Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Falcon Command Helicopter

"Let's show them who's boss!"

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The Falcon Command Helicopter is the epic unit of Orion, King of the Woods, the legendary general of Athel Loren. This epic unit is planned to be voiced by George Watkins.

History
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During the Hawke front in the 2004 V.C. conflict the Alliance realized a need of improving communications between the forces on the field and the commanders. The standard was to rely on radio communications, with most forces and vehicles equipped with a radio, but sometimes signal disturbances would interrupt communications, with heavy losses as a result; the most prominent example being the Battle of Reims, where half a tank division was lost due to the commander's radio malfunctioning.

Usually, the commander would be located in the nearest Alliance base, and in a mobile command post (usually a converted half-track or APC) if the nearest military base would be too far away. Alliance operational research, based on existing Alliance statistics, had shown that communication problems were reduced by a whopping 60% if the commander was less than a mile away from the battlefield. However, Mobile Command Posts had their own problems. Both the Alliance and the Voshkod had various methods of locating the enemy command post.

While such command posts were invariably well protected, with static ones usually well within a well-fortified base and mobile ones protected by air defense vehicles and armored vehicles, both sides still took their toll o commanders. The converted half-tracks the Alliance used, while boasting more radios, greater speed, and fewer distractions, had less space, less armor, and less firepower than the converted superheavy tanks the Voshkod preferred. Following an incident where an entire elite Orlais division was annihilated after they were thrown into disarray following the death of their division commander at the hands of a squadron of the dreaded Voshkod Havocs, the Alliance resolved to solve the problem.

The Orlais commander, who was one of the Alliance's best generals, was only the latest in a long list of dead generals, colonels, and majors killed while fighting against the unstoppable Voshkod juggernaut, then pushing its way across Eorzea alongside Aquila in a joint operation. The dreaded Voshkod Havocs proved to be most effective at hunting down mobile command posts, and the Voshkod were only getting better at pinpointing the location of Alliance command vehicles.

The Alliance were taking a heavy toll of commanders, and many inexperienced deputies and subordinates found themselves suddenly promoted into the unfamiliar positions of their superiors, only to be killed shortly after in action. Hoping to end the vicious cycle or at least slow it, the Alliance poured more increasing amounts of funding into improving communication systems, while simultaneously putting out a contract for a dedicated and survivable mobile command post.

The contract was eventually given to Athel Loren-based Apteryx Aircraft, who proposed a heavy helicopter for the purpose. By 2007 V.C., the "Falcon" Mobile Command Helicopter was in production, equipped with a state-of-the-art C4ISR suite, large transport capacity, and multiple weapon systems.

By the time it was completed, however, the war was nearing its end, and the helicopter never saw much use in the war. It was, however, deemed a success in the Alliance retaking of (insert), where it was used most often; both the battles of (insert) and (insert) were commanded from Falcons. Currently, the Falcon has been distributed to about a third of all the Alliance field officers, to be used if deemed necessary. With the end of the war and advances in long-range communication, the need for a dedicated mobile command post has lessened considerably, and the expense of such helicopters means that the Alliance has stopped production while their operational research division reviews the effectiveness of the Falcon.

The helicopter is armed with both guns and missile launchers for fending off enemy combatants, who would obviously prioritize the Falcon if present as its destruction would send the force into chaos. The Alliance has also developed a new equipment enhancer array based on the Bishop Network System, which is connected with most weapons and armors that the Alliance use, improving their capabilities when close, proving its worth even more.