Porters

"Someone called for a dimensional rift which allows a 25-metre tank to fit in an ISO shipping container?"

Porters is the name of an EDF logistics unit that appears in Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, and is responsible for supplying vehicles to Air Raiders in the field using Hydra transport helicopters. They are spoken for in game by a middle-aged woman with a jocular streak, who is never called by anything but the unit's name and is voiced by Carrie Savage in the English versions.

Description

The unit called Porters is implied to be incredibly large, since in 4.1's Battle of Giants they are shown to have 40 Hydras in the air at the same time while airlifting ten Walking Fortress Balams; given the usual availability of large helicopters, this would mean the unit as a whole has over one hundred. They are said to operate from "Kirakawa Air Base," or some spelling to that effect.

The dialog of the character Porters implies she is either the pilot or loadmaster of the helicopter actually deploying supplies to Storm Team. She tends to joke around when making deployments, but clearly takes her job seriously.

Porters can deploy Depth Crawlers and SDL1s underground in 4.1. The game does not even try to explain how.

Storyline

In gameplay terms the helicopters are invincible; they cannot even be targeted by enemies while making their drops. The same does not apply to the story, where they are twice required to pull out of combat due to overwhelming aerial threats; once in Brute Force in response to the deployment of of a huge force of Flying Drones, and later in City of Horror when they are attacked by Dragons; while Porters successfully flees the combat area, Kirakawa Air Base itself is destroyed, with many of their helicopters unable to make it off the ground. Seemingly, the whole unit has been lost.

However, in Mountains Ablaze it is revealed that some survived and made their way to the Fortress Aircraft Carrier Despina, which Porters operates from for the remainder of the game.

It should be noted that in 4.1, Battle of Giants comes after City of Horror, meaning the huge deployment seen is what Porters is capable of after losing most of their aircraft at Kirakawa.

One further helicopter is lost during the course of the game, though only in online mode, in the mission Mountain Giants. This Hydra was carrying a BMX10 Proteus for unspecified reasons, and crashed near a cluster of Tunnel Exits and three Queen Ants who appear to have been out for a pleasant stroll at the time.