Popo
I'm Sexy and I Know It
Intent: To create a new Main Battle Tank designed to set the standard of the current galaxy and replace the now aging Skocha.
Development Thread: N/A
Manufacturer: Tenloss Corporation
Model: Hotshuh-class Main Battle Tank
Affiliation: Tenloss, contract only availability
Modularity: Can accept all Tenloss vehicle upgrades and some generic vehicle upgrades available on the open market.
Production: Limited
Material: Trimantium, Titanium, Thermal Gel, Reinforced Duraplast, armorweave, matrix armor, durasteel, carbyne, and other vehicle components.
Role: Main Battle Tank
Height: 2.5m
Length: 6.5m (hull), 10m (main cannon and hull)
Width: 3.5m
Weight: 55 Tonnes
Minimum Crew: 2 (Gunner/Commander, Driver)
Optimal Crew: 3 (Commander, Gunner, Driver)
Propulsion: Tracked
Top Speed: 80km/hour
Armaments:
1x Longbow particle accelerator cannon
2x RAB (1x coaxial, 1x pintle mounted)
1x Arbalest missile system (mounted coaxial)
Squadron Count: 2
Passenger Capacity: 4-8 soldiers can ride at own risk atop the tank.
Cargo Capacity: enough space for personal effects, spare parts, extra ammunition, and other typical tank paraphernalia.
Misc. Equipment:
Standard Targeter
IFF Indicator
Standard Tracking Suite
Standard On-Board Computer System
Standard Damage Control Systems
HFB-HVV Fusion Reactor
TTAA-C
Matrix Armor
BLR-C/S-M1
Improved suspension
Droid Carry System - 1x Bulwark droid OR 2x F3R-L Droids
Description:
For too long have we sat upon our laurels, won by the Skocha, by the Reliants, by our past victories earned by soldiers using our machines to win their wars. For too long have we sat complacent in the background, letting ourselves sit idle and reminiscing as the money slowly changed from a flowing river to a meager trickle.
Tenloss was once a name to be feared, one associated with power, prestige, and precision. We made the best tanks, we made the best weapons, we built the machines of war and the galaxy was all to happy to take our merchandise from our hands and use it to shed the blood of their enemies. Now we are but a shell of our former selves. Tenloss is still remembered today, this is true. They still remember the Skocha, they still remember our logo. But we are not upon the same standing as we were then today. Others have risen, others have pushed us down by flushing the market with lackluster copies and new concepts and machines of dubious worth. How have they succeeded? Because we have been dormant.
That stops today, ladies and gentlemen. Today is the newest era in Tenloss’ history. A new rise to glory. A new Golden Age. We once set the standard for armored vehicles with the Skocha. Today, we will do so again with our newest creation: the Hotshuh-class Main Battle Tank.
We have always been known for high quality merchandise when it comes to our most advanced machines, weapons, and armor. This is no different. We have armed and armored this vehicle with the best we have to offer and we have installed the best equipment we have available into this machine. We have held back nothing in the Hotshuh’s development. We have given this vehicle our very best and spared no expense.
The Hotshuh is designed entirely to dominate the Main Battle Tank arena. It can detect, target, track, and engage enemy targets and troops within its area of operations. It can shrug off the most savage blows that can be thrown upon it. It can survive where all other tanks cannot. It will be a symbol of victory to those using the Hotshuh and an avatar of death to those who face it. All of this is possible purely from the design, the time, and the effort we have placed into this vehicle.
The Hotshuh is one of, if not the most, powerfully armed armored vehicles of its class. Fitted with the exceedingly lethal Longbow cannon, the Hotshuh can take down tanks and vehicles of any size and durability in the field with relative ease. The cannon can reach out to ten kilometers with accuracy and requires no ammunition so long as the Hotshuh’s power source is online. The cannon operates as a particle accelerator weapon and hits with the force of an angry god. Even the beskar-plated war machines of the Mandalorians are not entirely safe from this weapon. The cannon has made the Hotshuh and the Hotshuh has made the cannon. They have become synonymous with each other and either without the other is a far lesser machine.
A new concept within our tank designs is the idea of a supporting weapon. True, we have always added a type of support in the form of anti-infantry weapons like repeating blasters or machine guns, but nothing like this. Mounted coaxial to the Longbow is the Arbalest. This missile system is composed of five missile tubes and a targeter. Once the targeter has locked on a target, the missiles can be fired to engage the target. It is a direct fire weapon, but it is a versatile one. Capable of launching anti-tank, anti-personnel, incendiary, and explosive missiles, the Arbalest can be loaded with the appropriate ammunition for the situation that requires it. As such, it can easily engage targets that the main cannon is too powerful for or unable to effectively engage, such as light vehicles, defensive emplacements, or infantry positions. As such, the Arbalest functions admirably and performs well in all testing so far.
No tank would be complete without the ability to engage infantry targets or effectively suppress enemy areas in support of a combined assault. We’ve mounted a pair of weapons so far unused on any Tenloss design to date: the Tenloss Repeating Accelerated Beam Weapon. The RAB is a hard hitting, nasty support weapon and because of this we see no reason not to include the weapon on board. Capable of ripping through light infantry with ease and able to threaten even the heaviest troops with accurate, sustained bursts of fire, the RAB is a must have for a tank like this. The only problem we’ve seen with the weapon is the low ammunition capacity, which we believe we’ve solved. Instead of relying on larger magazine sizes or attempting to ‘belt feed’ from an external source, we’ve wired the weapons directly into the Hotshuh’s power plant along with the main cannon. This means that the weapons can fire fully automatic for sustained periods of time, only limited by the weapon’s capability to bleed off heat.
What can power these weapons? None other than Tenloss’ own vehicle powerplant, the HFB-HVV fusion reactor. Weighing in at seven tonnes, the HFB-HVV can more than adequately power the Hotshuh’s weapons, electronics, and power the tank across the battlefield. The reactor is durable, redundantly reliable, and generates an enormous amount of power. No other reactor was capable of the task and we refused to trust anyone outside the company with the production of something similar out of risk of subpar results.
Now we come to the armor. Armor is highly important for almost every military vehicle designed to fight on the front lines. The Hotshuh is no different and as we’ve committed to putting everything we have into this design, we spared nothing.
Externally, the Hotshuh is plated in Matrix armor. While heavy, the armor has been upgraded heavily and the weight more than offsets the added energy protection. The armor can easily shrug off the absolute worst energy damage, even protecting the tank from proton cannons for a short time. Over this is a Tenloss staple, the TTAA-C armor applique. This duraplast coating offers some negligible protection to the tank from physical damage, but mainly protects the vehicle from EMP and ion damage, making the tank that much more resilient.
Beneath the matrix armor is multiple layers of reinforced Duraplast, Alusteel, and Durasteel. These varied layers add increased strength and durability against energy, kinetic, and thermal attacks. Along with this, the nature of reinforced Duraplast grants the tank some resistance to lightsaber strikes and attacks against the hull, making the vehicle that much harder to engage and disable by lightsaber armed combatants on the ground. Towards inner hull of the tank can be found layers of trimantium, thermal gel, and armorweave. The thermal gel helps protect the crew from heavy impacts, preventing the crew from being jostled or shaken up and improving their efficiency in the most brutal of combat zones. The Trimantium layers help give the hull slightly improved flexibility which not only helps against kinetic strikes, but also gives slight aid in cross country terrain as it helps absorb marginal amounts of energy from navigating rough roads. Lastly, the innermost layers feature repeated layers of armorweave. This gives a last defense against any penetrating hits, but mainly acts as a spall liner, keeping the crew safe from weapons and attacks designed to break metal and material from the inner hull and send it ricocheting around the crew compartment with lethal intent.
The real hassle for penetrating the armor is much more complex than all of these, however.
Carbyne. A molecular strand of a new type of carbon stronger than graphene by hundreds of times. Recently delved into and developed for the Hotshuh, we’ve now created and incorporated a type of armor insert based on Carbyne technology. We’ve taken titanium armor inserts that are included in various areas of the Hotshuh’s armored chassis and coated the outer layer of the panels with this Carbyne material. Carbyne has incredible tensile strength and cannot stretch, but it is flexible enough to loop and coil. We’ve taken these Carbyne strands and looped them across the surface of the titanium inserts. The concept is simple: the Carbyne loops form a flexible surface covering on a molecular scale of the titanium insert. On impact with a kinetic projectile, the Carbyne flexes slightly, offsetting the initial impact point away from a solid connection. Once fully taught, the carbyne is extremely durable and tough, absorbing some of the energy from the impact. The titanium insert absorbs the rest of the impact with minor to moderate damage depending on the impact strength. The end result is the failure of penetration and the survivability of the tank as a whole. Short of some of the most advanced siege weapons, constant and repeated blows to the same area, or an exceedingly lucky shot, the inserts can and will make the tank that much more tough to take down.
And now we’ll move on to the other aspects of the Hotshuh, namely the propulsion and auxiliary systems featured. The propulsion is obvious as the tank is a tracked vehicle, but the true gem lies in its suspension and tracks. The physical treads are constructed out of reinforced duraplast and reinforced and plated further in alusteel. This keeps the tracks light and strong, even offering minor lightsaber resistance from meddling Force users. The suspension is the most advanced we could afford while maintaining reliability. Crews testing the vehicle have proclaimed that riding inside the Hotshuh is akin to riding upon a cloud. We believe this will increase crew performance over the long term and allow a more stable platform in rough terrain.
On top of this the tank is outfitted with Tenloss’ own BLR-C/S-M1 comms system. This allows any Hotshuh tank to operate as a command vehicle should it choose to do so. It also allows the tank to feature an advanced sensor package which can and will keep the tank and crew alive in the face of ambushes or surprise attacks.
Lastly, we’ll move on to the droids. Yes, I said droids. The Hotshuh features a small number of droids that can make or break the tank in close assault situations. At first, we considered using a small number of the Foreburst blaster drones. Ultimately, however, we believed the droids would lack the shock factor needed to keep a tank clear or to aid in an effective assault. Ultimately, we decided to opt for droids we know can do the job adequately.
Mounted on the back of the hull is a set of reinforced brackets. The brackets can fit one large armored case or two standard armored casings. The large casing can fit one of Tenloss’ Bulwark combat droids. The droid can be activated by a command from the tank’s commander, in which case the casing opens and the droid steps out onto the battlefield to support the tank with it’s twin repeating blasters or to clear the immediate vicinity of infantry seeking to assault the tank. The two standard containers fit a pair of Tenloss F3R-L Predator Droids. These droids are activated in the same way and immediately engage enemy targets in support of an assault or to clear the tank of infantry. The difference is that the F3R-L droids have no capture orders and are only programmed with kill orders. Anything not wearing a preprogrammed IFF signature is a target. They have no ranged weapons, but a whirling killing machine in the midst of an assault is almost more effective in some ways.
And that is the tank, ladies and gentlemen. This will lead us to the future. This will put Tenloss back atop the heap. They will learn we have not gone quietly into the dark. They will learn we have not simply left ourselves to slumber in our complacency. Tenloss is returning to the galaxy and it does so on the rumbling treads of the Hotshuh.
- Tenloss CEO, Popo's address to Tenloss execs on the company's future.
