open space, unarmored, flattened to nearly nothing and so nearly transparent as to be invisible. Apparently, they’d also dragged their weapons behind them. They aimed these from extended pseudopods and fired at the underside of the Ratha, at her close-defense turrets and even at her side armor. Pain exploded across Magnolia’s mind, as well as fury at being so easily deceived. Her screens flickered and went out. An ion bolt from a Slug Xiphos struck near her gun mantlet, shearing off a piece of her main armament. Soon her armor began to boil off in silvery clouds of superheated metal steam.
There were four Slug Phasganon, eleven Xiphoi, and many, many infantry on sleds, that managed to get close enough to matter. The Ratha couldn’t tell, not after losing so many sensors to the blasts, how many infantry were attacking. Only her analysis of the amount of communications traffic enabled her to determine even a rough estimate of the numbers of her enemies. Then, too, the agony of losing so many sensors and appendages made it very difficult to use what little information she could glean.
Two heavies exposed themselves to draw her fire. She fired the damaged ion cannon but missed both.
A third crept to within six hundred meters of her and fired into her side. She shuddered with the agony, her light under-armor being no match for its main armament at that range.
The light ablative plates burned away first, exposing pain receptors. These too died, yet such was her design that behind these were other receptors, and behind those still others. Each layered set felt what the exterior set would have felt had it not been destroyed… in addition to its own. The Ratha screamed, silently.
After burning through the lightly armored lower exterior, the bolt struck the inner belt of her core envelope’s armor. Here it fragmented, two beams burning through to her control center, her brain, while a half-dozen more were scattered around her inner compartments. New pain sensors flared. Her brain was damaged badly, in two distinct places. Interior gears melted.
Writhing in torment, the Ratha shuddered and rolled, her left and right sides smashing the ground in quick succession, completely without control. The turret mechanisms, overcome by pain impulses beyond her ability to endure or override any longer, caused the turret to spin wildly through more than two complete rotations. This further ruined the gears responsible for moving the turret.
A Xiphos closed for what might have been intended to be a mercy shot. But a Ratha accepts no mercy from the enemy. Nor does it surrender to fate short of its complete destruction. Magnolia engaged her back-up turret controls and aimed. The Slug paused as if it was uncertain. Enraged, the Ratha fired first. A single Xiphos, at that range, was no match for even a badly damaged Ratha. It died.
Agonized, the Ratha Magnolia, once beloved of her human escorts, lost consciousness as the last of her power drained from her huge metal corpse with a pitiful whine. The remnants of her giant cannon drooped as she fell to rest on the valley’s sandy floor.
Excursus
From:
Imperial Suns: The March of Mankind Through the Orion Arm
, copyright © CE 2936, Thaddeus Nnaji-Olokomo, University of Wooloomooloo Press, Digger City, Wolloomooloo, al-Raqis.
After many failed models of multi-turreted tanks, in human military history, from the British A1E1 to the French FCM F1 to the Russian T-28, T-35, and SMK, the sentiment was strong against adding secondary turrets to the early Rathas. The reasons for the earlier failures were various, but there was a certain pattern to them. One was that in order to fit extra turrets, a design had to be bigger. This increased weight even as it reduced both mobility and armor protection. A second was that it was nearly impossible for a tank commander to control more than his main turret and driver. A third, but less well understood problem was that mounting a secondary
There were four Slug Phasganon, eleven Xiphoi, and many, many infantry on sleds, that managed to get close enough to matter. The Ratha couldn’t tell, not after losing so many sensors to the blasts, how many infantry were attacking. Only her analysis of the amount of communications traffic enabled her to determine even a rough estimate of the numbers of her enemies. Then, too, the agony of losing so many sensors and appendages made it very difficult to use what little information she could glean.
Two heavies exposed themselves to draw her fire. She fired the damaged ion cannon but missed both.
A third crept to within six hundred meters of her and fired into her side. She shuddered with the agony, her light under-armor being no match for its main armament at that range.
The light ablative plates burned away first, exposing pain receptors. These too died, yet such was her design that behind these were other receptors, and behind those still others. Each layered set felt what the exterior set would have felt had it not been destroyed… in addition to its own. The Ratha screamed, silently.
After burning through the lightly armored lower exterior, the bolt struck the inner belt of her core envelope’s armor. Here it fragmented, two beams burning through to her control center, her brain, while a half-dozen more were scattered around her inner compartments. New pain sensors flared. Her brain was damaged badly, in two distinct places. Interior gears melted.
Writhing in torment, the Ratha shuddered and rolled, her left and right sides smashing the ground in quick succession, completely without control. The turret mechanisms, overcome by pain impulses beyond her ability to endure or override any longer, caused the turret to spin wildly through more than two complete rotations. This further ruined the gears responsible for moving the turret.
A Xiphos closed for what might have been intended to be a mercy shot. But a Ratha accepts no mercy from the enemy. Nor does it surrender to fate short of its complete destruction. Magnolia engaged her back-up turret controls and aimed. The Slug paused as if it was uncertain. Enraged, the Ratha fired first. A single Xiphos, at that range, was no match for even a badly damaged Ratha. It died.
Agonized, the Ratha Magnolia, once beloved of her human escorts, lost consciousness as the last of her power drained from her huge metal corpse with a pitiful whine. The remnants of her giant cannon drooped as she fell to rest on the valley’s sandy floor.
Excursus
From:
Imperial Suns: The March of Mankind Through the Orion Arm
, copyright © CE 2936, Thaddeus Nnaji-Olokomo, University of Wooloomooloo Press, Digger City, Wolloomooloo, al-Raqis.
After many failed models of multi-turreted tanks, in human military history, from the British A1E1 to the French FCM F1 to the Russian T-28, T-35, and SMK, the sentiment was strong against adding secondary turrets to the early Rathas. The reasons for the earlier failures were various, but there was a certain pattern to them. One was that in order to fit extra turrets, a design had to be bigger. This increased weight even as it reduced both mobility and armor protection. A second was that it was nearly impossible for a tank commander to control more than his main turret and driver. A third, but less well understood problem was that mounting a secondary
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