A/N: This chapter is dedicated to the scale and mass of units in Supreme Commander. You are very welcome to skip this "chapter" entirely. The real plot doesn't start until the next chapter where there will be an interesting meeting.
THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS "CHAPTER" IS FOR REFERENCE, FOR FUTURE OCCASIONS WHERE HINATA CALLS IN THE "I WIN" BUTTON (having friends from distant worlds is very helpful). I NEED TO HAVE A CATALOGUE OF UNIT SIZES. This will also be useful for other SupCom (e.g. mostly crack due to the fact that there's some fandoms with galaxy-destroying tech level, and under that… the tech gap to the next sci-fi is a yawning abyss that has SupCom as one of the few fandoms in it) fics I shall write.
Anyone who thinks it's ridiculous that a 6000-damage shot is by my estimation equivalent to 40 kilotons TNT directed yield (so more overall) should note that it only takes 4 hits to reduce 32000 tons of whatever materials the Monkeylord is made of into pieces too small to reclaim effectively… and the smallest thing that can be reclaimed in the game is a 2-ton tree. So it has to be shredded into way more than 16000 fragments (due to uneven fragmenting) from hits to the outside of the structure, with only 4 blasts. That takes… a LOT of energy.
Chapter 4: Coalition Standard Unit Catalogue, 3849 Edition
Subtitle: Rebalanced Since the End of the Seraphim War
Roanoke Abyss, October 31, 3849 AD
"I'd like to remind the men that they're very welcome to NOT watch us as we go about showing off the Coalition military." Hannah said into the speakers before getting started, knowing full well that the guys were almost certainly watching. Damned sadists wanted to watch the… well, country bumpkin wasn't a word Hannah would use on any official document, but Hinata's reactions were almost certainly something the men were looking forward to. Alternatively, they were waiting for her to test out the existence of a deity, narrator, or universal consciousness by leaning on the fourth wall… Hannah shuffled the errant thought away due to absurdity.
"Sorry, Hannah, I was just sitting around bored and decided to spectate…" Xavier Fran told his wife before he shifted his attention elsewhere… or pretended to.
"Well, Hinata, here we go, starting at the Tier 1 land units… Seth, Hackett, you ready?"
"Fran has control over all the units, because you don't want us to focus too much on spectating." Hackett replied, a hint of trolling in his tone. Seth just sent a short video of him doing the Seraphim counterpart to whistling while twiddling his thumbs.
"I swear, the moment we go off-duty and aren't in a combat situation all the men turn into giant goofballs." Hannah grumbled, grinning at the end as her translator conveyed the point to Hinata.
The girl was too busy staring up at the four units that had appeared practically out of thin air in front of them "They are big."
Hannah shrugged, since these Tier 1 units were puny from an ACU pilot's perspective… though not from the ground, of course. "I suppose so. These are the Tier 1 Land Scouts, the UEF Snoop is there, with the larger front wheel pulling the vehicle forward, with steering done by the back two wheels, which look like one from the side but due to axle positioning is really not. The turret mounts a Tomcat Machine Gun which can fire every two seconds. Length 15 meters, width 6 meters, height 7 meters to the apex, all approximate numbers. The mass is twenty-four tons. The blocky grey is standard for UEF construction, the blue shade depends on the particular pilot and is an identifier as to whose command it is under. Sometimes UEF commanders aren't any shade of blue at all, but that is unusual." The 3D rendering used when zooming in on an ACU interface didn't accurately reflect the way the vehicle turned, because the models used would be impossible to turn if the rear wheels were that tightly hemmed in by the hull. Nobody had bothered to fix them because the Tier 1 land scouts were early-battle units to be quickly replaced by better options.
"This next one is the Cybran Mole, which has a cloak but is unarmed, so it can sneak around if the enemy doesn't have radar in the area, but dies in seconds once found. It is much more fragile than the others." Ariel introduced as they walked over to the next machine, a six-legged thing with a revolving somewhat triangular piece raised above the hull at the back. "The dark colours are common for Cybran units, and the red parts depend on the commander's colours. Length-width-height, henceforth abbreviated as LWH, are 8-12-5 in meters, mass 16 tons."
"The Aeon Spirit is armed equivalently to the UEF model, is more fragile, but hovers, so it can cross bodies of water. LWH is 10-11-4, mass 16 tons" Hannah put in.
"This last one is the Seraphim Selen-2 Combat Scout, unlike the other factions the Seraphim do not use a dedicated Light Assault Bot, but the variant used by the Separatists has been improved from the original Imperium model. The torso can now traverse freely as the leg arrangement has been changed. This is the only tier 1 unit that has both cloaking and stealth, and thus requires an Omni sensor to find it, but it only has it when it is stationary and not firing, which means ramming it into moving to maintain its balance is a tactic to clear one set to "reactive" or "passive" off of mass deposits. However, that often costs valuable time and attention in the early phase of a battle, when engineers are often moved about without any of the later escorts that will auto-fire through the space above a mass 'deposit' so to speak if the engineer finds it cannot build on it. The yellow parts are colours for the particular commander's colours. LWH is 8-5-16, mass 40 tons" Ariel finished up as they walked past that unit, before turning to proceed past the row of units, which shimmered momentarily before active camouflage hid them again.
"We should alternate by unit type, less competitive." Hannah observed.
"Very well, Hannah, you can have this group then?"
"No problem. I expect you will be able to remember all the units' roles and general abilities, Hinata, given your child soldier training most likely included espionage?" The girl nodded, and Hannah smiled before three units de-cloaked in front of them "This next category are the Light Assault Bots, they are the only units able to fire while loaded onto a transport, but on these 'ghetto gunships' as we call them they will be blown apart by splash damage unless the transport has shields. They easily surpass the Selen-2 in terms of combat effectiveness, but lack any other special abilities. We have the Mech Marine with weapons on both arms and LWH 4-8-9, the Hunter with a particle gun and LWH 10-4-12, and the Flare with a sonic weapon and LWH 10-4-9. The factions they belong to should be visible enough. They are all 70 tons in mass, with the Mech Marine being the most durable, the Hunter having the best burst firepower, and the Flare being the only one with splash damage. They are very fast units."
"Aurora Light Tank, LWH 21-18-8, 104 tons. My faction's standard Tier 1 attack unit is unfortunately much more fragile than the others, but it has a longer range and hovers, so it can cross water for surprise attacks." Ariel said as they went to the next row. "I'm not going to point out which of the others is which, so guess the factions by the name and descriptions if you can. You can ask us to clarify which unit is which name at any point you wish, but I think this will make it less boring and slightly less of a 'mine is bigger than yours' show-off session."
"Thank you for your consideration, Ariel-sama." Hinata smiled. It was true that she was feeling overwhelmingly small and insignificant, but it was also true that there was no better way of convincing someone that being friends had benefits than a show of strength… These women weren't being arrogant about things, and were being very open and upfront with her. It would be bring great shame and grave dishonour upon the Hyuuga family… no, upon herself, should she be any less than fully receptive. Thus she couldn't let her legs buckle under her at these looming vehicles standing or hovering before them, even though intellectually she knew that these were nothing compared to the "Galactic Colossus" she'd been shown earlier.
"Hinata, if these start seeming a bit too big we can do this from a command interface instead of on the ground… though Ariel and I could both use the reminder as to the machines we work with every day. You can lean on my shoulder if you need to. The last time we did a tour like this, from a world advanced enough to produce units taller than Armored Command Units, one of the girls was too headstrong to take support when it was offered and ended up fainting onto her friend. It was very awkward. There is no shame in weakness of whatever type. There is only shame in never trying anything to fix or bypass the weakness." Hannah was thinking of a certain Asuka Langley Soryu…
"Thank you too for your consideration, Hannah-sama." Hinata took the black-armoured woman's arm to steady herself, and Hannah nodded to Ariel to continue.
"There are three medium tanks, or an assault bot taking the role and thus icon of a tank. The Thaam has LWH 25-15-10, the MA12 Striker has LWH 17-11-9, and the Mantis has LWH 18-16-14. I suspect the identities are very, very obvious with those dimensions stated." Ariel grinned, and Hinata smiled weakly back. "The Mantis has the unique ability to repair other units or assist in construction, though it is incapable of reclaiming wreckage or environmental objects to obtain mass for construction due to its limited engineering system. It has the same 104 tons as the Aurora, while the Thaam is 108 tons and the Striker 112 tons. The Striker is the most durable and the Mantis the least, so the three are functionally equivalent units."
Hannah took over as they walked between the middle two of the Tier 1 tanks, the vehicles deploying active camouflage as they passed and the next set dropping theirs to become visible. "The four Tier 1 Mobile Anti-Air Guns are also mostly equivalent. There is the Thistle at LWH 19-17-10, the Sky Slammer at 11-8-5, the Archer at 13-8-8, and the Ia-istle 12-10-11, they are all 56 tons. The Sky Slammer is vastly more fragile than the others, but have guided missiles which auto-switch to fire at ground targets as unguided rockets if there are no air targets available, and the Ia-Istle is the slowest by far."
The next row had Hinata wondering where the outrider armor plats the Aurora and Thistle seemed to have had gone for this Aeon design "These are the Tier 1 Mobile Light Artillery units. The Fervor has LWH 16-8-6, the Zthuee has 24-11-5, the Medusa has 12-9-10 and the Lobo has 20-7-8. The Lobo is second fastest after the Medusa, has the longest reload time, but provides some visual coverage of the area it hits with its shell, which splits into five sub-munitions to hit an area. The Medusa has a good splash damage radius and stuns enemies by scrambling their structural fields in a way that forces them to stop moving or firing. Against anything without a structural field, the electromagnetic pulse effect can be quite devastating. The Fervor has the most damage per second, because its munitions, while having a puny splash radius, deal the most damage per shot. The Zthuee combines the splitting shell of the Lobo with a high rate of fire, and it hovers. However the Medusa is the most costly at 96 tons, as the others cost only 72 tons. These correlate fairly well to how useful they are later on in a battle, as Medusas can stun even Experimentals."
"That's it for the Tier 1 land units, Hinata. Any questions?" Hannah asked as they watched the units vanish from view again.
"Um, why are the Seraphim units all asymmetric?"
Hannah shrugged "Seth claimed it was aesthetic choice when we asked him, and the fact that they're advanced enough they can get away with it. The human factions don't do it because we find symmetry more pleasing to the eye. I'm a little surprised though that all the Tier 2 heavy tanks are lumped together in this presentation when it's really obvious they fall in two separate classes. The Rhino has LWH 23-16-8, with its dual lasers being excellent for slaughtering Tier 1 units and generally avoiding overkill. The Pillar is considerably sturdier, though with less damage per second, and has LWH 25-13-11. Both of these are 396 tons in mass and considered equivalent units since the Pillar has a good shell arc that allows it to shoot over obstacles better. The Aeon and Seraphim units are much more powerful and expensive. The Obsidian has LWH 24-22-11, and the Ilshavoh has 20-20-26. They are both 720 tons, the Obsidian is superior in single combat between the two, but most of its durability comes from a personal shield generator and it has inferior range to the Rhino and Pillar. The Ilshavoh has the edge against massed Tier 1 or 2 units, because it avoids the overkill of the Obsidian's high shot damage but low rate of fire, and has slightly better range than the Rhino and Pillar. While it is technically a bot, a walker, the icon it uses is that of a tank, which indicates its role quite well in my opinion."
Ariel continued with a pair of units staged a bit back from the main-line units. "The alternative direct-fire units for the UEF and Cybrans for Tier 2 are the Mongoose, with LWH 19-18-22, while the Hoplite has 30-28-22. Both are 400 tons, have less health than their faction's heavy tank, but outrange the tanks. The Hoplite has the longer range of the two, but is inferior in closer-range combat due to the Mongoose's secondary weapon and superior health. The Hoplite only takes up one transport clamp on an air transport, like a Tier 1 unit, because of how its legs can fold under the body when being transported.
Hannah took over for the next row, which popped into view as they approached "The Tier 2 Amphibious Tanks for the UEF and Cybrans are their most powerful Tier 2 units, though still weaker than the Obsidian or Ilshavoh on a cost-for-cost basis. For the Blaze at LWH 29-18-8 and Yenzyne at 22-14-11, this is not the case. The Blaze and Yenzyne are 440 tons apiece, while the Wagner at LWH 17-14-6 and the Riptide at 20-15-7 are 594 tons each. Only the Wagner does not hover, which allows for sneak attacks across bodies of water covered by radar but not what we call 'sonar'… though it really is a very different technology from the historical tech using that name. Of the hovering ones only the Yenzyne has a non-fixed weapon, but that doesn't matter due to how good hover control in our technology is."
A/N: I'm using the costs from my torrented version of FA instead of what the wiki says because the wiki and whatever the new balance is seem quite unreasonable on making the Riptide massively more expensive than the Wagner while being basically the same effectiveness. The Wagner is vulnerable to torpedoes, sure, but the Riptide is easy meat for gunships!
"Um, why is the Yenzyne's turret not visibly attached to the hull?" Hinata pointed at the one whose name was clearly not human-given given it was translated by Hannah's translator as just the sounds instead of actual words. She'd identified it through not just the dimensions but also by the glaringly obvious aesthetics.
"The Seraphim can get away with doing that technologically, and it allows some shots fired at it, due to the inherent uncertainty in sensors thanks to active camouflage and passive stealth, to miss through the gaps in the unit, which is beneficial to survival." Ariel explained as it was her turn, then continued with "Next up, the Tech 2 Mobile Flak units, the Iashavoh is 22-19-20 in Length, Width and Height, Banger is 21-16-14, Ascendant is 19-19-7, and the Sky Boxer is 21-13-9. The Iashavoh and Ascendant hover, while the Sky Boxer has guns that face the rear by default and is the slowest of the four. All of them cost 320 tons, or 160 units of Mass. As you've probably figured out with our earlier slips regarding cost in mass, our technology level allows us to transform matter and use it to create things freely."
"Ariel, that's too rude a shock to drop on the poor girl!" Hannah chastised, seeing Hinata had zoned out with the possibilities. The two waited for the guest to recover enough to nod at their looks, then continued. She was still mute with shock as Hannah showed her the next row of units. "The Tier 2 Tactical Missile Launchers are the Evensong at 25-15-11 LWH, Viper at 21-16-14, Flapjack at 27-12-13, and the Ythisah at 29-20-20. All are 400 tons, but Cybran tactical missiles split into 3 sub-missiles when hit by tactical missile defences that are not Aeon flares, and so still do damage, which makes them superior by far."
Ariel continued with "Then there are the Tier 2 protective units, the Parashield has LWH of 18-18-14 and costs 240 tons. It is itself much studier but has a weaker shield than the Asylum, which has LWH of 20-20-11 when active and costs 288 tons. The Asylum hovers, but the frailty means that crashing air units can maim or destroy it outright with relative ease, which makes them equivalent units. There is no Tier 2 mobile anti-tactical missile option among the standard land unit roster, though they do exist on ships, which we will cover later. The Seraphim do not field a mobile shield generator until Tier 3, while the Cybran Nation are without mobile shields on the standard roster. Instead, the Cybrans get a Mobile Stealth Generator, the Deceiver, which has LWH of 14-11-12 and hide units within a sizable radius from radar detection for much less energy than the shield generators. The stealth even stays active when attaching to a transport, unlike mobile shield generators. However, this stealth is useless against the Omni sensors everyone builds later on in the course of battles."
Hannah took up the next two units as they appeared "There are two Tier 2 units that don't fit within those categories. This is the Sparky Tech 2 Field Engineer, which has the same engineering speed as a normal Tech 2 engineer, but is limited to a few Tier 1 and 2 schematics. It has more health than a normal Tier 2 engineer, but less than a Tier 3 engineer, an onboard radar with a lower radius than a Tier 1 Land Scout, radar jammer, and a weapon that can be relied upon to take out Tier 1 units. Its dimensions are 17-12-13, costing 450 tons. The other unique unit is the Fire Beetle Mobile Bomb, with dimensions 13-15-8 and cost 600 tons. This suicide weapon also only takes up one transport slot on an air transport. Recent improvements since the Seraphim War have resulted in the blast not affecting allied units unless it is an uncontrolled detonation from unit death, and even that is reduced. However we had to sacrifice a lot of explosive power for that. Fortunately it restored it to its old durability."
Currently, the Fire Beetle did 1200 rating points of damage, had 750 HP, and did not affect allies unless it was a death explosion. Even then only a quarter of the standard blast would affect nearby targets, down to a tenth for allies, due to safety measures despite the uncontrolled detonation. Sure, chain reactions among a mob of charging Fire Beetles was still possible, but at least it wasn't the near-uselessness the unit had upon introduction in the Seraphim War era that resulted in the unit almost never being used until it was made dangerously volatile and powerful. A 3000 damage bomb on a 300-HP platform was insane…
A/N: 300 HP and 3000 damage without affecting allies makes it ridiculously luck-dependent and thus anti-skill. The original Fire Beetle did 1200, affecting allies, and had 750 HP, which was underpowered and absurd (e.g. you can't mass them as there was no death explosion), but at least required lots of skill to use instead of relying on luck with enemy point defence picking the wrong targets, something that 3800s-era turrets would not do.
Ariel cleared her throat "And now we come to the Tier 3 units, the highest tier aside from so-called "Experimental" units, which are not actually experimental at all, but instead just really powerful and expensive. These Tier 3 units are the most common in massed assaults. The Titan has LWH 28-25-26, though the personal surface shield stands about two meters off each surface, overlapping with the ground below and allowing it to pass unimpeded, but stopping actual projectiles and such from passing." The UEF had learnt that lesson early in the Infinite War when their personal surface shields were bypassed by mines. Sensor technology later increased to the point of making anything that could both stealth and cloak too large to work as a mine without being exceedingly obvious with the pile of dirt it dug up or compacted to make room, but shields of both the surface and bubble varieties continued to extend underground, or underwater in the case of the Bulwark. "Hannah, do you want to talk about the doctrines and your favourite unit?"
"Thank you, Ariel. The Loyalist has LWH 36-24-33, and both cost 960 tons. These two Siege Assault Bots" The Titan had been renamed back to that after the Seraphim War "are critical units in any Tier 3 army. The Titan has a regenerating personal surface shield, giving it more toughness than the Loyalist, but the Loyalist has an EMP death weapon that stuns nearby enemies upon its destruction, and also a tactical missile redirector device that makes it very dangerous against tactical missile launching units without adequate tactical missile defence." There were a few specialized designs and modifications of other units that also built the redirector in. However, due to the standard Coalition anti-ground weapons being usually unguided rockets due to various built-in anti-targeting systems, only the Loyalist had it in the standard Cybran unit roster. On the other hand, both a variant of the Zapper tactical missile defence (TMD) and the short-ranged Redirector TMD Module now had fairly good popularity as factory upgrade options for Cybran factories.
Ah yes, for those unaware, Coalition factories now had upgrade modules and options available to them, depending on factory tier. This often included turning it into a firebase all within one building. Also, there was news about work on an over-shield system that could be fitted to every single unit in the Coalition arsenal, with effectiveness scaling by cost invested, which would be set at the discretion of the particular commanders. The over-shield would be surface or bubble depending on what the unit didn't already have, if it had anything, and would not be cost-effective compared to standard shield generators, mainly existing to provide an additional regenerating pool of health in battle. The veterancy system had also changed since the Seraphim War, since structural field optimization wasn't nearly as easy or independent as it used to be now that things had settled down and the researchers improved their coding.
Ariel continued the briefing as they passed between the two towering walkers and two other units, one an even taller walker and the other a ground-hugging vehicle, came into view. "The Aeon and Seraphim have a single Tier 3 front-line unit each, and they are equivalent units, heavier than the Siege Assault Bots but lighter than the Armored Assault Bots, with intermediate speeds between the two types. The Harbinger Mark IV Heavy Assault Bot has LWH 24-24-38, and projects a shield bubble only large enough to cover itself and any unit that might be short enough to go under it." Technically the current model of Harbinger was an improved variant of the Mk 4, but, well… if they wanted to number all the modifications to the units over time specifically in everyday naming, the current Loyalist would be in the hundreds in model number "Hannah, I think you should cover the doctrines again."
"Sure, but I still get to introduce the Armoured Assault Bots!" Ariel nodded, so the black-haired woman pointed out something very obvious "It has a single weapon on top, with full traverse, which gives it an advantage in flanking battle against the Othuum Siege Tank, since the Seraphim unit cannot bring both of its main DPS weapons, the Aire-au Bolters, into play at the same time on the broadsides. The Harbinger is considerably faster than the Othuum, but is not amphibious unless you want to be instantly detected from across the operational area, because it lacks amphibious passive stealth capability, unlike the Othuum with LWH 43-29-15. Both cost 1680 tons. The Seraphim Siege Tank is almost as slow as the Armored Assault Bots, but is considered the most cost-effective direct-fire Tier 3 land unit in the Coalition arsenal. The only problem is that it is both slower and shorter-ranged than the Harbinger Mk IV, so it can be kited if the Seraphim commander isn't attentive enough. The Seraphim also lack a fast pursuit land unit to chase down fleeing enemies, unlike the UEF or Cybran Siege Assault Bots being available to run down anything that flees a wall of advancing Armoured Assault Bots and Experimentals. Both units are amphibious, though the Harbinger was only made so after the Seraphim War."
It took them a few moments to walk past the length of the Siege Tank parked beside them "The Brick and Percival are the two Armoured Assault Bots, with the Brick more suited to dealing with masses of weaker units and the Percival more suited to sniping tough targets. The Brick has LWH 29-28-50 to the top of the antennae, 29-28-45 otherwise with the antennae folded for transport, while the Percival has LWH of 36-25-40. Both cost 2560 tons, and it is due to gravitational mitigation that they don't sink into the ground when moving." Hannah passed the torch to the brunette as they went to the next row, this time with four units appearing in it before Hinata's eyes.
"These are the Tier 3 Heavy Mobile Artillery units, all in idle posture without their guns raised, with none of them deployed to fire." Ariel said "The Trebuchet has LWH 37-25-13, the Suthanus 36-27-20, the Serenity 41-29-12, and the Demolisher 33-19-15. All four cost 1600 tons. The Demolisher has the best damage per second by a small margin, while the Suthanus sacrifices a little alpha damage and a lot of accuracy for a bigger area of effect. The Trebuchet has the best splash damage by far and high rate of fire, but lowest single-shot damage. Its splash properties make it the best at breaking through layered shields by the damage affecting any shield with line of sight to the impact point, despite not going through to underlying layers. Its rate of fire means it can fire again and wreck the shield emitter before the shields reboot. The Serenity is the only one that can fire on the move without taking a second or two to deploy, and has by far the best single-shot damage. However at 20 seconds it has double the reload of the Demolisher or Suthanus and triple that of the Trebuchet, and despite its good accuracy it has the smallest area of effect. Their normal range, if you don't want to be detected by a third ACU pilot from a pathetically long distance away, would be considered pathetic by pre-Quantum Age standards at only 1800 meters. However, if one is not worried about enemies having Coalition-grade sensors, Tech 3 Mobile Artillery and Tech 2 Artillery Installations can be used as surface-to-orbit weapons, to speak nothing of Tech 3 Artillery Installations or Experimental ones. However when firing into orbit, the kinetic piercing power of the weapon tends to do most of the damage, and firing it is immediately detectable to Coalition sensors from a long, long distance off. On the other hand, I don't think it will be necessarily to use such a function, or any of the 'no stealth concerns' settings on ANY Coalition unit if some conservative forces on your planet react to us making contact with hostility and stupidity.
Hinata grimaced at the thought of anyone from the Elemental Nations being dumb enough to pick a fight with these people. Then Hannah continued next to her. "Speaking of surface to orbit, even Sniper Bots can fire into orbit if they can find suitable terrain or align correctly. Speaking of Sniper Bots… where are they?" There was the sound of a facepalm over her communicator, then some chatter "Well, while we wait for the Sniper Bots to arrive, the unique units are the Athanah Tech 3 Mobile Shield Generator, with double the strength of the Asylum's shield, but costing 1280 tons with LWH of 21-15-23. It hovers, which is important when it comes to protecting the fragile but powerful Seraphim cruisers at sea." She pointed out one hovering unit with obvious Seraphim aesthetics, then an Aeon hovering unit "The Absolver Shield Disruptor is tremendously effective at killing shields, but awesomely impotent against everything else. It has LWH 32-24-9 and costs 840 tons. Finally we have the Spearhead Mobile Missile Platform, at LWH 38-22-19 and 800 tons, it fires three missiles in each volley, with higher power and range than the Flapjack in quick succession, which can help overwhelm enemy tactical missile defences."
"Finally we have the engineering units while we wait on the Sniper Bots. I don't think I need to explain to you which designs are whose, and their sizes are basically irrelevant for recognition purposes given the visual differences of Tier 1 through 3." Ariel said as she gestured over said units, letting Hinata take a bit of time to walk around them.
"Yes, the aesthetics are very obvious…" Hinata agreed. The larger sizes, greater number of tails (Seraphim and Cybran), lobes (Aeon), or claws (UEF) made it very obvious which ones were Tier 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
"Ah, the sniper bots have arrived by transport…" Hannah commented, and Hinata quickly made her way back to them as the units in question came into sight. "The Seraphim Usha-Ah Sniper Bot hovers, so it can go over water, and has two modes, one has a much higher alpha strike and slightly increased range but much lower rate of fire and less DPS. It has a LWH of 32-6-24 and costs the same 1600 tons as the Aeon Sprite Striker, which has one firing mode between the Seraphim's two and does not hover, at LWH 20-15-23. It relies slightly on anti-gravity systems to not sink into the ground, like the Harbinger's ground pressure would have forced, but has superior damage per second to both of the Seraphim modes and has recently been equipped with a much weaker version of the Harbinger's personal bubble shield to improve durability."
"Now, for the Experimentals among the land units. These are not built in land factories, instead they are built by engineers in the field." Ariel stated. "Let us begin with the cheapest, the Monkeylord Spider Bot, LWH of 140-130-120 with a mass of 32000 tons. The Heavy Microwave laser on top is supplemented by two Heavy Electron Bolters and a Meson Rocket Array against ground targets, and a Nanite Missile System against air units. Fortunately the Meson Torpedo of the Wagner has been much improved from its Seraphim War era version, so the greatly improved Meson Torpedo Array fitted to the Monkeylord is now also capable of firing rockets, like the Wagner's. Still, the main weapon of the Monkeylord is by far its Heavy Microwave Laser and its crushing bulk. It is a large enough mass and structural field that it is capable of crushing lesser units and structures just by walking on them, which is very useful when stomping through a base using its speed before it succumbs to damage. The Monkeylord's laser can traverse fully, unlike the other direct fire Experimentals." Through the whole talk they were walking leisurely past the six-legged machine "And yes, everyone in the Coalition knows it's not exactly spider-like, more like an ant, but the old name for the first unit by the name stuck."
"Funny how you get both Cybran ones according to the ordering, when I'm the Cybran here." Hannah noted, then gestured to the disturbingly spindly-looking Seraphim giant they were passing "Ythotha Experimental Assault Bot, 100-120-280. At 40000 tons it is also a Massive unit, so it can crush buildings as it stomps through an enemy base by adjusting its anti-gravity generators and leg structural field properties. The head is armed with an Experimental Phason Pulse Generator, the left arm a Gatling Plasma Cannon, the right arm a Heavy Sinn Unthe Cannon, and the towering shoulder plates carry a pair of Olaris AA Artillery Cannons. We have been informed that the shoulder plates are to contain the energy influence of the Phason Pulse Generator from affecting the targeting and mechanisms of the Olaris flak guns. Even now, the reactor core of the Ythotha still becomes an Othuy, a residual energy signature of some sort that is a Seraphim state secret. We know that the Othuy evaporates through rapid release of its unstable energy in a series of highly destructive beam strikes to nearby targets, but its exact nature is currently still unknown. As far as Coalition scientists have been able to figure out, it is the reactor core of the machine losing stability and containment step-by-step and venting its excess energies. The Othuy is known to have a psionic presence, so it might be at least in part made of sentient psionic energy… given your origins from a Japanese cultural enthusiast colony… I think you'd call it, at least partly, a giant sentient mass of chakra?"
Hinata nodded, hiding how she suddenly had a very horrible thought related to how Naruto held the Nine-Tails contained. Could these "Ythothas" be similar at some level?
"Galactic Colossus Experimental Assault Bot, LWH of 50-80-200, 45000 tons and Massive. It is only armed with a single Phason Laser in the head and two Tractor Claws which can grab any non-Experimental unit other than Command Units from up to 800 meters away and instantly destroy them on contact. The Fire Beetle has, since the late days of the Seraphim War, been programmed to detonate just before this, and the Medusa will set off its EMP warheads just before death. The Loyalist death EMP effect will also stop the GC cold for a brief time. It is by far the toughest unit in the Coalition arsenal besides the much more expensive Megalith, but will not defeat a Megalith or Ythotha in one on one battle due to relatively low damage per second. Like the Ythotha it is only capable of firing in the forward arc and is slow to turn around, but unlike the Ythotha it has absolutely no auxiliary anti-air weapons or any bonus capabilities."
"Fatboy Mobile Factory, LWH of 170-150-50 with the guns pointed out toward the sides, 49200 tons. It is absurdly fragile compared to the other Experimentals even after post-Seraphim War rework and upgrade efforts, and is still stuck at its old speed, slower than even Armored Assault Bots, which are actually slower than the previous three Experimentals." Those upgrades had pushed it up from 12500 HP and 20000 shields to 15000 HP and 22000 shields by the latest rating scales, for the same rather annoyingly expensive cost. "The gunnery arcs have also been improved so that the Fatboy can now fire all four Triple Gauss Cannons at the same target in narrow forward and rear arcs, though because the weapon stealth systems aren't getting any better all that fast due to various obstacles in research, the range is still only 100 map grids… two short kilometers, ugh. It's enough to outrange all other direct-fire Experimental units though since their weapons stealth systems are no better, and the auxiliary weapons, shield dome and factory ability are still effective enough to make it a great investment as a mobile firebase, great for doing a fairly quick and easily defensible firebase creep toward the enemy. The onboard factory module can build all UEF land factory units while moving."
"Megalith Experimental Mega Bot, 175-180-190 to the tops of the antennae, costing 67500 tons. It can lay 'eggs' and construct them to build Trebuchets, Bricks, Bangers and Tier 3 Engineers, allowing it to quickly set up a firebase. It can build Bricks underwater to support it against masses of weaker units as it breaches a beachhead, and is tall enough that most continental shelves and coastal regions are reasonably easy to navigate with the Proton Cannons still sticking out of the water. It is faster in water due to its immense size and the energy expenditure of its reactors and systems that keep it from sinking into the ground under its own weight on land. It should be considered a naval unit that can get on land, like the Salem-class destroyer. The torpedo armament is excellent, the anti-torpedoes strong, and the main guns overwhelmingly powerful, but anti-aircraft capability is quite mediocre and the build options are limited compared to, say, the Fatboy."
"Speaking of the Salem-class, Hinata-chan, would you like to ride on the one amphibious naval unit that the Coalition has? Well, other than the Megalith, of course…" Hannah asked, smiling, as with a gesture she commanded the Salem class that had snuck up on them with no more signs than a vague breeze of displaced air and flattened grass to turn off its active camouflage. "Or would you prefer to see things from the air?" With another gesture to her other side, a Wailer Heavy Gunship dropped its active camouflage, having landed with similarly nothing more than a gentle breeze to indicate its displacement. "That will decide what class of unit we go see next."
"Um, the ship please!" It was a great deal more familiar to Hinata than the concepts of aerial combat. Hopefully she wouldn't embarrass herself and her Clan too badly when the time came for that… Must not faint, must not faint… wait, if I didn't faint on seeing that… Ythotha thing, I should be fine! Wow…That made me feel so much better, ha… HAHA… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… I think I've cracked already under the shock. She showed no signs of this, as per her training as heiress before her father gave up on her.
"Alright then… Naval unit sizes will be listed in Length-Width-Height above water-Draft below water, abbreviated as LWHD, when surfaced, and the numbers get more approximate the bigger the ship is, due to waves and other effects." Hannah said as she led them over to the walking destroyer, then frowned at the rather considerable space between the bottom of the hull and the ground, not to mention the deck and such. "Um, Ariel—?"
The Aeon woman interrupted her question with "I'm guessing you have no idea how to board one of these things either?"
"Yes." There was an awkward silence "Xav, you're more experienced than I am, any tips here?"
"You're the premiere Cybran ACU pilot of your generation, Hannah, and you didn't learn this?" He sounded incredulous. They hadn't had this problem the last time they did a tour since they'd paraded the units past the shoreline, instead of moving among them.
Hannah snorted at his comment. "You've been piloting for three hundred years, Xav, I've been piloting for less than ten." She started in 3840 at age eighteen, and was the young prodigy involved in some of the important operations in the final stage of the Infinite War, fighting over information and technology related to Black Sun. "You probably know more about the specifics of Cybran units than I do." She turned to address Hinata visibly "As you can tell, Hinata, when you are genetically supposed to have lifespan estimates range upward from a bottom line of a thousand years, age differences mean little in relationships so long as both parties are adults. He's more than ten times my age, but we hit it off right away when we met during the Seraphim War and later experiences convinced me to propose to him…" There was also a political element, a very large political element. "I feel almost offended at the fact that you are turning green from the fact that he's over ten times my age." She showed Hinata her husband's hologram, and Fran waved cheerily at her.
Hinata bowed her head in shame, having imagined being married off politically to a decrepit old man. "Sorry!" She said to the man who still looked to be in his youth, with no marks of age.
Hannah chuckled as she turned the hologram off "Bah, it's fine, don't worry too much about it. I'll introduce him later, don't worry, he doesn't even act old, except sometimes when he shows symptoms of PTSD, but that's another story."
"Alright, since you don't want to fly her up with your armour, I've gotten the Salem to deploy ladders and doors, make your way through the unit to the bridge please." Coalition units all had internal space for people, because who knew what a special operations team might need to hitch a ride on? Or, on a darker note, who knew what means civilians would need to be evacuated by?
The three climbed onboard, and the ship began walking toward the sea as they entered it and began making their way to the bridge by… stairs, since it wasn't normally provisioned or built with habitation in mind.
"The smallest and weakest Coalition naval unit built at a naval factory is the Shard Attack Boat, with LWHD of 28-10-7-2 and costing 240 tons. It is only capable of anti-aircraft fire and does nothing else, except being extremely fast. It lacks even the radar to use its range optimally." Ariel pointed to the little boat that shimmered into view as they reached the bridge and the Salem reached the sea. Hinata had not felt the destroyer's movements nearly strongly enough to account for the speed at which they were approaching the beach… but said nothing due to shyness and assuming that if these people had control over gravity… then not feeling the motions of the walking ship was surely child's play to them.
Then a set of four units shimmered into sight from what had been tranquil ocean as the Salem entered the water and folded its legs against the hull. Ariel introduced them with "The Tier 1 naval superiority units are Attack Submarines, which you see surfaced right now. The Silver-class has LWHD of 44-10-4.5-4, the Sou-istle 45-12-4.5-4, the Tigershark 38-9-8-4 to the top of the antennae, and the Sylph 44-11-5-3.5. The Sylph lacks a deck gun, while the Sou-istle has a torpedo defence system but is by far the most fragile. The Silver has more torpedoes in one salvo, which help it bypass torpedo defence somewhat, while the Tigershark's higher health and better deck gun makes it contest the position of best Tier 1 Submarine with the Silver. Each of the four costs 800 tons." Due to the upgrades and such to the design through its long, many-generational history, the Cybran attack sub had been symbolically renamed from Sliver to Silver after the Seraphim War.
A/N: Translation: I ALWAYS thought it was Silver, so I'm too lazy to change to "Sliver".
"Um, the waves seem to be passing right through them?" Hinata noted.
"Our wave modulation methods are good enough to make them not very obvious, but what we call radar and sonar systems in honour of the original sensor systems can still pick up the disturbances and energy signatures from quite a distance out." Hannah explained. "The amount of technology we put into detection and counter-detection is quite frankly somewhat insane, reducing battles to ranges that even our ancestors almost two thousand years ago had already reached or surpassed." She looked out toward the units they were now stopping in front of "These are the four frigates, in order of cost. All have very deep draft for their displacement and dimensions to maintain stability, and to reduce radar signature since if you are in the water your wave generators will need to do a lot of work anyhow. The Trident at 540 tons is 98-21-20-7, which is an insanely deep draft for its displacement and dimensions even considering the hull shape. The Thunderhead at 560 tons is 87-12-25-4. The Beacon at 580 tons is 89-29-18-6. The Hau-esel at 600 tons is 91-31-25-5. All of them have a secondary anti-air weapon except the Beacon, which has rather slow-firing anti-torpedoes instead."
Hannah looked at Hinata for a moment, prompting the girl to identify the ship in question based on the numbers she was given and the obvious Seraphim aesthetics "So the Beacon is the Aeon Illuminate design, and the Thunderhead is the UEF design, yes?"
Hannah smiled encouragingly "Correct! The Trident has the best damage per second among the four, while the Thunderhead has a radar jammer which makes it viable even late in a battle. The Beacon has to turn broadside to the enemy, because of its gun arrangement not just being a forward anti-surface weapon, which is a disadvantage as it presents a larger target, and is the most fragile, while having the second best DPS. All four carry radar and sonar, and I repeat that they must not be confused with the devices originally named as such, which may possibly exist in your world. They are sometimes used as picket ships even late in a battle, but only the Thunderhead is indispensable." She mentally sent out the command to move the Salem to the next row of units. "Technically we also have Tier 1 and 2 amphibious landing ships, but they are rarely used and not considered standard roster despite most pilots keeping at least one of the two choices on their schematics list to give themselves more options, despite the things taking up some of the limited number of schematic slots they can bring to battle."
A/N: Because the lack of transport ships in-game was completely ridiculous. Being a niche unit is no reason to be excluded from standard schematics given how important rushing a coast with heavy AA can be.
Ariel took her turn speaking as the next row, of only three ships, shimmered into sight "The main-line naval units of Tier 2 are the destroyers, which is ironic because historically, cruisers were a larger, tougher, and generally better class of ship than destroyers, but currently what we call cruisers are almost purely dedicated to anti-aircraft duty. All the destroyers cost 4500 tons and move at the same speed. The Salem class destroyers have LWHD of 94-33-33-9. We are currently on one, hence only the other three destroyers parked over there. The Exodus class has LWHD of 110-37-28-7, the Valiant is 117-20-34-5, and the Uashavoh 111-39-29-5. Of the four, the Salem and Exodus have the range advantage, but since their guns are forward of their superstructures, they cannot conduct a stern chase to kite the other destroyers quite as trivially as one might think due to all ships having slightly less top reverse speed than top forward speed. Kiting is the use of better range to make the enemy chase you and hurt them while they cannot hurt you. The Valiant and Uashavoh only have three-quarters the range of the others and must turn broadside for full DPS due to having both fore and aft guns, but the Valiant has the best gun DPS by a large margin, and the Uashavoh can dive to avoid unfavourable surface engagements. The torpedo power of the Uashavoh and its ability to dive make it satisfy the Tier 2 Sub Hunter role for the Seraphim very well. However, it is slower when submerged due to stealth needs, and an Exodus has far better anti-submarine and anti-surface power due to having powerful depth charges in addition to torpedoes. Unusually, the Exodus actually beats out the UEF Valiant in health among the destroyers, particularly odd since the Valiant's weak torpedo and anti-torpedo system are already more than enough to make it lose handily to the Exodus without extreme and thus inefficient micromanagement. I don't need to explain how useful the Salem's amphibious ability is, despite it being by far the frailest destroyer and being cost-ineffective compared to Tier 3 land units. The huge range, only outranged by artillery installations and Tier 3 mobile artillery, makes for a decent mobile firebase when massed with appropriate support, though it is mind-numbingly slow on land at only 1.5 grids per second, or 30 meters per second." Ariel was somewhat envious of that capability.
Hannah spoke next as per her turn "The Tier 2 Cruisers are our naval anti-aircraft and sensory solution, all costing 4000 tons and moving slightly slower than the four destroyers. All four have radar and sonar that allow destroyers and cruisers alike to fire well beyond visual range, and we mean visual relative to active camouflage. They also carry tactical missile defence weapons. The Governor Class has LWHD 114-16-37-6, the Infinity Class has 118-38-34-11, the Siren Class 114-42-36-11, and the Ithalua 120-43-25-6. The Siren is the only Cruiser that matches its Destroyer counterpart in surface firepower, in fact it greatly exceeds the Salem if the Nanodart Launcher auto-switches to anti-surface fire due to lack of aerial targets… though the system is only effective at fairly close range due to the unguided rockets it spews against ground targets. It also has a landing pad on the back that allows quick refuelling and repair of patrolling air units, an invaluable asset. The Infinity is the sturdiest and has the best anti-air missiles, and its tactical missile defence flare system cannot be overwhelmed by multiple simultaneous launches unlike the others, but the tactical missile protection area is puny and the deck gun is almost as weak as the Governor's. The Governor has slightly worse anti-air than the Salem and vastly worse anti-surface ability, but gets to fire volleys of tactical missiles at distant targets. The Ithalua fires a constant stream of missiles, more powerful and with higher DPS than the Governor, and has the highest anti-air DPS, particularly good against gunship swarms with its flak batteries, but the shots do not track targets and the muzzle velocity reduces DPS against the fastest air units. The Ithalua also has less anti-aircraft range than the others, and is the most fragile cruiser by far, while completely lacking anti-surface capability."
Ariel rolled her eyes at Hannah's smug belief that her faction fielded the best cruiser design, by dint of its flexibility "These two classes dominated Tier 2 naval combat during the Infinite War, back then the icon for destroyers was that of a surface ship torpedo unit. More recently, Tier 2 Sub Hunters have been fielded, and also two Tier 2 support ships, so the destroyer icon has changed to Tier 2 direct-fire when displayed on screens. The three Tier 2 Sub Hunters are the UEF Tier 2 Torpedo Boat, the Cooper, of 1800 tons and LWHD 39-9-11.5-3.5, the Tier 2 Sub Hunter Barracuda, is 2200 tons with LWHD 59-12-6-7, and the Vesper at the same mass and 56-20-7-6. The Cooper is the only one that can't submerge, though it has by far the best anti-torpedoes. Its sonar has been upgraded since its introduction so that it can use its torpedoes to the maximum range in theory, like the others, without a cruiser or frigate around for sonar coverage. The Vesper is the toughest, but has the weakest torpedoes. The Barracuda has the strongest torpedoes, stealth, the weakest anti-torpedoes, and the lowest durability. Speaking of stealth…"
The brunette looked over at the black-haired woman next to her, and facepalmed, because Hannah was busy taking a drink instead of resuming the briefing as they stopped in front of two unique units. It seemed Hannah wanted to introduce the battleships… "There are two unique Tier 2 units, both defensive in nature. The Mermaid Stealth Boat projects a stealth field out to 800 meters radius, far superior to the Deceiver's mere 360 meters, and is very fast, so it can keep up with any non-aerial units sent out over or through water that it is sent to escort. It also has an effective anti-torpedo system to support the fleet or submerged land units with. It costs 1200 tons and has LWHD 48-16-15-5.5. The Bulwark Shield Boat projects a flattened shield bubble, like that found on the Continental, able to protect the fleet from gunships that can get under the larger, most powerful, stationary shield bubbles. It also shields against everything else, so while the shield is not all that powerful it is still quite useful for the UEF, since the Parashield cannot cross water. It costs 2080 tons and has LWHD 54-19-17-4. The Bulwark is much less durable than the Mermaid and lacks any defensive or weapons systems, but matches the Mermaid in speed." She pulled out her bottle of tea, since their suits could synthesize water there was no other reason to bring a bottle except to get a more specialized drink.
Seeing Ariel imitating her by finishing chatter with a drink, Hannah smiled at her friend's ceding of the most glamorous Tier 3 ships "So that's it for the Tier 2 naval units, at least, the factory-built ones since engineers can built turrets on water, except artillery emplacements and missile launchers." The ability to build point defence turrets on water was a big change after the Seraphim War, but artillery on water was still a work in progress due to size versus mass and ensuing stability issues. "The main Tier 3 warship is the Battleship, whose icon has changed except for the Omen-class since the Seraphim War from a Tier 3 direct-fire surface ship to what they actually work as, which is artillery duty. All four of the standard Tier 3 battleships cost 22500 tons, have two tactical missile defences, and heavy direct-fire weaponry with enough range to work as artillery. The UEF Summit Class measures LWHD 272-70-70-15 with the secondary weapons sticking out to the sides, 60m if they're folded in. The Cybran Galaxy Class measures 250-79-60-12 with the Zappers sticking out to the side, 66m width if they're folded in. The Omen Class is 270-77-60-18, though unlike the others, nothing sticks out to the sides, and yes, we are well aware that the underwater hull volume seems obscene for such a small mass. The Hauthuum measures 276-75-50-9, and the parts that stick out at the sides are very minor, so folding them in line makes little difference."
Seeing that Ariel seemed uninterested in explaining the differences, Hannah continued "Of the four, the Summit has the most health and range, but is the slowest, being a sixth slower than the Galaxy and Hauthuum's sixty meters per second top speeds. The Omen is one fifth faster than those two at 72 meters per second, and has the highest overall damage per second output, but has the shortest range by a good margin. Unlike the other battleships, the Omen class icon has not been changed and remains that of a direct fire Tier 3 surface ship, reflecting the fact that its main use is naval superiority, with Experimentals, Torrents, air units, and/or amphibious units forcing their way inland. Since the Seraphim War, the Omen class has changed to move the tactical missile defences to fore and aft positions, with a pair of anti-torpedo mounts installed on the old flank positions and damage per shot improved slightly to match the Exodus class at 1050, raising its damage per second to 175 per turret, on a reload extended to 6 seconds, instead of 1000 per 5.9 seconds. This improved its overall abilities to be equal to the other factions' equally costly battleships. The Galaxy class and Hauthuum have equal gun DPS, but the Galaxy has fairly decent torpedoes. We should point out that all the battleships' secondary weapons except the Omen class have been improved since the Seraphim War to be flak weapons instead of simple autocannons. The Hauthuum also acts as the Seraphim mobile Strategic Missile Launcher. Ariel, your turn on the subject of strategic missiles and associated submarines…"
The brunette nodded and put away her bottle "The yields of our strategic missiles are considerable. Against a civilization with no structural fields, they can level large cities spanning many dozens of kilometers with trivial ease, and missiles from silo buildings are even more powerful. We rely on specialized strategic missile defence structures and, in more recent times, a few very specialized, truly experimental units to counter them, though those are not standard roster units, at all. The Strategic Missile Submarines are equipped with decent tactical missile fabrication and launching systems, though they're only a third as powerful as a standard Tier 2 installation's tactical missiles, The UEF Ace at 10000 tons has LWHD of 72-24-5-15, and the Silencer of the same mass is 73-21-10-14. The Plan B is 12000 tons, with LWHD of 77-37-8-6. The Plan B is the only one armed with a rather powerful torpedo battery. The Ace can store three strategic missiles, and is more durable than the Silencer, which can store four. The Plan B can store five like the Hauthuum, due to its greater bulk. The Plan B also comes with a better tactical missile system, since the Cybrans have no other tactical missile launchers at sea"
With respect to strategic missiles, structural integrity fields were one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Without structural fields, it would have been very much impossible for strategic missile warheads from a submarine to do 25000 damage throughout the inner splash radius of 30 "grids" (20 meters on a side) tapering off to 500 damage by 40 grids and 0 by 50 grids, while a silo would do 70000 damage in the middle of the inner radius of 50 grids, tapering down steadily, at the border it started dropping steeply, down to 500 by 60 and 0 by 70. That was because the earliest a containment field—a technology derived from structural fields—could be erected to bounce the blast back toward ground zero—with most of the energy venting upward—was at a particular pressure level. The process resulted in the damage dealt within the blast radius being twofold, tapering off to a common level near the border of the inner blast before being bounced back and increasing as it converged, though much of it vented upward. Incidentally, structural integrity field technology also meant Coalition spacecraft could dive quite deep into gas giants without sustaining any damage whatsoever, not that they normally would, thanks to widespread hover technology…
A/N: I rebalanced strategic weapons because the numbers were ridiculous otherwise, with 30 inner splash radius on both missile types, but 25K vs 70K in the inner splash and 500 in the outer splash. How would that even be possible?
The Ace fires missiles 13m long by in-game scale relative to a 10m-tall wall section, while the 9m Cybran missile is at least REASONABLE for the Plan B, and the 12m missile for the Silencer is consistent with hull depth. The hull of the Ace in-game is 70-20-5-9 (Silencer 71-19-9-12, Plan B 77-37-8-6) in length, width, height above water, and draft below water, so at MOST that's 1400x9 = 12600 tons of water displaced… and it's NOT just a big box hull either, in fact it takes up less than a third (eyeballed) of the outlined volume. So I cut the cost of the submarines in half, to make it less gimmicky and ineffective as a unit and make more sense in terms of physics, and also made the Ace wider and deeper as its shape more or less requires.
The Seraphim missile at over 20 meters long is also obscenely huge for the port it comes out of (I'll make it come out from the main superstructure's gap to make some sense) Other than Quantum Storage Spaces as found on Carriers (hence how they can hold many, many aircraft), I had no other solution to the absurd bullshit than the subs being direly undersized besides making the undersized ones (Ace, Silencer) bigger or moving the launcher (Hauthuum)
Only by invoking containment tech can I restrict the splash of weapons into small areas. Sorry about my previous statement in an A/N about the Ambassador's splash damage radius being absurdly small, it will stay the in-game radius instead of being doubled, thanks to containment field tech.
"It is due to the danger of interception that the strategic missiles have a very limited range of only about twenty kilometers from our submarines. In areas with no risk of interception they can fly on ballistic trajectories across a typical super-Earth planet, with ranges well over fifty thousand kilometers depending on conditions, or shoot out of the planet's gravity well." Ariel finished explaining to a rather terrified Hinata.
"I don't think we'll use any of those weapons during our diplomatic mission, Ariel… so scaring her with that information was rather mean and meaningless." Hannah scolded. "If you're alright with continuing, Hinata-chan, the last ship type common to several factions is aircraft carriers, which basically serve as mobile water-borne air factories that cannot build engineers. They are useful for repairing and refuelling aircraft far from a base, although not so much for the Cybrans thanks to the Siren, and can mostly replace air factories late in a battle thanks to their much faster build rates. They store their aircraft in Quantum Storage Spaces, colloquially referred to as 'Hammer Space', which allow them to hold more aircraft than their physical size would permit. The three Tier 3 carriers are the Command class, the Keefer class, and the Iavish. The UEF aircraft carrier is an Experimental, so it's not parked here."
A/N: The cost of carriers, on 2 tons per 1 mass, makes then displace (without aid of ballast tanks) only about 8000 tons of water, except the Atlantis, which costs a measly 24000 tons in-game for such a gigantic ship and obviously huge displacement when surfaced. This is patently ridiculous, so I am vastly improving combative ability of carriers to justify tripling cost to somewhere within the realm of sanity. And even then, given those hull shapes, sizes and volumes, the carriers should really displace something on the order of 10 times that amount of water (so about 160K tons per standard carrier… or 20 tons per mass in-game). To have Armored Assault Bots weigh into the tens of thousands of tons was clearly ludicrous, so… I'm compromising by grossly increasing their costs, and improving effectiveness too. Atlantis won't be changed too much, only double the mass… still absurdly low for its idle displacement according to vision.
Hannah gestured to her faction's carrier first "The Command class is the most capable of fitting in narrow but deep channels of water, as it is the smallest at 287-87-67-40 not counting antennae, and at 26400 tons is the most expensive now. I realize that sounds insanely light given the draft but the hull shape helps make it less stupid. Passive stability was needed in terms of having ballast tanks, and the sheer size is to give space for our aircraft to pick up speed after exit from storage, before leaving the carrier either by front or back. They land vertically and are entered into storage by the ribs you see on top, or go in either end. Since the Seraphim War, we have worked to overcome the design's limitations, which are a capacity of 50 aircraft and an exit width of 35 meters. We have managed to improve the all-round utility of the ship by modifications allowing disgorging aircraft through the three storage space and air staging access pads on top, which are those six things that look like vents that you see." It was easier to put things into a storage space, it was harder to pluck a specific thing out. There used to be eight of the panels, but the ship had been shortened…
"Thanks to that, the Command class is now the only carrier capable of building, holding and disembarking transports… which can be loaded with units, though those count toward the unit limit onboard. Today, the Command Class remains more than competitive by having a torpedo armament and having the best direct-fire surface weaponry." Mounting two modified Salem-class turrets on the forward screening prongs flanking the exit had gone well enough, and replacing the old AA autocannons with flak turrets had also been done. "The launch acceleration run of aircraft has been compromised slightly and the ship shortened since the Seraphim War to free up mass for these weapons and the reactors powering them." though they still needed to be able to summon Dragonfly Tier 2 Air Transports. "The ship is capable of at least maiming any type of target except strategic missiles. Oh, and thanks to the topside disembarking ability, it can also hold land units on an equal basis as air units, presuming they are deposited in by transports or drive in through the front or rear if they hover, though it cannot hold Command Units of any type." Left unsaid was how, since no Cybran unit hovered, that ability was more useful with allies, unless one wanted to broadcast their amphibious landing to sensors for many dozens of kilometers. "The result is that the Cybran Nation is the only faction to have a Tier 3 Naval Transport, more or less, in its standard day-to-day roster, since this can disembark well enough into shallow water near beachheads. However it is also by far the most fragile of the carriers."
"The other two carriers have a superior capacity of 60 aircraft, while the UEF Atlantis can hold an astounding 150." Ariel cut Hannah off before she could extoll the Cybran carrier's virtues too much further. The mishmash units had resulted from a post-Seraphim War improvement to the carriers, using up some of their immense reserve buoyancy and increasing price greatly in exchange for better power in general. They had been designed by the four referred to by the general populace as either the Elite Four or the Four Prodigies. Unfortunately, the youngest among them had a nasty tendency to be a bit too proud of how much they'd been able to power up what was once considered the worst of the Coalition carriers "The Keefer at LWHD of 336-140-70-15 and 24000 tons has the anti-aircraft firepower of the Infinity Class now, and has been fitted with two Will-O-Wisp tactical missile defences fore and aft, which are basically impossible to overwhelm. Combined with the Omen class, this makes firing tactical missiles at an Aeon Tier 3 fleet basically completely pointless, overcoming the weakness of the flare system's grossly inferior range compared to the other systems. It also manufactures aircraft faster than the Command class now due to upgrades. The Keefer has also received anti-surface weaponry in the form of an Oblivion Cannon ahead of its island structure, which makes it equal in firepower to the Exodus and one-third that of the Omen. This is effective for clearing away enemy anti-aircraft units, particularly hovering flak units or cruisers. The planes are launched from storage from both sides unless specifically ordered, so they disgorge faster than the Command class which only spews them from the front normally, and land through the top, through the open gap running the length of the ship. Hannah, you do the Iavish, I've talked enough for now…"
"Alright then… The Iavish is the only carrier to have a tactical missile launcher, a pretty good one at that. Due to less design changes since the Seraphim War compared to the other two, it has gone from most expensive to cheapest, at only 21600 tons, with LWHD 359-113-95-12. It manufactures aircraft at the same rate as the modern Keefer, has a considerable anti-aircraft armament and tactical missile defence—which was added after the war—but has no surface or submarine weapons other than the missiles. It also disgorges aircraft faster than the Keefer, with more health and an anti-torpedo system." The Cybran looked over at the Aeon woman "Should I continue?"
Ariel shrugged "If you like."
"There are three unique Tier 3 naval units on the standard roster, such as the Seraphim Sub Hunter. The Yathsou has LWHD of 67-27-15-7 and costs 6000 tons. It is considered extremely cost effective due to its effective anti-aircraft and torpedo batteries, while being cheap enough to mass-produce. Its only weaknesses are hovering anti-surface units when it is surfaced, and the Solace." Solaces targeting a Seraphim fleet by attack-move would automatically assign one to each Ithalua, then two to each Yathsou to wipe out the main Seraphim AA firepower in the first attack run or two. Though the Losaare AA autocannon had been improved since the Seraphim War, the new model, which was actually fast enough to be effective enough when fired from the ground against evading Tier 3 air units, was simply unable to fit as much anti-air DPS onto the Yathsou. However for effectiveness against air units, and to maintain a hefty HP pool despite the power creep that occurred after the Seraphim War's lessons, the compromise that was the current Yathsou was accepted.
A/N: In-game Yathsou is 57-23-13-6, which given its hull form does NOT displace 6000 tons. Scaling up 1/6 in every dimension brings it into a sane displacement vs mass for passive buoyancy on the surface. I'm nerfing down the AA battery by three-eighths (240 DPS from 2 salvos of 2 60-damage shots per second to 150 from 3 50-damage single shots per second) and the torpedoes slightly (from 335 per torpedo and 335 DPS to 300, still enough to kill a Vesper in 2 salvos unless it's running away and gets lucky with the 2nd anti-torpedo discharge) to compensate for the hugely increased costs of aircraft carriers (e.g. the Atlantis which it is super effective against) and strategic missile submarines. It is still powerful enough to massacre cheaper units like the Tier 2s, while able to swarm superior units by dint of cheapness.
Oh, and the Torrent at 9900 Mass is grossly cost-ineffective compared to two Ithalua or even two Iavish in-game, it's only it being the only Aeon tactical missile launcher at sea other than the even less cost-effective Silencer that makes it useful. I'm buffing it quite a bit due to the cheapening of the Silencer…
"Another unique naval unit is the Aeon Torrent Mk 2, a dedicated Tier 3 Missile Ship. It fires volleys of tactical missiles which are individually weaker than a Strategic Missile Submarine's tactical missiles. However it does so in volleys of 12 every 20 seconds, firing four per volley from each of its three Serpentine Missile Racks, which is sufficient power to punch through enemy shields well enough, as long as they don't have two Tier 3 generators defending each other. This missile system actually totals more DPS on paper than most of the battleships. However, the main addition to the Mk 2 that made it worthy of the name and the hideous cost and frailty that plagues it and the original is the incorporation of the ability to build and launch full-powered silo-level tactical missiles from the ship. It can have at most eight stored, firing every 10 seconds at most, though the default is to mix one in with each volley of the weaker missiles from the racks to double the DPS, or manual launch. It costs 19800 tons and has LWHD of 242-60-52-15." Hannah finished, turning to her friend "Ariel, feeling better now?"
"Yeah, just felt like sneezing earlier, must have been some virus Hinata brought on her that my system is busy purging. Guess your world's immune systems aren't as bad as isolation usually makes, Hinata! That's great, it means hopefully not too much trouble meeting the Coalition at large. Now, the Neptune-class Tier 3 Battle Cruiser at 15000 tons has LWHD 200-50-70-15, it is highly effective against naval surface units and thus shares the direct-fire Tier 3 surface ship icon with the Omen now. It cannot defeat any battleship one on one, but it is much cheaper and much faster than the Summit, so it can almost keep up with a Tier 2 fleet and provide valuable fire support. That's it for the Tier 3 units. On to the naval Experimentals then…"
They waited until they pulled alongside what looked not unlike like a towering blue-grey cliff "This is the UEF Atlantis Submersible Aircraft Carrier, 48000 tons with LWHD 425-70-70-40, not counting antennae. The current model has an extremely powerful torpedo battery, a sturdy shield dome, a very large HP pool, and when surfaced has excellent surface-to-air missiles. It can build and hold up to 150 aircraft, excluding transports, and rapidly disgorge them, justifying the great expense."
Ariel continued as the huge ship next to them submerged itself, allowing the Salem to pass over it to what looked practically like a green and white hill—except normal hills didn't have a gigantic weapon sticking out on top "The Aeon Tempest Experimental Battleship, 56000 tons, 323-298-140-75 when fully surfaced, due to the portion of rear hull slid under the main hull to expose the ship-building section. It can build, when stopped, all Aeon Tier 1 and 2 ships, and Tier 3 engineers. It can emerge fully to expose the auxiliary weapons on the pontoons, partly submerge to leave only the top cannon exposed to reduce artillery and tactical missile damage unless they score a direct hit, or fully submerge to escape anti-surface fire. The torpedoes are powerful, and the ship is worth its cost as a heavy naval superiority unit and mobile factory."
Ariel turned toward the girl who they hoped would serve as an ambassador of sorts and smiled. "That concludes the briefing on the standard Coalition naval units. Shall we discuss the air units now, or shall we take a breather and get some food? I believe your gut should have settled from any potential nausea or discomfort from vaccination and such by now."
Hinata fell back on one of her basic decision-making processes, predated only by "What would Mother do?" In other words, she resorted to "What would Naruto do?"
…
…OTHER than be exceedingly horrified at the casual way these women spoke about committing massive amounts of murder beyond even Uchiha Madara's level.
…
…Uh…
…
…Hmm…
…Well, even given a few minutes of contemplation, Hinata didn't think she had words that could adequately describe how excited Naruto would be at being shown machines that could actually fly.
"May we see the air units first?" Oh, I'm too late, we're already moving… she noticed once she unclogged her brain from trying (too hard) to find words to vaguely describe Naruto's exuberance should he be confronted with flying vehicles.
While she was stuck on thinking, the two women had already decided that lunch should come first. "Ah, sorry Hinata, I've already instructed the Salem to bring us back to the research facility so that we can get some food." Ariel said, grinning sheepishly "In the meantime we can move the ground units off the island and park our air units on the ground, in formation, except the CZAR which doesn't land."
"Um, what is the name of this dish?" Hinata did not recognize the particular fish, though she had a good inkling as to how to use the particular eating implements, thanks to her observations.
"I believe it's a type of fish originally from the habitable world of the 56 Aurigae system." Hannah answered after informing Hinata of the dish name from the cafeteria menu… while running a search on the Cybran Network on where the fish came from. Convergent evolution based on the physical laws of reality was a remarkable thing in terms of similar appearances and characteristics. She speared a chunk on her fork and slid it into her mouth in the fork-sideways fashion that anyone smart enough to do so ate by. There was no point in risking being stabbed in the back of the mouth after all.
"Nice etiquette and observational training, to notice such a thing." Ariel observed as Hinata imitated Hannah's eating.
"Thank you." Hinata bowed her head in acknowledgement. "This flavour is…"
Hannah thought for a moment before saying "Not salted enough, huh? It doesn't go all that well with rice or other grains when it's this low in salt, I forgot to order it spiced and salted to Asian standards, sorry."
"No, no, it's good, just different, that's all."
Ariel put something in front of the girl. "Salt shaker if you want it, Western cuisine is more individualistic in terms of tastes, therefore much of the seasoning is done by the individual to one's particular tastes."
A/N: In-game all the transports, even those with obvious landing legs, hover tens of meters off the ground. The Mirage's hover height is also over 10m. What the hell? Accuracy will be a bit off for the thicknesses of those, and the hull clearances too…
"Alright, then, air units… we'll do this from the ground I suppose, since we're having them all landed instead of flying in formation past a hovering gunship we can watch from." Hannah grinned as they walked out of the research center after lunch. "We have the Tier 1 Air Scouts, which only have visual sensors by current standards. They have very low health, are the fastest Tier 1 air unit, and each cost 80 tons. The UEF Hummingbird, Cybran Flying Eyes, Aeon Mirage, and Seraphim Sele-istle are the four options. The Sele-istle is the best as it is hardest to hit for Tier 1 anti-aircraft fire due to its shape, and has a post-destruction data relay capacity, so it's the best of the four. The LWH data are, in order… ah, as you can see, our aircraft always have space between their hulls or wings and the ground for landing gear that's not included in normal observed and cited LWH… uh, I guess Length, Width, Hull Height and Ground Clearance when landed for LWHC then?" She looked over at Ariel, who nodded "There will be exceptions though later… anyhow, for the four T1 Air Scouts we have LWHC being Hummingbird 9.5-16-4-2, Flying Eyes 14-16-5-2, Mirage 11-17-3-2 and Sele-istle 14-10-3-2."
Ariel continued the briefing as they reached the next row of units "The Tier 1 Interceptors are the Tier 1 air-to-air solution. They are functionally identical units, and with the same factional order they are the Cyclone, Prowler, Conservator and Ia-atha being the four choices, all costing 100 tons. The LWHC data are approximately 21-19-4-3, 17-22-9-2, 22-13-2-2, and 29-20-4-2 respectively. The Prowler has the weakest firepower-health balance, but its agility, slim head-on profile and flexible gun angles are very helpful in evasive manoeuvres. The Conservator's tiny profile also helps it overcome the small DPS disadvantage. The Cyclone has by far the highest alpha strike from its belly weapon, but a slower reload. The Ia-atha's weapons are in the right, small arm, not the left, large one, and is overall the best in terms of the raw numbers, but it has a more limited gunnery arc downward than even the Cyclone."
Hannah took over with "The Tier 1 Attack Bombers, all at 200 tons with fairly long-ranged and thus quite useful 'radar' systems, are the Scorcher of LWHC 25-26-7-2, Zeus 18.5-36-4-3.5, Shimmer 11.5-46-2-2 and Sinnve 18-47-3.5-2. The Scorcher drops a line of firebombs and the Zeus a spread of bombs with a large blast radius. The Aeon Shimmer has a third lower DPS, but has a good splash and stuns targets in the splash area for a few seconds, as well has having better single-target damage. The Seraphim Sinnve has better damage than the Shimmer, but lacks the stun effect. The width of the Zeus meant that during the Seraphim War it was one of the aircraft unable to be built and launched by the Command Class, though that has since been circumvented."
Ariel's turn was much, much, MUCH bigger than Hannah's "The four Tier 1 Light Air Transports cost the same 240 tons, and can carry six Tech 1 units, eight for Seraphim, 3 Tech 2, or 1 Tech 3 unit. The C-6 Courier has LWHC of 84-25-15-6, though that clearance is between the main hull and the ground, because the legs are very obvious. When the transport is loaded it partly rests itself on the units it carries if they are tall enough to require that. The Skyhook is 100-56-30-5, and as per the Cybran archetype of flexibility it can upgrade itself to the Tier 2. The Chariot is 30-30-8-2, and the Vish is 150-70-30-10. Despite the intense visual similarity, the Vish cannot upgrade to the Vishala, due to internal differences. Since Light Assault Bots, referred to as LABs, are capable of firing from a transport in the forward arc with only minor loss of accuracy within a limited range band, 'ghetto gunships' with transports and LABs are a popular option and, quite frankly, it's basically why LABs are still available to be built. However once Tier 2 flak comes into play they are mostly ineffective, as flak damages units attached to transports too, and LABs have trivial health compared to the power of flak. Ghetto gunships are only capable of attacking ground units, while real gunships can hit other gunships and transports as well."
"Speaking of gunships, the Cybran Nation is the only faction to have a Tier 1 gunship among its standard unit roster, the Jester. It costs 360 tons, which is a 10% improvement from the Seraphim War era, making it by far the most expensive Tier 1 air or land unit, and is considered only a little less cost-effective than the typical Tier 2 gunship." Hannah said proudly as they finally strolled past the aft end of the Vish to see the relatively tiny gunship. "LWHC is 22-17-4.5-1. Some UEF, Aeon and Seraphim pilots field counterpart units, but they're not considered to be on the standard roster and the Jester is still considered the best among the Tier 1 Light Gunships."
Ariel cleared her throat, reminding her friend of a field where the Cybran option was considered the weakest "The Tier 2 unit roster begins with the Fighter-Bombers, all costing 840 tons, which is actually more than Tier 3 Air Superiority Fighters. The UEF Janus has LWHC 38-20-5-2, and pitches its wings forward for better agility when in close combat, dropping two rows of firebombs when attacking ground and using an improved counterpart to the Cyclone's weapons against air units. The Cybran Corsair has 46-29-12-4, though you see the lower rear wings folded along the upper rear wings right now to park on the ground, so it's a little taller when flying. It has a Nanodart system which reconfigures to attack ground with unguided rockets, or assaults enemy air units with guided missiles. Unlike the others it can't do both at the same time, but it is better than the Janus at attacking any one ground target, and is capable of attacking the enemy with full effectiveness even during the wildest of evasive manoeuvres, so raw stats like DPS and health don't tell the whole story, though it still loses one on one against the other fighter-bombers. The Seraphim Notha measures 24-21-4-2, using direct-fire weapons and doing its damage in a single bomb. It has less HP than the Janus, the same anti-air DPS, and slightly less anti-ground total DPS, though it is better against single targets."
"The Tier 2 Torpedo Bombers all cost 480 tons and are considered equivalent units, only able to attack ships and submarines and all carrying the same level of what we still call 'sonar'. The Stork is 20-30-5-2 in size and is the most durable, along with a hull most prone to evading unguided non-flak anti-air fire due to the gaps, though its torpedoes are the slowest, which means faster units can sometimes get off extra flares when being attacked by a group of Storks. The Cormorant is the frailest and also a large, solid target for AA fire at 30-30-7-2. It fires three weaker torpedoes than the Stork per run, giving it the best paper DPS of the four, partly bypassing most types of torpedo defence which can only fire two anti-torpedoes at a time. The Skimmer at 22-22-4-2 uses Harmonic Depth Charges which cannot be intercepted by anti-torpedoes. The Uosioz at 20-16-3-2 is important into Tier 3 as the Seraphim lack a Tier 3 gunship in their standard line-up, though one is working its way toward being part of the standard line, I hear. Reflecting that importance, since the Seraphim War it has changed to fire four torpedoes per run, with a bit longer reload than the others. It has the second best on-paper DPS after the Cormorant, and bypasses anti-torpedoes more effectively. Effectively speaking though, the units are still equally effective."
Hannah had no qualms about demeaning the UEF, ostensibly since it had been a UEF commander who'd tried to go nuts on them during the final battle to close the Quantum Rift. Actually it was because while the Aeon mostly just wanted to kill Cybrans the UEF had been obsessed with enslaving them. Hannah's first opinion on being ordered to cooperate with Hackett, beyond professional courtesy, had basically been the same as Elite Commander Dostya's toward working with the United Earth Federation.
HATEHATEHATEHATERIPTEARDESTROYKILLPURGEANNIHILATECASTRATEBURNDIEDIEDIE had accidentally been mentally posted by the Elite Commander on her daily streaming when the first news of such came out. General Hall had to issue a joint statement with Dostya about the Elite Commander's past as a self-maintaining sex doll and how she was being ridiculously polite and generally nice to the UEF commanders she worked with considering that fact. In "unrelated" news, a couple days after that announcement a small army of mostly female hackers assaulted several websites in the UEF which sold sex robot blueprints for nanolathing. There was also a good spate of murders of high-class citizens who were known to have owned Symbionts before the Liberation Matrix was spread through the Quantum Gate Network. It was not a diplomatic incident because all the murders were traced back to very respectable UEF citizens, in the name of the unity that was needed for humanity to survive. The Symbiont Rights Movement within the UEF had been forced to stay quiet for quite long enough, and with the Coalition forming they came into the open. Due to diplomatic pressure from the Aeon Loyalists and Cybran Nation the cases were later dismissed as "elimination of slavers, and therefore legally righteous". No action was ever taken due to fear of Cybran Commando or Aeon Inquisitor retaliation.
We should point out that a number of these murders were conducted by well-known and respected UEF commanders. Some may have been political, to show their new allies that most of the UEF was merely unaware of the Symbionts' treatment and that they had the will to change. Others may have been personal hatred or moral protest.
Of course, Hannah did acknowledge that their units were still effective, and noted in detail how things had changed somewhat since the Seraphim War among the torpedo bombers. Back then they had been exactly equal except the Aeon depth charges and the different HP levels. Since then the UEF torpedo technology was starting to show some of its age and problems, but the UEF remained more than competitive in many other aspects. For example…
"Among the Tier 2 Gunships, which all cost 600 tons, the Stinger is reckoned to be the second most powerful and flexible against ground targets, but the best in gunship-to-gunship combat. The Renegade is much more effective at dealing with large masses of densely packed weak units, while the Stinger is 10% tougher and has a souped-up transport clamp able to carry a Tier 1 or 2 ground unit, which often means a squad of Sky Boxers and Parashields fielded on demand. The Stinger's weapon is also much more accurate when fighting other gunships or transports and has the same single-target paper DPS as the Renegade. The Aeon Spectre has more DPS but lacks the Stinger's flexibility, while the Seraphim Vulthoo has the same DPS as the Stinger but slightly less HP and no transport clamp, making it strictly inferior except that it fires in bursts, which makes a difference in one-on-one cookie-cutter duels considering alpha strike effect, and is smaller, so can dodge Tier 1 AA better. It is still adequate and balanced compared to the other gunships. The Stinger, Renegade, Spectre and Vulthoo have LWHC respectively of 30-21-16-0, and yes that's because the Stinger lands on its front thrusters, 33-22-6.5-1.5, 29-31-12-2, and 27-10-10-0.5, though the clearance number there is for the lowest part of the Vulthoo's compact hull." Ariel found her faction's to be best at the specific gunship role if used as a surgical strike, though in army-killing she admitted the Renegade was far superior.
"Looks like it's my turn with the big guys of Tier 2, makes sense given the two unique units are both Aeon…" Hannah observed as they came to the next row. "The Tier 2 Air Transports all cost 1200 tons, and are faster than their Tier 3 counterparts when fully loaded, as well as more durable per unit mass spent, a major change since the Seraphim War. The C-14 Star Lifter has LWHC 143-34-13-6 not counting the bottom guns and thrusters, which basically touch the ground with the legs deployed. As the label says, it carries 14 Tier 1 units in two rows of seven. That means it can only carry 6 Tier 2 as they have to be on the same row, though the four clamps needed per Tier 3 can be on neighbouring rows. It has linked railguns and two Tomcat Machineguns, giving it two times 24 AA DPS and 21 anti-ground DPS, not too bad compared to the Stinger which has 60 anti-ground DPS. Then there's the Dragon Fly at 144-73-30-5, which carries 10 Tier 1, and has a structural adaptation in its clamps that allows it to carry five Tier 2 unlike the other factions' requirements of Tier 2s using transport clamps on the same side. It can carry at most two Tier 3s plus a Tier 2, but is still considered fully competitive because it brings much more DPS than the Star Lifter against ground targets using the Nano Dart system mounted under the tail and the particle cannon under the bow to deliver near-gunship-level firepower, and has an EMP weapon to boot. The Aluminar at 130-95-55-0 in standard posture uses hover technology, so it rests its head and tail on the ground when idle and not carrying anything and is rather shorter in height. It has no anti-ground weapon, but it does have a good anti-air battery and carries 12 Tier 1 units, 6 Tier 2 or 3 Tier 3. The Vishala is at about 147-72-45-12, if you count that bottom spike on the back pod as ground clearance for the main hull when it lands as well as actual hull height. It has 16 clamps, the most of the four Tier 2 Transports, and has okay DPS against air and ground targets, though somewhat weaker than the UEF counterpart in either aspect. That is the price for having enough anti-gravity and thrust installed to be able to carry and move four Tier 3 land units."
A/N: The weapon names for the transports are utter bullshit for their DPS. A Disintegrator Pulse Laser should have WAY more DPS than that abomination that is on the Dragon Fly in-game… also buffed the costs to be slightly less stupidly light for the size.
I'm also making the Mercy MUCH less costly due to how laughably bad it is against flak, and how 3800s tech would have made flak batteries prioritize anything matching the flight profile (speed) of a Mercy, or identified as one, above all other targets. The Swift Wind can cost-effectively counter a Restorer at only 200 mass apiece… how about a nerf to 220 mass, because the fighter-bombers are so ludicrously costlier in comparison?
"The two Tier 2 unique air units in common use are the Mercy Guided Missile at 200 tons with LWHC 39-11-7-2, and the Swift Wind Combat Fighter at 440 tons with LWHC 30-32-8.5-1.5. The Aeon Combat Fighter is very cost-effective, especially against fighter-bombers, but can't do squat against ground targets and is more fragile, so flak eats it badly. The Mercy is only effective in areas with no Tier 2 anti-air weapons or enemy fighters, because it is pathetically fragile. It is the main reason the Tier 3 air transports, even those not in common use, have shields, to screen a payload of Mercies or factional counterparts before a drop… though for the Cybrans that means a litter of Fire Beetles, usually. Fortunately Mercies now can refuel, and will keep flying at half speed when out of fuel like other aircraft. Unlike other air units, it can still fire its weapon, which destroys it, when out of fuel."
The brunette looked toward the slightly younger black-haired woman, wondering… "You keep going, I want the ASFs." Hannah said.
Ariel shrugged, not surprised, and made her talk short. "The Tier 3 air units begin with the Tier 3 Spy Planes, they all cost 390 tons. The SR-90 Blackbird, the Spook, the Seer and the Iaselen are the four, with LWHC at 42-28-9-2, 23-49-8-1, 32-16-2-2 and 32-25-8-2 respectively. The Spook and Iaselen have sonar, while the Blackbird and Seer have only radar, visual and Omni sensors. The Spook is considered the best due to its Personal Stealth, but has the lowest health by far and lowest fuel capacity. The Seer is considered the worst of the four due to having the second lowest health and no special perks. Currently Aeon R&D are working on making it cheaper without losing any effectiveness."
"The Tier 3 Aerospace Superiority Fighters are the Wasp, Gemini, Corona and Iazyne, with LWHC of 32-35-5.5-2.5, 34-27-9-2, 34-33-3.5-2, and 33-27-6.5-2 respectively, each one being 800 tons. The Gemini is considered the best in air-to-air combat by far due to its missiles and Personal Stealth, but is the most fragile." Hannah made hers comparably short, until she clarified with. "The stealth systems needed to cruise at supersonic speeds without alerting sensors across the continent is what makes fighter-bombers and ASFs so immensely heavy for their size, compared to historical air units of greater size than they."
"Tier 3 Strategic Bombers are the strongest bombers available except Experimentals. The Ambassador, Revenant, Shocker and Sinntha are the four available, at 38-42-6.5-2, 36-48-11-2, 40-62-8.5-2, and 21-70-6-3 respectively. They are basically flying armoured bricks which spend too much mass on armour and anti-gravity gear in my opinion, all costing about 4200 tons apiece. The UEF choice is considered a balanced design, the Cybran Revenant has lower damage but bigger splash, the Aeon Shocker has the best damage but smallest splash, and the Seraphim Sinntha is between the Aeon and UEF options. However, the UEF and Cybran options have AA weapons able to ward off Interceptors, with the Cybran better than the UEF due to using missiles, not projectiles. The Shocker is best for the surgical strikes Strategic bombers are normally sent on, but the Sinntha has a post-drop speed boost ability which improves it survivability somewhat." Ariel stated as they walked past those dense flying bricks to other flying bricks, these intended to linger in an area and pound away.
"The Seraphim Separatists have recently fielded a Tier 3 Heavy Gunship, but it is not usually considered part of the standard roster due to having cost effectiveness problems still to be worked out. The three regular Tier 3 Gunships are the Broadsword, Wailer, and Restorer, of LWHC 39-35-18-0, 37-29-9-2, and 45-38-21-3. The Broadsword and Wailer cost 3360 tons, while the Restorer costs only 3000 tons but has laughably inferior air-to-ground firepower, in favour of being able to engage Air Superiority Fighters favourably and having more structural field strength, using low-density armour to compensate in terms of strength compared to, say, the very dense armour of the strategic bombers. The Wailer has a radar jammer able to draw SAM fire into non-existent targets, and stronger AA, which compensates on its more overkill-prone anti-ground weapon and slightly weaker health than the Broadsword." Hannah pointed out, thinking about the issues of the Vulthuum design.
A/N: Because the Restorer is OP at 1200 mass and so much more durability (7200 to 6000 and 5900 respectively, with 160 anti-ground and 130 AA DPS to the others' about 300 anti-ground, remember gunships can shoot other gunships and transports with anti-ground weapons) to the others' 1680 mass. I'm increasing the cost to a more reasonable 1500 mass.
The density of strategic bombers must really be something… only the Shocker can be reliably calculated given its shape to be less dense than water (about half as dense in fact). The Revenant needs to have its AA buffed to at least equal the Ambassador to be balanced with it due to 7.5% less HP AND less bomb DPS on paper, not letting it one-shot Tier 2 mass extractors or even kill a Tier 3 mass extractor with 3 bombers.
In addition the mass cost of a Continental is sadly low for its enormous bulk, and makes the Star Lifter completely obsolete in comparison, given those two anti-surface guns are supposed to be heavy plasma cannons… so boosting cost from 2000 to 3000 mass seems reasonable considering the massive increase in durability and firepower
If the gunships were flying bricks then one of the things they were looking at now was a flying house. "The two unique Tier 3 units on the standard roster are very different. The first is the UEF Heavy Transport, the Continental, at a cost of 6000 tons with LWHC 155-95-30-5, though that's the clearance under the rear hull half with the front resting on the ground when nothing is onboard. It has a shield bubble which allows it to be a powerful ghetto gunship, and pretty good firepower itself with its two plasma cannons and anti-air missile turrets. Then there is the Aeon Heavy Torpedo Bomber, the Solace, costing 3300 tons with LWHC 39-53-6-3, capable of killing any faction's cruiser in a single attack run. It is the reason why flak has been going to sea on more and more ships since the Seraphim War, because it targets cruisers first and peels off the moment it drops its torpedoes, which then allow other air units, such as gunships, which flak is good against, to come in and kill the fleet." Ariel stated proudly.
"The other factions have also designed Heavy Transports, but only the Continental is considered sufficiently cost-effective compared to the Tier 2 options to count as standard roster, though the others have been gaining popularity in recent times. The Vishuum for example is one of the very few actually symmetric Seraphim units, with much weaker armament than the Continental but larger cargo capacity and a tougher shield. The Cybran Nation's venture into mobile shields began with their Dragoon, and we expect to see a mobile shield generator cost-effective enough to be approved for general deployment soon enough. Certainly there are grumbles about homogenization of the factions, but no one wants to be left behind just because of a need to feel special. Unusually, the Dragoon both carries a stealth field for all the units it transports, and a radar jammer which can generate false signatures. This means that it is definitely not among the signatures picked up, unlike the Wailer."
"So what's the name for the Aeon Heavy Transport?" Hinata wondered, since unlike other Aeon units' translations there seemed to be no theme for the transports…
"The preliminary name for the design is the Light Bringer." Ariel supplied. "It is comparable to the Continental, but with less load capacity and weapons, a tougher shield, and higher speed. Alright, now we go on to the Experimentals, none of which require fuel due to the built-in reactors being sufficient to sustain them." Seeing no sign of Hannah starting with the cheapest one, she showed a hologram, as they didn't have the building here and the satellites weren't being launched or near the ground at the moment either. "The cheapest flying experimental is the Novax Satellites and associated Novax Center. The control center deploys a sub-orbital hovering satellite which it feeds power remotely to and orders around as pretty much an indestructible gunship unless someone really wants to give away the positions of some of their indirect fire units for pot-shots, or throw away a major squadron of Aerospace Superiority Fighters while losing more of them than the satellite is worth. Each Center will automatically build and support up to four more satellites after the initial launch, and replaces losses. However, they are somewhat costly units, and the center itself plus its first satellite costs 74400 tons of Mass. A decent set of Shields will stop them completely due to low DPS on the orbital laser."
"The Cybran aerial Experimental is the Soul Ripper Experimental Gunship, 80000 tons, LWHC 200-190-140-60, if you count the legs in the height but at the same time count the space under the belly as the ground clearance when landed. It is the most durable air unit by a long shot. It is also the only one that can both loiter and has massive splash damage, which makes it good in groups for major assaults. Its anti-air armament is merely acceptable though against other aerial units that aren't too huge. It is currently capable of beating a CZAR one on one if correctly used, despite the CZAR having vastly superior AA DPS to overcome the health difference. While the CZAR can hit it with its Quantum Beam Generator and all its anti-air batteries, a Soul Ripper can and will fly upside-down using its anti-gravity systems to empty its anti-ground batteries into the CZAR, which is large enough to target with them. The CZAR does not have a speed advantage and thus cannot outmanoeuvre the Soul Ripper in this respect."
"Speaking of the CZAR, that's the Experimental Flying Carrier of the Aeon Illuminate at 90000 tons and LWH 480-505-180. It doesn't land after it gets constructed, unless it is destroyed, upon which the crash damage is huge, covers a large area, and is very easy to aim at an enemy. It can build any Aeon air unit that's not a transport or Mercy, and can house anything but a transport. Like the Atlantis, 150 aircraft can fit inside its Quantum Storage Spaces. The central hole contains a Quantum Beam Generator that burns whatever is underneath it and has a significant splash radius. Sadly, it's not good for massed attacks due to having to give each other space and the main anti-ground weapon being the Quantum Beam Generator. It has a strong anti-air armament and can drop depth charges, as well as having radar and sonar." Ariel stated, annoyed at Hannah's advocacy of the Soul Ripper being superior in a one-on-one brawl. "The CZAR has the strongest anti-air battery in the Coalition unit roster by a very long shot."
Hinata was still trying very hard to crick her neck looking up at the huge, slowly rotating flying saucer high above them, which shimmered out of view to show a less impressively giant craft seemingly almost lying on the ground ahead.
"Ahwassa Experimental Bomber, 96000 tons, LWHC 280-305-75-9. This drops the most powerful bomb in the Coalition field arsenal, which is admittedly different from our classified arsenals. Design refinements since the Seraphim War mean it no longer needs as long an attack run to deploy its bomb, but unless flying over enemy territory, despite a bomb reload of 10 seconds, it's still common to only be able to drop one every half-minute or so, which makes its practical DPS quite awful. The huge splash radius and immense alpha makes it great for killing Tier 3 armies in the field though. I should note that its anti-air DPS is actually higher than anti-ground paper DPS, due to its three very powerful AA turrets that each outstrip even the Seraphim Tier 3 AA turret." Hannah pointed out the three turret in question. "A swarm of these pouring through the Quantum Rift burnt Earth, humanity's homeworld, to a scorched ruin back in 3844, five years ago. Back then the Seraphim didn't have our robotic armies, but their technology was quite superior. As they adapted to be more efficient at killing us by creating ACUs and SCUs of their own, we adapted too by throwing as many innovations into our units as we could come up with. It took years to fight them to a standstill, close the Quantum Rift, and finally eradicate all Seraphim Imperium forces in our galaxy. The factions of the Coalition have since been helping the United Earth Federation in fixing the planet, and already the atmosphere is breathable again. Perhaps someday you will be able to see where all humanity hailed from… once we've fixed it up enough to not look like a tomb world, as it does now."
Then the Cybran continued with, before her Aeon compatriot had a chance to talk, an important Cybran unit "Finally there are the battle ending units, often called Game Enders. Among those, the only one that actually moves is the Scathis Experimental Mobile Artillery, which is also the lightest and cheapest among them. It has LWH 170-140-50 when the guns are retracted and fully seated on the hull, with a mass of 300000 tons it admittedly relies greatly on levitation technology to not bog down. It fires a Proton Artillery shell at up to 40 kilometers range—that's considering shell stealth needs, otherwise it's a surface to space weapon—every two seconds, dealing a solid 900 DPS with huge splash, though splash no longer passes shields except by line of sight outside the surfaces. However the accuracy is very poor due to shell stealth needs and the extremely high shell arc used to bypass obstacles. Therefore it cannot be relied upon to pierce heavily shielded bases, especially not before the enemy gauges an approximate area and throws most of their army or air force at it to get rid of the grave threat. However any base with less than a huge amount of shields will very quickly be flattened."
The Scathis had been reduced in effectiveness—the loss in range due to better counter-stealth technology was the main impetus to changing it—since its Infinite War days, but it was much cheaper and slightly less glacially slow now. It was also now capable of swimming (VERY slowly) to cross bodies of water, which kept it relevant if the battle moved.
Ariel wrapped things up with "All of these are of course only the standard models, there are… a wide variety of mishmash modifications, depending on the particular commander. For example, some Aeon commanders, instead of using the Beacon as the backbone of their Tier 1 fleets, often field a modified Shard with an anti-surface weapon instead, trading off unit durability per unit mass, anti-torpedo ability, sensors, and some of the cheapness for a fast anti-surface unit. Cybran commanders are known to accept a significant cost increase to the Salem to put a flak weapon on it instead of the electron autocannon battery, for water-borne mobile flak coverage against gunship swarms. Even the Cooper has alternative versions that put a considerably modified Sky Boxer turret on the back, lengthening the hull slightly and costing a good chunk of Mass but bringing flak coverage to sea besides the Summit Class, imitating the Seraphim Yathsou but at a lower tier, cost and power."
She thought for a moment, then added "A third main battery turret for the Neptune is also a common modification, but it does increase the cost considerably for additional reactors, and the frailty of the ship is a big turn-off for such an investment for some commanders. There are also units that as I previously mentioned are considered less cost-effective than the alternatives and thus rarely used by most commanders. For example, whereas the Jester has 525 HP, and 48 DPS, the Seraphim Tier 1 Light Gunship at the same price tag has 575 HP, and only 36 DPS from the two jury-rigged Oh Spectra Cannons, but is still useful in certain situations, and the UEF has 600 HP and 35 DPS from its Tomcat Machineguns, while the Aeon option has 550 HP and 40 DPS from its laser battery. The Jester is notably superior to the others, but all the others are still useful units. For the UEF and Aeon there are also Tier 1 attack planes with good loiter time which perform attack runs using guns and rockets, but attack bombers basically supplanted those. They couldn't compete with gunships for loiter time or durability despite better DPS on paper, which is why only the Tier 1 versions even still have blueprints updated to current tech. The concept was simply… abandoned… despite the Cormorant originally being descended from one such design. However, some commanders do field them. The air units overall have the fewest mod options, while the naval units have the most due to freedom of bulk and vast reserve passive buoyancy. I think that's it for the units, now, let's check the progress of the trace on where you came from…"
Hannah cleared her throats "Uh, Ariel, I think we forgot the command units."
The Aeon woman facepalmed. She hadn't remembered to list them as combat units, since only the Seraphim command units were commonly brought into battle due to their awesome support abilities. In other news, there was work on putting structural field boosters on mobile units, to improve the efficiency of armies. "Ugh… well then… small-scale holograms it is then, at least for now, she can get a good look later when we take her home and establish contact with the locals."
Hannah pulled up a hologram of the four ACUs "The Armored Command Unit is the technology that led to such immense casualties and the practical uselessness of a space-based navy during the Infinite War. It is able to travel by Quantum Gate to any location, usually a planet, within range of the Quantum Gate Network, and construct an army anywhere at any time. Its firepower is adequate against Tier 1 and some Tier 2 units when un-upgraded, but should never be brought into combat against more than a handful of Tier 3s or any Experimentals even when upgraded, unless it is Cybran, Seraphim, or repeatedly using the Overcharge ability on the main weapon. Due to the QGN's limitations, ACUs cannot gate with upgrades installed. The UEF ACU has the best upgraded build rate if both shoulder drones are installed, and its back can mount a tactical missile launcher with the power of a strategic warhead, or a shield dome. These offer high firepower or the ability to build firebases while under attack respectively, but overall the UEF ACU has the weakest combat power. The Aeon ACU is similarly ineffective against Tier 3 units, but can be upgraded with personal shields that make it tougher than the UEF counterpart. The Cybran ACU can use personal stealth and cloaking technology, and can equip a Heavy Microwave Laser with less range but the same DPS as that of the Monkeylord, making it easily the most dangerously armed ACU. The Seraphim ACU can carry a tactical missile launcher, enhanced nano-repair system, and restoration field, which when put together with a group of combat-configured SCUs and a few Ythothas is almost unstoppable to enemy ground units, though it does put the ACU and therefore most of the army at risk of being destroyed in one fell swoop. The Seraphim ACU is the most commonly used of the ACUs on the front line due to its support abilities."
Ariel's hologram, which was also pulled up from a projector on her chest plate, showed the four Support Command Units "The Support Command Units, sometimes referred to as Support Armoured Command Units, are used when you want to summon support commanders to supervise bases, or just so that you can get some sleep if you don't have any other friendly ACUs on the field with you. They are also very useful in constructing firebases and such while under fire, due to a combination of high build rate, huge health pools, and other abilities. The UEF SCU has the worst upgraded build rate, but can mount the toughest mobile shield bubble system available. The Cybran SCU has the highest initial health, and can use stealth and cloak together, allowing it to reclaim wreckage or capture enemy units on a battlefield with impunity when Omni coverage is absent. It can mount a powerful anti-air missile battery instead if desired, and can upgrade its main weapon to have Tier 3 levels of DPS. The Aeon ACU can choose a combination of teleporter, a powerful personal shield, or nano-repair system for its back and left arm, or a rapid fabricator which speeds up its build rate. It lacks any upgrades to directly increase firepower though. The Seraphim SCU can also teleport, but it can also mount a tactical missile launcher or a powerful shield on the back, adding to a nano-repair system and Overcharge option to become a very powerful combat unit. As you can guess, being able to teleport to build another firebase somewhere is very powerful indeed."
"And that's it for the units, there are many structures, but I think this is quite enough information for one day." Hannah wrapped things up, her circuitry pulsing as she grinned at the short girl sandwiched between two of the Coalition's Elite Four.
Hinata kept her mouth shut as she was still partly mentally stuck on the casual chatter about an entire world bombed to ash.
Forecast for some time in the future…
"Um, guys?" Seth said while they were all lazing about.
Xavier was tickling Hannah, who was giggling and generally trying to make Hinata's blush and averted eyes not tick too far away, but still wear down on her shyness by gradual exposure to public displays of affection. Meanwhile, Hackett was watering his pet dandelion. Ariel was on duty in her ACU, so was conspicuously absent.
Seth realized his translator had been turned off while he was still working on learning how to talk in the human English. Chinese was too hard for him at present, in his opinion. You'd think learning legalese would make learning other, less diabolical languages easier, but apparently even a lawyer who used to work with used car salesmen had a hard time learning new languages as an adult… He turned his translator back on, and spoke louder "GUYS!"
"What is it, Seth?" Fran stopped tickling his wife and looked over. The others did too, though Hackett stopped watering his plant to not risk drowning it.
"I just searched the name 'Hinata Hyuuga' on the Internet. We have a problem."
A/N: I rebalanced a few units, mostly by improvements to weak, underused ones, but relative power is still fairly consistent for the most part, except obviously for the Sniper Bots which got nerfed HARD but actually got better in power per unit mass, and the Carriers which now are actually not plastic foam mountains (which wall sections effectively are). I also presume the coding and path-finding for the war machines of the 3800s is better than for a 2008 video game.
In other news, I have taken another good, long look at Hanabi as she appears BEFORE the movie "The Last"… I suspect she will be going missing at some point in an actual universe-hopping event, and what comes home… see Kantai Collection and look for someone with the right hairstyle and coloration (will give answer in a few chapters).
OH SHIT THE FOURTH WALL IS CRUMBLING (the forecast says a lot)! REVIEW PLEASE!
