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Author Topic: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Final Phase, 1941 Cold Season  (Read 23434 times)

Madman198237

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Revision Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #210 on: March 29, 2020, 10:05:02 am »

Quote from: votebox
Katarani Medium Tank Mk.I-B: (1) Strider
Wellshrubbery Mk.II: (2) NUKE9.13, Madman
Sharak Oxygen-Enriched Submarine Torpedo: (3) NUKE9.13, Strider, Madman
I just got rid of the hull reinforcement since if we're only going to be getting killed by mine detonations and gunfire anyway, this isn't helping (the enemy apparently doesn't have depth charges).
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

TheFantasticMsFox

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Revision Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #211 on: March 31, 2020, 08:55:49 pm »

Quote from: votebox
Katarani Medium Tank Mk.I-B: (1) Strider
Wellshrubbery Mk.II: (3) NUKE9.13, Madman, TFF
Sharak Oxygen-Enriched Submarine Torpedo: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider, Madman, TFF
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Strider03

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Revision Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #212 on: May 12, 2020, 10:34:49 pm »

Honestly no idea if the lore contest is still going. But I wanted to make a lore goddammit.

Quote
Xilmal cursed, glancing over the assorted papers ahead of her. These Initharians and their obsession with pastels, so damn garish. To be certain, the reason for her frustration was not the colors themselves, but the fact that they were incomprehensible to her. Central Command hadn't seen fit to give them even a base level training in the written language, and she was quite certain it was because they did not themselves understand it. She had something, but it was small consolation given her situation. She'd studied the phrasebook of the language, written phonetically. Too much was involved in the colors to include in a phrase book, but she'd be able to say a few words. She wouldn't be able to pass in extended conversation, but with the garnish of pure pain decorating her words and disguising her accent, she might gain some few precious seconds.

The only thing she gained from these indecipherable papers was the layout of the bunker, and that she knew already. The room she was in provided a good view of the entrance, thankfully. An intentional element of the design she suspected, for landing soldiers that made it past the beach. She swept the papers aside, utterly useless unless she wanted to light a fire, and that wasn't going to happen in this cavern of metal and concrete. Steeling herself, and steadying her breath, Xilmal approached the three corpses collapsed in the corner of the room. She kicked the bodies apart, a slow ordeal, kicking a slumped dead person to a new location is no easy task. Once she had a good look at them, she selected the smallest of them, and began unbuttoning his uniform. Her left shoulder twinged, and she tried to keep her movements of her body small and steady. She'd need to be prepared to not pass out when the time came. Some awkward tugging, and the first arm of the soldier was freed. It'd be simple to remove the rest now. She only needed the jacket, and the pants. Enough to give her that extra second. The Embral soldier briefly considered taking the dog tags, but the likelihood that those would help her was slim to none.

The jacket was bloody, with a hole in the side, but luckily, the previous owner had fallen in a way that seemed to have prevented staining except in close proximity to the hole. The silk as well, seemed to prevent the staining somewhat. If Xilmal presented her profile in it properly, she suspected she could pass as uninjured. Well, knee pads, then the pants next. Xilmal cautiously stepped over to the window first, checking to see if she'd been noticed yet. There was movement, but none of it seemed to be approaching her. However, it would not be long before the body she'd left outside was discovered, or someone was expected to head to or from this watch post. She returned to her task. Unstrapping the knee pads was significantly easier than the following issue of removing the pants, but she managed it in time. Next, her clothes needed to come off. Pants were simple, she got them off with little trouble, but. . . after a minute of struggling to get them onto the soldier, she gave up. She didn't have the time to waste on this foolish idea of passing his corpse for the Embral intruder. Xilmal instead shoved him back to the corner where he'd died. Now his pants on her. A bit baggy, but she couldn't ask for more.

Now came the hardest part. Xilmal took her trousers, and with her right arm, balled up a section of them to bite down on. Then, she began moving her shoulders, attempting to finding a way to get her arms out. There was no easy way to do this without moving her left shoulder in some manner. She moaned into the cloth, pushing on her jacket with her wounded shoulder so that she could begin slipping her right arm out. A final burst of force, followed a jagged pain lancing down her shoulder and an accompanying muted scream. Her right arm was free. Shaking, she slipped the jacket carefully down her left arm, and onto the floor. She kicked it to the corner with the stripped corpse, and then the remaining corpses were arduously shoved on top of it, to hide the uniform at first glance to anyone who entered the room.

Now the new coat. A motley pattern of beige, rust, and brown adorned it. The silk made it somewhat gentler to slip onto her left arm, but the contortions necessary to put on a coat made it nearly as painful as the removal of her own uniform. It was only as the tears flowed down her face afterwards that she realized that there was a chance she could have gotten away with just keeping her arm out of the sleeve. But now, with this, she might not be shot on sight if she somehow got out of this. And knee pads on last of course.

Now, there was nothing more to do, but to plan her attack. The disguise would show it's value if there came an opportunity to escape the bunker. But for now, this was her best chance helping her comrades preparing to come ashore.

Xilmal brought the rifle up to the concrete slit, along with her ammunition. She had eleven magazines—three each from the men in this room, and two she'd picked up earlier—ten rounds each. She'd emptied one getting into this room. Now, she needed to begin picking her targets. There were a few: machine gun nests about 70 meters off from her in both directions, they seemed about evenly spaced beyond that. Each seemed to have three or four occupants, and there were a number of soldiers swarming up and down to different positions, with a motorcycle passing by occasionally, presumably messengers. Beyond the nearest east nest was a parked tank of some form, behind a sloped barricade leading up to its turret. Damn, she'd not be able to shoot through that. She'd need to bait out the occupants, if she could.

She took careful aim at one of the passing motorcycles. This would be the first target. Interrupt communications, and attract attention all in one go. But what would be the lead? She had only fired in close proximity with these weapons thus far, and their performance diverged significantly from what she was used to. The soldier lined up the iron-sights as she normally would for a low torso shot, knowing that she just had to give it a go. A gentle pull on the trigger, and the click of the round firing. Wait, if they were silent, that meant. . . they weren't supersonic. Not enough velocity, and the round would drop far more than she was used to. Shit. The man on the motorcycle continued forward, unharmed, seeming to notice nothing. And she hadn't even seen where the bullet landed, to adjust her aim.


Yet, within a second, he began to slow, and then came to a stop. Even from this distance, it was clear that the man was confused. That confusion became clear as he stared at his tire. She'd hit the tire, goddamn that was a lot of drop. Not optimal, but. . . that meant she knew the lead, and the drop. She aimed again, higher, iron-sights settling just a little above his head, and pulled the trigger. The man slumped, and fell over. One down, 108 rounds left. A shout rang out from the machine gun nest nearest him, and a soldier ran out, heading over to the courier. He was the next victim, 107. Xilmal was certain that no others would venture out to meet the same fate. Next, the machine gun itself. Three rounds into that and it was put out of working order. If they opened fire on her with that one, she'd be in some real shit, given it's proximity to her.

These nests, while well defended from the front, were not designed to deal with an attack from her vantage point. The occupants of the first nest died quickly under her fire, but the other on the opposite side, seemed to have noticed the commotion as well. They, given more time to react, acted. A colored flare shot out of the nest, yellow to orange smoke trailing into the sky, as she took aim for her next shot. It took 9 shots to take out the soldiers in the nest, for they could manage to hide most of their torso in that position, and she had a very small target to hit. Good practice for the aiming though. Now for the next nest, much further away. The flare had gone up, and they'd know she was here. A burst of machine gun fire from that nest pinged off the outer wall. Good, good, she'd gotten some attention. Also very bad. Xilmal poked her rifle over the edge, and fired the rest of her magazine out in a burst. Had she hit anything? She wasn't sure. Eight magazines left, and as she slammed in a new mag, and yet more of the spitting death from the machine gun. They'd be trying to approach the entrance under that cover. At a break in the machine gun fire, she popped out, took a shot at the approaching group of soldiers, before ducking back down, as bullets flew towards the slit again. Miss, both her shots and the machine gun's bullets. She hadn't had time to aim properly, but that was likely to be the case for the rest of her time here. Another peek, another shot, and another burst of refocyte from the machine gun. She smiled, got one. 78 rounds remaining. This pattern continued, the machine gun fire slowly becoming more concentrated on the slit, as they settled on the aim. A bullet grazed her ear, tearing into it, and with each burst, shards of shattered concrete spalled from the inside of the bunker. Some were minor, losing their speed before harmlessly bouncing off her uniform, others with more velocity tore small gouges into her jacket and arm.

Down to 54, she'd gotten the group of soldiers approaching the bunker entrance. Now she'd need the nest. Deep breaths, she needed to take out the actual machine gun, at 210 meters, without much experience with this weapon at that range. Doable. The low recoil meant that she'd be able to get her shots off in quick succession. . . she just had to go for it. She waited a moment, trying to time it to a lull in the bursts of fire. She popped up and emptied the magazine into the nest. Xilmal was rewarded by a distant set of pings, distinctly louder and sharper than the click of the machine gun firing. Good. And yet, bullets continued to impact the bunker. A nest farther down? The rifles of the soldiers in that nest which she had just crippled? Or. . .Xilmal popped her head up for a quick glance, and was greeted by the sight of a tank turret ponderously turning to face her barrel aligning it's maw directly towards her face.

Shit, shit. Would they shoot the bunker? Xilmal staggered to the back of the room, away from the slit, placing herself as far as possible from the slit where the tank would presumably target. But, after a full minute and a half of waiting, nothing had happened. No concussive thud, no decrease in the sporadic machine gun fire. Perhaps they held out hope to take it back. The tank was equipped with two machine guns, she recalled. Those would be a mess to deal with. Ducking, she tentatively approached the table that had held the useless papers and plans, and tugged on it. Not light, but she might be able to prop it over. She pulled, attempting to lift it up longways, but found herself unable with a single arm. With a sigh, she crawled underneath, and stood, lifting it with her back, to cover the part of the slit looking out at the tank. As soon as the table was up, a burst from the twin machine guns peppered the concrete and splintered the table. But not her. And with the light switched off in the room, and the dawn's glow outside, Xilmal hoped that the table would prevent them from knowing when she popped up to take fire at the entrance to the bunker.

Not cover, but concealment. Either they'd have to waste all their ammunition blowing through the table, or they'd have to resort to sporadically firing and hoping that that was when she poked up. Safer than them firing in reaction to her appearance at least. Wait a few seconds, then. . .she popped up again, and saw a group of a soldiers ducking and sprinting from one covered location to the next in a meandering route towards the bunker entrance. When she opened fire, they responded in kind, but it seemed they'd been relying on the tank's cover fire, and they were easily picked off before they managed to hit her. She ducked down again away from the slit, breathing heavily.

They'd be sending more, probably, and she had. . .four full magazines left, and the rounds in her current mag. She could go silent for a bit, and make them think she was out, or had been hit by the soldiers approaching? That was probably the best—her thoughts were interrupted by an explosion of shards of concrete, the crash deafening after so much muted clicking and pinging. A burst of dust, wood splinters, and concrete shrapnel exploded around her, and flung her against the wall, winding her. The rifle flew from her hand, clattering to the ground. Concrete shards had embedded themselves in her wounded arm, and there was a red cloud spreading over her vision, pain in her left eye. Something had hit her eye. Gasping, she reached up towards her eye with her right hand, and was met by a wooden splinter sticking about an inch out. She flinched back from touching it. Oh god, oh god, the tank had fired, that was all it could be. Why, why hadn't they done it earlier, weren't they sending more soldiers in to take this place back!?

In her shocked state, it took Xilmal few moments to settle on an answer. They'd seen no option when she erected the table up to block their view. She'd forced their hand, and they didn't believe they could protect their approaching troops. They were right. And so they'd decided that they would suffer damage the bunker, if only they could take either her, or at least her table out. It had worked. Shit, this ruined everything, she thought, wiping blood and tears away from her mouth.

She reached up to her eye again. There was no saving it now, and given the imminence of her demise, Xilmal chose a course of action. She gritted her teeth, placed two fingers on the wooden shard, and yanked it free. She need to be able to blink, and to be able to cover the wound to stop the bleeding. If anything happened and that blood got to her other eye, well one hand was useless and the other would be on a gun. She needed to see. Two pieces of fabric she ripped from the deceased's uniforms, both to stifle and to tie off the wound. She had more bullets, she needed to be able to use them. The time to make this makeshift bandage was significant, all the more because of her fumbled attempts to tie it with a single hand, and Xilmal began to hear shouts outside. A new group, approaching the entrance? This guess was proven wrong when a gun poked through the slit, and a fired a burst in wildly. Fate smiled upon her insomuch as this it could in this situation, and the shots missed. Seated, Xilmal grabbed for her rifle, and pulled it up towards the window with an effort, perching the barrel on her knees. She held her fire though, until a female soldier peaked through the slit, to check whether the silence meant that Xilmal had been killed. The negation of this fact traveled through the unwise soldier's brain at high velocity, exiting with a splattering of red.

More assorted shouts, and two more guns poked in through the slit. Xilmal took her shots at the guns, the refocyte rounds punching into the workings of each, rendering one of them silent after a few shots. The other gun, she must have missed the mechanisms. The Initharian managed empty his magazine blindly into the bunker, and a bullet struck Xilmal in the calf. So much for walking. Not that she'd had any hope of that anymore. Damn, she'd really been hoping to use this uniform. What was all that pain with changing for if she was going to end up corned like a fox in its hole here? Xilmal had had such high hopes for that, escaping the bunker after the local gun nests had been cleared, or tricking them into thinking she was a dead Initharian in here, and that the culprit had escaped. Well, that had always been unlikely, she thought, reprimanding herself for the foolishness of thinking it was even possible.

But, now for the last gambit she had. She dragged her self over to the pile of corpses with her good leg and arm, and began to shove herself underneath. Slow painful work. More shouting outside. She understood a fraction, something something got her? How would they know if they'd gotten her? She took a deep breath, and tried to slow her inhalation and shivering. Two minutes passed, and then voices from beyond the reinforced door leading into her room. They were in the bunker, and they'd break through soon.

A grunt from outside, and a dull thud. They were kicking or throwing themselves against the door. It'd be a little while yet. From her prone position, Xilmal grabbed another rifle from her pile of victims, and readied it, set on the floor next to her. She might not get another chance to reload, already difficult with a single hand. A shame that she'd left the last magazine by the destroyed slit. She wouldn't be able to get up and get it, what a waste.

Another five minutes, and there came a colossal crash at the door. Some kind of ram, she didn't know how they were breaching, but it was a certainty that they were. The frame shook and let out a puff of dust, but it and it's door held strong. It would be a moment yet. Xilmal steadied the rifle in it's resting position on the torso of one of the bodies. Another blast, and a crack appeared in the frame, the door bowing slightly. One final burst, and the door swung violently open. In that fraction of a second, she unloaded the rifle's magazine. Ten shots, had she gotten anyone? She didn't know, she couldn't really see through the dust, blood, and shadows of the hallway. The door had opened violently enough that it slammed into the wall next to it, and rebounded almost back to it's closed position. What a nice door, protecting her like that, Xilmal thought dizzily. In that brief moments respite, she grabbed the other gun. The door was pushed open again, and once more she opened fire, emptying the magazine.

Nothing left for her, and the shouts in the corridor continued. She hadn't gotten them all. Some unseen Initharian pulled the door close as cover, pushed their rifle around it, and fired wildly in. Bullets pinged around the bunker, and Xilmal knew this was the end. No more bullets, no more tricks, and a full unused magazine sitting out of reach next to the slit. What a fucking waste.

She couldn't stand, and her backup plan to use her scarce knowledge of the local language to pretend to be a wounded Initharian, well no chance of that. They would have to know that it was her when they came in, and they wouldn't come in before filling this tomb of hers with refocyte. Nothing left to do, but. . . drift into sleep. She'd done what she could. The defeated Embral soldier tugged one of the corpses closer over her, warm. She was closed her good eye, cruor cracking on her makeshift bandage around her other eye. She could rest now. As her consciousness dimmed, a deafening boom sounded, shaking her very skull. She did not see what had occurred, and immediately passed into unconsciousness.



When her eye blinked open, Xilmal's first feeling was surprise. This wasn't supposed to happen, that had been her end. She'd made her final stand. Why could she still see, and more specifically, see the cold smokey sky, and the grey crumbling concrete of the bunker? A thud shook her, not sound, but shock wave. And with that, she knew. The bombardment had begun, and the soldiers were landing. She let out a joyous sob, muted in her ringing ears, and smiled. They might not find her, they probably wouldn't. But, it had begun, and she'd done her part. The dull patternless booms of the shore bombardment, and the foothold they signified made the lullaby that once more dragged her consciousness away. It'd begun, and they would take the beach.
Logged
Within that world, she was God. But here, outside of it, her name was Yoake o-Shiri. That was unimportant. She was a Godslayer. That too was unimportant. But what was important, was that she had a motherfucking boat.
And by God, was she going to use it.

"But deceleration is for pansies. We're headed for the stars. Bye, Burnsie. Bye, Mission Control. Bye, Sol. See you at heat death" -Blindsight

Man of Paper

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Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #213 on: May 15, 2020, 11:33:21 pm »

Revision Phase, Hot Season 1940 AC

Proposal: Wellshrubbery Mk.II
Quote
It is somewhat odd to speak of a Mk.II version of a plant, but here we are. Wellshrubbery may work just fine in an egghead's lab, but out in the field it borders on useless. As usual, it falls to the Legion Engineers to fix what eccentric designers throw our way. Fortunately, Wellmoss/shrubbery has a very quick life cycle, allowing us to rapidly diversify, crossbreed, graft, and do all that other plant stuff necessary to develop a variant that is: sturdier, with deeper roots and thicker... branches? Does moss have branches? Whatever; dehydration-resistant, capable of storing excess water to keep itself healthy for a few days at least; and easier to grow, due to increased sensitivity to noise.
Special thanks go to Centurion Malik, whose textbook on plant breeding we borrowed for this project. It, uh, may have fallen victim to a particularly aggressive strain of Wellmoss. Sorry, Malik. In our defence, what sort of centurion reads a book about breeding plants for entertainment?

Difficulty: Normal
Result: (6+3)=9, Above Average

Wellshrubbery, while a novel invention, is practically useless for it's intended use as cover, or at the very least as concealment. Luckily for us, Wellshrubbery Mk.II is a completely different breed. While plant genetics and botany were never quite a focus for Embral (music gave growth and life to our plants back home - no need for selective breeding), we've never been a people to turn away from something promising.

Wellshrubbery Mk.II is stronger and sturdier than it's ancestor species. It grows rapidly, almost frighteningly so, with roots that will break stone if they need to in order to secure themselves. While not thick enough to block gunfire, wellshrubbery is more than dense enough to obscure anyone hiding behind it. New wellshrubbery is capable of growing hedgerows that will sustain themselves for a number of days before reaching the end of their life cycle, withering, and crumbling to dust. They only take a couple minutes to grow to full size, so long as there's enough water available (which isn't much of a problem, as this species retains more and uses less water than it's predecessor).

What it does need more of is sound. Louder or more sustained noise is necessary to grow Wellshrubbery Mk.II, but screaming at a plant isn't going to complicate things too much. Wellshrubbery Mk.II raises costs to 6 Wellmaterials and replaces the old stuff since, well, it actually works.

----------------

Proposal: Sharak Oxygen-Enriched Submarine Torpedo
Quote
Based on the torpedoes presently deployed on our Hethams, the new Sharak (which is apparently what "shark" translates to in Punjabi) is substantially faster, longer ranged, and deadlier, all thanks to a shift to a new oxidizer: oxygen-enriched air. Now, I know you're all thinking "but isn't that highly explosive and thus turn torpedoes into a serious safety hazard should they suffer even minor damage to the fuel system?". And yes, it does, and yes, these sorts of things sink ships. BUT, we have outsmarted the safety problems by deploying them only on submarines, where they are unlikely to explode since submarines rarely take the sorts of damage that result in fires and if they do, well, the submarine was dead anyway so it's all good!
Oxygen-enriched air is much more efficient when burned (with an appropriate propellant like kerosene) than regular air, on account of it containing more oxygen. Wizardry, I know. This allows us to either save weight and tank space for the oxidizer, OR to just bring more oxidizer and have a more powerful engine run for longer on a comparable size of propellant storage. This more powerful engine is installed in our existing torpedo body and gives us a torpedo that is both faster and longer ranged. With the additional power, we can also stretch the warhead a little bit, to make it substantially deadlier.

Difficulty: Normal Easy
Result: (1+1)+1=3, Buggy Mess

With the Initharian Fleet now getting hammered on the surface, we opted to give some much-deserved attention to our submersible fleet. They must've done something to piss us off, because we decided to gift them the Sharak.

The "Sharak" Torpedo has an effective range of eighteen kilometers and can travel at speeds of fifty-five knots. It also has the frustrating habit of not detonating when it's supposed to. Test models didn't include more valuable or irreplaceable parts of the torpedo, and the difference in weight in the final production model meant the torpedoes would often run a little too deep. The contact fuze is iffy at best, requiring an almost perfectly square hit in order to register impact, and a magnetic fuze is simply absent. They explode bigger than the old world torpedoes though, so that's something.

The "Sharak" Oxygen-Enriched Submarine Torpedo costs 4 Ore and 3 Oil, making them (CHEAP). Even though they're less reliable than our Old World torpedoes, they have a better range of operation. While their replacement shouldn't see us negatively impacted, the torpedoes aren't likely going to provide any additional benefit past the old ones until we refine them some more.

----------------

As always, remember to assign a resource node as well as any National Efforts to appropriate sectors. You have two Attack actions as always, and also remember that this is the last chance to submit lore for the contest as outlined in a previous update!

IT IS NOW THE STRATEGY PHASE.

Spoiler: Land Territories (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Sea Territories (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resources (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Embrallish Armory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

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NUKE9.13

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #214 on: May 16, 2020, 06:57:37 am »

Quote from: Stratbox
Attacks (vote for 2)
Badlands Gavrillium Node: (1) NUKE9.13
Badlands Caelium Node: (1) NUKE9.13

Deploy The Leviathan (it's our only NE)
Eastern Maelstrom: (0)
Western Maelstrom: (1) NUKE9.13

Resource Development:
Wellmaterial in Desert: (1) NUKE9.13

Lore Contest
Past & Present (NUKE9.13): (1) NUKE9.13
untitled (Strider03):

Okay, so. Reasoning:

Attacks: Obviously we're taking a Gav and Cael node this turn, the only question is which. I've gone for both in the Badlands, mostly because on the very slim chance that Inithar reaches our back line and we still have a chance of winning, they're least likely to reach the Badlands, as that would require them to go through Harren City. However, I don't have a super strong opinion, so I would happily switch to a different set if preferred.

Leviathan: Since we're only defending at sea this turn, I think it's probably slightly more important that we maintain our partial control of the crossing to the North Peaks- so we can use naval fire to support our beachhead if Inithar tries pushing us out. If we were trying to push Inithar out of the Mudflats, it'd be different, but we're purely on the defensive this turn.

Resource: more Wellmaterial makes the ASH Cheap, and brings the tank, shrubbery, and strings closer to cheapening (the latter two would need even more Wellstuff, which might not be worth it). More Ore wouldn't make anything cheaper right away, but would bring several things (the tank, LIES, and SEAL) closer- which might be better, given that Ore is more widely applicable. I've gone for Wellmaterial for the immediate boost, but I could easily be persuaded to support Ore instead. 

Lore: I feel that Strider's has the better writing, and with the rose idea I'm okay with what happens in it- but I'm still going to support mine, as I feel that it does more to flesh out the character, and feels more Embrallish. Like, if this was a contest about quality of writing, 100% Strider's thing, but I think MoP will also be looking at the lore value.
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Strider03

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #215 on: May 16, 2020, 07:05:11 am »

Quote from: Stratbox
Attacks (vote for 2)
Badlands Gavrillium Node: (2) NUKE9.13, Strider03
Badlands Caelium Node: (2) NUKE9.13, Strider03

Deploy The Leviathan (it's our only NE)
Eastern Maelstrom: (0)
Western Maelstrom: (2) NUKE9.13, Strider03

Resource Development:
Wellmaterial in Desert: (2) NUKE9.13, Strider03

Lore Contest
Past & Present (NUKE9.13): (1) NUKE9.13
untitled (Strider03): (1) Strider03
Completely fair! In the same vein I'm going to support mine because I'm seduced by the "We can rebuild her, we have the technology" possibilities, and I'd like to see it in the main thread.
Logged
Within that world, she was God. But here, outside of it, her name was Yoake o-Shiri. That was unimportant. She was a Godslayer. That too was unimportant. But what was important, was that she had a motherfucking boat.
And by God, was she going to use it.

"But deceleration is for pansies. We're headed for the stars. Bye, Burnsie. Bye, Mission Control. Bye, Sol. See you at heat death" -Blindsight

Madman198237

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #216 on: May 16, 2020, 10:41:27 am »

Quote from: Stratbox
Attacks (vote for 2)
Badlands Gavrillium Node: (3) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman
Badlands Caelium Node: (3) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman

Deploy The Leviathan (it's our only NE)
Eastern Maelstrom: (0)
Western Maelstrom: (3) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman

Resource Development:
Wellmaterial in Desert: (3) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman

Lore Contest
Past & Present (NUKE9.13): (1) NUKE9.13
untitled (Strider03): (2) Strider03, Madman
I really like the quality and incredibly well-thought-out situation in Strider's lore piece. It's believable and there's a LOT of effort in it.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2020, 12:05:53 pm by Madman198237 »
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

TheFantasticMsFox

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #217 on: May 17, 2020, 01:24:04 pm »

Quote from: Stratbox
Attacks (vote for 2)
Badlands Gavrillium Node: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF
Badlands Caelium Node: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF

Deploy The Leviathan (it's our only NE)
Eastern Maelstrom: (0)
Western Maelstrom: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF

Resource Development:
Wellmaterial in Desert: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF

Lore Contest
Past & Present (NUKE9.13): (1) NUKE9.13
untitled (Strider03): (3) Strider03, Madman, TFF
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frostgiant

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #218 on: May 17, 2020, 02:24:37 pm »

Quote from: Stratbox
Attacks (vote for 2)
Badlands Gavrillium Node: (5) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF, Frostgiant
Badlands Caelium Node: (5) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF, Frostgiant

Deploy The Leviathan (it's our only NE)
Eastern Maelstrom: (0)
Western Maelstrom: (5) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF, Frostgiant

Resource Development:
Wellmaterial in Desert: (5) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Madman, TFF,Frostgiant

Lore Contest
Past & Present (NUKE9.13): (1) NUKE9.13
untitled (Strider03): (4) Strider03, Madman, TFF,Frostgiant

Sorry nuke, This is a (lore) Coup.
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NUKE9.13

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Strategy Phase, 1940 Hot Season
« Reply #219 on: May 17, 2020, 03:27:26 pm »

Sorry nuke, This is a (lore) Coup.
Curses and damnation! Can't we go back to one man, one vote?

Nah, I ain't that bothered. As I said, it's definitely the better written piece. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to give Xilmal more of a backstory and personality later.
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Man of Paper

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Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Design Phase, 1940 Cold Season
« Reply #220 on: June 17, 2020, 01:19:04 am »

Strategy Phase, Hot Season 1940 AC

This season saw our industrial efforts focus on securing and extracting Wellmaterials in the Desert, bringing our total access to the material to four(4). This affects our armory in the following manner:

Autoresonant Siege Horn becomes (CHEAP).

-----------------

Combat Phase, Hot Season 1940 AC

Why We Fight

The Harren Expedition had a singular purpose: taking it's resources and sending them back home. Encountering Inithar had drawn the Expedition's attention, but finally the Embralish had their first taste of accomplishment. A massive collection of men and materials the likes of which hasn't been seen in a single area since Landing Day made it's way to the Badlands with the goal of securing both the old Harren facilities in the region. The massive force was unmet by Pact forces as expected and went about securing the facilities. Routes were secured to ensure safe transport of goods from the dried, cracked Badlands to the sweltering settlement in The Rupture.

Both facilities held a massive store of their respective resources, and workers were quick to begin packing and shipping the Caelium and Gavrillium.

Will you be shipping either of these resources back home, or will they be used for the war effort here? If you ship any home, which of your natural resources do you want in return?

As with the facility in the Mesas, both Badlands facilities held subterranean chambers housing complex machines and the same sort of device with the reflective, mirror-like "portal". They, too, had strange radios emitting odd signals, and the devices seemed to be deactivated much like the one in the Mesas. With plenty of helping hands and minds available, research of the devices was set to immediately. With two facilities under our control, we were able to compare their passively transmitted signals and noted that they were at distinctly different frequencies. The tuning devices were quite difficult to figure out initially, being a technology evolved completely independently from what the Empire had experience with in the Homeland, but eventually one of our engineers managed to tune the Gavrillium Facility device to the Caelium Facility portal, which activated a link between the two. Having a single point tuned in to another allowed the tuned portal to observe the other side, while the other portal remained seemingly inactive. Tests were performed with the passage of objects through these strange devices, and objects would appear on the receiving end with no apparent damage or changes.

Further investigation eventually led to the first human to pass through the portal. The volunteer also seemed to pass through without issue. With both portals keyed in to one another, free passage either way was possible, and sound was able to carry through the linked portals to facilitate communications.

The biggest obstacle to research of this device, known as the Glas Bolg Transporter thanks to the apparent branding on the transmitter device, is that it has so many dials, switches, ports, and levers that there are a possible 6.022x1023 frequencies to key into. Unfortunately, it seems most of these frequencies are disconnected, with the portal remaining reflective and objects passing straight through to the other side of the device without being transported elsewhere. By utilizing and reactivating these portals it seems that they connect to a network of devices independent of whatever the Pact may be utilizing.

In short, we can only transport objects and people through the portals if they are activated. We cannot get into any Pact-held locations, but it appears to be that any device activated after being disconnected by the Pact will connect to the same backup network. The portals are large enough to transport humans and human-sized objects through, so there is a chance that, should Inithar also connect to our network, we could launch attacks to directly take their Harren resources. It is unlikely we'd be able to control anything past the facility (unless the front line had pushed to that area, which is a different strategic scenario entirely), but we could reduce our enemy's access to the native resources. This works both ways, however.

So now we have a decision to make: Do we destroy the Glas Bolg Transporters and ensure our safety or do we maintain the Glas Bolg Transporters and provide strategic opportunity further down the line? You can choose to maintain or destroy transporters individually, and may choose to destroy a Transporter at a later date. They cannot be rebuilt however, so the decision to destroy a Transporter should be carefully thought over. For some reason you also believe that going all-in on either maintenance or destruction will affect the narrative of the world at large, and perhaps even beyond?

When utilizing the new resources afforded to us, we should remember that Caelium's Sphere is Gravity and Gavrillium's Sphere is Power, in whatever form it can be utilized as a source of power.

----------------

Combat Phase, Hot Season 1940 AC

War in the Western Waters

The Leviathan had made a name for itself as the Kona-killer, even if it hadn't actually managed to sink the thing yet. That was going to change. The Kona had led the Initharian fleet through the Western Maelstrom, and the number of Kaipo'u Battleships it led was a brutal force on it's own, but their Ho'oula Destroyers got a nasty upgrade of their own as well.

The NM2 "Lehe" Torpedo can be separated into several parts; from the front, warhead, front float, engine compartment, rear float, tail rudders, and screw propellers. The engine is a Supercharged Coilengine as one should expect from Inithar by this point, propelling the torpedo at fairly absurd speeds of up to 60 knots. But that is not where the most extreme absurdity of the NM2 really lies.

The warhead, which takes up a large portion of the forward end of the torpedo, is made up of a two-stage refocyte mechanism with one high-purity precharged core and a thin casing of low-purity refocyte (all within the steel head of the torpedo). The low-purity casing has a series of nickel studs facing inward but not in contact with the high-purity core. The core is instead held in place by a rubber-coated steel nub. The steel nub contains a small charge that separates itself and the core from the body of the torpedo, set off either impact or a magnetic fuse, which causes the core to contact any number of the nickel studs and rapidly dump it's stored energy into the low-purity casing. The casing then tends to detonate to frightening effect. The blast, equivalent to 500 kilograms of high explosives, proved to be quite devastating when the Ho'oulas survived long enough to launch them.

The Leviathan had organized the defense against the Initharian fleet, and while Hethams did sink a number of ships without repercussion thanks to the range afforded to them by the Sharak torpedo, it wasn't reliable enough to devastate the fleet, and without our own dedicated efforts in the sector it wasn't enough to reduce their numbers past ours, either. Still, the fight was bloody and brutal for both sides. At one point The Leviathan struck a Kaipo'u with a torpedo, destroying the engine room and triggering the refocyte coil in the engine. This sent the massive rod skyward as it burst out of it's housing and straightened out. The rod caused massive damage both exiting the ship and going back through when it fell from the air.

But for all the glorious kills, the enemy just had too many guns, and too many of those refocyte munitions, for the defending forces to hold back the tide. The rest of the season consisted of highly organized ambushes meant to slow the Initharian fleet as it tried to push further into Embral-controlled territory. These operations proved quite successful, and slowed the Initharians down immensely.

The Leviathan had spent the season waiting for the perfect moment to strike the Kona, and she finally had the target in her sights. A rare moment of very light rains and fairly calm seas had occurred just as the Kona showed up on the horizon. The Leviathan had been listening to her and the accompanying fleet for a while now, but the admiral refused to take a shot blind, even if that risked getting within range of their Refocyte Active Sonar. Luck seemed to be with the submersible flagship, as none of the ships coming into view went to investigate the lack of a return signal caused by the Wellsap coating.

Patience and restraint were practiced in full as the admiral waited for just the right moment to loose torpedoes. The moment indeed came, and four Sharak torpedoes launched from the bow in sequence. The seconds stretched out, each tick of the admiral's stopwatch seeming to come ever slower. Then, as the estimated time to impact passed...silence. More silence. Then the report from the sonarman.

"Contact, no detonation, times two."

Unfortunately once more, the Kona would have to wait a few Ho'oulas broke off from the main force and were rapidly moving towards The Leviathan. She'd make her escape with no issue, but once more that infernal superbattleship escaped meeting it's fate.

As a result of the increased number of Initharian battleships and the introduction of torpedoes they frankly have no right producing, and without more support in the area, our fleet had to resort to defending more along our side of the strait. Inithar was able to contest our waters slightly, but coordination of defensive actions heavily reduced the impact of their ship-killer Lehes and increased number of refocyte-armed battleships.

Inithar gains Light Control of W. Maelstrom by the skin of their teeth.

----------------

Mudflats Marathon

The Mudflats proved to be the target of Initharian military action once more. Marines attempted to land from the east while the Army pushed from the north. Initharian offensives tended to open up with a depressing and embarrassing artillery "barrage" fired from their new M2 "Laweano" 120mm, a semiunreliable 120mm artillery piece capable of firing smoke, Refocyte, HE, and AP shells. Requires significant maintenance for the uncommon-but-not-uncommon-enough event of a jam thanks in large part to their desire to focus on developing a thousand different types of firing mechanisms, according to insider sources, but otherwise works well enough for them, and has a range of up to 18 kilometers with a potential fire rate of 12 RPM. The guns were too uncommon to lay down devastation in large enough amounts to heavily impact their offensives, though it was quite an unpleasant feeling to be crushed by a bunker struck with a 120mm refocyte round.

Enemy infantry also all came with a pair of, well, "hand torpedoes". Based on the mechanisms in the Lehe, the M1 'Pohū Ringa' Dual Purpose Grenade was great at clearing bunkers. These rubber-skinned hand torpedoes utilized a pin and safety lever to prevent accidental discharge. When the pin was removed and lever released, a five second mechanical timer triggered. At the end of those five seconds a pin holding the charged refocyte in place released, causing the core to contact a nickel lead and rapidly dump it's stored energy into a low-purity shell. The shell detonated with a significant amount of sheer force, with the concussive blast guaranteed fatalities within five meters and injuries within fifteen. When used in an enclosed space the results were terrifying. The enemy also had access to frag caps that could be slid over the Pohū Ringa. One particular Initharian Marine proved quite adept at tossing the things like a Samnium football, perfect spiral and all, until she got caught in the blast radius of an ASH and one of her subordinates popped like a meat balloon.

Still that wouldn't prove enough to tilt the battlefield in their favor. The use of Wellshrubbery greatly hampered enemy efforts to advance, as terrain could change day-by-day, making the enemy's knowledge of the territory through past offensives less helpful. They were also great for blocking off sections of trench or creating dead ends. Our preplanning and efforts in seeding wound up loosely guiding the Initharians into tighter concentrations than otherwise expected on a battlefield, and our LIE Shells and explosives were devastating to anyone not equipped with a mask.

Once the Initharian Marines and Army linked up, a pair of counterattacks spearheaded by Kataranis and Rogis with a sufficient amount of artillery support managed to break through the struggling Initharian lines. Their vehicles stood little chance, as the Katarani was seemingly designed to combat the Alanui, and infantry armed with the Autoresonant Siege Horn proved more than capable of crippling enemy armor as well as battering hardened positions. Our forces cut through the fatigued and battered Initharians and managed to encircle a large number of Initharian Marines. They attempted to break out, but didn't have the firepower or willpower after being absolutely battered for an entire year, and the bubble soon collapsed.

While the fighting wasn't too difficult, it was still hell for everyone. Fighting Inithar was never a pleasant experience, and if they get actually good artillery then we might be in trouble. As it stands, they haven't succeeded there yet, but once they gain the ability to rain more refocyte on our heads we're going to need something else for leverage on the battlefield.

Embral successfully defends The Mudflats.

----------------

The lack of significant Embralish offensive anywhere might not go unnoticed by the Initharians. What could they interpret it as? Perhaps we shouldn't dwell on them too much, and instead focus on our own efforts. As always, and it has never been different, you have two designs to work with.

HOWEVER

We have been in touch with Embral itself thanks to the cables laid by the Sau Cihare. Apparently they've been working on new advancements of their own, and some Military Engineers have shared quite an interesting concept with us. For this turn only, any work on dedicated National Effort Designs will be treated as though they have Research Credits applied. This counts for both Designs and Revisions. Upgrades to other designs that would improve existing National Efforts are not eligible for the bonus.

IT IS NOW THE DESIGN PHASE

Spoiler: Land Territories (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Sea Territories (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resources (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Embrallish Armory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

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NUKE9.13

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Design Phase, 1940 Cold Season
« Reply #221 on: June 17, 2020, 05:23:33 am »

First draft for Leviathan upgrade. It's maybe a bit ambitious to do two new pieces of tech in one design with materials we have no experience working with, but:
-We have an RC for an NE upgrade
-We have an additional +1 to submarine upgrades
-We do actually have some prior knowledge about the workings of Gavrilium/Caelium, thanks to the SMG blueprints we nicked from the Pact

If this worked, I would suggest using one revision to create a Hetham variant with a Gavreactor, and another to create a (much shorter ranged) handheld (or at least small backpack) version of the Caelophone.
Quote
Leviathan Mk.II (Gavreactor & Caelophone):
The Leviathan is a very effective flagsub. But it has its weaknesses. For one, the batteries have a limited charge, limiting how long it can spend submerged. For two, communications while submerged could be better. Fortunately, we have solutions for both these problems, thanks to a generous donation of resources from the Harren locals.

The solution to the first problem is the "Gavreactor". This device uses 'Aligned Gavrilium'; Gavrilium that has been heated to melting point, combined with a number of alloying agents, then cast and cooled under the influence of a strong magnetic field. The result is a material that physicists have dubbed either 'Maxwell's Super-Demon' or 'Fuck This Shit', depending on how flexible their thinking is. Put simply, when in a magnetic field, Aligned Gavrilium generates heat on one side, and cold on the other (proportional to the strength of the field). How? Don't ask. Which is to say, Aligned Gavrilium does eventually 'deplete', but 'sane' physicists assure us that the process is impossible regardless.
Anyway, with rods of Aligned Gavrilium in hand, creating a super-efficient reactor is child's play. One need merely exploit the considerable temperature differential between the two ends of the rods, which in this case we have done by creating a closed-circuit of purified water. The water is turned into super-heated steam on one end, passes through a turbine, and is rapidly cooled into near-freezing water on the other. To modulate the reactor's power, the electromagnets used to generate the magnetic field can be adjusted.
The Leviathan is to be the test-bed for the first practical Gavreactors. Two of the four diesel generators (one in each main hull) will be replaced with large, powerful, expensive prototype reactors. As the Gavreactors require no oxygen to operate, and consume Aligned Gavrilium at a fairly slow rate, this will allow the Leviathan to- in principle- stay submerged for days, if not weeks on end.

The second problem (communications) is solved by the Caelophone. See, Caelium is great and all, but given the difficulty of deploying aircraft in the Maelstrom, we were at a bit of a loss for what to do with it. But then someone pointed out that gravity is an unstoppable force of nature, which travels through air, water, and even solid rock without blinking an eye. What if we could use it to communicate, the way radios use electromagnetism to communicate? This idea led to several physicists in the expeditionary design bureau having mental breakdowns, but we ignored them and gave it a shot.
Turns out that if you alloy Wellbronze with Caelium in the right way, it totally works. We have dubbed the phenomenon 'Gravitational Sound', to the intense frustration of the aforementioned physicists. The Caelophone features a large Vibro-Caelium (the aforementioned Wellbronze/Caelium alloy) dish. This dish creates tiny oscillations in the gravitational field corresponding to an input signal. A second, similarly tuned Vibro-Caelium dish can detect these tiny oscillations, and convert them into a readable output signal.
The Leviathan has been outfitted with a Caelophone Hub, featuring several large Vibro-Caelium dishes. Smaller, simpler Caelophone sets have been produced, featuring two dishes; one receiver and one transmitter. These are slated for distribution amongst the fleet (prioritising squadron leaders, as equipping all ships may not be economical) as well as shore installations, allowing for contact between them and the Leviathan at all times (the Leviathan's Caelophone Hub being able to transmit signals far enough to reach all the seas around Harren, and pick up signals from the same area).


Also, here's the Mutant Rose proposal that most people seem to be on board with:
Quote
Mutant Rose:
In the desert north of Salvios, we discovered the ruins of greenhouses. The Salviosi evidently invested quite a bit of effort into trying to grow something in those dusty wastes. We can't be totally sure what it was that they were growing, but we have a hunch that it may be related to our latest discovery: the Mutant Rose.
The Mutant Rose can be found growing in a few locations throughout Harren, and we're pretty sure it's not a naturally occurring species. In fact, we suspect that its existence does not predate the Harren Calamity. For the Mutant Rose grows in Rime-scarred soil, but only if the average air temperature exceeds 30 degrees celsius. The combination of frozen soil and baking air is not one typically found anywhere in the world prior to the Calamity.
We also suspect that someone would've noticed if these things were growing in the wild somewhere, given the, uh, extremely noticeable effect it has on the local flora and fauna. The Mutant Rose, you see, is aptly named, as it has a tendency to cause rapid mutation in anything it comes in contact with. Wild animals that graze on the Mutant Rose have been observed to double in size in a matter of days, defying everything we thought we knew about biology (when isolated from the Rose, they gradually return to their original size). Not many plants can eke out an existence in the same environs as the Mutant Rose, but those that do display odd traits such as multi-coloured leaves, prehensile vines, and nigh-impenetrable bark.
Some speculate that whatever the Salviosi were growing was hit by a particularly vicious blast of transdimensional warp energy, causing the already unique plant to mutate wildly. This is nonsense, of course- the whole 'transdimensional' aspect of the Harren Calamity is obviously fictional-, but no one has any better explanation.

Whatever the origin, the potential uses are considerable. We have laid the groundwork for the cultivation and harvesting of the Mutant Rose, as well as a method of refining its nectar into a rudimentary medical gel, that causes rapid regeneration when applied to injured areas.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2020, 05:28:18 am by NUKE9.13 »
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Madman198237

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Design Phase, 1940 Cold Season
« Reply #222 on: June 17, 2020, 11:50:12 am »

Quote
"Behemoth" Assault Hovercraft (NE)
The recent discovery of Caelium and Gavrillium has given rise to some rather extreme ideas amongst the design teams. One, in particular, has gotten an unfortunate amount of funding. They've transplanted an 8in gun turret, armor and ammunition handling and barbette included, from a crippled Mukebaza heavy cruiser into a..."tank". The turret, with much-reduced ammunition stores and therefore a shortened barbette, sits on top of an oval-shaped body, the main turret mounted slightly above a set of 6 120mm twin enclosed gun turrets off of Silada destroyers, facing in all directions. Cutouts in the lower faces of each turret and alterations to the elevation gear allow the 120mm and 200mm turrets to depress far enough to hit very close ground targets. Lower down on the body, in sponson-esque mounts, are ASH weapons aimed to sweep the ground near the vehicle to destroy infantry or anything that escaped the notice of the other turrets. Also included are numerous MGs aimed to cover every possibly angle. And one armored viewport on the bottom, that allows the crew to ascertain whether anything has taken shelter underneath them. If anything does, the gravity system is slowly powered down and the annoyances are crushed before operations resume.

The vehicle is powered and moved by a combination of a Gavrillium-based power source, the "Gavreactor", and a form of Caelium that counteracts gravity...and causes the entire vehicle to hover a few feet above the ground. The Gavreactor powers the large amount of Caelium necessary for this, it uses 'Aligned Gavrilium'; Gavrilium that has been heated to melting point, combined with a number of alloying agents, then cast and cooled under the influence of a strong magnetic field. Put simply, when in a magnetic field, Aligned Gavrilium generates heat on one side, and cold on the other (proportional to the strength of the field). How? Don't ask. Which is to say, Aligned Gavrilium does eventually 'deplete', but 'sane' physicists assure us that the process is impossible regardless. Anyway, with rods of Aligned Gavrilium in hand, creating a super-efficient reactor is child's play. One need merely exploit the considerable temperature differential between the two ends of the rods, which in this case we have done by creating a closed-circuit of purified water. The water is turned into super-heated steam on one end, passes through a turbine, and is rapidly cooled into near-freezing water on the other. To modulate the reactor's power, the electromagnets used to generate the magnetic field can be adjusted.

The Caelium system is created by alloying Caelium with some iron that was found in a Well, and then blasting sound at it from some direction. This creates a field of directional gravity around the system, which can be influenced and altered in shape by a adding much smaller units of the system in other locations. This field is capable of almost exactly cancelling out the gravitational effect of the Earth on the ship, and can be altered to provide omnidirectional propulsion or turning power for the vessel, not that it normally needs to turn.

This system allows the Behemoth to hover over any terrain and move at a reasonable speed despite its humongous mass. It will be capable of participating in amphibious assault despite being mostly a land vehicle. Internally it can carry many troops in the space left in the hull underneath the 5" guns, which do not need anywhere near the same vertical space as the 8" triple turret.

The Behemoth is heavily armored, with 150mm of armor on the bottom of the vehicle, splinter protection on every magazine, 200mm of armor on the outward faces, and 80mm of armor on the top. A thin layer of 15mm steel is used as spaced armor. The 200mm triple turret is protected by a 200mm turret face and 150mm turret sides and back and an 80mm armored roof, while the exposed portion of the barbette is armored with 200mm again. The internal portions of the barbette have their armor reduced to splinter protection.

There's only one of them, but the "Behemoth" is a large and powerful device we hope to use to break any defensive line, even those located across the straits from us.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2020, 04:13:01 pm by Madman198237 »
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NUKE9.13

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Design Phase, 1940 Cold Season
« Reply #223 on: June 17, 2020, 01:13:41 pm »

A NE Rose proposal:

Quote
Mutant Rose | Xilmal Jagpal
In the desert north of Salvios, we discovered the ruins of greenhouses. The Salviosi evidently invested quite a bit of effort into trying to grow something in those dusty wastes. We can't be totally sure what it was that they were growing, but we have a hunch that it may be related to a recent discovery: the Mutant Rose.
The Mutant Rose can be found growing in a few locations throughout Harren, and we're pretty sure it's not a naturally occurring species. In fact, we suspect that its existence does not predate the Harren Calamity. For the Mutant Rose grows in Rime-scarred soil, but only if the average air temperature exceeds 30 degrees celsius. The combination of frozen soil and baking air is not one typically found anywhere in the world prior to the Calamity.
We also suspect that someone would've noticed if these things were growing in the wild somewhere, given the, uh, extremely noticeable effect it has on the local flora and fauna. The Mutant Rose, you see, is aptly named, as it has a tendency to cause rapid mutation in anything it comes in contact with. Wild animals that graze on the Mutant Rose have been observed to double in size in a matter of days, defying everything we thought we knew about biology (when isolated from the Rose, they gradually return to their original size). Not many plants can eke out an existence in the same environs as the Mutant Rose, but those that do display odd traits such as multi-coloured leaves, prehensile vines, and nigh-impenetrable bark.
Some speculate that whatever the Salviosi were growing was hit by a particularly vicious blast of transdimensional warp energy, causing the already unique plant to mutate wildly. This is nonsense, of course- the whole 'transdimensional' aspect of the Harren Calamity is obviously fictional-, but no one has any better explanation.

Whatever the origin, the potential uses are considerable. We have laid the groundwork for the cultivation and harvesting of the Mutant Rose (thanks, Malik), but as for applications... well, that's a more interesting story.

Quote
Xilmal Jagpal, female, 26 years old. Sikari commando. Short stature, dark hair, tan skin. Improbably resilient.
Heavily wounded at [REDACTED] Beach. Considered terminal. Assigned to [REDACTED] Programme, case no. 71. Treatment successful.
[REDACTED] observed subject. Mental, physical condition stable.
Recommend continued observation & experimentation.
-[REDACTED] case file.


We can rebuild her. We have the technology.

When medics recovered Xilmal Jagpal, she was almost beyond saving. Lucky her that we were looking for a test subjects to use the newly cultivated Mutant Rose on. She was one of 100 patients to be chosen for the first trials. She was one of 54 to survive them. She was one of 12 to be fully healed. She was one of one to have "optimal biomutative synchronisation".
Which, arguably, was not so lucky, because that meant she was voluntold into our 'supersoldier' program. No expense was spared; she became a testbed for almost every enhancement we could think of. This, of course, required an exorbitant amount of highly purified Mutant Rose nectar, making repeating the process on even a single other soldier almost impossible... but we think it was worth it.

On the outside, Xilmal looks similar to how she did before. Maybe a bit taller, a bit more muscular, and with bright orange irises, but otherwise nothing betrays any notable changes.
It is around the time that she starts juggling 20kg weights with her eyes closed that one might sense something was amiss. Xilmal has been granted a multitude of enhancements. Obviously, she is considerably stronger than a baseline human- twice as strong as a world-class weight-lifter, let's say. She is also faster, easily able to outrun a world-class sprinter. Perhaps more importantly, she also has the stamina and endurance to maintain these feats for hours on end.

Xilmal's senses have also been improved greatly. Especially her eyesight has been bolstered to an incredible- some would say impossible degree. Ophthalmologists inform us that there is simply no way for the human eye to achieve the degree of magnification Xilmal is now capable of. On top of that, her ability to see in low-light conditions is significantly improved, and a translucent secondary eyelid helps prevent sun-blindness; she doesn't even need sunglasses.
Her other senses are also improved, although not to the same degree. Her sense of hearing, touch, even taste and smell- all are at a level higher than humans are normally capable of. Her ears are also hardened to protect against very loud sounds- no burst eardrums for Xilmal, at least not in normal circumstances.
In addition, her reaction speed is considerably improved, allowing her to take action a split second faster than a normal human- and in life or death situations, a split second can be all the time you need.

Her most potent ability, though, is her regeneration. Xilmal's body is capable of almost limitless regeneration, given enough time. Minor lacerations and bruises disappear in seconds; bullet wounds and fractured bones heal in mere minutes; missing limbs and organs regrow over the course of days. Of course, this requires a copious intake of nutrition, but her body will not attempt to regenerate non-vital areas if she is starving.

At this point, Xilmal Jagpal is less a human soldier, and more a force of nature. Fortunately, while she was initially a little annoyed at her lack of options regarding the program, she got over that after realising the almost uniformly beneficial effects (we did make a point to avoid turning her into an inhuman monster). A sixfold increase in salary probably didn't hurt either, nor did the promotion to the unique rank of "Sui Centurio", or "Centurion of herself"- indicating that she ranks equally to a Centurion, but does not have direct command over a Century.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2020, 04:27:37 pm by NUKE9.13 »
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frostgiant

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Re: Mechanized Warfare: Embral Thread / Design Phase, 1940 Cold Season
« Reply #224 on: June 18, 2020, 01:08:07 pm »

Quote
Behemoth Superheavy SPG

The Behemoth is the first attempt to Take the resources recently gained from our assault on the suspiciously empty pact facilities and create a piece of working, Homegrown Embralian war vehicle.
Designed to provide an overwhelming concentration of Artillery fire, the Behemoth mounts very little armour, instead of trading the weight loss to carry even more armaments.

If one were to focus on the armaments of the behemoth, it's likely that one would see little more then a Warship capable of traversing the land and sea both. Mounting 6 200mm Naval guns configured in triple mounted turrets and a number of havezara based howitzers, The behemoths gun load is more than capable of dropping a regiment worth of armaments on a position by its lonesome and tainting the air of an entire front due to the sheer amount of LIE munitions it can drop on target.
 
Due to the sheer range of the munitions and its purpose as a Superheavy SPG, The Behemoth is designed to engage the enemies far outside of their ability to retaliate without the use of artillery, in which case its own mobility due to its hovering propulsion will safely take it far outside of range before any form of coherent retaliation or counter bombardment can be mounted.

 While its number of guns is impressive, the true revolutionary developments behind the newest superweapon of the embral expedition lie in the Hover propulsion based on the recovered cealium and the Reactor created from the Gavriulium. Without these advancements, The Behemoth would be unable to truly exist, crumbling under its own weight as its sheer armament becomes its undoing.

The developement of a system that could utilize the newly recovered crystalline substance that is cealium was a nightmare, with the substance defying every expectation they had from the previous notes they had recovered from the pact facility and the recently stolen "SMG". In the end, a breakthrough came in the form of an evolutionary cousin to the well shrub, with a rather unique property.
The Well-eater tree is interesting, but an ultimately useless offshoot of the Well -shrub, related in its growth but many times lower, working in weeks instead of minutes like its Shrubby cousin.  The interesting part of the Well-eater was that as it grew the tree would regularly Incorporate the materials of its environment into its trunk. With enough stone dust or Metal in its surroundings, The tree could create itself a rather burn-proof and metallic shell. The problem with such as thing of course being that such wood would be rather weak even still compared to metal and many times harder to grow.
All in all, The well-eater tree was an interesting footnote in Well ecosystems.
With the advent of Celaium however, a new use was found for this relatively fast-growing tree. Fed a diet of Cealium powder and Silver dust, the Well-eaters roots and trunk were grown around the skeleton of the Behemoth, creating Roots throughout the whole superstructure. When supplied with electricity, These roots Begin to Change the center of Gravity throughout the Behemoth, Lifting the Superstructure of the Behemoth off of the ground.
Through careful planning, the end result is a System of Roots that when supplied with electricity create Gravity wells around the ends of the roots and lifting their surrounding, So heavily intertwined with the superstructure, this allows the behemoth to Hover off of the ground as long as power is supplied. The massive SPG is steered through application of electrical power, Creating Gravity wells around the ship in order to pull the Craft along. They can also be done in order to Stabilize the craft when firing, countering the kickback of its massive array of long guns with calculated applications of Micro formed gravity wells.

However, This Glutonous mass of Gravity Roots and plantlife requires a large amount of electricity, more then we could easily produce before we laid claim to the Gavriullium within the Pact compound. The Behemoth, Mass of living Wood and Metal that it is
requires a rather powerful heart to keep itself "Alive". This heart comes in the form of a Gavrillium engine named the "Gavreactor".
 The Gavreactor powers a large number of systems inside of the behemoth, primarily the "Cealium-Eater Roots" as some of teh crewmen have taken to calling them, it uses 'Aligned Gavrilium'; Gavrilium that has been heated to the melting point, combined with a number of alloying agents, then further cast and cooled under the influence of a strong magnetic field. Put simply, when in a magnetic field, Aligned Gavrilium generates heat on one side, and cold on the other, This temperature flux is proportional to the strength of the field. How? Don't ask, many Embral engineers gave up after the first few weeks and began to heavily self-medicate with strong drinks.
 Aligned Gavrilium is not Infinite, and does eventually 'deplete', but what few 'sane' physicists were not in the medical bay from liver failure assure us that the process is impossible regardless. Either way, with rods of Aligned Gavrilium in hand, creating a super-efficient reactor is child's play, provided one does not look at the sheer amount of alcohol imbued during said construction.
One need merely exploit the considerable temperature differential between the two ends of the rods, which in this case we have done by creating a closed-circuit of purified water. The water is turned into super-heated steam on one end, passes through a turbine, and is rapidly cooled into near-freezing water on the other. To modulate the reactor's power, the electromagnets used to generate the magnetic field can be adjusted. The rapidly expanding steam Spins the turbine even as it is then supercooled, creating large amounts of power for effectively very little input or output.

The Sheer amounts of electricity produced allow the behemoth to feed the power-hungry Well-roots making the whole vehicle work.
The hull of the behemoth is shaped from a large Oval-Esque hull carrying the main bulk of the systems, guns, ammunition, and crew and 8 "Legs" These legs extend out from the hull, and serve primarily as Stabilizers and Propulsion, Creating Gravity wells Above and below as necessary to maneuver the Behemoth over obstacles.

Due to the legs extending from the main body, The behemoth can create more powerful gravity wels at these points (Due to higher concentrations of roots) without putting the Crew in danger from the effects of gravity.
On your average Combat vehicle, These "Legs" would be an unacceptable structural weakness, Providing thin targets that can be targeted and destroyed with relative ease. However, due to its role as a long-range SPG and the sheer distance from its targets, the danger is considered a minimum, and the effective increase in Maneuvering, Crew safety, and Firing stability is considered worth it.
When the Behemoth is forced to land, for maintenance, refueling or repair. These 8 legs serve to prevent the oval body from tipping over, Providing a wide footprint to keep it safe and balanced.
With its Gavreactor heart, Gravity well Legs, and biological components entwined around the skeletal superstructure, one could compare the Behemoth to a massive Gun-toting beast and be almost correct. Concentrating the sheer firepower of an artillery regiment into one vehicle, and granting t the capability to hiver of near every environment in the world and even the ocean itself, the behemoth is capable of shelling it enemies anywhere they might go, and leave before any hope of coherent retaliation can be mustered.
 
« Last Edit: June 18, 2020, 01:11:53 pm by frostgiant »
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