Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Orca Lander

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The Orca Lander is an Ascalian-made cargo transport vessel. This unit is planned to be voiced by

History
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In 1965 V.C., the Hawkes were shocked when the Communist Party of Ascalia swept the elections, gaining over 60% of the vote. What was even more shocking was that the election wasn't even rigged - the Voshkod leadership was just as surprised (albeit pleasantly) as the Hawkes and Aquila. Communism had succeeded democratically. In a couple of years, reforms made by the Communist Party had turned the economy into full-fledged socialism. There was no need to remove the free elections, the communists were as popular as ever and never turned to the sometimes brutal methods of Voshod.

Indeed, the population of Ascalia was mostly enthusiastic communists and applied to help the Voshkod cause en masse. The thought of including the country in Voshkod was, however, soon forgotten due to the plain stupidity of such a move. Instead, the poor country built up a sizable industry, to be able to aid the Voshkod as much as they could without entering the war which had begun in Eorzea; still remaining formally neutral was the only way to avoid invasion by the neighboring behemoths of Arkesia and Tyria, both worried about the red insurgency in their neighborhood.

In regards to military equipment, Ascalia had never been worth mentioning. But will can be a strong weapon itself, and so the Ascalian officers began brainstorming. Sending men to the red cause was no use; the Voshkod had a never-ending supply of soldiers, so that was the least of their problems.

The industry of Ascalia was yet too weak to support mass-producing more Voshkod units, and a full-scale military presence would provoke the Aquilans, even though a naval base in South Aquila would be a good possession. Thus they decided to focus on developing new technology, where they could use the available resources. This was initially done on Saturday evenings in the (insert Gaiaterran equivalent of Uruguay) Secretary of Defense's living room.

After a month of studying weak parts of the Voshkod armed forces, they found that the pride of the Red Army; the battle tanks; all had a glaring weakness, namely water. No matter the power of an Apocalypse Tank, it would be stopped by even the smallest of lakes. Though Twinblades, and later Hunchbacks, could circumvent this problem to some extent, they were vulnerable to anti-air weaponry. There was no use equipping all the heavy tanks with a raft underneath, due to the cost required, so other measures were needed to be able to transport the tanks over water. And with these words, the light came upon the planners in a Montevideo villa; a vehicle transport.

It needed to be heavy, to allow it to carry more than one vehicle, but that would also make it slow. Heavy armor would also make it too big. These two complications were threatening the project - who wants a transport that three Guardian GIs could sink? - but a clever solution was found in making the ship a submarine, protecting it from most enemy fire. With the concept finished, the Uruguayans sent materials and blueprints to the Union for approval.

The Voshkod, having lost a whole division of Apocalypse Tanks on the (Baltic) Sea and having had trouble with transports in the Greek archipelago, rapidly approved of the idea, and signed a cooperation deal with Ascalia. The South Aquilans developed and produced the boat itself while the Voshkod outfitted them with Desolator spray tanks, which were used to protect the otherwise vulnerable transports.

Meanwhile, the Motherland produced what required heavier industries, and recycled gear from old and scrapped units. The Orca Lander reached the fronts in the autumn of 1978 V.C., and proved its worth throughout time. Today it's a stable part of the Voshkod navy, much to the pride of the Ascalians, who care to mark every ship and every weapon with "Made in Ascalia".