KN-UHM9

The KN-UHM9, colloquially known as the Monolith Walker, or simply the Monolith, is a gargantuan mechanized siege walker developed by KONAR and used by the military of the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms. Composed of five rectangular metal blocks and possessing some of the strongest weapons on any Coalition land vehicle, the Monolith Walker is more akin to a defensive fortification that also has the added ability to move. Although slow, Monolith Walkers are nearly impossible to stop, and are perfectly-suited for breaking through tough enemy defenses.

Design
Serving as one of the best examples of the hyper-functional, angular, heavy design characteristic of most KONAR technology, the KN-UHM9 is arguably one of the largest and most heavily-armored ground vehicles used by the Coalition military. The entire hull of the walker is a single gigantic block of metal, 4 miles (6.5 km) in length, 2.5 miles in height (4 km), and 2297 ft (700 m) in width. This block is supported by four legs on its sides at the front and back ends of the walker, which are also rectangular blocks. The Monolith's legs are just as tall as its main body, but they are only 1476 ft (450 m) in length and width. These legs are connected to extremely powerful servos at the top of the Monolith's main body, which allow the legs to be lifted up and down and moved forwards and backwards to a limited degree, providing the Monolith with very reliable, if very slow, movement capabilities. The usage of rectangular blocks as legs is a design feature consistent among many KONAR ground vehicles, most notably the KN-NM2, KN-LM7R and KN-HM8X, a vehicle that the KN-UHM9 was based on. However, no previous vehicles designed by KONAR make use of this feature to the same degree as the Monolith. The Monolith's legs are so large and thick that they are capable of supporting auxiliary weapon systems, and even contain backup reactors that allow a Monolith to retain movement even if its primary fusion reactors are destroyed or brought offline. In terms of weaponry, the Monolith excels both in its intended role as a siege walker, and in general combat situations against large groups of enemy forces. The front of the walker's main body is marked by three large apertures, which are the exit points of its atomic railgun barrels. These siege weapons, which are entirely contained within the hull of the walker, launch extremely potent high-yield nuclear explosives at ludicrous speeds, capable of annihilating even the toughest walls and defensive structures in just a few shots. There are virtually no other ground vehicles, used by the Coalition or its enemies, that are capable of withstanding a direct hit from the atomic railguns of the Monolith, but the limited maneuverability of the Monolith makes its very difficult to hit anything other than a stationary target with these weapons. Thankfully, the Monolith is also equipped with numerous direct-fire weapons along its hull, allowing it to defend itself from enemy forces that get too close. The KN-UHM9 has often been called a "walking battleship" due to the potency of these weapons, and since it is equipped with both anti-ground and anti-air weaponry, the Monolith does not usually need armed escorts to protect it from gunships and bombers.

Although its weapons and sheer size already make the Monolith a truly fearsome weapon, its most notable, and perhaps best feature, is its armor composition. Like most KONAR vehicles, the Monolith is sheathed in a thick layer of nuclear-forged osmium armor, making it practically immune to everything save for extremely strong anti-tank weapons. However, even destructive plasma bombs or CLO missiles will only do minor amounts of damage to the outer hull of a Monolith, as its armors is further reinforced via an internal, self-repairing/reorganizing endoskeleton. This endoskeleton binds together the three primary layers of the Monolith's exterior armor, and helps its hull retain structural integrity even when hit by extreme forces. Obviously, all of this reinforcement makes the KN-UHM9 very heavy, especially when combined with its extreme size. The deployment of Monolith Walkers demands the usage of specialized ultraheavy transport barges, which safely carry the walkers from invasion carriers down to the surface of a planet. This process takes time, however, and isn't always viable depending on the circumstances of an engagement. To circumvent this, an extremely bold and dangerous maneuver was invented, which involves dropping a Monolith Walker from its transport carrier and allowing it to fall from orbit down to the surface of a planet, where it lands with a cataclysmic impact that obliterates almost everything nearby. The extreme durability of the Monolith's armor usually allows it to survive this impact, but the same cannot always be said for its crew. Likewise, this maneuver comes with a great deal of risk and is only attempted in the most dire of situations. It is known as the Duropil Drop, named after Ulluc Duropil, a Duur captain that first performed this maneuver during the Battle of Ylbira, and succeeded.

Usage
Ever since their development in the early Coalition Dark Age, Monolith Walkers have been used by the Coalition military to strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. Their towering size and unrivaled firepower make them perfect symbols of the technological, industrial and military might of the Coalition, and this alone has led to their continued usage throughout the many armed conflicts the Coalition experienced since their creation. Monolith Walkers were used frequently during the Mhrinian-Coalition War, as the strength of their armor allowed them to survive the extreme pressures of deep oceans, allowing them to attack underwater Mhrinian installations. The popularity of Monolith Walkers during assaults on Mhrinian ocean worlds led to the creation of a new walker variant during the war, the KN-UHM9S, which was more or less identical to the standard KN-UHM9, save for a new set of armaments designed for underwater combat and several minor design features intended to improve its effectiveness when submerged. The KN-UHM9S was equipped with atomic torpedo tubes as opposed to railguns, and remained very proficient at destroying the fortified defenses of the Mhrinians. The usage of these walker vehicles underwater also led to improvements in the design of Monolith transport barges, which were upgraded with submersible capabilities so they could retrieve walkers that had sunk to the ocean floor.

The usage of Monolith Walkers against the enemies of the Coalition continued throughout the rest of the Coalition Dark Age and into the Galactic Revolution. KONAR's fierce allegiance to the Coalition government and military, combined with the impressive cost of such a large ground vehicle, made Monolith Walkers almost exclusively available to the Coalition military during the Galactic Revolution, giving them a significant advantage in direct ground combat against rebel forces. The imposing silhouette of the Monolith Walker became synonymous with Coalition superiority, and was frequently featured in propaganda intended to boost the spirits of Coalition loyalists and demoralize rebels. However, the actual rate at which the Coalition deployed Monolith Walkers during the Galactic Revolution was much lower, at least compared to the Mhrinian-Coalition War. In addition to their size and unwieldy nature, Monolith Walkers often caused excessive collateral damage when attacking entrenched rebel-controlled bases and cities, something the Coalition desperately wanted to avoid so as to minimize the amount of infrastructural repair and cleanup they would have to perform after the war had concluded and the colonies were back under their control. Monolith Walkers were also at a much higher risk of being destroyed during the Galactic Revolution compared to the Mhrinian-Coalition War, as knowledge of their design and inner workings allowed rebel forces and saboteurs to attack their weak points and deal more reliable damage to the walkers. Of the walkers they did deploy, the Coalition lost a much greater percentage, which further added to their hesitance to deploy them, as the walkers were expensive and difficult to replace. After the Galactic Revolution had concluded, the destroyed husks of Monolith Walkers could be found littering the surface of many recaptured colonies. While the Coalition recovered and scrapped many of these husks, some of them were overlooked, allowing scavengers to harvest valuable components from the wreckage. A few walker husks even became home to bands of squatters, vagrants and populations displaced by Coalition recolonization. The city of Giryex, on New Tarrazat, is one of the largest "walker cities" known to exist, serving as an effective safe haven for people running from Coalition law enforcement.