Tex Talks Battletech the Siege Tank
This is a step away from what is normally covered in this educational programming. Today, we're going to talk about combat vehicles. Specifically, we're talking about tanks, but not just any tank. Oh, no. We're talking about a tank that on its debut made the majority of tanks obsolete. Obsolete not just in terms of design, but also in raw technological might. A tank coming from a source so unusual it initially beggared belief. Today, we're talking about the Crucio Siege Tank.
Long ago, before the Star League, before the Age of War, before commonly known history, in a time when all of Humanity lived on Terra there existed a near fairy-tale utopian civilization. It was made of every single political entity of Humanity voluntarily uniting under a single banner, and it was called the Terran Alliance.
It wasn't all sunshine and roses in the Terran Alliance. There was overcrowding, overpopulation, widening economic disparity between the richest and the poorest, the lingering effects of rampant unregulated primitive industrialization. But, for all of these problems all of Humanity was united in solving each and every single one.
No matter what the solution might be.
Despite discontent from its poorest members, the Terran Alliance adopted a policy of massive investment in research and development. Under this, human civilization went into a period of rapid technological advancement and growth that would not be matched since. Not even during the Star League.
In 2016 Alliance Space Command began moving colonists from Terra to Luna. In 2017 a manned mission to Mars was sent. In 2020 Fusion Power was invented. Seven years later, in 2027, the first Fusion Powered interplanetary spacecraft, the AS Columbia, was launched from Crippen Station. Immediately after, probes were sent out onto extrasolar journeys, and by 2050 they were sending back reports of habitable worlds. And then the dawn of modern history began in 2107, the first FTL interstellar journey was made by TAS Pathfinder from Sol to Tau Ceti. In 2116 the first extrasolar colony was established in New Earth, Tau Ceti. In another 119 years, Humanity would expand to roughly 600 colonies within 120 light years of Earth.
In the span of one hundred years humanity had gone from primitive ICE vehicles struggling to escape orbit, to building colonies on another solar system. In another hundred years, humanity would multiply the three worlds they inhabited by 20 000%.
That was the Era of Colonization. Hard men and hard women going out to push the boundaries of human space. Taking with them the light of Human Civilization, Terran Civilization at that time, unto virgin worlds waiting to be reshaped into paradise for the first to lay claim.
But, not everyone got to participate.
For all that technological advancement solved many of humanity's problems, it could not solve all of them. Ultimately, extrasolar colonization is a game for the rich, the powerful, the influential, the intelligent, and the useful. You don't get to claim an entire world without first having a spaceship, a jumpship, an entire city's worth of supplies, and above all else people. And, not just anyone would do. Scientists, Engineers, Tradesmen, Farmers, Industrialists, Administrators, Bureaucrats, Managers, and so on were the necessities of even the most basic colonies. Because, when a colony sets up, it's all hands on deck. No one is allowed to be dead weight. No one is allowed to threaten the success of the colony by action, or inaction.
Inevitably, that meant people were left behind. Political dissidents, convicts and criminals, misanthropes, the poor, the disenchanted, political activists, the disillusioned, and so many more were stuck on Terra. For one reason or another, there existed a group of undesirable people sitting on Terra, unable to participate in the greatest land-grab humanity has ever embarked upon. That was a problem. The early Terran Alliance was still focused on solving all of humanity's problems. And so, they would "solve" this one.
Sometime around the 2200s some brilliant minds created an alternate form of FTL travel. It was untested, unproven, working on principles foreign to the orthodox KF method, and worst of all was not instantaneous. It was however, theoretically, sound and safe. It just needed some testing first. And, what better way to kill two birds with one stone than to "gift" the undesirables an opportunity to participate in the colonization rush and test out an untried form of FTL travel.
When all was said and done, the ships did not arrive where they were supposed to be. There were no colonies on the designated planets. The technology and the enterprise was deemed a failure. And, the matter was swiftly forgotten.
Except it technically didn't fail.
Before or when the ships jumped into FTL, their navigation systems suffered a malfunction that resulted in the entire expedition going off course. They traveled tens of thousands of light years into the depths of space.
When they landed, they landed on harsh but virgin worlds.
And these were Terrans born in the Era of Colonization.
Two centuries on, an entire subset of humanity had developed in complete isolation from what we know as The Sphere. In this little corner of Human Civilization, Terran Civilization continued to persist. Little things like the ideas and ideals of how to govern, how to organize, the rights and responsibilities of its members, what is right, what is wrong, what is moral, and what is immorally corrupt, continued to persist. These Terrans were the sons and daughters of the Terran Alliance. And, the radically liberal principles of the Rights of Man and the Supremacy of Democracy would in turn persist, however pure or corrupt its execution may be.
Don't assume that these "soft", nebulous principles would result in an equally soft people. The ideology that founded the Terran Alliance, was the ideology of Liberalism. From the moment that Liberalism came to be, its adherents essentially declared that they could not coexist with anyone else. Every form of Authoritarian based governance was systematically wiped out, from Old-Feudalism, to Fascism, to Totalitarianism and finally to Communism. Each and every one of them was destroyed, not just because they were a threat to Liberalism's adherents, but because Liberalism's principles demanded it.
Naturally, it is impossible to perfectly adhere to these lofty ideals. There is always something that forces principles to take a backseat. That something is called Interests. Interests at their simplest is a policy of pursuing what would allow someone or a group to survive and thrive. To survive and thrive is a natural human inclination. At times, these interests clash with principles, and a choice would be made.
When the Terrans raised their children, created their governments, and assembled into organizations they did so guided by these liberal principles. At the same time, some Terrans pursued what they believed would be best for themselves. The most famous of these were the Terran Confederacies Old Families.
When the Terrans were just laying the foundations for their colonies, the Old Families were amassing power. When the Terrans were creating a democratically elected government, the Old Families created "necessary" advisory positions. When the Terrans began expanding in earnest the Old Families were securing the most lucrative of real estate for themselves. They had so much power and so much influence, that their existence and actions became a fact of life in the Koprulu sector. And, every time they exercised their powers in pursuit of their interests, the principles the Koprulu sector Terrans founded their societies upon were violated.
Eventually, just like their ancestors, somebody would do something about it.
The Old Families had so thoroughly co opted the Confederacy Government that it was nearly universally seen as one and the same. Wherever the widely derided, corrupt Confederacy Government reached, the Old Families also reached. And the reach of the Old Families went far. They could manufacture trumped up charges on a single man, in the furthest reaches of human space. And then, advise the Confederacy to send in their military to confiscate the entire mining colony because of that one man. Eventually, the Confederacy would transfer ownership to "trusted" people. And make no mistake, the Confederacy needed to send in their military, because sometimes things would get violent between the Mining Guilds and the Confederacy. The most powerful of these mining guilds were the Morian Mining Corporation. In fear of the Confederacy moving in, enforcing regulation, stripping them of their right to their private property, and losing these lucrative assets to the Old Families, the Morians would ally with the like-minded Kelanis Shipping Guild to create the Kelmorian Combine. They gave a simple promise of protection and aid against the Confederacy to any corporation or guild that joined them, or fought the Confederacy.
These conflicts are collectively called The Guild Wars.
The Guild Wars were the start of modern Koprulu history. From it, spawned the Kelmorian Combine, the Umojan Protectorate, the various anti-Confederacy rebellions, Mengsks' revolutionaries, the rise of pirates and mercenaries, the creation and testing of numerous, now infamous, warmachines, and thereafter inform Terrans of how wars are supposed to be fought.
Aptly named, the Guild Wars was not a single war, but a series of wars fought at times consecutively, at other times in parallel, across the length, breadth, and depth of the Koprulu sector. It had one constant, the Terran Confederacy - the largest and most powerful Terran state in the sector. Against them, was a revolving door of combatants with the full range of military quality the disparate and disunited guilds could call upon. Irregulars, professional volunteers, professional conscripts, militias, unprofessional volunteers, unprofessional conscripts, pirates, mercenaries, volunteers and "volunteers" from Umoja, angry miners and farmers, whatever else you can name, the Confederacy fought.
As it turns out, when you trample upon principles every one of your neighbors agrees is logical and ethically good, you make an enemy out of everyone.
The demands of the wars were so great the Confederacy faced a problem that no state in the history of interstellar flight has ever faced before. They had the best and the most military equipment, but they didn't have enough bodies to use them.
In an interview that would go down in history, Confederate Corporal Thaddeus Timson would state:
"Oh, sure, we got bigger guns. Bigger guns and more of 'em. The problem, as I see it, is that we don't get enough hands on the fekkin' things. We need more soldiers, and we need them yesterday. What's the point in outgunning your enemy if your ordnances are collecting dust in the armory?"
The Confederacy would do nearly anything to alleviate these manpower problems. They massively expanded recruitment drives, they extended the enlistee's contracts, they lowered enlistee standards of discipline and training, they performed illegal conscription on some quiet worlds, recruited convicts, and even resorted to personality lobotomized basic 'Resocs'. Additionally, wherever possible, the Confederacy would heavily utilize their superior material advantage to offset their lack of personnel. Eventually, they would win, but not before being forced to massively expand their military.
The massive expansion, and the lowering of the quality of their troops, resulted in extreme difficulties for the Confederacy military police to adequately maintain discipline, law, and order. The lack of discipline and the sheer value of bodies meant the Confederacy ultimately favored preserving the lives of their troops over preventing their equipment from falling into the wrong hands. By battlefield salvage, or by crooked connections, the enemies of the Confederacy were slowly up-arming to the same standards.
Of the weapon systems that would fall into the hands of every Terran faction during the Guild Wars, the Siege Tank would rise to prominence.
The Arclite was the marriage of two weapon systems, the Tank and the Self Propelled Gun. It came about because of two lessons learned during the Guild Wars. The first, is that the hardest resource to acquire and preserve is trained, motivated personnel. All else being equal, the right man, at the right place, at the right time is worth over one hundred barely trained idiots with the same equipment, at the same place, at the same time. The second, is the enduring importance of mobility and positioning in ground warfare. And that mobility isn't the ability to go somewhere fast, its the ability to go anywhere at the time of your convenience because you choose to.
At the time the Arclite was one of the most mobile ground platforms of the Terran arsenal because it can go almost anywhere, and there existed very little that could actually stop it. The Arclite ultimately embodied the Terran understanding of mobility. Mobility is where your ability to maneuver meets the enemies will and ability to resist. Where your enemy will not resist, you are free to maneuver. Where the enemy cannot resist, you are free to maneuver. Where the enemy is willing and able to resist, you fight so that you can maneuver.
The Siege Tank was well armed and well armored for its time. A combination which gave them incredible mobility. Whenever it couldn't roll over the enemy in its assault mode, it was when the enemy had heavily fortified, for which artillery was the answer. A Siege Tank column was functionally incapable of outrunning its artillery support, because it was the artillery support. Combined with SCV's and Terran on-site manufacturing technology, a Siege Tank column almost never worried about a lack of supplies. As a result, it was capable of performing all the tasks of a tank, while also having the unique ability to create a Fire-base whenever they so choose. Whatever was too entrenched to squash underneath their treads, Siege Mode would terraform the site into a rocky moon.
Combined with Terran computer technology, the Siege Tank was heavily automated and training so simple that training a tanker crew and an artillery crew was one and the same. This allowed the Confederacy to consolidate their unit organization and training pipeline of what was two mutually exclusive three man vehicles crews into one, three man vehicle crew - or in some select instances a single one man vehicle crew. All that, meant the Confederacies ground based offensive power had been greatly relieved, where previously they were constrained by recruitment. Thus, the Arclite became the herald of not just the Terrans armored fist coming to crush your lines, but also the streamlined logistical apparatus to literally grind worlds into dust.
The soldiers of the Guild Wars understood that, properly supported, no one could stop a determined Siege Tank column from maneuvering.
No one, except another Siege Tank.
For the Terrans of the Koprulu sector that would remain true all the way up to The Great War.
The Great War is unprecedented in Human history. It is the first contact between human and alien life. It is the first recorded instance of non-human sapient life. Tragically, first alien contact began on Mar Sara with the Zerg, a hive mind insectoid species hellbent on propagation and consumption. Then the Protoss would introduce themselves and their incredible technology, by glassing the Zerg infested Mar Sara of all life. Biologically and technologically, the Terrans were outmatched. Their only saving grace was the power of their guns and the might of their industry. The Arclite had gained a sterling reputation in the Guild Wars. In the aftermath of the Great War, it was found wanting.
Again, the Terrans were forcibly reintroduced to a well learned lesson: lives are precious, neosteel is cheap.
A successor was necessary to the Arclite. Something better armed, better armored, and with greater crew survivability against a line of threats unimagined by human minds.
When the Terrans returned to the Sphere and made their terrifying debut in the Crucis March Incident, the rest of the Sphere was overawed by the display of sheer mastery over technological manufacturing capability. So awesome was their demonstration that no one, not even their own neighbors, believed it to be true until it was their turn to personally pay witness. And when they lent their eyes and ears to the tsunami of neosteel that is the Terran warmachine, none left an impression nearly as indelible as its Herald of Death...
The Crucio Siege Tank.
The Terran Dominion's Crucio Siege Tank is an upgrade in every possible respect to the Arclite. Weighing in at 60 tonnes, it is armed with twin 90mm Plasma Cannons, and with the 180mm Shock Cannon, the Crucio possesses firepower far, far in excess of its weight class. Compounding this, is its variety of munitions for the Shock Cannon, such as Plasma, AP Maelstorm, and Smart Shells. Upon every available surface is armor grade neosteel. That includes the tracks. Just to make stopping them even more difficult, it utilizes a sextuple multi-track design, and has pipes running through the body and bogies containing a fast drying gel to repair or replace lost treads. This tank remains mobile where others would be crippled. When transforming into siege mode, hydraulic legs plant themselves perpendicular to the main body. The feet of these legs end in claws with microscopic holes that secrete a rubber-like substance to help the tank grip onto smooth surfaces, like the metal of an orbital base.
Outside the weapons and armor, the Crucio features: 3D mapping of the area surrounding the tank, Terran targeting computers, thermal sensors, audio sensors, radar, the ability to climb 65 degree slopes, hydraulic actuators to stabilize the tank when hit, and gravity accelerators for low to no gravity environments.
Additionally, there are "aftermarket" equipment to increase the capabilities of the tank. These include, but are not limited to, jump jets, literal spikes, deployable mines of both standard and spider-mine variety, additional armor plates, an even bigger siege mode cannon, and the ever popular Air Conditioning Unit.
It is no surprise why the Siege Tank is the most popular tank platform in the Koprulu sector. And, I am deliberate when I use the word "platform", as the Siege Tank and its upgrade packages are not the product of any one corporation. The predecessor Arclite Siege Tank, like many Terran products, was created by the Confederacy. One of the consequences of the Guild Wars was the supremacy of the interests of the state, and by extension the interests of the Old Families.
Of the many interests of the Old Families, the one that stood the test of time is the insistence that competition between them never got too hot. It comes up in Confederacy laws as a rather innocuous deadline on the copyright and trademark of any product. This means that for as long as they can wait it out, they are incentivised to not send in mercenary corps to kill their competitors for creating a better product that eats their market share.
It also means that the Confederacy and its successor the Terran Dominion, and all other Terran states, has an informal policy of researching and developing technologies themselves, and then releasing that research and development into the free market. They then turn around and buy up whatever it produces. It's an old trick that goes back to the early days of the Terran Alliance. It helps keep costs low by forcing competition, and through that competition, encourage innovation. The government then influences the competitions and innovations via purchases and contracts, like any other customer. The Dominion's Crucio Siege Tank is no exception to this.
So in addition to sheer technological might the Siege Tank casually displays in even the most mundane functions, it also reveals the general mentality of Terran fighting doctrine.
Lives are precious, neosteel is cheap.