The Giga-Fortress


Designation: Heavy Bomber
Manufacturer: Ten-Shi Zaibatsu
Country of origin: Japan
Mass-produced at: Imperial Docks

Key Features:

• ‘Giga’ self-optimising on-board computers
• Dual air/naval propulsion modules
• Octuple 350 mm Shirada cannons
• Quadruple Tenzai VX missile launchers
• ‘Breath of God’ device



When the Empire of the Rising Sun’s ambitious plans to dominate the Western Hemisphere began to crumble, the leading national arms manufacturers scrambled to devise contingency plans that would satisfy their shareholders. Consequently, the Empire’s impending defeat directly led to the merger of two Imperial companies, Tenzai Robotics and Shirada Naval Yards (now reorganised under the banner of Ten-Shi Zaibatsu). Desperate times forced these former rivals to set aside their differences, and a project made a harmonious union and the pooling of their respective expertise possible. The result is a machine that even the finest scientific and military minds of the Empire of the Rising Sun had previously deemed impossible. No, the Giga-Fortress cannot bring the late Emperor Yoshiro back to life. However, this semi-sentient, computer-controlled weapons platform is programmed to avenge the Empire by annihilating its many enemies. This moment was bound to come sooner or later, when the men and women of the Empire could no longer continue to fight.


With the Empire’s defeat looming, its weapons manufacturers pooled their resources, combining their most expensive and powerful weapons and creating a formidable artificial intelligence in a final project: the Giga-Fortress.

The idea of a weapon that can continue to fight independently, even without human operators, speaks volumes about the depth of despair felt by the Empire’s most die-hard loyalists. Nevertheless, the Giga-Fortress appears to be real, judging by a growing number of independently verified accounts from Imperial defectors, Soviet prisoners of war and Allied military personnel. Assuming these accounts can be taken at face value, the Giga-Fortress must be by far the most expensive and largest combat vessel ever developed by the Empire of the Rising Sun (or by any nation, for that matter). Even an Allied Aircraft Carrier or a Soviet Kirov would be dwarfed by the sheer size of this thing; however, the bowels of the Giga-Fortress contain few crew quarters. Instead, it is said that the Giga-Fortress is crammed with an untold number of servers, communications panels and self-diagnostic systems, many of which are deliberately superfluous. A bridge, some adjacent bunks and a hall (in a state of disarray, incidentally) were the only quarters built for a human crew, and even these amenities were largely for the sake of formality. No expense was spared in the construction of this vessel. Instead, the Giga-Fortress must have been built under the nihilistic assumption that no crew would be available to steer the vessel along its deadly course.


For better or worse, the Giga-Fortress’s destructive potential has yet to be accurately assessed.

Originally designed as two completely separate platforms, it is now believed that the Giga-Fortress is a single entity capable of assuming two entirely different forms: a massive naval fortress, towering with more than half a dozen heavy guns and multiple Seeker missile systems; and an aerial fortress, built to resemble a monstrous face, armed with a device known as the ‘Breath of God’, housed within the vessel’s ‘mouth’. The forced merger of Tenzai Robotics and Shirada Naval Yards made all this possible, in what may one day be regarded as one of the Empire’s strangest post-war acts. It is also regarded as the pinnacle of military robotics. Shirada’s advanced weaponry, Composite Armor and floating fortresses were fused with Tenzai’s most sophisticated artificial intelligence and dual-transformation systems in the construction of this weapon. Those directly responsible for the project remain anonymous and are likely deceased; some Allied officials have even speculated that the computer-controlled Giga-Fortress is a cynical creation of war criminals seeking to evade responsibility for their actions.

Fortunately, there are as yet no published reports of a Giga-Fortress attack, and this may be why the machine has no known weaknesses. It is believed to have no moral inhibitions either, at least not according to those who accept that the Giga-Fortress is conscious to whatever extent is possible for a computer-controlled machine. Its ‘personality’ has been programmed with a version of Imperial military doctrine that prioritises mission success, the Empire’s ultimate victory and the total defeat of its enemies, in that order. But unlike a zealous Imperial Warrior, the Giga-Fortress has no concept of morality, no ability to anticipate its Officers’ reactions or to misinterpret its directives, and requires no rest whatsoever. It exists, perhaps, in a default state of fighting until it ceases to function or until the millions of individuals it ‘believes’ to be enemies have been eliminated.


Reconnaissance on the battlefield has at least revealed the following facts about the Giga-Fortresses:

• Truly massive– The Giga-Fortress dwarfs all other modern combat vehicles, including the largest naval vessels of the Allies and the Soviets. Consequently, it is thought to be slow and almost impossible to board. The thousands of redundant systems within the fortress are renowned for their self-repair capabilities and autonomy.

-Variable transformation– Like most piloted robots of the Empire of the Rising Sun, the Giga-Fortress has two completely different forms. As a naval fortress, it is capable of destroying entire enemy fleets, bombarding coastlines, or attacking air squadrons. As an aerial fortress, it can devastate everything on the ground with a weapon known as the Breath of God. Any unit present beneath the aerial fortress will be crushed when it transforms into naval mode

-Prohibitive cost- The almost unlimited research budgets spiralled deep into the red during the development of the Giga-Fortress. According to resource assessments, there is now no doubt that no more than a handful of these monsters could ever have been built.

-Created from a Nanodrone - The Giga-Fortress is far too large to be built at the Imperial Docks, which are normally used to construct Imperial warships. It is therefore built instead using the same design as the Nanodrones. Hypothetically, the destruction of such a Nanodrone would trigger the destruction of the Giga-Fortress itself as a precautionary measure.