CHAPTER FIVE: LEVIATHAN AWAKENED
This season the only area to see both sides engage in more than just an aerial skirmish was the
Savannah where we had gained a foothold over the course of the Cold Season. Some progress was made in the first couple weeks before advancing forces were hampered by an increase in Salviosi defenses, namely the
LEGO. Stepping on a
LEGO was a
very bad time for everyone around, and without any detection or removal equipment every 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, our 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. Unfortunately the Salviosi 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. Thanks to our transports we were able to move our artillery onto Salviosi lands. On the ground both armies' artillery was on level footing now that they seemed to collect themselves - thanks to the
Orleans our overall indirect firepower has more versatility, however their
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. Salvios still has clear aerial superiority, however the
Charybdis' role in ground attack has been diminished.
As Salviosi forces pushed our exhausted forces back led by
Apibarus and
Sleds their Power Armor rained hell on our forces with their "man"-portable gatling guns. Both their 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
our 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 our gunfire. Eventually though the Salviosi were joined by their 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 enemy lines towards ours, 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. Worse 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 our
Gendarmes. Even worse 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 cover, but that can only help one so much. Ultimately the 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 we 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 the front: Salviosi 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 Tyrant, 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. The occasional shot could disable a gun, but even then only if it was
very lucky. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to ground the beast the enemy air force let her be, instead working to actually aid the Salviosi advance.
An advance which was now coming to a halt as
The Sky Tyrant dropped it's unique payload on the Salviosi. 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 our infantry to advance significantly before effective enemy fire 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 for our front line, the
Rime shells are dropped only on locations we don't deem necessary to hold for our advance.
All the firepower on the
Tectonic couldn't come close to harming
The Sky Tyrant, and with it ceaselessly burning
and freezing the Salviosi to death the Mechanized Lifting Suit could no longer advance. The enemy push began to roll back without even the opportunity to hold their 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 Tyrant's (Radio Coverage). With the increased firepower from the
Medea as well as the
Frostgiant package for our
Nike's actually providing some survivability from the enemy
FMJ/G rounds the second push set itself up to make even further gains. The 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 thanks to our ambitious flying command post and support ship we were capable of wrenching more territory from the Salviosi.
While our lack of heavier firepower in the field is beginning to become a problem
The Sky Tyrant was thankfully there to provide the support necessary to repel the enemy
Tectonic. Salvios still maintains air superiority, but
The Sky Tyrant is as of yet untouchable by Salvios, and the
Repentant is giving them something to keep in mind. Our improved infantry firepower is also not going unnoticed. Altogether, with the focused push against a comparatively smaller enemy force (word has it they devoted manpower to holding the line elsewhere this season) we have attained an
Abberan Victory! We now
control 25% of the Savannah. This gives us access to the third resource node in the sector!
We should note however that the effect of
Rime shells could cause changes to the sector's environment if use is continued. Pockets of extreme freezing cold tend to have that effect.
----------------
Congratulations on the good work this season! We've taken another step into enemy lands. With the successful debut of
The Sky Tyrant 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 Sky Tyrant as normal. Taking this route means you must also subvote for lending or keeping the battleship though as the council may decline your argument and put you back to square one.
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.MLS-16 'Tectonic' [OFFENSIVE NATIONAL EFFORT]
If at first you don't succeed, add more. More armor, more Myomers, more power, more guns, more strength, more everything. Especially more patriotic colors and gold leaf decorations. In order to deal with the problems of the enemy's armor, aircraft, and mere existence, we've developed a brand new way to kill them. The Tectonic is a six meter tall mechanized lifting suit. The "mechanized" refers to the fact that the operators are no longer directly controlling the suit with their own ear twitches motions. Instead, three operators are seated inside the roughly 2-meter-tall, 1.25-meter-deep, perfectly-padded pilot chamber. The vehicle's commander sits between, slightly above and slightly behind the driver and gunner. So named because the driver is responsible for operating the complicated controls that motorize the mech's legs and keep its torso aligned properly---a difficult task aided by a gyroscope that tells the driver how the mech is oriented relative to "up", and a powerful array of GravEngines that switch on when that gyroscope exceeds certain tilt limits, pushing the mech slowly but steadily back towards the vertical....at the cost of drawing power away from the Myomer systems while the GravEngines are active [i.e., until the driver hits the override switch].
The legs and torso of the mech are all protected in what is best described as "positively ludicrous" amounts of Caelium Steel armor. In fact it's capable of withstanding a hit or two in the same spot from our 150mm cannons. It can also survive one hit from the 105 at short range, but not many (if any) more than one without getting crippled. The left side is somewhat reinforced, such that if it is presented towards, say, an enemy mech, artillery battery, or flying battleship, it can survive measurably more than the right side before failing. This does, of course, mean that the left side is a little less mobile and not as well-armed as the right side can be.
The gunner's position is full of fun buttons, levers, and dials such that with a sufficient amount of twitchy control-tweaking one can operate the arms. The arms are similar, having a hand on the end, lots of armor (though the right side has only enough to resist 40mm tank-gun fire indefinitely, so about the 100mm of the Charybdis' original configuration. The left side carries the same scale of armor as the legs and torso), incredible strength due to the torso's massive GavEngine and lots of Myomers, and weapons. Yes, weapons. Build into the back of each hand is a set of linked SMGs, integrated in the left wrist is a GGG with lots and lots of ammo, and integrated into the right wrist is a set of two GGGs, each with as much ammo as the left-arm gun. However, this is not the limit of their combat ability: The fingers are solid Caelium Steel, and that is backed up with enough Myomer strength to physically rip apart their tanks, or use them as highly unreliable grenades (they'll explode if they hit hard enough, right?).
The torso is mostly just the GavEngine generator and crew space plus armor, but on top of the torso, instead of a head, is a set of periscopes for the commander, as well as periscopes for the gunner and driver as well. The driver gets only one facing forwards, as well as a cute little mini-mech on the "dashboard" in front of the driver and gunner, which moves and has the same position as the real thing does and is totally not just the first prototype mockup with some Myomers added due to careful engineering deserving of many paychecks. This allows the driver and gunner to figure out what's going on even if they can't see the mechs' legs or arms for any reason. The gunner has a good set of forwards-and-sideways-facing periscopes, while the commander gets 360* vision because that's literally his job.
Mounted on the legs are the proximity defensive systems. A few internal tanks and nozzles are marked with "flamethrower goes here" in case we ever develop one. Mounted on the outside are also a few simple Myomer joints, capable of wildly swinging a LAMB back and forth. No really, they just kinda randomly swing a hammer around to kill anyone who's trying to climb the suit or get close or whatever. The feet are, of course, made of solid steel and thus excellent for the kicking of powered-armored enemy faces, tanks, or small buildings which need to be removed from the mech's path.
The mech has hands, of course, and hands need weapons to hold. In particular, these hands make use of a set of mech-sized demolitions charges as hand grenades, and of course a rifle. A superb rifle, just like the Senapang, in fact... If the Senapang had been a bolt-action version of our 105mm Scylla artillery cannon, that is. The gunner has a specially made periscopic scope for use with the rifle at longer ranges, though it does require the rifle to be lined up in a specific way with the torso.
Coupled with a truly one-of-a-kind crew, a cardboard decoy "head" with some paper "people" decoy targets inside it, the Tectonic is absolutely capable of killing everyone that needs to be killed, in any way that said killing may need to happen, with style.
Difficulty: Normal
Result: 11 (6+5+0) = Masterwork
The Tectonic is a hulking armored walking suit that is piloted instead of worn, but the leap isn't so enormous. Three crew control the Mechanized Lifting Suit from within their customized, comfortable cockpit. The pilot controls movement of the Tectonic with the aid of a gyroscope and an array of GravEngines for alignment correction. The bulk of the Tectonic is covered in 100mm Caelium Steel armor plating, though the left side is designed to be used as a "shield" and as such is reinforced and protected by bulky armor nearly twice as thick. Two pairs of twin-linked SMGs are fired from ports sticking out of the back of each hand complemented by three GGG-12s (two in the right forearm, one in the left). Of note are the hardened Caelium Steel fingers capable of piercing and ripping through armor like tissue paper thanks to the backing of Myomer.
Placeholder tanks in the legs mark where future flamethrowers (subject to change) will be mounted to deter close-in infantry. We would include flailing myomer limbs randomly swinging LAMBs, however that idea is dumb and would only ever end up damaging the Tectonic.
The difficulty in this design comes almost solely from the "fine" manipulation required to use the fingers effectively. However thanks to a complex series of controls it is possible, and so the Tectonic is capable of using it's own unique weaponry. These consist of large demolition charges mounted on the vehicle as well as a large 105mm "rifle" linked to the ammunition stores in the back of the MLS. The rifle can be disconnected and put down/discarded/thrown.
Finally, and most importantly, a decoy "head" made of cardboard with decoy men of paper within is secured to the top.
The Tectonic is quite a sight to behold. It will always be considered a (NATIONAL EFFORT) and is considered an (OFFENSIVE DESIGN).
Poll
3 (15%)
Author
Topic: Industrialized Warfare: Abbera Thread / 1917 A.C. Cold Season (COMPLETE) (Read 78691 times)