Races and classes

Bellato — race features

Description and use

It is hard to find a Bellato child who does not dream of becoming a MAU pilot one day, and few of them manage it. The robot forces are the elite of the Federation's army: every candidate goes through the harshest selection and punishing training, and only a handful ever take their place at the controls of these steel monsters.

How the mechanised infantry came about

MAUs were not built for war to begin with. The first prototypes were developed purely for construction work and scientific research. Over time the Federation's borders widened, military conflicts flared up more and more often, and the production of weapons and military equipment became the Bellato's priority. Before long the first combat unit of mechanised infantry was formed around these steel titans.

The very first battles fought with MAU legions showed how effective this kind of weapon was. Encouraged by that success, the Federation's leadership began mass production of heavy war machines, and the MAU legions were soon recognised as the main strike force of the Bellato army.

Some time later the leadership decided to begin expanding onto Novus, a planet rich in the most valuable resources. There, for the first time, Bellato ambition crossed the interests of the totalitarian Accretian Empire, and the two races went to war. Confident in the superiority of their machines, the Bellato attacked the Accretians with the full force of their steel legions, and were routed: under fire from Imperial units armed with the most powerful launchers they lost nearly all of their heavy equipment.

That defeat forced the Federation's scientists to rethink both the design of the MAU and what it was for. The design had proved unsuited to the planet Novus, so every blueprint and every prototype already built had to go back for reworking. Redesigning and refitting the heavy machines consumed an enormous amount of money and resources, and as a result the Federation council decided to cut the number of mechanised infantry units, on the understanding that greater power and effectiveness in each machine would make up for it.

From then on any use of a MAU was permitted only to specialised military units, and every civilian model was confiscated and refitted for combat needs.

Types of armoured machine

The new MAU prototypes fall into two kinds, differing in armament, design and purpose: the Goliath, fitted with the heaviest armour and reinforced servos, meant for close combat; and the Ballista, fitted with heavy ranged weapons and meant to destroy the enemy at a distance.

Goliath, the close-combat model

The Goliath is a war machine developed for fighting at close quarters. This configuration has reinforced armour and a strengthened exoskeleton, and the base model ships with standard tonarms carrying heavy blades. Every pilot can upgrade and change the fittings and weapons to their own taste, building the combination they find most comfortable and most lethal.

Ballista, the ranged model

The Ballista was developed for fighting at a distance. Its armour is therefore not as heavy as the Goliath's, which is made up for by the machine's monstrous firepower. The base Ballista ships armed with heavy machine guns and, like the Goliath, can take a range of upgrades and improvements.

Source: rfonline.ru (Innova, 2007–2009), recovered from the Internet Archive. original page