Overview

Garland is the trade name of the Bahamode Industries Model 7-G, the galaxy's first battlemover-class combat mecha. Introduced in 1991 and is still one of the most capable mecha in its class today. It is an expensive and powerful battle system, commonly fielded only by the most elite military and law-enforcement organizations.

History

The prototype Garland was hand-built in 1991 by Robert "ReRob" Mandeville, Jr., who went on to found Virtual Labs, Inc., manufacturers of the Cyclone Veritech Combat Armor Motorcycle System (VCAMS). Mandeville built the original Model 7-G for the personal use of MegaZone, who would shortly become the first commander of the Wedge Defense Force. During the formal establishment of the WDF in 1992, MegaZone assumed ownership of the design and founded Bahamode Industries to mass-produce Garlands for the use of the WDF Armored Corps.

The Garland was and is a very sophisticated and expensive piece of equipment, much more expensive than a non-transforming battlemover of similar size and power. It never went into large-volume production the way the Cyclone series did, serving instead as a special purpose mecha for elite mechanized troopers, members of the Shadow Squad, and a few hardcore scouts. In addition, one Garland was carried aboard each vessel of the WDF Deep Space Patrol for the use of the commanding officer.

Outside the WDF, few organizations could afford to field the Garland. The Royal Salusian Armed Forces purchased a few, putting them to uses similar to those of the WDF, but the backbone of the RSAF's battlemover force remained the non-transformable ATM-09 Scopedog Armored Trooper. A few of the galaxy's wealthier law enforcement agencies purchased Garlands for the use of patrol officers, but they proved difficult to maintain and expensive to repair, and all were phased out by 2100.

In 2037, GENOM Corporation technicians attempted to reverse-engineer a captured Garland, but were unable to master the secrets of Veritechnology and only managed to develop the vastly inferior Hargun semi-transformable maneuver slave, which was not a commercial success. Corporation Master Maximilien Largo ordered production ceased and the tooling scrapped in 2043.

In the early 2100s, Bahamode Industries briefly marketed an unarmed civilian version of the Model 7-G, dubbed the Garland Highway Star. Its extremely high cost and the expense of repairs, coupled with the likelihood of repairs given the vehicle's high performance, limited sales, but Highway Stars did enjoy a brief vogue as the status vehicle of choice for young celebrities. (The name was re-used in the 2300s for an unrelated high-performance road cycle offered by a speed shop on New Japan.)

The military Garland went out of production in 2215, though existing production units remained in service until the fall of the WDF in 2288. A few Garlands, salvaged or stolen from various depots and outposts, circulated in the collectors' market, and some from that era can still be found in the hands of civilian collectors today.

When the WDF was officially reactivated (never having formally disbanded) in 2382, Bahamode received a contract to put the Garland back into production. Advances in overtechnology made the still-potent design more economical to build and repair, and enhancements to sensors and weapon systems made the vehicle as effective a combatant as it had ever been. The new-production Garlands were issued to the commanders of mechanized infantry units as heavy backup to the reconstituted Cyclone forces, and the new WDF table of organization and equipment called for a few to be placed aboard each vessel in the much-expanded fleet for use at the commander's discretion.

Models

There are two different versions of the Garland in production today: the current version (Revision 17) of the Model 7-G and the alternative-drive Model 7-W. The Model 7-G is by far the most numerous, and remains what most people think of when they think of the Garland.

Model 7-G Garland, motorcycle mode

Drive: Axle-stator direct electrical drive
Power source: Axial fusion micro-turbine
Backup power source: Gas turbine
Maximum ground speed, cycle mode: 200 mph
Maximum flight speed, battroid mode: 50 mph
Maximum altitude, battroid mode: 500 ft.
Armament:
12x GPM-150 General Hosement hybrid-tracking mini-missile
1x EP-7A 80mm blaster cannon

Model 7-G Garland, battroid mode

The Garland is a very powerful battlemover, possessing one of the highest battroid strength ratings in the class. It is also highly agile in battroid mode. Its leg actuators are especially powerful, enabling it to leap short distances without using its flight thrusters (a feat most mecha cannot accomplish). Its main armament is the tried-and-true EP-7A blaster, a single-barrelled version of the larger EP-13 rotary blaster carried by Alpha Legios Veritech fighters, and later models can carry mini-missiles in pop-out racks in the legs.

Pilots through the years have consistently ranked the Garland as one of the best mecha to pilot. In both cycle and battroid modes, it is forgiving and responsive, an easy vehicle for novice pilots to gain skill and confidence with. Its sensors and targeting systems are among the best available and go a long way toward making the Garland, though lightly armed for its class, one of the top dogs of the battlemover class in terms of actual combat record. It is also heavily armored and equipped with excellent crew protection systems.

Garlands have two primary disadvantages. One is that they have no built-in beam or ballistic weapons. While this alleviates the problems of heat dissipation and ammunition storage faced by mecha that do, it also means that a Garland that loses its EP-7A faces a serious firepower deficit. In skilled enough hands, the battlemover's great melee combat potential makes up for this problem somewhat. The other major drawback to the Garland's design is that it is a large and somewhat unwieldy vehicle in motorcycle mode. The placement of the legs in cycle mode, particularly, negatively impacts cornering performance.

The Model 7-W shares many components with the Model 7-G and is identically armed, but possesses a repulsorlift drive system instead of the Model 7-G's conventional ground wheels. It is somewhat more maneuverable, but harder to control and more prone to crashes in cycle mode.

The Garland Today

The modern Garland remains, as always, the Ferrari to the Cyclone's Jeep: more powerful, more exotic, more prestigious, but also much more expensive to buy and to operate, not as useful in as wide a range of conditions, and a lot more likely to get stolen. However, they have carved out a much more stable niche in today's market, between the WDF, the International Police, and a few allied buyers. They'll never be made in anything like the quantities of their smaller cousins, but they're also not going away anytime soon.

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Babylon Project Galactic Database

Yes, those are actually pictures of the Yamato Garland toy.

(Fuel cell as in 'storage device that uses metal hydrides to store the hydrogen, instead of a liquid or gas tank' rather than 'device that generates electricity via oxydation across a semipermiable membrane')

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

And because it just occurred to me, I recall the Garland being referred to as a battlemover elsewhere in UF, with the definition of Battlemover being "any humanoid mecha too big to be a powered armor and too small to be a Destroid". Under that definition, what exactly does Vision's old Genki class as? Or has that since been superseded for something else? I can't find the reference in question so it may have been in an outdated thread.

-OM

It seems too small to have room for someone inside, but I've noticed little things like that rarely stop someone from crawling inside a mech and driving it around.

-Bitstream
http://www.bitscape.net