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we-r-nomad — MASA Tech 02: Centaurmor
Published: 2011-02-26 01:11:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 9372; Favourites: 111; Downloads: 353
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Description
In the years before Earth's punitive expedition to Mars, there were a great many challenges faced in reverse engineering all of the delightful weapons of war left behind by the original 1898 raiders when they succumbed to terrestrial ailments.Chief among them, was recreating the characteristic tripedal gait utilized by Martian mobile weapons.
Refurbished war machines were able to hold their stride of course, but Earth science experienced immense difficulty in duplicating the balance required by this form of locomotion in completely man-made machines. This was a problem that would have to be solved if humanity wherever to build original war machines, in the quantities necessary to bring the battle back to the Martian's doorstep, and forever rid mankind of the accursed "red menace".
The solution proved to be quite simple--A fourth leg was added to Earth-built war machines, affecting a more natural, quadrupedal balance. The new configuration proved more stable than the three-legged, Martian design, and the machine's equine appearance appealed to Earth's military planners and personnel, who were at the time accustomed to cavalry based forces. (As stated by Captain George Orwell of the 84th Orbital Calvalry, "Three legs good...Four legs--better!
)These new war machines, dubbed Centaurmors* saw action in every field of combat in the Second Worlds' War, and distinguished themselves in battle against their three-legged counterparts.
In addition to their effective use in land campaigns, Centaurmors found a role for themselves in open space. Fitted with reaction control thrusters housed in their fuselages and hoof assemblies, they proved to be nimble, and maneuverable space weapons platforms.
While not "atmospherically amphibian" like airfoil craft, they did provide a strong small-craft point defense for the lumbering juggernauts of MASA's advanced fleet.
Today Centaurmors like the A/F**-16 Guardian pictured above are a familiar staple of human military dominance in space. It is not uncommon to see a great many of these wondrous machines flying in vast formations around MASA's proud Ships of the Line.
* I was originally going to call them "SELF's", but I just can't resist a portmanteau.
**Articulated Fighter
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Comments: 88
Thank you. It always makes my day when someone picks up on a reference.
Happens way less often than I'd like.
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Dude...how do you come up with these designs? I'm always in awe of your work!!
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You're very welcome.
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That is the first example of quadrupedal battle armor I have seen that is believable on a functional level. Wish they had something like this for BattleTech.
Is the art sold? Is it already part of a game out there? Or would you be willing to sell it to a guy making a fan-based Technical Readout? I could see something like this as a special bonus in the current project [link]
Steve
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I'm honored by your inquiry, but I actually have plans for the Centarmour in the future. I hate to give you more bad news, but I'm afraid I don't have time for commissions for now, otherwise I'd offer to design you a new one. Apologies.
I appreciate your comment. I did notice that most equine-themed mechs tend to my more fanciful and less functional. That's not always the case, but it happens often enough for there to be an annoying pattern.
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Ha! Not to worry, it was a quick concept and it's just as well. I did some fast design work and concluded this would make a nice ProtoMech suitable for wiping out infantry.
But it's not a game breaker. Thanks anyway.
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Very nice. Excellent. Fan fiction of any kind based on classic literature is rare, and even more so when it's quality work.
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kekekeke okay I'll try this in my rendition
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versus this bot [link]
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Do you ever get a full-night's sleep? Because I was wondering how you come up with so many great ideas, and suddenly got a vision of you sitting up in bed at like 1 in the morning, yelling "I got it!" and then sketching furiously until well after sun-up...
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I absolutely love the technical reasoning and design justification. I really like the alternate-universe feel of the FMP setting. It shows how well-read you are.
Out of curiosity - why did the original tripods come to Earth? They were - gasp - inexplicably abducting both men and women! (Scandalous!)
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The Martians were here for the delicious human blood.
I really am getting a kick out of these onion icons.
In fact I believe it was the microbes in our filthy, dirty blood that made the Martians sick , as opposed to airborne viruses, as presented in the 1953 movie. (While I am loathe to say anything positive about the disappointing 2005 update, at least they got that grizzly detail right. )
So since both genders have blood, they were equally appetizing to the vampyric aliens. (Well, women do have more blood in certain regularly interspersed intervals, but I doubt the Martians were privy to that knowledge, and I further doubt either Wells or Speilberg were ever going to address that. )
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Hrm. Very nice design. I always figured the Martians were naturally tripedal, and like humans always wanting to make bipedal giant robots, they went tripedal. Of course, making it work in the lower gravity(and air pressure) of Mars made it easier to make it work, then just modify it for Earth-normal conditions. Of course, given that they lost, perhaps the modifications werent successful...
On another note, the giant robot enthusiast in me is picturing a veritech-ish design meant to dock with the Centarmours, leading to a massive dose of awesome: centaur-shaped mobile suits being ridden by a giant robot, both armed and ready to charge off into the heavens!
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Hmmm, this could be a good explanation for Earth's lopsided victory in the Second World's War.
A Martian Tripod, which was built on Mars, became a menacing, lumbering, loping hulk in Earth gravity, while the Centarmours which were built in Earth gravity became even more nimble, unstoppable power houses, once deployed on the red planet.
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Lets not forget the beam weapon differences. A heat ray calibrated for a thin, primarily CO2 atmosphere with almost no water content is still going to be fairly effective in a denser, far more humid atmosphere. Accounts for the range on most of these things. Now take that tech, reverse-engineer it so it functions properly in Earther air, and then unleash it on MARS?
Id say it was overkill, but really, overkill is SO under-rated these days.
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"Teh bewbies" would be inside the torso section--provided the operator was female.
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I could tell you , but that would ruin the surprise.
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Centarmour is such a wonderful pun. 
- Polecat
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Hmmmm?
Pegacentaur?
Well it would compensate for the Centarmour's traditional inability to support atmospherically amphibious landings, and the portmanteau pretty much writes itself.
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The foot thrusters don't create enough lift? Even if they can't support flight in a gravity well it seems like they might be able to slow decent enough to make a drop feasible.
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Cool. I was hoping someone would notice that. There's no end of fun to be had with alternate time lines.
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Nice pic, and it makes a certain amount of sense for a bunch of Victorians to try and design a war machine that way. And why the heck did Wells give the Martian ships three legs anyways? It's a stupid design for any kind of vehicle.
My only suggestion would be to redesign the legs. The way they are now the legs can only position their thrusters on a 360 plane, but if you made the attachment of at least the front legs more like a shoulder (giving them a full range of motion) it would massively increase the mecha's maneuverability during spaceflight.
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Quadriped? Slide under the legs, shoot upwards. Just like the third boss of Metal Slug 2.
[link] at 3:40
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Step on sliding assailant, incinerate then with thrusters inside hooves.
Nice and crispy.
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"Megaman lied to us! Aaaaaaaah!"
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It looks like it can shrug off a direct hit or two. If the three leggers didn't survive WW2 I would think that it was because of this. I can't wait to see MASA's enemies answer to this.
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Awesomely done! Though, I have to admit.. the rear thruster's placement is... unfortunate. ^_^;; Are there many jokes about that amongst Centarmour pilots?
How tall is this guy? I mean, several stories tall? More massive than a Martian tripod? Also, how quick can the machine use those shield-like structures? That is, can it react fast enough to use them against weapons fire?
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Hmmm, I hadn't thought about that. I don't know if I should redesign the main thruster, or come up with some off color jokes for the pilots to say.
Legs fully extended, they are about 60 feet tall, which makes them shorter than a tripod, but they are faster, better armored, and have a lower center of gravity.
Naturally, they can use their shields to block heat beams for short durations, but also, they have their own heat beams integrated into the undersides of the shields, to give as good as they get.
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"I stopped asking the techs if they could get the maintenance done a bit faster when they started keeping buckets of ginger in their toolkits."
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a common prank in farm towns is for kids to shove ginger up the asses of said livestock to cause explosive bowel-emptying and highly upset livestock making shitloads (pun intended) of noise. if the ginger was soaked and scored, and as such more of the relevant chemistry would act on the relevant mucous membranes, can cause stampeding.
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That truly sounds like the ultimate expression of boredom.
I suppose this could be a useful metaphor for the ground test of the main afterburner.
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farm towns suck. i'm not going to deny that. i mean, what sort of prank do you pull taht involves you sticking your arm up a cow's ass to the shoulder?
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I know of what you speak. My grandparents lived in rural community.
On television, visits to one's grandparent's home is always portrayed as a treat. For me and my brothers, it was a six hour drive from the cradle of modern civilization to the land where time stands still.
The roads were so far away and sparsely driven and there was so little in the way of modern machinery, that I swear you could stand in the front yard, and hear the clock tick inside the house. The boredom was palpable--when you weren't being conscripted into forced labor, usually picking corn. (Oh but the gorged worms that would writhe out from the occasional ear were such a treat. 
While I'd never punch a cow in the rectum, I can see where boredom can drive one to stupidity.
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the future is farming robots. it so totally is.
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Tricking some other poor sucker into putting HIS arm up a cow's butt to the shoulder with a fake story....
Then you get out the duct tape.
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....what sort of fake story would convince someone to do that? I can't imagine anything that would make ME want to stick my arm up there, beyond a promise of extremely large amounts of money, for which i'd demand a legally binding contract in regards to the activity first.
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Well, you're not a simpleton. For some people, "Dood! Check this out, it's cool!" or maybe making some sexual metaphor and the incidence of people sneaking into farms to do it would outstrip cow tipping.
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