Name: Heavy Assault Unit
Cost: $25,000
Weight: 30 Tons
Function: Heavy Supporting/Supplementary Firepower
Mounts On: King Liger, König Wolf, Saber Lion, Shadow Fox, Shield Liger, Strike Bull
Mount Location:
--On all Zoids, the Heavy Assault Unit is located on the back.
--On the König Wolf, the Heavy Assault Unit cannot be mounted with any other back-mounted modifications.
--On the Shadow Fox the AZ30mm Laser Vulcan is replaced.
--On the Shield Liger the Twin AZ30mm Beam Cannons are replaced.

In Brief: The Heavy Assault Unit is a trio of powerful guns, an 80mm Continuous Laser and two AZ80mm Beam Cannons, vastly increasing the firepower of the Zoid it mounts to.

Weapon Type: Continuous Laser and Beam Cannon
Ammunition: Continuous Laser and Pulsed Beams
Rate of Fire: 3-Second Burst and Semiautomatic

Description: Now, seeing the name of this mod, the reader may be compelled to ask him or herself, why do we need a Heavy Assault Unit? To date, we already have an Assault Booster, an Assault Gatling Unit, an Assault Unit, an Attack Booster Unit, and an Attack Unit in the A's alone. Well, the Heavy Assault Unit is a recent innovation, generally for more modern Zoids that simply haven't received the kinds of firepower they need to remain competitive in the modern world -- for example, the Shadow Fox. Then there are Zoids like the König Wolf that are always in the market for more mods -- and there are the Shield Ligers of the world, which have options available (like the DCS-J upgrade), but need a good alternative.

In the modern struggle for control of Zi, a third party contractor decided that all three of these Zoids, and three more (the King Liger, the Saber Lion, and the Strike Bull) could use a little (or a lot) more firepower. Hence was born the idea of a new kind of Assault Unit -- namely, the Heavy Assault Unit, a new modification that has proven popular in both the sanctioned Zoid Battling circuits and the militaries of the world during aforementioned struggle for control. The purpose of the mod? Simple. More guns.

The Heavy Assault Unit actually consists of a trio of guns. The centerpiece of the modification is a Special 80mm Continuous Laser, which differs from a standard pulsed laser mainly in its rate of fire. The 80mm Continuous Laser fires and can sustain a beam for 3 seconds, making it very effective at hacking through armor and into structure. Indeed, it is more powerful than its smaller brother found on the Dark Horn and can burn through and slag even heavy armor in just one direct burst. However, after the 80mm Continuous Laser fires for a full three seconds, it must be allowed to recharge and for a full 3 seconds -- meaning that this is essentially a one-use-per-round weapon. It should be noted that the weapon can be switched to a more standard rate of fire, allowing it to fire every other second, alternating between shooting and recharging. Perhaps the weapon’s biggest pitfall is an inability to rotate it all, it always faces straight forwards, meaning that an enemy can fairly easily step out of the beam unless it is used carefully. The Continuous Laser sits in the middle of the back of the zoid it’s mounted too.

The second set of guns that the Heavy Assault Unit boasts are Twin AZ80mm Beam Cannons. These are much more standard then their larger brethren and boast a semi-automatic rate of fire. They mount on either side of the Continuous Laser and can rotate about 15 degrees left or right or 30 degrees upwards. It should be noted that due to the extravagant weight of these guns, the zoid mounting the modification experiences a 40 kph decrease in speed and a corresponding decrease in maneuverability. For any advantage, there’s always a price to pay (other than the $25,000 sticker-price). As an aside, the modification is not compatible with the turret that the Shadow Fox’s AZ30mm Laser Vulcan is normally mounted with, as it’s too heavy for the turret to support.