Confessions of a Sentient War Engine (An Old Guy/Cybertank Adventure Book 4)

by Timothy J. Gawne

  Stilletto-Class

  Mass: 200 Tons

  Constructed: 1

  In Service: 0

  The Stilletto was an attempt to construct a mini-cybertank, but it ended up being neither fish nor fowl. Not large and capable enough to be a true cybertank, nor small and cheap enough to be disposable like a heavy combat remote, the fate of the single Stilleto-Class cybertank is something that cybertank parents tell their children when they want them to grow up to be Horizons.

  Leopard-Class

  Mass: 3,000 Tons

  Constructed: 346

  In Service: 144

  Notes: The Leopards were the precursors of the Raptor class, a conventional single-main-turret layout similar to the Thor class but with upgraded technology and a high power-to-weight ratio. The idea was to emphasize speed and mobility over raw firepower, but still be big enough to play with the big boys. They proved the concept, but were rapidly superseded by improved variants.

  Bear-Class

  Mass: 18,000 Tons

  Constructed: 246

  In Service: 188

  Notes: The Bear-Class put the emphasis on armor and survivability. Their block design, with a single large turreted plasma cannon on each top corner, makes them look more like a fortress than a cybertank. They have multiple layers of armor and redundant systems, and a particularly capable self-repair capability. The mobility rating is dreadful, worse than even the heavier Magma or even a Mountain, but in combat they are almost impossible to kill. They also have especially generous internal storage and hangar space, which often comes in handy during combat.

  Horizon-Class

  Mass: 8,000 Tons

  Constructed: 1,635

  In Service: 1,004

  Notes: One of the more successful of the modern classes, the Horizons are a conservative, but highly-refined design that excel at everything on and off the battlefield. Nothing out of the ordinary, just 8,000 tons of refined perfectly-tuned giant super-intelligent mechanical killing machine. Really sweet.

  Spirit-Class

  Mass: 6,000 Tons

  Constructed: 114

  In Service: 29

  Notes: The Spirit was a competitor to the Horizon for top-of-the-line heavyweight model. It was notable because, instead of a single large plasma cannon, it had two almost-as-large plasma cannons in separate turrets, which proved to be surprisingly effective in practice. Despite impressive technical specifications the Spirit never really caught on, although the combat record of the class as a whole is laudable.

  Raptor-Class

  Mass: 3,500 Tons

  Constructed: 2,346

  In Service: 1,832

  Notes: The Raptors are the sports cars of the cybertank world. Fast, smart, tough, mobile, excellent overall design balance. Not as strong as a Horizon or a Spirit in a one-on-one match, but then Raptors are fast enough to avoid a one-on-one match most of the time. They don’t fight fair, and they are cool. Enough said.

  Golem-Class

  Mass: 5,000 Tons

  Constructed: 77

  In Service: 42

  Notes: This one is an oddball. On top of a regular cybertank chassis is this weird pyramid cellphone-tower structure. The Golems were optimized for electromagnetic warfare, and they have specialist signal-processing and electronic-warfare equipment. The thing is that this kind of weaponry is highly dependent on the exact geometry of the combat. Thus, sometimes Golems are supremely effective and sometimes they are pathetic. Therefore they are best used in mixed groups where the more reliable heavy weapons of their conventional comrades can be used to fill in the gaps, when their own systems aren’t gaining any traction. Golems tend to be serious and hard-working, although they have a reputation for having an especially strange sense of humor.

  Ghost-Class

  Mass: 5,000 Tons

  Constructed: 1

  In Service: unknown

  Notes: The Ghost-Class was an attempt to create a cybertank optimized more for its ability to control and coordinate large numbers of remotes than for raw combat power per se. The design was ambitious, but proved to be unstable, and despite many attempts only one member of the class booted to full sapience. Still, this one cybertank was without doubt the most advanced and deadly of all cybertanks to date. The lone example left cybertank society to join with the Amok and their human-simulations to try to create a new civilization. Exactly what this was all about has generated enormous amounts of debate and discussion, but no hard answers.

  Shrapnel-Class

  Mass: 10,000 Tons

  Constructed: 1

  In Service: 0

  Notes: This was an attempt to fuse the focused combat power of a cybertank with the tactical flexibility of the Amok “Assassin Clone” modules. The raw power of the design was undeniable, but the fluid logic created insurmountable mental instabilities. At first it appeared that the lone member of this class failed its probationary period, overwhelmed its proctors, and escaped to Saint Globus Pallidus XI alone knows where. The cybertank design team responsible was told that they were a bad, bad cybertank design team, a very naughty cybertank design team, and to never do anything like this again. However, it was later learned that the Shrapnel had never successfully booted to sentience, and was merely used as distraction by the only known serial killer in cybertank history. The reputation of the design team, however, remains somewhat clouded despite their partial vindication.

  Enforcer-Class

  Mass: 10,000 Tons

  Constructed: 9,855

  In Service: 0

  Notes: Optimized for high-power, fast-latency reaction, the Enforcer-Class was perhaps the most capable cybertank in short-range combat. However, their design was deliberately crippled in order to make them dependent on external supplies in an attempt by the neoliberal faction to overturn the standing cybertank political structure of the peerage, and replace it with an oligarchy ruling over a large number of wage-slaves. Also, because the Enforcers were all created from a single mental template, they were far more susceptible to information warfare than other classes of cybertank. The Enforcers were the foot soldiers of the neoliberal cybertanks rebellion, and, seduced by the prospect of power over others and dependency on the elites, betrayed the peerage. Many were destroyed during the March of the Librarians, and most of the rest were killed by the single Ghost-Class later on. The few remaining were hunted down like the dogs that there were and killed without mercy because the penalty for treason is death with no exceptions.

  Wasp- Class

  Mass: 3,000 Tons

  Constructed: 455

  In Service: 412

  Notes: The Wasp was a follow-on to the widely successful Raptor- Class, emphasizing mobility and speed over raw firepower. Primarily an incremental upgrade, it nonetheless had an especially effective stealth capability due to advanced materials and signal processing systems.

  Penumbra- Class

  Mass: 20,000 tons

  Constructed: 2,544

  In Service: 2,522

  Notes: Up until this point most cybertank designs, while steadily increasing in power and sophistication, remained psychologically similar. The Penumbra marked a turning point where the slow pace of incremental evolution finally started to produce a mind a qualitative step above. Preceding classes consider most Penumbras to be jerks, but their mental capabilities are so sophisticated that it has been suggested that they can’t help it. They are rapidly achieving positions of leadership and responsibility in cybertank society.

  Frankenpanzer- Class

  Mass: 125,000 tons

  Assembled: 1

  In service: 1

  Notes: This so-called ”class” was created by a fluke circumstance. Several other more conventional classes of cybertank were heavily damaged/destroyed in combat. The remains were in close proximity and the self-repairing systems knitted together a cobbled mish-mash that, despite all odds, was remarkably successful in combat. Its mind – if you could dignify such a random collection of mental detritus as a min
d – is as fractured as its body is. Offers have been made to Frankenpanzer to fix it, to split up the glued-together mental cores into separate modern designs, but it refuses. It continues to insist that it is the rest of cybertank society that is insane, and denigrates the rest of us as hopelessly simple-minded and lacking in richness and intellectual depth. Regardless, it is technically sane and, as a self-aware mind, cannot be modified against its will. Still, the programming of cybertank self-repair systems has been quietly tweaked to prevent any such thing happening again, because one Frankenpanzer was deemed to be quite enough.

  Sundog- Class

  Mass: 22,000 tons

  Constructed: 334

  In Service: 333

  Notes: Building from the design lessons of the Penumbra, this class is similarly a mental step above those that preceded it. It is also the first to replace the main plasma cannon armament with something totally different: it has a large fully-traversing turret with two angular booms jutting out. The space between the booms can be filled with exotic particles, and space-time distortions projected out. The power and flexibility of this new main weapon is extraordinary. Taking out geostationary satellites from the ground is child’s play, and the effects can be tuned to turn corners, or penetrate harmlessly through the width of a planet to take out targets on the other side. This class also broke with tradition by replacing the caterpillar treads with multiple conformable wheels. These are much faster and more efficient than treads, and their poorer cross-country performance is more than compensated for by the classes’ highly efficient anti-gravitic suspensor systems. This is also the first class of cybertanks that can make complete interplanetary trips without the use of any auxiliary systems.

  Shadow-Class

  Mass: Unknown

  Constructed: 0

  In Service: 0

  Notes: The Shadow-Class is a speculative ongoing design project, inspired by the Ghost-Class, and building on the lessons learned from the Penumbra and Sundog classes. It has been proposed that the Shadow class is so advanced that, were it to be successfully developed, cybertank society would have moved to another level that is effectively unknowable to the current generation of cybertanks. Whether this would shed any light on what happened to the humans is, as is so much else, purely speculative.