The Hornisse of the Shutoral forces, developed to counter the new AFS of the Mercenary troops, was an epoch-making new weapon which broke previous concepts in armoured fighting suits. The PKA was a cockpit, for the lightweight armoured scout fighter, capable of independent actions. Though the PKA, as a rule acted as the Hornisse by combining with the PK 41, it was often used as an independent weapon. Being mainly an airmobile unit, the PKA had a lot more requirement for vision than the AFS, and as such, the head unit was mostly made from armoured glass. This was enough to protect the pilot from near hits and fragments, but not enough to prevent penetration by the AFS laser or direct hits from larger shells. Due to the modifications needing to made to the PK 41, some 200 PKA Heinrich suits were produced before any went into combat, but when it arrived on Earth, these suits saw combat almost instantly with the 150th Armoured Hunting unit where they attacked and destroyed a Sandstalker column. The PKA H1 was an improvement over the H0 in many ways. The
armour was increased, as was the equipment carried - radio and sights
for example. However, the weak point of the suit - the glass canopy -
still remained, and no fixed armament was mounted.
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