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[NS] Merlin Clearer

A fighter drone.
⨴ It's a tail-sitter. It lands vertically with the main engines, like a rocket.
⨴ For landing, this diagram by Krautregen explains it well enough.

It is possible with some practice.





The Merlin was the machine that finally changed Nanite System's reputation from 'cheap trash' to 'market disruptor'. It comically outclassed its predecessor in every respect - cost, manufacturability, maneuverability, armament, etc. - but more importantly, was the first vehicle to be fully controlled by the Yggdrasil Command System.

It became the poster child of the Excalibur Initiative, and no better was this exemplified than when a competitor organised an exhibition battle between themselves and Nanite Systems vehicles. Historical reports describe the resulting cloud of Merlins as 'blotting out the sun' and the ensuing battle as 'total carnage', and videos of the incident certainly bear that out.


1x scale.

Built because the Malebolge really sucked, and I wanted a replacement. How the Malebolge got second place in a contest is beyond me.
The Glatisant will also be receiving an overhaul in the future.

If I had entered the stealth fighter RLM, this would probably have been fairly close to my submission. I was never able to actually build the thing properly, though, until much later on.

I tried to make this a horizontal VTOL. It didn't work very well. The tail-sitter option was much less complex and much stronger - both of which are important if you're trying to make a fighter as light as possible.

(That said, 'light' and 'quad 8x autocannon' are not exactly synonymous.)

Clearers are area superiority craft.
They are often deployed in swarms to uproot enemy forces by drowning them in a sea of metal and fire. Each individual unit is treated as a missile with a gun - they are just as maneuverable, just as lethal, and just as expendable.

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