Atlesian Paladin-290

The Atlesian Paladin-290 is a massive mechanized battlesuit developed by the Kingdom of Atlas' greatest minds in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company.

The suit is first seen in "A Minor Hiccup", being introduced by James Ironwood.

Appearance
The Atlesian Paladin is enormous, able to take up an entire lane on a highway, its armaments notwithstanding.

An Atlesian Paladin was shown with the symbol of the White Fang emblazoned on at least one side of the mech's guns, which is revealed to have been stolen by Roman Torchwick and his associates and supplied to the White Fang.

Inside there is a cockpit that houses and secures one pilot, with several holographic displays available to monitor the status of the Paladin and survey the surrounding environment.

The Paladin's design is intricate, armed with at least two energy guns on its side, rocket launchers mounted onto its back, and double-barreled guns on the sides of the aforementioned energy guns.

The Atlesian Paladin seen in "Battle of Beacon" has a black and white color scheme and has the symbol of atlas emblazoned on both of its guns.

In "Heroes and Monsters" a new Paladin is seen. The new paladin is presumably the finished Atlesian Paladin.

History
In "A Minor Hiccup", the Paladin is first seen being unveiled in the form of a hologram by Ironwood in a small presentation in Vale, who describes it and the Atlesian Knight-200 as the next step forward in military technology, with the Paladin being described by Ironwood as a powerful mechanical device that is still controlled by a Human.



The Paladin is seen again at the White Fang Faction Meeting, in "Painting the Town...". However, it is now in the possession of Roman Torchwick, who states that he "managed to snag a few, before they hit the shelves". As Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong watch the presentation, Roman spots them, and attempts to catch them, only for Blake to shoot the facility's lights out.

Roman jumps into the pilot's seat of the Paladin, and chases the duo across Vale, destroying cars, and property, while also having to contend with Neptune Vasilias, Yang Xiao Long, and the rest of Team RWBY. Weiss Schnee eventually uses Myrtenaster to cause the Paladin to fall from the highway, onto the ground level, where Ruby Rose is present, and also where the rest of RWBY land beside her.

After commencing attack after attack, Blake and Ruby sever one of the Paladin's arms, while Yang takes advantage of the situation, and jumps onto its back, pummeling it with blasts from Ember Celica. Roman then pummels Yang into the ground, sending the latter into a cold fury, during which she destroys the other arm of the Paladin and, with the help of Blake, shatters the massive machine with one powerful blow to its facial structure, causing it to fall to pieces, with Roman escaping its destruction.

In "Mountain Glenn", as Ruby wakes up, in the underground White Fang base, she sees a Paladin being used to load cargo. Multiple Paladins are seen on the cargo train in "No Brakes", with Bartholomew Oobleck and Zwei combating them during the climax of said episode. The first Paladin is dispatched when Dr. Oobleck uses Zwei as a flaming makeshift missile, causing an explosion that knocks it off the train. As Zwei watches the Paladin fall, a second Paladin approaches and is hit by a fireball from Dr. Oobleck. Afterwards a third Paladin was destroyed by Dr. Oobleck with the assistance of Ruby. After the third Paladin was destroyed, two more emerged to fight Dr. Oobleck and Zwei. Later, in "Breach", a damaged Paladin emerges from the tunnel carrying Dr. Oobleck and Zwei

In "Lessons Learned", it is revealed in a conversation between Weiss and Winter Schnee that the Paladin that Team RWBY fought was in a prototype stage. Winter was also revealed to be accompanying a new shipment of Paladin units to Vale, after their previous shipment of prototypes was stolen in an ambush.

In "Battle of Beacon", at least one automated Paladin goes rogue after a computer virus is introduced into the Atlesian network by Torchwick. It is seen attacking human soldiers at the Beacon Academy courtyard. This Paladin appeared to be a production model and had a more finished color scheme than the prototypes stolen by the White Fang.

Students from numerous academies arriving from Amity Colosseum later join in the fight against the rogue Paladins in "Heroes and Monsters". One knocks out both Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren and begins advancing on the rest of the students. In response, Velvet Scarlatina unleashes her weapon, destroying two of them, but is bested by a third. Weiss destroys the last Paladin with help from her Summon, the arm and sword of a giant suit of armor.

A new type of mech suit, which may not be part of the Paladin line, appears and attacks the remaining students, but it shuts down along with the rest of the rogue androids and mechs when the controlling airship crashes.

Abilities and Powers
The Atlesian Paladin is obviously resilient, and is shown to possess thick, metal armor. However, the armor is not able to sustain barrages of heavy fire, and will eventually cause the mech to literally break into pieces when struck hard enough.

In addition, the mech is armed with multiple laser sights: one is mounted under the cockpit, two are mounted on the upper corners of the cockpit, and at least two (one on each side) more laser sights are mounted on the back shoulders of the mech. They are accurate enough to detect (extremely quick) movement, but do not offer pinpoint accuracy.

In "Painting the Town...", it is shown to be able to fire explosive rockets that home in on its target and be mobile enough to jump over an entire highway and outrun cars.

The Paladin is also able to deploy semi-collapsible mechanical fists from underneath its arms on top of its main cannons, which it uses in close combat.

The Atlesian Paladin's cannons fire similar shots to the Spider Droid. It is unknown if these shots are laser, plasma or dust-based projectiles.

Although there is a cockpit built for someone to operate the mech, it also appears to have an autopilot mode capable of fighting.

Trivia

 * Paladins were originally the foremost warriors of the Frank king Charlemagne's court, situated in modern-day France. They were knights, believed to be holy, whose exploits were exaggerated (and sometimes completely fabricated) by later medieval poets, who portrayed them as defending Christianity from Islamic warriors. Since then, the word has come to mean any kind of 'chivalrous hero'.