Sweeping Mines under the Sand

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Charzon was sick and tired of seeing the regulatory powers-that-be in the galaxy snub her corporations' products time and time again. To her knowledge, only the Alliance operated the Zamboni minesweeping main battle tank - and even its most famous minesweeper commander was in deep trouble, essentially because he took a mission that he shouldn't have. But when the Techno Empire began rebuilding its army, Dunames began to ponder whether setting up shop on Geonosis would be of any help, knowing that Soceras already covered their backs in the galactic south. Granted, Geonosis was located westward and would make the maintenance of the Star Tours fleet easier, especially since Star Tours was growing to the point where it could definitely become the one PC-owned shipping company in the galaxy capable of reaching the status of start-up accelerator (informally used to refer to those tier-5-6 corporations). And as she knew the main combat vehicle vendors in the galaxy did not sell minesweeping vehicles, perhaps the Techno Empire would get their hands on one.

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ATTN: [member="Werah Unon"]

Your Imperial Majesty,

Because the Techno Imperial army is only in its early stages of reconstruction, defense contracts are up for grabs all over the place. I propose that we meet on Geonosis to discuss the procurement for the Techno Empire of the minesweeping main battle tanks. To my knowledge only one faction actively uses minesweeping vehicles in combat: the Galactic Alliance. We may never know if some rogue warlords actually use minefields in ground combat, plus a minesweeping vehicle is a means to sweep mines while still having a means to defend the minesweepers while mines are being swept.

Charzon Loulan
CEO, Ringovinda StarYards

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[Werah Unon]

Werah was sitting in his private study when he received the message on his HoloPad. "Interesting", he mused aloud as he read the message. Seeing was the TE had recently procured a number of minelayers, it seemed only sensible to acquire some minesweepers as well. Wear quickly sent off a reply...
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ATTN: [member="Charzon Loulan"]

Miss Loulan,

I am intrigued by your proposition, and would be interested in achieving a deal with you. We can meet at Zenturi, to discuss your proposal further.

Werah Unon
Supreme Commander of the Techno Empire, Emperor of Geonosis, Foreman of the Union, Ruler of the 1000 suns and President of Lirra.

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[Jessica Med-Beq]

Zenturi... how far was that settlement from Stalgasin Memorial Stadium, where these Geonosians played baseball games when they didn't stage brutal executions? Galaxy League Baseball's Geonosis Predators played there and it was renowned to be a pitcher's paradise, and not just because of the Geonosians' flying nature, which made them the most hated, but also most defensively stout in the outfield, GLB team. While that Glory Hound of a VP called Jessica was jetting around the galaxy doing much of the same things Dunames found most of her fellow PCs to be doing over and over, Charzon knew that the Techno Empire needed to rebuild its army since the old incarnation of the Techno Union collapsed due to military mistakes, not because of any economic neglect (unlike the One Sith), and she loaded the demonstrator into a Neimoidian Yacht (surprisingly there was enough space in there for three minesweepers but she chose to load only one, alongside two other people she uses for test-drives of the minesweepers). As she arrives in Zenturi, near the Imperial Palace of the Techno Empire...

"Oh, how much I missed the days when Jessica is around me even for business... her actions on Kuat forced me to give her more independence"

"Boss, we'll get you to meet with the Techno Emperor" the minesweeper test crew told Charzon.

"What business do you have here?" the Geonosian security guard asked Charzon et al.

"I am Charzon Loulan and I have an appointment for an audience with His Imperial Majesty regarding minesweeper vehicles, and I've brought the test-drivers as well"

To test-drive a minesweeper, one needed only two people: the gunner and the driver. Occasionally a senior engineer would take on the commander's seat, but most of the time when a minesweeper is factory-fresh, two people is enough to test-drive it. The most famous minesweeper commander in the galaxy, Ugohr Poof, has, unfortunately, taken on a mission he shouldn't have, and his own career as an Alliance general is jeopardized.

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

From the penthouse at the top of the palace, Werah saw the neimodian yacht land at the space port. He knew that his forces would escort the passengers to the palace, and prepared to meet them. Taking one last look at the bustling metropolis that he had created, Werah entered the elevator down to the main hall...

Werah sat down at the head of the octagonal table, his seat specially crafted from some of the rarest materials in the galaxy. The table itself was handcrafted form lostarite silver, and served to show the power of the people who usually sat here. Werah watched as his commander, Jake, lead the delegation into the meeting room. "Please, sit down", said Werah, as he surveyed the group, "We have much to discuss"....

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Upon arriving at the Imperial Conference Room, which had an octagonal table in it, Charzon was marveled at the Geonosians' architectural style, which was quite different from what she was used to on Ringo Vinda, despite having similar terrain to some parts of Geonosis, especially around the Tiplar Dunes. Charzon was preparing the technical files from the special component that allowed to turn an ordinary tank into a minesweeper. Contemporary minesweeping vehicles would be able to keep up with tanks, walkers and other motorized vehicles of mobile artillery, so long as the rotating flail isn't activated. When it is activated, however, any minesweeper commander would tell you that the movements of the vehicles and the troops behind them WILL slow to a near-halt, so slow that even enemy infantry on a non-forced march would be able to overtake such a force hiding behind minesweepers.

"I'm honored to be in your presence, Majesty"

"your Majesty, we are the people Charzon here hired to test each freshly-built minesweeper; we are in the quality assurance department"

"As you see, Your Majesty, the minesweeper for which I requested this very audience is a repulsorlift tank, allowing it to evade the blast of mines being set off. Most enemies using land mines bank on either walkers, wheeled or tracked vehicles"

"Even though the components are fairly standard, the rotating flail is housed forward, with retracting doors allowing to protect the flail when used on a mine-less battlefield"

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

"Hmm...Interesting", replied Werah, "I see how these vehicles could be useful". Though mines were not often used these days, his own forces made heavy usage of them in warfare. There was always the chance that one of their enemies could copy their tactics, so it was good to have a counter to such an attack. An idea came to him, suddenly. "These tanks...could they work in a low gravity enviroment...such as an asteroid?"

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"With repulsorlift, the effective altitude at which it could work depends on the gravity. You could have a repulsorlift vehicle soaring as high as 15 kilometers above the surface at standard gravity, in a low-gravity environment, the altitude at which a repulsorlift vehicle operate is severely reduced. But so long as one could dodge a mine blast, one way or another, it's still doing its job properly"

"For stability purposes, it is best to operate these tanks at an altitude not higher than 10 meters above ground, and preferrably not more than five, as far as mine-less zones are concerned. While setting off a mine may cause the tank to temporarily soar above the safe-operation altitude, the rotating flail extends about 3 meters in front of the hull"

"In turn, while the flail is active, the forward arc is just out of the question. You can still cover your sides and your back"

"I would have loved to send you some testimonials from [member="Ugohr Poof"], who was the one most commonly associated with minesweeping in the galaxy, but because of some extended Jedi business, he couldn't provide them"

"The Sith factions tended to keep minefields for defending grand-strategic assets, and light-sided factions eschewed them entirely"

That's if the Financial District in their own capital planet is counted as a grand-strategic asset in the One Sith's context at the onset of Operation Blackout. Grand-strategic assets are often critical in nature; it could range from a faction's main trade center to a faction's supply of hypermatter. Although she usually feels uncomfortable selling implements of destruction, she had to do it on Arcadia-N-30 and Zeltros. The Kathol Outback now has a supply of a squadron of these, but other than that, the Galactic Alliance's Army of Malastare and the Ringo Vinda Territorial Defense Force were the only known users of these particular minesweeping vehicles in the galaxy; in the last case its entire inventory of tanks is made up of these. Most entities that needed specialized sappers for clearing mines usually went with sapper droids or, more dangerous and risky still, organic sappers.

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

"Good, good." Werah was pleased that they would operate in low-gravity, as there were certain...situations were this capability would be called for. "Well they seem very useful, and flexible, and I would be happy to buy some. First though, I would like to see a test run, to see them in action."

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

The main reason why these testers were even here in the first place has finally come. Charzon knew that there were those skeptics that wanted a trial run first before buying anything major. And Charzon really meant it: where was the closest opportunity to test these things? The security guards escorted all three of them outside the Imperial Palace since they all had to ride the demonstrator contraption, with Charzon in the commander's seat. She rode that tank exactly once: before said tank was released. She reprised the seat, and she was a little uncomfortable sitting in a tank, where all she had was a radar display where friendlies are in green, hostiles in red and mines in blue. But the request His Majesty made was pretty standard. Plus working in low-gravity would probably result in them being used to clean up the pirates and other outlaws such as those hiding over Geonosis in the asteroid field.

"Where is the closest minefield to here anyway? Just that His Majesty's request has to be fulfilled somehow, somewhere" a tester asked, while facing Werah.

"Your concern is valid, and I accept His Majesty's request. One squadron on an initial basis will probably be a good start, and several more squadrons would be optioned for later dates"

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

"Well, there is a couple of old mines buried not far from here. Left over from some forgotten battle in the dark ages. We can go there.", replied Werah, "How much do the vehicles cost?"

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

An abandoned minefield. Hopefully the mine detector will operate in sand. The rotating flail being extended will cause the tank to come to a crawl; as any minesweeper commander will tell you, whether you decide to use sapper droids, organic sappers or a minesweeping vehicle, minesweeping is a slow operation. Once the mine detector has beeped, the rotating flail extends, hitting the sandy ground to reveal anti-personnel mines, which are being set off as the alusteel chains apply pressure on said mines. There are no other known manufacturers of minesweeping vehicles; to Charzon making sure the minesweeping vehicle could defend itself was important or else no way to complete a mine clearance mission.

"There has never been a sapper droid sweep over there, it seems"

"That's about a million credits for a 12-tank squadron - less expensive than a squadron of organic-piloted starfighters"

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

A million credits? Expensive, but well within their budget. "A fair price.", Werah commented, "and one well worth paying, it seems". Werah watched as the minesweeper was placed near the old minefield, eager to see it do its work...

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

The main difference was that the minesweeping equipment in itself cost about 10,000 credits for each tank. Whereas one could get a run-of-the-mill tank from, say, Baktoid Armor Workshop (or Baktoid Industries) for about 50-60k credits, without the squadron bulk discount, and one main laser cannon, here you have two cannons of very similar caliber (perhaps individually they are somewhat less powerful however) that can be synchronized. And the rotating flail. The trick was that the old minefield Werah brought them to was rather big and that the Techno Empire was a little small for more than one squadron of minesweepers. They would spend hours and hours clearing it all... so the flail spins, hitting mines at every step.

"That's a sizeable minefield: the Ringo Vinda Territorial Defense Force always says that, when the flail is active, this thing slows down to a pace that even infantry on a non-forced march would be able to overtake it. But a thorough clearance of a minefield allows to minimize combat casualties, especially since organic combatants must be treated with respect"

[member="Werah Unon"]

 

[Werah Unon]

"Yes", replied Werah watching the mines explode one after the other. It was almost calming, the regular explosions, and the whirring of the flail. "Though most of our army is comprised of droids". He could see that at the speed the vehicles took, a normal minefield would take a while to clear. Still, they had certain...uses, which Werah intended to utilise thoroughly. He hoped it would be worth the large price tag, but he didn't have much choice. The TE definitely needed these minesweepers. Sapper droids were too expensive, and hard to transport. "Well, I'm convinced. I'll take one...no, two squadron's of minesweepers." Though the TE was small, Werah happened to have a immense fortune stored away, the profits of most of the entire old TU. He now realised that it would be worth the investment to buy these tanks now.

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

The main plant on Ringo Vinda could produce one squadron a day; minesweeping vehicles were a little low-priority in factional armor inventories. Accordingly two squadrons would take two days to make. Minesweepers were rather marginal: most parties that operated armored units operated tanks without minesweeping equipment and the only reason to actually get Zambonis over other tanks was if said party expected to fight against minefields on a regular basis. The trick is that, while some parties preferred mine-sniffer droids, also called sapper droids in some circles close to the TE, the only real advantage of sapper droids over organic sappers is that they could operate basically all day even though their performance is otherwise comparable to that of organic sappers. What sapper droids the last incarnation of the TU had were expensive, and cost about twice as much as to get the same job done. The Republic used organic sappers under House Thul, and even so it was for the more surgical applications of minesweeping. As far as she knew about the Techno Union of old, and before that the Confederacy, both in the Clone Wars and in recent history, if the Techno Union or the Confederacy deployed organics, they were the elite of what army or navy they deployed.

"Your Majesty should expect delivery of the two squadrons in a week's time"

[member="Werah Unon"]