Mechanized Infantry part one

[Vaudin Miir]

The lights went down in the republic board room as a grpup of engineers activated the holo display for their presentation. Vaudin had charged them with building him a mechanized support tank for heavy infantry units. The Sith still used vong slave warriors and the over powered tech that came with them. The republic needed something to combat that and they needed it yesterday.

He leaned back as he looked at the image in front of him, a tracked tank with eleven barrels that measured 6.5 meters high, 13.4 meters long and 8.4 meters wide. It was impressive.

"Well boys and girls." He said folding his hands across his abdomen, "let's hear the pitch...and it better be good."

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

It wasn't eh Vong slaves that Camellia was worried about personally. It was the Sith plethora of monsters that worried the Rendili woman. After all, in the battle of Zeltros it had been those which won the Sith the day. Their leviathons, even after one had been slayed via bombardment by several tank and gunship strikes, had crashed through the palace and rampaged through the streets. Neglecting that even, there was just a large array of walkers and other heavy tanks out there in the galaxy and the Republic was not particularly among the factions utilizing such devastating technology. In her opinion the Republic was lacking groundside in a number of areas. What they needed was a heavy armor unit, one that could punch through other heavy armor as well as beasts like the creatures the Sith fielded.

However, she also believed that the Republic needed an assortment of weaponry for its troopers to use en masse to handle the various situations they could be thrust into. Lastly she also was of the mind that there was a need for a droid unit in mass production that could boost the military's numbers in combat. Personally she had worked to make sure that Rendili's defenses were filled out, even arming its special forces with phrik armor. The Republic Army's standard armor though was actually quite decent though last she checked so they were good there. They were low on officers though, which was a bit of a setback.

Half those were not the reasons she was there though. Rather, as the CEO of Rendili Stardrive Camellia knew she was present to provide insight on some of the armaments they could work with for the upcoming tank. For now though she sat silently as the new Chief of Military began speaking.

 

[Kiyron]

As the commanding officer of one the Republic's best infantry regiments, Kiyron was there for his hard-earned experience, leading battles against the Sith and their Vong allies all over the galaxy. Although primarily an infantry officer, he had been pushing to implement armor units into many infantry regiments so that they never ran into massacres as infantry were cut down by monstrosities.

The question was asking how valuable this new tank would be for them. Could it keep up with light infantry? How long could it last in the field without resupply? How did it compare to the Skocha tank. Now that tank was a beast, using an old artillery cannon as its main gun, capable of sending dropships to the ground in a ball of fire with a single hit and punching through starship shields and hulls. However, it was expensive and hard to produce, making them very valuable resources that could not simply be fielded anywhere without prioritizing units to protect them.

They needed a middle ground unit. One that still had firepower, but wasn't so valuable. Would this be the proper model?

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

The only real reason T-Eya was at the meeting was because she liked to learn things. If she was going to be a senator and a fighter, it would behoove her to learn more about the military that she was likely to be fighting alongside. She'd never actually join the military, she'd be more like a mercenary so that she could fight when she wanted to, and only when she wanted to, but that would work as long as she did her job. Which really her job was to be there and represent the Taskai more than it was anything else.

She slid into a seat and watched the Military Chief of Staff. If he noticed her she would nod in his direction, but otherwise she'd remain quiet unless she thought of something to chime in about.

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Marcus Itera]

[member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Camellia Swift"], @Kiyron, [member="T-Eya Carn"]

Pappy looked around. Politicians, Chiefs of Staff, glowstick wielders, and some of the elder warrior-monks of the Jedi order. It was a shame not many ground-pounding grunts like himself attended the meeting. It wasn't like every Staff Sergeant in the entire Republic army was invited to bask in the grace of this war tank anyways. Of course not. Though Pappy wasn't just any old infantry boy stuck in the trenches. He was Dreadguard - one of the last hopes for the Republic special forces and elite infantry detachments. They operated on an entirely different plane of mission parameters, usually revolving around assassination, search and destroy, and intelligence gathering.

While he gathered much intel, he didn't have much to offer.

The Staff Sergeant flexed his hands, glancing down through his visor at the Crushgaunts.

"It's small." He simply remarked. If it were him, it would have a Heavy Mass Driver along with flaming chainsaws and lightsaber boomerang crossbows attached to it.

If only the Republic budget could expend a little money to create such things...

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Pappy"], [member="T-Eya Carn"], @Kyrion


And so Siobhan Kerrigan, destroyer of cities, breaker of roofs, princess of the bolter empire and decadent aristo, quantum tunnelled into the dev thread to do...dev thready things. Truth be told, she generally preferred doing business from her comfortable villa in Kaeshana via holocom, but exceptions had been made in this case. After all, the potential client happened to be the supreme command of the Republic military and if agreement was reached the contract could be quite lucrative.


Besides, she felt like feeling the man in person. She did not envy the responsibility on his shoulders. What with hordes of Sith and Vong rampaging across the Core. Speaking of Vong, Siobhan did not like them. Actually, she thought using bioweapons against them was a good idea after Alderaan. As for Sith, hating them was a defining aspect of her personality. As of late, they seemed quite obsessed with using monstrosities in every battle, especially worms.


Siobhan recalled the Bando Gora war...when the cannibalistic, insane Chaos cultists had been eager to unleash abominations. Likewise she had fond memories of telekinetically punching Cthulhu...Lotek'k. Admittedly she had almost died both times, but still good times. Especially the part where one of his tentacles got rammed through his eye.


Anyhow, the Republic had expressed interest in some products Firemane/ARGH had designed, since they could be useful for a new tank design. Like a heavy bolter and a shattergun rotary cannon. Both fine weapons of extreme brutality idea for blasting monsters to pieces. Perhaps they could even use the Echani Graphite ARGH had designed for vehicle armour. So now that all this background stuff is out of the way Siobhan entered, looking a bit flustered about being late. Room was already full, though the only occupant she recognised was the new Supreme Commander Vaudin Mirr, a former senator. She had never met the man before, but heard of his deeds in several battles, most recently Manaan. That was enough for respect.


Siobhan was well-dressed as usual in an elegant dark red skirtsuit and a fine pair of heels. Needless to say she had had to give her lightsabre up before entering, though she did not mind much. She barely used the weapon as is and if against all logic and plot integrity violence broke out, she could drop a building with her mind and fly out through use of the Force alone. "My apologies for being late, Supreme Commander. Countess Siobhan Kerrigan, I'm representing Firemane Industries." Her office had talked to his office, stuff had been arranged, security checks made etc.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Camellia Swift"] [member="Kiyron "][member="T-Eya Carn"] [member="Pappy"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Vaudin watched as Siobhan walked into the room and spoke. Her smooth features and ample knowledge were both welcomed additions to the meeting.

"Thank you all for coming." Vaudin began. He had always been the direct kind, not leaving much to the imagination as far as what he thought of something, "I know everyone wants something different from his little meeting but I'll be clear about what we are looking at. This is our monster we're building here. The Sith's ability to make these rediculous affronts to nature and then use them on us needs to end. Also the rate at which they churn out armor is at the very least troubling. We are building this thing from the ground up to give our ground troops a fighting chance against the sith hoards. Ms. Swift is here because we're considering a rail gun from Rendili for our main cannon. I'd like to see heavy bolters from Mrs. Kerrigan as anti-infantry support weapons. Here is another image of from our people in Are and Dee."

"Comments? Questions? Answers? If your here I want your thoughts."

 

[Marcus Itera]

[member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Camellia Swift"], @Kiyron, [member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

More and more people continued to show up, but that was always a good thing when a senior military official wanted the opinions of the top brass who never even saw combat. Luckily, some broad in a skintight suit and heels looked like she'd seen more combat than a Systems General sipping StimCaf over in the corner. Pappy looked her up and down and immediately classified her as an outsider from the start - without even needing to hear her introduction as a rep from Firemane Industries.

A blip on his HUD stole his attention from the woman. While the thing was a whole lot less... exotic looking than he'd expected, it looked like it was the very definition of tank. Not the literal tank as in a tracked war machine - but one of those combat roles from the video games that the kids from down the street used to play. They were usually heavily armored and tended to be attention hogs. Pappy liked to call them "land whales" since their thick durasteel plating was something akin to blubber, minus being able to be made into salad dressing.

Pappy really only had one question for his horned commander. "How much will this thing cost? Initially and logistically. It's not like we're going to be able to paradrop these things into battle, and we'll have an even harder time manufacturing these things if they cost too much."

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

She studied the behemoth curiously. This thing was clearly meant for destruction, and she was curious more about what necessitated its construction than what it actually did. It was rather simple for her to deduce that this thing would annihilate almost anything in its path. That wasn't the hard part to understand. What was hard to understand was why.

"Pardon me for interrupting," she said softly, but just loud enough to be heard. "I second the question on cost, but I wonder if you could explain the exact purpose of this machine to me? Why is it truly needed? Are not the current arms capable enough? Couldn't we simply produce more of our current designs?"

[member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Camellia Swift"], @Kiyron, [member="Pappy"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Marcus Itera]

[member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Clearly this political type wasn't one for smashing skulls on the battlefield or churning enemy corpses under the treads of your war tank. The answer was clear and simple. "With all due respect, ma'am, bigger bombs and bigger guns don't really need an explanation for being developed. Why build six tanks when you could make just one and get even greater results?" He absentmindedly slid a hand over his vibroknuckler, "When the Sith bring their big toys to play, we can just set these bad boys on a ridgeline and pound them until there's no tomorrow."

He saved the image of the experimental design, tucking it away in an encrypted file within his suit's database. "There's three things I need this to be if we're going to achieve results. The first, as I said before, needs to be cost efficient so we can churn them out and utilize their power in every engagement. Second, firepower. No peashooters for this thing, and I'm suggesting Mass Driver Cannons for its primary armament. Finally I want this to be mobile. Perhaps we can lessen its armor by adding a shield system to it?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Pappy"]


In a flash an image of the mechanical behemoth the Supreme Commander wanted designed appeared before her eyes. Siobhan, being an unrepentant member of the Cult of Victory Through Superior Firepower, liked tanks a lot. She studied the behemoth with curiosity, though when one of the Republic representatives queried whether the tank was needed and one of the groundpounders - probably an elite soldier, hence his presence - retorted, she did not join in.



After all, that was not her job and it would seem a bit presumptous. The soldier felt strange in the Force...actually, as if he was absent from it and just a void. It reminded her of Sarge Potteiger back in the old days of Omega Pyre. Likewise of the Dread Guard soldiers the CIS had once used. That said, she liked the way the soldier thought!


She cast these musings aside and gave Miir a nod. "Impressive. I take it you want an armour buster, hence the railgun. Firemane can do its part to provide heavy firepower to supplement the tank's primary cannon. We can deliver the Heavy Bolters you mentioned in sizeable quantities and expand their production to this end. They'll be a powerful weapon against force-users, Sithspawnified abominations and large infantry concentrations at range. Likewise, if there's interest, we could provide shattergun rotary cannons to be mounted on the vehicle to provide a fast-firing automatic cannon that fires rounds at high-enough speed to even penetrate phrik armour."



For some reason Siobhan felt a craving for a cigarette and wondered whether this was a non-smoking zone. Then she realised that she had not taken a packet with her because she was making an effort to quit again. It would be bad if her adopted daughter started smoking because of her!

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

[member="Pappy"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

"That doesn't answer my questions, I'm afraid. I'm not against large weapons. I'm just wondering if the cost is worth it, and if we could streamline production, or expedite production, of current armor."

She tilted her head as she watched the man who had spoken to her. It wasn't about a lack of desire to defeat their enemies, it was simply that she didn't know as much about their enemies as some others did. All she really knew was that the Republic had been beaten quite a few times of late, even losing its former capital of Coruscant. She was curious, as most Taskai were, and she was going to ask a lot of questions for that very reason. It was just her nature.

"How much would that cost, Ms. Kerrigan?"

 

[Marcus Itera]

It appeared that these Chiefs of Staff and various corporate bigshots seemed to have varying opinions when it came to his own ideas. Of course he possessed the experienced of a battle hardened warrior. Being a marine - and later a Dreadguard - had been his career since he was old enough to enlist. Even before then he had prepared him for a life of nothing but service to the Republic and her allies, most notably the Omega Protectorate. But the Omega Protectorate wasn't under direct thread of the One Sith at the moment and Pappy's supreme loyalty lay within the Republic and the Senate.

However, Pappy was pleasantly surprised when that fiery-haired bombshell of a business woman spoke out. A little indicator flashed beside her frame in a light green with the highlighted text Siohban Kerrigan, Countess hovering off of it. Oh the wonders of Heads-Up-Displays. It was a shame Miranda was hibernating at the moment, she would've liked this businesswoman.

When the matter of prices between allied states came up, it was his time to intervene. "I'm sure we can strike a deal of sorts, Miss Kerrigan. My friends and I in Intelligence can probably lend you a hand with a few things. Or if you ever need anything smashed or sent home gift-wrapped."

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Camellia Swift]

@Kiyron @Pappy @T-Eya Carn [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

Well, there was certainly a vert impressive assortment gathered here. Camellia was quite happy with the turnout the former senator and now Chief of Military Affairs had managed to gather into one place. A vocal senator whose species was unknown to the Rendili woman, the owner of the Republic's most active shipwright at the moment, a soldier who seemed both very intimidating and knowledgable, and perhaps once of the most terrifying force users of the times if rumors were true, and then counting the Republic Military chief himself? Oh yes, this was quite the gathering going on, and for quite the interesting development for a business venture. Creating a new heavy armor unit for the Republic's ground forces. There seemed to be some debate though on current existing tank units and the cost of the new ones.

Along with talk of how to fund the construction of this new weapon as well. "I doubt we will be getting rid of old heavy armor units, but alterations for them would have to be made under the contracts with the companies producing them and those might not change as quickly. Adding a new unit to the roster would likely amount to the same cost I would assume, but wouldn't lower other units production. We would have both on the field now without missing a beat. Besides, I do believe the point of this weapon specifically is to wipe out enemy units of similar caliber such as their leviathon monsters like the ones that crushed defenses at Zeltros. . . . Miss Kerrigan's offer sounds immensely effective actually. It would be a nice supplement to the Railgun to handle the more mobile enemy units in closer proximity. The Railgun would be based off the design the Noblesse uses but on a smaller scale. The main gun should function well as artillery against fortified positions as well as something to punch through nearly all forms of enemy armor units. This will be tank killer and bunker buster with the bolters from Firemane keeping it clear of infantry assaults in close range. . . . .my only complaint is the tread design and size. I personally think we should make the unit bigger and enable to also serve as a transport similar to the AT-AT designs. Plus treads are limited in their ability to traverse terrain. Repulsors would allow it to cross short gaps and water, that or we make it a walker with feet claws able to allow it to scale obstacles. Either would work in my opinion."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Vaudin Miir"], @Kiryon, [member="Pappy"], [member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Camellia Swift"]


Quitting was hard. Having a smoke right now would be so nice. Sometimes Siobhan had the distinct impression that motherhood was turning her into a square. A truly terrifying thought. Ah, well, at least it had not intruded on her non-PG-13 fun in her...special room with her harem.



Ah, right, this is an actual dev thread about making the Baneblade. "Standard market price for a heavy bolter is 5000 credits and 15,000 for a shattercannon per weapon. If production goes ahead and we get a contract, Firemane would be willing to offer a 25% discount." Way back the corporation had pledged to support the Republic in return for government funds, tax breaks and so forth, hence the lower prices. If the tank entered full production, Firemane stood to gain a lot. Besides, Siobhan hated sort og Sith so if the tank made use of Firemane toys to kill plenty of them, that would be swell.

 

[Marcus Itera]

With the way things were going, it seemed like like budget cuts were going to be plentiful and Pappy and his boys would end up making do with whatever they had on hand. Imagine that - throwing toilet paper and MREs at the advancing Yuuzhan Vong while they burned women and raped churches. That wasn't something very pleasant to imagine and the Staff Sergeant was quite happy his artificially intelligent companion was busy hibernating, because she would've pulled up every image on the HoloNet that was even vaguely relevant to that thought.

"You're mean, lass," He breathed.

"I heard that.

He went wide-eyed for just a fraction of a second, toggling his helmet's mute button. "Have you been listening to this?"

"No. Just woke up from my slumber to find you talking to yourself. No wonder everyone thinks you're insane."

"Insanely hot?"

"Shut up. What's the low-down?"

Pappy pulled up the saved image. "We're wanting a big tank. I mean, big. Thinking about some heavy weaponry from Firemane Industries. Got any intel or whatever on them?"

There was a pause as Miranda instantaneously pulled up thousands of records, dealing reports, and lower-level files, processing them all at once. "They seem reliable. Past dealings with the Republic itself, but mainly associates with the Omega Protectorate and its predecessor."

Pappy pursed his lips. This could work.

[member="Camellia Swift"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Pappy"] [member="T-Eya Carn"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Camellia Swift"] [member="Kiryon"]

"Senator Carn the need for this has shown up in many instances where sithspawn and walkers have shrugged off damage from our other armor and mechanized infantry peices." Vaudin turned a tumbler over on the table and poured a glass of what he hoped was scotch and leaned back again, "The reason I thought heavy armor rather than shields is the fact that the sith are somehow still able to keep the vong under control even though their warmaster died rather publicly in a Moross tournament, but you make a good point Staff Sergeant."

He tapped on his datapad for a minute checking his numbers.

"These tanks are projected to be about 200,000 credits each and to be honest compared to republic tech in the past it's about average for it's class and projected effectiveness. During my time in Omega Pyre a very long time ago, Mrs. Kerrigan came very highly praised so I'd like to contract her company for the bolters and shatter cannons. We have asked Rendili to work on our main cannon and electronics while KDY may be providing the Hull and frame as it has in the past."

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

"I understand that, Chief Mir. I'm not really saying we shouldn't do it, I just want to understand the reason that you believe this will work where our other armor has failed."

She shrugged and turned a glance at some of the others. They'd all bought into it already, and she couldn't blame them for it. T-Eya, though, was curious about the practicality of it all. Who was to say that this tank would have any effect? Had they done any studies on the technology that would be incorporated in all of this? She didn't know, but so far it had seemed that the entire meeting had been more of a 'we're going to do this and it's going to be awesome' sort of thing than a real, practical meeting.

"Two hundred thousand isn't too bad considering the size, I suppose. It's going to be slow as all get out. I really hope the armor is strong enough because it's going to get hammered."

[member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Pappy"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Camellia Swift"]

 

[Camellia Swift]

@Kiyron @Pappy @T-Eya Carn [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

200,000 credits wasn't bad at all considering the expansive weaponry, but personally Camellia felt it still should be produced as a larger vehicle. It would make it more heavily armored and allow it to act like a large scale infantry transport as well. Not to mention that a bigger tank meant a bigger main cannon, which would lead to a stronger railgun. Although since there was a limit of targets to how much destructive power they needed to take down, it was a bit frivolous to do with that in mind alone. Still, a transport addition to the design was worthwhile she believed. There was also the other matter she was concerned about. "The railgun will be similar to that of the Noblesse which is tested. Of course scaling the weapon down scales down its power. Part of why I want to increase this vehicle's size and also enable it to do more damage and add in a transport role like other large scale vehicles. I still am more adamant though we don't go with a tread design. Its far too exploitable of a weakness. It can be easily immobilized and it will have issues with terrain much more easily than if we used repulsorlift technology."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Pappy"], [member="T-Eya Carn"], [member="Vaudin Miir"], [member="Camellia Swift"]



To Siobhan the meeting seemed a bit disorganised, since people had been debating whether they wanted a tank in the first place. Or whether it should be a tank or a walker, use treads or repulsors. From her perspective one would think that such questions would have been ironed out before. Then again, she lived on unrepentantly autocratic Kaeshana and used to be a military dictator, so she might be biased and unused to the way committees worked.


As a matter of fact, she had quite deliberately not participated in this debate until now because she did not see it as her role. Did she think it would be an invincibie super tank? No, no weapon was that grand, though she saw it as a useful asset. She had a vested interest in seeing the One Sith's expansion halted, but she was here as a foreign businesswoman.


She gave the Supreme Commander a nod. "Excellent. I'll pass word on to my wife and we'll hash out the details with your office. We would be able to deliver the first shipments of heavy bolters and shattercannons for the project soon. Our factories will be working at full capacity," she said.


Still no cigarette...no, cigarettes were bad. Like, they did nasty things to your lungs. Oh, wait, Siobhan's had been replaced. For the record, not because of too much smoking but due to the fact that a jostled rib had punctured her lung. Still, she had to set a good example for her kid. That reminded her, she needed to buy Galina that book on higher physics she wanted. All about complicated science stuff Siobhan had no real clue about.


She raised an eyebrow when Swift spoke. "Do you want a tank or a beefed up AT-AT walker? Either is solid, but troop transport only makes sense for the latter. As for treads or repulsors, frankly I view it dispassionately, but if this craft is supposed to take on Sithspawn monsters, a repulsorcraft will be at a disadvantage because lower weight means it's easier to throw by beasts or tossed by force-users. Never mind that destroying the hovery bits of a repulsortank leaves it immobile," Siobhan shrugged. "Whatever the Republic chooses, we can integrate our weapons into it and provide them as discussed."