Harbinger gunship

The FTAC-X2 Harbinger gunship was an advanced Allied gunship in Red Alert 3: Uprising.

Background
Dwarfing even the Allies' own Century heavy bomber, the Harbinger is a veritable flying fortress, and is armed to the teeth with nothing less than the power of the Allies' ultimate weapon, the Proton Collider. The Harbinger's advanced sensors and weapon systems allow it to hold and secure large areas, as well as to provide heavy fire support to any surface forces in the vicinity.

Being larger than any turbofan jet to date, the Harbinger's ability to fly hinged on the need for an on-board Collider fuel cell -- one that was "small" enough to fit on such a gigantic plane. The production model of the gunship features not one but two starboard-mounted 120 mm Collider Cannons, each one packing the explosive punch of a howitzer of roughly the same size. Because the fuel cell provides the Collider Cannons with their ammunition and also runs the Harbinger's four redundant turbofan engines, the gunship can remain airborne for days.

To make up for the Collider Cannons' inability to strike precisely at a chosen destination, the Harbinger features a nose-mounted 25 mm chain gun linked to targeting systems that track the gunner's eye movements. These extremely accurate weapons can shred lightly-armored surface threats without causing significant damage to the environs.

Unlike other aircraft in the Allied arsenal, the Harbinger eschews a VTOL design and needs to continually orbit while trained on a target. This, together with the Harbinger's sheer size, also means it is incapable of landing at a standard Allied airbase. Fortunately, the Harbinger features FutureTech's proprietary self-diagnostics-and-repair system, which makes up for its inability to touch down for repairs while out in the field. Meanwhile, an elaborate array of sensors and communication equipment lets Harbinger crews keep a lock on terrestrial targets during flight.

Harbinger gunship crews are hand-picked by FutureTech from its private flight schools, as men demonstrating the coolness under fire and whichever other rare personality traits and skills that FutureTech strictly demands of its teams. Both the Allies and FutureTech Corporation have since denied or dismissed rumors of ongoing tensions between Harbinger crews and the Allies' own fighter jocks, even though the latter see the former as "a pack of vultures circling the skies sniffing for blood," according to one Allied pilot who wished to remain anonymous.

Usage
The Harbinger Gunship serves as the Allies' heavy bomber and aerial artillery, similar to the Soviet Kirov and the Imperial Giga Fortress. Its firepower allows it to make short work of anything on the ground. It's extremely durable, more so than the Kirov and less so than the Giga Fortress, and is faster than the other two heavy bombers, though aside from them it is the slowest aircraft.

Its armor and firepower allow a Harbinger to even defeat a Giga Fortress in a one-on-one face off. Large groups of them are nearly unstoppable; only considerable anti-air defenses can stop them. However, it does have its drawbacks, chief among them being that it is the the 2nd most expensive piece of military hardware in the game, it's asking price only surpassed by MCVs and Giga Fortresses (The Ultimate weapons were more expensive as well but a recent patch cut their prices in half). Also, its collider cannons have difficulty hitting fast moving targets and infantry, and while it doesn't need to reload, it does have a fairly long cooldown period in between salvos.

It somewhat compensates for this vulnerability against the latter by switching to its chaingun, which is very effective against infantry, and in addition, most anti air vehicles are lightly armored, allowing the chaingun to pick them off with ease. However, the chaingun is useless against heavily armored vehicles. Being that it is a specialized support bomber it can't attack other air units, making it extremely vulnerable to enemy air superiority fighters and should always be escorted by fellow Apollo Fighters. But overall, its ability to annihilate infantry, vehicles, and structures in short order as well as simply negating the effectiveness of most ground based air defences due to its sheer armor and firepower make the Harbinger Gunship an extremely useful and debatably overpowered fixture of the Allied Air Force.

Created

 * Gunship, all checked out!

Select

 * Harbinger, all set!
 * Harbinger!
 * Got something fun for me?
 * Spill it!
 * What's that, command?
 * Yeah, right here!
 * Got anything good?
 * You're all ready back there?
 * Wanna give them the bad news?

Moving

 * Yep, we're headin' over!
 * Sure!
 * I hear ya!
 * Punching it in!
 * Let's go!
 * Fine by me!
 * Yeah, anywhere is good!
 * Whatever you like!
 * Might as well!
 * Copy that!

Attacking with cannon

 * Well, lookie here!
 * Peg that, skeeter!
 * Watch 'em scatter!
 * Yup!
 * Sweepin' the trash!
 * Let her loose!

Attacking with chain gun

 * Hehehe, look at that one!
 * Little more pepper on that?
 * Shake 'em down!
 * That one still moving!
 * Finish 'em off!
 * Mulch 'em!
 * Open up on 'em!

Move to Attack

 * Here we go!
 * Now we're talking!
 * Well, let's check it out then!
 * Hehe, spill on aisle twelve!
 * Green light, fellas!
 * I'll take that one!

In combat

 * Ooh yeah! you see that?!
 * Gotta love the sound of that!
 * Punch & pie!
 * Little something for everyone!
 * Ever wonder what they're thinking down there?
 * Keep it circlin'!
 * Almost finished!
 * Who's left?

Retreating

 * We gotta move!
 * Coming back hot!
 * Before they take us!
 * We're gonna make it!?

Under fire

 * Hey! They're shooting at us!
 * Watch it there!
 * We're a little too close!
 * Hey! Hey!
 * Gunship's taking heat!
 * They're getting gutsy!
 * Whoa, we're hit!?

Trivia

 * A Harbinger Gunship tends to use bullets for tanks and base defenses and Collider cannons at buildings when used by an enemy AI.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Harbinger is loosely based on real-world USAF Lockheed AC-130 "Spectre" gunship, due to both it's visual, and weapon designs, but at first glance it might look like A C-5A Galaxy transport plane.
 * The Harbinger is voiced by Steve Blum .