CHAPTER FIVE: A TITANIC ENDEAVOR
This season the only area to see both sides engage in more than just an aerial skirmish was the
Savannah where the Abberans had gained a foothold over the course of the Cold Season. Some losses was received in the first couple weeks before advancing forces were hampered by an increase in our defenses, namely the
LEGO. Stepping on a
LEGO was a
very bad time for everyone around, and without any detection or removal equipment every Abberan step into Salviosi-held territory was coupled with a hope and a prayer. The
Salviosi Jacks also did their jobs somewhat in diverting, or at least delaying, their advancing vehicles. The
Kingmaker especially faced difficulties, as the
Jacks were capable of disemboweling the hovercraft which had difficulty clearing the obstacles even with
Sparkpack boosting. The mines also occasionally went off when a vehicle drove or hovered overhead, sending a hot explosive geyser of molten Gavrillium through the bottom of the vehicles to devastating effect.
Eventually the Abberan advance had to halt and reassess - losses were coming at a staggering rate, and reinforcement was needed. Fortunately our counterattack came before help arrived.
What was once a vast field of tall grasses and the occasional twisted tree or twisted bramble was now a pock-marked expanse of overturned dirt and broken ground with veins of trenchworks cutting through it. On the ground both armies' artillery was on level footing now that we fixed our propellant issue - due to the
Orleans their overall indirect firepower has more versatility, however our
Lifting Engine Aircraft provide much better spotting. While the
Charybdis used to have clear dominance of the skies, Abberan efforts to bring them back to earth have proven somewhat successful. While far from perfect, artillery batteries and
Orleans fleets supporting the front now have relatively reliable protection in the form of the
Repentant. We still have clear aerial superiority, however the
Charybdis' role in ground attack has been diminished.
As our forces pushed the exhausted Abberan forces back led by
Apibarus and
Sleds our Power Armor rained hell on their forces with "man"-portable gatling guns. Both our vehicles had difficulties contending with passing over trenchworks, with
Apibarus often nosing into trenches when they tried to cross over them. The
Sleds, like the majority of
their vehicles, were capable of crossing trenches, but the men beneath often had to get out and push from the back or pull from the front, exposing them to enemy gunfire. Eventually though our forces were joined by our latest addition: the MLS-16
Tectonic, a six meter tall walking tank with enough armor and firepower to negate practically every effort to destroy it. It could be seen marching over our lines towards the enemy, drawing constant fire and yet never stopping. While a little clumsy, the vehicle was capable of righting itself if it lost balance, and the amount of firepower it could bring to bear on single targets was devastating. Trenches would clear of men in full retreat as the
Tectonic loomed over them, capable of sweeping the defenses clear of men in mere moments. Better was the "rifle" it fired. Bigger than any rifle before it, the 105mm lovechild of the
Senapang and
Scylla designed for use with the
Tectonic was highly effective at taking out harder targets such as their
Gendarmes. Even better than that were the occasional massive explosives the thing would drop onto our lines. These human-sized gavrillium bombs left nothing but ash where once men stood.
Behind the
Tectonic pushed Salviosi Power Armor and their modified
GGG and
LGG-12s. As the
Tectonic forced men from the trenches they were often mowed down by these weapons or picked off by pinpoint
Senapang fire.
Wickerman grenades provided the enemy cover, but that can only help one so much. Ultimately the Abberan offensive looked close to collapse, at least due to the rapidly crumbling morale of this seemingly indestructible enemy superweapon.
Then, as the season waned and they were nearly pushed back to the beaches, massive thunderous blasts echoed through the sky. As days went on these blasts continued, and yet most of our forces didn't know why. Eventually rumors reached our ears: artillery positions were being found completely devastated.
Massive craters and mounds of churned dirt blended with twisted metal and fragments of crewmen were all that remained. It came to be that
The Sky Titan, the pinnacle of Abberan achievements, had finally arrived on the front with the second wave, along with some new infantry equipment.
Charybdises flew out to meet this massive figure
way out in the distance, but this veritable fortress was practically immune to their fire - it's unique layering of armor providing more than enough protection on the rare occasion that the gravity shielding was ineffective. The occasional shot could disable a gun, but even then only if it was
very lucky. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to ground the beast our air force let her be, instead working to actually aid the advance.
An advance which was now coming to a halt as
The Sky Titan dropped it's unique payload on our lines. The first was
HESHRP, which was very effective at stopping infantry and, unlike standard HE, didn't need a near-direct impact on a trenchline to have any effect. The
WHKM420mm was also
devastatingly effective at anti-infantry work. These rounds were capable of covering a significant area (compared to the infantry-standard
Wickerman) in white phosphorous and smoke, clearing an advance position while preventing deeper units from being able to see what was happening. Oftentimes the smokescreen provided enough cover for their infantry to advance significantly before effective fire from our lines could be achieved. And while the screams of those burning alive were terrifying, nothing came close to the effect of the
Rime shells. In production for years but not used yet, these shells would explode and coat an area in deathly cold depleted gavrillium. This heavier-than-air black powder gets dispersed as the shell explodes and flash freezes the area. For now, without dedicated clearing equipment, the locations shelled by
Rime are left abandoned.
All the firepower on the
Tectonic couldn't come close to harming
The Sky Titan, and with it mercilessly burning
and freezing our soldiers to death the Mechanized Lifting Suit could no longer advance. Our push began to roll back without even the opportunity to hold it's latest gains - a Salviosi charge was repelled and answered immediately by an Abberan countercharge which rapidly gained momentum thanks to the added coordination provided by
The Sky Titan's (Radio Coverage). With the increased firepower from the
Medea as well as the
Frostgiant package for their
Nike's actually providing some survivability from our
FMJ/G rounds the second push set itself up to make even further gains. Their sunglasses were effective in helping to prevent crow's feet from squinting in the Salviosi sunlight. The counter-counter-advance was stymied by fields having been re-mined, but overall due to their ambitious flying command post and support ship they were capable of wrenching more territory from our hands.
While their lack of heavier firepower in the field is beginning to become a problem for them,
The Sky Titan was there to provide the support necessary to repel the
Tectonic. We still maintains air superiority, but
The Sky Titan is as of yet untouchable by Salviosi weaponry, and the
Repentant is giving our flying crews something to keep in mind. While we worked to improve our ground force's combat capabilities, the Abberan's improved infantry firepower is also not going unnoticed. Altogether, with the focused push against a comparatively smaller force the Abberans have attained another victory, meaning this was a
Salviosi Defeat! We now
control 75% of the Savannah. This means we lose access to a resource node in the sector.
----------------
A valiant effort was made, but the enemy managed to outplay us on a strategic level. They've taken another step into our lands. With the successful debut of the
Tectonic (the loss being in no way the fault of the MLS) our allies now request the ability to use it. If you agree it will be unusable by our forces for an indefinite period (1d6 Seasons). If you refuse then our allies may refuse to aid us in some future endeavor. However you may also attempt to argue that keeping it deployed on Harren Island is best for the war effort. If you decide to do this then you will need to write an argument to be presented to a council to review. Convincing the council [me] will result in the choice to deploy the
Tectonic as normal. Taking this route means you must also subvote for lending or keeping the walker though as the council may decline your argument and put you back to square one.
With combat in Harren City having died down there are murmurs of people desiring to go back home and begin rebuilding. Obviously that is very dangerous, what with the city being right on the front line. Still, the desire to be at home is understandable. As time goes on the longer Harren goes without combat the more pressure there will be to allow civilians to repopulate and rebuild. Initially there will be no downside to refusing, but there will eventually be consequences. To top it all off, if you cannot protect the city from attack after the city is repopulated you will also need to deal with the repercussions in regards to that as well.
Points to keep in mind for the argument:
It was funded by your collective allies.
There are fronts elsewhere where the war is being lost.
The uniqueness of Harren Island's equipment elsewhere has dramatic effects on the flow of battle.
Also, feel free to write up and propose a new Hero at any time.
IT IS NOW THE DESIGN PHASE. The Sky Tyrant [OFFENSIVE DESIGN]
The Sky Tyrant is the world's first true sky battleship. It is almost 350 meters long and mounts several Jotunn cannons as it's main weapons in two triple barrelled turrets. These cannons utilise vast amounts of k-wool to stop the recoil from the cannon form affecting the ship. Similar to the Halberd the barrel of each cannon can slide back into the turret a distance, compressing gas as it does so. K-wool is used throughout the turret mechanism to protect it from its own recoil. Its reload mechanisms are considerably redone as the winch systems are replaced by a caelium hover sleds which can better handle and manoeuvre the heavy shells and thus speeding up the reload. The shells are loaded from an armoured magazine deeper in the ship and lifted into the turrets via the caelium sled. Once in the turret, the turret auto loader pushes the shell and its propellant into the cannon. The barrel and shells are upgraded with tech from the Halberd-b. The shell's outer casing is made from aligned Caelium and the barrel of the upgraded Jotunn uses C-null steel to stop the gravitational distortions. Two new shell types have been added; The first is the HESHRP, Also known as High explosive shrapnel. This shell has been designed with a timer detonator, a altitude detonator and an impact detonator due to its multiple purposes.
The shell is a large shrapnel bomb, design to explode and create A massive amount of deadly shrapnel from its lead body (Lead being a soft and dense metal is ideal for shrapnel, not to mention cheap). As one can guess, when a 420mm shrapnel shell detonates, it causes a large spread of flying debris. With it multitude of Detonators, it is foreseen that the HESHRP will see its uses as both a bard wire shredder, Anti-Infantry weapon and a weapon against the enemies perahudaras and Charybdis, which saw continued use this year. Hopefully, The explosive force of a 420mm shell and the Charybdis's own momentum will see that The shrapnel from the HESHRP will be able to puncture its armour, albeit this may be a long shot. The second shell is the WHKM420mm, Which is essentially a massive shell, filled with upscaled Wickerman bomblets. When the timer inside the shell times off, the Cluster Munitions detonates, scattering hundreds of White phosphorus bombs around the area. This can be used to both Offensively burn the enemy alive, via its incendiary properties, as well as to create massive smokescreens to protect our forces, without relying on a thrown grenade to do so. In addition to this the standard Rime rounds are modified with an altidude detonator allowing them to airburst. The flanks of the ship are protected by numerous turreted 60mm auto-cannons. These enclosed turrets are powered by electrical motors and have fast traversal. In addition to high explosive and ap shells these guns are provided flak shells for air defence. Additional auto-cannons are mounted on the underside and deck of the ship though in fewer numbers than the flank guns. The main cannon is supplemented by a battery of twelve Gorgon cannons for long range bombardment.
In terms of armour the Sky Tyrant's armour is extreme. It is encased in a 500mm composite of alternating layers of K-wool and c-steel. Except for the outer couple of layers which have d-promethium dust alloyed into normal steel. This causes the outer layers to be perpetually and preternaturally cold. This makes it extraordinarily difficult to melt through which is the standard method for defeating armour. In addition to this, the ship mounts extensive gravity deflection systems. Any incoming fire must defeat all these systems to stand any chance of harming the internals of this massive ship. The ship's superstructure is c-steel and is built to be very durable. There are extensive k-wool inserts inside the superstructure, this means impacts don't travel through the ship. It also counters some of the natural stress that a vessel of this size puts on its structure.
Normally operating radios requires long-range receivers to be close by but the Sky Tyrant has it's own radio system which can project radio coverage into areas where it is attacking. This way it can act as command and control for allied attacking forces. The ship houses a massive gyroscopic stabiliser. It's a series of interconnected rings that can move freely with a flywheel in the centre. The flywheel is spun up by an electrical motor and the conservation of angular momentum means that the energy in the flywheel counters any rocking of the ship. However, due to the size of the vessel, the stabiliser must also be fairly sizable to be relevant. Believing that the development and deployment of strike craft and interceptors to be an inevitablity the Sky Tyrant's designers have futureproofed the ship by adding an internal hanger. A pair of launch shutes can launch the aircraft out of the bottom of the ship. This keeps hull openings small and the interior of the launch shute is further armoured, this is backed up by an increased density of grav deflectors around the shute which repeal incoming fire. A caelium bouy is lowered from the flight shute. Returning fighters are to dock with the bouy or capture the cable that connects it to the ship, once that happens they can be whinched up into the hanger. Thick armoured doors protect the launch tubes when not in use. The power systems are impressive with numerous redundant caelium generators located throughout the ship backed up by enlarged capacitor banks to deal with grav deflector power drain. These generators feed the power-hungry flight rods. These flight rods are powdered caelium rods that are partially encased in null steel except for the underside of the rod. This focuses the effect and increases the lift efficiency allowing the ship a greater flight ceiling than you'd otherwise expect. They are dispersed throughout the ship's internals.
In terms of thrusters, the ship uses clusters of aligned caelium capped at one end by null steel to create propulsion. Using this the front, sides and back of the ship are covered in clusters of micro thrusters. The back of the ship has the densest coverage. This grants this behemoth surprising speed and manoeuvrability. It is perfectly capable of flying sideways and the staggering number of these thrusters means that even significant loses of them will not impede the ship much.[/spoiler]
Difficulty: Hard
Results: 3 (3+1-1) 11 (6+6-1) = Masterwork
All of our attempts at making smaller ships have failed, and so it only makes sense that our design with the most investment in both manpower and resources would be our most glorious.
The Sky Tyrant is a massive 350m long behemoth requiring a crew of 2000 to keep running at all times, and is expected to land only to resupply and scrapings (see below), at least during wartime. Two triple-barrel 420mm guns make up the primary armament of the ship. The Jotunn barrels the guns are modeled after have been modified to work similarly to the gravitic barrels of the Halberd, with all the necessary modifications to improve reliability. The gravitic acceleration increases muzzle velocity to nearly 1000m/s and range is 20km - at ground level. An abundance of K-Wool padding reinforces the weapons in order to prevent recoil from the massive guns acting on the ship. A complex system of caelium sleds replaces the winch system required to load shells from the heavily armored magazine. The guns take four minutes to reload and can utilize the newly developed High Explosive Shrapnel rounds (timer and impact detonators were worked on - altitude not so much, due to our own, y'know, altitude) as well as WHKM420mm, which delivers a payload of many, many Wickerman-like explosives. Twelve Gorgons utilizing a similar variety of armament supplement The Sky Tyrant's bombardment capabilities. Dozens of 60mm autocannons utilizing HE and AP rounds bristle along the deck hull of the ship to provide close-in protection.
500mm of K/C Composite armor, composed of alternating layers of K-Wool and C-Steel, line the ship. The outermost layers of the armor are "Cold Steel", regular steel with powdered D-Gavrillium mixed in during the smelting process. This metal is always freezing to the touch, though not nearly as dangerous as raw D-Gavrillium. Notably, the cold armor causes condensation to build up on the ship, both producing ice that requires regular removal as well as forming a cloud-like mist around the ship. K-Wool throughout the ship's structure aids to both reduce impacts from enemy fire as well as the natural stresses put on The Sky Tyrant. Gravitic shield emitting systems line the ship top and bottom, and thanks to the K-Wool reinforcements in the ship, can be held on for very extended periods of time (though they need to be deactivated for shots to come from the ship through their fields).
As for auxiliary systems, The Sky Tyrant houses a full radio suite to provide the advantages of centralized radio communication to an offensive, as well as a massive gyroscopic stabilizer. A hangar housing two lawn darts Odysseus' and launch chutes for each also take up space near the bottom of the ship. A series of large, redundant GavGenerators and capacitor banks provide power to the ship, including the lift and propulsion systems. Said lift system consists of powdered caelium rods nearly completely covered in C-Null Steel and propulsion is made up of C-Null Steel-capped Aligned Caelium thruster clusters positioned across the hull of the ship, though the vast majority are housed on the rear in order to push the ship forward. Overall the ship has a ceiling higher than our men can go without proper life support to tackle the thin air and extreme cold (made worse by the constant chill permeating the ship).
The Sky Tyrant is the culmination of our current military technology in one package. It will always be a (NATIONAL EFFORT) and is considered an (OFFENSIVE) design.
Poll
2 (14.3%)
Author
Topic: Industrialized Warfare: Salvios Thread / 1917 A.C. Cold Season (COMPLETE) (Read 101673 times)