- "I'm sorry, targeting beacons? For the Hammer of Dawn?"
"UIR tech. Super advanced in some areas, old and busted in others." - —JD Fenix and Delmont Walker discussing the Hammer of Dawn targeting beacons outside the Cosmonaut Training Facility at OZP-11
A Hammer of Dawn targeting beacon was a Union of Independent Republics-developed, man-portable device that allowed UIR Hammer of Dawn satellites to target specific ground locations within the beacon's radius. Originally intended to be deployed alongside the UIR's planned Hammer of Dawn array during the Pendulum Wars, the beacons were never used and were left in storage at the Cosmonaut Training Facility after OZP-11, the UIR's secret cosmodrome and Hammer of Dawn development facility in Vasgar, was shut down prior to the UIR-COG Armistice.[1]
Decades later, in 42 A.E., Delta-One traveled to OZP-11 to launch the UIR satellites and retrieve the targeting beacons for the Coalition of Ordered Governments to use against the Swarm. A Nomad convoy transported the beacons across the desert to Damon Baird's Condor, which then carried them to New Ephyra. During the Battle of Old Ephyra, several squads of Gears were sent to key locations across Old Ephyra to deploy targeting beacons in order to use the Hammer of Dawn to halt the Swarm's advance. While the beacons proved functional, they only slowed the Swarm, and all of them were gradually destroyed, forcing the Gears to retreat to New Ephyra's defensive wall to make their stand. Ultimately, JACK would sacrifice himself to act as a makeshift targeting beacon to kill the Kraken with the Hammer of Dawn, ending the attack.[1]