Zoids: Chaotic Age Zero

Name: Attack Unit
Cost: $15,000
Weight: 10 Tons
Function: Primary Fire/Anti-Armor Fire
Mounts On: Dark Thrasher, Barigator, Cannon Tortoise, Command Wolf, Stealth Viper
Mount Location:
--On the Barigator, the Attack Unit replaces the 4-Shot Missile Launcher. This modification may not be used with the Large-Bore Beam Cannon.
--On the Cannon Tortoise, the Attack Unit mounts on top of the Mortar Cannon. This modification may not be used with the Large-Bore Beam Cannon, Gatling Mortar, or the Fuel Air Explosives.
--On the Command Wolf, the Attack Unit replaces the AZ50mm Beam Cannons.
--On the Dark Thrasher, the Attack Unit mounts to the machinegun mount. This modification cannot be used with the Assault Unit, Flak Cannon, or Large-Bore Beam Cannon.
--On the Stealth Viper, one Attack Unit cannon mounts to either side of the mouth, and stabilizers replace the 40mm Heavy Machineguns. This modification may not be used with the Large-Bore Beam Cannon.
In Brief: The Attack Unit consists of 2 250mm semiautomatic beam cannons that can be mounted to the lesser Helic Zoids. All Zoids but the Cannon Tortoise get only 6 shots from the Attack Unit.

Weapon Type: Twin Shelled High Power Beam Cannons
Ammunition: 250mm Pulsed Beams
Rate of Fire: Semiautomatic

Description: The three Empires: the Zenebas Empire, the Guylos Empire, and the Neo-Zenebas Empire had a way with extremely heavily armored, mass produced field command Zoids. Long before the Blade Liger was ever dreamt of, Red Horns and Iron Kongs were rolling onto the field of battle. This was always a problem for the Helic military, but they reasoned that there was little they could do about it but send their own larger Zoids, such as the Gordos, to duke it out with the heaviest of enemies. When that failed, the handy Helic talent of air superiority came in useful. While this was never really enough to give the Helic Republic an upper hand, it did stop their troops from being slaughtered on the field of battle for a while.

The Hybrid Vulcan Cannon changed everything. Zaber Fangs mounting the weapons were the least of the concern of the Republicans: Iron Kongs, Red Horns, and the new Guylos weapon, the Dark Horn, were entering the field armed with the Hybrid Vulcan Cannon. When one of these massive Zoids lumbered through, the Helic regulars, mostly equipped with Command Wolves or other lighter Zoids, could no longer hope to have any staying power in a fight. Dodging and relying on armor were concepts of the past. There was no time to call in an airstrike or a mortar barrage or a larger Zoid. Even missiles became less effective as 60mm shells knocked them from the air. You had to beat the enemy then and there - or you would die trying.

So, the Helic response to the Hybrid Vulcan Cannon were a pair of 250mm shell equivalent beam cannons - pulsed and semiautomatic, mounted the meanest and humblest of the Helic Zoids. Make no mistake, this was a massive engineering problem. To put this into perspective, 250mm is around 10.5 inches in diameter - which is the kind of gun you'd find on one of the smaller battleships. The Zoids that the New Helic Republic was mounting this too were much smaller than a battleship, so the gun had to be made an energy weapon to cut down on recoil. Then comes the power constraint problem... I'm sure you can imagine.

But the Helic engineers are nothing if not ingenious. While maybe more used to initial design questions, they worked it out in the end. On the Barigator, the Attack Unit can pivot 360 degrees, and up to 90 degrees up or 30 degrees down. On the Cannon Tortoise, the Attack Unit cannons point wherever the mortar cannon is pointing. On the Command Wolf, the Attack Unit can pivot 90 degrees horizontally (like a turret) from facing forwards, and up to 20 degrees up or down. On the Stealth Viper, the guns point wherever the head do.

There's one catch, though. The Attack Unit has power requirements that can't be met by a small Zoid like the Command Wolf. This means that it has shells. Shells for a pulsed energy weapon are hyper capacitors: kind of like specialized batteries that drain with every shot. The Command Wolf, the Barigator, and the Stealth Viper get only 6 shots from each barrel from the Attack Unit before they run out of hypercaps. The Cannon Tortoise carries more internal reserves, right next to the mortar rounds, and can plug away until sunset.

Note that both cannons of the CP-04 Attack Unit are linked at the controls and fire together.

And now, thanks to the transfer of many old Helic designs into the public domain following their merger with the ZBC, this part is available to the common pilot. Pay for it, and this fabulous 250mm beam cannon set could be yours...