Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Barkhausen Projector

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The Barkhausen Projector is the lighter and cheaper equivalent of the Microwave Tank available for Task Force Eve, replacing the Microwave Tank for that subfaction. Planned to be voiced by

History
"I can't believe this thing even works."

-Barkhausen Commander

Shortly after the Fereldan disseminated the technology for high-powered microwave radar transmitters among the Guardians, the heating effect of a beam of high-power microwaves was accidentally discovered by Aquilan engineers. Such technology, it was immediately realized, could have potential use in cooking food, and further experiments were conducted in this area.

Before any real progress could be made, however, war broke out. The Great Voshkod-Aquilan War meant that all the cavity magnetrons that could be manufactured were used for radar sets and that the Aquilan's scientific minds were all directed towards the war effort, so research into the potential civilian applications of microwaves stalled. It was only after the war had ended that research into the application of microwaves in the heating of food could resume in earnest.

Several commercial microwave ovens were developed in the post-war period, and a number of companies that previously had experience manufacturing cavity magnetrons for the military turned to make them for civilian applications instead. However, the microwave ovens developed during this period were large and bulky. Attempts to improve the technology continued, but in 1967 V.C., a proxy conflict occured in Lustria, interrupting the development of civilian technologies again. However, the potential military applications of high-power microwaves had interested the Aquilans. Research into these applications continued throughout the war. Among the more interesting results was the effect that microwaves had on metal. Further studies conducted into this area would directly result in the Barkhausen Microwave Projector, an experimental anti-aircraft platform that uses high-powered microwaves to ionize air into a mass of superheated ozone, damaging any aircraft in a large area.

Initially, a purpose-built chassis was to be designed to mount the special high-power microwave emitters that form the Barkhausen's weaponry. However, pressure from the military, mounting costs, and continued problems with the attempts to design a dedicated vehicle meant that the plans were shelved and the equipment mounted on a LAV-25. It worked, but not without some drawbacks.

Much of the LAV-25 armor had to be stripped off in order to offset the additional weight of all the equipment, leaving the Barkhausen vulnerable to attack. The mounting of the emitters also makes it impossible for the emitter to be used on surface targets. In addition, the LAV chassis is too small to fit all the required cooling equipment, and as a result, the microwave emitter can only be activated for a few short seconds before it starts to overheat. To compensate, automatic safeties are incorporated into the Barkhausen, shutting off the emitter so that the system has time to cool down. Disabling the safeties, however, is easily done, and operators have been known to do this in order to allow the emitter to fire indefinitely at the risk of a catastrophic overload. Though this practice is officially banned, particularly on the common Microwave Tanks, most Aquilan commanders turn a blind eye to operators doing this as it greatly enhances the Barkhausen's effectiveness.

Though most Aquilans commanders prefer the Microwave Tank, the Barkhausen on ther other hand, preferred by Task Force Eve, seeing it as a much cheaper alternative.