Corsair

Name: M-849 "Corsair"
Type: Decommissioned Scout, Leisure
Height: 7 meters (23 feet)
Weight: 6.8 metric tons (7.5 tons)
Crew: 1 operator (optional)


Service History
The Corsair model bipedal humanoid combat vessel is often viewed as an overall failure in the annals of mechanized fighting robot history. More than anything, the reason for its development and limited production could be traced back to a publicity trend, a brief but widespread attempt to improve morale and distract the civilian populace from the excessive taxes required to fund large mechanized (or mech) armies. Previous models had been more like walking tanks, bleak and impersonal, and they carried with them a reputation for being machines of destruction and death. Analysts predicted that putting a human face on mechs would cast them in a more positive light, and they hired outside marketing teams to aid in constructing more human-looking vehicles.

Needless to say, it didn't work well enough to warrant the effort, and the entire idea died off in less than ten years. But that was still plenty of time for a respectable number of personified mechs to be created and even see combat, before they were decommissioned. Even after they were taken out of active deployment, not all of them were destroyed, and several of them were purposed in other industries or, unfortunately, vanished into the black market, to be used by mercenaries and criminals alike.