Sydonian Dragoon
"Come ride with me, Through the veins of history"
- – Muse, Knights of Cydonia
Sydonian Dragoon (AKA Chicken Legs) are a light walker used by the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii. The walker and its brother, the Ironstrider Ballistarius are noted as one of the coolest, classiest, and most elegantly designed vehicles of the Adeptus Mechanicus, despite the horrendously exposed cockpit of the pilot and the servitor. The Sydonian Dragoons act as the 'cavalry' of the Mechanicus and only the most elite of Skitarii are allowed to ride them. These chicken walkers are equipped with a near-perpetual motion engine called the aptly named Ironstrider Engine, which makes them a technological marvel (a rare sight in the Mechanicum), which in turn causes the laws of thermodynamics to bend over.
In battle, Sydonian Dragoons are equipped with either a Taser Lance or Radium Jezzail, however they are also able to be equipped with a Phosphor Serpenta, Broad Spectrum Data-Tether and a Searchlight. The fast speed as well as its unnatural grace, rivaling that of Eldar war machines, makes the Dragoon great within medium to close range assaults. Any enemy foolish enough to get in the way of a rampaging Dragoon would be trampled into a fine, red pulp as the Dragoon's metallic claws/hoofs shred flesh from bone as easy as steel. Most Dragoons often act as shock troops meant to outflank enemy positions while causing chaos among orderly enemy ranks. Their Ironstrider brothers on the other hand, often scout the best available position in order to either pepper the enemy to death to relieve some pressure from the Dragoons or help take out important enemy leaders; cutting off the flow of information and collapsing entire armies.
Historically, the first Sydonians settled in a vast cratered area of Mars swathed in dense acidic mist (how Mars still has acidic mist despite being a cold, desert planet is left unknown, although industrialization during the colonization of Mars could be a major factor). In the schisms that haunted Mars' past, those with stilt-augmetics could stalk these mists and yet live, their elevation allowing them to escape the worst effects of the acidic fog whilst remaining hidden from the enemy. Thus the first prototype of the Sydonian Dragoon was born. Therefore the Sydonian Dragoons echo the tactics of these past dead warrior-explorers.
Like with most Mechanicus vehicles, the Sydonian Dragoon boast a distinct atompunk design.
If you aren't humming Muse almost constantly while playing these, you are doing it wrong.