SPECIFICATIONS

GOVERNMENT:  Grand Duchy of Ceres (originally developed by the Ceres Regency)
TYPE:   Heavy Battle Robot
MODEL: Der Kobold-WeirMech DkWm-04
DATE INTRODUCED: 2181 AD (Developed in 2178)
LENGTH (Depth): 14.1 ft. (4.3 meters)
WIDTH: 24.9 ft. (7.6 meters)
HEIGHT: 32 ft. (9.78 meters)
MATERIAL: Crystal Composite
POWER PLANT: 2x Ceres Energy CEFR-50
OUTPUT: 50 megawatts each (100 megawatts total)
ARMOR TYPE: Crystal Composite
ARMOR THICKNESS: 2 inches
DISPLACEMENT: 40 tons
CREW: 2 (1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot/Gunner)

PROPULSION
             PRIMARY (GROUND):
             1x Mezzersmit WE-96 walker engine    
             SPEED: 30 mph

             PRIMARY (FLIGHT):
             Mezzersmit TNRE-760 Thermonuclear Rocket Engines
             SPEED: 760 mph each (1520 total)
             (Delta-V:  1520 mph Z-axis/Forward; 1520 mph y-axis Top/Bottom.)

             PRIMARY (SECONDARY):
             Yunkers TNRE-06 Thermonuclear Rocket Engines
             SPEED: 1000 mph each (1520 total)
             (Delta-V:  6000 mph Z-axis/Forward & Reverse; 1000 mph port/starboard; 6000 mph top.)

WEAPONS:
             PRIMARY (OFFENSIVE):
             2x Mawzer Mz-PC-20 20-megawatt PHELAC palm guns; Effective Range: 160 miles (PHELAC); Payload: unlimited; ROF: semi-automatic with a cyclic rate of 15 blasts per minute

             SECONDARY (OFFENSIVE):
             2x Watzler SRML-165 ; Missile Type: Ceres CSRM-005 short range television guided missile; Effective Range: 11 miles; Payload: 16 missiles; ROF: 1, 2, 4, 8, or all 16 missiles can be fired at once.

             PRIMARY (DEFENSIVE):
             2x Gever G-EMPAC-20(Chest guns); Effective Range: 100 miles; Payload: unlimited; ROF: bursts of 1-blasts per two seconds for a total of 30-blasts per minute.

             SECONDARY (DEFENSIVE):
             2x Mawzer Mz-LC-20 laser cannon turret; Effective Range: 80 miles; Payload: unlimited; ROF: bursts of 10-blasts per two seconds for a total of 600-blasts per minute each barrel.

ELECTRONICS:
              1x Microwave Radio Communications array with a 2500-mile range.
              1x Laser communications system with 5000 mile range
              1x SONAR array with a range of 5,000 miles.
              1x RADAR array with a range of 5,000 miles.
              1x Multispectral Video/Optical array with a range of 1000 miles.
              1x Tesla-Shauberger Antigravity maneuver unit; Power: 2.5 megawatts; Effect: provides artificial lift in a 1-g gravity well of up to 250-feet above ground, g-force compensation and enhanced maneuverability.

Description/Overview:
               The DkWm-04 Kobold WeirMech was the first battlerobot designed for aquatic operations due to the fact that nearly all major spaceship yards of the EFR were underwater and/or coastal ports where the boyancy of water was taken advantage of to assemble their spacecraft. The whole design of the Kobold therefore used a hydrodynamic body style that provided a smooth flow of liquid around it during operations underwater. The machine had high-pressure seals, joints, and deepwater gyrocompensators for operations up to 5 miles under H2O or even deeper in less dense liquids at 1G or less. However, this hydrodynamic design made its use out of water some what clumsy and cumbersome. The Kobold was not hindered in space, but also not designed for combat in that environment even though it was fitted with CO2 thrusters for maneuvering in a vaccuum.
           Built for heavy combat, the Kobold was armed with a variety of weapons, and mostly of a beam type. The main cannons of the Kobold are a pair of Mawzer Mz-PC-20 PHELAC twenty megawatt beam guns mounted in the “palms” of the machine’s hands. The PHELAC mounts were capable of doing imense damage to MBR-01, BattleKnight, MATs, and tanks of the 2180s. Its beam could melt through the armor of nearly every part of the MBR-01 save its torso. Two or more blasts would normally mangle most of the MBR-01 series of battlerobots.
              The rate of fire of the PHELAC cannons was too slow for the liking of the military planners that had called for a heavy battlerobot capable of conducting blitzkrieg style assaults from the ocean on to the shipyards and port cities of the EFR and its allies. Therefore, a pair of Gever G-EMPAC-20 twenty megawatt electromagnetic particle accelerator cannons were mounted on each side of the torso in a forward firing arc. This pair of EMPACs were more powerful than the PHELAC mounts and deadly to most any vehicle or battlerobot hit by them. The combination of both the EMPACs and PHELACs could decimate nearly any mecha of the 2180s.
              Due to the poor maneuverability of the Kobold on land, a dual laser cannon turret was added to the top back of the machine. This turret held a Mawzer Mz-LC-20 dual 10-megawatt laser cannon that was very useful to fend off attackers until the Kobold could bring its heavier weapons to bear. This turret was manned by the copilot allowing it to be fired simultaneously with the craft’s other weapons.
              The last weapon of the Kobold were a pair of Watzler SRML-165 short range missile launchers. These launchers were also controlled by the copilot for use in addition to the laser turret as a defensive weapon system should the Mz-LC-20 prove unable to fend off adversaries. The combination of these two types of weapon systems gave the Kobold a strong defensive array of weaponry that made it a formidable combat unit.
              Lastly, the pilot of the Kobold could use the powerful claws of the mecha as weapons. These claws were intended to rip open the hulls of warships, but could also be used as a proximal weapon against other mecha if necessary.
             Fibro-Carbon muscles made the Kobold a modernized machine that was superior to the older Ceres mecha designs and thus the KWM-04 was viewed as a superior warmachine over the Panzer and Jager Mark-Is. Some 15,000 of the DkWm-04 Kobold WeirMechs were built from 2181 to 2183 at the Ceres shipyards. The vast majority of these mecha met their fate in the oceans, and urban coastal cities of Mars during the Ceres conflict of the 2183 to 2184 time period. While the Kobold was certainly the “Warrior of the Waves” for the 2180s, it would only remain so while spacecraft were contructed in ocean ports along coastlines. Once widespread use of orbital space station and deep-space shipyards came into being during and after the mid-late 2190s, the effective usefulness of an aquatic battlerobot fell into obscurity.