especially difficult. But if they knew a Semblance was in play, but not exactly what, and made a chapter or part dedicated to figuring out what that Semblance was, it would make for a whole host of interesting character studies. In that how multiple people can, through personal psychological quirks, look at the same set of information and come away with (at times radically) different conclusions. Of course, I see a cause to include the main cast in this matter as, should this happen in say, Vale, it is known that the police staffing the precincts south of the rivers are canonically (at least in Roman's opinion) blithering idiots. Perhaps not Teams RWBY or JNPR (unless Ozpin is in one of his moods) but Qrow, or perhaps Ironwood tells Winter to go help the VPD amp up security in advance of the festival. Perhaps Team CFVY or some other older students getting a more advanced experiential assignment? Or, flip it around and have Roman be the one to track down this menace because Neo outwardly looks like a target.

#2 and #3 taken together could make an interesting concept in and of itself - Count has mused on the nature of the soul in Remnant. And come to a conclusion, well, several conclusions, mostly pertinent to the 'What The Caterwauling Hell?' timelines. Primarily, souls are not of even mass. Count thinks some characters have souls of greater or lesser substance than others. Let me explain what I mean.

First off, I divide Remnant's population into not two races, but three. There are the Humans and Faunus, of course, but there are also what Count refers to - for want of a better phrase - as the Zhenren. Translated from Chinese Zhenren comes out to "True Human" The word has had various meaning in various contexts over the millennia, and depending on the context (Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese history, and evolutionary biology). But those humans who can use magic are fundamentally different - on the spiritual level at least - from those Humans and Faunus that came after the Gods departed.

This is Salem in body and in soul. She cannot know death, and she cannot, to a degree, know change either. Even the Grimm pools which were supposed to set into her an endless urge and desire to destroy (per Jinn, CRWBY-tier writing shining through on that one. The Grimm soup failed to destroy her, so rather than taking of her her senses or her memories or anything like that, or better yet, transfiguring her further into a natural force of all-consuming entropic destruction (a nice blessing-turned-curse from the younger Brother, to compliment the Elder's bestowal of infinite life) yet the second she saw Ozma she acted as her old self and held on pretty good until Ozma tried to abscond with their kids, which let's face it, pre-Grimm Salem would have done the same.

There's a scene where she talks about Aura and Semblances, but her tone is full of disgust. She handles the concepts regarding the souls of those who came after the gods in a way not dissimilar to how Taiyang handles picking up Zwei's turds. Perhaps that is why the Spirit of Ozma will always completely subsume the other. He, like the Fifth-Dimensional Imps and New Gods of DC, or the Daemons of 40k, simply exists more than anyone else he inhabits. On the spiritual level, he is not just a being of greater height, width, and depth, than anyone else (bar Salem and the Maidens) on Remnant - but he has a few things besides. Or if we were to put that in the negative, he and Salem are 3d while everyone else are flat-worlders.

A darker idea that Count had is that the Zhenren, as I have dubbed them, are the only things with odic force sufficient to hold themselves together after their bodies die. Salem could, Count supposes, perceive her magical daughters after she slew them, wanting to retreat to her for guidance (what child would not seek shelter in their mother's arms) only to recoil in mortal fear of her every time her gaze turned toward them, mistaking her distress for hatred, until they - freely - departed Remnant for whatever comes after. What effect does this have on the Maidens, even Count does not know. It is akin to apotheosis, Count thinks, that the Maidens can persist after death. Of course, to horror, this naturally excludes everyone else.

Another idea Count had is that Dust is like Philosopher's Stones in FMA. They are the last terrestrial Remnants of the other Zhenren (all converted when the God of Darkness shattered the moon). And that every time somebody turns on a lamp on Remnant, they are basically taking the alchemical shortcut and offloading the energy cost onto the soul of some sad bastard who got raptured and transfigured into a rock. If you want me to be slightly more optimistic, we can say that the rest of the Zhenren went clean (mostly) to the afterlife and Dust is essentially the metaphysical equivalent of dead skin or hairs that fell out during sleep solidified.

Where was I going with all of this? Oh yes, admixing Dust narcotics and Aura terrorism. Idea:

- The consequences of needle-sharing: A junkie takes some dust off the corpse of a Huntsman, and not just any Huntsman, this bastard was on the Red List (Not just blacklisted - he got put on the Interdictio aquae et Ignis/Kill On Sight list) he was a powerful fiend with a truly bonkers level of Aura and a haxx Semblance. Said junkie swipes the dust while the Huntsmen who did him in are arguing about where to turn proof of the kill in (this guy was wanted in multiple kingdoms) for the bounty. Vagrant goes off and takes a hit of the dust. That night he has a particularly bad trip. And not just a bad trip, he's had those before. But he remembers places he's never been to and people he's never met. He knows secrets that would fetch a high price and a poisoned knife in the back in the courts of Mistral. He knows how to wield a mechashift weapon that he has never trained in. And that creeping sensation that he's being watched, and that he's not alone just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse. He's not being followed. Devoured, yes, but not followed. Of course, he won't realize that until he figures out that he is not even alone in his own mind.

We could, bluntly, take this in a very Chucky direction. A dangerous madman who everyone thinks is dead is up to his old tricks with a new face that nobody knows.

And we can go further beyond. This is not the first time that this menace has died. Our vampire has taken advantage of the Healing Dust phenomenon to transfer his soul, like electricity on a wire, multiple times. Of course, he's nothing to old hands like Ozma and Salem, and he cannot even boast True Magic like the maidens, and theoretically, the more Aura his victim has, the greater the chance that his consciousness will lose out. Said individual will still have multiple lifetimes of memories and nightmares to parse, and the sheer weight of so many memories chance turning the winner into a facsimile of the old vampire.

Count also did some napkin math for another completely unrelated idea about politicking in the military industrial complex in Atlas - primarily brought about by the Whitley-borg idea. Atlas could, if it wanted to, support at max 3,058,000 soldiers (or equivalent thereto and Count did the math, each of their 37 big ships (Count counted, ah ah ah) should cost between 200 and 7,000 soldiers worth of training and equipment in terms of Lien value). Of course, Count doesn't think Ozpin, the Atlesian Council, or various domestic and foreign interests would let the army get to be this big.

But in theory I cannot imagine Atlas fielding anything less than a full Army Group (400,000 to 1,000,000 men) because somebody did the math based on what was seen on Seasons 7 and 8 and came up with a figure between 12,000 and 17,000. That is one division. That is what we would put a major general in charge of. Not a full general. Now, since I do not think Atlas has the concept of a field marshal. Count proposes this system for referring to general officers in Atlas. Set forth below from lowest level to highest.

- Brigadier General - brigade general
- Major General - divisional general
- Lieutenant General - corps general
- Colonel General - army general
- Captain General - Army Group general, Headmaster of Atlas Academy

If we wish to have two or three Army Groups, the Headmaster falls into the lap of the commander of Army Group: Solitas / Army Group: Home (as opposed to the commander of Army Group: South, or the commanders of Army Group: Sanus and Army Group: Anima) who is possibly accorded with an additional rank (Generalissimo). Any way, this will allow for politicking between multiple full-rank generals as well as the finagling of influential families of Atlas to get their heirs and toadies as high up on the chain as possible to secure contracts and prestige.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Editor von BarnOwl here: Typing this out took way longer than I had expected, or anticipated.



I will oblige this eventually.

And I had an idea as to how in the shower for the stage this morning. Set during the timeskip-montage in the Atlas arc, Whitley takes Ruby to the Atlas Arms & Munitions Museum (or should it be Atlas Museum of Arms & Munitions?). After the canon - largely - plays out in the way that it has, she needs to be in a big building surrounded by very little besides not cursed guns. Count is not sure if Ruby is the type of girl to automatically deem a gun as cursed just because it is a bullpup. Though Helldivers does have its a couple cursed guns, so there will be room for some funny moments. Point is: I think I conjured a scenario in which Ruby can react to guns (cursed and otherwise) not already in RWBY canon.

And the 1911 is either something Whitley would get Ruby in lieu of, or along with, a set of earrings as a gift, or the kind of gun Ruby would buy as a birthday present for a kid.



#1 sounds especially interesting to me. Attempting to track down a target of variable appearance would be especially difficult. But if they knew a Semblance was in play, but not exactly what, and made a chapter or part dedicated to figuring out what that Semblance was, it would make for a whole host of interesting character studies. In that how multiple people can, through personal psychological quirks, look at the same set of information and come away with (at times radically) different conclusions. Of course, I see a cause to include the main cast in this matter as, should this happen in say, Vale, it is known that the police staffing the precincts south of the rivers are canonically (at least in Roman's opinion) blithering idiots. Perhaps not Teams RWBY or JNPR (unless Ozpin is in one of his moods) but Qrow, or perhaps Ironwood tells Winter to go help the VPD amp up security in advance of the festival. Perhaps Team CFVY or some other older students getting a more advanced experiential assignment? Or, flip it around and have Roman be the one to track down this menace because Neo outwardly looks like a target.

#2 and #3 taken together could make an interesting concept in and of itself - Count has mused on the nature of the soul in Remnant. And come to a conclusion, well, several conclusions, mostly pertinent to the 'What The Caterwauling Hell?' timelines. Primarily, souls are not of even mass. Count thinks some characters have souls of greater or lesser substance than others. Let me explain what I mean.

First off, I divide Remnant's population into not two races, but three. There are the Humans and Faunus, of course, but there are also what Count refers to - for want of a better phrase - as the Zhenren. Translated from Chinese Zhenren comes out to "True Human" The word has had various meaning in various contexts over the millennia, and depending on the context (Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese history, and evolutionary biology). But those humans who can use magic are fundamentally different - on the spiritual level at least - from those Humans and Faunus that came after the Gods departed.

This is Salem in body and in soul. She cannot know death, and she cannot, to a degree, know change either. Even the Grimm pools which were supposed to set into her an endless urge and desire to destroy (per Jinn, CRWBY-tier writing shining through on that one. The Grimm soup failed to destroy her, so rather than taking of her her senses or her memories or anything like that, or better yet, transfiguring her further into a natural force of all-consuming entropic destruction (a nice blessing-turned-curse from the younger Brother, to compliment the Elder's bestowal of infinite life) yet the second she saw Ozma she acted as her old self and held on pretty good until Ozma tried to abscond with their kids, which let's face it, pre-Grimm Salem would have done the same.

There's a scene where she talks about Aura and Semblances, but her tone is full of disgust. She handles the concepts regarding the souls of those who came after the gods in a way not dissimilar to how Taiyang handles picking up Zwei's turds. Perhaps that is why the Spirit of Ozma will always completely subsume the other. He, like the Fifth-Dimensional Imps and New Gods of DC, or the Daemons of 40k, simply exists more than anyone else he inhabits. On the spiritual level, he is not just a being of greater height, width, and depth, than anyone else (bar Salem and the Maidens) on Remnant - but he has a few things besides. Or if we were to put that in the negative, he and Salem are 3d while everyone else are flat-worlders.

A darker idea that Count had is that the Zhenren, as I have dubbed them, are the only things with odic force sufficient to hold themselves together after their bodies die. Salem could, Count supposes, perceive her magical daughters after she slew them, wanting to retreat to her for guidance (what child would not seek shelter in their mother's arms) only to recoil in mortal fear of her every time her gaze turned toward them, mistaking her distress for hatred, until they - freely - departed Remnant for whatever comes after. What effect does this have on the Maidens, even Count does not know. It is akin to apotheosis, Count thinks, that the Maidens can persist after death. Of course, to horror, this naturally excludes everyone else.

Another idea Count had is that Dust is like Philosopher's Stones in FMA. They are the last terrestrial Remnants of the other Zhenren (all converted when the God of Darkness shattered the moon). And that every time somebody turns on a lamp on Remnant, they are basically taking the alchemical shortcut and offloading the energy cost onto the soul of some sad bastard who got raptured and transfigured into a rock. If you want me to be slightly more optimistic, we can say that the rest of the Zhenren went clean (mostly) to the afterlife and Dust is essentially the metaphysical equivalent of dead skin or hairs that fell out during sleep solidified.

Where was I going with all of this? Oh yes, admixing Dust narcotics and Aura terrorism. Idea:

- The consequences of needle-sharing: A junkie takes some dust off the corpse of a Huntsman, and not just any Huntsman, this bastard was on the Red List (Not just blacklisted - he got put on the Interdictio aquae et Ignis/Kill On Sight list) he was a powerful fiend with a truly bonkers level of Aura and a haxx Semblance. Said junkie swipes the dust while the Huntsmen who did him in are arguing about where to turn proof of the kill in (this guy was wanted in multiple kingdoms) for the bounty. Vagrant goes off and takes a hit of the dust. That night he has a particularly bad trip. And not just a bad trip, he's had those before. But he remembers places he's never been to and people he's never met. He knows secrets that would fetch a high price and a poisoned knife in the back in the courts of Mistral. He knows how to wield a mechashift weapon that he has never trained in. And that creeping sensation that he's being watched, and that he's not alone just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse. He's not being followed. Devoured, yes, but not followed. Of course, he won't realize that until he figures out that he is not even alone in his own mind.

We could, bluntly, take this in a very Chucky direction. A dangerous madman who everyone thinks is dead is up to his old tricks with a new face that nobody knows.

And we can go further beyond. This is not the first time that this menace has died. Our vampire has taken advantage of the Healing Dust phenomenon to transfer his soul, like electricity on a wire, multiple times. Of course, he's nothing to old hands like Ozma and Salem, and he cannot even boast True Magic like the maidens, and theoretically, the more Aura his victim has, the greater the chance that his consciousness will lose out. Said individual will still have multiple lifetimes of memories and nightmares to parse, and the sheer weight of so many memories chance turning the winner into a facsimile of the old vampire.

Count also did some napkin math for another completely unrelated idea about politicking in the military industrial complex in Atlas - primarily brought about by the Whitley-borg idea. Atlas could, if it wanted to, support at max 3,058,000 soldiers (or equivalent thereto and Count did the math, each of their 37 big ships (Count counted, ah ah ah) should cost between 200 and 7,000 soldiers worth of training and equipment in terms of Lien value). Of course, Count doesn't think Ozpin, the Atlesian Council, or various domestic and foreign interests would let the army get to be this big.

But in theory I cannot imagine Atlas fielding anything less than a full Army Group (400,000 to 1,000,000 men) because somebody did the math based on what was seen on Seasons 7 and 8 and came up with a figure between 12,000 and 17,000. That is one division. That is what we would put a major general in charge of. Not a full general. Now, since I do not think Atlas has the concept of a field marshal. Count proposes this system for referring to general officers in Atlas. Set forth below from lowest level to highest.

- Brigadier General - brigade general
- Major General - divisional general
- Lieutenant General - corps general
- Colonel General - army general
- Captain General - Army Group general, Headmaster of Atlas Academy

If we wish to have two or three Army Groups, the Headmaster falls into the lap of the commander of Army Group: Solitas / Army Group: Home (as opposed to the commander of Army Group: South, or the commanders of Army Group: Sanus and Army Group: Anima) who is possibly accorded with an additional rank (Generalissimo). Any way, this will allow for politicking between multiple full-rank generals as well as the finagling of influential families of Atlas to get their heirs and toadies as high up on the chain as possible to secure contracts and prestige.

Click to shrink...

Love it! Even the rambling bits!

I'm working on creating a Valean Defense Force and figuring out their counts as well because fuck the "No militaries" thing. They just said that the other kingdoms rely more on Hunters for defense but Vale and the other powers would still need militaries for various things. Atlas may have "the biggest" in the same way the Chinese have a bigger military than the US: Sure they have more assets but not as high quality. And yeah I'd have to rewrite the Vytal Festival disaster but so what? Frankly I think the Valean Air Navy being pulled away for some fake emergency, and then returning to the city only to be attack by the hacked Atlas Navy and getting into a massive air battle with them and the Grimm would be far more interesting and would help Salem's goals much more than if Atlas was the lone military power in the world.

 

[LordofBones]

Fun random idea: How would Blake try to convince Katy of the gloriousness of Menagerie's cause?

Blake: "Menagerie is the homeland of all Faunus!

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Katy: "Menagerie wasn't even a thing a century back. Did we all just pop out of thin air one day?"

Katy: "Not mine."

Blake: "But why continue to serve humans?!"

Katy: "Um, my family doesn't. We're neighbors and friends. We own our farm."

Click to shrink...

Katy: "I mean, other than when Jaune and me played Prince and Loyal Vassal..." *drools*

Blake: "Only because humans gave it to you!"

Click to shrink...

Katy: "Humans also gave you Menagerie."

Blake: "We won it in a war!"

Katy: "You won bumfuck nowhere in a war and proceeded to set up a glorified dictatorship. Remind me, how large is the Belladonna compound and how long has your family ruled?"

Katy: "You do realize there were Faunus throughout history that lived out fairly stable lives, right? And were granted titles of nobility? When the Arcs were kings, we were Counts."

Blake: "Counts?"

Katy: "Like, we ruled Radian County on behalf of the Arcs when they were royalty."

Click to shrink...

Katy: "Who taught you history, anyway?"

Blake: "History is racist!"

Blake: "But why do you only own a farm now?!"

Katy: "Well, because my ancestors were about as good with money as the Arcs. And we usually sided with the Arcs and so, when their fortunes fell, so did ours."

Click to shrink...

Katy: "Also, way to be classist, Your Highness."

 

[Bommel]

Katy: "Who taught you history, anyway?"

Blake: "History is racist!"

Click to shrink...

This kind of fanon Blake seems like if she wasn't so obsessed with the racism thing she would be the kind of consperecy theorist who denies the existance of dinosaurs while directly looking at their fossils.

 

[LordofBones]

This kind of fanon Blake seems like if she wasn't so obsessed with the racism thing she would be the kind of consperecy theorist who denies the existance of dinosaurs while directly looking at their fossils.

Click to shrink...

Blake: *rants to Salem how she's a human conspiracy to keep Faunus down and subservient*
Salem: "Oh by the Dark Brother you're Menagerian."

 

[SharkCultist]

Had a idea.

So the silver eyes are emotionally reactive. And their use is always some form of "get rid of/destroy the Grimm"

But, hear me out. What's more emotional than a small child?

So baby Ruby and Yang in the forest with the big bad Beowulf.

And all smol brain Ruby can think is "I want a puppy!"

Que silver eyes being used in a way nobody really intended because nobody ever gave a thought to using them as anything but a laser.

One magic eye flash later and Qrow finds Ruby and a very confused Yang sitting with a bright silver Grimm about the size of a pug.

They name it Zwei.

 

[Gur40]

Death Battle Really Did Ruby 1 weakness

Spoiler: A Straight Couple

RIP Ruby

---

We had Cyber Watts

Spoiler: V8 Ironbot

Mettle is good for a fight, terrible for a leader

---

Holybun

Spoiler: FNKI Favorite Crack Ship

Never Check A Racist Search History

---

SImp Branwen Gene

Spoiler: It's Genetic

vs the Rose Gene

Spoiler: Nuts and Dolts

Whitely is Plan D

Spoiler: Schnee hunter

Leader meetings

Spoiler: dork knights

Ruby Truly An Accidental Harem Protagonist

---

If Jaune was a Faunus

Spoiler: They'd think he was a horse not a rabbit

He'd be to dangerous for the Huntsmen to let live

---

Super Jaune!

Spoiler: Himbo and Hero

And unlike Cavil he would rock the Beard

---

Spoiler: Dr Knowitall work life

 

[cavalal386]

.... that explains so much. (i meant the Zwei is a grimm thing)

Spoiler: Dr Knowitall work life

Click to shrink...

.... someone give that poor thing a nap, a hug, some real food, some sleep and a paid vacation, not in the order.

 

[SharkCultist]

The Jaune superman thing reminds me of a joke where a villain goes to lex luthor and tells him he knows superman is Clark Kent and lex basically says

"shut the fuck up. We all know he's Clark Kent, don't mention it."

And when the other dude gets angry and questions it lex tells him that as long as he's busy being a reporter farm boy that's at least a small bit of time he isn't on their ass. They blow his secret and he has no reason not to be superman 24/7.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Technical Profile: M-77AA Sky Drake Anti-Air Tank

• Type: Self Propelled Anti-Air/Anti-Personnel
• Manufacturer: Kalvis Motors
• Origin: Vale
• Role: Anti-aircraft defense, anti-Grimm operations, anti-personnel support, convoy protection
• First Deployment: Year 71 Post-Great War
• Cost: Moderate (cost-effective modular design, higher than M-77 Chimera due to advanced targeting systems)
• Dimensions (Adapted from M-77 Chimera):
  • Length: 7.5 meters (slightly longer than Chimera for radar integration, based on Sun Devil's 10.2m actual length)
  • Width: 3.5 meters (wider for stability)
  • Height: 3.0 meters (taller turret for autocannons)
  • Weight: 35,000 kg (heavier than Chimera due to turret and radar)
• Crew: 3 (driver, gunner, commander.
• Powerplant: Kalvis D-8 Combustion Dust Engine (700 horsepower)
• Performance:
  • Top Speed: 50 mph (80 km/h) on roads; 40 mph (64 km/h) off-road (slower than Chimera for turret stability)
  • Range: 350 miles (extendable to 450 miles with external Dust canisters)
  • Ground Clearance: 0.5 meters
• Armament:
  • Primary: 4 x Quad-Linked Winchester M-38 40mm Dust-Accelerated Autocannons (full-rotation turret, elevation to 70 degrees, Fire, Ice and Lightning Dust remote or sensor detonated rounds, 140 rounds/min, 600 rounds each, effective against Nevermores, Manta-class airships, and light Grimm hordes)
  • Secondary: 1 x Coaxial 7.62mm Machine Gun (Lightning Dust-enhanced, 2,000 rounds, for anti-personnel use)
• Defenses:
  • Composite armor (titanium-steel with Ceramic Dust plating, resistant to 25mm rounds and Grimm claws, lighter than Sun Devil's ceramic-titanium for mobility)
  • Anti-Grimm Sonic Emitters (75-meter radius, deters smaller Grimm, adapted from VDF airships)
  • Multi-use Grenade Launchers (Smoke, Ice Dust-based for concealment, etc, 8 canisters)
• Electronics:
  • Sky Drake Sensor Suite: Thermal, radar, Dust-signature detection; tracks up to 50 targets (air or ground).
  • Secure Comms Array: Encrypted links to VDF command, Huntsmen, and airships (e.g., Banshee, Nereids)
  • Terrain Mapping System: Real-time analysis.
• Special Features:
  • Full-Rotation Turret: 360-degree autocannon turret for rapid tracking of aerial threats.
  • Modular Chassis: Shares M-77 Chimera hull for cost-effective production, allowing field conversions to standard Chimera
  • All-Terrain Tracks: Optimized for Sanus' forests, Vacuo's dunes, Mistral's rugged terrain, and Menagerie's coastal islands
  • Dust Refueling System: External canisters for extended range in remote operations
  • Anti-Air Radar Package: Compact Wayland QR-33 radar dome for tracking aerial Grimm or airships.
• Variants:
  • Sky Drake-EA (Enhanced Anti-Air): Includes 8 x Redspot ASM-22 missiles for increased anti-air capacity

---

Background and Development
Kalvis Motors, Vale's leading vehicle manufacturer, designed the M-77AA Sky Drake to address the VDF's need for a modern mobile anti-air platform. Commissioned post-Mount Glenn disaster, the Sky Drake counters aerial Grimm (e.g., Nevermores, Griffons) and Atlas' advanced airships (e.g., Manta-class, AH-33 Eisenfaust), while supporting ground operations in Vale's territory.

Developed over three years, the Sky Drake uses the M-77 Chimera's modular chassis for cost efficiency, replacing the 120mm cannon with four quad-linked 40mm autocannons and a radar package. Tested in Forever Fall against Nevermores and in Vacuo's deserts against rogue airships, the Sky Drake proved effective at shredding aerial targets and light Grimm hordes. Its lighter armor (compared to Sun Devil's 66 tons) enhances mobility for Sanus' forests and islands, but it remains vulnerable to heavy anti-tank weapons. The Sky Drake's reliance on Vale's Dust supply is a risk, mitigated by Kalvis' local production. It's QR-33 Radar Tracking System gives it excellent accuracy against Grimm or airships.

The Sky Drake can engage Grimm Hordes in the air or ground, making them a very flexible and effective combat platform. It is actually produced in larger numbers than the Chimera MBT.