Thunderbolt IV

“If this is the best we can build… Then even those Grand Arms boys better watch out!”

-Boasting by the lead designer for the Thunderbolt IV

“Don’t know if even this thing can survive a “final” war…”

-Pilot voicing his doubts about the power of the Thunderbolt IV

Speed: Mach 80 (full combined mode), Mach ?? (overdrive boosters full combined mode), Mach 50 (Gun wagon), Mach 75 (Gun wagon, overdrive boosters), Mach 30 (War angel), Mach 45 (War angel, overdrive boosters)

Length: 250 meters (full combined mode)

Height: 75 meter (full combined mode)

Armour: Duratanium, 50 cm thick

Shield: magnetic energy shield, Aegis Plasma shield, Gaia sync shield

Reactor: 9x Antimatter reactor (4 in Gun wagon, 5 in War angel), 6x capital class cold fusion reactors (1 in each kabuto remote)

Weapons fixed:

Full mode

1 x Ultimate Justifier (carried in the right hand, 1 x 350 mm gatling cannon, 1 x Lucifer class plasma cannon, 1 x antiship beam sword) 1 x High Intensity laser (HIL) turret (Above Gun wagon cockpit), 2 x Xenocide weapon clusters (On side of Gun wagon, 1 x Morning Star class Antimatter cannon, 1 x Pulsar gatling, 1 x super fryer cluster), 4 x Anti-fleet missile pods, 2 x Nuclear missile racks, 10 x antiship turrets (Mounted all over body, 2 x super fryers), 2 x large defensive turrets (mounted beside upper intake, mounts 2 x dreadnaught class cannon), 1 x hardpoint for side arms (covered later), Many x missile pods and launchers (all over body), Many x remote bays (can carry up to and including crossbow remotes) 6 x Kabuto remotes (covered later) 2 x 150 mm gatling (mounted beside nuclear missile rack), 2 x Super fryer (1 mounted beside each nuclear missile rack), 2 x Beam wing emitters

Gun Wagon

1 x Gungnir class Rail cannon (mounted under body), 2 x collapisable Gabriel class cannons (mounted on “arms”), 1 x High Intensity laser (HIL) turret (Above Gun wagon cockpit), 2 x Xenocide weapon clusters (On side of Gun wagon, 1 x Morning Star class Antimatter cannon, 1 x Pulsar gatling, 1 x super fryer cluster), 4 x Anti-fleet missile pods, 2 x Nuclear missile racks,) 2 x large defensive turrets (mounted beside upper intake, mounts 2 x dreadnaught class cannon), 2 x 150 mm gatling (mounted beside nuclear missile rack), 2 x Super fryer (1 mounted beside each nuclear missile rack)

War Angel

1 x Ultimate Justifier (carried in the right hand, 1 x 350 mm gatling cannon, 1 x Lucifer class plasma cannon, 1 x antiship beam sword), 2 x Power arms, 10 x antiship turrets (Mounted all over body, 2 x super fryers), Many x missile pods and launchers (all over body), Many x remote bays (can carry up to and including crossbow remotes) 6 x Kabuto remotes (covered later), 2 x Beam wing emitters, 1 x Sniper cannon (mounted beside head), 1 x Gigantic beam saber emitter (under body)

Misc systems:

FTL drive

Interdimensional drive

Advance far ranging ray scanner (2.5 light year range)

Advance optical array (1 AU range)

Developed in great secrecy this project was the trump card the Grand alliance would use against any of its enemies. As with the Hyllus Project (mass produced, and manned Heracules based mech made to replace many of the Grand Alliance aging mechas) this project was a joint effort from more then one branch of the Grand Alliance military. Unlike this project however this was very secretive and even the designation Thunderbolt IV was a fake to confuse enemy strategist. Following Ares force naming conventions this mech should have been a heavy fire support mech that would replace the Thunderbolt III. As a budget item open to public scrutiny the only hint they would get about the true nature of this mech was the extremely high development cost not normally associated with the simple development of a fire support mech. Other costs were hidden in other project’s budgets as a safe guard against more prying. In reality this mech was made to deal with Golden Hemogeny, Shadow Obscura and even Grand Arms forces on an equal or better footing. The result of all this expensive development was the most powerful mech to be fielded by the Grand Alliance at the time. This mech would prove to be the bulwark against the grand Alliance many enemies until they would need something stronger…

Due to the strength of Gaia force sync shield technology and the modular weapon development of the Ares forces, these two branches were choose by the ruling council to head this very secret and important project. The Gaia sync shields have proven themselves to be extremely durable even against “god” class type beings. Even powerful attacks from these entities are counted as only taking one charge from the shielding system. Ares forces have proven themselves capable of continually developing more and more powerful weapon pods to be used by their forces. They have also shown great innovation in the manufacture and the capability of their mecha. Together these strength plus the backing of all the other branches would create one spectacular craft.

Unlike other Grand Alliance craft 2 people piloted this mecha. To be able to use the Gaia sync shields one of them had to be a female. The 2 positions available were pilot (just had to fly the mecha and fire all non-homing weapons) and the weapons officer (fired the homing weapons, controlled the remotes and operated the scanners). Many combinations were tried such as: female-pilot female-weapons officer, male-pilot female-weapons officer and so on. Out of the 10 Thunderbolt IV no clear combination of teams could prove which one was better. Such as the case the teams were allowed to figure out for themselves which combination worked best for them.

The power of this craft was quiet evident when the raids on Golden Hemogeny BLADE development facility were made. Even thought the mechas came back damaged all crew survived and the facility were totally destroyed. No other task force or combination of forces could expect to carry out this mission, never mind with just one mecha!

Despite all these advantages the development and mass production of this craft has proven problematic. Very fine machining is required to make the collapsible weapons and the combination components. This cannot be readily produced for use for mainstream production. It is estimated that it could take as long as 50 years to be able to mass-produce this craft; such is the state of its bleeding edge technology. The other disadvantage is the high cost to make and supply these mecha. It is estimated that the ordinance cost for one mecha alone could fund an entire carrier task fleet (ships, fuel, weapons, and salaries)!

Full mode

This mode is best described as a flying fortress. It does not have access to all its weapons but this is pretty much a moot point considering the power and numbers of guns it can point forward. Other then the standard heavy weapons of Grand Alliance forces the weapons of real note for this project were: HIL turret, Antimatter cannon and Pulsar cannon. HIL are normally found on certain engineering ships to help in battlefield repairs (they are a welding laser) but can be turned into a very high power laser, which could bore thru an enemies armour no matter how thick. What this weapons lacks in wide area of destruction it makes up for in sheer penetrating power. The Antimatter cannon were the largest ever fielded by Grand Alliance forces. Even more powerful then a Lucifer class cannon they were even more temperamental. These cannons could barely be fired with any form of control and some heavy conventional weapons were obviously added as back up. The Pulsar cannons fired a large pellet of frozen hydrogen, which was ignited by antimatter. This turned the pellet into quiet literally into a miniature sun. The awesome power of this new sun could burn thru the thickest and exotic armour with ease. But once again the temperamental nature of this weapon could barely be contained in the frame of this mecha. In addition to the power of its weapons this mecha could divide into two complete super fighters creating its own army of two. Fusion and division of this mecha was extremely quick and allowed for the Thunderbolt IV to adapt to many situations. Only down side to division was if there was a male crewmember that his component when separated would not have Gaia shields.

Gun Wagon

The pilot piloted the top part of this component of the Thunderbolt IV fighter. All the pilot had to do in this mode was to fly and shoot. The large majority of the remote and missile bays were with the War Angel. However this mode got the large visual scanner array, which helped detect targets at great distances. To bring out the full potential of the scanner an extremely powerful rail gun was equipped for this component. Firing a 500 kg slug at extremely high speeds it could penetrate thru asteroids, small moons and not to particularly dense planets! Though it hasn’t been used against any Grand Arms mecha it is estimated that even their venerable defences can be broken with this weapon. The down side was the small amount of slugs, which could be carried, only 12. The rail gun also needed 1 minute to charge itself to full capacity.

War Angel

The slower, strategic, melee minded component of the Thunderbolt IV. This component retained the Ultimate Justifier, which was powerful but more importantly had a powerful ray scanner. Able to scan up to 2.5 light-years away in real time (recovered and reversed engineered alien technology facilitated these ability but further away it had to scan the “fuzzier” the results it would return) this scanner matched the missile and remote pods perfectly. The weapon officer using this component had at their control as much missile capability as whole fleets and the most sophisticated remote control ability that could be made. No slouch in the melee department this component had large powerful manipulators. The beam emitters were used to slice thru capital ships and anything else that got in the way as this mecha rampaged. The last weapon of note was the massive beam saber attached to the bottom of this mecha. Able to slice thru a space station or fortress in one slice this gave the War angel a definite edge in the demolishing department.

Remotes (from top down)

In addition to the remotes already in the Grand Alliance inventory there were a number of remotes specially designed for the Thunderbolt IV.

Kabuto remote

Speed: Mach 30, Mach 40 overdrive boosters

Length: 25 meters

Height: 15 meter

Armour: Duratanium, 10 cm thick

Shield: magnetic energy shield, Aegis Plasma shield

Reactor: 1 x Antimatter

Weapons fixed:

1 x Dreadnaught class plasma cannon, 2 x 200 mm rail gun, 1 x electro-shock array, 2 x flexible ordnances arms (can mount 2 x Star Hornet weapon pods or 1 x Hayabusa weapon pod) many x missile pods

The cream of project Checkmate this contribution to the Thunderbolt IV project was greatly appreciated. It had the equivalent firepower of a Hayabusa mecha and was one of the few remotes to be equipped with shields. Advancement in remote logic greatly increased the efficiency of this remote. In addition to missile and mine logic it had to other logics: return and ghost. Return logic was simply that the remote would return to the Thunderbolt IV when its designated target was destroyed. This allowed for the remote to be reused over and over again. Ghost logic made the Kabuto fly along side the Thunderbolt IV and fire when the Thunderbolt IV fired. Essentially it acted as added fire support. For weapon pods the Kabuto could mount any thing a Hayabusa could carry which greatly increased the tactical flexibility. The only down side to this powerful remote was that it only carried 6 of these.

Melee remote

Armed with 4 beams sword and a pile bunker this remote got really close and personal. It was also equipped with a modest overdrive booster to get in close faster. It was effective enough to deal with small capital ships.

Gun remote

This remote was armed with two 75 mm machine guns, two 100 mm plasma lasers and a few micro-missiles. This remote was good for softening tough enemies or dealing with minor pawns.

Rail gun remote

Equipped with 3 powerful one-shot rail guns this remote was used for added sniper support. Not very tough this remote was usually held back to use its capability to the fullest.

Missiles (from top down)

Even the powerful weapon pods already in use were not good enough for this mecha. Developed alongside the Thunderbolt IV these missiles could only be used by mecha as sophisticated as the Thunderbolt IV.

Overdrive missiles

Costing as much as a fully loaded Star Hornet these missiles should be used sparingly but instead they were spammed with very little regards… which is what the accounting office would have you think! In reality these missiles were one of the most effective ever produced by the Grand Alliance. This missile used overdrive boosters to quickly accelerate up to blinding speed. It would then activate nose mounted beam shields and drill thru opponents before exploding. The pure destructiveness of this missile was enough to take down even such powerful mechs as the Golden Hemeogeny BLADE Nodachi.

Beam spray missile

Used for diversionary and anti-pursuit tactics this missile was quiet innovative. Firing out multiple small beam shots this missile could intercept other incoming missiles or take out groups of light fighters. The uses for this missile were left to the imagination of the weapons officer.

Mini Kitchen Sink

Costing as much as an unloaded Viggen these missiles were always carried in small numbers. It was essentially a smaller version of the kitchen sink missile not quiet planet busting these missiles were powerful enough (hopefully) to deal with Shadow Obscura or tougher opponent. Almost always used as a Hail Mary type weapon these missiles were used no other options were left.

Overload missiles

These missiles could overload energy shields. It is estimated that at least a dozen missiles are needed to take down Grand Arms shields, while actual field use has shown that these missiles can take down scores of Golden Hemogeny fighter’s shields.

FTL missile pod

Using the advance ray scanner these missiles were used for pre-emptive strikes of up to 1 light year distances. Unfortunately at these ranges the composition of forces may be known but the exact location may not be. Therefore as much 110 mm plasma missiles were crammed into this missile as possible. Hopefully its one-way trip would yield good results.

Sidearms

Many of these weapons were just up gunned versions of common weapons carried by most Grand Alliance mecha. Stored under the beam emitter wing arrays (had spots for 3 weapons per wing) these gave some extra little punch. Not to say they weren’t powerful it was just that every other weapon the Thunderbolt IV carried outshone these sidearms. Grand Alliance scientists are busy working on making some truly fearsome sidearms to fit the power of the Thunderbolt IV.