Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Manta Ekranoplan

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The Manta Ekranoplan. Planned to be voiced by.

History
"The Voshkod, in response to the Katsuragi Protectorate, have made an anti-submarine capable weapons system. Truly, the Protectorate is a greater threat than anyone could have anticipated."

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The Voshkod used to be the masters of underwater. Akula subs hunted Allied ships without competition since the Allies refused to research submarine technology, leaving the Voshkod with the mindset of 'Anti-submarine vessels? The Allies don't build submarines!'. However, when the Katsuragi Protectorate joined the war, they deployed Yari mini-subs and Sea Wings to the water which outmaneuvered entire Voshkod ships, baiting them into the guns of the Shogun Battleships and the deadly Naginata close-up encounters, often with overwhelming casualties on the Voshkod side.

Voshkod High Command quickly addressed the issue, and the engineers came up with the Manta Ekranoplan. The original model was armed with a depth charge launcher and twin torpedo tubes to combat enemy submarines and ships. However, their first encounter with the Protectorate Navy at the Battle of Sakhalin Island was a disaster. Manta Ekranoplans steamed ahead to meet with the Naginata cruisers intercepting to defend their Shogun Battleship. As the two navies traded torpedoes, Sea-Wings burst out of the sea into Sky-Wings, raining down kinetic-burst fire on the Mantas, using attrition against their heavy armor which allowed the Naginata cruisers to prevail. The Mantas were defenseless against enemy aircraft, and the Garlean Pacific Fleet was almost completely annihilated when the rest of the invasion force arrived. Chopper-VXes rained missiles on the Mantas, Stingrays, and Dreadnoughts, Naginata cruisers sped forth to point-blank range firing their Type-S torpedo tubes, and the Battle of Vladivostok was over as soon as a Shogun Battleship rammed into the last two Dreadnoughts who were side-by-side.

After the end of the war, the engineers at Vladivostok were given one more chance to improve on the Manta Ekranoplan, or they would be sent to the gulag for life. Reading a copy of "The Battle of Sakhalin Island", the engineers designed the Manta Ekranoplan anew, arming it with a pair of 37mm flak cannons taken from old inter-war destroyers upgraded with modern rapid-fire autoloading systems, for dealing with pesky transforming units, and a depth charge launcher to use against submarines. Mantas were also relegated to proper anti-aircraft duty in the Voshkod Navy, since the Tigr APC was designed to transport infantry and not be thin-skinned anti-aircraft cars. The new model has completely replaced the older one and has seen successful service against the Voshkod 'enemies', radio-piloted Yak fighters used for combat trials.

After this redesign, Manta Ekranoplans will typically have diverse crews. Captains of Mantas are usually plucked (sometimes literally) from the bridge of the Akula sub they previously commanded, since they would have the best experience of how to counter submarines lurking underwater, having been on the receiving end of such tactics themselves. However, Akula Subs were never meant to sacrifice themselves by going kamikaze on enemy vessels, something which usually spells doom for the Manta. The anti-air gunners of the Manta Ekranoplan are new Flak Troopers, or those transferred from their Convict Battalion to naval duties. 'Community service' as part of a Manta crew is widely considered to be an enormously cushy posting compared to normal Flak Trooper duties, and, as a result, competition for transfers can be fierce (indeed, sometimes lethal). It's easy to see why the post would be attractive: no forced marches, no mine-clearance duties, better food, and, best of all, flak cannons that are not shoulder-mounted! The Flak Troopers are more than happy to sit down in a comfy chair with a gunsight, only holding down a button on their trigger then happily hearing the sounds of the flak cannons firing. As a result the anti-air gunners on Manta Ekranoplans are greatly indebted to the captains of their ships, even willing to go as far as sharing their vodka even if they are stranded in the seas, alone without any other Voshkod vessel around.