A piece I worked on while waiting for the Heavygear 4th edition rpg to be released by Dreampod 9.

All things Heavygear (vehicles, places, ideas, names) are the property of Dreampod 9, the art and character is my fault.

Here’s a story!

The desert winds brought little comfort. The heat blowing in from the south brought promise of a sandstorm on their route. Senior Corporal Kendra was hot. With a thick coat of fur the short skigress wasn’t really built for the heat. Shi wiped sweat from hir brow and did hir best to think cool. Movement brought hir back to reality. “Smile!” Without missing a beat, and nearly too fast for a Morgana class GREL to respond, shi struck a pose and flashed hir teeth in a saber framed yet warm smile. A series of artificial clicks started, signaling hir shoot was nearly over. As a member of the 103rd Rock Drakes, Kendra doubled as both an elite paratrooper gear pilot and a swimsuit calendar model. Their regiment created by the United Mercantile Front Protectorate to serve as airmobile strike force while serving the peacetime purpose of eye candy for recruitment posters and propaganda.

“Alright, got it!” Sampson Hilliard from behind the controls of the camera drones, “let’s get the fuck into the antelope.” Shi watched the trideo imaging crew get into the vehicle, their job in the field done while hirs continued. Shaking hir head shi turned back to hir gear, now ready for mounting. As she walked towards it, shi briefly looked it over. An airdrop rigged Sabertooth command gear, its code name making hir chuckle mentally due to the similarity in hir jaw. At 4.6 meters tall and 7,320 kilos the squad leader variant of the venerable Tiger gear was a stark contrast to its pilot. Big and blocky with a desert camo pattern to hir short, curvy, fuzzy and purple/white. What they shared was the capacity for making things not be things, both weapons of war. It armed with a 30mm autocannon rifle, a nine tube 71mm rocket pod, six tubed anti-personnel grenade launcher, 25mm backup deployable pack gun, and large vibro-knife; and hir with it and hir teeth, claws and brute strength. Though shi could throw the gear if shi wanted to.

Shi hopped in and commenced the pre-startup checks while hir mechanic yammered into hir ear about the latest maintenance. “A/C is dead again.” She shot him a look that, had he not known hir, would have given his unborn great-grandchildren a heart attack. The wind continued to pick up, a dark cloud on the distant horizon forming. Shi closed the cockpit as the engine roared to life. The gear straitened and shi directed it towards the waiting Behemoth gear transport. It was going to be a long ride…