Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Yak-9

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The Yak-9. Planned to be voiced by.

History
"Mwahahahahahaha... Die!"

-An obviously insane Yak Dive Bomber pilot

The Yakolev Yak-9 Dive Bomber, better known as the YaK, is a creaky dive bomber that was already obsolete when World War II started. Its early days on the frontlines were completely brutal, as the Allied interceptors such as the Stallion flew circles around the YaK, shooting them down with ease. It was only when the Voshkod began deploying jet fighters and rushing them to the front that the YaKs had a hope of ever reaching their area of operations unmolested. Since a simple burp from any anti-aircraft weapon could down the plane, it was instead used to dive bomb Allied formations. The bomb was much too weak to penetrate even a Sherman armor, so it was quickly discarded, but the machine guns proved their worth. In a pinch, any infantry formation could be strafed, with very heavy casualties, leading to the nickname of "Infantry Eraser." The YaK gained a feared and hated reputation for this, not at all helped by the, allegedly, occasional strafing of refugee columns. Indeed, YaKs were often central to many atrocities during World War II, at least that's what most of Guardian report says.

The most infamous, and patently true, of these was the strafing of the town of Torun, where a flight of YaKs massacred all the resistance fighters there and most of its citizens. Despite its success as an anti-infantry and terror weapon, after the war the YaK was simply too old to be useful in a modern war, or so the Voshkod thought.

After World War III, the Voshkod military was exhausted, and the Union's industrial output to replace new war machines was already strained beyond capacity. Commanders had to resort to scavenging mothballed tanks and planes to arm their troops, and the YaK was just the machine they wanted.

Other than modifications to the engine and frame, the YaK is mostly the same as it was a decade ago, with the only major addition being a VTOL system to preclude the use of conventional airfields, so vulnerable in today's battles. In actuality, it's just rockets welded to the side of the YaK that shoots the plane into the air, cutting out before the pilot blacks out.

The other major addition is the lacing of the YaK's bomb with the Desolator Defoliant compound, which works much in the same way as the similar bomb used by the Badger bomber. This has already returned the YaK to one of the most hated symbols of the Voshkod. Apollo pilots use a special kill symbol for YaKs to decorate their planes, earning a special level of gratitude from infantry divisions.