Lupus

Lupus was the first-to-market product offering of Shoshin Heavy Industries in terms of commerically-produced Lorica models, and the first design introduced by any on the Project Lorica design participants that wasn't based on any of their engineering proposals for Lorica Prima. Shoshin, out of OEPU Japan, earned its reputation for superlative and innovative Lorica design almost entirely off the back of the combat record and capabilities of the early Lupus models, which were considered sufficiently iconic as to be something of a trademark of the company.

Model Descriptions

If the Durandal Arsenal Julius can be considered iconic as an overal Lorica design, the Lupus might be considered the archetypical Interceptor Type, and is certainly among the most recognizable varieties made by Shoshin Industries. Right from its introduction, it was actually sent out as two distinct models - the '37 G and the '37 M, both described below.

Lupus designs have historically been slender, light, and a bit on the short side as far as Lorica go. Unusually for an interceptor, they were designed for mobility over immediate survivability, occupying a subclass of the interceptor type that some call the "Hunter Killer Type". All designs in the Lupus family featured a distinctive flared and elongated "head" unit on the Core Module and a nearly digitigrade walking configuration, with iconic "stability" stakes that were articulated to assist with traction on odd surfaces.

Because of the focus on mobility and weight savings, Shoshin had the foresight to also produce an extensive series of documentation on the use of, and make engineering provisions for, Doppellorica with the Lupus, making it one of, if not the, first production model on earth to use this up-armoring concept. Adoption of Doppollorica was mixed, chiefly seen among Lupus units in the hands of Ace pilots; for Ace interceptor pilots, it was considered the ideal Ace Type.

Lupus M.Y. 2037 G

The Lupus Model Year 2037 "General" could be considered the base model of the more iconic and specialized '37 M, but it was by no means considered an entry level or basic model of Lorica overall, requiring just as much maintainance and upkeep as well as the same manufacturing lead times as the comparable Durandal Arsenal Julius. Taking engineering inspiration from un-leaked portions of the Senshi Subarashi design process, and conceptual inspiration from the Lorica Prima X-04 Defender, the G-Type was actually an attempt to generalize the increasingly specialized main design, being the M-type.

To that end, the shared mechanical designs of the core unit and bipedal mobility unit were retained, but the 37 G used its own specific design of mobility units which featured the increasingly-standard "handheld"-type manipulators to use standardized weapons of that class, and flat-topped shoulder armour to facilitate shoulder mountpoints.

Provided up-armouring this would make the Lupus perfectly adequate in both the Assault and Interceptor Roles, and this set of parts was sold with the following firmware coroutines to facilitate that.

• Core Unit: Counterbattery Fire
• Manipulator Units: Suppression
• Mobility Unit: Greater Evasion

Lupus M.Y. 2038 M

The Lupus Model Year 2037 "Melee" was principly distinguished by its dedicated arms design by comparison to the G-Type, of which it was otherwise a twin by most reasonable metrics. The Melee variation used purpose-designed manipulator units which had rounded shoulder armour and no manipulator hardpoints. Instead, the Lupus '37 M MUs had a broader "wrist" area that could be used in like fashion to a shield and extensible, somewhat-articulated claws used in an exclusively melee role. This design was iconic, and offered a degree of maintainance simplicity over the G-type, but required specialist operator training to use effectively.

That said, many G-type pilots became Aces in their own right and the model itself remained popular. Naturally, thanks to the Lorica standard, it was not uncommong for G-Type and M-Type arms to be swapped out for Lupus pilots depending on the demands of the day.

The G-Type models shipped with a different set of firmware combat coroutines preloaded to those on the M-type as well:

• Core Unit: Body Block
• Manipulator Units: Rending
• Mobility Unit: Nimble Charge