Avatar (Tiberium Wars)

"They're next."
 * Avatar pilot

In the wake of the destruction caused by GDI walkers to Nod armed forces during the Second Tiberium War, the Brotherhood became interested in the technology, perceiving it as an interesting way to expand their forces. While GDI abandoned the technology, deeming it a dead end of development, the Brotherhood Black Hand began its own research, basing it in part on GDI designs and taking advantage of its own research in other areas to accelerate the development of the Avatar. Regardless of the origin of Nod’s technology, they invested years of research and development at a ruthlessly fast pace. The first result of this research was the Purifier Warmech.

The result of years of development and refining the technology is a powerful Avatar, a towering 39.ft bipedal mech able to engage most targets with ease, but isn't strong enough to defeat the Mammoth 27 of GDI or the Annihilator Tripod of the Scrin, making this war machine the most powerful one-on-one unit in a showdown situation (even while the Mammoth and the Tripod have clear advantages in other battle situations). However, it can only beat a Mammoth if fully upgraded, otherwise it will lose, and even then it will still only win after taking severe damage. Also, if the Mammoth is has the railgun upgrade, the extra fire gives it the edge even if the Avatar is fully upgraded. While at first costing as much as 3000 credits, better mass production techniques succeeded in bringing the cost down to a more acceptable 2200 credits, making it the cheapest Tier 3 unit along with the Juggernaut Mk. III.

The Avatar uses a "virtual sensory pod", in which the pilot is linked to an on board AI to operate the walker. Its incredible all terraine ability fluid motion and power, make it in effect a gigantic soldier. It comes by default with a powerful laser cannon (based on the Obelisk laser), and possesses the ability to use it's 'hand' on the left arm rip off weaponry and equipment from certain other Nod units with it's unique modular design, augmenting its own battle capability. The list of acquirable equipment includes the attack bike's stealth detectors, the stealth tank's mobile stealth generator, the flame tank's powerful flamethrowers and the beam cannon's particle beam cannon. The unit in question is rather brutally destroyed, with the welfare of the vehicle's crew apparently not of concern (the Brotherhood considering the sacrifice of the crew justified for the greater good of the cause). The Flamethrower is placed on the right shoulder, the Stealth detection kit on the left, the Stealth Generator on the chest and the secondary laser on it's left arm. There is also another grabbing claw hidden inside the primary laser, but it is only used to pick up and place the Beam Cannon's laser on it's left arm.

In addition, the Avatar Warmech is capable of crushing most other vehicles under its feet, similar to the Mammoth 27 or Annihilator Tripod. In form, it bears similarity to CABAL's Core Defender, although it is unclear if Nod reverse-engineered its technology.

While unable to steal components from GDI or Scrin units, in instances where Nod forces have fought each other, an Avatar can upgrade itself using the opposing force's weapons; gaining power while destroying an enemy unit. They can also rip weapons off other Nod sub-faction vehicles (eg. A Marked of Kane Avatar can take the Flamethrower off a Black Hand Flame Tank).

Avatars are generally built and their pilots trained underground before emerging when called on to the battlefield by a commander with a tech lab through either a Nod War Factory or a Redeemer Engineering Facility. It is interesting to note that due to the limited size of the War Factory's exit, the Avatar must emerge from it in a 'folded' position before finally straightening out to it's full height. However, those trained at the Engineering Facility do not need to emerge folded over due to the fact that the Engineering Facility's exit is big enough to accommodate the Avatar's full 10m height.

Weakness
The primary weakness of the Avatar is its susceptibility to aerial assaults, swarms of Anti Armor Infantry and Commandos, who are capable of planting explosives on an Avatar's legs. Also, although powerful, Avatars are only capable of using their laser weaponry while stationary, a drawback against mobile targets.

Fallen Avatars are repairable by capable engineers, who can reactivate the pilot's virtual sensory pod and rebuild the walker, adding it to the armed forces of the side the engineer was on. The only requirement is that the engineer reaches the fallen walker before either its power core finally dies down, or a coup de grace is delivered, destroying the fragile husk.

Service History


"I MUST have that device, Commander! I am sending you the most powerful weapons we have, the Avatars! Use them to blast your way through the GDI defenses - DO NOT KEEP ME WAITING!"
 * Kane sends Avatars to the Commander

Avatars were rarely seen during the early stages of the Third Tiberium War, as their high cost forced Nod to keep them in reserve for important missions. Nod attached a number of Avatars to the defense of the captured White House in the initial stages of the Third Tiberium War, but these were destroyed in a carpet bombing strike by Firehawk jets. During a mission to recover bomb components from Slovenia, Kane reinforced The Legendary Insurgent's troops with 3 veteran Avatars in addition to granting him access to construction of more Avatars, allowing the forces to break through GDI lines. They became standard to major Nod forces worldwide shortly afterwords. They were used by LEGION to help recover the Tacitus and to destroy a combined GDI-ZOCOM Force defending the Tacitus. Also of note, during a mission to capture the alleged traitor Kilian Qatar, the Nod Commander was granted access to only a single heroic Avatar and four saboteurs initially, but after capturing an auxiliary base, managed to amass sufficient forces to capture Ayers Rock.

Identification
As the Avatar is a successor to the Purifier, both walkers bear a high level of visual similarity; however, there are important differences that can be used to distinguish the two. Generally, Avatars are black in color except for red lights and stripes on the body and a silvery gray middle torso and legs, while the Purifiers have red-mauve armor on the shoulder and leg sections, with yellow and black warning lines on this segments. Purifiers also naturally sport the Black Hand insignia, being a Black Hand-specific unit, while Avatars sport normal Brotherhood of Nod insignia. Purifiers also come with the Flamethrower as a standard weapon.

However, it should be noted that some Avatars have been spotted with a different set of markings, that is, red-mauve with gray stripes on the body and shoulder protectors.

BEHIND THE SCENES
IT WAS BASED ON MS-06 ZAKU