The Gruive is a rare case of a pure twin-engined heavy fighter. It's employed by the Sixth French Republic (SFR), which is a government that arose post-Crumbling deliberately modelled on the democracies of the Old World (essentially French NCR). Their main political rival is the CIR, both due to territorial disputes caused by the mutual expansionism of both bodies, and because the CIR, as a (rose-tinted) alternate model to the return of capitalism, is viewed as inspiration for extremist groups brought about by the SFR's internal social struggles. As a result of this, the relationship between both countries is tense and sometimes flares into border conflicts and even limited wars, often pitting the SFR against CIR-supported rebels.

As a result, the Gruive's main purpose is simple: it's a dedicated interceptor specialized in chasing down ihgh-speed targets such as Sidehill Gougers. For this task, it carries a heavy complement consisting of a 30 mm cannon in the propeller hub, 6 20 mm cannons and 6 12.7 mm HMGs mounted in the front wings.
While it's a very powerful aircraft, it's hampered by both the high costs and complexity: It essentially has two tandem engines, each driving one propeller, which requires a costly cooling system. Moreover, it needs better runways than those typical of the post-Crumbling work, which curtails it's offensive use.