Anolis

Specifications
Use	Scout/recon Gear
Production Code	OACS-03L/SC
Manufacturer	Territorial Arms
Height	3.9 meters
Speed	Walker: 52 kph SMS: 76 kph

The Anolis was one of Territorial Arms’ earliest attempts at designing a dedicated reconnaissance Gear. Starting from the experience garnered with the Jäger and its various bastardized scout offspring, the engineers of Design Team A12 started laying down plans for a highly mobile machine capable of scouting deep into enemy territory. The first simulated test results of the XALV-01 Anolis prototype were promising, though the electronic bay had a nasty tendency to overheat and short out half the sensor and communication circuitry.

This problem stemmed from extreme miniaturization required by the very small size of the Anolis' sensor head. The goal of the design team was to push the envelope of Gear design, especially in the field of electronics: the new forward-mounted head pod design (which would later be used in the Iguana) enabled the pilot to remain safely removed from sensitive (and exposed) systems and maintain a lower profile.

Unfortunately, the Anolis design was somewhat ahead of its time and the head had to be redesigned four times before its overheating problem lessened. A cutoff switch was subsequently installed by many field technicians to temporarily shutdown the electronics should they overheat. The rest of the Gear also featured superior technology, including a highly efficient and compact SV-76988 V-engine, which allowed for an unprecedented deployment range of 800 kilometers, and TAS-9000 actuators, which gave the Gear unparalleled speed and agility. The power ratio of the Anolis required that it carry only light armor.

The final ALV-01 Anolis (later renamed OACS-03L/SC by the Terranovan field command) was an adequate scout with above-average maneuverability and an incredible operating range. It was also a temperamental beast, prone to shutdown at the worst moment if not treated with the proper care. Because it was primarily a scout, the designers provided the pilot with little in the way of offensive armament: a single DP76 20 mm pack gun and a pair of TA Werg-II 52 mm rocket pods. The two pods could be fired independently or slaved to the same fire control routine to attack a single target.

Usage

The release of the Anolis in TN 1796 was accompanied by a disproportionate amount of fanfare and is largely remembered as an embarrassment for Territorial Arms. TA presented the machine as the “next step” in Southern Gear evolution and the initial demonstrations were all carefully choreographed to display this aspect of the design. Once the Anolis entered the field, however, pilots and military technicians reported dozens of difficulties. The Gear’s dangerous habit of shutting down in the middle of a fight often led to high casualties among recon squads, and the Anolis soon gained a reputation as a walking death trap.

As always, soldiers learned to make due and a hundred-and-one different makeshift solutions were put in place by ingenious technicians to keep Anolis pilots alive; nevertheless the chorus of complaints continued unabated at the highest levels. The Anolis was officially retired from active service in TN 1839, when the new Basilisk was found to be workable as a scout Gear, but even before that date the old Jäger Recon was seen by most as a more desirable machine than the Anolis.

Since the introduction of the Basilisk, the Anolis has been common only in truly disfavored units and training regiments of the Republican Army. The Gear is somewhat more common in the conscript regiments of the Southern MILICIA; even there, however, the machine is rare. The only type of regiment in which the Anolis can truly be called common, are the civil defense militias of Southern city-states.

Territorial Arms has done an impressive job of marketing the problematic Gear to this market, where it serves alongside other “outdated” Gears such as the Asp or Desert Viper. Territorial Arms has also made some significant sales in the Badlands, especially among the savannah communities covered by the TN 1930 Southern Savannah Regional Defense Pact, which allowed for military cooperation between the MILICIA, Republican Army and various local militias. For the first time some variants of the Anolis are beginning to appear, although almost none have become standard. A popular modification is employed by the SoKar Rangers, a defense militia that uses Anolis models fitted with additional armor plates to shrug off the heavy wepons that have fallen into the hands of local rovers.

Later refit

The post-war efforts of Territorial Arms to make the Anolis a profitable Gear by aiming it at the local militia market, both in the AST and the southern Badlands has not been accompanied by any company-led modernization efforts. In the TN 1931, however, several technicians working on fixing the Anolis for the Siwa Greycoats (the local militia in Siwa Oasis) began to share ideas with Badlanders via mail and long-distance telecommunications. Together they were able to create a workable solution for the Anolis’ problems. In TN 1932 they set themselves up as the Anolis Consortium and sold their redesign to Territorial Arms for a confidential (and apparently obscene) sum of money. TA then rapidly incorporated their work into the Anolis models they were producing for sale and the OACS-03L/SC-A Anolis Refit rolled off the Timbuktu production lines at the beginning of TN 1933. The first twenty machines have already been sold to the citystates of Siwa Oasis and Réunion.

The Siwan and Badlander engineers who tackled the task of making the Anolis work decided to tackle the most dangerous flaw of the machine, namely its tendency to seize up in combat. The problem was tracked to overheating in the engine and the process of redesign began. The solution to the engine problems came from the Badlands, where the addition of secondary cooling systems on engines is commonplace. The generator pods of the SV-76988 were redesigned with cooling vents and supplemental heat-sinks which kept the engine temperature at an acceptable level; this new model of engine was dubbed the SV-77000 by Territorial Arms.

Some changes were also made to the Anolis weapon systems, including the replacement of the somewhat complex linked Werg-II rocket packs by a single Vogel-4 rocket pod. The Anolis Refit was also equipped with a 15mm Rucker RT-15 autocannon, which was better suited to civil or regional defense duties than the original pack gun. The laser designator was maintained, but redesigned along the lines of the more modern Iguana model, making maintenance much easier.

Gallery

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