The fifth-generation RPI-209 'Gloucester' (グロースター Gurōsutā) is a remodeled Sutherland with focus on close combat. Ordinary models are painted a flat, dull purple, but a few ranked-officers units are known to be custom painted. For example, Guilford's and Darlton's units sport a more vibrant deep-purple color scheme, while the elite Glaston Knights mostly retain the standard colors except for their shoulders and the sides of the head, which are blue. The cape on standard-model Gloucesters are a muted dark blue-grey, while those of Guilford, Darlton, and the Glaston Knights are more navy-blue.
Following the failure of Zero's Black Rebellion, the Gloucester replaces a majority of the Sutherlands as Britannia's mainline Knightmare, while maintaining its high performance unit status.
Design and Specifications[]
Featuring enhanced hand-to-hand capabilities, in addition to standard Sutherland equipment, the Gloucester also uses a large jousting lance and, to further draw into a medieval knight's motif, is occasionally draped in a cape. Cornelia, her knight Guilford, and the Glaston Knights habitually equipped capes to their units, though Andreas Darlton did not. The unique lance, dubbed as the "EM (Electromagnetic) Jousting Lance", incorporates a set of expanding prongs on four sides that makes possible to trap and disarm enemy weapons. Combined with the Gloucester's high mobility, this fearsome weapon can be used to penetrate right into an enemy Knightmare's cockpit, killing the pilot and preventing him from escaping via the standard ejection system.
During the Area 18 campaign, several Gloucesters were equipped with sand panels similar to those used by the Z-01 Lancelot in the Battle of Narita. Furthermore, it can be fit with an optional Float Unit backpack, consequentially changing the machine designation to RPI-209FA Gloucester Air (グロースター・エア, Gurōsutāea).
Exceptionally, the Glaston Knights units were shown to equip two "Sattel Waffen" five-barrel missile launchers attached to the sides of the cockpits, while Guilford's Gloucester has been fitted with a pair of MVSs stored in black scabbards on the sides of his Gloucester's cockpit.
Variants[]
Gloucester Air Custom[]
RPI-209AFA/C Gloucester Air Custom
The RPI-209AFA/C Gloucester Air Custom is a machine of unknown affiliation that aimed at Marrybell's life. Its head has been changed to an unregistered unit, and its registration number has also been deleted. However, a base machine like a Gloucester equipped with a Float Unit was very rare at the time compared to a Sutherland so only a person of high societal status is perceived to have access to it.
Specifications[]
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General Characteristics
- Crew: One
- Height: 4.29 meters
- Weight: 7.75 metric tonnes
- Power Source: Yggdrasil Drive, Energy Filler
Design Features
- Cockpit Ejection System
- Factsphere Sensor
- Landspinner Propulsion System
- Optional Sand Panels
- Optional Float System
Armament
- 2x Chest-mounted Slash Harkens
Optional Armaments
- 1x Assault Rifle (Commonly-used weapon)
- 1x EM Jousting Lance (Commonly-used weapon, mainly among Cornelia's Royal Guards, the Glaston Knights, and Andreas Darlton)
- 2x Shoulder-mounted "Sattel Waffen" (Saddle Weapon) Missile Launchers (Located on each side of the cockpit)
- 2x Maser Vibration Swords (Holstered in black scabbards on the sides of the cockpit) (used by Gilbert G.P. Guilford)
- 2x Swords (Knight Orders)
- 1x Anti-Knightmare Sniper Rifle
- 1x Giant Cannon (大型キャノン, Oogata Kyanon) (Commonly-used weapon)
- Multiplex Chaos Mine(s) (ケイオス爆雷, Keiosu Bakurai, lit. Chaos depth charge) (carried in its hips)
- 1x Torso-mounted Antipersonnel Machine Gun (LEAST-used weapon)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Gloucester shares its name with the city, district and county of Gloucester in England, a part of the British Isles, Britannia's conquered ancestral homeland in the series.