World Exclusive Heavy Gear Blitz Reveal: Street Viper

   
       

Well this is the last of Agent 009 lives Southern faction reveals for Heavy Gear Blitz. He has agreed to be submitted for psychiatric evaluation... as long as we put him in a straight jacket first. I fear my initial concerns about his mental instability will be proven right. But, he has managed to snare some vital information and images for the last of the new Gears for the Southern Faction, the Street Viper:

Again I'm going to have to say that this Gear pleases me no end, like the Salamander previously I'm a bit of a fan of the roller blade wheels. I like the nippy roadster look they give gears, although I personally think the Street Viper looks a little bit more heavily armoured. Another thing I like are the 'grab' rails that seem to be appearing on Gears, not too sure of there practical use, but they do look cool. For those wandering about the name of the Street Viper, and whether it has anything to do with the Desert Viper, it sort of does. It was developed at the same time of the Desert Viper and has many of the same features. The Street Viper is basically the civilian version of the Desert Viper and has proved popular with collectors and racers alike. Apparently some city-state forces maintain squads of them for high speed chases... I wander if it comes with a doughnut storage compartment?

However, Mandeers Heavy Industries weren't happy with their market penetration so they decided to pimp the Gear out with more toys. So they've given the Street Viper military grade armour, ballistic cloth and a small caliber autocannon, presumable for getting rid of gophers in your lawn! The Gear comes with option to kit it out with police equipment and Dynamic systems redesigned the cockpit to be more ergonomic, making the Gear more comfortable for long operations like stake outs and whomping gophers. I think when they say 'ergonomic' and 'long operations' they mean they've added some sort of potty facility and maybe leather seats. I don't know, what constitutes a comfortable cockpit for a Gear? Answer on a postcard please. Any way Mandeers have further pimped the Street Viper out with advanced actuators borrowed from the Diamondback coupled with the lack of heavy armour and coupled with the apparently massive WC-780s V-Engine it has the Street Viper is a bit of an agile speed demon.

Yep what all that means is that the Street Viper currently holds the record for fastest ground speed record of any Southern Gear. This performance has convinced the MILICIA to begin buying Street Vipers as cheap replacements for their aging Dartjagers. The military variants of the Street Viper are still mostly to be found in city militias and police forces as scout and interception units. As such the Street has seen little actual combat. It has been subject to intense anti-terrorism mission in Saragossa though. The Street Viper agility and speed make it perfect for using in the mountainous regions around Saragossa and for rooting out the terrorist training camps located there. Conversely it's speed and off-road capabilities have made it useful in the Great Plains Police in the Southern Republic, where it has proven ideal for capturing smugglers and for dealing with the off rover bands in the broad expanse of the Southern plains... and that's your lot. That's the last of my reveals for the Southern faction. I hope you've enjoyed getting a sneak peak at what is to come in Forged in Fire, which by the way will be released on December 2nd, so not long now. Peace out!