The Paladin is the Crincillin military's answer to the threat of air raids. Able to obliterate aircraft with little resistance, it's deployed to make sure that no opposition stays airborne. In the blink of an eye, the Paladin can lift off into the atmosphere to pummel anything unfortunate enough to still be on the ground.
Overview[]
Paladins are designed as the Crincillin army's mainline anti-air unit. Although it is not as durable or versatile as the Raiden, it fills a niche that the Raiden cannot. Each Paladin is equipped with an oversized missile launcher, which fires high-speed, high-damage, homing missiles that explode into bits of superheated shrapnel, often severely damaging multiple targets at once. That, coupled with the Paladin's specially-created targetting sensors, make the Paladin a force to be reckoned with. But no vehicle is perfect, and the Paladin is no exception. It's lack of defenses against ground units, fragile armor, and less than exemplar speed makes them easy prey to Phor Ites and rogue Raidens. Also, its missile launcher is designed to fire missiles that pack a punch, but take a few seconds to reload, making it temporarily vulnerable to ground-assault aircraft.
Also worth noting, much like the other Crincillin infantry, the Paladin is equipped with the ability to float above the ground, making it light enough to glide over water effortlessly.
Crusader[]
The alternate form of the Paladin is an aircraft designated the "Crusader," a dedicated anti-unit assault bomber. Paladins are now given two sets of missiles: homing missiles that target aircraft, and unguided missiles infused with nanites that mow down ground units. The specially made nanites were created to rip apart the cells and curcuits of lighter, more mobile armors of infantry and tanks, but are not effective against the more entrenched structures. This allows them to be very useful against anything on the ground that moves. Lastly, this form gives the Paladin much more speed and manueverability, able to be used as a form of transportation.
Before the Crusader form can be used, the schematics must be called down from the Armada to an Analysis Engine for careful inspection and any necessary modifications for use on Skepna.
Development[]
The Paladin was designed after the fall of the Empire, during a time when the military was reconsidering their strengths and weaknesses. Their main weakness was the lack of a dedicated anti-air unit, forcing them to often rely upon the aerial form of the popular Raiden for anti-air missions. After a few years of development, the Paladin was added to the Imperial military's service. Since the Paladin vehicle did not origninally have an alternate form and because the Crincillin military did not have a way to attack threats on the ground from the safety of the air, the research teams developed a way to solve both those problems at once. This was the Crusader, a bomber design which seems rather promising against the primitive forces of the Phorin.