Big Boys Don't Cry Read Free

keep these theoretical forces supplied. We didn’t have a sufficient fuel infrastructure on most of the planets we held, and none at all on the enemy-held planets. It may be hard to imagine now, but back in the day, nuclear power actually had a bad reputation that was not entirely undeserved.
    Yet nuclear it had to be. Antimatter was simply too dangerous inside a combat vehicle. It drove up the internal cube, expanded the size of the envelope that had to be armoured, and increased the weight, which, until a point of equilibrium was reached, likewise drove up the power requirements.
    Then there was the question of tracked versus the recently developed antigravity technology, itself an offshoot of the development of artificial gravity needed to preserve Man's health aboard spacefaring craft. The five options were: tracked, anti-gravity, both but with emphasis on tracked and an anti-gravity assist to reduce ground pressure, both but with an emphasis on anti-gravity and tracks for steering, and a balanced approach incorporating both.
    Different models and prototypes were built incorporating every version of those but for the last, before settling on an antigravity-based propulsion and suspension system. The reason for that choice was fourfold. First, the force of gravity repelled could be twisted and turned into a much more intense—albeit not black hole levels of intense—band of hyper-gravity all about the vehicle, which added substantially to its defence, by turning or dispersing incoming threats. Second, it was, in effect, free motive power once one had paid the energy cost of redirecting the force of gravity. Third was the ease of maintenance; anti-gravity was much easier to keep going in an undeveloped planetary theater. Fourth, it was a splendid way, once some kinks had been worked out, of dealing with recoil, for those Rathas that used kinetic energy for their main armament projectiles in the case of the early versions, or the particle beams and ion cannons used by current models.

CHAPTER THREE
    Fratricide was not an overriding concern to the Slugs. It mattered not to them if their enemy’s screens directed their beams of charged particles up or to the sides to gouge great spewing geysers of granite from the rock face. It didn’t matter, either, when the rock was mixed in with chunks of plasma cannon, or bits and pieces of recently deceased Slugs. The superheated spouts of fractured, molten rock poured down onto the ground, and on to the Ratha hovering a few feet above it, without doing much harm to either.
    Even so, the Ratha’s gravity-fed screens could only handle so much…
     
 
    Magnolia
     
    I am safe enough from the plasma cannon behind me; they cannot depress enough to fire at my less well-armored top deck, while my rearward anti-personnel/anti-flyer turrets are sufficient to keep any infantry which may be with them off me. I wish I could have the same confidence in my ability to handle the scores of Slug armored vehicles, and hundreds, possibly thousands, of infantry units pouring into the valley to my front.
    I call them “infantry,” but in fact they move on anti-gravity sleds rather than legs. This is presumably a consequence of the fact that they don’t actually have legs, hence their name. Still, they are armored about as well as my long-lost footmen, and they carry weapons of similar power. They are slightly faster than human infantry but they are not as maneuverable and they present bigger targets. I will make them pay for those weaknesses.
     
 
    The Ratha’s turret swiveled imperceptibly, keeping her ion cannon focused on the spot where the Slug turret met the top deck. The Slug kept on coming until the shimmering distortion that marked its anti-grav-fed shield flashed and died. Its prow, no longer supported by the ion-fried anti-gravity generators, plowed into the dirt below. This not only slowed the enemy vehicle, it exposed its thinly armored top deck, since the rear anti-grav kept the