Giga Fortress

"Giga Fortresses are among the most powerful weapons the Empire ever developed."

- Suki AI, detailing the Giga Fortress

Surveiliance research into the Empire of the Rising Sun's new weapons of the Uprising revealed the disturbingly strange Giga Fortress: a massive, aerial and naval war machine that has the design of a demon's head from Japanese mythology. What possessed the Empire to create such a monstrosity as this is anyone's guess, but the Giga Fortress will certainly be a threat to any Commander, Allied, Soviet or Imperial.

The Giga Fortress is based on VX technology and has proven to be a better assault aircraft than both the Sea Wing and the Striker VX.

History
"Accessing viable targets."

- Giga Fortress in combat

As the Empire of the Rising Sun's ambitious plans of dominating the Western hemisphere started to crumble, the nation's leading weapons manufacturers scrambled to come up with contingency plans that would appeal to their shareholders. Thus did the imminent defeat of the Empire directly bring about the merger of two of the top Imperial corporations, Tenzai Robotics and Shirada Shipworks (now reformed under the banner of Ten-Shi Zaibatsu). Desperate times caused these former competitors to set aside their differences and execute a long-dormant proposal made possible only by a harmonious union and their respective expertise. The result is a machine that even the Empire of the Rising Sun's best scientific and military minds previously thought impossible. No, the Giga-Fortress cannot bring back to life the Empire of the Rising Sun's late Emperor Yoshiro. However, this semi-sentient computer-controlled weapons platform is programmed to exact terrible revenge on the Empire's now-numerous enemies - even if the day comes when no Imperial men or women are left to continue the fight.

The idea of a weapon that can continue fighting self-reliantly even without human operators is suggestive of the depths of desperation the Empire's fiercest loyalists fell to. Nevertheless, the Giga-Fortress apparently is real, judging by a growing number of independently-verified accounts coming from Imperial defectors, Soviet prisoners of war, and Allied servicemen. Assuming these accounts can be taken at face value, the Giga-Fortress must be far and away the most expensive and largest fighting craft ever developed by the Empire of the Rising Sun (or any nation, for that matter). Even an Allied Aircraft Carrier or a Soviet Kirov Airship would be dwarfed by the sheer size of this thing, yet almost none of the innards of the Giga-Fortress are crew-quarters. Instead, the Giga-Fortress is said to be lined with an untold number of servers, communications arrays, and self-diagnostic systems, many of which are purposely redundant. A bridge, adjacent bunks, and mess hall were the only quarters built for a human crew, and even these amenities were mostly for formality's sake. No expense was spared in the production of this craft. Instead the Giga-Fortress must have been built under the nihilistic assumtion that no crew would be available to steer the thing along its deadly course.

Originally thought to be two completely separate platforms, the Giga-Fortress is now believed to be a single entity capable of assuming two completely different forms: a massive sea-fortress, bristling with more than half a dozen heavy-duty cannons and multiple independently-tracking missile systems; and a sky-fortress, built to resemble a monstrous face, armed with something called the "God's Breath device" located in the "mouth" of the thing. The shotgun wedding of Tenzai Robotics and Shirada Shipworks made all this possible, in what may one day considered be among the most outlandish acts of the post-war Empire. As well, it may be remembered as the pinnacle of military robotics. Shirada's advanced weapons, composite armor, and floating fortress nautical locomotors were seamlessly merged with Tenzai's most sophisticated artificial intelligence (A.I.) and dual-stage variable form systems in the construction of this weapon. Those directly responsible are anonymous, likely deceased; some Allied officials have even speculated that the computer-driven Giga-Fortress is the cynical by-product of war criminals refusing accountability for their actions.

Thankfully, as yet there are no publicly documented incidents of a Giga-Fortress attack, and this may be why the machine has no known weaknesses. It is believed to have no moral inhibitions, either, at least not by those who accept that the Giga-Fortress is self-aware to whatever extent is possible for a computer-controlled machine. Its "personality", according to this camp, has been programmed with a version of Imperial military doctrine that places the success of the mission, the ultimate victory of the Empire, and the total defeat of its enemies as top priorities, in that order. But unlike a zealous Imperial warrior, the Giga-Fortress A.I. has no concept of morale, no ability to second-guess officers or to misinterpret its directives, and no need for rest. It exists, perhaps, in a childlike or even a primal state only to fight until either it ceases to operate or the millions of individuals it "thinks" are enemies have been eliminated. One can only hope that the Allies quickly disarm however many of these things finished production.

Uprising
The Giga-Fortress was deployed by Tatsu in an attempt to destroy the Allies occupying Japan, and one was operational near his headquarters, with others being constructed soon thereafter. They were all destroyed, however.

In the Imperial campaign, at least 3 Giga-Fortresses were used in Vladivostok against bases of Oleg Vodnik and Nikolai Moskvin, as well as to destroy Giles'es allied base.

Notes from the field
"What is our objective?"

- Giga Fortress, awaiting orders

Battlefield reconnaissance has revealed at least these facts about the Giga-Fortress:

• Variable transformation -- Much like several of the Empire of the Rising Sun's much smaller pilot-assisted robots, the Giga-Fortress has two completely different forms. As the sea-fortress, it is capable of defeating entire enemy armadas, shelling coastlines, or assaulting flight groups. As the sky-fortress, it can supposedly devastate anything on the ground with something called the God's Breath device. Anything underneath the sky fortress would be crushed, were the sky fortress to revert back to its naval form overhead.

• Truly massive -- The Giga-Fortress dwarfs all other modern combat vehicles, including the biggest naval vessels in the Allied or Soviet armadas. Therefore it is thought to be slow and almost impervious. The thousands of redundant systems inside the thing are said to be constantly maintaining and repairing themselves.

• Cost-prohibitive -- Nearly-limitless research budgets spiraled deep into the red during the development of the Giga-Fortress. According to resource estimates, there is almost no way that more than a handful of these behemoths could have been constructed.

• Nanocore-made -- The Giga-Fortress is far too big to be built out of the Imperial Docks facility typically used for constructing Imperial warships, so instead it is built from the very same types of Nanocore machines that unfurl into the Imperial Docks themselves. Hypothetically, the destruction of such a Nanocore would preventatively cause the destruction of the Giga-Fortress itself.

• Anti-air support -- The Giga-Fortress is defenseless against enemy aircraft in air mode when over land. To lose the Giga-Fortress and a whopping 6300 credits is unthinkable, so bring along anti aircraft support (such as Jet Tengus) in case of enemy fighters.

Usage
The Giga Fortress is extremely strong and durable in either mode. In it its Fortress mode its serves a role similar to tier three ships, but unlike most other ships, it can attack enemies that manage to get up close with its anti-air missiles, which can attack ground and air units. In its air mode, however, its attacks inflict far more damage, and it hits targets in a line, allowing it to hit many units and structures that are clustered together. Its God's Breath greatly outranges any anti-air attack, so anti-air structures pose no threat to it. Aside from its cost, the Giga Fortress' main weakness is that, in its more deadly air mode, it can't attack air units and its God's Breath has fairly slow rate of fire, taking several moments to move all the way to distant targets along its line of fire. As a result infantry and faster vehicles can get out of the way its beam.

Behind the Scenes
"Where is... my body?"

- Giga Fortress, experiencing out-of-body technical difficulties

A true mix of old and new Japanese culture, The Giga Fortress' design resembles a demon's head from ancient Japanese mythology, while its transforming ability is based off the modern Mecha, transforming robots that appear in modern Japanese manga and anime.

The Giga Fortress is, in total amount resources used to build it, is the most costly unit to construct in the entire history of the series. It's cost outclasses that of even Epic units such as MARV and the Brotherhood's Redeemer (unless one counts the cost of the unique structures used to build the epic unit and any expensive infantry garrisoned into either of them), as well as being a considerable amount higher than all super weapons. It is also able to be mass produced (provided that the commander has the enormous amount of cash to fund the endeavor), something that even the other aforementioned units are not capable of. It is also the only unit that needs to be "constructed" twice: once by the Docks, once more by the Nanocore, marking it as also having one of the most complicated productions of any mobile unit. This also has the effect of denying it the ability to be started out as veterans if the builder is in possession of a Veteran's Academy (or worse for their foes, more), due to the fact that they are built as a building, and are instantly changed into a unit upon completion.