European Talos Walker image - M.P

During the 2030s, the Japanese arms manufacturer Hasegawa Heavy Industries surprised the world with its presentation of the Kuzuri, a small bipedal military walker designed for security and reconnaissance tasks, operated by a single pilot. Following successful trials, the JGSDF ordered several walkers as part of its modernisation effort against Chinese and North Korean ambitions in the region. Within the same decade, Hasegawa began to develop a larger, more ambitious walker. Dubbed the Kyojin, this revolutionary new war machine stood as tall as a house and came armed with a wide variety of sensors and weapons comparable to a main battle tank.

Western militaries and manufacturers remained sceptical as to the value of walkers - except for one company: Winslow Defence Systems, a relatively young British enterprise that had risen to prominence with its successful offerings in robotics and smart munitions, entered a cooperation with the Japanese. In 2044, the two companies revealed the Winslow-Hasegawa Tactical Legged Offensive System, or Talos for short.

The Talos is a heavy-duty battle walker operated by a crew of two, consisting of a commander and a driver-gunner, assisted by state-of-the-art AI systems. Armed with a fully stabilised, auto-loading 140mm cannon and protected by next-generation composite armour, the Talos was presented to the British Army for evaluation, though the peacetime testing process was cut short by the outbreak of the Russo-European War.

Following the defeat of Poland and Germany, and the destruction of France's military industries by sustained Russian attacks, the UK was left with some of the last functioning factories for military hardware. The Talos, deemed effective in field testing, was approved for mass production and served as an effective complement to conventional tanks. Over the course of the war, many of the technological innovations pioneered by European forces were also implemented in the Talos.