Kalran: Tales of the four nations/Adaptor turret

Tactical Analysis

 * Multirole: The Adaptor Turret's advantage lies in its extreme adaptability. Friendly infantry can enter it, allowing the Adaptor Turret to customise its weapon depending on the area of expertise of the occupant inside at the time. With this, the Adaptor Turret can become anything from a dedicated anti infantry turret to one capable of conducting repairs.
 * Integrated: Similar to the Reduct. The Adaptor can also be built into the UCA wall hubs. Further increasing its toughness and gaining self-repair
 * Generalised: On their own, however, Adaptors are somewhat middling, being capable of taking on both ground and air units but not being very effective at either task.
 * Clear them out: Adaptors store their occupants in rather small enclosures, with only one exist and no windows. Anything that can hurt a person inside while blocking their way out is extremely dangerous for the person, making Adaptors very vulnerable to garrison clearing weaponry and units.

History
The Adaptor turret is, in theory, the perfect defensive weapon platform. It is capable of mounting an almost indefinite amount of weapon platforms for any role available, from close range anti-infantry to accurate anti-air capability to sniper post. Of course, no weapon is without its flaws, and the turret requires more than just power and a sturdy base to make use of its full potential - it requires infantry.

Adaptor Turrets are in fact evolutions and refinements of the old Tuatha era Pillbox, and had their roots starting indeed in the waning years of the great war. As battle lines shifted back and forth, Tuatha advances clashing with desperate Reclaimer, post Desmond, counterattacks, it became necessary for there to be a constant system of pillboxes on the lines, and in many battles it was these pillboxes that would provide the focal point for infantry seeking to capture and garrison them.

Some enterprising individual soldiers, however, realized that there was often a problem with such fortifications - you never knew if they would actually be useful. Capturing a pillbox might be good for staving off an infantry wave if one was a gunner, but against a column of Hammer tanks there was little one could do but sit and pray the tanks didn't find them out.

As such, they developed an ingenious idea - certain soldiers would bring spare guns and ammunition and drop them off, leaving them for future soldiers to find if they ever had to leave. Upon retaking the defense, friendly soldiers would then find everything from spare rifles to anti-tank guns to rocket launchers waiting for them, along with ammunition. In this way, they could take on almost any role needed defensively to hold back opposition.

The UCA ground force command took interest in this idea after the war was over, but it didn't truly take off until several Skarnops who had gotten jobs after the UCA formation learned of plans for a new anti-air turret being developed, the Patriot STAR system. Seeing the turret in action, yet noting the utter lack of ability to deal with anything other than aircraft, they had a thought - why not make a single defense that could fit any situation, rather than a bunch of specific ones?

Their thought and subsequent inquiries to the company head resulted ultimately in the modern Adaptor Turret. Though it remains a technically anti-air turret with the ability to support anti-ground operations, in reality the Adaptor Turret can perform virtually any role in existence as long as that role does not require moving.

Underneath each turret, there exists a small hatch for infantry, and a much larger storage of special mounts that one may affix, replacing the autocannon defense system in the process. Of course, with the default guidance systems it would still 'think' like it had a autocannon defense system and react accordingly - as such, it requires an operator skilled in the weapon or technical system to physcally handle the defense in such cases.

The Adaptor Turret has thus seen widespread throughout the UCAAF, and was praised so highly for its versatility that both a mobile version and a similarly versatile support defense have been developed since.