Silverscale

Specifications
Use	Scout Gear
Production Code	OACS-03M/SC
Manufacturer	Territorial Arms
Height	4.2 meters (4.7 m w/designator)
Speed	Walker: 43 kph SMS: 75 kph

The Basilisk was released to fill a need for good scout machines, but could not do the job very well itself. The Silverscale was conceived as a scout variant, capable of handling all the necessary tasks a patrol leader would be faced with. It featured a more powerful radio, an upgraded sensor suite, an ECM package and a target designator installed on top of a deployable mast and assisted by a small camera.

Both the engine housing and transmission were slightly reworked to accommodate this new equipment. The Secondary Movement System was given more powerful motors and bigger all-terrain wheels. Some Silverscales were equipped with basic stealth systems, mostly pieces of thick RAM rubberized polymer placed at strategic places, such as the soles of the feet, the interior of the armor skirt and the hands.

These modifications were not widely used, mostly because the machines were chewing through the parts faster than they could be replaced. The Gear also carried slightly less armor than the basic Basilisk.

Usage

Released in TN 1851, the Silverscale was largely seen as a work in progress. Not fast enough to match the Northern Ferret or Bobcat, its good armor and weapons, combined with a superior electronics package were nevertheless looked upon favorably. During the nineteenth century, the Silverscale served in a series of continuing skirmishes across the Badlands, gaining a reputation as a reliable — if not comfortable — Gear to pilot.

By the TN 1860s, Territorial Arms was planning to replace the Silverscale with a new dedicated scout/reconnaissance Gear design — which would eventually be called the Iguana. Even if the Silverscale did not serve for very long, it had a enormous influence on the way the next generation of Gears were conceived, especially scout and recon machines. Some go so far as to call the Iguana a highly improved version of the Silverscale. Like the Basilisk, the Silverscale was for the most part retired to second-line armed force units or independent Badlands militias by the time of the war of the Alliance. During the conflict it was used by several combat groups of the Peace River Army.

Gallery

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