NWI Infantry Transport and Support Walker

From Epiverse

The NWI's first armored walker was designed by Lockheed Martin to fill a role similar to the Infantry tank in WWII while being able to transport a small squad of soldiers and their equipment. ITSW officially stands for "Infantry Transport and Support Walker", but the crews of these massive walkers often substituted that with the backronym "It's Wide" refering to it's rather wide profiles.

Walkers often suffered from high hit-profiles due to their elevated operating position standing high above most tanks, and this vehicle's wideness effectively increased this problem. However, the ITS-1 was fitted with incredibly resiliant armor and anti-missile defence systems that balanced out this problem fairly well, enough that it saw extensive use throughout the Third War.

While the ITS-1 did not make use of the micro-servo technology developed by the ADA due to troubles with NWI researchers reverse-engineering the system and lack of caputred or destroyed ADA walkers to study, it did utilize a similar system. This system pioneered with the ITS-1 would allow the NWI, and later the ASUN to effectively field walkers without having to reverse-engineer the complicated micro-servo technology. The system utilized a pair of gyros mounted in the "shoulders" or "hips" of the walker's legs, which would constantly monitor balance and adjust the leg's positioning to compensate. A benifit of this technology is that it allowed for a more solid leg structure that could be more easily armored and was in general far less vulnerable than the micro-servo setup. After the Third War, though, this system fell out of use as the micro-servo system was much more maneuverable and stable.

Minimum operating crew for the ITS-1 is 3, though a crew of 5 was used whenever possible. This included the pilot, gunner, commander, communications officer, and monitor. The monitor sat in the cupola and observed the battlefield around the walker, relaying important information to the commander. The sensors array auxilliary linked back to the cupola, so the monitor would also be able to act as backup to the communcations officer who normally delt with all sensor-related systems. In a 3-man crew the commander takes on all aspects of communication and monitor.

In addition to this crew of 5, the ITS-1 can hold 6 soldiers and their equipment inside the armored hull, as well as several more on the open rear deck. Some ITS-1s were modified with improvised armor plating on this rear deck that increased the safety of any troops carried there in hostile territory.

The ITS-1 is not equipped with a primary anti-tank weapon, rather it is fitted to deal with enemy infantry threats. In addition to the main GEO-4 four barrel auto-cannon, the ITS-1 has a set of rapid fire mortars, a top-mounted M1000 VHMG, interchangable missile and rocket bay, and a 10 gauge automatic shotgun mounted coaxially to the sensors array next to the GEO-4.

The auto-shotgun was added after initial field tests to help deter enemy infantry from getting under the mech and planting explosive charges in vulnerable areas. The missile/rocket bay holds a detachable magazine of rocket-based munitions that, once locked into place, interfaces with the firing controls as if it were permanently attached to the body. This allows the ITS-1 to field a number of mission specific missile ordinance, including everything from anti-tank TOW missiles to dumb-fire WP rockets. The mortar battery can also be replaced with a SAM launcher if needbe.

In addition to these armaments, there are several firing ports to allow passengers to engage the enemy from within the walker's interior troop holding bay, or from the rear cupola.

Throughout the ITS-1's operational history, it served the NWI well to it's purpose, and proven the utility of walkers, or "mechs", in the Third War's many rubble-strewn cities and broken-down or near-collapsed ISS tunnels. While the ADA were the original spearhead into the micro-servo research that allowed them to effectively field walking vehicles, they would base on of their later utility mech designs on the original ITS-1 platform.