Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Guardian Tank

"Guardian Tank awaiting deployment!"

-...

The Guardian Tank is the medium tank of the Andoran Republic, which replaces the Leopard 3 for Black Desert Command. Planned to be voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch.

History
Faced with Voshkod incursions on multiple fronts, the Andoran Republic hurriedly banded together to form a military coalition from the toughest or surviving bits and pieces of representative nations' defense forces. Although the need to form a cohesive military network of course was urgent, certain key elements needed considerable time to be flushed out.

After all, despite widespread differences of opinion within the Andoran ranks regarding how best to repel the Voshkod advancements, everyone was on the same page about at least one thing: The Andoran wouldn't get a second chance to keep their nations' sovereignty. So it was with great care (and some trepidation) that Republic War Council made the decision to move forward with plans to double down on the production of the MBT-X8 Guardian Tank, mainstay of the Republic Black Desert armor divisions, and a crucial component in the free nations' ongoing struggles to keep Voshkod from expanding its borders any further.

A main battle tank of Calpheon origin, the Guardian became the mainstay of Black Desert forces on the ground worldwide after besting the Grizzly, an Alliance-made design and the Chieftain, an Ferelden design, in field tests across the board. While the Guardian's performance characteristics admittedly did not exceed those of the Grizzly by a wide margin, even a narrow victory was enough to justify switching production lines over to this newer model.

After all, the Andoran War Council fully expected to have to deploy Guardians in bulk in order to stave off Voshkod armor divisions, believed to be the strongest in the world. To that end, the Andoran Guardian Tank has proven to be something of an underdog, effectively helping to repel larger Voshkod forces while bolstering the combat-effectiveness (if not the morale) of coalition forces caught in the same struggle.

The Guardian boasts an impressive balance of power, durability, and maneuverability and has a molded frame that helps keep production costs down. Its 90mm main gun can punch through Voshkod armor reliably and packs more firepower, though a slightly lower rate of fire, than the Guardian's Voshkod counterpart or the Leopard 3. However, the Guardian's Voshkod counterpart was not the Republic's greatest concern, for they needed to be able to contend with an assortment of heavy vehicles. And a co-axial machinegun to handle small groups of infantry.

To this end, a relatively heavy platform like the Guardian Tank proved to be a suitable home for a special targeting device that could be used to even the odds against the worst that the Voshkod had to offer, taking inspiration from the Alliance Bulldog. Each Guardian Tank now comes standard with a target-designating module, which replaces the exposed machinegun mount found on older models. Designed to complement other Andoran weapons platforms, the Spyglass target designator (colloquially called the "target painter") relays targeting information to nearby Andoran forces.

By automatically interfacing with their weapons systems, the target painter makes other forces more accurate and deadly by compensating for wind direction, visibility, and more than 100 marginal factors--all of which add up. A Guardian Tank is unable to maintain the beam through the recoil of its main gun's firing sequence, so Guardian crews must coordinate well to decide which unit within the column is going to "cast the lure" (as Guardian technicians put it) while the others press the attack.

Casualty rates among Guardian Tank crews are being kept close to the vest by Andoran officials, though one might assume the worst given that these forces, well-equipped though they may be, were necessarily used to turn the tide of many losing battles. Now that the Andoran forces have eked out a few victories along some Andoran borders, some of the concern is turning to hope, even a bit of bravado on the part of some Guardian Tank crews, who quip that their vehicles ought to have been named differently now that they're occasionally taking the offensive. At any rate, in spite of the inherent dangers, many career military men strive for the honor of serving aboard such a vehicle in the name of the Andoran' difficult mission to stabilize the most dangerous countries of the world.

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * Crusader (Aquila)
 * Coyote
 * Laser Crusader
 * Grizzly Tank (Alliance)
 * Cavalier Tank
 * Liberty Tank
 * M1 Abrams (ADI)
 * Type 74 MBT (Protectorate)
 * Tsunami Tank
 * Guardian Tank (Andora)
 * Leopard
 * Battlemaster Tank (Empire)

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Kodiak Tank (Voshkod)
 * Tick Tank (Brotherhood)
 * Type 59 (Horde)
 * T-72 "Scarab" (MLA)
 * Lasher Tank (Collective)
 * ... (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * ... (Coalition)
 * ... (Heralds)
 * ... (Order)
 * M48 Patton "Mastiff" (Survivors)
 * ... (Syndicate)
 * ... (Conglomerate)

DLC

 * ... (Federation)
 * ... (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * ... (Skynet)
 * ... (Dominion)
 * ... (Elemental)
 * ... (Autocracy)
 * ... (League)
 * ... (Legion)
 * ... (Swarm)
 * ... (Pirates)
 * ... (Elona)
 * ... (Ascalia)
 * ... (Confederation)
 * ... (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * ... (Community)
 * ... (Security)
 * ... (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * ... (Warlords)
 * ... (Cult)
 * ... (Raiders)
 * ... (Theocracy)
 * ... (ASA)
 * ... (Insurgents)
 * ... (Bastion)
 * ... (Guardians)
 * ... (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * ... (Ecumene)
 * ... (Concordat)
 * ... (Contingent)
 * ... (Rangers)
 * ... (Eden)
 * ... (InGen)
 * ... (Hallows)
 * ... (Commnune)
 * T-55 (Encantadia)
 * AMX-13