Thunderhead
Cygnar Heavy Warjack | ||
---|---|---|
Weapons | Twin Shock Fists Lightning Coil | |
Height | 4.27m | |
Weight | 12.5 tons | |
Fuel load | 0 | |
Fuel usage | Indefinite | |
Chassis designer | Bradig Gormleigh | |
Initial service date | 606 AR |
History
Nemo originally envisioned an electricity-fuelled warjack that could function without coal or water and get rid of the telltale signs of steam, but he never found a way around the brilliant energy surrounding the construct. After several prototypes that failed in spectacular explosions, Nemo finalised construction plans in 604 AR.[1]
The size and complexity of the machine requires every part to be carefully fabricated to Nemo’s exacting specifications. Its design pushes the envelope of modern mechanikal science and integrates a number of advances reverse engineered by Nemo from Cyrissist technology. Thousands of crowns worth of equipment are destroyed and two assistants are badly burned developing the power generator, and it takes Nemo over six months to engineer shielding that could protect the cortex from the galvanic energy. Nemo proceeds with the project until he has a stable device that could generate sufficient power without overheating the heavy warjack chassis. The result sets a new standard in warjack design.[1]
Properties
The Thunderhead draws its power entirely from galvanic energy generated by its massive storm chamber. The air around it hums with pale, crackling arcs of electricity as its galvanic aura scorches the ground with each step.[1]
Large even for a heavy warjack, the Thunderhead’s great lightning coils rise from its back in place of conventional smoke. Its carapace is composed of huge, curving steel plates that bulge as if barely containing the energy within. A blue-tinged glow seeps from the armour joints and edges. The twin brass-capped coils tower one and a half metre over the ’jack, between which arcs of electricity continually lash out.[1]
All the Thunderhead’s weapon systems were designed to take advantage of its galvanic heart. A pair of enormous lightning coils channel the electricity generated by the oversized storm chamber into devastating pulses, electrocuting anyone who comes too near without mechanikal insulation. The pulse can also be narrowed into directed blasts through the smaller arrays of coils that run down the warjack’s massive fists. Lightning plays across the Thunderhead’s fists and grounds through anything smashed by it. These energies sometimes surge unpredictably, frying the cortexes of enemy warjacks.[1]
Given its staggering cost and technical difficulty, the Thunderhead cannot be mass produced. The concept of a warjack fuelled solely by an integrated chamber has since been replicated only on the Dynamo, another of Nemo's creations.[1][2]